Silent Suitcases . . . and Who's In?

First, a word about showing not telling. I watched Infamous last night. Toby Jones was brilliant. And there's this marvelous shot where Truman Capote and Harper Lee, his best friend (did you know that, all you Mockingbird fans?), are at a train station in Kansas. He has a pile of suitcases almost as tall as he is. She has two. The shot is silent--no music, no voiceover, nothing. And I thought it was brilliant. Instead of endless talk, talk, talk about how he was vain, one shot did it all. In writing . . . I look for those silent suitcase moments.

Second, and more important, are you in?

Here's the little back story. Mary Castillo is one of the most generous-of-spirit writers I have ever had the pleasure to meet in cyberspace. One of these days, we'll meet in person, but until then, this is how we "met."She reached out to me one night a while ago to say she had written this review of "Do They Wear High Heels in Heaven?" on her blog (January 15th entry). I was touched because her review hit on aspects of the book that were personally meaningful to me--themes and thoughts I had about my own characters. She "got" it, and by extension, me. Then I read In Between Men, and I laughed, and I related . . . sometimes our inner goddess gets blurred and lost by motherhood and respectability. Of course, I'm not terribly respectable--but I related, believe me.

We wrote each other emails. I learned about Little Dude and saw pictures of that cutie. I sent her JPEGs of Demon, and the computer wires didn't even catch on fire. Mary is a hero of mine. She's Wonder Woman. She gives back to writers and to students (she's a new mentor to high school kids). She's the real deal.

AND SO, Mary is having a "Book In A Week" on Chica Lit, her blog. You can read how it works. We don't REALLY write a book in a week (though, as she says, if you want to, vaya con Díos). We set a page goal and go at it for a week, offering some support, checking in daily with our page count. On Saturday, we hoist a glass of cyber-champagne no matter how we did. It's a way to kick-start that book, or to keep up with your New Year's Resolutions. Or to just come play with me over on Mary's blog.

And I thought . . . and this may not work . . . but if enough of you all are in, and someone with FAR superior technical ability that I could somehow set up a chat room for us, or if we all shared IM names, we could set up a celebration next Saturday, or even a daily check-in. As an utter techno-failure (yes, Ewoh, I still don't know how to set the alarm clock timer on my coffee maker) . . . that's optional. But in the meantime, if you are in, I'd love to see you on Mary's blog.

Have a great Saturday, gang, and tell me . . . how do you show not tell?