Finding My Way Through My Fiction and Through My Garden by Meredith Cole

Meredith Cole started her career as a screenwriter and filmmaker. She was the winner of the St. Martin’s Press/Malice Domestic competition. Her first book, POSED FOR MURDER, was published by St. Martin’s Minotaur in 2009. She was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel in 2010. Her second book, DEAD IN THE WATER, came out in 2010, and continued the adventures of Lydia McKenzie in Brooklyn. She teaches writing at the University of Virginia and lives, gardens and writes in Charlottesville.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finding my way through my fiction and through my garden

By Meredith Cole

 

The other day a friend remarked that it was funny, seeing that I was a mystery writer who killed people in my books, that most of my Facebook posts were pictures of flowers in my garden.

 

It didn’t seem strange to me. Gardens are, after all, bloodthirsty places. Plants, bugs, and animals are all battling for supremacy, and plants are always turning brown and dying. Gardening is also full of disappointments, so it’s certainly not for the faint of heart or the squeamish.

 

I knew I wanted a garden when we lived in New York. Surrounded by concrete, we dreamed of having a green space of our own. But I didn’t know how obsessed I would get with plants and flowers once I had my own garden. Fifteen minutes quickly turns into hours as I hack at weeds or dig up our lawn to put in more flowerbeds.

 

Gardening is a great contrast to writing. I’m on my feet rather than sitting in a chair, and I’m outside instead of inside. I may be stuck in my story, but there’s always plenty to do in the yard.

 

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that gardening and writing have  quite a lot in common, too.

 

 

 

They take patience.

 

Did I mention that gardening wasn’t for the scared and timid? It isn’t. And neither is writing. It always takes way longer than you think it will to finish a book, and then far too many rewrites before your editor/agent/readers say it’s good and you feel that it’s really finished.

 

Like gardening, I start various projects only to see them wither on the vine. It wasn’t the right spot or the right time for the idea or plant to flourish. If you don’t want to fall into complete despair, you move on to another idea or try a different plant in that cursed spot. Eventually you learn something or you get lucky.

 

 

 

Experts are helpful. Sometimes.

 

I used to think that if I could just find the perfect writing book or class, I would somehow figure out how to write a novel. But I never did. I just had to keep trying things and figuring it out myself.

 

Gardening experts are useful and can share their expertise and advice. But in order to figure out what works in your yard, you just have to try things. Sometimes you’ll fail, but when you have a success you feel like a genius. Or like you have a green thumb.

 

 

 

 

You have to do it for yourself.

 

Only a few times in the past few years have I looked at my yard with total satisfaction and been eager to show it off. The rest of the time I see the flaws and I’m busy trying to fix bare patches in my yard. So if I relied on the admiration of strangers to make gardening worthwhile for me, I would have quit after that first spring so long ago. Same with writing. You have to develop a thick skin because not everyone will love what you write. You can’t write simply to hear applause.

 

I love seeing crocuses bloom and trees flower, and plants thrive. But I realize that I love digging in the dirt and dreaming of what I’m going to plant even more. In the end, it’s the act of gardening and writing that give me pleasure in the end and inspire me to give up hours of my evenings and weekends

New Year’s Resolutions: reflecting on a year of writing by Meredith Cole

Meredith Cole lives, writes, and exercises in Virginia. Her mystery series with St. Martin’s Minotaur is set in the art community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and was nominated for an Agatha Award. She teaches writing at the University of Virginia.  www.culturecurrent.com/cole           

New Year’s Resolutions: reflecting on a year of writing

by Meredith Cole

Last year I was disappointed with my productivity and the writing I had accomplished in the previous 12 months. So I resolved to do better. I did this by carving out time to write and making a commitment to write everyday. But I also did something that some writers may found surprising: I made a New Year's resolution to exercise everyday.

I know for some writers there are a million things they’d prefer to do before they get all sweaty, so bear with me. Exercise, it turns out, is great for your brain. It helps to create new synapses and helps to prevent Alzheimer’s. It keeps you strong so you’re less likely to hurt yourself as you age. Exercise also helps prevent breast cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Just think how many books you’ll be able to write if you live so much longer!

There are only a few hours in the day, and I’m sure your days are as packed and overloaded as mine. I have no idea how you’ll fit one more thing into your life, but here’s what I did:


-Make it a priority

The day begins and the to do list starts to pile up. Things start to fall by the wayside, and most women let the stuff that feels selfish (exercise, etc.) drop off their list. So make it a priority. Get up earlier and do it first. Over the past year I’ve tried this with both writing and exercise and it’s worked great. I’ve had to go to sleep a lot earlier, but that’s not too hard for me. After a full day of stretching my brain and exercising my body, I’m ready to crash.


-Change it up

The first thing I had to do was redefine exercise for myself. For years my only exercise was swimming, and I had to plan my life around when the lap lanes were open at my pool in Brooklyn. But I wanted to make sure that I did other exercise to benefit my body in other ways. I wanted a mix of cardio, strength training, yoga, swimming, running and dance.

A year ago, my family joined a gym that offered not only a pool, but also all sorts of fun classes. And free childcare. I became a Body Pump addict, and I make sure to go once a week. It’s an hour of weight lifting to music, concentrating on all the major muscle groups. I do more repetitions and use heavier weights then I would ever do on my own.

Another great option I discovered—streaming exercise videos from Netflix. If I still hadn’t squeezed any exercise in by the end of the day and the weather was lousy, I would do a kickboxing video or Pilates on Netflix. 30 minutes and I was done.

