Spooky ghost stories

by Joan

I don’t know about you, but I’m a big fan of Halloween. Always loved trick-or-treating on chilly Maryland nights, pillowcase growing heavier as we traipsed long blocks and avoided creepy houses. I especially enjoyed spilling my haul on the avocado green carpet, trading and sorting and savoring (but not so much the next day stomachaches). 

For years we hosted an annual spook fest, complete with eerie decorations, scary yummy treats and friends who took costuming seriously.

I’m also a big fan of cemeteries. This morning on a long walk in perfect 70-degree weather, we found ourselves on Cemetery Hill Road. I can see how the name might put the slightest bit of decoration pressure on its residents.

Here were a few of our favorites:

And what Halloween post would be complete without a few reminders of some classic scary stories such as Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, Stephen King’s The Shining, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting at Hill House, Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger and Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale, and a nod to the fun new short story, The Stone Wife, by writing pal Bethany Snyder.

What are your favorite spooky tales or locales, real or fiction?

Don't ask, don't get

By Joan

When I first wake, I slap on my glasses, pick up my phone from my nightstand and scroll through emails. I’ve got my eye open for agent emails from still-outstanding manuscripts – even though everyone knows emails are for rejection and phone calls are for offers of representation. Like many writers, I’m on mailing lists for publishing industry newsletters and literary magazines' calls for submissions and contests, such as Publisher’s Weekly, Writers’ Digest, The Bookseller (in case one day I want a London publishing job!), Ploughshares, Glimmer Train and Granta.

If I’m in recluse writer mode, I often delete these – write first, read about writing later! But Wednesday morning I was scrolling through my email and noticed a Ploughshares email which read:

Ploughshares Lit Mag (@pshares) mentioned you on Twitter!

I opened it up to see that Ploughshares had published my essay online in their Writing Lessons feature. I scrambled out of bed and went to tell my husband. Before I had a sip of coffee, I read and reread my essay, paced and jumped and screamed. Before re-Tweeting and Facebooking it (are these verbs yet?), I wisely waited for caffeine.

At our last retreat, Pamela and I made a pact to submit something every month of 2014--to a contest or literary journal or writing program, and when our current manuscripts are ready, to literary agents. We both started early by submitting in December. Pamela was rewarded right away with a lovely essay she wrote about her Mom, published in the New York Times Magazine. 

Writing a novel is a long process with few rewards along the way. This week Susan shared some tips on setting writing goals. She wrote: “Not only does submitting your work keep you focused, it keeps you writing.”

So far in January, I’ve submitted a novel excerpt and the first two pages of my WIP for an online agent workshop. In February, I will submit a short story to another literary magazine and will likely apply for one or two summer workshops, as well as enter some contests in the spring. By year end, I hope to be submitting my new manuscript. Getting rewarded right away was definitely motivation to continue. Don’t ask don’t get, or in this case, don’t submit, don’t publish.

I’ll leave you with an inspiring clip posted on The Australian Writers' Centre's Writing Bar blog from Neil Gaiman, a true advocate for aspiring writers. 

In the clip he says:

“If you’re only going to write when you’re inspired, you may be a fairly decent poet, but you will never be a novelist.”

And:

“... as quickly as you can, start telling the stories that only you can tell — because there will always be better writers than you, there will always be smarter writers than you … but you are the only you.” 

Neil Gaiman's Pep Talk, Sort Of

by Joan

Last week, the National Novel Writing Month Web site posted a pep talk from Neil Gaiman Even Mr. Gaiman, author of the bestselling Graveyard Book (and about 25 others I'm embarrassed to say I haven't read), has insecurities, wonders if his writing is good enough. “The search for the word gets no easier, but nobody else is going to write your novel for you.” His essay not only applies to NaNo participants, but to all writers, every day.

He says, “Find the next word. Write it down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.”

His words inspired me. Not only to keep going on NaNo, but also in December, January, February... (And his Web site is really cool, just like him.)

Confession time. I’m way behind (16,812). I committed to 30,000 words, knowing 50,000 was unrealistic for me. Some days I roll right through my daily goal (1,000) and others, well, every hundred words or so, I stop to update my excel spreadsheet. The one I’ve set up to record my writing count for the day. (What can I say, I’m an accountant.)

For the same reason I don’t like to tell people I’m trying to lose weight, I should never have admitted I’m doing NaNo. That way, if I don’t accomplish my goal, no one will be the wiser. The only person I let down is myself.

The whole thing has been unruly from the beginning. I started with the idea of adding 30,000 to my WIP (working title The Architect at Highgate—yes, Niffenegger’s Highgate, and Gaiman’s Highgate, but truly, I started this book last November before I’d heard of their books--plus, I actually did visit the cemetery in 2006). But since I’d outlined that manuscript a while ago and had written all over the place—chapters here, scenes there—on a deadline, adding to it linearly was starting to feel restrictive.

So I started fresh on November sixth, after having accomplished only 3,236 to date. The new manuscript idea formed in my mind after some brainstorming with Elizabeth. This one, as yet unnamed (NaNo draft is the name of the file), follows Aunt Greer, a vivacious has-been actress on the run from the law, and her recently widowed niece, on a cross-country cemetery/soul-searching trek (pun not intended, but actually, applicable). Of course there are ghosts, what good cemetery book doesn’t have a few lost spirits? I’m excited about where it’s headed, but I know right now, I won’t be meeting my goal.

Maybe you (and Mr. Gaiman) might think it’s quitting, that I’m letting myself down, but I don’t. Plans change, goals get revised. And here’s why: Beginning tomorrow, I’m spending Thanksgiving week with family. My husband of nineteen years (as of Saturday), our son (who is getting a well-deserved break from a hectic school and sports schedule), and my Phoenix cousins I haven’t visited with in months. I might even get some quality reading in. Realistically, I’m not going to be writing anything of significance in the next week. If I pick up on November 29, I’ll maybe reach 22,000 if I’m lucky. I’ll be happy with that.

I spend the majority of my time behind my computer, writing, editing, and researching. I’ve already blogged about being a loner. So for me to spend some time away from my desk, with real people instead of imaginary, will be a treat. It’ll probably provide new motivation and a jumpstart to my writing.

And the reading? While I usually read literary and women’s fiction, I’ve got Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere waiting for me in the other room. As of last week, he's got one more fan.