Posts
15 -- Unstoppable
NOTE: This blog is a continuing dialog between the two faces of rilla. The identity crisis is explained (if such a thing is possible) in the first edition. Click here to read: 1 -- Introduction
Rilla: Whistling! Been a while since I’ve heard you whistling!
rilla: Mmm…
Rilla: You know what they say -- whistling girls and crowing hens are an abomination…
rilla: Who says?
Rilla: Huh? Oh never mind. Why’re you so happy?
rilla: I just put my manuscript in the mail…the one I’m having reviewed at the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Summer Conference in Los Angeles.
Rilla: You mean Squibby.
rilla: Whatever.
Rilla: So you’re excited.
rilla: Of course I’m excited. Aren’t you?
Rilla: I take it then you’ve already registered.
rilla: Yeah… obviously …get to go down with Marilyn and Marge and meet Stephanie again and see the Disco Mermaids in action…
Rilla: So if you’ve already registered…
rilla: I JUST SAID I HAD, DIDN’T I?
Rilla: …I guess you’ve decided not to enter the Disco Mermaid contest.
rilla: You mean the one where you think of thirteen reasons why they should pay your tuition to attend the SCBWI Summer Conference this year?
Rilla: That’s the one. I was kind of hoping, well… since our finances… you know…your not having signed any contracts in the recent past…OK …ever…
rilla: I don’t have thirteen reasons…
Rilla: Oh, that doesn’t matter. I can come up with them for you…if you like…?
rilla: I’d really rather you didn’t.
Rilla: How about un-reasons then?
rilla: Whatever does that mean?
Rilla: Well, for starters, how about – unpublished.
rilla: Yeah, that’s a really good one, very original…
Rilla: All right, what about – unemployed.
rilla: Hey! Who are you calling unemployed? I have told you once, I’ve told you a gazillion times…I HAVE A JOB! I’m a writer….
Rilla: OK, then how about – unpaid?
rilla: There you go again, always rubbing it in. One day I’m happy, just one day, and you want to…
Rilla: I have another one – underfed.
rilla: Now you’re either trying to butter me up by telling me I’ve lost weight or YOU HAVEN’T LOOKED IN THE MIRROR LATELY!
Rilla: Whoah! Take it easy. What about – unseen.
rilla: Huh?
Rilla: Your work…it’s unseen. Well, not seen enough…this SCBWI thing, it’s all about getting your unseen work seen by the right people, yeah?
rilla: The unseen bit is my own fault. I need to spend more time on sending my stuff out. You know I’ve been told a good rule of thumb is to have ten things out for review at any given time.
Rilla: Ten! How many do you…never mind…how about – untrained. The conference has all these people, who know the industry, coming to teach you how to get published…maybe that’ll help…
rilla: Yes! I can’t wait…I’m dying to see Tamora Pierce, for one…I loved her Lioness series, and the Circle of Magic…and Lisa Yee will be there too and…
Rilla: Yeah, yeah, whatever. What about – unrefined?
rilla: Oh great…now you’re casting aspersions on more than my writing?
Rilla: No, no. I mean your writing is unrefined…
rilla: Gets better by the second. With friends like you…
Rilla: What I mean is that going to the conference will help you learn how to better edit your work to come up with a refined, finished product…
rilla: Hmm… trying hard to redeem yourself from your foot in mouth disease, I see.
Rilla: OK then, I think I’m on a roll here, how about – unrealized? Going to Los Angeles will help you fulfill your unrealized potential. Hey, that’s a good one…
rilla: If you do say so yourself…
Rilla: Or – unplumbed, as in the depths of your ability. Going to the conference will help you determine if you have a shot at this business or not and then we can stop fooling around and get out there and find a real job. Or maybe it can help your – unfledged ideas take flight. Or at the very least speed up the process since right now you are most – unhurried about it all…
rilla: Mm…you can’t really speed up creativity. I’m already writing all day everyday…can’t get much faster than that…sure going to the conference is re-energizing and re-motivating and renewing and reassuring…
Rilla: ALL RIGHT THEN, HOW ABOUT – UNAFFORDABLE! As in we can’t keep sending you to all these conferences on our budget if you remain unpublished much longer…
rilla: Keep your lid on. You’ve just proven the one thing I am – undeserving.
Rilla: Fine then. Why don’t you take your unstable mental condition, your unrelenting passion for rejection, your unrealistic dreams of getting published, your un-comprehensible…
rilla: That’s not a word…
Rilla: Unngh!
rilla: Boy! You’ve sure come undone! How uncomfortable for you. You're uncharacteristically unnerved. At least, now I can go back to whistling my Unfinished Symphony.
For those of you deserving writers who haven’t yet heard of the wonderfully generous Disco Mermaid offer/contest and would like to give it a shot, here’s the address:
Disco Mermaids -- $$Our Most Expensive Post Ever$$
Sad to say writer-buddies, the contest is now officially closed --
Disco Mermaids -- STOP
And the winner is:
Disco Mermaids -- We're Partying With --
You are the fabulously quirky and independent woman of character. You go your own way, follow your own drummer, take your own lead. You stand head and shoulders next to your partner, but you are perfectly willing and able to stand alone. Others might be more classically beautiful or conventionally woman-like, but you possess a more fundamental common sense and off-kilter charm, making interesting men fall at your feet. You can pick them up or leave them there as you see fit. You share the screen with the likes of Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant, thinking men who like strong women. 
3 comments:
Hi rilla,
I think your muse needs to have a heart to heart with Rilla. She's not being a very good influence on your writer's journey. Tell her to take a chill pill and give you some space. If you are writing every day, that's super. No wonder you've written two whole novels in such a short time. Perserverance is a necessity, so that will work in your favor. Can't wait to hear the end of Kalpa's story. Keep writing. You have so many good stories in you. As far as having ten things out there at one time, are you talking about ten different things or one story out at ten different places? I don't have ten things polished enough to be sending out. Seems I can only concentrate on one at a time, put it away, pull another one, shuffle them around, and then finally after a long period, I have something ready to send out. Then when it gets rejected, I put it away again until I feel like revamping it. Which is the wrong thing to do. I need to follow your lead and write every day and get my stuff sent out. That's the part I don't like. But I guess no one else is going to do it for me, huh?
Good luck with the critique on the ms you sent in for the conference. I hope you guys get lots of bang for your buck and some good connections that will pan out for you.
Hey Lynnerd,
You're right. There's days I want to pound Rilla over the head. I can say that because she's taking a walk right now and won't here me.
About the ten things...it means ten different places. It could be the same thing...but obviously better if it's more than one. Pam Zollman told us that at a Writer's Day and I do try to make it happen. Been slipping a bit lately.
Thanks for the good wishes. I'll tell Rilla about them when she gets back.
Yeah, she won't 'hear' me either, because she's not 'here'.
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