A Real Book

So what do you think?

That's it--the "real" cover of my now seeming really, really real book! There are so many thing I love about this cover, not the least of which is that it's actually Seamus on the cover (no stunt dogs for Seamus--he's like the Tom Cruise of beagles).

We also have a really real Facebook page for the book and we really really hope you will both like it (small "l") and Like it (big "L") that actually requires you to click on the Like button which should be over to the right in the sidebar.

Oh and all those "really, reallys"? That's how you know me's a professionalist writer person....who just happens to be really really excited right now.

Aloha!

I had this crazy idea that I'd have MORE time to blog on vacation. Especially since my vacation was in Maui...you know land of beautiful beaches, sunsets and a "hang loose" attitude.

But, no. First, I was sick the first two days I was there (crazy stomach bug--so much for Thanksgiving dinner) and then I was hyper-productive on The Dog Lived memoir manuscript. The point of the week in paradise really was to write. I'm pleased to report, I finished another draft! Probably only one more to go before I hand my baby over to the editor at Sourcebooks. Super exciting times.

So that's my excuse for being absent from the blogoshpere. Well...that, and these:

Aloha.

A Super Very Good Day

I guess the caption sort of takes away the mystery...my check-up with the oncologist went fine today. So, I have now moved past the 2 1/4 years "all clear" mark. Which means 3/4 of year until "the percentage of recurrences that we see drops precipitously" (or something like that...basically, with triple negative BC, like my old bad boy, recurrence generally occurs in the first three years, much less after that). I'm feeling good about that. Still need to get the blood test results back but all else was looking good. I can admit now that I thought I felt another thickening in the right breast, but it was in the same spot (and probably was the same spot) that the good and great Dr. Karam had done the ultrasound on before and it was and is only scar tissue from the radiation. Phew.

But wait...what do Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds have to do with my right breast? Well, nothing. But remember I told you my agent would be sending out THE PROPOSAL for The Dog Lived very soon? Well, today was the day! My baby is all "growed up" and out in the world! At this very moment she is in the clutches of several carefully selected editors at various publishing houses. I had a nice chat with my agent today just after I finished up my doctor's appointment and it seems that my baby is pretty and being generally coo-ed over. It helps that as it turns out three, three, of the editors who received the proposal are beagle-servants themselves! It's like Seamus has planted his minions out there to make sure this happens. Keep your fingers, toes and paws crossed for us.

That was my super, very good day.
Wait...wait...you saw "super very good day" and "The Proposal" and thought that Chris had.....oh, lord. You just don't know us at all.

Our Good Fortune

 I've spent the last few days at home with Seamus, working a little, writing a lot and reading Sara J. Henry's "Learning to Swim" (which is fabulous--if you haven't bought it yet, all I can say is what are you waiting for??!).  I also received my signed copy of The Foremost Good Fortune by Susan Conley, which, I will admit, I've also been peaking at more than a little. I'm looking forward to diving in and absorbing the whole thing soon. 

Here's what Publisher's Weekly had to say about her memoir:

"China sat in the rooms of our house like a question," begins Conley in this luminous memoir of moving her family from Portland, Maine, to Beijing on the eve of the 2008 Olympics. Conley's husband had accepted a dream job in Beijing, and they had decided to say "yes to all the unknowns that will now rain down on us" including common difficulties faced by many families moving to a new city: a new school for her two young sons, finding new friends, and adjusting to a new apartment all compounded by the intensity of learning a difficult new language and adapting to a new culture. Conley's writing is at once spare and strong, and her description of having to present an unflappable front to her children while being hit "with a rolling wave of homesickness" pulls the reader into her world like a close friend. As Conley starts to hit her stride in her adopted city, she discovers lumps in her breast and finds herself on a different kind of journey, which she describes as "an essential aloneness that cancer has woven into my days." She explains in this engaging memoir that after her treatment in the U.S. was over, she returned to Beijing, where she searched for the perfect Chinese talisman to "ward off the leftover cancer juju" and hoping to help her boys move past their own fears of their mother's mortality.

