Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice....

I'm posting this blog about 11 hours early. Why? Because it's February 2oth! My husband's birthday. So later tonight, I do not want to be writing my blog. See? This is a perfect example of scheduling passions, which I talked about in my blog Put Down the Duckie! a few posts ago. I am not about to have no time for Ron when he gets home, but, I am still going to get my writing work done for the day.

February 20 - what a great day. Sigh. Today I heard the leaves rustle, looked outside, and saw the shadows of a tree's leaves dancing across the hood of my car. And suddenly I was transported back to my childhood, back to spring days of Chinchilla, Pennsylvania, when chill winds and clear cold sunshine would dominate the day.

And then I felt, I knew, how lucky I was to have grown up in Pennsylvania, with its fireflies, and potholes, and towns with names like Hop's Bottom. Why so lucky? I guess because it made me who I am. It's all a part of me, and that is valuable.

I think people (this author being no small exception) have a tendency to make excuses based on history and present circumstances.

Yeah, it's easy for him, he doesn't have two kids to put through college.
Sure, but she's got a rich husband.
Maybe if my parents had been brilliantly successful....
If I lived in Alabama in 1930, I'd have a lot to write about, too.
Back in the sixties, people really had causes worth fighting for.
If I had a car like that, girls would like me, too.
Yeah, but she's not working two jobs.

Here's the deal, as far as I can tell - we all have our issues, our circumstances, our obligations. But these do not block us from achieving our dreams ( unless we pile them up in front of our dreams, insisting that we have no place else to put them.) No, our issues, circumstances, and obligations do not block our dreams. Rather, they are the stuff our dreams are made of. All of our personal "stuff" is who we are, and dreams are another version of who we are. Instead of thinking, "I have_______ in my life, so I can't _______,"try this: "I have ________ in my life, so how can I __________?" Forget the path you wanted to take, and focus on the terrain in front of you and how to tackle it.

Seriously, it works.

GVR Corcillo

author of

  

She Likes It Rough

"All Summer on a Date"

"Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants"

Queen of the Universe coming this Fall

Ruby Slippers

I was terrified.

In less than twenty minutes, guest speaker Jessica Brody would be talking about screen writer Blake Snyder's book Save the Cat!, which outlines the 15 beats every successful story needs in order to resonate.

Damn!

What a day to come to a writer's meeting! I had the proof of my soon to be published novel in my hand. Was I about to find out that my story sucked and really wan't even a story at all? Had I come all this way for nothing?

But to my amazement and relief, listening to Jessica check off the beats was like watching the Oscars the year Return of the King was nominated. First beat, okay, got that. Second, good. Third, got that one. And just as Return of the King, one by one, won every Oscar it was nominated for, my story had every one of the 15 beats. Halleluja! My opening and closing images reflect one another beautifully. My false defeats and false victories are in place. My darkest moment happens right on cue. And my thesis - the line in the beginning that sets up the whole story and the problem that the story will solve - nailed it. Why did I ever think someone like him would put up with someone like me?

I'd never read Save the Cat! nor paid particular attention to Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey. I had no outline. I just wrote my story. With some inherent sense of good story telling. Apparently. Without realizing it, I knew what I was doing. The power was in me all along, just like Dorothy and clicking her ruby heels at the end of The Wizard of Oz.

Yet for years, I'd doubted myself. It took Fairy Godmother Jessica Brody to get me to open my book, look inside, and see all the beats lined up like popcorn on a string. It had been no easy task to get the beats there, but now that they are, they feel so right. And honestly, it was only about the millionth time in my life that my knack for writing has been officially sanctioned. Jeepers - when I was a sophomore in college I tied with an MFA graduate for first place in a writing contest. It just took me a good long while to start believing. And it wasn't until I took the decisive action to publish my book that my belief felt real to me.  

So - what am I saying? That someday things will come together for you, and at that moment you will realize that the power had been in you to transform your life all along? No. I am saying that the power is in you, right now, so act on it. Just do it. Flip the switch that allows your dreams to come blasting forth to illuminate your life. If you want to move to New Zealand, move to New Zealand. If you want to quit your job and go to medical school at age 52, do it. If you want to kiss the prom queen, despite the punch in the face you know is coming from the prom king, go for it. If you want to cut off all your hair, why not? If you want to patent that invention, do it before someone beats you to it. Do something huge if your heart of hearts wants it. Or sometimes even the smallest change in routine can change a life. Rosa Parks just didn't get up, and she shifted the course of human history.

So click those heels. You've got the power.

