Busy Busy Busy!!!!

I've been out of the blogging loop the last few days because of:

1. The end of the term (I'm a school teacher with lots of final grading to do)

2. The last few days to read the nominees for the Whitney Award category I'm judging (there were 41 nominees in my category, most of which came in the LAST minute. Please nominate EARLY in 2012)

3. Finishing an edit for a client (557 page book)

4. Finishing a revision on my own book (Covenant is waiting!)

5. And my son received his call to serve an LDS mission (he will be leaving in March).

But as things start to settle back down, I WILL be back. Thanks for being patient.

Living in an Osmond World: Donny Call--Part Deux

Last week I wrote about the phone call I got from Donny while I was working at Alan Osmond Productions. This week, I’ll tell you about another call I had with Donny, this time as a writer.

In the late 1980s I had the opportunity to be a book and movie reviewer for a local publication, LDS Lifestyle and Entertainment Magazine. My position as a reviewer took me to several movies and brought me lots of books to read. On occasion, I was given concert tickets as well, such as the jazz concert at Red Butte Gardens. My reviews were well received by the magazine’s editors and readers, so more opportunities to publish often came my way.

In addition to writing for the magazine, I was also writing for the Osmonds, producing the quarterly Osmond Brothers newsletter, as well as The Osmond Boys newsletter, and occasionally writing for Marie, Ink.

Over the next few years I had developed a writing resume that gave me the confidence to try new things. I also continued my love of traveling and attending concerts, and that’s what took me to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to see Donny in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

I had planned to write a review of the show, so I took along my notepad so that I could keep notes about what I thought of the production. I had learned to write in the dark, all those movies and concerts I’d been reviewing necessitated learning the skills, so I had several pages of things to say about the show after seeing it twice at the Historical State Theater.

Once at home, I wrote the review and submitted it to my editor at the magazine. He read it over and asked, “You know the Osmonds, don’t you?”

“Yes, I work for Alan,” I said.

“Do you think you could get us an interview with Donny? We’d like to do a cover article about him for an upcoming issue of the magazine,” my editor said.

By this time in my life, I’d met Donny numerous times on the road, gotten past that first phone call, and even been on the road, selling merchandise for a string of Donny and Marie concerts, but I still didn’t know Donny very well. And I certainly didn’t know how to get a hold of him to ask about an interview for a magazine cover article.

“I could ask Alan if he has a number,” I said.

My editor perked right up. “That would be great! I’ve always wanted to talk to Donny Osmond, and doing an interview for the magazine would be incredible.”

I gave a sigh of relief. I would be off the hook. My editor wanted to do the interview. He said he’d use my theater review alongside his interview in the magazine, so I knew what I’d written would also be published.

A few days later, I called the editor and said, “Alan gave me the number for Donny’s personal assistant. You can call her and see what has to be done to arrange the interview.”

I passed on the information and figured I’d done my part.

About a week later, I got a phone call from my editor. “He will only do the interview with you.”

“What?” I said, not sure who my editor was referring to, or exactly what he meant.

“Donny Osmond. He will only do the interview if it’s with you.” My editor sounded totally dejected.

“What are you talking about?” I started to get a little nervous.

My editor went on to tell me that he had talked with Donny’s assistant, and she had checked with Donny, but Donny refused to talk with my editor. “His assistant says he will only do the interview for the magazine if it comes from you. We need to set up a time for you to call him.”

Call him? Oh, no! Another phone call with Donny? Immediately the memories of getting all flustered the last time came back and I was nervous already. Now I would have to conduct an interview?

My editor must have sensed my trepidation. “It’s the only way he will do the interview, and we really need him on the cover.”

The magazine was still fairly new and sales would likely improve if we had Donny on a cover. I knew it, and the editor knew it. I agreed to do the interview. It was a good thing I already knew so much about not only Donny, but the play as well, but I still did all the research I could so that I had good questions to ask.

Within a few days, a time was arranged and I was given a phone number to call. I was teaching school, so the time was during my prep period, and since we were on the block schedule and it bumped up against my lunch, I had two hours free to make the call and organize me notes.

The bell rang to release my last group of students until the afternoon. I got out the notes I had taken for the interview and the brick phone I used at the time. (If you’re too young, you’ll have no idea what I’m talking about, so I’ll add a photo to the blog.) I waited until the second bell rang, making sure the announcements were over and all students were off in someone else’s class. I took a deep breath, and punched in the phone number my editor had given me. 

