niyasisk

Making the Pages Fly!

There are many 'how-to's' out there about book publishing; so I won't gum up the pipeline. As I am enjoying the feeling of my book of short stories about to hit distribution, there are a few things about the process that were humbling, exciting and shit stirring all in one. 

First of all, my book of stories was created a few years back in graduate school and added to yearly. Many of the stories have been workshopped raw and edited by the best. Still, the amount of blue call-out boxes in the MS word document my editor sent me was humbling at a criminal level. The feeling of a good editor at your back is something I can't emphasize enough. I came to the conclusion that if I had worked up the courage over the years to put my stories out there and risk embarrassment, then the writing should be well showered when it does embarrass me.

And with that note, I just have to promote my editor here. Di Freeze was amazing—Thorough and advanced in her skills; she completely loves her work. She really cares for the writer. I had to hold myself back from asking her all kinds of questions: "Should I put a foreward on the book? How do I handle reviews and acknowledgements? Are there known issues for naming people in the acknowledgements section?" But alas, she was there to correct typos and punctuation and help me clarify sentence structure, not to be my book therapist. 

The next thing on my mind as I considered publishing for real with full distribution was there couldn't be anything halfway about it. Creating a book poses juicy, thoughtful, moral ambiguities about everything you put into print. So I had to face the fact that, although, I'd spent a lot of time with these stories (I almost wrote children, Freudian slip), I write differently today. So it wasn't just a commitment for this book. It was a commitment to write and publish books in general. This book is the platform, the time in my life when I fell in love with writing fiction. And since then I've written stories that are visually charged as well (film and illustrated novels). So I would need to find media channels for the stories that support the characters and story arcs best. Having the support of Creative Convergence helped me think through the strategic aspect of content creation—open up my imagination to the variety of media possibilities and make that commitment. I now have a year of scheduled activity to take my current stories to the next level: Animation, web series, picture books, short films, possibly a stage play etc.

I needed to think through what I want mainstreamed and what I want published through my company Sweet Bee Books. I really hadn't anticipated how exciting this was going to get. All the possibilities of publishing. Not to mention animating my picture books on the iPad. As a former software experience designer I'm seeing a fusion of books and software. I anticipate there won't be any lines in the near future. It's all about grabbing the story and expressing it in the most powerful way using the technologies (including print) available to us.

The pages really started to fly once I saw the endless possibilities. 

And that's a good place to end this post. A year ago, I only saw two avenues for getting my work into mainstream. A producer would option one of my scripts or a publisher would publish one of books. Now I see lots of options. Some indie, some mainstream, some 'i-world' centered (teaching myself new tools) and some in the oral tradition of simply telling a story. The economic model centers around authors marketing and selling their books more than ever these days. So in a way I see all my work as independent because the work to sell it is on me.

I look at my stories like they are people finding their way; they have different voices and need different vehicles. Some have the personality that is perfect for a VW bug. Others want to walk and need me to buy the perfect walking shoes and hats. Others will have the red carpet and no other. Stories need listeners and as their 'bitch' I need to be their first listener. I should make a t-shirt, I work for my characters - they pay me with countless nights of insomnia but really good coffee and a happy heart.

Bragging Bantering Bawling is available now at Lulu and will be available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon in late June 2011. I have some readings and books signings coming up in the late summer and early fall. I'll announce that here at Niya's Place. And of course I can't leave our little famous rabbit out. His book, "You get me, I love you" will publish in the fall. He's chomping at the bit (carrot stick) literally.

 

On Romance and Rabbits

The love life of my rabbits is enviable.

Dakota is 4 and 1/2 lbs. Dakota used to weigh only 4 lbs but living large in an all female family has made him put on some love handles. He rolls around in his morning hay like a Buddha-esque blowfish on crack. He's addicted to hay and women.