GVR Corcillo

author of

  

She Likes It Rough

"All Summer on a Date"

"Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants"

Queen of the Universe coming this Fall

 

The Jane Austen Book Club

In Karen Joy Fowler's novel The Jane Austen Book Club, five women and one man form a club to read and discuss Jane Austen's six novels. As they do, their lives and conflicts echo those so masterfully created by Jane herself. I really enjoyed the book - each character's story facsinates all on its own, and each story delightfully entangles with the others a la Austen.

When the movie version came out, I scornfully dismissed it. I had not seen it - I find scoffing easier the less information I have - but it was clear that the film could never do the poignant backstories justice and so many of the characters were cast too young. 

Then I saw it. 

The film, written and directed by Robin Swicord, brought the Austen-esque parallels into sharper, funnier, more critical focus. Each discussion of a book plays out brilliantly as the members work out their issues with one another and with themselves by ostensibly discussing Austen. For instance, two women who do not hit it off from the word go take jabs at one another as they vehemently argue about Emma and the nature of love. One woman mourns her mother while railing against Mr. Bennett of Pride and Prejudice.  And the in the second to last book discussion, Grigg and Jocelyn really go at it as they discuss Sense and Sensibilty and its opinions of sexuality and abandon. Not to be missed!

It is a captivating fantasy for an Austen fan - a story in which the characters lives morph into echoes of what they're reading, happy endings and all.

But is it a fantasy? The melding of life and literature? Or do we gravitate toward certain stories because we are subconsciously trying to work things out for ourselves? As Eli Manning said earlier this season when asked if his arm was tired, "Who knows?"

Here is what I do know, though. My life is beginning to echo my main character Lisa Flyte's in She Likes It Rough, and that is no accident. It wasn't a sure thing either, and my personal journey is going to be a lot longer than 320 pages, but my life is becoming more like that of the fictional life I created. And my life is changing thus specifically because I created the fictional character in the first place!

When I first decided to write She Likes It Rough, I started from the very simple idea Write What You Know. I am afraid of almost everything, except dogs and public speaking, so I wrote about a scaredy-cat. I want a backbone, so I made my character decide to get a backbone. I had to collapse a restaurant on top of her then completely humiliate her both personally and publicly in order to to get her to make that decision, but she makes it. Once she makes the decision, acting on it becomes pretty daunting. But the very fact that she has something to work for gives her life a different slant. Sometimes she slips right down that slant and lands on her head, but she's a trooper. 

Ever since I published this book, my life has been bopping along to Lisa's beat, as I work to promote this book, write more books, and construct my world instead of just inhabiting the one that came with the frame. I'm not going on daring adventures in the wild to find my backbone, but I am bushwhacking my way into uncharted territory. I'm sweaty, dirty, bug-bitten, and living on rations. It is just so cool!

GVR Corcillo

author of

  

She Likes It Rough

"All Summer on a Date"

"Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants"

Queen of the Universe coming this Fall

    

Put Down the Duckie!

Put Down the Duckie!

In 1986, Sesame Street first aired its jazzy number, "Put Down the Duckie," music by Christopher Cerf and lyrics by Norman Stiles. Ernie goes to Hoots the Owl for advice: every time he tries to play the saxophone, he tells Hoots, the instrument makes a funny squeaking noise. Hoots tells him that it's because he's holding his Rubber Duckie as he tries to play. If Ernie wants to play the sax, he'll have to put down the duckie. And the song takes off as the entire band and an eclectic array of celebrities join Hoots in exhorting Ernie to put down the duckie. Ernie pays them all no heed, until Hoots says the magic words: Ernie can pick the duckie back up again when he's done playing. Once Ernie realizes this, he tosses Rubber Duckie aside with abandon and  grooves with the band. 

This song jives to the beat of the incandescent writer: you do not have to give up who you are and the things most dear to your life in order to dedicate yourself to writing. But you do have to set aside other passions temporarily in order to make time to write, passions that are not forgotten, but that are categorized and scheduled. 

I know it seems impossible to fit another full time job into your life when you may already essentially have two other full time jobs. But it can happen - it can work. It is phenomenal how much you can get done when you are crazy busy doing the things that really get your motor runnin'. If you just cannot feel the spark you need to energize your life and your writing, publish a book to give yourself a tangible product to work for. Or enter a contest in order to give yourself deadlines. Start a blog, and make yourself responsible for it and to your readers. Commission the cover of your book in progress, so you have a very real piece of the book to  to fill. Literally.

