"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!!
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Comments
You're so lucky to get to read books in advance!! Okay, so you have to review them, but isn't that fun? I think it was Confuscius (sp?) who said that if you do something you love, you'll never work for a single day of your life. Good luck for the rewrite of your story -- somehow I always hated the correcting process of my essays, just because it's more effort and less fun than just writing out my ideas (story or point of view). Not to mention the fact that when I read over what I've written, I often find it awful and just feel like deleting the whole thing!
Unlike Kim, I don't like writing essays that much. I find it difficult and always have a hard time putting my thoughts into clear sentences. I like correcting better because most of the work has been done and it's easier to come up with corrections and changes than with completely new ideas. Oh well, good luck with your rewriting!