Candy and I visit a 500 year old tree in the town where she and her boyfriend are waiting out the winter so they can hit the road again come March

Laura who? Um...yeah, about that. Happens to everybody. A break in "the MO." It's like working out. Whenever I travel, I usually break my routine and sometimes it takes weeks to recover. That's sorta what happened to my posts. And what's funny is I wonder if anything that I write is every really missed. I'm sure in a world of hundreds of years of novels to catch up on and infinite Internet reading this lil' ol' blog isn't a big deal in the scheme of things. But, well, I miss it. And I miss you.



Catching up: The long and winding road from Cali to Florida

Got to make a few dreams come true over the past few weeks. Flew to New York and met with my editor. Talked story and had lunch in cafes and wrote and wrote and wrote. Best part? I think I have a great idea for an ending. Well, at least the last scene. Makes me happy. And I had a great time visitng with my sis and her family and my parents and my daughter and her boyfriend in Florida:)



Mom and Dad and Me enjoying a walk at their beautiful new home



Me and my sis



Candy's new pad

I was talking with my bro this AM about how a holiday can take every emotion we feel and blow them up to epic proportions. Case in point? Yesterday. Finding out I needed a crown. Sitting in the dentist's chair with all my shopping to do and baking to do. Admittedly most of the baking is self-inflicted this year as a random chain of events/life changes leave Joe and I alone this Thanksgiving. We are going to our neighbor's for turkey and a bonfire this year. I might get to see a friend on her way through Big Sur with her family. She's Welsh and they are admittedly Thanksgiving challenged:) Anyway, I arrive home late last night to find that the garlic didn't make it home. I live one hour and 20 minutes from a grocery store. And, I had the world's best chicken soup to make because, well, I needed it. NO GARLIC was the last straw.

It's kinda funny. What's your last straw? You got plenty left? Well back to the cooking and the 20K left on my nano novel. I do hope the soup turns out ok. It's kind of funny how every time I decide to cook like a mad woman the weather heats up. It's hot, hot, hot here....

WE MISS YOU MX!!! Hope they have good pumpkin pie in Italy:)

Hope this Thanksgiving finds you surrounded by those that you love! [and lots of straws left :) ]

Mx flew to Belgium to see Adeline for her birthday. Adeline lived with us while she went to school in CA for her Senior year. Mx had a wonderful time meeting Adeline's family and seeing Liege and the town where Adeline grew up. She raved about Adeline's birthday cake, made by her dad Françis, and home-made french fries and meatballs that Adeline's mom, Joëlle, made [they put mayo on their french fries]! YUM. Adeline is a social worker at a mental hospital now and has her own apartment in Liege. So proud of her. Fun to see the pics of everyone together.

several things are happening all around the world that are wonderful.

My youngest daughter is going to see our host daughter in Belgium this weekend. She'll get to see Adeline's hometown and meet her family after she was able to be part of ours way back when in 2004. Sure makes the world seem small when you can swing by and say hi to your host-sis while so far away from home. Happy Birthday Adeline!

My older daughter is settled in Florida for the winter months and then plans on continuing her journey across America. In very short order she's found a place to live and a job. We are so proud of her and her adventurous spirit.

It's all about making dreams come true. So happy my girls are living theirs. Inspires me to live mine too. Had to post something happy because of such sadness in the news.

Give me a moonrise over a mountain and I am home.

Well, I've got one mms. I'm polishing and one I've just begun. Of course the shiny new mms. calls because it's so, well, new and shiny. Not seeing the warts just seeing the possibility. Some people work on one manuscript at a time. I don't really follow any rules with when I begin something new and when I think a project is ready to go. I just write what seems to work best for me at the time. And right here, right now, it feels good to be in two places at once. The editorial puzzle-solving world of polishing the novel I hope to start querying come February AND the world of reckless abandon, of new worlds just coming together, new characters I've just met. All this even as it looks like we might be moving again, soon. So in-flux is a good thing for me. I guess when I get too comfortable, I don't feel I have as much to say, don't feel the urgency to get the words on the page.

Speaking of getting words on the page, this has been such a help for me and I wanted to share this article with anyone looking to nail plot once and for all: Pinch Points and Turning Points, Oh My!