Susan was kind enough to stop by this li'l ol' blog on her whirlwind (real) book tour.  So, with no further ado...here's my interview with Susan:

TDL: Susan—Thank you so much for stopping by my humble blog. I’ve interviewed a few authors on this blog and the first question is always the same, so let’s get started!

      We here at The Dog Lived (and So Will I) love our wine. What do you recommend we pour when we first sit down to read The Foremost Good Fortune? And what should we sip when we finish it?

SC:  When you sit down to read The Foremost Good Fortune you might start with a sparkling wine—Schrambsberg Blanc de Blanc. It was first brought to China by President Nixon in 1972 when he met with Mao. This wine is light and crisp and the opening of my memoir is a kind of travelogue and parenting handbook of successes and disasters that would go well with a really good sparkling wine. While you’re finishing the book, and my family and I have come out of what I call the circus that was my cancer treatments, maybe a wine that is a little more complex is in order—like an aged Pinot Noir.

TDL:      I noted that on the first page of your book you mention a “legal career” (it’s just slipped in there ever so quietly). Were you a lawyer? How did you make the transition from the legal field to writing? (And I’m not at all asking that because I’ve been a lawyer for twenty-five years…not at all…)

SC:  I was never a lawyer. But I had dreams of a legal career. I went so far as to try being a paralegal in San Francisco straight out of college. I worked for a well-known woman trial lawyer who brought a lot of gender cases to trial. Fascinating stuff. I learned a whole lot. Then after two years I realized that all the writing I was doing as a paralegal was writing I was meant to be doing in a graduate creative writing program. 

TDL:    As I understand it, when you left for Beijing with your family you had plans to finish writing a novel. How did that transition to a memoir about your time in China to a memoir that included your breast cancer experience? And…what’s the status with that novel?

SC:  That novel is alive and well. Knopf bought it as well as the memoir. The novel traces the life of a thirty-year-old woman from California, who comes to terms with love and with her brother’s death in France. The plan is for the novel to come out fairly soon after the memoir. Moving from the novel to the memoir (and now back again to the novel as I complete another draft of it) has been a study for me in narrative arc. It’s all storytelling—but the voice is distinctly different in each book, and in one I was limited by my experience and in the other I was only limited by my imagination.

TDL:      Can you share with us a little about your breast cancer? (What kind, what stage, how you found it… a lot of my readers are fellow BC warriors.)  Is breast cancer very prevalent in China?

SC:  My flavor of breast cancer was early stage—I think technically Stage 1b. I had estrogen positive cancer and HER/2/NEU negative. The grade of my cancer was aggressive and there were several tumors as well as DCIS. The hitch for me was additional cancer found after surgery in the mastectomy tissue which led to a concern about clean margins. I did a course of radiation and then I went on a hormonal suppression protocol, which I will do for about 5 years.

I found my cancer myself—the tumors appeared as small marbles in my chest wall. The mammogram I had in Beijing did not indicate any cancer. It was the ultrasound in China that revealed the tumors, though at first they appeared as cysts, which was confusing to everyone involved. I know each of our cancer stories has its own unexpected turns. No two are alike. I am three years out now and feeling very healthy.

TDL:      You capture a tremendous amount of very vivid detail in your writing, and the photos on your blog (and in the book trailer) are gorgeous. Did you use the photos while you were writing? What techniques did you use to capture all the details? Did you keep a journal? (If you say it was all from memory…I’m just going to stop writing now. My memory was bad enough pre-chemo!)

SC:  I am lucky to have a husband who is an avid photographer. So that has been a great thing in terms of having mental photos of the places I am writing about. But the way I capture detail in my writing is mostly through notes I take in a journal. My background, and that graduate school training I mentioned earlier, are in poetry. I was a poetry major in college and then again in grad school. I have taught poetry seminars and workshops for years at various colleges and schools. And I think that is where the eye for the details comes in for me. Poetry relies so much on that vivid image, and I was able to take that reliance on imagery in poetry and weave into the prose of the memoir.

TDL:      You mention on your blog that you found yourself walking the path between poetry and memoir. Wow. I find this to be a gorge and there’s no walking it! (Writing Poetry scares the beejeezus out of me! But I’m loving writing a memoir.) Can you tell us more about that? Your memoir is not in rhyming stanzas or iambic pentameter, so I’m all confused.

