Writtenwyrdd

My doggie from long ago and other missed furry buddies

This is Poco.  He was a sheltie-poodle cross and weighed a grand total of 7.5 pounds soaking wet no matter how much we fed him.  Smartest dog I've ever known.  He died at about 8 because the budding serial killer next door poisoned him with rat poison.  I was a private in the Army at the time and had been gone about a year and a half.  He used to drag my old, ratty, filthy, and formerly-pink slipper around to stick his nose in so he'd feel close to me. 

I've been missing him a lot lately, and my cat Cosmo who's been gone a year now.


Cosmo was working on 18.  He was a little shithead, really a mean cat who bit me all the time "because he loved me"  (or that's what he SAID)!  Morgan, the little girl, was litterbox challenged (on my bed!) whose behavior made the decision necessary.  Sigh.  It's been fifteen months.  She was 16. 

They all had good lives but I miss them.  At least I still have this big boy, Mikey, who tops 20 pounds, and Mom's dog Boomer.
 

Book Plug for a friend

I am priviledged to know a woman who has Asberger's Syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism as I  understand it.  Deborah Lipsky has been doing speaking engagements for a couple of years now (after her local friends kept encouraging her to do so.) She's funny, smart and able to talk about her problems dealing with the outside world in a way that is engaging and understandable to both sufferers*, caregivers and the unitiated regarding the problems of autism.

Now she and clinical psychologist Bill Richards have a book out.  If you know someone whom this book might help, you might turn them on to Managing Meltdowns: Using the S.C.A.R.E.D. Calming Technique With Children and Adults with Autism.

One of the biggest problems with Asberger's people is that they can seem perfectly normal but 'weird' or 'crazy' to others.  And trying to get them to function when you're freaking them out inadvertantly is a no win situation. 

Law enforcement professionals (particularly TSA at the airports) would really benefit from knowing about these sorts of disabilities* and learning how to recognize people as not combative but mentally (if temporarily) disabled by something not their own fault.  Because it does occur that well intentioned officials can cause or worsen what they believe are confrontations, thus making hash of an innocent person's day or life.

You can read more about Debbie here as well as through a quick google of her name.

*Debbie and other autistics might take exception to these labels, which are used gingerly and with no intention of disbaragement.

Slight change in blog settings

I changed the feeds and some other behind-the-scenes stuff and it changes how commenters sign in.  Let me know how you like it. 

Paragraphs

Something I said on Evil Editor that I wanted to keep.  Mostly to remind myself of, later, when I realize my brilliance must have been out for coffee when I wrote a particular passage. 

Paragraphs are not like beads on a string that can be lined up side by side with the mere connection of the page. They are more like puzzle pieces that interlock; one must imply the next, and the following paragraphs have to flow logically from what has preceded them. I know it's more difficult to do this with fiction than nonfiction, but you do have to do it.

Wha huh?

This earns my vote for the oddest comment trail I can recall...

Facebook is [a little bit] addictive

And I stop at one potato chip or one cookie, too.

A few random thoughts...

A repost of some ideas I liked. 

• What if you were randomly dropped into an alternate reality-- be it past, future, alternate Earth, or alien??  There is no going back.  Ever.  How do you carve a new place for yourself?
• A talking cat/alien looking like a cat is an old trope.  But my cats always did seem like demons in fur jackets to me.  What if they are??
• Robert Anton Wilson managed to explain and tie together pretty much every current conspiracy theory (and create new ones, too) in his Illuminatus Trilogy.  He even tied Nazis, the Loch Ness Monster and (if memory serves) Captain Nemo.  What elements of currently popular conspiracy theories (Bigfoot, Creation Science, Chupacabra, lizardmen are taking over the world [a la the really out-there David Icke]) can you cobble together into a story?
• Science fiction technology that wouldn't work.  Fodder for spoof.
• What if matter had sentience, and every planet has its own personality?
• What if the act of entering another universe changes the traveller?  An unpredictable combination of two universes' physical laws...and sometimes unpredictably new results.  Can you say...superpowers?  Godhood? (Psst...this is the basis for a couple of my novel starts.)
• Every little child imagines, at one time or another, that he/she is really someone else, someone more special (like a princess or a superhero).  What if that turns out to be true?  (We've seen this one so often, but it is sooo evocative...)

Take the time out to list some what ifs for yourself.  It's interesting.  And be sure to practice asking these sorts of questions as you write.  That's where it's really beneficial.

