I'm on the board at The Writers Place in Kansas City, and I've gone and found myself chair of the marketing and membership committee. And guess what? We're having a spring happy hour on Thursday, May 26 from 6-8 pm. Free beer and writers! You know you want to come. I'll be sitting at the door making meaningful eye contact and silently brainwashing you to become a member so you can get reduced prices for workshops, a tax deduction (TWP is a nonprofit) and the pride of knowing you're a member of such a venerable organization.

Here's some background on The Writers Place:

The mission of The Writers Place is to promote writers and their work, to nurture an interest in writing and literature in a large, diverse audience and to contribute to the quality of cultural life in Kansas City and throughout the Midwest.

In addition to the spring happy hour, I'll be putting on a workshop called Writers Can Be Bloggers, Too on Saturday, June 18 from 1-3. It's $30 for nonmembers and $20 for members, and I'll be looking at blogging from an author's point of view -- pros and cons/how to get started and some more advanced social media techniques for authors who already have a blog and/or social media presence.

Hope to see you there! Here's how to sign up if you're a nonmember or a member.

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Speaking of writing and books, I'm giving away a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card this month on Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews!

In May 2009, I released a micro-collection of poetry to Kindle. Five poems. Just pulled them off my hard drive, put them in .rtf format, paid someone $10 to design a cover and uploaded it as a collection. It was totally fun to see them in that format. Of course, I immediately bought my own. So I kept doing it with other old poems and two short stories. They're all things that were written ten or more years ago that would otherwise be languishing unseen on my hard drive.

When I gave away the color NOOK on my review blog, the publicist suggested I try out NOOK's self-publishing platform, PubIt. I hadn't done it before because I want to say you had to have a publisher initially, though I could be wrong. Over the past month, I've been stealth uploading the exact same micro-collections for the NOOK to PubIt.

So, anyway, three  years ago I wrote:

It's hard to find a platform for the short form, whether it be short stories or poetry, but sometimes, short form totally rocks. I would love to see my fellow bloggers' short stories and poetry. It's always interesting to watch someone's voice develop. Finally, I think Kindle has yet to hit its stride -- but it will. And when it does, I'll be there.

Ereaders are indeed hitting their stride, and it's so interesting to be in the middle of it. While I don't think anyone will start making play lists of Finnegan's Wake, I could see people utilizing ereaders a lot for short form fiction, poetry, individual articles, what have you. Micropayments rock -- it's a great way to sample a writer's work. And for the writer -- the barrier to entry is ridiculously low. And now that Droid and iPhone have apps for Kindle and NOOK and you can read them on your computer, you don't actually even have to have an ereader to get ebooks. BRAVE NEW WORLD.

I haven't made a mint from Kindle, but I've received a few royalty payments already. Considering how little I make from each book, it's cool. The coolest part, though, is getting words out into the world that would've otherwise just sat in darkness.

If you're interested in my micro-collections and short stories or want to get Sleep Is for the Weak that way, check my left sidebar or the Books and Kindle tab. (Which needs to be changed but I don't know how to change it, so there).

BRAVE NEW WORLD.

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Speaking of books -- I just gave away a copy of Let's Panic About Babies on Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews!

When I was in college and my friends and I went out to eat (which was more often than not), one of us would inevitably use the restroom and return to a rapidly cooling sandwich or a nearly-gone pizza. It's one of those inevitable laws of life -- things happen when you have no ability to deal with the ramifications.

For instance, if you really want to finally finish scraping wallpaper off your kitchen, wait until your company is launching a huge redesign! And while you're at it, maybe five literary agents will ask to see your whole manuscript almost an entire year after you started sending it out.

I'm scared and hopeful and scared about how this week will end.

Just before the holidays, Babble published their Top 50 Mommybloggers of 2010 list. I  perused it, saw some of my favorite bloggers and wondered briefly what the criteria were for inclusion. I finally decided it was an editor's pick sort of list and went back to packing for the holidays.

I saw a few tweets about it over the weekend, but this morning, Twitter was afire with bloggers on the list upset that a popular vote had been added. 

Voting. Ugh. 

Yes. Yes!

