Kevin

Best Young Adult Novel Award

Follow up to ‘Busy Times Ahead…’

“The winners of the 2011 Muskoka Novel Marathon will also be announced at the wrap. This year, I feel zero pressure as I flopped out at the marathon. I just did NOT feel in the zone at all while writing this year’s novel. That’s Me in the Corner might just be a shelved work in progress. I keep starting and stopping on the process of completing the first draft, so we’ll see.”

I wrote that passage in my last blog post. So, you could imagine my surprise when they announced ME as the winner of the BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL AWARD. I was so ready to just dump that novel. Now, I have the opportunity to have it cross the desk of an acquisitions editor on the staff of a Canadian publisher. I now have until November 1st to complete the first draft of THAT’S ME IN THE CORNER and run through edits. When (if) this is done, I will send it off to the MNM organizers and they will forward the manuscript to Lobster Press. At any rate, I am going to try to tackle this manuscript that I have not yet found a passion for…I will listen to it and try to make it mine. It deserves that, at the very least.

ANNOUNCEMENT FROM MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON WEBSITE

Congratulations to my fellow Best Novel Award winners!

Susan Blakeney won for Best Juvenile Fiction & Pat Flewwelling won for Best Adult Fiction.

I was thrilled to see two people who constantly inspired me throughout the marathon take home trophies on Saturday!

Lori Twining (Click on her picture above to be taken to her blog!) won the coveted BUM IN CHAIR award. She was an inspiration on this front…nose to the grindstone does not begin to describe her dedication! She also won the ROCKSTAR award…for second highest word count. The most important award was also snagged by Lori. The REMY award is for the person who raises the most funds for the Muskoka Literacy Council. That’s what the Muskoka Novel Marathon is all about…raising funds for literacy. We will ALL have to give Lori a run for her money next year on this front!

Susan Blakeney (Click on her picture above to be taken to her site!) had an incredibly hard task at the marathon. Yes, yes…she did write an entire novel. But that was no big deal, really. Her task was to write that novel while carrying me on her back. I was a whining moaning wreck at this year’s marathon. “I can’t do it!” “I don’t know what I’m doing!” “I don’t wanna do this!” The complaints went on and on…and she talked me down from so many ledges that I still can’t figure out how she had time to write a novel. I gave her my vote for the SPIRIT award. Apparently she was a MARATHON SAINT to more than just little ole me…because she received enough votes to win the trophy! (Maybe the others voted for her because she stopped the whining?!) Boy, does she have spirit! Below is a full list of the peer-nominated award winners (taken from the announcement linked above).

And congratulations to the winners of the peer-nominated awards:
Lori Twining – Bum-In-Chair, Rockstar (for 2nd highest word count) and Remy (most funds raised) Awards
Alison Doucette – Rookie and Techie Awards
Susan Blakeney – Spirit Award
Pat Flewwelling – Most Prolific Writer Award

Masai Dance at the Masai Market – Lamu, Kenya – Dec. 24, 2009

Masai Dance at the Masai Market – Lamu, Kenya – Dec. 24, 2009.

Today, I just wanted to share an old post from my Kenya blog. Every time I think of the Maasai of Kenya it makes my heart hurt a bit. Seeing them dance was a euphoric experience that will stay with me forever. I WILL GO BACK TO KENYA!

No ranting today. No talk of writing. Just the sweet sound of Maasais dancing to the beat of their own music…under the beautiful African sun on the most gorgeous island on the planet.

Don’t Forget to Talk to the Animals!

Dear Writer,

Don’t let people tell you that the MUSE is a tiny creature with wings and a golden wand who will come land on your shoulder and whisper sweet-plottings into your ear.

The muse is inside you. You are the muse you seek. Millions of thoughts race by within the human mind every minute. The writer has the unique ability to reach inside that chaotic slipstream and pull out the not-quite-shiny diamond among the cosmic dust. They cuddle that diamond, mold it, smash it, crush it, stretch it and eat it. That diamond may be a snatch of dialogue, an odd little character glimpsed out of the corner of their eye, a random thought that makes them shiver with delight…or anything else that travels through their brain shouting for attention. The muse is you. It’s those thoughts and your special ability to pluck the right ones and haul them off to the drafting table of your imagination.

If you wait for a scantily clad Roman Goddess to come walking into your life and deliver unto you the wild wanderings of a poem-spark or novel-idea…you’ll wait forever, my friend. There ain’t no muse. Sit with yourself and think. Or, better yet, DON’T THINK. Become a being sitting, not thinking. Yes…I know. It’s very Zen and crazy to consider this. But the milk of an idea comes not when we’re concentrating…grasping and begging for it to come. The diamonds that must be rubbed to a shine are the ideas that come to us when we are busy doing other things. Our muse (remember…we are the muse!) picks the oddest moments in our workaday lives to drop brilliance into that aforementioned slipstream of human thought. Your job isn’t to CONCENTRATE on the flow and grab at the diamond…your job is to be the sitter. Your job is to jump up and scream, “OOH! SHINY!” As your own muse, you are only gifted in the silence. You only ‘listen’ when you are the quiet amidst the chaos.

When do I find the muse inside myself?

I ALWAYS talk with the animals. And they always lead me to that place where we become the flow…where we can see the sparkle of ideas and know instinctively which ones will take us places. When you allow yourself to talk to animals, anything is possible. Again…it may sound crazy. But I gave up worrying what other people think a long time ago. When I found myself returning to writing in 2003, after an extremely lengthy absence from it, I decided I would not THINK about writing. I would just DO writing. And I would take my dog for walks and discuss my writing with her. She listens. Or, rather, she allows me to listen. Talking to her is a bit like escaping reality. And when one escapes reality, their senses are more preternatural. They ‘see’ more. They ‘hear’ more. When I talk to the animals, I’m not THINKING. I’m not struggling, “What should I write about???!!!” I’m just being the me that can watch the chaos of ideas slip through my mind. I can ignore them and laugh at them and push the bad ones away. Some sort of net (we’ll call the net THE MUSE) seems to strap itself down and stretch itself across the shores of this slipstream when I’m not looking. It catches all the glittery diamonds that would otherwise sneak past. When I’m walking through the woods discussing things with my dog–not thinking about things–this net does the work for me.

What is this rambling post about? I knew you would ask me this. It’s about unplugging. Writers too often try desperately to find topics to write about. They struggle with not knowing their true desires, their true sparks, their true muse. All you have to do is shut up and listen. You have to completely unplug. My form of unplugging is talking to the animals. Yes…I do talk to more than just my dog. When you’re talking to your dog, other dogs listen. Pretty soon, you’re the pied piper of the dog park. And this makes my muse extremely happy. My muse reaps what I sow. He puts himself into action the moment I unplug.

Find the thing that makes you silent. Find the thing that makes the chaotic mix of ideas swirling around in your head take a pause. You are your muse. You are the only person who can stop that chaos long enough to pull away the shiny diamonds. The pleasure is in the polishing of those diamonds–the process of writing your story after you find that diamond. But you can’t wait for an outside source to bring you your kernels. You need to do it yourself. You need to accept that you–and you alone–are your muse.

Don’t forget to talk to the animals! They always send me in the right direction.