It appears that The Ship of Lost Souls, or rather, КОРАБЪТ НА ИЗГУБЕНИТЕ ДУШИ, is out in Bulgaria! Hooray! Here’s hoping that Bulgarian middle-graders like pirate children as much as I do. (And I apologize if what I pasted there doesn’t actually say “The Ship of Lost Souls.” I am blindly copying and pasting.)

And check out the cover! I think UNISCORP (my Bulgarian publisher — doesn’t that just sound fabulous?) did a wonderful job.

Which isn’t to say I think we need to know cursive writing. Mostly, I think it’s interesting to see human skills evolve, and sometimes disappear.

I do think, however, that writing by hand (whether in cursive or print) can be very helpful for writers. A wonderful fiction instructor once told my class that the best way to find a character’s voice is to write in it by hand. And I’m not sure why this works, but it does — at least for me. Whenever I’m having a hard time nailing a voice, I’ll put the laptop aside and start scribbling monologues. For some reason, it helps. I recommend it.

It also gives me the excuse to buy fabulous notebooks. And wouldn’t life be awful without those?

I’m more than a little exhausted. And yet, never too exhausted for the Dance of Joy.

Enjoy.

Weird search terms that brought people to rachelledelaney.com in 2011:

- “my bonnet petticoats”

- “bossy teacher” (okay, so this is apt)

- “my little ponies altered”

- “CBC radio 1 Jian Ghomeshi styrofoam” (Styrofoam?)

- “feminist fabulous” (yesss!)

- “flight burrito” (what on Earth?)

- “friends you will never forgive”

- “in praise of ironing neruda analysis”

- “delaney in fancy writing” (We have no idea what this means, but we LIKE it.)

I’d been going full-out, working full-time and writing three different books, since April. So it wasn’t surprising that December arrived bearing gifts of major burn out. Fortunately, a few writer friends came to the rescue.

This past weekend, the lovely Bren and I headed down to Seattle to visit our equally lovely friend Chelsea, for a weekend of writing, reading, and exploring that great city. In the mornings we’d spread out around the house and work on our various projects. In the afternoon we’d book shop, read, and explore Capitol Hill and its gorgeous old houses. Oh, and there was also a significant amount of wine, cheese, and chocolate consumed. To fuel the creative process, of course.

I can’t recommend the mini writers retreat enough, especially when it combines writing and exploring. And here on the coast, there are so many options: Whistler, Victoria, the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast… I’m already scheming about the next.

Here’s a shot of our weekend “office.” Is it any wonder we didn’t want to leave?

A non-exhaustive list of the piratey things Rachelle has received over the years:

- pirate jewelery
- pirate greeting cards
- pirate daytimer
- pirate flags
- pirate stickers
- pirate bookmarks
- pirate paperclips
- pirate puppets (regular and finger)
- pirate hats
- pirate t-shirt (it read “Sparrow is my co-pirate”)
- pirate breathmints (grog-flavoured)
- pirate magnets
- pirate rubber ducky

This is a good thing for authors to keep in mind when coming up with ideas for books. If you’re not willing to let dinosaurs or unicorns or stray Russian dogs take over your wardrobe or home decor, you might want to rethink your topic. Just a thought.

See, The Ship of Lost Souls was my masters thesis. And yes, I wrote a thesis on pirate children. Go on, point out what the F and the A in MFA could stand for. I’ve heard it all before. My lawyer friends are especially fond of telling me.

The point is, after selling the novel in Canada, then recently in the States, I was able to throw my earnings back at the loan and get it out of my life. And on the one hand, it’s a bit disappointing not to actually be able to spend your earnings on something fulfilling, like a pony. But on the other hand, I don’t think a lot of Masters students can say that their theses paid off their loans.

Thus. Score one more for the MFA.

On a just-barely-related note, as the author of a series about pirate children, I have received pretty well every pirate-related present under the sun, including grog-flavoured breathmints. But I do not yet have a Jack Sparrow pony (see above). Just saying.

Which begs the question, would you require teachers to have children of their own in order to teach? Of course not. Pediatricians in order to practice? Doubtful.

Personally, I believe (and many other children’s authors agree) that while being with kids obviously helps your writing, what’s most important is that you were once a kid, and you remember the experience in detail. You can still connect with the emotions, the triumphs, the traumas you went through. And most importantly, you can express them.

Also, let’s see… Theodore Geisel, Margaret Wise Brown, Beatrix Potter, Maurice Sendak, Kate Dicamillo, Hans and Margaret Rey, Kit Pearson, Louisa May Alcott.

Brilliant and successful children’s authors. Who never had kids.

Just sayin’.

Some of us Inkslingers turned out to be more methodical than others. I, perhaps not surprisingly, was the most methodical of all. I say not surprisingly because I am also quite possibly the most fervent outliner ever to pick up a pen. Sometimes when I describe my outlining habits to other writers, their eyes widen in fear and their lower lips start to wobble, as if they’ve come face-to-face with the monster in their closets.

So yes. In writing (as in life), I like to have a plan. When faced with a rewrite, no matter the size, I plan before I start to work. I go through my editor’s or writers group’s notes and write down all the things I need to fix. Then I write down exactly how I’m going to fix them.

Then, I print out the manuscript (sometimes only a hard copy will do) and comb through it, focusing on one change at a time and writing notes in the margins about how I’m going to alter it.

Finally, once I’ve planned it all out, the rewriting can begin. At that point, it doesn’t seen nearly as daunting.

Now, if your lower lip has started to wobble, fear not. That’s just what works for me, and every writer is different.

Oh, and speaking of the Inkslingers, one of them — the lovely Christy Goerzen — has a new YA novel in the Orca Currents series. It’s called Farmed Out, and it’s excellent — funny and honest and hard to put down.

Have I mentioned that I love my writers group? I love my writers group.