That is what voting does to us. It makes people (except those with lots of friends) feel like shit.

It sure made for a good conversation.

I've been upset for years that blogging seems to reward with traffic a) those who campaign for it or b) those who throw other people under the bus. I'd like to see a list rewarding good writing, as that is what blogging is: Writing.

Which is more authentic? Babble's original list or the new popular vote? Or neither? It's hard to say. The popular vote doesn't jibe with the Babble editors picks, as of 11:15 this morning. Why did Babble open it up?

The commenters on the list post were unhappy about the already-popular nature of the list:

 

They were also unhappy about the lack of diversity on the list:

But opening up the list to the popular vote may have been the straw that broke the already-so-done-with-popular-vote mommyblogging community's back.

Babble, you may have blown it this time.

What do you guys think? I'm waiting for Mom101's list instead.

This post is inspired by Maria Niles' post on BlogHer.

1) I meant to be more present. I try, really I do, to always be listening when someone is talking to me. Sometimes, though, something I read or see or want to write about squirrels its way into my head, and no matter how I bat it down it pops up again like a rubber duck. It particularly bothers me when I find myself doing this with friends or family. They've pointed it out, this bad habit of mine, and I'm ashamed of it. So even though I meant to do it in 2009, I'm going to try harder in 2010.

2) I meant to find an agent for my children's book, Bella Eats the Monsters. I wrote it, then Bella died, and after hearing back from a few agents that it wasn't quite there, that monsters were overdone, that it was "cute," I just gave up on it and started my novel. I'm happy with that decision. There is only so much time to write, and I feel more connected to the novel than I did to the children's book. So I'm stowing it for future reference, and perhaps I'll get it published by the time I'm pressuring the little angel to make me a grandmother.

3) I meant to call my parents more often. I have done a better job in the past few weeks, but there were weeks that I went by without talking to my parents. Normally we talk quite a bit, but somehow when things got really bad and busy at work and life just felt so overwhelming, calling home was forgotten. It didn't help that for a year we took long-distance off our home phone, so I had to find and unlock my cell to call home. I'm much more likely to talk for any length of time on a larger phone. Now we have long-distance back, and lo! I dial.

4) I meant to take more photos. We have a digital camera, and there's really no excuse. I wish I'd taken more video, too. I have all the tools. I just forget. Then a whole year has gone by and my daughter looks so different and I worry I'll forget what she looked like making cookies in her little apron. And then I want to cry.

5) I meant to read more. I read quite a few books in 2009, but they were almost all review books. I'm severely curtailing the books I will review in the future. Some of those review books were awesome, but some took away from great fiction. I won't let that happen again. It's easy to let that happen.

Lest I depress myself with this post, here are some things I'm proud that I did in 2009.

• I got a new job with a fabulous media company doing something I love.
• I weathered the death of Bella and brought Petunia Cookie Dough into our lives.
• I had a lot of dates with my hot husband, and we talked about all sorts of things that don't involve housework, children or scheduling.
• I wrote the rough draft of a novel.
• I threw a shower for my very pregnant best friend.
• I went to Disney World on my birthday with my family.
• I attended my first ASJA conference.
• I spoke at BlogHer and Chicks Who Click.
• I published articles at Super Eco and Babble and in Scholastic Parent and Child.
• I started getting together regularly with some writer types to talk shop and drink wine.
• I listened to War and Peace. I liked it.
• I helped Beloved's parents move to a more accommodating location.
• I helped Beloved remodel two closets and a garage in the Transformation of Chateau Travolta (which seems to drag on and on).
• I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

Last night I got all wound over Lynn Harris' article on Salon, which I'm covering on BlogHer on Monday. I started the post fifteen different ways, and no matter how I proceeded, I found myself on my high horse and riding. Standing on my soapbox and preaching, like the homeless guy who spouted whoremongers and hellfire on the Pentacrest at the University of Iowa in the mid-nineties.

It's something I sometimes do. I preach. I can't stand to see people treat each other with such disrespect. This isn't satire, this isn't comedy -- those comments are just MEAN.

I'll be offline for a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. Please check out my piece on BlogHer on Monday, and enjoy your holiday. Go forth and let thee not be an ass.