As far as he’s concerned he owns me and I’m being a good love slave in all that I do for him. The minute I give his girl (who routinely sniffs my butt when I feed them; just to make sure she fully understands the full extent of her competition) a little attention he stops all his frolicking, jumps up high comes down and gives her a good growl. She gives me a hurt look, that my existence is required but dangerous to their love. She then dutifully hops over to him and starts licking his ears in a gesture of making up for my bad behavior.

Things have changed.
I remember some years back my boyfriend giving me a book called ‘Codependent No More’ and sent me off to his therapist who smoked long stemmed cigarettes. She looked at me lazily like I was just another multi-colored mosquito, a radio tuned to static, a female who’d be better off in the Convent or begging for food on the streets. “What about your cigarettes I’d say to her, aren’t they a dependency of sorts?” She’d take another drag and wait for me to pull a miracle out of butt and heal myself; become a dignified woman like her I suppose.

But do you think Caila needs a bunny therapist or better yet, that Dakota would even consider it? No way. This arrangement works brilliantly for them (well, him). He gets adored by both females. And he gets even more love from her when he gets jealous of my affections towards her.

He makes up for it in his own way.
Caila loves to take long naps. Dakota won’t sleep when she sleeps. Instead he sits next to her, alert and watchful; the protective man. When she’s up and eating, he’ll take his rest. At night when the lights go out, he comes running to me, lays flat on his stomach for his nightly love feast with 'the other woman'.

He has his own kingdom of romance and he doesn’t skimp.

DAKOTA’S LOVE MANIFESTO

• If you don’t adore me, I’ll kick your ass.

• Size never matters. I’ll love you passionately even if you’re Ginormous like Niya and I know I’m a stud no matter my size. I’m not small, they are big. Love is love, period!

• Dependency in my partner is the rightful order of things if she’s not Alpha. I know most female rabbits are Alpha, but that was a mistake from the start. I’m correcting that pattern in the rabbit nations now.

• I eat first and get all the love and females I want but they’ll always have a home with me. I’ll watch over them and protect them no matter what faces us in life.

• If Niya takes us to the Vet I will not be embarrassed for how I hide under Caila. Women are stronger in these cases, that’s just the way things are. Don’t judge me.

• I’m not a Male chauvinist pig, stupid! I’m a rabbit not a pig.

• I like to stand on my back legs and show Niya and Caila by belly and yawn it always brings the girls to their knees. I like that.

• I’m not fat, I’m happy. I’m just a very happy rabbit who knows his priorities: women, food and a little hump here and there when I can get away with it.

I would give you my opinion about all this but Dakota hasn’t asked. And he has this way of freezing me out by putting his ear over his eye when I’m telling his stuff he doesn’t want to hear, so I’ll save it!

The Monkey and The Rice

Headlines: Hungry monkeys get fist stuck in tree because it won’t let go of the warm rice inside to save its life. Reporters say: “It was so sad, they were just hanging there, all scraggly and whiny, almost dead from thirst and hunger”.

Okay, I exaggerate a bit.
The full story my Yoga teacher told us in class goes like this:

“An experiment was conducted on monkeys to determine the power of hunger, survival, etc. The researchers put a vat of warm, cooked rice in a tree near a bunch of hungry monkeys and made the hole to it only big enough for the monkey’s hand to go in un-fisted. When the hungry monkeys grabbed for the rice they couldn’t get their hands out because they wouldn’t let go of the rice. All they had to do was let go of the rice to get unstuck.”

So I’m thinking—of course they won’t let go, it’s not in their nature to anticipate human deception. My second thought was, poor little monkey didn’t know how to make their hand into a cup and gently pull it out the way it went in.

Well, as my Yoga teacher went on it was clear I missed the point entirely. As I lay in Shivasana-- all blissed out from the class being over, she was saying, “so what are your hungry monkeys that keep you stuck? All we need to do is let go of that thing that we want so bad and there is love all around. Everything we need is here now.

Given that the most interesting things that have happened in my life occurred as I was being a curious, hungry, little, dumb monkey-- I had to silently object. I growled a little listening to her. The man on my right side giggled. Maybe he felt confused as well?

