Day 2 Day radishes

August 5 Writers conference continued . . .

Agents and Editors can be a tough bunch.  There were about 20 of them at the conference and they had the rough job of being on panels and interviewing hundreds of authors, all of whom wanted to be published. Most of them were under 40 and some, it seemed, no more that 25. There are four major Publishing houses and they provide an umbrella for smaller companies which was where the agents worked. 

 

There was one activity that required an appointment called the 2 minute pitch.  At your specified time, you sat in a row of chairs and when the bell rang you were taken into a room with six agents sitting side by side three to two tables.  In other parts of the room were five duplicate set ups.    The deal was to sit down and be with one agent for two minutes and then everyone in your group would move one place to the right.

 

Let me say that I can not sell.  Sad to say that I once had a nervous breakdown because I could not sell $1200.00 worth of gift and house ware merchandise, for which I had borrowed money from my father.  I could not sell precious baby sweaters I had knit, and I could not sell home made dinners from a van in my husband’s law office parking lot, so it was hard to have the confidence to sell something I had written.  Selling dinners out of a van I have written off as a concept was too early for the time. When selling house wares that I loved,  I would say things to people such as this issss a lot of money, maybe you do not need this.

 

The reason I write is that I do not talk.  So you can imagine my distress when presented with the situation of selling my book six times every two minutes. You might ask, did I practice? Yes, I practiced. Of course I practiced.  But I can not memorize.  I can not even say the 23^rd Psalm without faltering.  I wrote it down, and each time the revision was worse than the one before. I decided to punt and go in on my good looks.  I started out and the first pitch was passable , and then I was tapped on the shoulder to move on to the next agent. The next agent did not want to hear a thing, especially when she found out that it was a gift book.  Yuk!  The next one had a few positive thoughts.  Then I got to the fourth editor, I could not speak.  I could not make the words come out of my mouth.  My mouth was filled with wades of cotton clumped in my mouth.  The agent was fortyish and a dark haired little beauty.  She took my hands, and said, now calm down.  Just relax.   Take a deep breath and start again.  I was able to speak but she never would have known what my book was about because it was as if I was speaking in tongues.   I have no recollection at all as to the two final pitches. 

August 3/ I am coming back

Just a short note to let you know I will be blogging again soon.  Today is the last day that NoName and family are here.  So we are soaking up our time together, and needless to say finishing off unfinished jobs.    The car comes to get them at 8:00 am tomorrow. 

She and I are just back from the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference  about which I have a few things to say.  No we did not sell a thing, but at least NoName can finish a book and she has an agent who will look it over.  

Hopefully in my departing grief, I will find solice in posting. 

July 28/ What is going on today.

When you live in Washington, the topic of conversation is the weather.  If it is raining, we talk about it.  If it is sunny, we are elated and talk about it.  If it is hot, it is the only topic of conversation.  So now it is hot. Mr Radish and I argue over closing up the house or leaving the windows open for the breeze. Tomorrow could be a Seattle record of 103 or 104.  Today is Mr. Radish's day of the house closed. 

 Health care, for our extended three generation family at the moment, is also a topic.  Even the children are talking.  My ten year old grandaughter almost wrote on Facebook. All adults, including imported niece who came to help our impaired, have written Senators and Congress men. I  also added my comment on Facebook. 

Yesterday Mr. Radish and I went to get shingles shots at daughter NoName's request.  She has been suffering with shingles and she is hoping to save the world.  A shingles vaccine shot is generally $210.00 which makes you think about it.  If you have health care the price could be reduced.  We only paid $50.00 a piece.  The vaccine grows a culture in your arm for three days.  As shots go, pain wise it is okay.  Shingles is a serious illness, and NoName did not have a bad case.  But all things considered, she is out of pocket over $500.00.  The pharacist said that any time the flu vacine will be here.  The first of a set of two vacines will be ready in around October.  

February 13/ Vacation

Now that I have started back to the gym, and am doing well with increasing my being around women, I am running out of time to blog.  Plus the main topic on my mind is the non stimulus bill.  I must add here that apparently if you drove from Washington D.C. to Seattle and at every mile post you put 10 million dollars, when you got to Seattle, you would have enough to build a fleet of aircraft carriers. 

This will not fly for blog material, even cooking, being thin, being happy does not sound writable at the moment.

So I am going on blog vacation.  See you in about a week. 

February 4/ email, writing and kids

I was very big on e-mail in the beginning. I no longer write by hand even if it is a sympathy note. I can not spell anyway, but at least a computer takes care of most of the spelling errors. I never felt I could send a letter with all those scratch throughs. A handwritten letter haz gone the way of the typewriter, but at least people could communicate by the written word by e-mailing.  And in fact did for a while.