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Read a review of Cat Ladies on Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews!

Now that it's November, people might think I'm doing NaNoWriMo, butI'm not. I've been working on this novel since June, and there is noway it's going to get done by the end of November. Ha ha ha ha ha.Ahem. Ha.

But I did turn a corner last Friday. I ended the second third androunded the corner in my head into the last full section of the book.I'm at 46,000 words now and still aiming for 75,000 before I startcutting. The novel is definitely feeling young adult at this point, andI think YA word count is supposed to be between 55,000 and 70,000words. 

About halfway through the second third of the book, I finally saw how it was all going to fit together. There are still certain details that are lost on me, and there's one character I haven't figured out how to fully utilize (does every main character have to be important?) or I should probably cut her out. Right now she's just sort of there but doesn't play a big part in my heroine's life. I think I need to go read some more novels to figure out the answer to that question -- reading always answers most of my questions about writing. How did someone else pull it off?

I sat down with my notebook two weeks ago and laid out the last half of the book. Each chapter got two or three scenes I wanted to work in. What happens between those scenes usually occurs to me when I sit down to write. I try to write at least one chapter -- at least ten pages -- each time I sit down. The chapters may or may not stay at that length -- it's just a way for me to mark progress, like mile markers on an endless highway. Without those mile markers, the trip just seems unbearable.

I get very overwhelmed at the thought of writing something I can't finish in one sitting. Even when I'm tasked with writing long articles, I do the research in several sittings but then when I sit down, I spit out the entire rough draft in one go. This novel thing is different. It's too long, and even if I had the stamina and time to do it in one sitting, I wouldn't know what was going to happen. The plot has occurred to me in the car and in the shower over months. 

Last Thursday night, Beloved and I were talking and I told him I had no idea what I was going to write about in the chapter I had to do the following day. I knew the scenes, but I didn't know what was going to happen in them or how I was going to get from point A to point B. He said, "Just let it come to you," and I knew he was right, but I was panicky. Usually I can sort of see it before I sit down. But then, last Friday I totally got it and wrote 27 pages in one sitting. I think the subconscious will bring a lot to fiction if you plant the seed of the scene and then let it rattle around a little.

Once I wrote out the chapters and scenes for the rest of the book, the writing got a lot easier. Many people believe in outlining an entire novel before they sit down to write, and many people just give it a go. I'm sort of in between, but I am finding having the scenes decided makes it easier to sit down. Then I have the room -- I just have to decide which characters walk into it and what they do while they're there. 

I am anxious to get the rough draft out. That's always the part that worries me the most. If you're going to lose the scent, it's in the rough draft. Rewriting is easier for me than writing. I'm not a person who gets trapped in rewrites, going over and over the same passage. I believe in making each sentence the best it can be, but I don't like working the same project over and over. I read once that Tom Robbins rewrites his novels something like 30 times before they are published. But he doesn't use an outline. He's going at it in a completely different way than I do. I like to make passes, he likes to get it right before he moves on. I have no idea how he can do that -- not know what's going to happen next, but be at that level of detail with each sentence -- but clearly it works for him, and I can only hope to learn how to make this novel-writing process work for me. It has never worked for me before.

While I understand the language of a YA novel should be accessible, I want this novel to be well written. I don't believe in purely plot-driven novels with sloppy sentences (ahem, Twilight). Lemony Snicket wrote some really tight middle-grade novels, and they are clearly accessible to young readers. They even define the hard words right in the text. So I know it can be done. 

The book thing scares me. I had a dream the other night my publisher called me and said every book in the history of the universe written right before and right after mine had sold well, but mine was horrible. And WHY? WHY WAS MINE HORRIBLE? WHY DIDN'T PEOPLE LIKE MINE? I sat there trying to explain but realized I couldn't. 

After much consideration, I think the point of the dream is I'm writing this novel for me. It's a story I want to tell. I really, really want it to get published and be out in the world, but like Beloved always says, I can't focus too much on whether or not it will be popular, because to focus on that is abandon why I write in the first place. Yes, I believe in supporting books with author marketing efforts. Yes, I believe in finding a publisher with a solid distribution model. Yes, I definitely believe in the power of good publicity. Ultimately, though, like bloggers who start blogs to make money, authors who write books only to sell copies will not last very long, for the same reason -- nobody will want to read them.