SC:  Okay. And I know. Poetry can be aloof. It can be scary! But here is what I think:  narrative poetry is actually, as Mary Karr said so wisely not that long ago, memoir’s first cousin. Both forms are interested in tracking a story. Both forms are trying to translate experience and to do it an authentic way. Both forms need to rely on description and image. I started in poetry and so it doesn’t scare me. But I get how it alienates a whole lot of people! One of the things I often do when I am leading a poetry workshop is try to demystify poetry, so that all we are reading for in the stanzas is the delight of the language. We are not trying to “solve” some secret mystery.

TDL:     I usually end with a dog question that is generally something along the lines of “why don’t you have a beagle?” But I assume there wasn’t a dog with you in China. So we’ll just go with, “is there a beagle in your future?” 

Oh this is actually a sad question for me. There may be a beagle in my future because the boys and my husband, Tony, and I adopted a rescue puppy last fall from Alabama and she didn’t make it. She was sick upon arrival and though we tried to get her through, the virus she picked up in the Alabama soil was too strong. So talk of dogs is very much on the table right now. Which kind of dog? Maybe a beagle! Thanks so much for your great questions! Happy wine. Happy dog. Happy reading.

We like our wine and our dogs and our books around these parts. Thanks for stopping by. 

P.S.--a beagle is a wonderful family dog. My theory is this: beagles are sturdy and "manly" looking enough that men aren't embarrassed to walk them; cute enough and small enough to make women happy, and energetic and friendly enough that kids love them.

Readers--I've given you the gift of two fantastic book recommendations. Go forth and read. And be sure to let me know what you think.

You can also watch her stunningly gorgeous book trailer by clicking HERE;  and visit her webpage at www.susanconley.com

Cheers, Woof and happy reading!

A Toasty Winner

Seamus has worked his magic. And we have a winner!!

Before we get to that....allow me to explain...or, er....blame. The reason Seamus is picking the winner of the contest for an autographed, hardback, hot off the presses copy of Sara J. Henry's "Learning to Swim" is...well, it's Quinn Cummings fault. She ran the same contest and had her cat choose the winner. And truth be told, although this kills me, the cat performed spectacularly. And really, you can't train a cat, so it's rather impressive. Well, I have news for you. You can't train a beagle either. And I can't stand to have dogs out-done by cats. So here, for the dogs, is Seamus picking a winner of our contest....(blame Quinn....)..

 Congratulations Leah! Please email me with your address, because I can't seem to find an email address for you. Also, Seamus would like to let you know where to send him his additional bribery money toast.

All in all, I think Seamus was more dignified than Squeekers the cat. He seemed to really consider his options and take some time properly selecting a winner. He didn't just leap at the first entry he could get his claws on. Here, you be the judge. Watch how the cat barely considers the options available....

Oh sure, you could call that decisive. You could say the cat knows what it wants. You could. But us? No. Seamus and I call that impulsive, frivolous, maybe even irresponsible.  Oh no, we're throwin' down.  Cats vs. Dogs? I'm just sayin' I think the dog wins. Sure, sure, Quinn had more comments and her nails were better done than mine, oh and whatever, la-ti-dah she took the time to print out your names all fancy on that Excel spreadsheet, but you know....I got home from work at 8:30, and Chris informed me our neighbor had called complaining about Seamus's barking today so he (Seamus that is) and I had a long talk about the meaning of bad behavior and Seamus was all subdued and whatnot, and I was all soaking in some unpronounceable red wine (Alicante Brouchet), and Chris was all "he's your dog," so basically,  I'm just happy I remembered to do this. And that Seamus can open an envelope. Now when the mail gets delivered tomorrow....something tells me I'll be less happy about this.

But for now...Leah wins!! And the rest of you should just go buy the book. My copy arrived in the mail today. So, I'm going to go read myself to sleep now (or stay up all night reading it cover to cover!!). 'Night all. Happy Reading!

Free Books!

Sara J. Henry: Sara in Vermont: My Friend Ben is Ever-so-slightly Crazy. Or Maybe Not. But He's Giving Away Books.

