The word YES figures very heavily into Self Storage. My main character Flan bids on a single box during a storage auction that turns out to be empty inside except for the word YES. This word sends her on a quest to discover what can make her say YES in her own life.I am launching a SELF STORAGE YES CONTEST today. To enter, all you have to do is tell me, in 100 words or less, about the truest source of YES in your own life. What makes you light up, wake up, feel most alive?
I am giving away signed copies of Self Storage, along with items won during a self storage auction, to five winners.
You can send your entry in one of three ways:
1. Post it as a comment with this post (if you don't have a blogger account, be sure to include an email where I can reach you)
or
2. Post it as a comment on www.myspace.com/selfstoragenovel
or
3. Send it by email to gaylebrandeis at gmail dot com, with YES as the subject line.
However you send it, please do so by March 1, 2007.
Maria Ruth gave her husband the orange YES above for Christmas one year. She tells me "It was not a quote from the last line of James Joyce's Ulysses, but the answer to the usual questions husbands ask their wives" and writes:
The same overwhelming power of YES--from tips of toes to tingling scalp--came when I decided to write Rare Bird: Pursing the Mystery of the Marbled Murrelet. As I wrote in my book, I just couldn't say "no" to this bird, nor to the telling of its strange life history, nor to the scientists who had been working so hard and so long to unravel the mystery of its secretive nesting site. Getting to "yes" is a real victory for a writer, don't you think?Yes, indeed.
I look forward to hearing what makes YOU say YES!
8 comments:
hello Gayle, i couldn't resist leaving you a comment to say THANK YOU for your fabulous book Fruitflesh. it's proving to be exactly what i need to read during this time in my life, as i dip in and out of the pages, finding inspiration and encouragement. definitely a book i shall be passing on to my writing sisters...
susannah :-)
Oh thank you so much, Susannah! I can't tell you how much it means to read your kind words. I hope that Fruitflesh will continue to be a juicy source of inspiration for you.
xo
gayle
Hi Gayle,
This Yes challenge of yours turned into a Valentine's Day poem for Ted. Here goes:
YES!
Staring at the cell phone
Feeling like I'm all alone
Definitely not home
Yes!
Main man's gone away
Hair keeps turning gray
Be awhile before we play
Yes!
Walk to the compost
Play the songs I love most
Eyes feel like burnt toast
Yes!
Looks like it's going to rain
This is driving me insane
Still I'd do it all again
Yes!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Linda
Beautiful, Linda. Thank you so much for sharing this (and entering my contest!) How is Ted doing? I'm still sending good thoughts...
xo
gayle
This is a wonderful exercise, and a little frightening, because the Internet never forgets. (Or so we are told.) So I'm just going to jot down one thing that makes me say yes...
...I dream of sheets of rain sliding backwards on the maps, a little wrong, coming down the continent, across Idaho, Nevada, Northern California, on the television screens, on the rooftops, in the skies, leaving snow in the mountains, mist in the trees, the watery pounding on the walk outside, the cool coming through my open window to my warm bed...
I said Yes! to my heart to trust in Jesus when I was a little girl;
and Yes! to my heart when when my husband asked me to marry him,
and again, I said Yes! to my heart when we adopted twin boys with disabilities;
and Yes! to my heart again when it filled with tears when the time came for my grown children to leave the nest.
Yes! to their dreams,
Yes! to their foibles
Yes! to mine, too.
Yes! Hmm. I'll give it a go.
(Before I do, though, I want to tell you that I found out about you through NaNoWriMo's website! Yay, another NaNoer!)
Anyway, here's my entry:
On the first day, they said to me, "Do you want to be a writer, my child?"
I responded, "Yes!"
On the second day, they said to me, "Do you want to be a politician, dear girl?"
To which I said, "Yes!"
On the third day, they asked, "Do you want to be a performer, kid?"
I said, "Yes!"
On the fourth and final day, they asked me, "You! Do you want to make a difference?"
My reply came loud and strong: "YES!"
Thank you all for your beautiful Yes writings (and yes, Kit, I can understand how scary it can be to put something out there--I'm so glad you did! And I'm glad to meet another NaNoer, Keely!) I will be reading through all the entries this week--I received about 50 by email--and will post the winning entries soon.
Thanks again for participating!
xo
gayle
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