Writer's Retreats

I'm looking forward to going to a Writer's Retreat in a month or two.
Why?
Many reasons.

1. No Internet
Yes, there is internet in the lobby of the place we are staying, but supposedly not in the rooms. And probably not in some of the gathering places. (we like to compute/ wordprocess together, even tho we are not talking together.)  This means No Distractions.  Focus.  I will be able to focus on the work at hand.

2. Food.
Someone else will be doing the cooking.  I won't have to have that little voice in the back of my head nagging, "have you put out the meat to thaw, yet?  What is it you plan to serve, anyway? Do you think we are out of canned veggies?  Did you empty the dishwasher?"
and so on.

3. No family
Nobody to roust up and take to school. No need to stop writing and go pick the kid up from school.  And then keep reminding her to do her homework.  I can sleep when I want and get up when I want. (I know, if I want breakfast, I will have to get up at a certain time for that.)

4. A different place
Sometimes writing in a different place, different from my office (did you file those papers? What's in that box over there?) makes it easier to focus and write.  I wonder if that's why so many writers go to coffee shops to write?

All these things make my mind sharper, better able to focus.
What about you?
What helps you kick-start your writing -- or other projects you want to work on?

Must an author participate in social media?

Interesting discussions about the value of various social media (for authors) are going on.

Twitter

Facebook

Google +

blogs

websites

etc.

Must an author be visible on all of these, or can s/he pick and choose? After all, we are writers and we have the same 24 hours a day available to everyone else. But we also have to squeeze in Time To Write.

For a look at the experience of one writer who declared a 100-day Social Media blackout, only continuing with her website and blog, click on over to this article by Monica Valentinelli. posted on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America website.

Oh, and for you Nonfiction Monday fans -- the links to Nonfiction Monday posts on other blogs are being collected at Check It Out. -wo

Thursday the 13th -- What's been happening?

Friday the 13th came on a Thursday this month -- and nothing unlucky happened.
Well, maybe one -- if you count the fact that I set up the library computers before opening time and was working in my office on a Summer Reading Program report when the branch manager came in and asked why I hadn't set up the computers yet?

What?
I did. I know I did.
So I trotted back out onto the library floor and discovered the reference computers had nothing set up on them. Nothing. Just a message that the 'update' was done. I set them up again and tried to figure out what had happened. Just before we opened, the other librarian and I figured out that we had seen the computer people doing various things around the branch. They must have activated some updates to the computer -- which meant they took all the other programs down to do it. (The catalog, the meeting room schedule, SAM which overlooks the usage of the public computers, and everything.)
Mystery solved.

What else has been happening?
I'm beginning to send queries out to agents, again.

Which is really poor timing because the end of August is when all those school teachers and school librarians begin sending out the writing projects they've worked on all summer. Plus, the National Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) 4 day conference just ended on Monday, which means that the thousand people who attended it are all fired up and will also be sending out things. My stuff will be lost in the flood of slush.

I'm also expanding my stories about Lance, the Golden Retriever. It's either going to be a three book picture book set -- or a short novel, covering three different time periods beginning in the summertime and culminating in the snowy wintertime. We-shall-see. I'm hoping to have it ready to go by next Spring, in time to take it to the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults' novel workshop.

I'm trying to arrange time off from work. (we have very little money for substitutes this year.) Time off to take the 9-year old down to the Smithsonian. And time off for me to write. Three days in a row (without a child around) would be lovely.

Added a few minutes later:
Click your way over to Nathan Bransford's blog and read the entry for Thursday the 13th of August. He has collected a long list of literary terms which he is calling a Book Publishing Glossary. It's everything you need to know when talking to people in the publishing world.
-wendieO