Candice Hughes

It felt a bit like peeking at my horoscope, which I admit I do once in awhile for a lark. I’m talking in this case about a writer’s mysterious black box- “I Write Like”. Everyone’s doing it, I thought, why not me?

So who do I write like (according to “I Write Like”)? Drum roll- envelope please. The answer is….JD Salinger.

Since he passed away, perhaps he won’t mind that I write like him. Particularly that I’m a woman who writes like a man who writes about what it’s like being a boy growing up to become a man. If that makes any sense at all.

Now I’d better go and begin scouting remote towns in New Hampshire for a cottage.

Because the frightening thing is that both JD Salinger and I have lived/worked in New York and Connecticut. But then he fled deep into New England to Cornish, New Hampshire. And I wonder if that is what “I Write Like” noticed- something in the Yankee words spiced with New York attitude. Then again maybe it’s just a mysterious black box like whatever generates the fortunes in Chinese fortune cookies.

Spring has been here for several weeks now, with the usual crazy New England weather- shorts and tee-shirts one week then back to sweaters and coats the next.

Besides the changing but consistently wacky weather, the publishing industry continues as well, changing but expectedly so.  Publisher’s Weekly reported that e-books were up 177% for 2009 while sales of most other books were flat or slightly lower than the year before. All forms of entertainment have been moving digital for a number of years. Yet things rarely move entirely digital or, if they do, convert in their original form. I still listen to the radio periodically. I often listen to the radio online. It’s still the radio, just a different delivery system. I envision paper-based books sharing the world with digital books- reaching an even larger audience.

Spring is a great time for writing- full of energy and bursting with ideas! So now it’s back to a writer’s main job…writing.

Bookmarked: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

In New England, we’ve had several spectacular snow storms this year. It makes up for several years running where we were barely dusted by an inch or two the whole season. Those years I heard many complaints about the cold, the snow, shoveling, grumble, grumble. I assumed those were all transplants from parts south or the extreme south west. I feared they might not survive the system shock when we had a real New England winter with a foot of snow whipped into a frenzy by howling winds.

If you get up early enough after one of these bruisers, you will be treated to a fairyland of sugar frosted trees against a bright blue sky. A perfect scene for a novel. I’ll have to think on that….

For now, here’s a photo- New England in winter.

“It’s all right. I came back.”

Sorry wrong play. In this one, it’s Anne Writer, in a black shift, moaning and pulling her hair out (while rocking on the floor surrounded by fluttering pages thick with type). Anne Writer turns to her mother (in slinky gold gown with black lacquered cigarette holder causally dangling from her exquisite hand). “Why won’t any one read my 500,000 word epic poem on the atomic bomb?”

“The slush pile passed on in 1991, darling. Stop throwing paper into the coffin. It makes you look mentally deficient.”

“JK Rowling was rejected 12 times. I think I can…I think I can…publish.” Anne glares at her mother with a wild look in her eye.

“She had an agent, darling. Now rub the ink stains off your fingers, we’ve a nice young man coming for dinner.”

And there’s the crux of it…Thank you Wall Street Journal for telling us writers we need an agent. Many more thanks for the lovely interviews with Joshua Ferris and Joyce Carol Oates.

I love libraries. I love being surrounded by books. I especially love my local library. They hit a home run this week with a lecture by David Baldacci. I knew right away that other people felt the same way because there was not one single parking space left in the lot. I persevered. Parking in a local business parking lot, I trudged through the cold drizzle. Inside the gorgeous new auditorium, I squeezed into one of the few remaining seats.

David Baldacci came to the podium, looking exactly like the photo on his book jackets. (you might question my mental acutity with this statement, but try sometime matching real celebrities to their photos and see how easy it is). Within a few minutes, he had the audience rolling on the floor with amusing “life of an author” stories. One comment I found particularly memorable, although it was not one of his hilarious anecdotes. That statement was that every rejection of an author’s work is a badge of courage. I also learned that if he sees you reading one of his books, don’t expect him to walk up to you and say “Hi”. (You’ll have to learn the story of what happened when he actually did this one time from him.)

All in all, this lecture was worth the walk through a cold, dark, drizzle. I applaude our hard working librarians for bringing us a wonderful speaker. I also encourage everyone to support their local libraries because they’re the heart of every community.

It’s October and that cool snap to the air means fall is here. Leaf season is just starting. I’m looking forward to some beautiful reds and golds. Hopefully, I can get outside on a clear blue day and shoot some photos.

In my last blog entry on OTHER blogs for writers, I highlighted several great blogs. But, there are two more that I want to add to the blogroll as I believe any writer or publishing industry maven could find some gems in them.

