Okay, so this post really only applies to a small segment of my audience– those of you who live in Sacramento and/or are interested in Sacramento real estate. In my past life, I was an economic analyst who covered Sacramento real estate from the Bay Area, so I know those two qualifiers do not have to be mutually inclusive.
Enough rambling, I’ll get to the point. This post is a shameless plug for my husband’s new Sacramento real estate blog. He’s an agent for RE/MAX Gold and a darn good one at that. He’s now also dabbling in the art of real estate blogging, which is an art, because I had to wade through all kinds of this stuff back in that last lifetime (a few years ago). Some was useful, some was not. I’m happy to report Alex’s blog gets straight to the point, and I like that. I’m clearly not as disciplined…
So, if you’re interested, click and follow away– happy house hunting or market following, whichever it may be!
Like how I managed to sneak a pic of the dog into this post?
Okay, I must admit, I felt a little like a child waiting for 9:01 to roll around this evening. I was determined to make sure my Amazon Breakthrough Novel submission was counted as one of the first 10,000. No idea how long it takes for that number to be hit, but I have to say it took an awful long time for my browser to load Create Space… As I waited, I felt like one of those kids hoping for a tour of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
The good news, my submission is now complete! After a weekend of pretty much non-stop editing, I think I have earned a complete week off Expecting Happiness. Zero novel work will be done, which actually feels like a treat, (odd, I know, since I like writing, but the editing part isn’t my favorite).
What do I plan to do with all this time off, you ask? Sleep, yoga, weekend getaway with my mom. Read someone else’s book, perhaps? I feel like I’m on vacation even though I have to wake up for work tomorrow morning…
And, to top it all off, I have this lovely song stuck in my head. Fun for five minutes, annoying every second after. Wishing you good luck if you’re searching for that same golden ticket!
Finishing our home office has been a three year process. Much of my writing used to take place with my laptop on the couch because it was a more pleasant place to sit. However, with some minor design changes and some new wall art, we now type at our own desks, back to back. Best of all, the division of space means the living room is no longer a computing zone, restoring a bit of balance to our household.
And, this huge picture of Paris reminded me that even if you don’t like your view out the window, you can always buy one that does the trick. Not a bad place to stare as I fix my chapters that take place in Paris…
Do you have an inviting space set aside for just writing?
It’s tradition around here to welcome new blogs with open arms. Tonight I want to share the blog of someone I hold near and dear to my heart, my uncle, Patrick O’Bryon.
Uncle Pat, as I know him, is a writer too. He recently finished his first novel, Corridor of Darkness, a book inspired by his father’s, (my grandfather’s), adventures in Nazi Germany. He is also an avid traveler and plans to post stories of his own adventures, as well as trip ideas for your next escape to Europe.
If you like my blog, (which I hope you do if you’re reading this post), I bet you’ll like his too. Show him a little love and go check it out!
This morning I awoke earlier than usual to my dog convulsing at the edge of my bed. Worried he might vomit, I shooed him straight out the door to the backyard. Then I realized he could hardly walk. He was shaking. He could not breathe. I scooped him in my arms and wrapped him in a blanket. I held him on the couch until his breath steadied and his body was still.
I was afraid he was going to die. I breathed and whispered sweet words to him. I reminded myself of my childhood dog and her seizures. I convinced myself it was those stupid flea pills. He let me hold him for an eternity, then shook it off, ate breakfast, and went back to sleep.
The last couple days I have been lost in my mind. Yesterday, I wrote almost the entire day. I finished part of an essay to prove to the state of California that I deserve a clear teaching credential, (as if my survival through a grueling residency program and my first year on my own were not enough). I poured two or more hours back into my pitch, sculpting word by word.
When I write, I often disappear from everything else. I get sucked so deep into my mind that the day disappears into darkness. Sometimes I forget to eat. Last night I forced myself to take a break to do yoga. Pandora playing in the background, I wrote down the name of this song. This morning, after Simon was tucked back into my spot in bed, I sat and listened. Then I cried. I get so lost in my mind. I’m grateful to be awake.
I’m down 4,000 words and not even half way through my revision. My inclination is to say yikes. Instead, I’m trying to embrace it. Words cut for the greater good of the book. Maybe I’ll put better ones back in…
I think that’s this month’s theme, embrace.
So many things in life we want to avoid or change, when really we need to embrace the lesson in each uncomfortable experience before we can move on. Isn’t that what they say in yoga all the time? Embrace instead of struggle?
With that logic, I need to embrace cutting words. I need to embrace teaching as a wonderful challenge. I need to embrace the limited time in a day and what this means for balance…
Seems simple enough, right?
At least it’s a one word reminder, embrace. And, it makes me think of hugs, which are nice too. Hug everything in life that’s challenging. I like that.
Wow, New Year’s Day must be the busiest blog day of the year. Seriously, so many resolutions (and anti-resolutions) in my feed!
