The Alphabet Soup of Perfect Timing

By Laura Spinella

The right words. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately—113,724 of them to be exact. I’ve looked at them microscopically and fussed over each one like the bow on a baby’s hat. We are past the collective stage, the part where you consider words as a whole and the story they tell. Edits have come and gone and so has the window in which one can easily shift ideas, reroute action, or change a character’s motivation. The next time I see Perfect Timing it will be typeset with a giant note on it about how now is not the time to make extensive revisions. I’m down to wringing my hands over lone words—a curious irony of the trade.

            Perfect Timing is a book I wrote in stages. It was my in-between novel.  Something I worked on while Beautiful Disaster simmered and Valley Views from Abbotsford, PA, made its way in and out of my head, finally making its way to a permanent address in my desk drawer.  We’re talking years here, and during that time I never thought about Perfect Timing in terms of publication. Actually, I never thought of it as Perfect Timing.  Back then it went by a different title, the words adding up to a rather different story. This was my feel-good composition, my comfort food while struggling to find the right words in other books and fielding the real rejection attached to this dreamy endeavor. Nowadays it’s all email, but back then I read so many snail-mail rejections I developed envelopaphobia—a fear of mailboxes. I loved to tinker with that book, the same way Leo, who lives down the street, has tinkered with his’67 Corvair since we moved here.

            A bunch of years ago—I don’t remember how many, I found some courage, or maybe it was just a whim (courage is more dramatic, don’t you think?), and shipped that comfort manuscript off to one of the biggest agents in the business. Not long after, the agent called to say she’d been reading my words since she opened them that morning. I had this crisp vision of Laura Spinella alphabet soup spilling over her desk. Would she get my words as a collective whole? Well, she got about half of them. She loved the back portion of the storyline, gushing in fact. Unfortunately, (see how one word indicates this won’t turn out well) she merely dripped over the present-day portion. Still, she was lovely and encouraging, suggesting I rewrite and resubmit the book to her.

            Here’s the thing. I didn’t do it.

            There’s a left hand drawer in my desk and I put the book in there, not considering it again. Maybe because the timing wasn’t perfect. I also think it had something to do with preserving the book’s ability to be my go-to comfort writing. But I did tuck it away, satisfied with partial big-time validation and the inkling that its words had potential. Fast forward a couple of years. On another whim, I gave the same book to my current agent. She read it and replied with the bold notion that the time was perfect to expand upon and rewire those words. So I did.  It took the better part of a year. During those seasons of revisions, on occasion, I’d walk past Leo’s house.  He’d be there, in the throes of rebuilding his beloved Corvair. Car parts were strewn across his yard like dead soldiers, Leo standing hunched over his engine, up to his elbows in grease. That’s a fair picture for the mental work that went into the reinvention of this book—a relatable process, I’m sure, for every GBC member.

                So here I am with words—a bunch of them that are scheduled for a print run, slated for a spine, pretty cover, and a copyright. Below are a few of my favorite words from PERFECT TIMING.  They’re original words that survived the practice years and the storage years. Like my kids, I know them at glance, they are that attached to me, reminding me that old and new, all the words in this book are mine.   

“It wasn’t what people assumed.  Not that people assumed anything about Aidan and Isabel. Their relationship flew under the radar of Catswallow gossip, but it wasn’t the fare or affair the secluded setting of a dilapidated farmhouse might suggest.”—Chapter Two

“Aidan inched away, their faces but a breath apart. He’d never used this moment to convey anything so honest. In truth, he’d never used this moment to convey much of anything at all.”—Chapter Sixteen

“Her father returned to the sofa as Patrick sat in a chair where his frame pulled tight, his bearded face doubtful.  “Eric, did you not hear the part where the town’s most popular heterosexual boy, its very own Conrad Birdie, is being railroaded for the crime?”—Chapter Seventeen (maybe you have to read it in context, but those words still make me laugh)

“Seriously, Isabel, whatever’s happened between us, did you think that if you ever called I wouldn’t come?”  

  Her lips pursed tight, eyes welling.  “In a million years,” she said, arms wrapped in a straightjacket grip, “I never thought I’d call.” –Chapter Twenty-Six

Laura Spinella is the author of the award-winning novel, Beautiful Disaster and the upcoming novel, Perfect Timing. Visit her at lauraspinella.net

You Said The One Thing That Made All The Difference

by Samantha Wilde

I was on vacation in Provincetown, Massachusetts, many years ago, by myself, feeling depleted and disconnected when I walked into town and into one of the candy stores to buy a favorite comfort food: fudge. The man who served me seemed more like the owner than an employee. He was older, gray-haired, with an air of being in charge. He rang up my purchase. It came to about $2.84 (I did say this was a long time ago!). I gave him two dollars and rooted around for the change. It wasn't small change, either, adding up to the greater part of another dollar. "Don't worry about it," he said, passing me the bag. "Enjoy."