I'm looking forward to so many things. The Big Sur Food & Wine Festival starts tomorrow. Spending some good times with good friends over the weekend. Then, on Tuesday, I'm off to New York to see my editor to discuss the state of my WIP. Really looking forward to spending three solid days on this particular story and work on ways I can deepen it. Then it's off to Florida to see my family. Always fun to get together and revel in old memories while we create new ones. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that my characters do a great deal of traveling.

I took the time to plan a "me" night while I'm in New York. I know that sounds uppity, but there it is. I can't wait. Finalized all the plans today. I'm going out on my own more than I ever have now that the kids are grown and off living their own lives. And, it takes a little getting used to, definitely not like the days when our family was young, but, yannow, it's a lot of fun too.

This is why I LOVE Halloween. More incriminating photos here.

The morning of Halloween we got up and went to breakfast discussing the best way to apply our fangs and when said fangs would need to be applied and, oh yeah, would we be able to eat and drink with fangs. That's the start of a great day. And it was a day that ended up in the wee-wee hours of the next morning. And it's the surprises we remember. Totally shocking Halloween and a totally fun one. Best costumes this year? There was a Twister board, SO cute. And there was a guy decked out in S & M wear that we were like...OK, that guy has a lot of confidence. Best part was all the dancing. Icing foot today with mystery pain in toe. But doing it with a BIG smile. Catching up with old friends LA Style, which means when you leave the party the party starts and when you randomly walk down the street to take a photo of a house that is so over the top you have to photograph it, the owners offer you a glass of Dom and chat. Hahahahaha. [What recession] Biggest surprise for us was that we intended to go as a couple of Hippie Vampires, but after we got all dressed up Joe looked like Ozzy and he was the life and undead hit of the party having folks snap shots of him all night.

I really meant to post more last week. I have a whole slew of spooky Hawaiian stories, oh well. Maybe next year.

Why am I doing a happy dance today? [even as we are still recovering from the weekend?] I sent a story out to an editor I met and heard at LA Writer's Day in 2008 and she just sent me a reply. Why, after 18 months am I happy about it? She wrote me, hand-wrote me a wonderful note with a few ideas and it just made my day. Woohooo! Nice to get a little encouragement along the way:)

Here's a few of my fave urban dictionary words this week: Mantrum, jfgi, and costume malfunction.

Here's to another wonderful year of NaNo. I'm totally behind. But, that's all part of the fun...Leaving for NYC and Florida in a week, what to wear, what to wear...

Doug, our tour guide, shows up pics of this very spot in the year 1910. A little girl plays on a pile of wood delivered to the lighthouse.

Loved the Point Sur Lighthouse Halloween tour. And, because the stories were so good there, I had to share one with you.



[This is paraphrased from a tale told by the actor who portrayed a Head Keeper of the lighthouse, who told us many a spooky tale last Sunday night.]

"Go back"

The Point Sur Light Station sits upon a volcanic rock about 700 feet high. It's only been in the last forty years that the ocean didn't completely encircle it during high tides and strong storms. In order to create a space for the buildings that would house the four keepers and their families, the top of the rock was blasted with dynamite to carve a narrow, even sliver of land. In 1889 a Head Keeper and three assistants and their families staffed the lighthouse and fog signal 24 hours a day and lived an isolated life. The coast lands below are still used for cattle grazing as it has been for centuries, since it belonged to Spain. Nothing much has changed. The lighthouse's last keeper left in 1974.

The kids of the light station often played on the tramway cars. The tramway had been constructed to hoist supplies brought by land, most often by sea, up the cliff to the residences, lighthouse and blacksmith shop. Three-hundred-and-sixty-four stairs were also available for the trip. One day, a little girl hopped in one of the cars to ride it down. But, the car wasn't secured as it should have been. The little girl went flying down the cliff. She survived the fall but had been tossed into the sea. As a result of the exposure to the icy Pacific the little girl came down with pneumonia and died in her bedroom on the top floor of the Tri-level house, still standing on the property today. Sailors tell tales of the little girl standing on the rocks during storms with a warning, in a small clear voice, "Go back," she says, "Go back." Those that heed the little girl's cry make safe harbor. Those that don't never see their loved ones again for the seas swallow them whole.

