Dieting and Writing: The Link

Dieting and Writing:  The Link

I will lose fifteen pounds by spring.

I will write one thousand words a day—or more—so that I beat my deadline by three months.

Dieting and writing are two things I think about way too much.  Thinking about these two topics is probably a good thing.  I need to be conscious of what I eat and how much and I need to be conscious of what I write and how much.  I need to reflect daily on the quality of both what goes into my mouth and what goes onto the page.  Meeting these goals should be easy with this kind of conscientiousness, right?

Wrong.

In terms of dieting, I seem to gain and lose the same seventeen pounds every single year.  Last year was supposed to be different.  I was supposed to lose the weight and through conscious eating, diet, and exercise, I was supposed to keep it off.  The holidays approached.  I wouldn’t fall into the same traps.  But a trip to the emergency room where I received the somber news that my gall bladder needed to come out threw me off course.  I would have to eat differently until I lost the organ that processed fats and bile so that meant, in my mind, all bets were off.  What does one eat when they can’t eat fats?  CARBS!  And lots of them.  Carbopalooza began in earnest and slowly but surely, the weight started to creep back.  The good news is that I only allowed myself a three-pound gain over the month before I reined myself back in.  The bad news?  No more carbs for the foreseeable future and I need carbs.  Without them, I turn into a very bleak, very sad person.

As for the writing part, I also set goals.  A thousand words a day.  Every day.  No exceptions.  Unless of course I see a cobweb up in the rafters of my office.  Got to get the vacuum!  Got to vacuum that up!  And the cat litter…that needs to be changed.  Oh, there’s laundry?  I must do that, too.  While I’m at it, let’s eat a bag of pretzels…wait! I can’t have carbs.

See where I’m going with this? 

Dieting and writing are not all-or-nothing propositions.  Sure, it would be great if I could get the last ten pounds off while keeping the first seventeen off (and writing a thousand words a day) but that’s a long-term goal.  It won’t happen overnight, so the best course of action is to set a short-term goal for myself.  “This week, I’ll write down what I eat and exercise three days.  Next week, I’ll reassess.”  Same with writing.  If I wrote one thousand words per day, well, then it would only take me two and a half months to write a book which would give me lots of free time to vacuum up cobwebs.  And as we all know, it takes a heck of a lot longer to write a book than that.  It’s usually around a year because I owe my publisher one book a year.  I’ve never beaten a deadline but I sure as heck have almost blown one or five.

So while last year was the year of Zen Maggie—a spectacular failure if the stressed looks on my children’s faces are any indication—this year is the year of Attainable Goal Maggie. The year in which we finally figure out how to eat the elephant (hint:  one bite at a time) and never bite off more than we can chew or set goals that are unattainable and thus make us feel like constant failures.

Who’s with me?  And who hid the pretzels?

Maggie Barbieri

Crime Doesn’t Pay: An Early Lesson from Dick Tracy

by Kate Kelly

If you love mysteries and grew up reading the funny papers, chances are that you followed the adventures of Dick Tracy, a comic strip that first appeared in 1931. Dick Tracy introduced professional crime-fighting to the comic pages for the first time.

The inspiration for the strip came to Chester Gould, its creator, because he lived in Chicago and was tired of watching gangsters like Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly get away with what they did.

“I decided that if the police couldn’t catch the gangsters, I’d create fellow who could,” said Gould.

Enter Dick Tracy and more wham-bam fights than the comic strips had ever seen. Gould saw the strip as a lesson for the “bad guys” since Dick Tracy always wins. Gould said: “The first wrong step might be the last. Bullets don't recognize first offenders.”

Though Dick Tracy was created for a different era, the effect of Gould’s comic strip is still seen today. Consider:

1. Dick Tracy popularized the police procedural. Without the success of Dick Tracy we might have had to wait a long time before deductive crime-solving went mainstream. While readers had to wait until 1956 before Policewoman Lizz Grove (nee' Worthington) was added to the police force, she arrived and stayed because she had what it took to be a great crime-solver.

2. Gould was prophetic about technological advances.The two-way wrist radio, introduced in the strip in 1946, was a forerunner of our cell phones that give us real-time communication no matter where we are. Ditto the portable surveillance cameras that Gould introduced in 1948. Today surveillance cameras are almost everywhere and help to solve numerous crimes. “Electronic telephone number pick up” was something Dick Tracy used in 1954; today call-tracing is an important part of all types of police work.

