Monique Polak

I write when I'm jogging and sometimes, when I'm in the shower. I know this sounds odd. But it's true. Not that I'm actually writing between strides, or while I'm soaping up... but I've found that some of my best ideas come when I am NOT at the computer. That's why, today, I want to talk about the importance of having a writer's notebook -- or at least some scrappaper and a pen -- with you AT ALL TIMES. BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN AN IDEA WILL STRIKE. And when you get to be my age (47), if you don't record a good idea, you might lose it altogether. I keep pen and paper by the bed (sometimes I get ideas when I am dozing off or waking up), and in the little pouch I wear when I go jogging. And if I get a good idea while I'm in the shower, I hop right out and jot it down. 

Today's Friday and I've got two kinds of writing to do. First, I want to write my review of Sophie Kinsella's new book, Remember Me? Then, I want to get back to my rewrite. It's coming along more quickly than I expected -- and because this story is so personal (it's based, as you may know by now, on my mum's childhood), it feels like a labour of love. Have a great weekend -- and don't forget that notebook!! Here's to loads of great ideas striking at odd moments and in unusual places!!!

I'm all charged up after our visit this morning to St. Willibrord Elementary School in Chateauguay. I went with my friend, photographer Monique Dykstra. But we were part of a much bigger team -- Florence Allegrini, educational program coordinator for Blue Metropolis Literary Foundation was there, too; so was Louise Abbott, a writer/photographer who is making a documentary about Quebec Roots (that's the project Monique and I are involved in where photographers and authors help Quebec students produce a book about their community); Louise's husband, Niels Jensen, a filmmaker was there, too -- and so was McGill University prof Teresa Strong-Wilson, who has a special interest in stories and how narrative works.

We worked with Kelly Ryan's two grade six classes. Mrs. Ryan is a real dynamo -- and she knows how to keep her students in line. I was quite impressed! I was also impressed with the students. There were about 40 in all -- too many to mention everyone by name, but I wanted to share a few impressions and OBSERVATIONS (you know me by now, always noticing things like body language!!)

So, in no particular order, here are some of the neat things I noticed: There was a student named Journey. Great name, no? Journey, like about half the students in Mrs. Ryan's classes, is Mohawk. I would LOVE to name a character Journey since every story  is a journey, with a character ending up in a different place from where he or she started off. 

I also met a student named Mallory who has an interesting habit of pulling on the top of her ear when she is thinking. It must have been a day for ears since I also noticed how a student named Allie also plays with her ear -- though in her case, she runs her fingers along the bottom of her earlobe,  just under her butterfly stud earring.

Then there was Dalton, a young Mohawk man with a Mohawk haircut!I could tell  that Dalton is into stories. His sister invents scary stories and his grandma on his mum's side is an artist. I could feel he has stories of his own to tell, too.

I could tell from a short writing exercise I gave the students that a boy named Joey has a flare for poetry. Joey, if you're reading this blog, get yourself a good anthology of poetry at the school library and start reading. I'd advise you to especially pay attention to modern poetry that DOES NOT RHYME.

I met other students, too, like Jennifer and Josh, who are twins (even though Josh tries to deny it!) and Ryan, who has a great vocabulary and is a history buff. Ryan, once you guys settle on  a topic for your project, see if you can do some historical research. One of my favourite writers, British poet William Blake once said: "Dip him in the water who loves to swim." Of course, those words don't only apply to water and swimming -- they mean that we should all try to do the things we love. 

I love stories. EVERYONE HAS A STORY. That's what makes life so interesting. Hearing other people's stories makes me happy. What about you? If you can, go and find out someone's story TODAY. All you have to do is ask the right questions -- and then listen carefully (and take notes so you don't forget what you learn).

I'm off to work on the rewrite of my historical novel. Sophie posted a comment on the blog this morning asking if I get to keep the books I review for The Gazette. The answer is YES!! If you guys at Marianopolis ever want to borrow any, all you have to do is ask!   

