Librarians - your best worst friend

I stopped working on Pierian Spring a while ago because I realized that one of my main characters, Andrew was a Harvard College student and I didn't know much about Harvard College in the 18th century. I did as much research as I could online and with the history books on hand, but knew eventually I would need to find more thorough sources to flesh out Andrew's academic life.

Oh happy day it was when a google books search led me to Revolutionary Generation, a book about the Harvard class of 1774. The book covers the lives of 204 students during their four years from 1771 to 1774. I read through everything offered in the Google books preview, but as you know with Google book previews pages and sections are left out, and knew I needed to read all of this book.

No problem, that's what libraries are for! I worked in the cataloging department of a large university library for 4 years, I love the library. The two best places in the world are libraries and book shops because I say so.

Of course, living in the Manistee National Forest of Michigan means I am nowhere near a large university depository library where a book like this might be, so I head to my local public library's website where I can request the book through inter-library loan. I check the public side of OCLC to see where the closest library that the book in their holdings might be, then put in the request through the online form my public library provides.

Then, I sit back and wait. I know inter-library loans can take from a week to up to a month, so I put working on my novel on hold until the book arrived. I really should have a clue about what Andrew's life at Harvard was like before I write about Andrew's life at Harvard, right? Right!

And I wait a little longer ... one month passes, two months ... three months ...

Huh? That's not how it works, especially when copies of the book are sitting in East Lansing and Kalamazoo. A trip to the library is in order it seems.

I need income tax forms anyway, so while I have copies of those made, I ask about their inter-library loan program and how long does it usually take? I explain about the form on the website that I filled out months before and never received any notice.

The librarian looked at me, and I swear this is what she said ... "We have an online form for that?"

Uh, yeah honey, ya sure do. I didn't say that out loud; thinking it the whole time though. The librarian suggested trying again. I took my tax forms, and a job application and left for home.

A week later I stopped again to check on the status. Different librarian there and didn't have a clue what I was talking about. "Perhaps you should bring in your titles hand written and we can process your request that way?" It became obvious to me I would need to do this old school.

Not that I mind old school, as stated earlier I spent four years working in the cataloging department of a large university library right when everything digital switched to awesome looking but memory bogging graphics. It looks pretty though, and that's all that matters right? I miss the card catalog.

So I waited another week and returned. This time I had my job application filled out and a hand written list of the titles I wanted to request for ILL. I handed the librarian the application, then asked about the books I wanted, and offered her that list.

"Oh wait, one of your books is in! I have it right here!" She pulled the book out from the bottom of the pile on her desk and showed it to me.

Hooray!

She stamped the due date in it for me, and even waived the $2.00 fee 'for my trouble'. Then she really hit me with the most mind-boggling part of this book Odyssey - The librarian who handles the website had no idea what that ILL form was for, so ... wait for it ... SHE JUST DELETED ALL THE BOOK REQUESTS WHEN THEY SHOWED UP ON THE SYSTEM.

Let me repeat, this ILL book request form is on the library website, but they had no idea it was there. Because they had no idea it was there, when people filled it out they didn't know what it was for, so they deleted the requests and forgot about them. Problem solved!

Oi ...

I am very happy to have my book. I am learning lots of great things that I can use in my novel to flesh out Andrew's life as a Harvard student. Perhaps I could write a scene where he struggles to find a book in the college library?

I AM A WINNER!

BIG shout out to Jamie Corrigan and her excellent contest. I am one of nine winners randomly selected! I can't wait to see what my prize will be.

Thanks, Jamie!

Positive stuff happening

The four day weekend I anticipated turned into five when school was cancelled this morning. This means I don't work, and being a substitute teacher, I don't get paid. It's not all bad though, because this gave me an extra day to write. I'm determined to finish editing Pierian Spring and establish a platform for it in the near future.

That means I need to start posting more here. My first blog ever is on Live Journal and that remains my go-to blog to blab about my life in general. I want to make writing my life, and that means post more to my writing blog. Git-er-done girl! I'm going to pin this blog to a tab on Chrome to keep it open and make it my go-to blog from now on.

Some more (sort of) good news. I have a long term subbing job coming up in the near future! I will be teaching high school history while the contracted teacher goes on maternity leave. This is very exciting and I'm already making lesson plans. The hope is this will be the thing that turns my career around and perhaps I can get my foot in the door teaching full time again in the area. Wouldn't that be nice? A steady paycheck, health insurance ... fingers crossed.

Back to editing Pierian Spring.

Do I want a kindle?

My birthday is next week and I've been informed by one family member I'll be receiving a gift cert from Amazon.com. That's nice, I can always find something to buy on that website which is why they are the only website from the dot.com days still in business.