Once you decide, I am a writer, suddenly, focus shifts, time warps, and priorities change. I have six unread books on my phone and two in my car. I forget to eat. I work out with alacrity because I am so pumped to get to the next thing to do in my day. I am infatuated with British television, but I haven't even finished the Father Brown (A British mystery series from 1974 based on the stories of G.K. Chesterton)  episode yet that I started two weeks ago before I published my book. No episodes of Zen, Doc Martin, or Upstairs, Downstairs for over a week. And I do not even miss them! Have I abandoned BBC TV forever? Of course not - Inspector Lewis supposedly has at least one more season to go, for Pete's sake. 

But for now, I have put down the duckie, thus freeing myself to write on and on.

    

GVR Corcillo

author of

  

She Likes It Rough

"All Summer on a Date"

"Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants"

Queen of the Universe coming this Fall

Ready, Set, Go!

Ready, Set, Go!

I have been Geralyn all of my life. My given name is Geralyn Ruane. Then, when I was in 7th grade, I lied to a priest in order to snag Vivian as my middle name. For Confirmation, I was supposed to choose a saint's name, but I had just seen Gone With the Wind, so I told the priest Vivian was my grandmother's name, and he let me take it. It isn't, but do I feel guilty about lying? Hardly.  What does the Church expect, letting 7th grade girls choose their own names? Many years later, I married Ron Corcillo, the love of my life, and chose to change my last name to Corcillo. Many of my friends were surprised by my decision, but I don't see what's so empowering about keeping my Dad's name. I chose to be a Corcillo. My choice.

Thus, I became Geralyn Vivian Ruane Corcillo. I have since taken GVR Corcillo as my writing name because GVR Corcillo represents all of me - the laughter, the pain, the triumph, the tears, the elation, the disappointments, the hope, the emptiness, the kindness - and everything else that comprises a life. And as a writer, I use everything within me. GVR it is.

But it was just a name. I was still Geralyn, a sporadically inspired writer wanna-be. I have wanted to BE A WRITER ever since Mrs. Sheehan in The Middle School told me I had a flair for writing. Heck, I wanted to be a writer even before that. In first grade, I wrote a scandalous tale chronicling my cat Pepsi's pregnancy. And I've been writing poetry ever since that Haiku about the goat in second grade. I have wanted to be a writer for so long.

Wanna wanna wanna! Sometimes I would even be provoked by flashes of brilliance into writing something strong and I would win prizes. I even made it to the New York Times Best Sellers List once.

But I never buckled down to pursue writing as a career. Sure, I sent out the occasional query or submission, and I'd be ready to go if I were "discovered," but I never tried hard enough to be a writer. Why should I? What if it no one ever bought my stories? And why should I pursue marketing and audience avenues when I had no serious bids for the product? All that work for possibly nothing?

You can analyze it any way you want - I was scared of failure, scared of success, lazy, insecure, suffering from low self-esteem - it doesn't matter how you categorize it - I was not a writer.

Then, last Friday, I changed my life. I clicked the button on Createspace that made my novel go live. I self published my chic lit novel She Likes It Rough. Now,  anyone can buy my book. I can buy my book! I already had the vibrant, substantial proof in my hand. I wrote a book! I created the book! I published the book! I am holding my BOOK in my HAND!!!!! AND ANYONE CAN BUY IT!!!!! I am an author.

Gone are the desultory writing habits slogging through my life and constantly reminding me what I am not doing and have not done. Such craven negligence is but a sad memory. Now, I wake up everyday eager to get started building my life as AN AUTHOR. The author GVR Corcillo. I do not fret over things I should have been doing for years, such as building up a social network or writing the ten other books in my head. No time for regrets. I start from here and go.

I am learning voraciously as I build my connections and forge my place in the book world. I have so much to do to launch my book, but I've got every day to do it. I have to make the e-book version of my novel available. And publish my YA short story. I also must start working on my second novel, Queen of the Universe, which comes out on Fall 2013. And I better get into shape, so I have oodles of energy and look kick-ass when I am on Ellen and Letterman.

Are you an emerging writer? Someone battling the demons that keep you from becoming what you always wanted to be? Feel free to tune in here or chime in on my website as I keep a nightly journal of my journey to become GVR Corcillo, author. Living the life of GVR, becoming GVR, is something I have to work at every day. And so far, I am loving every second of it!

But even when I don't, I'll still be here, working. Because that's what a writer does.

GVR Corcillo

author of  She Likes It Rough

 "All Summer on a Date" 

 "Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants"

Queen of the Universe coming this Fall

Can daring adventures with an adrenaline junkie help a shrinking violet of a city girl find the backbone she needs in order to live her life to the fullest?

I wish I had a goat

Grey with a snow white neck

That would be just fine