Too good not to mention this even though I have to start with "A friend of a friend...." but hey, I get to end with "...is giving away free ebooks!" So, yeah, click on that link and find out more. Then of course you'll want to leave a comment below and be entered to win a free book here!! The free book here is Sara's own book "Learning to Swim"--a pristine, autographed hardcopy. You only have until February 22nd, so don't spend a lot of time thinking about your comment (I know how you writer-types can be).

Free book Friday. Now that's a good, good day.

(Not) Live From Vermont!

As promised, this blog is on fire with postings now! So here is my exclusive, one-of-a-kind, only on this blog interview with Sara J. Henry! (And that's us at last year's LA Times Festival of Books). And you, yes YOU, have a chance to win an autographed copy of her book, Learning to Swim, see details below!

My interview with Sara:

Teresa: Sara, you've read the blog enough to know this was coming...my readers, soon to be your readers, will definitely need to know what wine to be sipping when they curl up with your book. And then, what wine should they drink as the book concludes?

Sara: I’m going to let our mutual friend, writer Reed Farrel Coleman, answer this question, as my method of choosing wines (it does have to be red wine) is usually Oh, that’s a pretty label or Oh, there’s a bicycle [or dog] [or kangaroo] on the label.
Reed says: “To sip as you settle down to read Learning to Swim, I would suggest the 2008 The Boxer, an amazing Mollydooker (yes, spelled that way) Shiraz. To celebrate a great reading experience at the completion of the book, I would suggest one of the finest values in sparkling wines, a bottle of Gruet from New Mexico.”

T:  In your other interviews you mentioned this manuscript sat lonely in the bottom of a drawer before you dusted it off and the good folks at Squaw Valley convinced you it needed to see the light of day. For those of us with dusty, lonely manuscripts ourselves and for whom the squaws of Squaw may not yet be calling, what advice do you have? (At least this isn't one of those wide open-ended questions!)

S:  Hmmmm. I’d say, apply to Squaw Valley Writers Conference, seriously. It’s a fantastic place, you get admitted (or refused) on the basis of the first 5,000 words of your manuscript, and it’s open now for applications. It’s fairly reasonably priced, as far as week-long conferences go, and they offer scholarships and cheap housing.
Failing that, I’d say join a writing group, virtual or real-life. (I also belong to Backspace, a $40-a-year forum with lots of published author who will critique pages and query letters.)
But what you really have to do is decide if you can let the manuscript go. If you aren’t passionate about at least parts of it, it may need to be abandoned. The fact was I loved my characters and my setting and the core theme of my book, and I had pretty much the same opening chapter you see now. But the middle of the book was pretty bad, with a meandering plot, cardboard characters and absent ones, and a languid pace (not a good idea for a book that turned out to be a thriller). I knew it was bad (the folks at Squaw never got to see the middle) but didn’t know how to rewrite. For this I literally blockaded myself, a trifle more severely than I first intended: I broke my fifth right metatarsal, had it pinned back together, got on a plane a few weeks later for a five-week house-swap near Sydney, Australia, at the beginning of their winter. And there, doggedly and painfully, I learned to rewrite.
Reread, revise, rewrite. And repeat several times. And read it aloud, too. It's very very hard work, if you want a good book at the end of it. Worth every minute.

PS The drawer is metaphorical - it was on a computer disk. Yes, back in the olden days when we used disks.


T:  Writers, particularly published writers, often say the key to writing success is keeping your butt in the chair. My (totally imaginary) personal trainer says I need to get my butt out of my chair. My butt, and my brain, find this confusing. Please advise: Who's right?

S: They both are. Seriously. I get my best ideas and work out all sorts of scenes while walking, riding my bicycle, or – try not to laugh – painting walls. I love painting walls (what I hate is the tedious prep work, because I’m a perfectionist). The rhythm of moving the roller or paint brush lets my brain run, and I find it oddly relaxing. And if you aren’t living life, you have nothing to write about, and you’ll lose the spirit that makes you want to write.
But you also have to write – and realize there are times it is not fun – and make yourself do it.

T:  There is, as there must be, a dog in your novel. How important is the dog and why isn't it a beagle?