Instead of traditional resolutions, I like to envision what each new year will look like. As I wrote last year, it’s pretty amazing to look back and see what I managed to create. Just a few years back, I hoped to leave my world of economic analysis to teach and write, which reminds me of the power we hold in creating the life we want, (even when the outcomes take a little patience and a lot of hard work).
Here are a few highlights for my 2013 envisioned– instead of looking for things to change, I ask myself what I want this year to look like:
Health: Keep on keeping on… The last few months have transformed my perception of our power to heal. Yoga, meditation, body work, nutrition, herbs are all part of the 2013 I see for myself. In fact, health might be one of my most exciting paths ahead.
Wealth: While writing may not pay me any money yet, it is part of my long-term goal for supplementary income. I envision 2013 as the year I share my first book with the world so I can move on to something new. If I do not put it out there, I will just keep working on it (forever). So, here it goes– I will be brave enough to share my book, even if it means self-publishing later in the year. Regardless of whether it yields $5 or $500, it’s a step in the right direction, (and I know at least my husband and my family will buy it, so we’re talking an easy $5 right there!).
Happiness: Only recently have I started to reach a balance between work and life that feels sustainable. I see 2013 as a continuation of this, with less time spent typing away in the evening after work and more time feeling calm. I tried to do it all. Then something happened around October and I stopped and everything felt better, (even if a little part of me felt less productive). Teaching, writing, and life need their own space.
Of course, there are plenty of other things I see for this year– but you get the summary instead of the nitty gritty.
Now it’s your turn. Have you stopped to ask yourself what you want 2013 to look like? And, no, I don’t mean resolutions, I mean really mapping out a vision of the year ahead. Where will you live, travel, work? How will you spend your time? I have notebooks full of these visions, and, more often than not, they come to be.
Must post something about 2013. You know, resolutions or something.
To be fair, I DO love resolutions. One of my life goals is to spend every New Year’s Day at the ocean, reflecting. I decided awhile back that it’s a much better way to spend the new year than hung over on the couch.
Not sure I’ll make the ocean part happen this year, we’ll see.
But, before I can look forward, I have to look back.
2012.
Struggle and happiness, chaos and peace. Immense gratitude. I learned, a lot. I wrote, a lot. So much stuffed into 12 months. Do I have it all figured out? Not hardly. But, I feel better balanced than ever before. Happy, even. In the spirit of Thankfulness Thursdays, I leave you with my 2012 Gratitude List (and pictures dug out of this year’s blog).
Work:
I feel so fortunate to have a teaching job as a new-ish teacher in our current economy. This year was hard, but I became a better teacher one day at a time, and each day I feel a step closer to making this my lifelong work, instead of something I lovingly survive for the time being. So much gratitude.
2012’s valentines to my students, proof my heart is in the right place!
And, can’t complain about my night job. It may not pay the bills (yet) but writing makes me happy.
Reading:
I was definitely an ADHD reader this year. Still have ten or so titles half finished on my dresser… The book I was most grateful to finish, hands down, Dear Sugar.
Cheryl Strayed speaks to every human emotion in this book. So real, so touching. She writes with an unabashed openness I strive to emulate…
Music:
I’m thankful for the Lumineers’ soulful lyrics set to summer in the backyard with family, our car cruising down the coast, a sea of people at Golden Gate Park…
Places:
So much gratitude to live on such a beautiful planet and to have the means to see it even in a year that did not always feel easy.
San Francisco at sunrise
Magical Kauai
Oregon Coast sunset
Mom’s Mt. Shasta
People:
More than anything else, I am grateful for the people in my life, friends, family, near and far… Oh yeah, and my dog too, he counts, right?
No greater gratitude than for the people in my life.
Health:
And, not to be forgotten, this was the year I discovered my own power in healing. So thankful.
Yoga, meditation… healing.
Other bloggers:
Even though I started blogging in 2011, my move to WordPress cemented my commitment to putting my words out there and becoming part of a greater community. I am truly grateful for all the connections I have made this year– words of wisdom from every corner of the globe, thank YOU!
So, your turn, what tops your 2012 Gratitude List?
Here is my revised pitch as it currently stands, (the old one can be viewed under the Expecting Happiness tab):
As Jake sits on the bathroom floor and holds his crying wife, he knows something needs to change. Stable jobs and a house are not enough. A child seemed like the answer, but Kristen lost the baby and now she locks herself in the bathroom to be alone.
Emboldened by their loss, they say, “Fuck it all.” They quit their jobs, sell their house, and embark on separate journeys. Separate because they want different things–
Kristen wants to face the world without Jake around to hold her up. She departs for Europe looking for independence but inches her way closer to an old friend living in Paris. His name is Gustavo and he makes her blush.
Jake, on the other hand, wants to find a place to start over, somewhere he can convince Kristen to begin a family. Of course, he also craves a little adventure. He sets off on a cross-country road trip but instead finds himself on another continent, a part of someone else’s family.
Even with new faces and changing scenery, life is not complete. Torn between the allure of the unknown and their unrelenting longing for one another, Kristen and Jake must ultimately choose which life holds the secret to greater happiness.
