Monthly Archive

My grandfather passed away last week.  We was a vibrant 88 year old man who was completely engaged in life.  He still worked as a tool and die maker, did the daily crossword puzzle, helped neighbors, laughed and made others laugh and inspired so many people with his attitude about life and his big, open heart.  He will certainly be missed by all of the folks he touched

My uncle said that my grandfather was lucky to live such a rich life and died exactly how he wanted: he lost consciousness on his couch after socializing with neighbors outside and having some good natured arguing about who was going tidy up the end of the driveways after the plow came through.  My grandfather won with his quip: but, I’ll have fun doing it and so he was “allowed” to take a few swipes with his snow blower at the last bits of snow blocking the neighbor’s driveway.  This is not what killed him.  They suspect it was the cold, narrowing his arteries that brought on the heart attack.  And it’s true he is lucky.  He wanted to live a life with purpose and he did.  He wanted to die quickly, quietly and without a slow suffering decline and he did and for that we are all glad.

But.

We are going to miss him so much.

I was supposed to work today; I was standing in my kitchen waiting for the water to boil so I could make coffee.  I  looked out over North Asbury Park and it was almost a white out with blowing snow.  There is something so beautiful about the palette of this kind of morning.  It is light but there is no color: grey sky, grey buildings and a wall of white blowing snow.  My boss called me at 7:15am to tell me the library was closed for the day due to snow.  I turned off the burner, got the dog and climbed back into bed.  This is one of those moments that transports you right back to childhood.  Snow day.

When I was a kid, I lived near railroad tracks.  They were just beyond our back yard and on the other side of the tracks was a box factory that had a switching yard in it.  In the winter, when it snowed, they would warm the switching yard tracks with gas jets and they were loud enough to hear inside our house.  There were times, as a kid, that I would wake up and I’d hear the hum of the gas, the sound of winter to my sister and I, and I’d run into her room: snow day, snow day.  We’d turn on her radio and listen to school closings.

As an adult, for me, a snow day is like a sweet gift of time and I used it wisely.  I spent a couple hours at my neighbor’s apartment drinking coffee and just socializing with some folks in my building.  I vacuumed the rugs in my house.  I hung a bunch of art that I’ve been meaning to hang.  I watched a video.  I took a nap and I made my girlfriend a tiny painting/card for Valentine’s Day.  She is anti-Valentine’s Day; so, it is especially fun to do something for her that she’ll like and that is not heart shaped or traditional in any way.  I often joke with her that it’s impossible to pass by a chocolate holiday without purchasing some chocolate; but, I’ve promised the chocolate will be rectangular!  A friend snorted when I told her this and said: but you’re a big mushy romantic and I replied: true, but she is inspiring me to be creative about it and I love that.  I love that I have to think outside the box and that when I do, I get to surprise her and show her another way to see something.

So much has happened on this Snow Day which is really just a reminder that sometimes, even if it is not snowing, it’s important to take a snow day.

I have sent out a few queries to literary agents and received some requests back to send the whole manuscript.  This is excellent and in a matter of minutes I can have my manuscript in their hands.  But, one agent asked for 5 chapters and a detailed synopsis that included the ending.

This sounds simple right?

Good god.  Writing this synopsis is so hard.  You want to retain your voice and hit all the important plot points and highlight some of the quirkiness of my novel.  But the idea of a synopsis seems to be against what we were told in creative writing 101 which is: show don’t tell.  How do you do that in a couple of pages?  In some ways writing the synopsis is harder than writing most of the book.

I will do it.  I am doing it.  I’ve given myself a deadline of Friday night so I can go visit my girlfriend in Brooklyn without it hanging over my head.  sigh.