S: It’s not a beagle because it is modeled after the best dog in the world, my now-deceased German Shepherd-golden retriever mix named Tiger. I still remember the ad I answered to find her: Mother pure-bred golden retriever – father traveling man. Six of the pups clearly had a German shepherd father, four had a black lab father. Oops! But now Tiger will live on forever, in this novel and the sequels.
She’s important because she is the boon companion of our heroine, Troy Chance – providing comfort and love, as dogs do.

T:  What was the best and the worst day you had in this books' journey to publication (we'll accept answers anywhere from the imagining of the story to the moment you type your answer)?

S:  I can’t boil it down to one day, but I can to one feeling: that horrid sick feeling of knowing I’d written a novel that wasn’t salable and lacking the gumption or confidence to actually do something about it – and sometimes taking it out and glumly looking at it and and having NO idea how to rewrite. Or looking at book reviews and knowing that I should have my book done and out there, and I didn’t. Turning point: when a friend's 24-year-old son got a lovely novel published. At 24! Nothing to get you going like that.
The best was probably the day my to-be agent, Barney, called me. I was traveling and had just plugged in my Ooma phone device to a phone without caller ID, so I had no idea who it was when I answered, so I was quite relaxed. And it was one of the best agents in the business – who of course I had never really expected to hear from – who had read my query and opening pages and wanted me to email my manuscript so he could read it that holiday weekend. It was completely unexpected and unexpectedly perfect, and a moment where my life changed forever. (And he called me back the following Sunday to tell me he liked it and to offer to represent me.)

T:  Will we be seeing you at the LA Times Festival of Books this year and if so, how do you feel about its controversial move from UCLA to USC? Is this important to folks outside California??? Where else can your fans flock to see you live?

S:I’m sad to see it move because we had such a great time there last year, I’d learned my way around, found several fun restaurants and built some nice memories, and it was within walking distance of a nice and reasonably priced hotel! Even with just one visit, it felt like home. Plus there was The Mystery Bookstore there, now sadly closed. (Note to readers: independent bookstores are closing at an alarming rate - go now to your favorite one and buy something!)

I’d love to come to the LATFOB this year but I think with other book events that I won’t be able to make it. But I have a bunch of events planned and more to come – I'll launch Feb. 23 in NYC and will return to Squaw Valley for a panel and reading Aug. 9!

T:  And finally, who do you feel is the next up and coming "dog and I both had cancer" memoir-ist? And how excited are you to see his/ her manuscript published?

S: Ah, Teresa, you know it’s you! I found you through your cancer blog (because I was looking for someone who might be going to a specific writing event) so was reading your blog while you went through much of this – and met you when you still had your post-cancer rather short haircut! And I will be stupidly excited to see your book published! And will be cheering madly from the sidelines.

 _______
Phew. I'm glad she got that last one right. And Reed did an excellent job on the wine selection as well--the New Mexico Gruet sparkling wine is incredible! (Chris uses it in one of his Forgotten Grapes shows...how's that for unprompted coincidence?)

And now it's your turn. Run out (or online, if you are a "butt in the chair" kind of person) and buy her book! It's a great read. Like Sara says, support an Indie and order the book from an independent bookseller...like this one:  Powell's or this one Vromans or heck, just find one near you by using this link to Indie Bound. Just buy the book, people.

Oh, and Sara reads the blog. So feel free to leave her questions, comments or rave reviews below in the comment section. In fact....one commenter will be randomly selected by Seamus, to receive an autographed copy of Sara's book! Just leave a comment before February 22nd and you are in the running! (Sorry, US residents only...the shipping gets a little crazy otherwise!) Seamus claims he cannot be bribed, but he will accept offerings of steak. Also, toast.

Happy reading!

Bumps, Beagles and More Books

You probably think I've been sleeping all this time, since the blog has been quiet. But no. That is not the case. And in fact, the blog will be heating up again soon.

I've been writing (you knew that). And traveling --I spent five days in San Francisco having fun and attending a conference. And  planning more travel--it's time for the Forgotten Grapes Paso Robles tour in March, and then there's Fiji in April, and plans for a Words & Wine France wine tasting tour in July and a Spain Words & Wine writing retreat/ wine tasting tour in August. Phew (oh, and click on the links if you're interested in joining us...except in Fiji; sorry, that one is a family trip! oh, and the France and Spain 2011 trips itinerarys aren't up yet but you can see the 2010 info; hey, I told you we're in the planning stages!).