Well, I got some interesting comments from readers about rewriting. Kim said she prefers working on a first draft, and that sometimes, during rewrites, she feels like trashing whatever she's working on. Rosa wrote about how she enjoys the crafting involved in rewriting.  I'm somewhere between you two, though perhaps I lean a little more towards Kim's point of view  -- and yes occasionally I feel tempted to scrap my efforts!! The first draft can be scary, but there are so many possibilities, which always feels exciting to me. And the rewrite, well, it's just plain hard work. But it is true that once you've had a break from a project, you can see it with clearer eyes. Another thing I've found is that thinking about the rewrite is always worse than doing it. Maybe a lot of difficult tasks in life are like that. It's the thinking about them beforehand that gets us down.

So I'm about 18 pages into the rewrite. Did I tell you I have until Valentine's Day to get it done? If possible, I'd like to finish ahead of schedule. Does mean I'll have to guard my writing time like a mother bear looking after her cubs!

School starts on Monday and so I'll be shifting gears. Tomorrow, I am going to meet students at St. Willibrod Elementary School in Chateauguay together with my photographer friend Monique Dykstra. We're going to be helping the students write a little book about their community. This is part of a project called Quebec Roots, sponsored by the Blue Metropolis literary foundation. I'll be out for a good part of the day working on that, but I'll do my best to check in on this blog when I get home. Talk to you then! Hope you're having a good day wherever you are!!

"Time to Bake the Donuts!" -- that's the slogan for a donut shop commercial. I'm not a big donut lover,  but I do appreciate the sentiment of the slogan. In my case, "Time to Bake the Donuts" means today's the day I start the rewrite on Lotje's Story -- my historical novel based on my mum's wartime experience. I had a 2-1/2 hour phone meeting yesterdaywith Sarah Harvey, my editor at Orca Book Publishers, and we went through the whole manuscript together. There's a lot of work to do, and I'm a little nervous about meeting my deadline (Valentine's Day!), but on the positive side, all of Sarah's suggestions make sense to me and make me feel like the end product is going to be a much better book.

Though I don't return to teaching until next week, I hope that when I give students feedback on their work, they feel inspired and hopeful, too.

We were away in Pennsylvania this weekend. While we were gone, I finished reading Sophie Kinsella's new book, Remember Me? which I am reviewing for The Gazette. (Lucky me, since it won't be on sale for another month or so.) I really really enjoyed it. That Sophie Kinsella sure knows how to tell a story!! Also, the main character in this book -- Lexi Smart -- is extremely likeable and funny, though she also has a tough side, too. I interviewed Sophie Kinsella for The Gazette last spring and she was super interesting. She is a very disciplined writer, who does a lot of pre-planning in a large notebook before she begins to write a novel. When I asked her whether she had any wisdom to share with aspiring writers, she said: "Write what you would like to read!"  

Okay then, donut time!! 

I'm up early and I haven't even had my green tea... but I thought today I'd respond to some of the comments you've been posting on this blog. So here goes:

Sophie talked about the sense of smell -- how having a blocked nose affected her experience of eating chocolates her dad brought home. Sophie's comment provides a good opportunity to remind starting-out writers aboutthe importance of using the sense of smell -- both as inspiration and as an example of sensory detail in their work. Researchers tell us smell is one of the sharpest triggers of memory. Sometimes you get a whiff of something --  yesterday, for me, it was someone's discarded Christmas tree out on the side of the road -- and it brings you back to another time and place. That can be very useful in your writing. Sophie also mentioned a quote I use in class: "I never thought of myself as a good writer. But I'm one of the world's greatest rewriters." It is one of my favourite quotes, too -- Sophie said she'd forgotten who said it, well, it was American author James A. Michener.

Rosa asked if editors ever want authors to make changes in order to make a book more marketable -- not necessarily better. My answer is that good editors -- and I've had the great privilege of working with terrific editors -- want to make a book the best it can be. That being said, a better book should sell better, too.

Tamar, you wanted to know what I've been reading -- and if I had some suggestions I could post. Right now, I'm reading the new Sophie Kinsella book, Remember Me? -- it's not for sale yet -- I've got a review copy for The Gazette. Lucky me, since so far, it's a riot. I thought I'd mention some of my all-time favourite books: Eddie's Bastard by William Kowalski; The Rose Tree by Mary Walkin Keane; Confessions of a Heartless Girl and Mistik Lake, both by Martha Brooks; In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez; Johnny Kellogg Died Today by Hadley Dyer (whom I've written about in earlier blog entries) and Klepto by Lori Weber (another local YA writer who will hopefully be visiting Marianopolis this semester).

