This Thursday, YA author and Firebrand Literary Associate Agent  is doing an online chat for the Institute of Children’s Literature. It’s a don’t-miss event for which you can find details at http://www.institutechildrenslit.com/rx/index.shtml.

An aside: I’m totally impressed by the innovative and overlapping marketing, promotion, and public relations techniques employed in this instance. Author and audience, each is recognized and rewarded. Brilliant buzz!

Giant, the self-described “ultimate entertainment magazine,” placed The Graduate at the top of its list of the “50 Greatest Movie Soundtracks of All Time.”

Executive editor Alison Prato justifies that soundtrack’s selection by asserting that it “resonates with every generation.” But Michael Kane of the NY Post calls this choice “a copout,” suggesting that “the music chosen for a movie soundtrack should be a diverse selection that reflects the multiple facets of its characters…every bit as varied as the range of emotions shown by the protagonist on screen.”

So today I’m wondering which movie soundtrack best represents my own life, and which ones match up with the women I’m writing about. Stay tuned and I’ll give you the songlists when I’ve compiled them.

If The Graduate doesn’t strike a chord, what movie soundtrack would you choose as the perfect representation of who you (or your book’s characters) are?

Melodye

 

                         Sometimes it’s very, very, very hard to wait

                         Especially when the waiting’s for something very nice

                         Sometimes it’s very, very, very hard to wait.

                                                                                         –Mr. Fred Rogers

In his inimitable, folksy way, Mr. Rogers acknowledges a simple truth: We must sometimes wait patiently for the things that matter most to us.

Writing for publication is often a waiting game, at once exhilarating and anxiety-producing. As writers, we must learn to wait:

– For inspiration, divine or desperate

– For validation, from loved ones and, more often, complete strangers

– For compensation, in whatever form we’re willing to accept

– For connections, with others willing to wait with us or wait for us.

From an outsider’s perspective, this waiting may sometimes look like procrastination or lack of progress. But as with the chrysalis that eventually becomes a butterfly, much of the waiting that we do involves internal transformations not immediately visible to the naked eye.

Witness us sitting motionless at our computer, staring into space at Starbucks, or drifting out of a conversation and into a daydream…chances are good that in that moment, an idea’s taking shape, a concept’s maturing, and our self-confidence is growing. We’re waiting, but we’re not idling.

I believe that all this waiting is worth it –- that I’m waiting (and working) for something very nice. So this journal will record my writing experiences: the wait, the worries, the work, the rewards, and the wonder of it all.

Please stop here now and again to say hello. And if you’d like, please tell me: what are YOU waiting for?

Melodye Shore

www.MelodyeShore.com