Now I'm sure I haven't blown your mind with this tiny, insignificant story. Maybe you barely even made it through that paragraph and are still waiting for something exciting to happen. With our wonderful addiction to drama, tiny stories don't often arouse big responses. But I had a big response that day. Since I was feeling so down, and since feeling down often makes us feel isolated, separated, uncared for or unloved, this man's small act of kindness and generosity, his few words of spaciousness and grace, well, they made all the difference in the world. He gave me much more than an eight four cent gift. I walked out of the store lighter, like a chosen, lucky person.

I know many people who have experienced similar tiny moments when the right words were spoken at just the right time. Has this happened to you? Sometimes, a few words change the course of a life or even many lives. Our words have such power and promise. And writers deal in words. Most writers hope very much that their words will effect the readers, touch them, change them, uplift them, inform them, connect them. It was E.M. Forester who said: "Only connect."

In one of the early of my mother, Nancy Thayer's, 23 novels, she wrote the line, "It's never to late, in fiction or life, to revise." This sentence has leaped so far off the page that she once opened a catalog and found it had been used on a plaque! It's in books and on calendars. There is something strong and true and resonant about the statement and that is why it's taken on a life of its own.

I love how language and ideas can become a force in the world--independent of the author. A friend told me this: "There was a part of I'll Take Where She Has that meant so much to me I folded over the corner." Could there be sweeter words to a writer's ears? I have always wanted to write words in a book worthy of the corner fold. What about having some of your sentences underlined? Used in casual conversation? Spoken aloud? Kept in someone's mind as a talisman that strengthens them?

I had the opportunity to speak aloud some of my words to a large audience in support of an amazing local organization MotherWoman. I worked with another spoken word artists, Alysia Cosby, and we performed my Motherhood Is Meaningful Manifesto live for 450 people. Many people told me that our words inspired them. One of the mothers present said to me many days later, "Your words did so much for me that I left that day thinking YAY! That was exactly what I needed to hear. I felt changed when I left."

I am always giving people words. Sometimes, it's all I have! One way I do this is to share books that have made a difference in my life. If I have a friend going through a trial, I try to put my hands on just the right book and pass it along or recommend it. The ideas I've discovered in reading have healed me many times over. And so have the few simple words from friends and strangers, many of whom will never know the effect of their right words at the right time.

Isn't it incredible to think we all have that power--to use for the good? Here are some of my favorite words: "Thank you." "I love you." "I'm so glad to see you." "You are beautiful." "You are a good mother." "You are doing a good job." "You can do it!" "I'm here if you need me."

When have the words of someone else made all the difference in your life--words you've either heard or read? And what tiny event, almost insignificant, has words spoken in it that made a difference you've never forgotten?

Samantha Wilde is the author of the recently released I'll Take What She Has and This Little Mommy Stayed Home. She is an ordained minister, a yoga teacher, and the full-time, at-home mother of three small children who often say just the thing she needs to hear. She really appreciates it when people like her on Facebook (and is happy to return the favor), follow her on twitter, check out her mothering blog, purchase vast quantities of her novel, or make a movie out of one of her novels that becomes a blockbuster. "Here's a million, honey!" Those are some right words at the right time!

The Right Words at the Right Time

by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

This cycle's theme at GBC is in the title of this post. For my entry, I'm going to focus on the right words I said, because I'm lazy and it's easy.

Any time I get asked in an interview to give advice to other writers, I always say the same thing. First, I say that you must read, read, read everything you can get your hands on, because you can't be a good writer if you're not a great reader. And then I say to always remember:

The only person who can ever really take you out of the game is you.

I've said it countless times. It's one of the truest things I know.

Sometimes I'll hear from writers who will say those words spoke to them. The most memorable instance was at a writing conference. A woman came up to me and said she'd been writing book after book, trying to get published for 20 years. Let me say that again: 20 years. "In my darkest hours, I'd remember what you said and, somehow, I'd keep going. And now my book is going to be published by a New York publishing company."

In a career with many great joys - and many agonies! - that stands as one of my proudest moments.

And the thing is: those words are true. Most writing careers are peppered with other people saying some version of "no." Agents reject you, or maybe you get an agent but they drop you; publishers reject your book, or you sell one book but can't seem to sell another - there are myriad ways others say "No." But no one can tell you: No, you can't do this anymore; you have to stop trying; you have to stop writing. People can say, "You can't play with me," but no one else can say you can't play. Only you can do that.

So, you want to write? Then write. Maybe people will say no to you. Maybe they'll say no for 20 years. But no matter what anyone else says, if you want to write, then just keep writing. Because it's true today and it'll be true tomorrow, because it's always been true:

The only person who can ever really take you out of the game is you.

I'm sure my GBC sisters will be reluctant to post their own "right words" in the comments - they'll likely want to save those for their own posting days! - but feel free to do so if you'd like or tell me about anything else good and inspiring, even share good news if you have it.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the author of 32 books. Her most recent pet project is THE DISRESPECTFUL INTERVIEWER: THIRTEEN INTERVIEWS WITH AUTHORS. Check her out at www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com or follow her on Twitter at @LaurenBaratzL