Yee-Haw, Austin!!

Walking down SoCo is like walking on the surface of the sun.  A weird, colorful, super-hipster sun, but a sun just the same.  I'm on my second shower of the day and it's 4pm.  Oh.  And I just ordered a margarita.  Is that wrong?  Seems like the thing to do here to balance out the delicious salty/fatty offerings of food trucks parked on every corner: at gas stations, wedged between restaurants, or just hanging out by the side of the road.  Thai.  BBQ.  Pulled Everything.

The light's different here.  I thought it'd be like the light in California, but it's different altogether.  It's hard, unforgiving - the kind of light that angrily blasts off your husband's watch, directly into your eyes, as you drive your car in the late afternoon.  Aggressive light.  The kind of light that keeps you honest.  No shade to hide in here.

South of Congress (SoCo) is full of vibrant, independent-minded shops, lampposts plastered with a lasagna of music posters, and food, food, glorious food.  I'm not sure I was cool enough to walk down the street, but one green-strawed sip from my Tropic Thunder (lime, grapefruit, orange and ginger) and I didn't care.

I'm here for the Agents and Editors Conference.  Just checked in.  Have my spiffy badge with its pale blue "Finalist" ribbon, hanging from a decidedly un-hipsterlike lanyard, but I don't care.  I'm wearing it with pride.  Folks from home have been so supportive with surprise flowers and notes and texts.  I'm a lucky, lucky girl.

I can't wait until tomorrow to listen to all these smart folks talk on topics like "Dynamic Duos: The Author-Agent Relationship" and "Finding Your Creative Tribe".  I'm going to soak in every last word, take copious notes, and pray I don't pass out during my consultation with an agent.

Stay tuned - Hope to give you the low-down on all the info that is gleaned from the non-stop panels/workshops/presentations tomorrow.

Yes, Miss Maya.

TWL Finalist! Isn't It Romantic...

I'm creeping up on the end.  I see you, The End…I can alllllmooooossssttt reach you…!!  It has meant getting cramps in my fingers, angrily deleting as much as writing, and reading/writing/deleting so much this past year that I now need readers.  (Which is fine, because I think librarians are hot.  Smart girls in pencil skirts?  Nuff said.)  It has meant ignoring dust bunnies, packing bananas and goldfish crackers as ersatz lunches for the kids because I haven't gotten to the store.  It has meant banging my head against the wall more days than not. I am apparently able to write only 5 to 7 good pages a day.  It does not sound like a lot because it is not a lot. But it's like losing weight: a half pound isn't much per week, but after a few months, you have to buy new jeans.

Happy to say the work seems to be paying off.  Just got the word that  I am a finalist in the Romance category for the Writer's League of Texas Manuscript Contest!

I'm heading to Austin at the end of June, for their 21st Agents and Editors Conference.  The line-up for faculty and workshops sounds amazing and I cannot WAIT to meet other writers and to learn more, more, more about writing craft and business. (Sidebar: why is EVERYTHING I do a hybrid of craft and business?  Note to self to examine that sometime…)

All the winners and finalists will be announced at their keynote address and the biggest thing is that I will have the opportunity to meet with an agent.  Gulp.  Crafting the elevator pitch might be the toughest two sentences I've ever written.

I'll take any kind of luck y'all can spare.

New Work

So glad to be back in the mud!  I'm working on a series that I've had in my head for a long time - I call them ceramic quilts.  They will be a framed combination of ceramic pieces and stitchery.  Here's a detail from my first go-around from today.

This Week's Simple Truths

1) Writing modern, original sex scenes is really, really difficult.  (Please compliment my restraint.  I used the word "difficult" instead of "hard".)

2) Smoked paprika is not good in anything.  ANYTHING.

3) Walking a 12 minute mile is JOGGING.

4) Weight Watchers is the only reasonable way to lose weight.  It just is.  Please don't cleanse anything.  All it does is make everyone angry.

