Who the Heck... & Ideal Work...

First of all, I'm late. I didn't manage to answer last week's question before this week's was posted. Maybe this entry could be a twofer.

Who the heck am I?

I'm a person who loves to write. Hmmm. Is that enough?

Okay. Here's a bit more. Currently, I'm writing novels for teens. I have one upper midgrade novel (being submitted), one young adult novel (being revised) and another young adult novel (being pondered). Previously, I wrote nonfiction math and science for kids.

I'm a wife, a mom of two teenage sons, and the daughter of a frail, forgetful 91-year old mother. I've worked as a research scientist, a college instructor, and co-managed a large, unwieldy volunteer organization.

What is your ideal work environment?

Last weekend, I went on a writing retreat, so my concept of "ideal work environment" changed drastically. The picture on the left shows the view from the deck of our retreat cottage. There's more about my writing retreat on my blog.

Usually I write at the big computer desk in our bedroom. Sometimes I bring a laptop to my sons' TaeKwonDo class. I am not distracted by ki-haps (concentration yells), breaking boards or the sounds of fists and feet slamming into targets (or other students). I cannot write at my younger son's music lessons because listening to other moms' chitchat drives me nuts. Another favorite place to write is at Write Night, but I'm sure another member will write about that.

I love to type and hate to write longhand. If given the opportunity, I will type grocery lists.

Question of The Week

This week’s question deals with process, as many of them will for a while. What is your ideal work environment? Does it change depending on the stage or genre of your writing? Has it changed from project to project? At home or away from home? Two pots of coffee or strictly grape Kool-aid? With bunny slippers in front of the fire or barefoot on a beach in Cozumel? That kind of thing.

If you didn't post a bio yet, that's okay, go ahead and post twice or incorporate the two questions or skip this one or whatever you want to do. We aim to be flexible. . . .

Ready? Go!

Who the heck is Kay?

I have many parts: a translator of science, a teacher, a writer, a weaver, a dreamer.
I live in the worlds I read: midgrade and YA, science fiction and fantasy, mystery.
I am the characters I read: Pyanfar, Sassinak, Kel, Diane, Taran (and so many others).
I live the characters I write: Becca Forester, Heral, Arkel Tevar Tris, Tora Jesek, Westelach sutai Horth.

So who am I? It depends on when you ask.

Answering My Own Question

Who the heck am I?

I’m a thirty-six year old mother of two, wife to John and substitute teacher to about 500. I’m a reader and writer of middle grade fiction. I’m a butcher, baker and candlestick maker—well, maybe only a baker, but I would like to know how to make candles. I have no interest in butchering, except perhaps where mice are concerned, blind or otherwise.

I love lilacs, and late-bloomers, Balderdash and bedtime stories, Motown and Mozart, ballet and Bob Fosse, steak and salad, lyrical prose and iambic pentameter, Andrew Wyeth and Ansel Adams, Harry and Sally, Atonement and E.T., Frog and Toad, Jack and Annie, Wilbur and Charlotte, Ramona and Beezus, Mary and Laura, Meg, Beth, Jo and Amy. The list goes on. . . .

And even when I’m very old, I still won't know the answer. I will always be a person looking for herself in books, film, theater and pictures.

Who the heck am I?

I’m a writer, so I can always be finding out.

Heck, who AM I?

To Lori's beginning-blog question, "Who the Heck are You?"-I say, there are no short answers. Those who know me well--i.e. this critique group--can attest to my lack of short answers.
Who the heck I am as a writer depends on the moment, and can perhaps be explained thusly:

I sit at my keyboard, a cat in my lap, with a tea -or- wine next to the screen, depending on the time of day, writing pb, middle grade, YA or adult, depending on my mood, and my little girl is behind me-literally, right behind me, in my already crowded computer chair, saying "Mama, moooove over!"
My son is usually nearby, laughing at a book or nattering to me about his latest video game conquest-this too depends on which day it is, as he's only allowed to play them on weekends. I'll listen to him, and depending on how long he goes on, my eyes might glaze over.
I'll have either whites or a dark laundry load in the noisy washer, adding to the din in my cold writing space in the basement...and at any time, I can be feeling exhilarated by my perfect word-choice in a piece I'm working on, or (and this occurs more often) I am wondering what in the heck I do this to myself for! Why don't I just sit and watch television or something, and not place this kind of pressure and expectation on my already full days? Depending on my energy level, I can be prolific or downright disconnected.
My writing scene can always be described this way: the people, the cold, the laundry and mess. The noise. It explains my nervous eye twitch and why I'm always talking to myself. But writing is what I depend on to get me through all the rest.

