Being In Summer

I saw this woman at the beach on Sunday and I understood. Sometimes you can not put a book down. Sometimes you want to be in too many places at once.

This summer has been so busy and, until Sunday, I had not been able to get to the beach. So I found, in between endless appointments and projects and obligations, one hour this weekend. I forced myself out of bed much earlier than usual (I am not a morning person) and went out to this beach on Long Island, just a twenty minute drive from my parents house, where I was staying for the weekend. I wanted to sit in the sun and read for hours. I wanted to be in the water for as long as I could.

But I only had one hour.

It was enough to remind me of the silence I do not get to hear. How refreshing cool waters can be when I am not racing across hot pavement to my next destination. I remembered summer in a way I hadn't in a while: as a time to sit. And be.

Are you finding time this summer to really be in summer?

Rita Williams-Garcia

Last night, I had the great fortune to meet Rita Williams-Garcia whose book One Crazy Summer has been named a Coretta Scott King Award Winner and a Newbery Honor Book. The book also won the Scott O’Dell Prize for Historical Fiction and it was a National Book Award Finalist...so many accolades that you can barely see the title of the book because these awards are plastered all over the cover.

I really enjoyed Ms. Williams-Garcia's talk. We all sat in Dylan's Candy bar, with it's cotton-candy drinks, it's red-and white striped chairs, easter-egg pastel tables that look like carousels, and even admist all of this color, she stood out like a bright star. She shared stories about her childhood, how, at just 12 years old, she sent out stories and received rejections that made her happy as a clam. Doesn't she know she's been rejected? her family would wonder, but all she could think was, Wow! Someone read my story and wrote me a letter! (Perhaps we can all take lessons from 12 year old Rita...)

She's been writing for 25 years without an agent, working with the very same editor she sold her first book to and, until just recently, worked a full-time job. She originally began writing for young people because in college she worked with the kinds of kids she called: women-girls. These young adults who had more adult experiences than she had.

She talked about pitching hard books like middle grade books that tackle subjects like genital mutilation and about making difficult choices that limit your market and your readership. In the end, she always has to ask herself, what is the big thing I want to get across? What can I sacrifice, if anything at all?

Her excitement was infectious, the rhythm of her speech frenetic and thoughtful at the same time. When I told her that she seemed so bright and full of energy, she just said, It took me 40 years to get here. I am happy.

She reminded me that there is joy in writing and in sharing your work with others. That we can push ourselves to take on hard topics and bring them to children who read these kind of books, breathe a sigh of relief, and say: I am not the only one.

Nothing to Say

I keep opening blogger and staring blankly at the screen. I have nothing to say, I think. And then I immediately launch into sung dialogue from Sunday In The Park With George, trying to imitate Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters, which is really hard for one person to do because their lines overlap one another as they sing:

George: I've nothing to say

Dot: You have many things

George: Well, nothing that's not been said

Dot: Said by you though, George

George: I do not know where to go

Dot: Nor did I

George: I want to make things that count. Things that will be new

Dot: I did what I had to do

George: What am I to do?

This happened about three times before I realized I better just give you this song.

That's all I've got, friends. What do you have to say?

Some Kind of 'End'

Somehow, in the midst of this heat that won't break, after climbing hills of resistance in spin class because there is no way to bike in this wet blanket weather and stuffing myself with spicy gazpacho which seems to be the only thing we can eat in this summer fire, I finished the first draft of my WIP.

Of course, it needs work. This is only the beginning. But, somehow, there are 72,000 words and I don't know where they came from. I just feel grateful they are there. And I feel like it is some kind of end, even if it is not quite the end.

Since Tyler is sound asleep and I don't think the people in our little brownstone building would appreciate me banging on their doors to tell them the news, you, my friends, are the first to know.

And now I sleep.

A Place To Sit

I recently joined the community garden just across the street from my apartment. It is called The Amazing Garden and it is, indeed, amazing. It has many places to sit and raised flower and vegetable beds. It even has four barbecue grills.