Kim has been getting up early all week for the robotics competition. How's it going Kim? Are you learning a lot and having fun? (My two top priorities!!)

Okay, time for green tea. I'm hosting another birthday luncheon here today -- this one is for my friend Mireille, who teaches French at Marianopolis. Tomorrow,  Mike and I leave for a long weekend in Pennsylvania. It's his mum's 80th birthday, so we'll be meeting up to celebrate with his whole family.  Looks like I may not be back to my blog till next Tuesday... Have a great weekend. If, like me, you're heading back to school in 10 days or so, rest some, but have fun, too!! It's going to be a busy, intense semester ahead!!

Yikes and double yikes!! You know how I told you I was going to have a phone meeting with Sarah Harvey, the teen editor at Orca Books? Well, it turns out Sarah wants some pretty major changes on my Holocaust manuscript. At first, I was a little ... well... taken aback. But by the end of the conversation, I'd come around quite a bit. All night I dreamed of the book, which means my mind is grapplingwith the story. Sarah's major criticism is that she feels I was being too careful with the protagonist -- a Dutch Jewish girl who is closely based on my own mum. She thinks I need to "release my mother from the equation." In my heart, I knew Sarah was right. Her other criticism is that she finds the historical information feels too "inserted." We discussed how a possible solution might be to include a preface that tells readers the background they need to know before they get into the story.

Okay -- all this goes to show something I talk about a lot with my students -- writing is HARD WORK. It's a PROCESS. I know I had to write the manuscript the way I did before I could move on to the next stage. Sarah expects to have detailed notes for me by the beginning of February -- and then I'll have about a month to do the rewrite. Which means I'm going to be working very very hard (I tell my students to avoid the word "very", but I'd say a double very is appropriate here). This experience reminds me of what it feels like to be a student -- we'd all prefer to hear we got things perfectly right first time around, but when we get constructive criticism like I'm getting from Sarah, we need to pick ourselves up and get to work. How's that for a pep talk? (Today, it's more for me than you!!) 

Only time for a super quick blog entry today. Lots going on here! For one thing, I've got five English teachers from Marianopolis coming for lunch. We're celebrating my office partner's birthday. It's a big number -- but I'm not allowed to say what that number is. In fact, when I head out for my run in a few minutes, I want to buy two of those candles with numbers on them -- a two and a nine -- so we can act like she's only 29 today!

Kim, you've been asking about my story about waiting. Well, it's in today's National Post and they did a great illustration to go with it. Here's the link if you want to check it out: http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=222225

I know I said I'd talk a little today about why I love children's stories (and music),  but I'm afraid that'll have to wait for another blog entry. You see, I got an e-mail message yesterday from Sarah Harvey, the teen fiction editor at Orca Book Publishers in Victoria and she's ready to begin the editing work on my Holocaust book!! Yippee!! I'm very excited since this book means so much to me. (I've said this before, but in case you're new to the blog, it's a novel based on my mum's experience in a Nazi concentration camp.) So Sarah and I are having a "phone meeting" today at five -- and I have to spend some time preparing. For one thing, I need to reread the book, since I haven't looked at it in a few months. I hate not to work on the George River project, so if I possibly can, I'll try to squeeze in a little time on that too, today. The thing is: I'm getting awfully close to the polar bear's appearance. So far, he's just a white presence lurking in the low bushes (in Nunavik, what bushes there are are really low since they're so close to the tree line). Okay then, off I go to run, maybe make soup for my guests, prepare for the meeting, and meet my polar bear!! Hope you're having a good day wherever you are. Watch out for polar bears!! 

That's the beginning of a kids' song I always liked. In case you don't know it, it goes like this: " Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning to you,/ Good Morning, Good Morning, and how do you do?" Ever just wake up and feel like singing that song? I am definitely a morning person and today, well, it just feels like a good morning. We had a lovely weekend (combination of meeting up with friends, cooking and lazing around at home, and reading, of course) and I don't have loads to do today, so I can concentrate on my story -- all of which helps explain why it feels like a good morning at my house.