At the same time that we were beginning e-mails, we also were sending greeting cards. For a while there were all those clever cards to choose from. This was all to the good. People were writing, communicating and sending comfort. But recently I noticed greeting cards are falling off. Christmas cards are down. Likely Valentines will hold the line. The reduction in cards being sent is partly the 49 cent stamp, and the high price of cards. Even if you make your own cards, the cost of ink and paper is quite high. “I just bought you a cartridge last week.”

Yesterday it dawned on me that I really did not have any correspondence in my e-mail box. I was a little shocked. All that is in my box are newsletters that I have signed up for. Stuff that I generally go delete, delete, delete. This is a little rash, because yesterday in fact I did have notes from two people. Still the kids and I telephone. We write back and forth with little notes on blogs. Now there is Facebook on which people write a sentence or two. Likely blogs will have another five year life.

Our writing situation is like television where the scenes are short with the camera cutting back and forth quickly from one person to another. There is little time to develop the character or ideas. This is societal. It is not a good practice for the young, because they can not move through one idea to the sequential idea. Personally I think writing develops logic, which at this point in time, our society needs.

*****

Part way through writing this post I took to all the members on my street fund raising envelopes from the American Heart Assn . I knocked on the doors of people that I have never met, and people to whom I needed to say hello. One door I knocked on, a voice from inside said, “Come in.” I kept knocking several times and each time I was answered with “come in”. I know the children in the house, so I opened the door and there was the seventeen year old girl under a blanket with a boy on top horizontally also under the blanket on the couch. So maybe the young do have long attention spans for some things, like bodies, but it just does not include the logic to get off the couch and open the door. I have been laughing about my stupidity ever since.

Above is my herb fennel starting to do its thing.  If you had fennel in your garden, you too would have a fresh herb to sprinke.

February 3/ hearing for the olduns

Today was physical day. Like my mammogram, I think my last physical was in 2005. I guess I thought that someone was going to tell me when it was time. My insurance company is very big on colonoscopys and mammagrams.  I have not had colonoscopy for 15 years, as the prep is so vile that I said I would never do one again. But I am putting on my game face, and gearing up for the test, praying I will not die on the bathroom floor, cleansing.

Now, perhaps I have a hearing issue. My children say that it is an issue. My husband says I am deaf. He can not understand why I cannot hear certain noises in the night like the buoy in the channel. Big deal. Or why I can’t hear him from the bathroom to the kitchen. But I can hear, if not so well in my left ear. I am getting used to only getting three quarters of the language on the television. I ask myself, “Does it matter if I get it right? What would change if I knew what really was said.” Which is not the same as when you are talking to your children. They like to know you got it right. They are not so worried about the hearing. They are worried if you loopy. Has your memory failed you? Hum.

An average hearing aid is $2,300.00. I haven’t had anything average since I was 21. Would you want to pay for that? No. I can not find my earrings. I can’t find my glasses. The thought of keeping track of a hearing aid is too cumbersome. My doctor says that I should get my hearing tested. He says that I can find out how my hearing is, and then tell everyone my hearing is fine. Only he and the shadow will know.

January 24/ Doing something well

Recently I was explaining to my niece my new approach to eating. I was reprogramming my brain to eat only when hungry, eat what I liked, and to be conscious of my eating each bite. My niece said that it could work because the brain could do a lot of the willpower work. She had been reading on the subject of the wonders of the brain. She said that you should always be working your brain and trying something new. I asked if playing Spider Solitaire counted, but she said that it was very likely that I had already mastered Spider. I would have to try something new, such as a foreign language.

When making my New Year’s resolutions, I was waffling around, not finding the right thing exactly. I wanted a resolution to have something to do with photography. My husband gave me a very nice lens for Christmas. As I have written previously about resolutions, it is important to pick something small and do it every day. I stated that I would take a photo a day. This I have more or less done. I will continue to do so.

Then I happened across an article where a woman stated that she had decided she wanted to learn something, but in particular she wanted to do it well. She wanted to excel at something, and she had done it with Yoga over the last seven years. Now she was going to learn the salsa, and she was going to learn the twirls , the rhythm, and especially the hip movement. She also wanted her shoes to be shiny and glitter with her movement.

This was more of what I had in mind, but still not exactly what I wanted. Becoming proficient at something? I am a slip shod person and about most things I say, “This is good enough for government work”. Sometimes for me the flavor is enough. Good is good enough.

Today I went to Barnes and Noble as I needed a book fix. The bad weather simply forced it on me. I did not go the cookbook section however; I went straight to Photography. I saw a book entitled, Take Your Photography to the Next Level, by George Barr.

This title went straight to my heart. Just to the next level. Now I do not have to worry about competing with Ansel Adams. Fear of failure is removed. But wait, what level am I? Well, it turns out that of six levels, I am a two. This means that over the next year I can likely get myself to level three.