Interested in what ghost hunters found at The Point Sur Lightstation? Go to Ghost Explorers.

We met a few ghosts who were partied out...



Now, you tell me if I didn't capture a few ghosts on film?





All spooky lighthouse photos here.

This Halloween week starts off with a Halloween Ghost tour of The Point Sur Lighthouse, on the list of The Top Ten Haunted Lighthouses in America. Gulp. Joe and I take the tour tonight at 5. Hopefully this won't be my last post....*mwwwwwahhhhhhh*

The week finishes off at a friend's Halloween party down in LA. Working on my costume now. Have NO idea what I'm doing but will hopefully come up with something fun and fab.

During the week I'll post some ghost stories I heard while in Hawaii.

The scary parts of this week for me? Getting my mms. off to my editor by Thursday's DEADline. And then cobbling together a NaNo novel from the CRYPTic title dancing in my head.

Shout out to my girls! Candy, traveling with her boyfriend, in FL visiting my sis's family and my parents this weekend, kayaking and enjoying the beaches, will be celebrating Halloween in the Tampa area. Mx in Florence, fresh from Mid-terms, will be traveling to Ireland for Samhain fun in Dublin.

Just back from Maui a little over a week and I think I'm settling back into reality OK, well, as well as a writer of fantasy and magical realism can ever truly settle into reality.

Yannow? Vacations are a lot like novels. Yeah, it's great to get away, but it's the surprises you remember.

Here's to the surprises!





















All Hawaii photos here.

A small surprise for me was that Mark Twain sailed to "The Sandwich Islands" to report on life there in the 1860s before he had published his first novel. That guy really got around. Read his essays while in Hawaii. Truly fascinating. Another surprise? My wonderful writing buddy Patty and her hubby were on Maui while we were. But, I was unplugged and didn't get the Facebook message.

It is 9:28 PM Hawaiian time and it is 9:28 AM Italian time. In about an hour and a half Mx will be going to the doctor to get her stitches out [we think]. Before Joe and I left for Maui, Mx and I did the math. Joe's like "Does the 12 hour difference mean we are on the other side of the world as Mx?" Well, yeah, I guess it does.

So, my dear Mx, here are a few things to cheer you up on "stitches out" day:

Dad and I are loving Paia. We are in a place called Sugar Cove, and our friend's beautiful home is right on the ocean.



We have a lovely little beach just outside our door and we have an amazing view of the wind surfers who love it here.



Here's a pic of my lei:



We had papaya for breakfast this morning and went for a beach walk. This afternoon we went for a hike in a bamboo forest. Very cool.













Afterwards we came back here and went body surfing and headed to a great little yoga place and had a class that kicked our butts. Felt amazing. Along the way we met lots of nice folks. Jim was out this morning with his dog. Runs a place in Paia called Charleys billed as good food with bad service. hahaha. Haven't checked that out yet. We met a guy named Al [who owns a bunch of clothing stores in town] and his daughter, Briana [SO adorable], while hiking to the pools in the bamboo forest. He told us about the Commando Hike which involves hiking through lava tubes. Excellent. Lava tubes sound cool. And then we met Abagail our Yoga instructor and her helper named Jen. Very friendly, and encouraging:)

We bought a pineapple and a mango and a star fruit and coconut chips [they put crack in the coconut chips....] Dad had some awesome banana bread and we were headed back home for a shower. Shampooed my hair with gardenia shampoo and conditioned with a coconut conditioner. Heaven:) Ahhhh....Hawaii. We may never leave...

My dear Mx...I've got my "cheer up" post up a little late tonight. In Italy it is 4 AM. I've been SO happy to Skype with you. Glad you didn't go to class today. Hope you are feeling MUCH better today, er, tomorrow? Hope these little things might cheer you up! [Gammy and Grandpa, Uncle Mark, Nanny, Aunt Suz, Uncle Mark the galy gals [Ra, Em, and Katie] ALL send their LOVE!]:

While I was washing dishes tonight the sun set and I took this picture just for you. Even the "Sunset Snob" would have loved this one! Don't you agree?



Oh, yeah, and Mischief says "Woof!" He saw the pic of your scar and thinks you are a TOTAL bad a$$:



Here's a little trip down memory lane for you...