This past year I’ve made myself try new classes like Nia, Zumba, Body Step, and Reformer. I’d still like to try Tai Chi, Kettle Ball, Boxing and Athletic Conditioning, so I’ll try to slip those in at some point.


-Be flexible

If you decide that you can only exercise between twelve and one, then there are plenty of days that you won’t be able to do it. Or you can only run. Or real exercise has be “x.” Your exercise for the day can be a walk to a corner store as briskly as you can manage. Or raking all the leaves in your yard. So be flexible and it’s a lot easier to fit it in.

The same goes for writing. If I can’t fit in five new pages on my WIP, I’ll at least write in my journal, write a blog post or work on a short story. I’ve got to keep my writing muscles exercised regularly too.


-Involve friends

I still haven’t coordinated with friends to work out lately, but in the past that was a great motivator for me. Instead of meeting for drinks, meet a friend at the gym and swim or work out together, or go for a run or bike ride. You’ll chat, get caught up and you’ll feel great at the end. I also have had writing dates with friends at cafes. Sometimes you need someone else to cheer you on, and that’s okay. Writing can be a very solitary business.


-Give something up

If you look at your life and can’t see a single thing you can give up, this might be hard to imagine. But here is how I don’t spend my evenings: watching TV. I don’t have time, so I don’t watch and get addicted to seeing anything that’s on. I also have too much reading to do.

My house is not as clean as I’d like. I don’t make meals from scratch every night (and I luckily married a man who is a wonderful cook). And I barely did any craft projects this year (just recovered a glider chair – but that didn’t take long).

Do I miss all of it? Sometimes, and so I fit a bit of it back in when I can. But I’ve discovered that I can squeeze some activities I enjoy into the evenings (slow cookers are awesome), still leaving my mornings free for my new priorities.


As 2011 comes to a close…

Have I been successful at my goal? Perhaps a few weeks this year I managed to exercise everyday. But I don’t consider it a defeat. I’ve gone from exercising 3 days a week to exercising 5-6 days a week. And that’s been terrific. I feel stronger and more energetic. I wrote a first draft of a new book in a new series, MURDER TOURS THE CAPITOL—a DC tour guide mystery, faster than I’d ever written anything before. I have fewer headaches. I even have some, um, muscle definition.

So what are your New Year’s Resolutions this year? Did you accomplish what you wanted last year? And how do you fit writing/exercise or all your favorite things into your life?

 

Returning Home by Meredith Cole

Meredith Cole started her career as a screenwriter and filmmaker. She was the winner of the St. Martin’s Press/Malice Domestic competition, and her book POSED FOR MURDER, was published by St. Martin’s Minotaur in 2009.  She was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel in 2010. Her second book, DEAD IN THE WATER, came out May 11, 2010, and continues the adventures of Lydia McKenzie. She teaches mystery writing and screenwriting and lives in Virginia.

 

Returning Home by Meredith Cole
 
Some people have trouble placing my accent when they meet me, so they ask me where I’m from. It’s a complicated answer. I explain that I was raised in Central Virginia, my father is English, my mother’s family is from the Mid-West, my mother was raised in Northern Virginia and I lived in New York for ten years. 

Now that I’m back in Virginia again, I find myself starting to slide back into a southern accent.  It’s not very heavy, just a touch here and there. But my six-year-old son is mystified by the accent.  “Everyone here says ‘y’all’,” he complains to me after a day at kindergarten.  I tell him what it means, secretly happy that he is hearing an accent that I find so pleasing. Don’t get me wrong, there are unpleasant southern accents and lovely ones, but I never did warm to the accents in New England and New York. They just didn’t sound like home to me.

What does it really mean to be from somewhere?  I have a neighbor who has lived here 20 years, moving in around the time that I left town.  But I grew up here and have family living here.  I feel connected to the ground, the red clay and curving hills.  So am I more of a local than she is? When I lived somewhere else and visited, I always felt a little different.  I walked faster then the other pedestrians.  I was sometimes impatient during the small talk.  Now that I’ve taken the plunge and moved back, I’ve mostly slowed myself down so the speed of living here feels just right.

In my mystery series, I write about an “outsider,” Lydia McKenzie, who has embraced New York with a

fervent love that I never felt. I wanted to. There are so many things there that I enjoy, and I am eagerly anticipating a trip back to see friends and celebrate the launch of my second book DEAD IN THE WATER on May 26th at Partners & Crime. I navigated the subway and bus system like a pro, walked fast, was impatient at any delay, worked in TV where everything had to be done yesterday, and made many good friends there. The next book that I’m writing in the Lydia McKenzie series is set there, and I think of our old neighborhood often. I wish I could be in two places at once, and perhaps I am with my writing.

Our life is quite different now that we’ve left the city. The house has more square footage than our apartment, actual green space, and requires more stuff.  All of it seems to mean more work. My husband has planted a wonderful vegetable garden. My son exclaims over the height of our peas, making me believe he might actually eat them someday, and is raising baby preying mantises. I have my own office with a door and a view of trees, our porch swing, the road, and the neighbors from my two windows. 

I used to see the tall buildings of Manhattan in the distance. Now I have the Blue Ridge Mountains surrounding me.  There is no more beautiful sight to me than those mountains jutting up in the distance, gentle baby blue curves on the horizon.  Seeing them makes me relax and smile every time. I feel like I’m home.