So who the heck am I? The short answer is: It depends.

Factor by which the length of this post exceeds that suggested by our Blog Captain: 10.14

Lori nudged us into our inaugural blog activity by posing this week’s question of “Who the heck are you?”. It’s a useful question for testing one’s existential limberness and self-knowledge, but I would submit that it’s also a question with potential use for sorting writers into their genres. Raise your hand if your first response to the question was not “Gosh, what a thought-provoking question!”; nor “How far back do I stretch this bio plot arc – to kindergarten?”; nor “Strictly facts? Or is embellishment OK?”; nor even, “The worst autobiography that I write is better than the best one I don’t!”; but rather, “I wonder if she means her question with the emphasis on WHO, on HECK, on ARE, or on YOU?”

Those of you with your hands raised, I salute you. (I’d hug you, but that’s so not me.) I can definitely relate. We are fellow travelers on the road of words. We see through the question for what it truly is: a monosyllabic word series with no intrinsic meter. Without meter, there can be no sustainable rhyme scheme. And without rhyme, what is there?

I’m a card-carrying writer of rhyme. Which is not to say I’m credentialed or anything. The card is actually a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card from an old Monopoly game. I keep the card handy in case the “It’s a crime to write in rhyme” police ever knock down my door. (Though with the way I mutter through my drafts late at night, trolling aloud through the rhyming dictionary, reading and re-reading and re-re-re-re-re-reading every stanza, every word, every syllable, occasionally laughing, sometimes even shedding a frustrated tear or raising my fists to the sky, it’s more likely that the door-knocking crowd hauling me away will have a different institutional destination in mind. To the extent that it’s quiet and library-like there, I’ll have no complaints.)

I do write other things. Grocery lists and To Do list epics come to mind, but I also have a middle-grade novel manuscript and a young adult novel manuscript in various stages of abandoned progress. I’ve managed some short, unpublished essays that assay very little. And I am now – as of this writing – a blogger. (That makes fourteen billion and one of us, which would explain the delay in receiving my membership packet and complimentary tin of mints.) But, though I frequently vow otherwise, I always return to writing in rhyme. It’s a pursuit that is as enjoyable as it is excruciating. (Think grade-school music recital. Same basic feeling.)

Other than the rhyme-writing, I’m a hodge-podge of interests and activities. Mother. Wife. Cat-owner. Reader of mysteries. Doer of crosswords. Walker of walks. Taker of baths. Amateur photographer of trees. I lack a musical ear, but this doesn’t stop me from my unfulfilled wish to buy an electric guitar and channel SRV. A librarian by training, I currently earn my non-Monopoly dollars doing bookkeeping and financial management for a small nonprofit.

And then I spend my riches on rhyming dictionaries. I figure, what the heck.

Question of The Week

One of the features of our blog will be called, "The Question of The Week." This will occur weekly (duh), and many times have something to do with the creative process.

For the inaugural installment, the question is just this: Who the heck are you? Pretty straightforward, easy to answer, and not likely to produce duplicate responses. Briefly describe your day job, hobbies, perhaps a word or two about the audience(s) you write for, and one thing about yourself that not many people know.

The game is afoot! (should I credit Sir Arthur Conan Doyle here?)

Welcome

Welcome to Write Brainers. We are writers for children, and part of a long-standing critique group. In order to share our wealth, so to speak, and learn from you, too, consider this your personal invitation to our discussion!

Among us are: a librarian, a biology professor, a high school English teacher, a journalist, a scientist, an archaeologist, visual artists, poets, a father, mothers and wives. Four are published authors (See books in the sidebar). Four are in the process of trying to obtain agent representation, and sell novels. We are all trying to become better artists, always.

If you visit our blog you will read book reviews and author interviews. There will be art and poetry posts, links to helpful web pages we’ve visited, commentary on our individual (and diverse!) writing processes, and other things that come up. Occasionally, we may be informative, funny, serious, angst-ridden, inspired, a little controversial (hey, there’s eight of us!) or all of the above.

Thanks for stopping by!