***
So, there you have it, months and months of painstaking tweaks… And still not quite right!
Here are a few questions I have grappled with:
Do I need to include physical descriptions of the characters and/or their ages? (Leaning toward no after my last post…)
Does my ending work?
How can I make this stronger?
If you have any thoughts, I would love to hear them. As long as feedback is offered constructively, I am very open. My goal, after all, is to make my pitch better and I know it’s not quite there yet. If you feel more comfortable offering input privately, feel free to email me at olivia@oliviaobryon.com. And, if you write, post your pitch and I’ll be happy to return the favor! (Cough, cough:: Kozo it’s your turn!)
Okay, so I got a bit distracted this morning as I rewrote my pitch. See, I could not decide whether or not to leave in my physical descriptions of my characters. The Book Doctors suggest brief physical descriptions, but for some reason it still feels a little clumsy to me, (new pitch to follow soon).
This got me thinking about what my characters actually look like to me in my mind’s eye. Visualization is not my strength. I see fuzzy versions of my characters, not concrete people, which is not to say I don’t know my characters, but rather nailing down an exact picture in my mind is just not the way I think. I need to see the faces of real people.
So, I decided I need to cast my characters– a useful exercise that happens to also be fun:
Kristen: I imagined her with dark hair, blue eyes, someone who would fit the inspiration of the song “Galway Girl.”
Today I realized she would probably look like Olivia Wilde, which I assure you has nothing to do with her great first name. She’s classically beautiful but can also pull off a punk rock, peace activist college kid, which is important to Kristen.
Jake: He was a bit harder for me to cast. Does Paul Rudd have a younger brother with brown eyes? I imagined a guy that is attractive in a charming smile kind of way, maybe a bit goofy. In my book I describe him as lanky because I see him as athletic and charismatic, but in a real way. Today’s winner: Okay, Paul Rudd wins even if he might be a little older than Jake and maybe not into playing a role that is not purely comical… Guess I’m on the look-out for a younger Paul Rudd willing to mix drama with humor.
Decisions, decisions… Of course there are half a dozen other characters to be cast, but I’m pretty sure it would take me two hours to pick them all, which seems like a case of diminishing returns. Focusing on my two main characters, however, worthwhile.
Have you cast your protagonists?
And, on a side note, do you provide physical descriptions of your main characters in your pitch? I’m conflicted, as usual.
I made a mistake today at work. I hate making mistakes. It was one of those memorable mistakes that I’ll carry with me until it is fully resolved. I wish I could explain more, but this is not the right forum. In simple terms, I put too much trust in a child who could not handle it.
At my last job, I made a big mistake early on. I prepared a presentation for my boss to deliver to the heads of a major bank but left out 90 or so of the 100+ slides. It was an error in communication. I misunderstood. As I sat by his side in a San Francisco high-rise, I had my first “oh, shit” moment at work. Thankfully, he did not fire me and everyone laughed. I got off easy.
It’s funny. I’m working to reframe how students see mistakes in my classroom. Maybe I should take my own advice. Instead of being embarrassed, I invite students to celebrate their mistakes and explain what they learned from them. Everyone grows in listening to each other. Students that participate are put on our Shout-Out Board for the week, under the heading, “Our most awesome mistakes we learned from!” They love it.
We kicked off this shift with a presentation about growth vs. fixed mindsets, emphasizing that intelligence is not fixed but earned through hard work. Sure some people have to work harder to get to the same place, but everyone is capable– a very powerful message that ties back to the whole idea that we need to praise kids for hard work instead of intelligence, (<– one of my favorite articles on parenting/teaching of all time).
Some companies are taking a similar approach by celebrating employees’ mistakes at work. Apparently, some pretty darn intelligent people believe that celebrating mistakes fuels innovation, risk-taking, and minimizes the repetition of company-wide mistakes made in the future. For all my business-minded readers out there, I recommend clicking that link.
So, tonight, instead of beating myself up, I wrote this post to celebrate the fact that I am human, I take risks and I make mistakes. The more I think about it, the more I also see that many of the risks I take at school pay off. Without my creative approaches to behavior management, I would not survive my job. While it sucks that I failed this time, I will make better mistakes tomorrow. Mission accomplished, mistake celebrated.
“I will make better mistakes tomorrow.” Credit Pinterest. Side note: I’m a big fan of this tattoo placement… Just saying 😉
It’s that time of year. It’s hard to get out of bed. 6AM in chilly darkness is torture. I’m tired and grumpy, the first one awake. The dog moves seamlessly into my spot as soon as my feet hit the carpet. I’ve never been so jealous of a ball of fur.
This week I realized I need to reframe how I see the world in the morning. My plan of attack, three words taped to my mirror.
I may not win any decorating awards with this choice, but I’m hoping it will remind me to begin my day with a little positive reflection. Heck, I have notes everywhere else– the kitchen, my computer, my desk, my lunch bag… About time I put a note the first place I look each morning.
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