Watch Out... The Repubs Are Trying To Steal California!

So I assume most of you who check in to my blog are rooting for one of these three for president. At least I hope so.

Well, even though the tide is (and probably will) turn Demo, the Repubs are willing to try just about ANYthing to keep the White House. That means they want to keep one of these three out.

That includes stealing California.

Yeah, that's right. A right-wing Repub group in Cali is funding a California initiative that calls for ending the "winner-takes-all" electoral votes for whoever receives the most votes in California. Read the story here.

That's because Cali is traditionally a Demo and liberal and progressive state. But if the initiative wins, Cali's votes could award a proportional amount of electoral votes to the Dems and Repubs..., even though a Demo has won California in the last four presidential elections.

And that could mean four MORE years of Repubs in D.C. Not cool, says DailyKos, which is trying to mobilize and arm people with knowledge about this.

I guess if you can't win... cheat. Or steal. Didn't their moms teach them better than that?
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The Comfort Zone

Some CDs you never get tired of, even when you have an iPod or rarely see a CD. You can listen to them over and over and over, and it seems just like yesterday they came out.

One of them for me is The Comfort Zone by Vanessa Williams. I think it was out in 92 or 93 because I remember Save The Best For Last was EVERYbody's prom or sweet 16 song at that time. (OK, just checked. It was released in 1991 August... like sweet 16 years ago!!! I'm almost ready for my second sweet 16, plus two!)

But The Comfort Zone was one of those excellently produced music projects. Each song blended well into the next for an overall journey. Each song told a story. And one thing that's important for me, is that all the fast songs and slow songs are grouped together. Preferable the fast at the front, the slow at the back.

Anyway, that's what I'm listening to this afternoon while doing a little writing. Loving this two weeks off thing.

Can we make it a two years off thing? That would be a wonderful comfort zone.
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Annual Trip East... Well, Midwest and South

Getting ready to head out for my annual voyage east... well, more midwest and south. Will be seeing the family in Detroit and Indianapolis for a few days. Then heading down south to Atlanta for the festivities of In The Life Atlanta, including the Literary Cafe on Saturday, September 1.

Luckily I get a few days of down time this week before traveling. Got a lot of laundry and housecleaning and packing to do. But should be good. Why do we spend so much time housecleaning before LEAVING? It's my place... not like anyone will be there. lol.

If you're going to be in Atlanta, drop me a line. Would love to meet up with you. Will be staying with my writer friend Fiona Zedde's house.
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Finding A Literary Agent

(Re-running this entry from a couple years ago. I get a lot of questions about this subject. Hope it's a start.)

So you want to be a published author? You've written your novel first. You've workshopped it with writers groups, classes, and others who have an eye for story, grammar, and commercial appeal. Then... and only then... are you ready to shop your work out to an agent. A literary agent.

This is a person who, upon looking at your query letter and maybe the first five pages of your manuscript, will decide whether or not to read your entire manuscript. Once they read it, they will decide whether they are enthusiastic enough to represent it... enthusiastic enough to sell it to a publisher... enthusiastic enough to stick with you through rounds of rejection until the magic moment when you get an editor at a publishing house willing to take a chance on your manuscript.

There are good agents and bad agents. Agents with good reputations and bad. Agents with strong clout with publishers. Agents still establishing clout. It's good to do research when you're at the agent-hunting stage.

And one more thing... you NEVER have to pay an agent. Not for reading your manuscript. Not for calls. Not for postage. Not for (for you wannabe models) photos. Agents get paid only when they sell your work... and they get paid AFTER that happens. Usually it's a 15-20% cut of what your work earned in the sale... and that amount for the rest of the book's life -- the book they sell.

My agent is great. Smart. Funny. Around the same age. Very ambitious. Confident. And what made me go with him compared with others who were considering me at the time was that our conversations about my work and my goals in publishing were comfortable. I felt like I was talking with a brother/cousin/friend with business savvy. And he was enthusiastic about Down For Whatever (though at the time, it was originally titled Same Script, Different Cast). One agent, who is one of the most sought after -- a lot of people want this company to agent them -- talked to me like I was in third grade. That was weird. I found my agent because I had finished reading A Love Noire by Erica Simone Turnipseed, and since I liked the book, wanted to see who represented it. That's how I found Nicholas.