 

The phone rang about six times, and I’d almost decided no one was going to answer when I heard a very deep and scratchy voice say, “This is Donny.”

Oh, my gosh! It was him, yet it didn’t really sound like him. It took me a half beat to regain my composure. “Hi, Donny. This is Lu Ann. I’m scheduled to do an interview with out for LDS Entertainment Magazine.”

“Oh, yeah. What time is it?” Donny said.

“Ten o’clock in Utah, so that makes it eleven in Minnesota, right?” I was afraid I’d some how screwed up the time and was calling him too early.

“Sorry,” he said. “I guess I overslept. Give me a minute, okay?”

“Sure. No problem,” I said.

From the sounds from the other end of the line, I suppose he put the phone down and got up from the bed. I woke up Donny Osmond!!! And he’s still in bed!!! I was suddenly totally embarrassed, but I had to calm my nerves because he was back.

“That’s better,” Donny said. “The show ran really late last night.”

“Should I call back another time?” I said. I didn’t want to bother him if this wasn’t a good time.

“No. No, I’m fine. I just needed to wake myself up a little better. Let’s do the interview.”

“Okay,” I said. There was no way I was going to ask him what he’d needed to do to wake up!

For the next hour we talked like we were old friends. I asked Donny the questions I had prepared, we laughed about how being an Osmond Brother was a little like being sold into slavery like Joseph had experienced at the hands of his brothers. (Of course, we all found out years later that Donny was experiencing severe panic attacks at the time of my interview, and it was likely he felt that exact way about his childhood experiences.) Talking with Donny like this was one of the most treasured experiences of my life.

I never did find out why he insisted that I do the interview rather than my editor. I’ve always assumed it was because he knew I worked for his brother, Alan. Maybe that connection made him feel safe, again my assumption after learning of the panic attacks. Whatever the reason, I was glad I got the chance to do the interview.

Whenever I see him now, he always acts like he knows he is supposed to know me, but he just can’t pull my name out of his memory bank. That’s okay. If he did, I might actually have to own up and tell him that talking to him on the phone gives me panic attacks of my own.

Writing Wisdom: Stephenie Meyer

If you haven’t heard of Stephenie Meyer or the Twilight Saga, you must have been living under a rock during the past few years. Stephenie was writing Breaking Dawn when she spoke at the BYU Symposium I attended. The series of books, movies, and assorted licensed fandom paraphernalia that have been released through this series has made her a very successful author, and she shared several of her secrets.

“I love to write, and I can’t do without it,” Meyer said. “One day I was not a writer; the next day I was.” Her overnight success came, of course, once her agent sold the first book, Twilight, a book she originally wrote as a present for her sister, Emily, who said, “You have to get this published.”

“Nine out of ten people say they want to be an author, but the only way that happens is to actually write a book,” Meyer says. Too often people are unwilling to put in the work it takes to actually meet their dream when it comes to this publishing goal.

“Unrequited love is a popular theme,” Meyer told her audience, and the sales figures prove her theory to be true, “but the writing is the joy. Putting it out there is scary. I’d give back my advance to have the chance to rewrite Twilight. The story was very personal.” Meyer is not alone when it comes to the desire to revise a published work. Hemmingway was quoted as saying he would like to have one more rewrite of everything he ever wrote and sold.

Meyer says, “Rejections hurt, but everybody gets them. I got a rejection on Twilight (originally titled Forks) after Little Brown made their offer, and it still hurt.” Of course, since Little Brown published the book, that rejection means nothing now in the history of her career. At least she kept a positive attitude about rejections. “I have a scrapbook of my rejection letters,” she said.  

“NO does not mean they are right,” she says. “The books that break the rules are the ones people love.”

“Agents are worth their 15%,” Meyer says, “but when you deal with them your word is your bond. I got a three book deal via phone, but it took 9-12 months to get the money to prove it. Long time, no pay,” she joked.

“Then comes the agony and the ecstasy of writing,” she said. “The editing process tries to change everything that you’ve done. Learn to balance between listening to yourself and your editor. Stand up for your characters.”

She adds, “Editors care be wrong, but they can be so right. It forces you to write so much better.”