Remember New Orleans? Our Road Trip was freaking amazing. Turns out we stayed at a Haunted Hotel. Just CLICK HERE and scroll down until you read about The Omni Royal New Orleans and scream your freakin' head off when you remember what we saw in the mirror!!!!!!!! I'll never forget our first night in New Orleans at that Blues place. SO freaky. That bartender had supernatural powers! Totally! And...speaking of supernatural powers...

You know how I get at Halloween! Well, it's only natural that I'm checking out all the Haunted Hawaiian spots starting tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have a few great stories to tell:) Heck, YOUR stories have been blowing me out of the water! hahahaha!

Click on THIS if you dare....mmmmmwwwwaaaaaHHHHHHHH!

More on Haunted Hawaii HERE

On deck in Maui? Something about a black sand beach and a Bamboo Forest.

We are SO PROUD OF YOU. xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxooxoxox

It's what no mom wants to hear: "Mom, I'm in the emergency room." [in Milan] And I didn't even get to hear it because with our recent move and lack of cell phone reception, my daughter couldn't remember our new number as she was in shock so, called the hubby. He talked her through the accident/emergency room on Thursday night. I found out bits and pieces of what happened when he got home. Didn't want to tell me over the phone.

I wish more than anything that I could be with Mx and lay an afghan over her and make her some chicken soup and tell her everything is going to be all right. This is the place where I'm posting things to cheer Mx up. We are very proud of her ability to handle such a taumatic event so far away from home. Mx, this is for you.......

Here's The Restaurant, now it's open to the public, and it's where we'll all celebrate your Italian adventures when you come home. Nice to see it full of life again:) How do you think it turned out?







Here's Dad's new office. Oso loves the courtyard and there's an open field where he likes to play, but he likes to escape to the shopping center close by to make new friends:







Here's a few photos from the weekend. Five condors flew directly over our heads on our hike to see the waterfall at Julia Pfeiffer Burns, Nanny got to see where you and Bridgette spent your Bday:







We love you and are very proud of you, Sweetie. Take care of that "shark bite."

Writers could learn a lot from restauranteurs. For those who don't know, my hubby has been renovating The Ventana Inn & Spa in Big Sur, CA for the past year and a half. While the renovation to the Inn completed last summer, the restaurant, formerly called Cielo, burned in a fire and was about 2/3 destroyed. Last night there was a soft opening of the repaired restaurant, now called The Restaurant at Ventana. I've never been invited to a soft opening before. The evening reminded me of what writer's go through during the writing process.

We came a little early. The staff still mobilizing. The room had a part-opening-night-jitters-part-battle-plan feel. The energy writers sometimes bring to their first drafts.

Joe and I sat on the terrace outside, watching the sun set into the marine layer flowing over the Pacific. We remembered all the other times we'd sat there since arriving in Big Sur. Enjoying a family Easter celebration. In the smoke and ash of the wildfires. Watching flames descend on Ventana as the renovations had nearly completed. With bagged lunches, munching to the sound of buzz saws. Reminded me of the hard work of revision and the work writers don't anticipate when we have to dig deeper to get to the heart of a story.


When we strolled back into the restaurant, I marveled at the dining room full of patrons. The restaurant filled with the ghosts of the fire fighters that sought food and refuge as they fought the wildfires last year and endured my horrible fruit salad.






For dinner, we sat at a table, where in the middle of a dark June night a year ago, Joe assessed the fire damage fresh from our weekly drive back from Los Angeles. The stars put on a show through the nearly restaurant-wide hole the fire inflicted in the roof.



The scent of porterhouses and mushrooms, sea bass and heirloom tomatoes, instead of varnish and sawdust flavored the air. That together with the animated cook line, diners' conversations and a foraged mushroom strudel [to die for] was like reading a finished novel as opposed to earlier drafts.

Our server, Diane, welcomed us and handed out a few menus. Tucked inside were forms to fill out. Questions about our dinning experience. What worked, what didn't and what impressions we had, suggestions, from the service to the entrees. We marked our favorite dishes and our least favorite. A critique.