The "Good Morning" song makes me think of a couple of things to write about in today's blog. One is: if you've lived through some really bad mornings, you are definitely more appreciative of the good ones. Without giving you the gory details, let's just say I've had my share of bad mornings -- most of them happened when I was a much younger woman in a troubled relationship that I didn't get out of soon enough. But like I often tell my students and the students I meet when I visit other schools to talk about my work, difficult times deepen our understanding of what pain is -- and that makes us better able to imagine what it feels like to be someone else (for instance, a character in your book!). Also, surviving those bad mornings makes you extra-glad for the good ones... perhaps this point of view could prove useful if you happen to be going through some tough times yourself. 

 The other thing I was going to explore in today's blog entry is why I've always been drawn to the world of children's literature and even children's music. But you know, maybe I'll leave that for tomorrow. Hope you have  a GOOD MORNING and a good rest of the day, too. Talk to you tomorrow! 

Well, it's not such a shame... but I say so because I'm getting such a late start today. It's 10:24 A.M., and I haven't gone for my run and I haven't tidied up the house... all of which is part of my  pre-writing routine. My goodness, I haven't even made a cup of green tea yet! Funny that I got some interesting comments about tea from readers yesterday. I guess I'm part of a tea-drinking tradition!

Today, I want to tell you about an interesting phone conversation I had yesterday. The Gazette books editor sent me an email saying the author of a book I'd reviewed over the weekend had called from Baltimore, wanting to speak with me. The author's name is Richard Hollander and his book is called Every Day Lasts a Year: A Jewish Family's Correspondence from Poland. In the book, Hollander publishes letters written by members of his father's family who lived in Cracow, Poland, during the Holocaust. All of them died. One of the amazing things about this story is that Hollander's dad -- who escaped Poland in time and settled in the United States -- never told his son about his family in Poland. It was only after Hollander's parents died that Hollander found the letters and uncovered his dad's "secret." Anyway, the books editor gave me Hollander's number and we had a super interesting conversation. We talked about Holocaust research and even about what being Jewish means to us. Hopefully, Hollander will come to Montreal to promote his book -- and then we'll get to meet in person. And if he comes for supper, you can be sure I'll tell you all about it in this blog!

So you see, that's one of the best things about writing -- the surprising connections you make with other people. As you may remember, I've got a Holocaust book coming out in fall 2008 -- mine is a novel based on my mum's childhood experience in a Nazi concentration camp. So, in some ways, Hollander and I have been involved in similar work. Talking to him made me feel encouraged -- some people think it's best to forget the Holocaust ever happened (and of course, there are the Holocaust deniers who say the whole thing is a hoax), but I'm a firm believer in the importance of remembering what happened. Perhaps it's a way of preventing more horror in our world. 

I'm going to give you the link to my review of Hollander's book  that appeared in The Gazette on Saturday. Here it comes:   http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/books/story.html?id=48dfb668-0e56-40aa-a7c6-2805df64e642

Okay, off I go to get serious -- which means I'm heading out for a run, then I'll come home and tidy up, and then I'll WRITE! Have a great weekend wherever you are, whatever you're up to. If the snow is sticky enough to make a snowman, I'm going to make one this weekend! 

I don't think I've mentioned my green tea habit. I almost always have a cup of green tea on my desk when I'm writing. In the old days, I used to buy bags of green tea in a box, then I moved up to loose green tea (it was called Gunpowder) that I bought in Chinatown... and then... (I'm trying to build a little suspense here... good practice for the scene I'll be writing later)... and then... my friend Evadne went to Japan and brought me back... green tea. But not just any old green tea. Very fancy green tea. Very fancy, very tasty green tea. I've been able to find something like it here in Montreal and a little bag of it is as expensive as a bottle of not-so-expensive wine. Now what, you might ask, does today's blog entry have to do with writing? For me, it's about routine. Here I am, sitting at my dear old desk, sipping my tea from my favourite cup (that's another story which I'll leave for another day), listening to the familiar sounds of my house... and I can feel myself gearing up to write. I am the sort of creature who enjoys routine. If your plan for the new year has anything to do with writing, you might try finding a routine that works for you. Okay then, gotta go and try to build a little suspense in that new book of mine. There's a white-out (which means a really bad snowstorm) and a little boy who thinks he's Spiderman has disappeared. My poor main character is in a pickle -- I'm going to leave him there for a while....