And, I've been dealing with more doctors appointments. This time, it's for Seamus. Chris and I noticed a couple of new bumps. The kind of bumps that would pass for "old age moles" on any other dog. But as we all know, Seamus is not any other dog. So we took him to see Dr. Davis. Dr. Davis does not think it's anything serious and was quick to tell us that even if these are the mast cell tumors again, these were the kind that could be surgically removed and that's it. It's not a repeat of the ordeal we went through way back when (we've all blocked out that time). I have to admit...I was a little freaked out. It doesn't necessarily make sense (what does when you're dealing with cancer? Or potential cancer), but I have my health emotionally connected to Seamus. In my mind, the dog lived, I lived. The dog does not have a recurrence, I don't have a recurrence. So um, if the dog had a recurrence? Double devastation.

When Seamus goes for his surgery to have these bumps removed, they will also remove the little fatty bumps that have been there since shortly after he finished treatment (when they appeared and scared the beejeezus out of me), and clean his teeth. I have not wanted him to undergo anesthesia again for a long, long time. But now that he has too, well, we're getting it all done. So poor Seamus will have a stitch here and there in a few spots, and will have to be a cone head for awhile (he hates that!).  Chris and I had to figure out a date for the surgery where we knew one or both of us would be home with him all day (no doggie daycare or babysitter for this!). March 9th it is.  I'll keep you posted.

And stay tuned...as I said, the blog is revving up again. I will have two author interviews coming up very soon. I'm excited about both of them! Sara Henry who has her debut novel Learning to Swim coming to stores near you very soon. And Susan Conley, a fellow breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed shortly after moving to Bejing with her husband and two young sons and has written a memoir chronicling her story. I've got both books on pre-order. And here's some previews for you:

The book trailer (love that) for Susan's book:

Quinn Cummings reviewing Sara's book:

and here's where you can read the first chapter of Sara's book, Learning to Swim.

Read up. We'll talk.

Her Jane, Me Writing

Today I'm just going to send you over to my friend Jane's blog "Me Jane", because frankly, it's just brilliant (but be warned...you're going to laugh but you're going to cry). And also because I'm busy with some re-writes on my book proposal (per my agent! Did I mention the memoir has an agent??). I'm off for the next 5 days and planning to sink into the writing (and maybe a few home projects...but mostly, I'm all about the writing...okay, and some reading, but then it's the writing...I mean, I'll have to walk Seamus of course, but then, I'm all about writing; it's unfortunate I seem to have a cold coming on, but I'll power through it and write. Yep, that's me. Writer. Serious, serious, writer.)

And in honor of my five days of writing, and my friend Jane's brilliant blogging, here's a photo of me (right), Jane (left) and our other writing buddy Lori (middle, obviously) at the Maui Writer's Retreat circa 2004. Ah, those were the days...

Breast Cancer Bloggers

Check out the Woman's Day.com article on breast cancer bloggers...you just might see someone you know. (Right, I wrote a piece for it. You are so clever to figure that out!). And the interesting part is I "know" two of the other bloggers--through their blogs. Apparently, it's a small BC Blog world.

A Dog's Life

I've been busy writing...just not the blog (a week? Seriously? And I thought I'd be doing so much better). I am completely absorbed with writing The Dog Lived (and So Will I) memoir and it's pretty much all I'm thinking about. I believe I finally have the book proposal done. For those of you not familiar with the world of non-fiction book wanna-be publishing, let me explain.

When one writes fiction, as I had been doing (spectacularly unsuccessfully, but joyfully...usually) the book needs to be finished, polished, finished again, rewritten, polished more, finished and then rewritten again (or is that just me?) before one even thinks about bothering the first 50 or 60 agents of the eventual 200+ agents one will need to bother before maybe, possibly, one agent responds and says "okay, I'm taking pity on you. Thanks for the letter, go ahead and send me 10 more pages." Then, assuming the agent likes that and eventually likes the other 250+ pages and agrees to represent you, that whole process is followed again while the agent tries to find a publisher for the book. These numbers aren't really even exaggerated.

