October 21, 2009

We had a bit of server trouble on drolleriepress.com this evening, so this is a mirror copy of this month’s blog tour post! Enjoy, all!

Hey all, and welcome to the October 2009 edition of the Drollerie Blog Tour! This month’s theme is the lesser-known holiday of Sweetest Day, and we’re taking the opportunity to touch upon the general theme of what the day stands for: those who are encouraging to us. Some of us will be addressing this in terms of our writing, and others? It’ll be our characters.

And without further ado…

Sarah Avery is hosting Heather Ingemar’s post about how her first writing mentor helped her get serious

Nora Fleischer has my own little character vignette about a moment of encouragement in the early life of my heroine from Faerie Blood

On Meredith Holmes’ blog, Heather Parker talks about how a pair of cats and one well-timed remark from her husband gave rise to Middlewitch

Jessica Howe has a guest post from John Rosenman, who wants to give credit to several people who have helped his writing career

Imogen Howson is hosting Catherine Schaff-Stump, who describes her reaction to Sweetest Day

Heather Ingemar has a visit from Fraser Sherman, who sings the praises of people who may surprise you–or not, if you’re a writer yourself

I’ve got Sarah Avery, who tells us about one of the nicest things her husband ever did to assist her writing

At Heather Parker’s blog, Nora Fleischer gives thanks to the first author who ever gave real praise to her work

John Rosenman hosts Meredith Holmes, who thanks several people important to her and her writing efforts

Catherine Schaff-Stump has a post from Jessica Howe, who wants to tell us about the land where her muse has gone to play

And last but not least, Fraser Sherman hosts hosts Heather Ingemar, who finds that Sweetest Day has something in common with her own writing efforts

Thanks again all for reading all our posts. Which, we daresay, is all part of the theme this month!

Hey there all, it’s Drollerie Blog Tour day again, and this time around we’ve chosen as our theme an October holiday. No no, not the one you’re thinking of; we’re writing about Sweetest Day, and by extension, people who have been helpful, kind, or encouraging to us about our writing, or as the case may be, to our various characters.

I’m hosting the inimitable this time around, and without further ado, I shall turn the floor over to her!

The living room looked as if a Babies-R-Us had exploded in it. On the dining table, three baskets of clean laundry waited for someone to fold them. The kitchen floor was still smeared with finger paint, how many days after the painting incident? We weren’t really sure anymore. And our son wanted to experiment with the potty, which meant somebody would have to spend the next hour reading him those same damn potty training picture books. Between my students’ return from vacation, Dan’s work deadlines, and Gareth’s obsession with wearing big-boy underpants, we had completely lost our grip on the chores.

It was the fourth night in a row that I’d planned to get out of the house and write, only to conclude I had no right to the time. Yet again, I rolled up my sleeves and headed for the sink. The pile of dishes threatened to topple down onto the counter at any moment.

“Go write,” said Dan. “I’ve got it under control.”

I couldn’t help laughing. “Under control?”

“All right, nothing is under control. Go write anyway.” He picked up the picture books I could not stand to look at one more time that day. “Gareth, give Mommy a good-night hug. She needs to go to work now. Sarah, I don’t want to see you back here until they close up at Barnes & Noble.”

Nothing was under control, of course. Three hours later, I came home to a house Dan had been working on ceaselessly since the moment he tucked our son into his crib, and the place still looked like it merited a visit from a reality television crew from the Home and Garden network. It’s amazing how effort disappears into the vortex of parenthood.

I’d written my five hundred words, like a person or something, like a writer, like the self I remembered being. It was the sweetest day.

Many thanks to Sarah for sharing this lovely moment with us! And if you’d like to continue checking out the blog tour posts, go visit Heather Parker and check out Nora Fleischer’s post there!