5) Teenagers smell worse when they're in a pack.  It's exponential.  Add one more teenager, increase smell factor by 10%  Add two more, increase by 50%.  You get the picture.

6) Hot tea cures all things.

7) Sometimes, not often, I get tired of listening to other people's worries.  But then I realize that I love these people and they have so many worries that they actually spill out their very selves.  It is in another person saying: I hear you, that the flood level goes down.  So I listen.  I sigh, but I listen.

8) Wearing readers isn't as painful as I thought.  I always wanted to be a librarian.

9) Coffee, popcorn, toast and caramelized onions ALWAYS smell good.  And there is always room for these things in this belly.

10) There is always something to be grateful for.

Where I've Been.

Where've I been?  I've been writing.  And fixing my back. (Herniated disk and dislocated pelvis.  Ceramics.  No joke.)  So mostly fixing my back, but then writing.

I'm closing in on the end of this piece I've been working on.  Hallelujah, brother.  I have a May 5th deadline for myself.  (Signed up for a book marketing class that starts on the 5th, ergo…)  I've been writing every day that I've been able to sit in a chair or stand and type on a bureau. 

It's been weird not touching clay for three months.  THREE MONTHS!!  Longest I've gone in almost seven years.  Changing gears has been humbling, I must say.  When folks used to ask me what I did for work, I'd say: "I'm a potter."  People still ask, and I still say it.  Are those words still true?  It doesn't feel right yet to say: "I'm a writer." And I wonder: will I be able to answer that way someday?  

At any rate, I cannot continue Mudstar Ceramics in the way that I began it.  My body cannot do the intense, repetitive work it used to do.  But not touching clay has been…what?  Disconcerting?  Unfamiliar.  No label with which to define myself.  Leaving me untethered, in a way.  A ship without a port.  I'm not someone who looks back all that much, which is both good and bad, but I will miss Mudstar, the way that it was.  But there is so much truth in the idea that you need to be pushed out of the nest, past your comfort zone, into the unfamiliar, in order to grow, to make new ideas and new work.  I'm there now.  Not going to lie: it's itchy out here.

Once you've had validation doing work that was appreciated and "successful" (whatever that means to you,) you feel obligated to continue in that same vein.  It's safe doing that kind of work.  Gratifying, too, in a way, because you could found validation through the dollar, through compliments, through recognition.  It's really hard to switch gears. It's hard when people ask: what have you been making, what's Mudstar doing?  And I feel sheepish in the way I've been answering currently. 

I'm lucky I've been able to listen to my gut about my creative work - I'm really grateful for that.  It's time to be stretched to the edge of uncomfortable.  To put myself out there again.  To write.  To make some framed work.  (See?  Can't stay away from clay too long.  I'll get grouchy.)  To see what else is out there for me.  

I watched the finale of Girls last night, and Hannah had a perfect way of describing her search for creative fulfillment: 

"I want to find a hole in the world in the shape of me and just fill it up."

Quiltmaking/Claymaking

Alabama Chanin's Star Quilt

Ideas for new framed ceramic work are percolatin'….and today's "notions" are from fabric, sewing, and especially the craft of quilt making.

Imogen Lovely

There's so much inspiration for ceramics in quilt making: the colors, the piecing, the folding, the stitching, the designs.  This kind of work is old work; it's been around forever.  There are some artists and makers out there who are taking a modern approach to things related to the home - new ways to caretake their home-life, and they really speak to me, whether that be in cooking, care taking, growing and making things...

If you have a moment, check out the Imogen Lovely blog - Jenn Finn has such a pretty, loose-limbed, organic approach to needle and thread.  

I also am a long-time fan of Alabama Chanin, who, ironically, also has a line at Heath Ceramics.  (I sure love me some Heath tile.  That ever so subtly beautiful iridescence they achieve with some of their glazes…so deft.)

Inspired by these makers and others, such as ones that are documented in the splendid Kinfolk Magazine, I spent part of my day noodling with a little leftover porcelain and some drawing...