With non-fiction, I have now learned (having paid not much attention to it previously) the process is different. So while I've been diligently working away on the actual writing of the actual memoir itself,  I have also been spending enormous amounts of time researching and writing the book proposal. Basically that's a 50 page document that a) describes the memoir and the story being told, b) describes why I'm not only the perfect person to write it but quite possibly the only person, c) reviews competitive/ complementary books already out there and why this one would be better...or at least different, and d) provides a chapter by chapter summary. Oh, and then attachs a sample chapter. Boat. Loads. O' work.  And I'm thoroughly enjoying it. To the point of distraction. (Day job? What? Clients need their documents? Really? Now? Huh, what did you say honey? I missed that...I was writing.)

My writers groups (yeah, I have two of them) have declared the proposal ready to go. I believe the proposal is ready to go. I believe the intro and first chapter (as well as a few other chapters) are ready to go. Something in the back of my brain is telling me that the second chapter is not right. It's a great chapter...but it may belong in another book. Ugh. So I'm going to have to deal with that.

I've also been researching agents who might possibly be interested in such a book. In essence I research for an agent looking for memoir, pets, cancer/ health, and humor...and there are a lot of them. Then I broadened it by eliminating "pets" (even though this is as much a dog memoir as a breast cancer memoir). I'm about 3/4 of the way through researching a list of....411 agents. Wow. Who knew? And won't it be embarrassing if all 411 aren't interested? And you know I'll share that embarrassment right here with all of you.  My biggest obstacle, but one I think I've overcome, is that I don't want anyone for one moment to groan "oh jeez, another downer  cancer book." Because it's so not that.

I've also been reading stacks of books. I read a lot of breast cancer memoirs when I was going through treatment (favorites were "Cancer Vixen"  and "Five Lessons I Didn't Learn from Breast Cancer (and One  Big One I Did)" . So now I've moved on to Dog Memoirs. Okay, I admit...I love dogs but I never used to read dog books. Because the dogs usually die!! I can't handle that. But in the interest of "my art" I'm reading them. And yes, I read (and sobbed over) Marley & Me. I'm moving on to Fixing Freddie (about a badly behaved beagle!). Oh, and I also finished, and really enjoyed, An Eagle Named Freedom (man saves eagle; eagle helps man through his cancer journey!)

I'm enjoying the process and learning a lot. And much to my surprise writing the memoir is helping me realize a few things and process even more of the cancer odyssey Seamus and I both went on. Oh, and it's also making me realize just how lucky that dog is. (And me too. ;-)  )

I'll keep you posted on the progress. And when I get a few pics, I'll tell you about the Women of Achievement Luncheon too. It's been a busy week!

How do you know me?

It would be easy to have an identity crisis these days. That's not happening but I have been acutely aware of how others view me. I look different than I've ever looked in my life and you'd think that wouldn't matter too much, but it does. I wonder how those women who are constantly changing their hair color and style can do it. Do they just get new lives each time? Oh, wait...maybe that's why they do it!  At any rate, it's not just what one looks like, but I suppose we all get to know each other as a specific type or for certain reasons-- a friend from work, a writer friend, a fellow breast cancer survivor, a dog person--all sorts of labels and categories. Maybe that helps our brain remember people. At any rate, I think I've messed up people's categories. So here's what's been going on--in no particular order.

Situation 1:  I ran into a female attorney that I used to work with.  We actually started work at the same firm on the same day long ago (April 1, 1987). It was my very first day as a lawyer. We worked together for 4 years and since we were both tall, both blonde and both working in the same department, we were constantly confused for each other, even though she is 10 years older than me and we looked absolutely nothing alike. (After a year,  a third tall, blonde female lawyer joined our ranks, just to add to the confusion--but that's not actually relevant here.)  I haven't seen her in probably 2 or 3 years. Then last Wednesday night Chris and I were at a wine dinner and so was this attorney. I was actually talking with her husband (not the one she was married to when I knew her previously; she had traded up) and eventually figured out that his wife was someone I knew. So he taps her on the shoulder, she turns around, I say hello, how are you, all that and it becomes very obvious she doesn't recognize me. Even though her husband is saying "so you two used to work together at Best, Best & Krieger." She's nodding and politely smiling but obviously hasn't a clue who I am. Then her husband says "And I thought they only hired blondes there." And now I'm confused, because of course, in my head (but not on my head) I am still a blonde. So now we're all confused. Eventually I snap out of it and say "Oh, right, well, I used to be a blonde...." And instantly she gets it. "OH!! Teresa!! OH my gosh! You're a brunette!!"