How to keep ourselves aired, fresh and new enough to keep that imagination in full throttle -- the engine that creates those dreams and goals going-- while letting go of that warm, gushy rice we’re so hungry for. On second thought, squishy rice in my hands doesn’t seem very compelling. But you get my point. So I made this list that incorporates both the positive results of letting go of the rice and hanging on.

HUNGRY HUMAN GIRL GIVES IT UP = positive experiences, love and the like:

• At 32 years old I let go of the identity of tomboy long enough to understand what all the fuss is about with shoes and make up. It happened when I moved to Mill Valley and hanging out at Benefit Salon had as much ritualistic appeal as unity church or brunch with friends. I was technically a tomboy until then.
I got my eyebrows done, I gave up my staple; black boots and tried on heels (it lasted about 3 hours), and the best part; I figured out how to cover my freckles if I wanted to. Freckles are a choice. This was a very good thing—very, very, very good.

• A year later I gave up make up and kept perfume and took welding classes at this artist warehouse in Berkley Ca. I had my black boots back, the joys of no make up and not caring, and driving the men wild with the perfume. I learned that good perfume, good boots, a dirty face, a tank top and crappy overalls can be sexy. Who knew?

• When I gave up Dakota’s brother and got him a girl. A very hard thing to do. Stay tuned for the next blog to hear about the recent results just in.

• When I let go of my crazy making, New York, Jewish boyfriend and entered the world of silence and language in Portland. When life was about how beautiful the lights are in a city that can be so dark in the winter. When life was not about being filled with work and men I could hear myself think and I was surprised what I heard. Not a bad thing.

• When I let go of my Saab Convertible and decided to try car-less for a year because I couldn’t top the Saab. I bicycled and discovered a strength I never knew I had. And then bought a car and was happy to let that muscle atrophy.

• When I let go of my business in the bay area and painted dog portraits and did websites for artists while earning an MFA in fiction. Met some fabulous dogs.

HUNGRY HUMAN GIRL WON’T GIVE IT UP = positive experiences, love and the like:

• Being WILD: Lately I’ve heard rumors from people who knew me about a decade ago that surprise me and make me a little envious of my past self:

“Niya Christine had a lot of energy. She was wild; a lot of men.” --S.

“Wow, your paintings have really progressed. It’s great to be in touch with you again, you wild woman.”--A.

“Do you remember that party where you shmooshed chocolate pudding all over that guy’s face?” --Si.

Well clearly I’ve outsmarted the tree and ate a little too much rice. My life currently looks nothing like the above. But stay tuned, I have plans to change that.

MORE...

• Won’t give up the desire to be published. A good thing I'm hoping.

• Won’t give up the desire to learn how to cook like the Japanese. Love all around. Love in the rice. Love in the little green edamame beans, love in the kimono the cook wears to commerate the experience.

• Something I want real bad: porecelin fillings to replace the silver. Probably won't give this one up. Oh yes, can you feel the love of a mouth like when I was 7.

• Did not give up painting and writing overall, no matter the pressures to work in our work-a-bee society. I'm not sorry about that. Love everywhere when painting. It's a guarantee.

• Did not let go of swimming, mountain biking, yoga; these things I crave daily and feel more of that love she's talking about afterwards.

• And won’t give up on the dream of a goat, 5 chickens, many rabbits, a horse, a man who’s good with his hands (in the carpentry sense; get your mind out of the dirt! Tee hee), a big dog, a big studio, big travel, fabulous job or jobs, fabulous people who understand how religion and gorge bush shouldn’t go together but they do in this country, and space to weld and play the violin when necessary.

***
I wonder if it’s to not to let go of the rice when important decisions require care and time. Yet to not starve-- let go of a little rice, eat in small portions, slowly, look at the beautiful sky in the meantime and laugh at the hunger a bit--help out anther monkey in need…like that.

I don't know, I'm just a hungry monkey rationalizing the virtue of hunger. The buddhists would likely fire me.

Crap! I have this Yoga teacher again tonight.