Angele McQuade

the online home of author angele mcquade...

6.11.07 1:33 p.m.
Still working on the revisions of my young adult novel and going back and forth incessantly on whether my main character is 14 or 15 (it matters, a LOT, and she's not helping by telling me one way or the other). I'm also doing a lot of tightening and cutting since I tend to write long in my first few drafts.

Lots of changes (work, life and otherwise) on the horizon and still not enough answers, but they will come soon enough, I know. The lilacs were truly lovely this year. It's almost like they knew this would be our last spring here and they wanted to make it an especially fragrant one. Maybe they're in cahoots with the local chipmunks, whose poulation appears to have quintupled (or more!) in the past two months. Spiders and house centipedes are unusually plentiful as well. Oddness abounds, as it sometimes does...

watching: Waitress, Flags of Our Fathers, The Queen, The Good Shepherd, The Break-Up, Music and Lyrics, Little Children
listening to: Bebel Gilberto, Momento; Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass; Erin McKeown, Sing You Sinners; Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Some Loud Thunder; Lucinda Williams, West; Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes; Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

4.2.07 1:56 p.m.

The ground's a little less muddy, the sky's a brighter blue, the crocuses are up and gorgeous, and the revision I've been nurturing along for months (and months and...) just may be about to poke up through the dirt and show off a little springtime color of its own. I've been waiting a long time for that, and it feels good.

watching: Children of Men, Babel, The Holiday, The Pursuit of Happyness

11.30.06 8:42 p.m.

It's been a weird and wacky month, filled with life changes good and not-so-great, but I did it! This afternoon I typed The End on the novel I started writing exactly a month ago for NaNoWriMo. This was only the first draft so it will need revision (a lot) but it's a draft that I'm really quite happy with, and I wrote it in 30 days. I think that's pretty cool! My final word count was 51,259 words (205 manuscript pages).

Now it's back to revisions on the earlier novel so I can have a solid second draft of that to go to my readers by Christmas. That's an awful lot of work to get done in three and a half weeks, but if I can write an entire new book in four, I can handle that!

11.27.06 9:41 a.m.
Though I'm behind according to the traditional NaNo schedule, I have written 160 pages of this new novel to date, and I'm on track to finish up with my 50,000 words (that's 200 pages) by the time NaNo ends on Thursday.

This new book is going really well, with unexpected plot twists and characters popping up all over the place (more evidence of that writing magic that I love so much). I can hardly believe that I soon will have finished a very rough but still very decent first draft of a book that was only the sliver of an idea in my head just a month ago. Yea! NaNoWriMo, and yea! for that whole "keep your butt in the chair and the words will come" philosophy. Yea! most of all, though, for my writing idol Rhian whose success last year inspired me to go for it this year (and who will finish her very own NaNo book today).

11.15.06 8:40 a.m.
I've written 65 pages of the new novel in the past two weeks of NaNoWriMo, with many more on the way. I'll be taking a break today, though, to finish up my next column for Better Investing magazine.

reading: Mindless Eating, Brian Wansink (Bantam)
watching: Fire (1996); Thank You for Smoking (2005); Brick (2005); Inside Man (2006); L'Auberge Espagnole (2002)

11.1.06
The first draft of my novel topped out at more than 500 pages. I've lopped off a couple hundred in the revision process with much more tightening still to come. I'm letting it rest for a month while I write the first draft of my next novel, coincidentally (or not) during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which I've wanted to do for five years.

The first and second years I wanted to do NaNo I was writing books under contract and couldn't take the time away. The third and fourth years I was too deep into novels-in-progress to start something new. This year, well, this year I planned things out in advance so I'd be at a good structural place for a brief hiatus from the current novel and at a good mental place to walk into a different world with new characters for 30 days.