I have lived in New York City since March of 2005, which puts me at seven years in this town. Perhaps I am considered a 'real New Yorker' even if the requirements for garnering this title are unclear (I've heard as little as five years and as many as fifteen.) In all seven years, I have never had an outdoor space, a little patch of land, even a terrace to sit on.

It is one of the things I like least about living here. Being outside is what I crave most. Ever since I was a little girl. I finished my homework as quickly as possible so I could barrel down the front steps and call on my friends. And in the summers, I played outside until the sun dropped in the sky.

Even now, I try to spend as much time as I can outdoors, riding my bicycle, browsing farmers markets, sitting in parks and at rooftop bars, walking along piers. But it is not something I can do with ease. It is not as simple as stepping outside and sitting down with a good book.

The Amazing Garden will, hopefully, eliminate the problem. I can, quite literally, step outside and have a place to sit within seconds, without having to pack up my bike and find uncharted territory in New York City's overcrowded parks. And the grills...oh the grills! We already had a small barbecue for Tyler's birthday on Sunday.

Someday I hope to look out at acres and acres of land that are all mine. I could live in the tiniest shelter imaginable. I've already survived years of unimaginably small quarters in New York. But, I dream that I will have grass and trees and hills.

Right now, I have a place to sit. It is a start.

Writing, Research, A Projection That Inspires

I took this photo Saturday night from my phone, trying to capture a moment that reminded me of my current work in progress, Rabbit Island. The film is China Seas, starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable. I didn't see it, but it was projected against a white brick building in our community garden, just across the street from our apartment.

I have two characters with a passion for old film stars. One who wants to live her real life with the same emotional intensity and intrigue of certain Hollywood actresses. Another, who is so wrapped up in the glamour of these old films, she is unable to cope with reality.

Now that I am nearing the end of the first draft-- I feel like I've been saying this forever, but really, truly, this is the end. This week. I swear-- I find myself in the wonderful position of having to do research on a topic I am passionate about: movie musicals!

I will be reading biographies about two Hollywood film stars I am most interested in: Audrey Hepburn and Judy Garland. And catching up on as many movie musicals as I can. First on deck: A Star Is Born.

I have not always been put in good research positions after working on a project. There was this whole camping situation once and then this guy who made beer for a living. Don't get me wrong, I like nature. I like beer. But I did not find the research as interesting as I had hoped.

But movie musicals? This is a Melissa dream come true.

Are you a research person? Writers, do your characters put you in awkward research positions?

Trick or Treat

I hope you are enjoying my walk down memory lane when it comes to Harry Potter.

What I've realized is that reading the books and seeing the films have become a larger experience than just sitting in a room reading a book. I have never felt this about any other book or series I've read: this shared anticipation for each book or film to release, such widespread passion for specific characters and their stories. It goes beyond the page.

So, my last Potter memory:

During my final year of college I attended a Halloween party and dressed up as Harry. My friend Katie suggested we go trick-or-treating. It was a ridiculous idea. I had just turned twenty-one years old. I was a senior at a university, on my way to the workplace or to graduate school, to become an adult. I probably had not been trick or treating since I was fourteen.

But I was lucky. I looked very young. Katie did too. This has not always benefited me in my professional and private life. It is hard to be taken seriously when you look like a child. But in that particular situation looking young was an advantage. So we decided to test it. We went trick-or-treating as college seniors. We nodded when people asked us if we went to the local high school, I showed off my Harry costume to a bunch of impressed six year olds, and we got bags and bags of candy. It is one of my fondest memories of college: the day I got to act like a kid.

That's another thing I love about the Harry Potter experience. There's a kind of innocence about the whole craze. A bunch of people who are just excited. About a boy wizard. About a good book.

In anticipation of the release of The Deathly Hallows Part II, check out some other bloggers talking about Potter this week:

Lisa Galek
Jennifer Daiker
Abby Minard
Michael Di Gesu
Laurel Garver
Renae Mercado
Colene Murphy