By the end of the night we'd sampled lots of food and had formed strong opinions. Today the staff will take the feedback and make the experience better for the guests tonight and then for the general public on Friday. We will be there again on Friday. Wouldn't miss it. It's kind of like a release party.

I am jealous, though, of our culinary cousins. They get face-to-face daily feedback and make their adjustments accordingly. Authors, well, not so much. They get the feedback from their critique partners, editors, agents but by the time they get the feedback from their readers, well, the text has long since been cooked, so to speak. But, whether the feedback is good or bad and whether those changes can be implemented on a daily basis or not, the most important part of both processes is the customer. The patron. The reader. And as I shared a apple-cheddar tart with my husband, I dreamed of Friday night, the big night, and wondered what writers could learn from soft openings.

Writers can be hard on themselves, like our culinary cousins. I think the idea of a soft opening is one that writers could use to take the edge off. It's soft. Cuddly. It's there to make things better. You dine among friends. Critiques are the same way. No matter how unexpected the feedback, or the process for that matter, people who give feedback on our stories have the same goal in mind: giving our patrons, our readers, the best experience possible. So take a deep breath the next time you get a critique that didn't go so well, or might put you through the process of major repairs. It's a soft opening that will inspire us to dig deeper and result in a story that's not half-baked.

If you are in the area, stop on by The Restaurant at Ventana on Friday. Joe and I would love to see you.

My dog crashed a wedding last Saturday. And a few days ago, he took a little walk down Hwy One.

Bad. Dog. But, not really.

See he's sad and he needs a lot of attention and he's not afraid to show it. His buddy and big brother hasn't been able to play with him.

Why?

Because a few weeks back when fog gave way to sweltering nights on the California Coast and when we discovered we had another pet, a bat we named Vlad [but I won't go into that], Oso and Joe [my husband] were doing what they always do. Wrestling on the floor, playing and hanging out. Oso, although he's a 75-pound dog, thinks he's a lap dog, so he would at some point crawl into Joe's lap which made Joe decidedly uncomfortable in the heat, but, well, it's Oso's thing.

When the heat subsided, poison oak flared. Wow. Joe had it bad, bad last year and he's got an amazing case of it again. And so, Joe can't pet toxic dog who we nicknamed Gozer in our horror at what a cute, toxic-laced-furry form The Destructor chose. And so it's been weeks of very little petting and wrestling and been a general lap-dog-free zone. Poor guys. Since then Oso is glued to me. He doesn't want to go outside and sleeps all day inside. And, when I have let him outside he's run away. Whenever the phone rings my heart skips a beat thinking it will begin, "Hi. I've got your dog here..." So, my poor hubby is hopped up on steroids, barely able to sleep at night, and I've got a depressed dog. You might wonder what the upside is. Is there one?

Well, yes. And, no.

Oso has brought a whole bunch of new people into my life. People I wouldn't have otherwise met had he not gone galavanting around. He's gotten to be the talk of Burns Creek if not the South Coast. I met a great gal from Santa Fe, NM today when I took Oso out for a walk. I didn't need to explain why Oso was on such a short leash. She'd heard about him running away. She shared the wonders of Yapala, Mexico with me and I shared the wonders of Pie Town, NM with her. We got out the map to see our future destinations. On her ride back to New Mexico she thought she'd stop for a piece of pie in Pie Town, a place she had never heard of. Which is why she brought up Yepala, a place I'd never heard of, in the first place. Ladies hawk pieces of pie on the beach in Yepala. My kind of place:) This led to a discussion of what pie I was making this weekend and how different siblings can be which segued into our birth order and the karmic nature of things. Then there was the guy Mack Murphy who called and helped Oso find his way back home, and the young girl Chrissy who called to say Oso was their newest wedding guest.

Thanks Oso. That was cool.

I guess he thinks I should get out more, meet more people.

There really isn't anything cool about poison oak. Especially coming down with it when Joe did as he winds one job down and starts another. It is kind of tripy seeing Joe up at 3AM and not me. But not fun. Especially when he works all night.

Here's hoping these two can get back together again soon. That the poison oak goes away fast and that Oso and Joe can play and wrestle again and one day very soon I'll find Oso asleep on Joe's lap.