I aim to write the 200 pages I need to "win" NaNo this month, at which point I'll set them aside and finish the earlier novel so I can start submitting it. Once I'm submitting, I'll come back to this new book and revise it for submission as well. I need to write 1667 words a day (about 7 pages) to meet the 50,000 word goal by November 30th. As of today, I'm 1,898 words in.

reading: Tolstoy, Anna Karenina; Ellen Wittlinger, Gracie's Girl and Heart on My Sleeve

5.7.06 8:44 a.m.
352 pages as of this morning...

5.5.06 3:38 p.m.
Ending the week at 345 pages and still on track to finish the draft by May 15th. I never expected that this first draft would end up so...wordy. I've got a lot of pruning ahead of me once I start to revise!

5.4.06 7:36 p.m.
I'm up to 335 or 336 pages today - too lazy to open the file and refresh my memory...

(want to be) reading: The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It's next on my list once I finish Moby Dick.

5.2.06 3:47 p.m.
331 pages as of this afternoon, and ready to write the first scene in the last part of the book tomorrow morning!
reading: Looking for Alaska by John Green

5.1.06 2:40 p.m.
Wrote nine more pages today so I'm up to 324 now.

4.30.06 10:40 p.m.
I'll be ending up the month at 315 pages. I don't want to jinx it but I do believe I'll be finished with my first draft by the Ides of May. I'm only one scene away from starting in on the final set of chapters that will bring everything together and I can hardly stand the wait. I've been having so much fun writing these last few weeks!

4.18.06 3:54 p.m.
Today's writing brings me up to page 291 in my novel. I'll be spending the rest of my writing day finishing up my column for BetterInvesting magazine.

4.16.05 8:53 p.m.
284 pages...

4.15.06
278 pages. Boy, they sure are piling up lately!

4.14.06 11:27 p.m.
Ending the week at 272 pages. I thought I'd be so much closer to the end of the draft by now but I'm not! My characters keep surprising me with plot points I wasn't expecting. I just have to keep reminding myself that every word I write is getting me closer to that last page.

4.13.06 10:58 p.m.
255 pages...

4.8.06
Finished out the week with 246 pages. I can feel the end getting closer and I can't wait to find out how it's all going to come together.

reading: Melville's Moby Dick; Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh; Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
watching: Good Night and Good Luck; Capote; Broken Flowers; Junebug; Corpse Bride

4.6.06 11:48 p.m.
241 pages down...

4.1.06 5:48 p.m.
I'm at 231 pages so far today, no foolin'!

3.31.06 6:31 p.m.
Ending up the week at 226 pages. Hooray!

3.28.06
219 pages as of tonight.

3.26.06 12:16 p.m.
I'm up to 213 pages now. All along I've been expecting to be able to tell the story I wanted to tell in 250 pages but now it's looking like I'll need 275-300 pages to fit everything in. That's okay with me - I still don't know how it's all going to end anyway. I'm having a lot of fun watching the plot reveal itself to me so if it takes a little longer to get there, I don't mind.

2.11.06 10:00 p.m.
183 pages at the moment...

1.27.06 9:43 p.m.
177

1.26.06 7:11 p.m.
Before I record my page count, I must address a social phenomenon that's being bothering me for weeks...raspberry oranges. When I first saw them advertised in our grocery store mailer, I was amazed at the wonders that modern agricultural research can produce. Someone managed to cross an orange with a raspberry (coincidentally, one of my very favorite foods)? Pass one of those genetic mutants my way, on the double!

Then a friend served them with dinner at her house one night and I was heartbroken. Raspberry oranges? Phooey. There was no miracle of science to marvel at, just a nasty bit of marketing at work. Apparently it's no longer copacetic to call those oranges that appear to have a blushing problem blood oranges. Oh no, that name might scare the precious customer away! What if they actually thought they were consuming blood? The horror! The horror! (Sorry to all you fellow English majors out there - I just couldn't resist.)