Today I spent some time at Johnson County Community College talking to ninth graders from the Olathe school district about being a writer.

One of the first kids who came up to me asked me if spelling was important. I considered it for a while, then said YES, BY GOD, IT IS. Then he asked if I write things out longhand, and I said, "No," then heard myself uttering, "Although I did when I was your age. We didn't really use computers then."

This kid looked at me as though I were fossilizing before his very eyes.

A series of flat-ironed blond girls streamed past. "What's the demand for your field?" one asked, popping her gum.

"Well," I said, "By the time you're out of college, I think we'll have that all figured out. Right now, it's pretty bad, actually." I paused. "But writing will never be outsourced to another country. Think about that. And corporations aren't really as evil as you'd think." Gah gah gah gah gah

At this point, I looked at the arborist sitting next to me with a giant chainsaw and asked for some of his Purell. All I could hear was the blood pounding in my ears.

DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE. DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE.

As I waited for more kids to approach, I heard one large boy ask the arborist, "Why would you need a chainsaw that big?"

An alert-looking girl ambled over. She skipped the questions on the preprepared form and went straight for the blogging. "How do you build your following?" she asked. "How long did it take to get one?"

I thought back to 2004, when I had a good day with 30 hits. "It took a long time," I said.

"I have a huge following on DNL," she said. I think that's what she said. I have no idea what DNL is. It must be something the kids are doing these days.

"I push a lot from Twitter," I replied. One of the other girls flipped her hair.

"I don't know how to make Twitter work," said the other girl.

You and most of America.

A teenaged boy came up. "I'm sorry," he said, before he'd said anything. Then he looked nervously at my sign, which said "writer."

"I like to write," he said, "but I don't think I'm very good at it."

"You know what? Nobody's very good at it in ninth grade. If you like it, you're probably better at it than you think. Keep going."

I got into a conversation about Ray Bradbury with an earnest-looking wanna-be reporter. Most of the kids looked through me at the window beyond.

The organizer kept getting on the loudspeaker.

THERE'S NO WAITING AT GARMIN!

The crowd began to rustle.

THERE'S NO WAITING AT THE EDUCATION BOOTH!

No shit. They're in ninth grade. Educators are still "other."

I sat back and listened to my thoughts:

• I had those same elf boots when I was in ninth grade.
• These girls are so lucky they won't regret their high school hair later in life, unlike us unlucky schmucks who came of age in the eighties.
• DON'T TOUCH FACE! DON'T TOUCH FACE!
• Why is your field not in demand? Why don't more people pay you to write?
• Their feet look so BIG.
• Why are these girls so good at liquid eyeliner? Could I learn?

Another girl approached my table. "So, um, how many things have you written?" she asked, looking bored. She scanned my portfolio, flipping the tear sheets and the Sleep Is for the Weak coverage.

My computer hard drive flashed before my eyes -- thousands of individual pieces. How many posts are in this blog? 1,296. I just checked.

How can I tell her the volume of words it takes to get better?

It's overwhelming how much work it takes to get good at something. What should I say?

So I said nothing. I smiled and signed her Career Fair form.

"Hey," I called as she walked away. "Go to school for what you want. There are a lot of great-paying jobs that'll kill your soul."

She smiled, flipped her hair. "Thanks," she said.

And then I flipped back through my portfolio, remembering every single piece.

I've woefully failed to mention for far too long that I have a new blogging gig!  I'm the Kansas City editor for Savvy Source, and my job is to write some ditties about stuff to do with your wee one in Kansas City.

One of the perks of this gig is that I get to involve guest bloggers.  So if you're in the KC metro area (would also consider Lawrence as part of that area) and have something you'd like to talk about, hop over and check out the format, then e-mail me at ritabiermann(at)hotmail(dot)com.

I'll be posting daily on weekdays, so check back often!  Or, if you just want to see if I can write without cursing, that's fun, too.