January 11/New Year's Resolutions

  I was getting some advice from the Internet on decluttering, and I stumbled onto The Happiness Project Blog written my Gretchen Rubin a woman who was the Editor of Yale Law Review . She clerked for Sandra Day O’Connor and eventually decided that she wanted to write. She has written four books and is currently writing a book called the Happiness Project. Here is her link.

http://www.happiness-project.com/

I think it is December 24^th on her blog that she writes about New Year's resolutions. Here is what she writes.

-----it’s the season for resolutions. I’ve always been part of the 44% of Americans who make (and also break) New Year’s resolutions; I’m a big believer in the power of small changes to make us happier.

Along the way, and especially since I started my resolutions-based happiness project, I’ve hit on some strategies for helping myself stick to resolutions.

1. Be specific. Don’t resolve to “Make more friends” or “Strengthen friendships”; that’s too vague. To make more friends as part of my happiness project, I have several very concrete resolutions like: “Start a group,” “Remember birthdays,” “Say hello,” “Make plans,” “Show up,” and “No gossip.”

2. Write it down.

3. Review your resolution constantly. If your resolution is buzzing through your head, it’s easier to stick to it. I

review my Resolutions Chart

every night.

4. Hold yourself accountable. Tell other people about your resolution, join or form a like-minded group, score yourself on a chart (my method) -- whatever works for you to make yourself feel accountable for success and failure.

5. Think big. Maybe you need a big change, a big adventure – a trip to a foreign place, a break-up, a move, a new job. Let yourself imagine anything, and plan from there.

6. Think small. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that only radical change can make a difference. Just keeping your fridge cleared out could give you a real boost. Look close to home for ways to improve and grow.

7. Ask for help. Why is this so hard? But every time I ask for help, I’m amazed at how much easier my task becomes.

If you have an especially tough time keeping resolutions, if you have a pattern of making and breaking them, try these strategies:

8. Consider making only pleasant resolutions. We can make our lives happier in many ways. If you’ve been trying the boot-camp approach with no success, try resolving to “Go to more movies,” “Entertain more often,” or whatever resolutions you’d find fun to keep. Often, having more fun in our lives makes it easier to do tough things. Seeing more movies might make it easier to keep going to the gym.

9. Consider giving up a resolution. If you keep making and breaking a resolution, consider whether you should relinquish it entirely. Put your energy toward changes that are both realistic and helpful. Don't let an unfulfilled resolution to lose twenty pounds or to overhaul your overgrown yard block you from making other, smaller resolutions that might give you a big happiness boost.

10. Keep your resolution every day. Weirdly, it’s often easier to do something every day (exercise, post to a blog, deal with the mail, do laundry) than every few days.

11. Set a deadline.

12. Don’t give up if something interferes with your deadline.

13. “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” Thank you, Voltaire. Instead of starting your new exercise routine by training for the marathon, aim for a 20-minute walk each day. Instead of cleaning out the attic, tackle one bureau drawer. If you break your resolution today, try again tomorrow. ----

I tend to not want to make resolutions because I mainly fail. One resolution of mine, was to take tote bags into the grocery store so I do not use those dreadful plastic bags, is totally undone. I have yet to do it once. I have forgotten one resolution. I think I could start with making a list and reviewing it each day. And I also like the starting small part. My big resolution was to do more with women. But I see I have to think smaller. Okay, I’ll phone some woman every day.

The above photos are posted because I wanted to share my weather misery. These photos are pretty accurate although the tree looks happier than it is. 

December 2/ Buying

Sunday I cut a note from the Parade Magazine section in the paper because it had a headline “Beware of Shopaholism”. I never knew what it was about feeling a little high when I purchased a new cookbook. Quoting from this two paragraph article, “There are roughly 17 million shopaholics in the US. --People addicted to the feelings of reward, pleasure and well-being that dopamine produces.” This struck a cord with me. I have some shopaholic in my blood, and that came directly from my Mother who had at least 12 navy blue T shirts, and when she died had 30 coral lipsticks in her makeup drawer. Mostly Este Lauder. Buying a cookbook makes me feel rewarded, justified, creative, calm, excited, purposeful etc.

The comments about buy addiction came from Martin Lindstrom who is the author of the book Buyology: Truth and Lies About What We Buy. I went to

Amazon.com

to check out his book and their were several short videos that were very intriguing, almost spooky.

We all need less this Christmas. For once my husband brought up the subject of spending our money for something we really want, instead of throwing our hands up and guessing. I told him that I better have a cookbook under the tree after last year, and marched in to Costco and bought Mark Bittman’s newly revised, How to Cook Everything for Mr. Radish to put under the tree.

  I have been looking at a book of photographs by two women who took shots separately 3191 miles apart from each other.  If you read photography magazines they tell you to take a picture from a new prospective.  Sure.  But studying the photos from A Year of Mornings, I got the concept.  This is sick down at bed level.