Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Re-Entry Problems, and A Cloudland Excerpt

I'm having one of those days.

You know the ones. You have a vacation, you tear yourself away from writing and blogging and work and chores and everything screaming for your attention - not without some effort, mind you - you immerse yourself in the joy of doing nothing, and then, eventually, you have to come back to the real world. But in the process of coming back you find you're moving about 3 gears slower than usual, and you're not really getting all that much done...

...and this is where I am. I'm fully back in the real world by now, but last week was one of those slooooow re-entry weeks. Meaning I have nothing new to report in the world of writing. Except re-entry. Which is boring.

SO, I will report OLD things instead. Those of you who've been following along since the A-Z Challenge know I have a novel-in-progress that's now on hold, but I also have a finished novel that's on hold from querying. It's called Cloudland, And Other Stories, and it's about a little boy named Jake who loses his mother; the social worker assigned to his case, who recently lost her father; and the strange, wild journey they end up on together as they try to find their parents.

I blogged about it quite a bit when I first started posting, but it's been a very long time since then, so I thought I would post an excerpt from it. This bit is the beginning of the book. I hope you enjoy it:

Jake settled himself deeper into the cloud-nest of his bed, top-bunk, high and lofted, closer to the sky and the Stories. When mom came in, she would have to climb up the ladder to reach him, and he would have time to watch the darkness under her eyes crinkle up and break apart, and there would be humor and soft pillows to lean on instead of the edged cliffs her face had earthquaked into, ever since she started school. School and work and him and dad and church and still somehow the quiet spaces she needed to fit herself into, he knew, were too many things pushing together. It was like the tech tonal plate things under the ground they’d talked about once in school, that made big earthquakes where houses scrunched up like people who are too cold, and roads flew up in the air, to the sky, to nowhere, toward the Stories. He didn't like either kind of earthquake; he liked the windy open sky, the soft pillowed clouds, both here on the earth, and in the smooth light brown of her face. That’s where the Stories were.
How's your re-entry going? Better than mine, I hope? What are you working on?

21 comments:

  1. Maybe that's why I don't take vacations. Ever. Haha! :P

    I really enjoyed your excerpt. Your imagery is amazing!

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  2. Things are quite back to normal around here yet. My daughter is still on semester break so we're spending a lot of time catching up and laughing at silly nothings that no one understands but us.
    Taking her back to Boston on Friday so maybe next week I'll actually re-enter.
    Query that book!

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  3. This was my first week of somewhat normal and I am having that same sluggish return.

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  4. You know, I don't think I've ever had a vacation. That whole doing-nothing idea sounds so foreign. Then again, I live in a constant state of frazzled. Maybe a vacation would be good for me. :) Too bad that's impossible, now that I have kids.

    I like your snippet!

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  5. I've made some progress since the end of my vacation, but I'm itching to do even more. I've been busy doing crits for other writers, so at least I feel as though I'm getting something accomplished.

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  6. LOVE that excerpt. You create such compelling imagery and potent emotions. Very evocative.

    It's taken me a few weeks, but yesterday the muse returned. (THANK GOODNESS!) It was so nice to sit in front of a story, typing away with confidence that I knew what came next, and it was going to flow through my fingers onto the page. Yay for me! Hope your muse is coming around soon too.

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  7. I'm also feeling sluggish. I've been editing others' work instead of writing, which doesn't help my lack of momentum.

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  8. Great imagery and his mom ....you have a strong feeling towards. I have Christmas decor still up..in the process of taking it down. The good news is I made friends with the dust and spend many happy times waving to the dust as I go get another drink. I am starting on my cards and plan to do more this year

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    1. LOL! Yeah, if you're going to clean, might as well enjoy the dust and have a few drinks ;)

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  9. Wow, that's deep and descriptive!
    Know what you mean about trying to kick back into high gear after bumming around for a few weeks.

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  10. I'm still working on re-entry. One step at a time.

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  11. Good going! I really like the voice of the character - well done!

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  12. This is really beautiful! I love the cloud motif and the earthquake imagery. I have been struggling with reentry too, especially this week. I think part of it is that I'm not sure which project I really want to focus on right now. But I'm also gearing up for a writer's retreat this weekend. I hope to come back refreshed and renewed.

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  13. I loooveee your voice and the rhythm of your writing! so much. Reentry has been going well for me. I'm equal parts amped for the new year and new opportunities, and terrified I won't meet deadlines!

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  14. LOL! So yeah...we're on the same page! So yeah, I love the excerpt of Cloudland. Really, you are very talented. Keep at it!!

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  15. I'm glad your reentry gave use the chance to see the Cloudland excerpt. Just beautiful -- your writing is filled with emotion and clever, clever descrition, like the houses huddled together like people in the cold.

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  16. I enjoyed your excerpt, Liz! I remember reading about Cloudland some time ago but then you got lost in Tibet and I wondered what happened. My re-entry was slow. I'm tearing my hair out over two projects (one in progress and one I'm outlining). I'm hoping next week is better.

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  17. Lovely writing in your excerpt. I love all the imagery. I never really disengaged that much for the holidays, just taking two days off. But I think I did too much and last week was rough with a sickness that was going around. I would have been better off taking more of a break and coming back slow than doing too much and being slow due to physical issues. Things are better now, but writing is still on the back burner.

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  18. I spent a lot of my vacation from work plotting, and now I'm in this bizarre state of having a bunch of plots I want to work on. Real bummer is I know I shouldn't start writing a book because of the pending move, since I don't know if I could finish before I move and thus find myself having to start writing the book again once I'm completely elsewhere. This isn't a very fun place. O_o

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  19. I also took time away and it's hard to get back to it at the moment. Wishing all the best to you.

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  20. My re-entry is not going great, but I should be able to jump back in soon. Urgh. Love the excerpt! The tumble of imagery was magical.

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