What I'm Pondering
kellyrfineman called her year-end, looking-back, looking-forward post "Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering" and I liked it so much I'm riffing on it, even though I somehow completely missed Pinky and the Brain *hangs head in shame at cultural illiteracy*.
In some ways this year felt like running hurdles, which if I ever attempted it in real life would have resulted in countless face plants. But in this year's writing endeavors, numerous hurdles were cleared. True, two manuscripts using The Great Sorting--one memoir, one YA novel--came crashing to the ground when the muse struck in June, but unlike a real race, I'll be able to go back and pick them up when StT reaches the point where I'm ready to turn my attention elsewhere. StT remains the Great Gift of 2010, one for which I am continually grateful, even as I wrestle with the inevitable tangle of major revision. The conference I chaired--madly drafting each and every day except the one that involved a drive home--was also a success, both in terms of evaluations and in the terrific people I was privileged to meet.
The editing half of my life saw the publication--after multiple years of work--of the project that was responsible for taking me and mine to Ireland. That partnership is now set to continue with another Civil War project.
I did lose one steady outlet for my non-YA writing this year, when Edible Green Mountains folded, but I remain grateful for the connections it brought me and the wonderful people I was able to meet and work with through it. I'm also grateful that it resulted in the opportunity to teach a class on writing about food.
For 2011 I'm looking forward to getting StT ready to submit to interested agents, to returning to the projects I was working on before (they're still simmering in the back of my brain so I know they're alive), to the March Novel Writing Retreat at Vermont College, to the New England SCBWI Conference, and to once again teaching young writers some of what they need to know in order to become professional writers.
I'm also looking forward to keeping up with the wonderful community of writers here on LJ and in the Twitterverse, who provide me with so many reading recommendations and so much to think about when it comes to writing.
That's what I'm pondering--how about you?