Situation 2: I'm in a meeting at City Hall (and no, you can't fight it but that doesn't stop me) with about 15 people, only some of whom know each other. I'm seated next to a woman with a perky blond bob. A woman at the other end of the table says, "I don't know people's names, but I take issue with something someone said about the property taxes." And she points down to my end of the table and very disdainfully says, "I think it was that blonde woman." And of course, I get my hackles up because I didn't say what she was quoting. Then, slowly, slowly....it dawns on me. She doesn't mean me. She has no idea and nor is it remotely relevant that I used to be blonde. She's not talking to me. She's talking to blondie next to me. Thank god I didn't respond. She would have just looked at me like the crazy person I am.

Situation 3: I got to meet one of my blog buddies. Sara in Vermont left Vermont long enough to visit the LA Times Festival of Books two weekends ago. Since Chris and I were going too, Sara and I decided to meet in person. I thought it would be so easy to recognize the "live" versions of each other from all the blog posts and pictures. Nope. Not so easy. If it weren't for Sara's friend (and mystery author extraordinare) Reed Farrel Coleman pointing me out to her (based solely on her description of me--he was not matching it to a photo) we may have missed each other. Sara was expecting my hair to be really short. I guess I haven't posted a picture lately (see above wherein I rectify that), and I was expecting Sara to be alone so wasn't looking our for 2 people. Categories. My brain needs categories. At any rate we found each other and a good time (and a drink or two) was had by all (see photo; Sara on left, me on right---in case you are confused). Later Sara mentioned that she hadn't really realized that Chris and I were writers. Well, we're not writers like Sara and Reed are (meaning the published, hard-working, people who keep their butts in the chairs and actually write daily type writers), but yeah, we write. She knows me through my blog--so most of what she knows of me is "breast cancer survivor/ chronicler/ with a snarky attitude."  Oh, right. Yep. I'm that too.

So it occurs to me...I now know people  who only know me as a brunette cancer survivor. They never knew me when, a mere 18 months ago, I was neither of those things. Meanwhile, I personally  have a hard time remembering that I'm either of those things. I'm still "blonde" in the way I'm still "Catholic" (if you asked me what religion I was that's what I would answer....but um...yeah, it's been awhile since I've set foot in church and I don't have any of the beliefs of Catholics, but it's like being Caucasian...you just are). And the cancer survivor part? Um, what? Who, me? Oh, right. But see, April 30th was the one-year anniversary of my last chemo treatment. So that cancer thing? It's so last year. 

I suppose I'll adjust to this new me. I'll remember that "cancer survivor" is part of me now, just like "lawyer" and "wanna-be writer" and eventually I'll remember that I'm not a blonde and I no longer have to be offended at blonde jokes.
Yep, I'll eventually realize all of that. Right about when I change my hairstyle and add blonde highlights.
PS. In the top photo, I think I look a lot like my mom. And that's new too; I've never really looked much like my mom (I look like her mom...but I guess it's all a circle isn't it?). And by the way, Happy Birthday Mom!

For My Writer Friends

Great website with a fun contest--you can win a free website design. Check out QueryTracker.net You post this on your website/ blog and leave a comment with the link to your post on their blog and voila', you're entered. Kinda like I just did. The QueryTracker blog gives more details (and that's where you leave your comments to enter).

This has absolutely nothing to do with cancer. Isn't that refreshing? It was for me.
Okay, now keep reading below and you'll be back to all the cancer stuff (although I'm doing a lovely job pretending cancer is no longer in my life for the weekend; after all, this was supposed to be a writing weekend for Chris and me).