3. Today “crime stopper” organizations exist in most communities and owe their start to Dick Tracy. In 1947 Tracy’s adopted son, Junior, announced that he and his friends wanted to be Crime Stoppers; they would find ways to occupy street kids who had little supervision and not enough to do. By the 1950s, Gould had incorporated a “crime stopper” tip as part of the opening panel on Sundays, and the police chief in Gould’s hometown of Woodstock, Illinois decided to create a local crime stoppers club for kids in the area, holding regular Saturday meetings. Other communities began to copy it. In 1976 a police officer from Albuquerque, George MacAleese, approached Gould to ask permission to use “Crimestoppers” (one word) for a program he wanted to organize. Because of MacAleese’s plan, today there are thousands of local organizations that enlist the public’s help in solving crimes. “Tips” lines are an important feature, and many also post descriptions and video online in case the public knows something about a particular crime. (Search "Crimestoppers" and your community for an example of what exists nearby.)

Dick Tracy still runs in many newspapers and online. He has appeared in comic books as well as in advertising and in film and on TV. Clearly, Chester Gould’s creation will continue to uphold the law.

Comic strips offer a fun and interesting lens through which to view American culture. Visit my site to read about Brenda Starr, Beetle Bailey, and Olive Oyl, and if you’d like to receive future comic strip profiles by email, please send me your address: kate@americacomesalive.com with “Comics” in the subject line. I also welcome suggestions as to the characters you would like to read about.

Lori's Book Sense

Welcome to this months edition of Lori's Book Sense.

I hope you enjoy these great titles I've chosen for you this month.

The Last Word by Ellery Adams ~ Olivia Limoges and the Bayside Book Writers are excited about Oyster Bay's newest resident: bestselling novelist Nick Plumley, who's come to work on his next book. But when Olivia stops by Plumley's rental she finds that he's been strangled to death. Her instincts tell her that something from the past came back to haunt him, but she never expects that the investigation could spell doom for one of her dearest friends...

Ellery Adams is at her best in The Last Word, the third book in the Books by the Bay series (see A Killer Plot & A Deadly Cliché). Ellery possesses the incredible talent of not only keeping the books each of the Bayside book writers are writing moving forward, but of writing an amazing story as well. It’s been such a joy to see the progress Olivia has made from being a rich, closed-off recluse to now having and sustaining wonderful relationships. Ellery has done a remarkable job of retelling a part of history that many aren’t familiar with and making the reader feel as if they were experiencing it first-hand. The reader is 100% completely drawn into the story.  I had such a visceral experience when reading this book; I could actually feel the wind on my face, taste the salt of the ocean on my lips, and hear the waves crash upon the beach. The Last Word made me laugh, made me think, made me smile, and made me cry. The Last Word – in one word – AMAZING!

Heart of a Killer by David Rosenfelt  (Release date, Feb 14th) ~  Jamie Wagner is a young lawyer who is happy to be flying under the radar at a large firm. It’s not that he isn’t smart. He is. It’s just that hard work, not to mention the whole legal thing, isn’t exactly his passion. Underachiever? A little. Content? Right up until the firm puts him on a case that turns his whole world upside down.

Sheryl Harrison has served four years of a thirty-year murder sentence for killing her husband, who she claims was abusive. The case is settled---there shouldn’t be anything for Jamie to do---except Sheryl’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Karen, is sick. She has a congenital heart defect and will die without a transplant. Her blood type is rare, making their chances of finding a matching donor remote at best. Sheryl wants to be that donor for her daughter, and Jamie is in way over his head. Suicide, no matter the motive, is illegal. So with Sheryl on suicide watch, Jamie’s only shot at helping her and saving Karen is to reopen the murder case, prove Sheryl’s innocence, and get her freed so that she can pursue her plan on her own.

Heart of A Killer is an emotion-packed, intense thriller that will take you on the ride of your life. The intensity starts from the second you hear about Sheryl’s heartfelt plan to save her daughter’s life, to the emotion-filled, final pages that had me in tears. And in between all that there is mystery, laughter, flirting, deceit, murder, and love. This book clearly defines the lengths a parent will go for their child – literally willing to die for them.  Heart of a Killer will tug on every emotion that you have, and then some. 

Mortal Deception by Liz Roth ~ A mix of deceit and lies rocks the world of a dying child, an ex-cop on a mission to clear her dead husband's name and an anesthesiologist who desperately wants out of a loveless marriage. To save her nephew's life, the young widow seduces the doctor accused of murdering his wife. But even as she collects evidence that proves he's the killer, she can't stop her heart from falling for him. Until the game turns DEADLY...