I refuse to be a party to this obfuscation. I will not, under any circumstances, cease calling this otherwise delectable fruit by its true and proper name - the blood orange. BLOOD ORANGE, I tell you. From now on, the phrase raspberry orange shall be stricken from my consciousness. Blood orange martini? Why yes, please, send it right this way. R* orange julius? I'm so sorry, I'm afraid I don't understand what it is you're saying.

Need I go on?

(Oh yeah, 175 pages.)

1.25.06 6:04 p.m.
Only made it to page 172 today. I'll have far more time to write tomorrow, though.

1.24.06
My draft is at 168 pages after a great day of writing today. I knew I liked to write but I never realized it could be this much fun if I chose the right project!

1.23.06 11:22 p.m.
Not as much progress as I'd expected due to an unexpected trip out of state, but I did squeeze some writing in during an hours-long coffee break at the cafe in an Atlanta area Barnes & Noble store. 157 pages and counting...

1.14.06 10:42 p.m.
Finished up the week at 132 pages. I'm still having fun with the book and the ideas keep coming, so I expect similar progress next week. If all continues to go as planned, I'll be done with the first draft by February 2.

reading: Philip Pullman's Tiger in the Well; Lisa Yee's Millicent Min, Girl Genius; Linda Sue Park's Project Mulberry

1.8.06 8:35 p.m.
I had no opportunity to write on Saturday as expected, but I spent a wonderful afternoon doing just that today and more than made up for the day off. I'm now up to 116 pages...

1.6.06 6:11 p.m.
I'm ending the work week with 104 pages completed. Though I expect to add a few more over the weekend, I'll be happy with my progress so far even if I don't write another word 'til Monday.

1.5.06 10:37 p.m.
I'm going to hit that magic 100 page mark tomorrow, a most exciting milestone in what has already been an incredibly productive year of writing. Bring it on, 2006!
reading: Amazing Grace by Megan Shull; lots more Proust
watching: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; Love Actually; Mad Hot Ballroom

12.16.05 3:50 p.m.
I'm up to page 61 on the new novel now. I'll need to work on my March column for BetterInvesting magazine for a bit, but after that's finished I'll be able to devote myself to the novel exclusively for the remainder of the year.

12.3.05 11:52 a.m.
In addition to the Chicago Tribune interview mentioned below, I recently did one for Consumer Reports magazine, also in support of my book Investment Clubs for Dummies. The article should be in the February issue, so watch your mailbox or news stands for it in January.

I had so many other writing (and non-writing) responsibilities in November that I finally realized I'd be a fool to rush through the first draft of my current book just so I could start fresh on its sequel for NaNoWriMo. I want to do things right and give this novel as much time as it needs instead of hurrying through it so I can start work on some not-even-outlined-yet sequel for NaNo.

Since NaNoWriMo requires that 50,000 words be written for a brand-new book between Nov. 1st and Nov. 30th (no work on in-progess projects allowed), I would've had to abandon the current book completely to have any chance of finishing. So...my dream of being a NaNoWriMo participant will have to be deferred yet another year. While I'll have to remember to time my writing projects a little better in late 2006, the main thing for me to remember is that no matter what I'm working on (or why), I am still writing regularly and I am making progress on this book, NaNo or not.

Since work on the current novel is progressing well, I'm glad I didn't take the month-long hiatus. I have two articles to write for Better Investing magazine this month (the cover story for the February issue and my usual column for March), but I should still have plenty of writing time to devote to the novel. A dear friend who knew how badly I'd wanted to do NaNoWriMo suggested I do my own AngeNoWriMo for December, so I'm going to attempt to add 50,000 words this month to the 15,000 I already have. Seeing as how my friend is a literary genius (and finished NaNoWriMo herself this month), it seems wise to take her advice.

reading: More Proust for my beloved book group, this time The Guermantes Way; Veronica by Mary Gaitskill; Golden Days by Carolyn See; The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman; A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle
watching: Two for the Road (1967); Pride and Prejudice (the 2005 theatrical version)

11.5.05
I was interviewed recently by Chicago Tribune columnist Carolyn Bigda for an article she was writing on investment clubs. You can find the article online here. Her Your Money column is syndicated nationally, so it may be in your local paper, too.

novel word count: 12,659
reading: Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking; Alison Lurie, Love and Friendship and Truth and Consequences
watching: The Upside of Anger

10.16.05 7:54 p.m.
Added a few more pages to the book today, though I still need to type them into the computer. More tomorrow!
novel word count: 6,297
watching: Chocolat; Fever Pitch; Good Bye, Lenin!

