Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

Stuff gets done here

recent posts

  • Somebody is watching

    Dancing today at the Just Move studio with Kellie Chambers and a crew of enthusiastic dancers, I was so engaged and happy with the routine and the thought crossed my mind that we all were dancing like no one was watching. I interpret that great phrase as a reminder to inhabit my own joy of movement and not worry about appearances.

    But I also realized this: I am watching.

    I don’t mean watching myself in the studio mirror but watching in the sense that my body feels the constraints in my thinking. If I’m embarrassed, feel awkward, see my ample thighs in the mirror and wish I were more trim, or any constraining thought, my body reacts to that.

    That thinking (the not-doing-it-right or looking-good-enough mentality) triggers a physical scaling back and I stop fully connecting with the rhythm, tones, harmonies and spirit of the music. I’m at the dance, but I’m not in the dance.

    This is different from being open to improvement and growth as a dancer. When I’m learning steps, I’m engaged in noticing how I move. I want to stay within my appropriate range of motion. I want to work with the energy constraints of my “today body.” I want to follow the choreographed steps because my brain so loves the repetition in the routines.

    I’m learning how to balance, to say yes to the mental corrections that help me follow a new routine, while also loving exactly where I am.

  • Last to leave

    These guys! They’re like the last guests at a party who don’t want to go home. Pansies, a dahlia and my wonderful blue corydalis.

  • First time for everything

    my desktop, tidier than usual

    I’ve written a few novels (OK, four), had one published, but I’ve never written an actual synopsis of any of my novels. I’ve written dozens of query letters, sure. But I had a mental block against writing a 500-word condensation of my 80,000-word work product. That’s a problem because about half the hundreds of agents whose websites I’ve visited want a synopsis.

    Finally last week, I went off on a three-day writing retreat with my wonderful writer-mentor/friend Liz Engstrom determined to write a synopsis for a book I’ve been messing with for a decade. I wrote a terrible first draft of a synopsis. Then a pretty crappy second draft. Last night, I tidied up the pretty crappy second draft and today I have something that I would not be embarrassed to show others. More tweaking of it today. Then I will give my novel, The Macklin Powers, (in the young adult suspense genre) a final read. I believe early next week the hard work — getting it out into the world — will begin.

    I had help from various online how-to articles, and particularly liked the one in the link below. To be clear, I didn’t follow it exactly, but it got me over the mental noise that had held me back.

    How To Write A Novel Synopsis (With An Example)