Every time I hear Erin Gafill speak it's exactly that. Went to a charming independent book store in Capitola called the Capitola Book Cafe where Erin was having a reading from her book DRINKING FROM A COLD SPRING and she had a mini-memoir workshop after. Erin is so interesting. Her great-great grandmother, Jane Powers started the artist's enclave in Carmel-by-the-Sea at the turn of the 20th Century. Together with her great-great-grandfather they cultivated an artist community and even made sure that houses were close together so that people would have to get to know their neighbors. Erin has lived her whole life at Nepenthe ["no sorrow"], in Big Sur and is a well-known fine artist too. Her book is a compilation of essays that she wrote over the past year about her life. Very inspirational.

The mini-memoir workshop was a gem. Here's the advice she gave. "Natalie Goldberg, a famous writing teacher, has good advice for writers....write fast"...and so she gave us a prompt "I remember" and had us write for five minutes, as fast as possible, and if we got stuck she suggested we just repeat the words "I remember" to keep us writing. You should try it.

Another beautiful thing that Erin said last night was that paintings aren't about answers they are about questions. And I think that applies to writing too. We are constantly challenged to hope our readers asks the right questions as they read our stories and find their own answers off the page...

We had our first rain storm in the new house last night. Haven't had rain since we lived in the wine barrel and the last storm was prolly in February. It wasn't really a storm, but a slow steady rain that lasted most of the night. There are little puddles on the deck this morning reflecting the deep blue Pacific. When the rain started falling last night Oso perked up his ears and bobbed his head up and down trying to detect the source of the strange sound. Joe's like, "Is that rain?" I turned down the Bears/Packers game. Yes.

Rain in this house sounds so much different than the rain in our old home. In LA, our steel gutters made raindrops sound kind of harsh and steely. Here, they fall on wood and the sound is softer. Turns out the house is water tight after all. With all the skylights we open to keep this place cool, we wondered. So, after battening down the hatches, all was well. Not one leak. Of course it was a soft rain. We'll see how we do if El Niño actually shows up this year. Rain in September? A sure sign he's knocking on our door.

Another thing that made me smile was Candy's call yesterday. Every week the kids call. I made a request before they both flew the coop this year: every week I want one good story. They are wonderful. And, I try to reciprocate. A sort of quid pro quo. This week, her story was so much better than mine, usually is. It made me smile.

Three young adults that I care very deeply about are at this hour all over the world making their dreams come true in very different ways. They've all made the decision to go where they've gone because of the passion in their hearts. This gives three views of today's 19, 20 and 23 yr. olds.

My oldest daughter has left the city of San Francisco after graduating from university there and teaching for a year to take a six month road trip of the United States in search of a place where she can teach and live a life where her salary doesn't go entirely to rent/food. She and her boyfriend spent this past year saving up so that they would be able to take the trip.

My youngest daughter begins her junior year in university and has dreams of an international business career in fashion. She worked very hard for the past two years to qualify to enter a year-long program of study in Florence, Italy through her school in Manhattan. Her dreams include traveling Europe and getting to know the snowboard outerwear business from a European perspective as well as riding as much as she can.

My nephew is currently a marine deployed in Afghanistan. He dreams of coming home to get a college education and is serving as a machine gunner. His Battalion lost two soldiers in August-one to an IED and one during a firefight. The Battalion is proud that not a single polling place was subject to violence or intimidation in their district during the Afghan elections.

After my brother-in-law emailed us a letter that my nephew's Commanding Officer and his Sergeant Major sent to the families of the marines in their Battalion I paused to reflect on our three passionate young ones, so close in age, following their different dreams. The officers included photographs in the letter. One in particular stood out. It is a picture of an Afghan man sitting in the sand holding what appears to be an ancient scale. On one side is some type of metal device, on the other is a pile of sand. The sand outweighs the device. The Afghan man is in the process of finding a balance.

Today is the day. Today is the day that this place feels like home. I don't know why it's taken so long to get the feeling back. But, it did. We've lived here for almost two years now [albeit most of the time we traveled to LA every weekend, and lived in different rooms every week at Ventana and a wine barrel some of the time] but, after selling our house and moving to a house in Big Sur–for awhile :)– I've always been a little bit like, um, not quite used to the whole thing. I mean it's beautiful. But the living part was an adjustment. Going to town. Navigating Monterey, Carmel, Pacific Grove, Sand City, Marina to get, you know, things done.

