Fantasy Author Jodi Perkins |
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Combining mindless chatter with writing updates since 1982. (That might be a slight hyperbole.) |
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THIS MONTH saw me back in the classroom for normal, in-person school. On the one hand, it's been pure joy for me and my students. I'm finally able to do "real" lessons again! But I also discovered that being on lockdown for over a year has drained me of my five-day-a-week stamina. It reminds me of a post in my blog archives called "Soggy and Me." Although it was written years ago before my first book was published, it's a perfect representation of what I feel right now. So without further ado... |
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Feature ArticleSoggy & Me |
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As you [maybe, probably, most likely] know, it's my life-long dream to be an author. But...I sort of have a day job that is a bit time-consuming. And by "a bit," I mean very, VERY, VERRRRRRY time-consuming. I'm a 7th grade English teacher (which is probably not boding well for my "very" with six Rs). I love my job, but by the time I come home, I'm utterly drained. Teaching isn't physically taxing, but mentally it takes its toll. Even if you take all of the classroom management out of the equation, the sheer number of questions I'm asked every day would be enough to turn anyone's brain into mush. The bell for first period rings, and it goes something like this: Mrs. Perkins, do you have a pencil I can borrow? Can I sharpen my pencil? Can I go to the bathroom? I forgot my homework--can I turn it in tomorrow? What does this word mean? Can I go to the bathroom? |
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How old are you? What page are we on? Can I have some tissue? Can I go to the bathroom? Are we on regular schedule or upside-down schedule? Can I change seats? Can I throw this away? Why are the announcements so hard to hear today? Can I hold Muggle? Can I go to the bathroom? That brings us about four minutes into the school day. It's not the students' fault. They don't realize that their one little harmless question, combined with the bazillion other harmless questions from their classmates, would bring any sane person to their knees. Lucky for me, I'm not a sane person. I TEACH MIDDLE SCHOOL. So I handle all of these questions like a champ, rapid-firing answers back so fast that I'm not even sure what I'm saying. But by the time I come home from work, I look something like this: |
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I've decided to name her "Soggy." It just seems to fit.
Does Soggy look like a writer to you? Does she look like she's ready to start tapping away on her keyboard in some stream of inspiration? I mean, I can't even answer the most basic questions from my family, let alone work on a book. My daughter will ask me if the dishes in the dishwasher are clean, and I'll look at her with this empty gaze, until two minutes later, I'm like, "Huh? Something about spoons?"
Sadly, my students get the best of me. My family and my writing get Soggy.
What does this mean for my future as a writer? I admit I suffer from a massive case of Green with Envy Syndrome when I see all of my writerly friends on social media who have chosen writing as their career. They put their hearts and souls into their dream. And once they finish writing a book, they have the time to promote it. They can do blog tours and giveaways and explore all sorts of social networking avenues to give their book a presence.
Does Soggy look like she's excited to jump on Facebook and do a blog giveaway? My poor little book is somehow going to have to miraculously leap from the Amazon page and sell itself because frankly I'm lucky if I have enough stamina at the end of the workday to read the label on a ketchup bottle (as my friend Simon puts it), let alone sell a damn book.
I guess all of this begs the question...why don't I quit teaching and pursue my dream of being a full-time writer?
Easy. I teach for the money.
Oh, come on, that was funny.
Okay, seriously. I won't quit because not only do I love my students, they inspire me. It was my students who asked me every single day last year "How's your book coming along, Miss P?" and who squealed every time I read an excerpt, with cries of "Hurry up--I can't wait to read the whole thing!"
And today, it is still my students who keep me pumped up...who refuse to let me off the hook. (And who throw pencils at my head if I start to nod off from pulling an all-nighter).
So even though Soggy doesn't always feel like writing, she still pushes through...because she has 100-and-some hopeful faces cheering her on.
Maybe someday, I will have to choose: Be a teacher, or be a writer. But for now, I choose both. Because somehow, being a teacher motivates me to be a writer--even if it's a writer who's a wee bit soggy around the edges. |
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Are you ready for this? *drumroll or something* Spring of Crows is done! Er--roughly done, anyway. A couple of days before I started back to work, I went into a desperate writing frenzy knowing that once the school year started I'd be derailed from finishing my manuscript for...ever. Well, it worked! I finished writing the book! I now have a complete manuscript for Spring of Crows. Unfortunately, this isn't the finish line. I now have months of editing and revising to do, and then the book goes to beta readers. But this first draft is done and it feels pretty dang good. |
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This Month's Easter Egg Bombarded with Time |
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Did you happen to notice one or two "time" words buried in Chasing Echoes? Maybe, maybe not. But they're there, and there's a bunch. It's almost overkill, really. It's like the author (whoever that crazy chick is) wants to bombard her readers with the fact that "Time is an important component in this book." Anyway, several items in the book are named after items having to do with time, the most obvious examples being Clockworks Village and Pendulum Square. A commonly mentioned street in Clockworks Village is Greenwich Dr., which is a reference to the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. Taz's dad's name is Horace, its Latin origin meaning "Hour in Time" or "Timekeeper." Taz's last name, Aevos (also spelled Aevus) is also Latin, meaning all time, passage/lapse of time, time, time of life, age, old age, and/or generation. Even the Face of Maui connects to time, since Maui is the sun god in Polynesian mythology, and the sun was Earth's very first time-keeper. There are more in there, but I don't want to give them all away. ;) |
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I'm really loving indie music lately! This one serenaded me several times while Phee and her sisters were lost in Death Valley, trying to find their mother (Spring of Crows). I felt their plee, "Paint me a map that leads me to you...use all of the colors the heart can imbue," and their subsequent confusion when this map leads them astray. There are also a dozen ways this song can be applied to Aviva in Black Lilies too, though it belongs forever now to Spring of Crows. |
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Is there a song that reminds you of a scene from the Chasing Echoes series? Email it to me and I'll feature it in a future newsletter. |
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Hope you enjoyed this month's tidbits. See you again next month! |
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Missed last month's newsletter? Click HERE to catch up and read "You Take a Piece of Meat with You," which may or may not be talking about steak. |
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