Meyer thinks the copy editing stage is fun, but seeing the book on the shelves brings “the joy of panic and second-guessing.”

“Writing after you’ve been published is a whole new experience,” she said. “You need to continue to write the story for you. Turn off the red pen editor/agent voices in your hear. If you can’t put your own book down, then that’s what it should be.”

She suggests that authors distance themselves from reviews and reader feedback somewhat. “I was offended on Bella’s behalf when an Amazon review said ‘I never found vampires so boring,’ she said.

“Putting the words down is where the magic is,” she says. “Doing what I love and getting paid for it, writing in a room alone with the characters, that’s the magic. But when you have an idea, that’s when you must write it down—right then.”

“Once you have an editor, once you’re under contract, editors like books a little rough,” she says, “but it must be clean before it’s published, especially the first chapter. The first page is a make or break point to capture a reader.”

“Writing is a reward I give myself,” Meyer says. “Thank you for reading what I write.”

Been There, Done That: Lee Greenwood and Sally Struthers

Because I had officially started working for Alan Osmond Productions in 1988, I often found myself in situations that allowed me to meet other celebrities, and to be in places that most people would not normally be. In November 1989, I was at Osmond Studios in Orem, Utah, in the hallway between the dressing rooms and the rehearsal hall when I had two close encounters of the celebrity kind. One of those I’ll save for next week, but today I’m going to tell you about how I got to pretend I was Marie Osmond.

Production was in full swing for the Marie Osmond Christmas Special, and The Osmond Boys were set to be guests. This was in the early days of their career, but I had been working with them for a couple of years already, so I was invited to be with them that day as they worked on the show. More on that in the blog for next week, though.

Alan gathered the boys and we all headed into the rehearsal hall. If you took a tour of the Osmond Studios back in the day, then you might remember what the rehearsal hall looked like. It’s a big box of a room with high cement walls and a ceiling to match. The floor was highly polished wood and at least two of the walls were covered with mirrors. These mirrors allowed the performers to watch themselves as their rehearsed their dance moves for various segments of the show.

 

When we entered the room, Marie was going through a musical routine with two of her guest stars, Sally Struthers and Lee Greenwood. I had met Lee a few times on the road and at his concerts, but I was here with Alan and the boys, and Lee was busy, so I didn’t say anything to him as we walked past.

Alan set up a tape recorder (yes, we had those back then), and the boys started running through their own number at the second set of mirrors to the right. I stood near them in case anyone needed me to go get something. Suzanne was there, but I’m thinking she had a baby in arms so she was not able to run to get things they might need.

The boys had gone through their number a time or two when I noticed that Marie had left Lee and Sally struggling through the routine on their own. Because the dance required them to all interact with each other, the two remaining where having trouble keeping the dance going without the third.

I turned back to Alan and the boys, who were just wrapping up their rehearsal, when the next thing I knew, someone had grabbed my arm. “Come over here. We need you.”

It was Lee Greenwood.

“What do you need me for?” I asked, completely surprised by his actions.

“You’re going to play Marie,” he said as he started leading me away from where I was standing.

I looked over my shoulder at Alan, who was laughing (something he does a lot of at my expenses it seems). “Go on, Lu Ann. You can do it,” he said.

Right! I thought. Me as Marie. I come from German stock. I’m big boned, and even then carried a few pounds too many. I was going to pretend to be the incredibly petit and tiny Marie. But that wasn’t the worst of it.

 

“We need you to help us with this dance routine,” Lee said once we got over to Sally Struthers. “I know we’ve met, but I can’t remember your name.”

“Lu Ann,” I said. Sally Struthers put out her hand to shake mine.

“Nice to meet you, Lu Ann,” she said. “You’ll do a great job.”

“You’ll be fine,” Lee added. “Mostly you just need to stand here, and we’ll move you around where you need to go.”

“Okay,” I said, and we got busy.

For the next twenty minutes or so, I played the role of Marie Osmond, first with Lee Greenwood guiding me around, then with Sally Struthers, and occasionally with me dancing on my own between them. I have to admit it was a lot of fun, and it was certainly nothing I ever imagined myself having the opportunity to do, dancing a musical number with two well-known celebrities such as these.

And it wasn’t the last time I had to stand in place for Marie Osmond, but like I said, that’s a story for another time.