Yes, the Daughters are resurfacing. We've settled back into my parents house in Idaho, and thus decided it's time to get some things done. I've started applying for jobs (okay, I applied to Starbucks and that's it so far, and they have yet to call me back which I find a wee bit disturbing because if I'm not qualified to work for them...what CAN I do. Besides I feel like I've missed something in my career as an English major degree holder having never spent time serving coffee. It seems a bit like a post-requisite and Heaven forbid I miss out on part of the process!) and am trying to figure out how to be as productive as possible during this current life phase.
As a part of this phase I've decided it's time to really get my writing career in gear. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I realize this is not the first time I've made such claims, but I'm serious here. It's time. It's past time. It's so far beyond time that it's not even funny. I even entered a short story contest just to prove how serious I am about this, and I'm contemplating entering a second one as well.
I've had the writing bug since I learned how to form letters. I've never been the best out loud story teller. Not sure why. They just don't come to me that way. Perhaps my fingers are just more talented at coming up with words than my mouth is. Although my brain is jam packed full of words, I've never been the person who was first to come up with a quick remark. Or if I do, I don't say it because someone else is always talking and I hate to break in. That's partly to do with the fact that, when I do try to break in, I'm always the one who gets talked over. So what's the point?
But when I start to write...well, it's a whole different ball game. Sadly, some of my best writing has never even made it to the page because it comes to me at an inopportune moment, and by the time I do get to where I can put it down it's vanished in the way of all the best ideas. Someday I have this dream of actually being able to access all the memories and thoughts that my brain has ever had and then I'd be able to really go wild.
But this is all just a mad dash ramble that is sort of muddling the point of the post title. After all, the title is where it's at, right?
So back in January or so I started digging around through some of the piles of stuff I have jammed in here and there at my parents house. In the mix I ran across my Creative Writing Chapbook from my Junior year of High school. In this book I collected all the short stories I'd written throughout the semester that focused on a particular theme that I tied together and titled "The Daughters of the Pond." My senior year of high school I went on to use my self motivated personal writing class in which to write this novel. Since then it has just sat. This is partly due to my lack of success in the marketing field when I tried to look for publishers for my first book "A Whisper of Misgivings" which I wrote my Junior year of High School. I suppose the most tragic thing about this all is that, since writing these two teen novels I haven't managed to complete any other long works of fiction. While I'm currently writing in journal number 97 or 98, my true writing career has remained nothing but a dream. I've blogged, and e-mailed, and obviously spent an excessive amount of time journaling, but I have yet to get my name into print.
Last summer in Marianske Lazne, I did spend quite a bit of time on a new novel (still incomplete surprise surprise) as well as doing some short story writing projects, but I still haven't gotten anything to the production stage. I've been thinking of starting a second blog on which to publish older works in a basic sort of stage. I did some research about how to copy write my blog, but haven't totally figured it out, and wanting to maintain my obvious ownership of "The Case of the Missing Dog," I haven't quite risked it. However, I had the brilliant idea that, rather than going out and risking everything on throwing myself into a fresh new novel, it might be smarter to rework something timeless and see what I can do with it.
This line of thinking was definitely encouraged by my rediscovery of The Daughters of the Pond. It's classic Sarah Everest to be certain. It's got all those dark elements and style quirks that I love to use. I can also see how it could find a niche in the current market that has embraced the likes of "Twilight." While reading those books (I've only made it through the first two) I really felt like I was reading something I would have written in High School, or even Junior High. So...here I am spending my days going through my old words and trying to rework the novel into something that, hopefully, will be acceptable to the mainstream. It's a bit of a limb, but I think it's worth climbing out on. Besides, it's a lot easier to face rejection on something you wrote when you were 17-19 than on something you've recently poured your heart into at 32. Know what I mean?
As a side note, I've been looking through my writing journal that was also tucked away inside the chapbook. It's been fascinating to reconnect with 17 year old me, and a bit tragic as well due to all the references to my dear friend Becky who was killed in a car accident a couple of months ago. I'm still trying to pull my feelings together about that horrible loss and I'm planning to write a tribute to her that I can give to her daughters so they can know a bit about their sweet mother as I knew her. (sigh) Life isn't what anyone predicts it to be.
On a more cheerful note, today is my one month anniversary! How crazy is that? Guess that means I REALLY need to get that paperwork done :)
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