But today was different.

Maybe I felt at home when Margaux and I Skyped and I saw her smiling face. In laughing and talking about school and the upcoming Italian rail strike and how Italian deparment stores are different than American ones and that there aren't these huge warehouse stores so she shops at Mom & Pop shops and loves it, I took a sip of coffee and didn't feel very far away from her at all.

Maybe I felt at home because I visited a new dentist today and he was a great guy. Or it had something to do with the fact that I sat in the dentist chair and looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the Eucalyptus/Redwood forest and, there, in the thick of the trees sculptures of wooden bears were getting their teeth cleaned too. One bear even had a dentist next to him, holding a nitrous oxide tank. Hilarious. Maybe I'm just on a high [no I didn't have any nitrous] because I didn't have any cavities.

Maybe I felt at home because I didn't need to google all day trying to find places to run my errands. It had something to do with knowing my way to the wharf in Monterey and buying some clams at our favorite seafood place there. It was the feeling I got walking into the Paris Bakery Cafe which made the best skinny hazelnut latte I've had in quite some time. Maybe I felt at home when the guy behind the counter joked with me saying the smiley face cookies I bought there were just too cute to eat. Or, it must have been the summer fruits and veggies I picked up at Cornucopia Market, which our neighbor, who is a fabulous cook, told us about the other day.

Whatever it was, today was the day. And it makes me happy.

I heard the phrase all the time when I worked in the newsroom at The Los Angeles Times and you'll hear the term every now and again from broadcast journalists. It's intriguing. When I write non-fiction I use the term to describe my process. But, when I write fiction I never refer to my work in this way. Yesterday I wondered why.

Reporters/videographer/photojournalists/multimedia journalists interview, research, examine angles and develop strong ledes. Many people work together to make the story happen. Typically this includes but is not limited to: an editor, a copyeditor, a writer, and if the feature is very large, a creative director and a graphic and/or multimedia artist. Good writing is collaborative. Good editing is essential.

Authors interview, research, examine points-of-view, develop a voice and craft a hook for their readers. And, in my limited experience as a writer of fiction, I note that the process is slightly less collaborative than the non-fiction world, at least at the stage I'm in.

I'll never forget what my LAT editor advised. I had just started working nights there and was a multimedia designer. He found out I write fiction and asked me who my editor was. I hemmed and hawed and told him that fiction writing, is, well, different. There aren't editors for people who are aspiring novelists, I participate in critique groups, I told him, and added that I attend conferences and he interrupted saying, "Laura, everyone needs an editor."

Wake. Up. Call. While my critique group is key and my support network is amazing my writing won't go anywhere without professional feedback and working relationships. Of course, these could take a decade to accomplish, sigh [That said, check out what megancrewe posted about this today]. Maybe the two types of writing aren't so different after all?

Yesterday, in the throes of revision and rewriting and getting that marshmallow brain from over-thinking everything, I realized that I'm just working the story. This phrase eliminated that stuck-in-the-muck feeling I had when I looked at how I could deepen the story. I am free to detach a bit and–along with the POV, voice, and hook–I can delve deeper into plotting angles, strengthen my lede. After all, I'm just working the story.

I love my writer buddy maedwen. She and I have been keeping each other inspired for years now. One of the things we talked about today on Skype boiled down to two questions we were asked by an editor and a critique group partner this year that we plan on answering for our WIPs by next Friday. The answers seem obvious, the questions silly when you think about it. How could we have written entire books and in the midst of revision/rewriting only address them now? Well, it's because we have a lot to learn. We seemed to be having an epiphany today in the asking, so I thought I'd share our homework with you today.

Our assignment, should you choose to accept it is:

Write down 10 answers each to the following two questions:

1. What are we trying to say with this novel?

2. Why do we [meaning your readers] care?

Before writing any other stories, I will answer these questions before instinctively outlining characters and plot as is my writing nature. These questions are so basic and will be explored or better understood in the writing certianly. But, it seems the answers could provide a map that might help steer our novels, and, well, in the mirky waters of rewrite and revision it's nice to have a map.