Romance University is a wonderful craft blog aimed mainly toward writers and written by writers. There are also editor and agent guest bloggers, which really enriches the content. Today’s post falls under their series on understanding the male mind. If you haven’t visited, try it and I’m sure you’ll be pleased by the breadth of content. Here is the link: http://romanceuniversity.org/

Another excellent blog is literary agent Nathan Bransford’s  blog. Today’s post is about Banned Book Week. (I must confess, I didn’t realize it was Banned Book Week until I read the post, so it was worth it right there logging on). I have a great fondness for banned books because often books are banned for not fitting into someone’s agenda. This makes me want to read them all the more to find out why someone else doesn’t want me to read them. I’m a firm believer in freedom of speech so long as the content is not inciting racial hatred or violence against others. Here’s Nathan’s link:  http://blog.nathanbransford.com/

Both of these sites will be added to the blogroll.

Enjoy the lovely weather!

This summer has gone by at light speed. The past couple months have included frenzied activity editing and polishing novel 2. This week, I released novel 2, hoping that it is ready to take flight. Waiting to see how reviewers will react is always a nail biting moment.

In between bouts of  motherly concern for novel 2, I’ll take some time to decompress from the intense activity. Maybe even take some walks and start thinking about what a novel 3 might look like. I love this time. It’s a time of free fall when almost anything can happen. A time when there are many doors waiting to be opened and it’s so hard to decide which door should be opened because everything is interesting, fresh and exciting.

The end of summer is a perfect time for free fall. Life starts gathering inward to protect itself from the snow and ice of winter. But winter hasn’t come yet. For now, I can still walk outside without a coat and sit on my porch to read. But the days are numbered. That’s alright though because every ending is a beginning.

Apologies for the relative silence on my blog! If I released audiorecordings, the past few months wouldn’t be silence (as it appears on the blog) but an unrelenting click clack of keys typing out words. I’ve been fully consumed by editing novel 2. Beside the editing there’s the query and synopsis writing. Finally, the dreaded pitch (yes, indeed, you can get 400 pages down to one line)!

I’m tremendously lucky to be part of CoLoNY and RWA as a whole. Through these groups, I’ve been cramming with my writer friends. I feel just like I’m at college again! Only this time, I’ve got generous, wonderful, highly experienced writers showering me with advice and reading drafts (not to mention listening to my pitch!)

So, please, excuse the silence and do check back! I hope to get some posts in during the conferences and will definitely post afterwards with some highlights of RWA Nationals and ThrillerFest.

This weekend I thoroughly enjoyed myself being an archaeologist for a day. Who ever thought that digging through someone’s trash could be so much fun! After several hundred years, the yuck factor disappears and trash becomes an amazing window into another world. I was lucky enough to get a look into a world almost four-hundred years ago when Native Americans lived throughout New England (and other parts of the United States as well, only they weren’t states then, and you get the picture…).

Archaeologist call the trash pit the midden. In the 1600s, a Native American midden contains things like oyster and clam shells and burned seeds. Our group was lucky to find some European flint. Not bad for a hour or so of digging! Other members of our group investigated an area of the old fort that used to be living space and found glass, beads, and a large piece of flint.

I also learned about a field unknown to me, archeobotany. Since most seeds have been cooked or burned by Native Americans and since seeds lose water and shrivel, it can be hard to identify them. Of course, it’s not easy to find them in the first place since they’re small! But if you’re patient and  have a good eye, seeds show what types of plants people ate or utilized in daily life.

The downside of archaeology is trudging through mud and poison ivy. Of course, there are also mosquitoes, ticks and other insects to dodge (or if unlucky, to suffer from). Overall, I’d say it’s worth getting a bit dirty to watch the past unfold before your eyes.

For anyone who has missed it, Elisabeth Sifton has an essay in The Nation this week (The Long Goodbye? The Book Business and its Woes). Her experience in the industry spans decades giving her a rare perspective. She expresses frustration and sadness at the many changes in the industry, particularly the consolidation and transformation to what she describes as a poorly functioning profit-focused model. She declaims the lack of interest of those running publishing companies in their products and product generators (books and writers). Her essay is well worth reading.

I know so many people who are passionate about books. A good number of these people are young- just the sort of readers the industry needs because they have many years of book buying ahead of them. I’ve seen tweens drooling over catalogues of books at libraries. They aren’t shy about putting in requests for book orders with their librarians. Recently when I commented on how teens/children may soon be reading text books on the Kindle, one groaned and told me he certainly didn’t want his books on one.

Books as objects have a special power. Think of magic books like in Harry Potter. Would it work to have a magician’s blog? How about books so controversial they’re banned. I have an early edition Orlando by Virginia Woolf. The cover is stamped, “Not to be introduced into the British Empire.” Woolf’s book provoked thought and discussion. It served it’s purpose. How does one ban a web site or a blog for offending sensibilities? Except for the most egregious offenders, few web sites or blogs are removed. Electronic words are more accessible and more pervasive yet Web sites and blogs simply have less psychological power than books in my opinion- even though all are based on words and all attract readers and discussion. Somehow being intangible dilutes the power of the words. Imagine holding up a print out of a blog as one shouts about its seditiousness. Or maybe one would bring a laptop on the podium and (shudder) display it with PowerPoint?

While I welcome and embrace electronic media (I am a true techie at heart), I think books retain their magic. Why, I wonder, can’t electronic media and books continue to live in harmony? Each will serve it’s purpose.