Combining the murder of Nathan’s wife, the need to clear Johnny’s name, and the desperation to save a little boys life, Liz Roth puts together on hell of a mystery, while at the same time creating a beautiful story about the importance of love, family, and truth – no matter what the cost.

Close To Home

By Laura Bradford

Ever have one of those Ruh-Roh moments ala The Jetsons?

Well, I just had one when I realized it was Friday and I was up for a post here with my fellow Stiletto babes.

In my defense, I truly had no idea it was even Friday, let alone the fourth Friday. You see, my nose has been pressed to the keyboard for the past few weeks as I churned out yet another book. This one was a romance with a subject line very near and dear to my heart. And as I'm writing this post, I'm finally realizing why I found this book so exhausting (Ruh-Roh moment #2).

It wasn't that I didn't love it...because, in fact, I do. But I guess, since I could relate to the main character in so many ways, it called on more of me to get it done. Not the me who was typing, or the me who was creating, but the me who gets it on a very different level.

When I was diagnosed with M.S. in 2006, I was heavy in denial. So much so, it took me a full year before I found the courage to start the meds. But even over the next few years (I can't believe I'm coming up on six), I always wondered if the experience would find its way into a book.

Well... Surprise! It found its way into a book.

Only it found its way in via a character with a very different story than mine. Still, as I wrote the book, I felt what she felt. I got the parts that scared her. And I finally see now, why I struggled with this book right up until the last edit...when everything suddenly clicked.

Hmmmm.  Little did I know when I had my Ruh-Roh moment about posting today, I would finally figure out why the writing process of this book was so very different for me. Wow.

So tell me, have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? Either writing or, perhaps, even reading something that hit a bit closer to home than normal? Does it change the writing/reading process for you?

~Laura

P.S. I'm off to go sledding with dozens of middle school aged girls as part of a Girl Scout weekend this afternoon. Not exactly the post-book sleep fest I was looking for, but it'll do! :)

Punctuation saves books

by Maria Geraci

I have to admit to getting a tickle out of this. I ripped it off a friend's Facebook status and discovered that there is an entire Facebook page devoted to the love of punctuation and all things wordly. Yep, it's right here.

All of which is extremely appropriate for my current state of mind because I just handed in the reviewed copy edits for my latest novel, A Girl Like You, which comes out this August. All I can say is: Thank you, professional copy editors of the world. Without you, I might indeed be "eating grandma!"

For those of you who might not be writers, let me explain what I'm talking about. After you hand in your *polished* manuscript to your editor, she/he asks for revisions or rewrites. Once you and your editor agree on the completed manuscript, it then goes to the next stage: the professional copy editor. This is the God/Goddess who goes through your 90,000 plus word manuscript with a fine tooth comb to correct typos, misspells, grammar and punctuation. You (the writer) then review the copy-edited manuscript and make any last minute changes/corrections, etc...

When I wrote my first novel for Berkley (just four short years ago), the copy-edited manuscript came to me via UPS in paper form and copy-edits were done in long hand. Thank God we're more civilized now and the copy-edits come back via the air waves in the form of Word and the copy-edits in Track Changes.

Just for giggles, here are just a few of the snafus on A Girl Like You. In my defense, I will say that when I'm writing I'm concentrating on content. Plus, I know there is this terrific copy-editor that is watching my back...

Original::
Torie is not a classic beauty, but she gets hit on more than Kimberly and I combined.
Copy-Edited:
Torie is not a classic beauty, but she gets hit on more than Kimberly and me combined.

This is the first of my books written in first-person, present tense. Boy, do I now know the difference in using "I" and "me."

Original:
Luckily, it is at this moment that the crowd begins to hoop and holler,
Copy-Edited:
Luckily, it is at this moment that the crowd begins to hoot and holler,

Um, I guess crowds don't hoop, do they?

Original:
"So then I ask her if she’ll take a breathalyzer test..."
Copy-Edited:
"So then I ask her if she’ll take a Breathalyzer test..."

And last but not least, here's one that was particularly embarrassing considering I'm referencing one of my personal favorite movies:

Original:
I like to imagine myself as the Rosalind Russell to his Cary Grant (think My Girl Friday)
Copy Edited:
I like to imagine myself as the Rosalind Russell to his Cary Grant (think His Girl Friday),

So, while in my case punctuation probably does not save lives, it definitely saves books.

Thank you, copy editors of the world!