So... for homework. Take a look at some of your favorite books. See who is the agent. Most writers thank their agents in the acknowledgements. Start making a list. When you're ready to agent shop, you'll be ready.

Free Within Ourselves

So every once in a while, people ask me for my opinion on books and resources they should consider for their writing process. I always feel weird, because it's not like I'm an expert, per se.

But.

One of the earliest books I picked up along the way was Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors by Jewell Parker Rhodes.

The book shows, through examples by many black authors past and present, how tone, character, plot, dialogue, and viewpoint can be developed by writers. Throughout, the book emphasises the storytelling tradition of past and present black people in the U.S. And it goes without saying, the book is a great resource for people of all backgrounds.

Jewell Parker Rhodes is professor of Creative Writing and American Literature and former Director of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Arizona State University. She's written several fiction and non-fiction books. Received many awards and honors for her work.

One nice bit of trivia I discovered about Free Within Ourselves... one of our favorites, Tayari Jones, worked as a research assistant on the book while doing graduate work at Arizona State University.
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A Daytime TV First. Man Kiss.

So As The World Turns may have been your grandma's soap opera back in the day, but it's definitely a show of the times today... as the show featured the first ever man-on-man kiss on daytime television. Except these men are young men... just out of high school, about to start college.

The story has been building slowly all summer. Some backstory...

Luke is openly gay. His parents and grandparents accept him. He's the blonde guy.

Noah is... not sure. But he is sure. He's the brown haired guy.

Noah has been kinda dating Luke's best female friend all summer, one of their mutual friends, though he's always held back his true feelings for her best friend. Noah also has a dad who is NOT feeling Noah hanging with openly gay Luke (Dad's always know). And the Dad is threatening to send his son Noah away to keep Noah and Luke apart.

OK. For those of you sitting in front of the computer all day with nothing to do, you can catch up on all the week's episodes of As The World Turns to see if this is yet another show to add to your TiVo. Besides, Young and the Restless hasn't been at its best since all the Bell-era writers were let go about a year ago for the new regime.

And if you're hoping for more open representation like this, send the producers of ATWT a note of appreciation for daring to be the first to air a storyline that may help thousands of teens and their parents this summer.
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Kicks. Camp. Music. Drama. Oh My!

Yay! It's Friday.

And to kick it off, how about a few high kicks, splits, and energy action from Miss Tandi Iman Dupree, via YouTube, which a friend emailed to me earlier this week.

So, High School Musical 2 kicks off today. All the tweens are excited. All those former tweens who did high school musicals are looking forward to it too.

Actually, I never saw the first one, but somehow, the magic of marketing etched it in my mind as something I might want to see. Do I really want to? Or did the marketing work? Or am I just a former tween who liked and still likes musicals? lol.

OK. True story. I did plays, skits, musicals, dance routines, and lip syncs in college. Thought I wanted to be an actor, as well as a newscaster. While I was in rehearsals for a show, Reckless, I met the lead of another show, Grease, that was also in rehearsal at the same time. Just ran into each other like "your chocolate is in my peanut butter/your peanut butter is in my chocolate" ran into each other. We really dug each other. I went to grad school in Chicago because of him. We didn't live happily ever after. Cool guy, though. That's a whole 'nother story.

Back to the blog, one band camp musical film I really enjoyed is Camp. Some of the students from the Performing Arts High School on my campus are in it. Really fun film!

Well, here's to some low-drama, low-angst action this weekend. I gotta do some writing... because this week has not been very productive in that department!
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Ho Hum

I'm such a Charlotte... a Sex and The City Charlotte.

Found myself clutching the imaginary pearls several times this weekend. Funny... but ho hum. The lgbt world's not necessarily made for Charlottes.
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