10.15.05 8:28 a.m.
I'm well into Chapter 6 on the new book project and adding more pages every day. If I can finish the rough draft by October 31st (as I should be able to do), I'm going to write the sequel during NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month - in November.

I've been hankering to do NaNoWriMo since I first learned about it five years ago, but I've either been writing a book under contract deadline at the time or so deep into my first novel that I didn't want to stop and switch to something new. With novel #1 now in a drawer and novel #2 well underway, I do believe that I'll be in good shape to speed write the rough draft of novel #3 during NaNoWriMo. I haven't registered yet, but I will as soon as I'm certain that I'll be done with this draft of novel #2 by the end of this month.

9.29.05 7:35 a.m.
I decided last night to submit my January '06 column for Better Investing magazine early so I can devote all of my October writing time to my new book. At the rate I've been writing lately, I could have a bare bones rough draft finished by the beginning of November. As soon as I realized that last night, I sat down and spent some quality time with my January column.

I'm debating whether to finish it off entirely today so I can submit it or to finish chapter three in the new book first. I'll probably spend a little more time on the column this morning while a thunderstorm rolls through but then switch focus and finish up the chapter. That sounds like a plan, especially since I can hardly wait to get to chapter four!

novel #2 word count: 3,301

9.28.05 12:43 p.m.
My December column for Better Investing is in, the first two chapters of my brand-new project are edited and I'm halfway through writing chapter three now. I meet with my beloved writing critique partners this afternoon and am somewhat anxiously awaiting their opinions on the new book in progress. It still feels very risky to be showing such raw material to anyone, but what's life without a little tightrope walking every now and then?

Maybe that should be my new motto: do something that I think I can't do every single day. Gotta wonder where that might lead me...scary (yet still intriguing) thought!

Update at 3:44 p.m. They liked it. Hooray! Now I can finish chapter three tomorrow with renewed zeal.

watching: Finding Neverland, The Adventures of Pete and Pete

9.19.05 7:48 a.m.
After a long discussion about getting unstuck with my guru-of-all-things-writing on Friday afternoon, I was hit with unanticipated inspiration that led to my both starting and then finishing the first chapter of a brand new book before dinner. I read it to an eager audience - something I've never done with material that unpolished before- that same evening, and their enthusiasm spurred me on to complete the second chapter over the weekend.

Once I submit my December column for Better Investing magazine later today, I'll set to editing those first two chapters more thoroughly and maybe even roughing out the third if there's time. The words are flowing out of my pen in such a rush right now that I'm loath to stop, even if the curmudgeonly part of me is saying I should finish up the other novel before I jump into a new project with this much gusto. I prefer, though, to listen to the part of me that's saying, "Ignore that spoilsport - keep writing!"

If there's one thing I've discovered since I began writing in earnest five and a half years ago, it's that one should not ignore the muse when she comes a-calling as there's never any way to predict how long she might stay. I've pulled up the coziest chair I can find for her and offered tea laced with honey for now, and if that's not enough, I'll bake a blueberry pie or two between chapters. It's wonderful to be playing host to my unamed guest once again.

writing: about 1,100 words on my Better Investing column and 3,261 words on my new work in progress so far
reading: Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, Proust's In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower
watching: The Sea Inside, Crash, The Sting, Million Dollar Baby, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Deliverance
listening to (and watching, too): a pileated woodpecker, right outside my writing room window