November is Novel Writing--no, Picture Book Idea, no...

It's November, and I'm caught in the middle! Do I participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), or one of its many spin-offs such as Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo)?? Do I write 50,000 words in a month (in my dreams!) for Nano, or a few thousand for PiBo? Do I want to write for adults, or for children? Do I make flow charts of plots, or sketches of goofy monsters? Or do I simply go with the coolest web badge?

You know how when you walk into some people's houses, you feel like you know who they are? Their personalities, values, and how their minds work? Have you ever had that feeling about computer software?
I certainly have. For years, I've tussled with writing with word-processing programs: scrolling for miles, searching for key points, cutting and pasting sections, bracketing reminder notes to myself, losing or confusing drafts, and scribbling notes on printouts. Other programs had arcane, convoluted, and confusing internal logic with oddly named functions, and constantly crashed.
So, when I stumbled across Scrivener a few years ago, it felt like putting on an old glove. Developed by a writer for writers, it captures all of the various tasks that a writer does in creating a work, long or short, straightforward or complex. Not functions jerry-rigged and patched into a program, but rather organically grown out of actual writers' needs, and structured in ways that are sensible to a writer. Where do I file this research note, this website reference, this character trait, this audio interview? Can I subdivide this chapter? Can I meld three scenes together from different chapters? Can I jump from section to section? What reference styling will I need for my notes? Can I automate screenplay styling? Comic books? Novels? Theses? Can I label and color-code and make index cards and customize output?
Scrivener does this and more.
I write about Scrivener not so much as an advertisement for it, but because for many people, it will feel like a lifesaver, and it should serve as a model for software designers. It is insanely cheap, and the user forums (on which the designer participates) are informative, civil, and helpful. A real community has been created that has endured even as the software has matured and become a real company. The new manual and tutorials are thorough. The popularity of this program among writers has been such that people have switched from PC to Mac in order to use it. However, the developers have surprised everyone and in addition to their new Mac release (Scrivener 2.0) they've come out with a Windows version.
Scrivener deserves high accolades.
Not bad for an old glove.

DaCosta New Story Published

"As the Number 18 bus pulled up, Terrence stuck his weather-beaten hands back into his pockets to warm them for a brief moment. He hated panhandling, but with a bum back and bum eye, there wasn't much work he could get."

In this story, "For Want of Some Gloves," I tackle the layers of honesty,  thievery, and assumptions that so easily can creep into our lives. The story appears in Why Did Santa Leave a Body, a collection of holiday season mysteries now available from North Star Press. Edited by Brian Landon, the book also features stories by Jessie Chandler, Michael Allan Mallory, Brian Landon, Camille Hyytinen, Joan Murphy Pride, Dennis Anderson, Kathleen Lindstrom, J. Henry, T.J. Roth, and Marlene Chabot. ---Barbara DaCosta

The Mistake That Almost Got Away

I recently attended the Anderson Center's 11th Annual Celebration of Minnesota Children's Authors and Illustrators in Red Wing, Minnesota. The Anderson Center is nestled on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. It's a wonderful place that sponsors arts programming, exhibitions, residencies, and more. This annual celebration is sponsored by the center, along with the Red Wing Public Library, the Red Balloon Bookstore, and the U of M's fabulous Kerlan Collection of children's books and manuscripts.
The day featured speakers, signings, a Civil War reenactment, balloon animals, and many other fun activities.  I heard talks by Michael Hall (My Heart is Like a Zoo), Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss (Alphabeasties), Mike Wohnoutka (Davey's Blue-eyed Frog), and met Joyce Sidman, John Coy, Lauren Stringer, and others.

At the celebration, I met up with Debra Frasier, author and illustrator of A Fabulous Fair Alphabet, a children's picture book that debuted at the Minnesota State Fair to great acclaim. She had a fun activity for people of all ages: to assemble their names out of the colorful letters she'd photographed at the fair and used in her book. Debra's activity tent was very organized, with large laminated letters carefully sorted into bins. There were also these 4-foot long foam noodle things, a bizarre invention that I've seen used as musical instruments, as play swords, or for pool exercise. Debra was using them as oversized letter holders. A narrow slit along their length was to be the gripper for the laminated letters.
I turned down the offer of help. What could be so difficult about putting my name letters in order into a slot on a foam noodle?
Plenty, it turns out.

This was long after I'd dried off from the day's earlier incident: I'd been minding my own business talking to someone at another booth, when a young girl on stilts wobbled by behind me. She bumped into me, teetered, and grabbed onto the edge of the canvas booth roofing for balance. The roof had been holding a nice big batch of cold rainwater since the night before and suddenly, all of that water went down my back! At least I kept the booth's display material from getting wet.
Debra's fair alphabet booth activities seemed a bit less high-risk, so I headed over there.  I chose colorful letters for my name and using the noodle like a paper clip, stuck them in the lengthwise slit. But the letters kept falling out. Finally one of the kind helpers approached me again and gently suggested that most people turned the noodle so the slit would face upward. I turned the noodle over and started over.
Finally, success! Here's the colorful result:

But there was STILL something wrong—that I didn't notice until that evening at home, when I looked at the photo. See if you can spot it.

How is a Book Made?

Those of us who work as writers and editors know how much work goes on to prepare a manuscript for publication. But that's only part of the whole process. There's further work done within a publishing house, including more editing, cover art, marketing, and sales, just to mention a few areas. The material is prepared for the printer, these days, digitally, where it goes through a sequence of pre-press preparation, printing, collating, binding, packaging, and shipping.
Here's a look at how a book is physically put together by a printer here (created for Webcrafters Inc. in Madison, Wisconsin).

Hey, Wait, Come Back! I Wasn't Finished Yet!

Writers and artists often do on-site research for their works-in-progress. That's what I was doing recently, trying to capture those fleeting moments between winter and spring, this year on the early side in mid-March. It's when the ice goes out on the lake, cracking, crunching, sloshing as it changes forms. Warm-weather birds begin to return and join the morning avian chorus. The ground starts to thaw, grass tinges green, tulips and day lily leaves start to peek through the soil, and humans resume their outdoor activities.
On-site research doesn't always work out how you expect, though. This mallard on Minnehaha Creek was too busy to stick around and pose.

Eighth Annual Write of Spring

I'll be appearing along with more than 50 Minnesota mystery authors at Write of Spring, Once Upon a Crime's annual celebration! Saturday, March 20th, 12-4 pm, 604 West 26th Street (off Lyndale Avenue South). Here's the schedule:

12:00 • Joel Arnold, Judith Yates Borger, Laura Childs, Katie DeCosse, Pete Hautman, Monica Ferris, Libby Fischer Hellmann, Priscilla Herbison, Kathleen Hills, William Kent Krueger, Jackie Maher, David Oppegaard, Deborah Woodworth 

1:00 • Carl Brookins, Gary Bush, Jan Dunlap, Margaret Frazer, Brian Freeman, Ellen Hart, Jenifer LeClair, Victoria Houston, Camille Hyytinen, Andrea Sisco, Beth Solheim, Roger Stelljes, Richard Thompson 

2:00 • Barbara DaCosta, Pat Dennis, Barbara Fister, Steve Horwitz, David Housewright, Chuck Logan, Larry Millett, Julie Schaper, Rick Shefchik, Anthony Neil Smith, Steve Thayer, Christopher Valen, Lance Zarimba  

3:00 • KJ Erickson, William Fietzer, Lois Greiman, Judith Koll Healey, Dean Hovey, Julie Kramer, Michael Allan Mallory, Sujata Massey, Scott Pearson, Susan Runholt, Marilyn Victor, JP White