I'm thinking perhaps it's time to join the cool kids and buy a kindle, except I'm not sure which kindle to get. I see they have a full color one now, but it's out of my price range. Something with wifi would be nice. Any advice?

NaNo Fail, and what I'm reading right now

Yes, I completely blew it for Nanowrimo this year. November became very stressful for me and found myself with no time to work on the novel. I had notes, a basic plot outline and I will at some point finish it ... but getting it done this month wasn't going to happen, even with the usual speed I can chug a Nano novel out. I even had to start over when my computer derped and lost 5000 words! Stopping at 12,000 words after a week, there is just no excuse for it, other than too much stuff happening this month with work, other commitments and spending two days processing a deer shot on the opening day of firearm season at home. Venison in the freezer and home canned in the pantry is nice, but my novel suffered with everything going on. Big sigh of sadness.

In the meantime, I decided it's time to finish Pierian Spring and get it ready to submit to agents. Will a work of historical fiction based on the experiences of two teen aged boys during the Boston Tea Party have any selling potential? Even if it ends up on the 99 cents list for Amazon Kindle, I am determined to publish this book. As much as I've enjoyed creating the world of the Benandanti, I love spending time with Silas and Andrew again. I've missed these boys.

What am I reading right now? I'm actually reading fiction for a change and enjoying it. The Help is a fantastic book. I instantly fell in love with the characters, and felt empathy for their suffering and the situations they find themselves in. Very powerful writing. A book you hate to put down after picking it up.

Holidays are coming soon, I still have Thanksgiving decorations up. Argh.

Submission for Can You Hook A Teen Contest

Title: I, Benandante
Genre: YA Dark Fantasy


The sound roused her slowly, like a drip in a faucet. Marisa heard the rhythm grow stronger, like someone tapping – no, like a drum. It sounded like someone was beating a drum.

“Come on!” A man’s voice shouted at her. “Get up! It’s time to go!”

She had heard that voice before; it was happening again.

Marisa didn’t want to open her eyes. She was terrified of what she would see. She could feel them swirling around her.

“Wake up! Will you come with me?”

The voice shouting at her had an authoritative tone that demanded obedience. Her eyes flew open and she stared at him standing over her bed. He carried a plant with a long stalk in his hand like it was a weapon.

Then Marisa realized she could see through him.

She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t open her mouth or move any other part of her body. She felt frozen, like a stone. With the scream still caught in her throat, she glanced up at the man’s face again. One second it was a human face, then it changed shape into a cat, then a mouse, then a chicken. The only thing that didn’t change was his eyes as they bored into hers with an angry, terrifying gaze.

“The battle is approaching!” The chicken head changing into a bat head shouted to her.

Marisa knew the others were there. Rats, cats, rabbits, birds, deer with human eyes, more spirit people with cat and goat eyes; all of them moving together to the same destination.

A sobering question answered.

Write On Con's Event ended this week, and I tried to attend some of the live chats. Some of the presenters represented publishers for children's books and picture books, which I don't write, but there were also presentations from those representing YA publishers. One of the questions asked during a "chat" (Meaning a heavily monitored chat room where very few if any comments from the guests ever make it into the chat, one of the most FRUSTRATING things about Write On Con and one of the reasons I eventually give up and find something better to do. Not even greetings are allowed through, except from a few chat guests) asked if YA books written from a male point of view were becoming more popular, and would any of the literary agents in attendance be willing to represent a writer with such a book. All three adamantly said no, because those books don't sell. Period.

I couldn't believe the answer from these agents, especially with my knowledge from being a teacher and have first-hand knowledge by observing what boys read. I've seen boys reading many books from popular YA lists, which I know are geared to a female reading audience because there just isn't much out there for them. Boys do read, and my thinking would be that these boys would enjoy books in the YA genre that had a male point of view. I asked this question, mentioning that I am a teacher and the monitor let that one squeak through (probably because I mentioned I was a teacher). One of the agents responded to my question with, "Look the market just isn't there for YA books with a male point of view."

That answer completely deflated me, because my WIP Pierian Spring has two teenage boys for main characters. Even while I work on my new WIP I, Benandante I continue to research and work on Pierian Spring. Now I wonder if there is even a point to continue on with it. If the market for YA books really is ignoring half of the population of readers because they believe there is no market for it, putting the time and effort into writing this book might be a huge waste of time.

I know I will keep on working on it, because my main reason for writing is to write the stories I want to read. Perhaps self-publishing will be the best way to go in the future, when Pierian Spring is a polished work.