• What if you were randomly dropped into an alternate reality-- be it past, future, alternate Earth, or alien??  There is no going back.  Ever.  How do you carve a new place for yourself?
• A talking cat/alien looking like a cat is an old trope.  But my cats always did seem like demons in fur jackets to me.  What if they are??
• Robert Anton Wilson managed to explain and tie together pretty much every current conspiracy theory (and create new ones, too) in his Illuminatus Trilogy.  He even tied Nazis, the Loch Ness Monster and (if memory serves) Captain Nemo.  What elements of currently popular conspiracy theories (Bigfoot, Creation Science, Chupacabra, lizardmen are taking over the world [a la the really out-there David Icke]) can you cobble together into a story?
• Science fiction technology that wouldn't work.  Fodder for spoof.
• What if matter had sentience, and every planet has its own personality?
• What if the act of entering another universe changes the traveller?  An unpredictable combination of two universes' physical laws...and sometimes unpredictably new results.  Can you say...superpowers?  Godhood? (Psst...this is the basis for a couple of my novel starts.)
• Every little child imagines, at one time or another, that he/she is really someone else, someone more special (like a princess or a superhero).  What if that turns out to be true?  (We've seen this one so often, but it is sooo evocative...)

Take the time out to list some what ifs for yourself.  It's interesting.  And be sure to practice asking these sorts of questions as you write.  That's where it's really beneficial.

Thanks for the input!

I appreciate everyone taking the time to read my plot concerns and comment.  And I can see that the coincidence of the Crazy Ex Girlfriend being the one behind the fraudulent business is a bit thin.  So I'll have to consider that point and figure out how to make it work better.  Again, thanks.

Interesting inspirational site

Thought you  might like a heads up on an interesting site, Wordprompts.  Writing inspiration from flikr photos (some of which are really cool, likewise the author's poetry.)

I need feedback!

Okay, so I have a question which I could use feedback for in order to help me decide on some plot issues.

How much is too much of a coincidence?

I have an important subplot in the vampire novel that I suspect might be too dependent upon coincidence.  Specifically:

• The main character (hereinafter MC) , who is being dragged into the vampire world, is an engineer who discovers fraudulent practices in a high rise project--changes in the specific materials which can lead to a weaker structure and even a collapse in the future.  She initiates a search for proof because (coincidence #1) she's a leading specialist in forensic engineering called to testify as an expert witness in cases of collapse. 

• MC takes her trusted partner into her confidence but his wild geeky curiosity gets him noticed.  He is murdered to shut him up. 

• Simultaneous to the above, events conspire so MC meets Jack, a vampire, and they begin a whirlwind relationship.  Jack's ex the crazy vampire woman happens upon MC and Jack on a date (coincidence #2).  MC and Crazy Ex have a tiff which ensures their mutual enmity.

• MC goes to cops, reports her knowledge of crime.  Crazy Ex turns out to be the person who's behind the building fraud.  Crazy Ex owns the company involved (coincidence #3) and happens to be using it to discredit Jack and gain some blackmail power over him (Coincidence #4) for political purposes related to another important subplot that is close to Jack's heart as well as to a subplot where Crazy Ex maneuvers to raise her political power. 

• The two detectives investigating the murder of Pal/coworker trace the businesses behind the building fraud to Crazy Ex's home business where she is listed as owner.

• Crazy Ex discovers that someone still lives who knows about the fraud and it's MC (coincidence #5).  She has the cops killed and plots to kill MC.

• Crazy Ex also uses the murder of the cops to 'punish' Jack by setting Jack up as a suspect.  MC (coincidence #6) can provide a semi alibi to the cops.

• When Jack is called in as a suspect and MC called upon to provide alibi (coincidence #6), MC finds out Crazy Ex was behind her pal/co-worker's murder and uses this to lever her situation so she can escape from vampire world (coincidence #7). 

• Lots of neatening up and other major plots and subplots interweaving with this one to end up with not an HEA but a satisfying solution of sorts--but it all hinges upon the murder and fraud with the building to give MC a specific thing that compels her to resist being made a vampire and gives her leverage to plan her own escape.  (It doesn't give her the escape; but it gives her a way to resist.  Something else gives her freedom.)

And this is not the main plot, which is MC wants to run her own life and not be a vampire like the other vampires.

I've edited this a few times to make it more clear, and that has added a couple of coincidences.

======

So.  Is this too much of a convenient coincidence to work do you think?  Can my weaving a number of plots that hinge upon each other work?  (This is why this novel is so long and complicated: A gazillion plot threads!)

Spam vs Bloggers

Been getting a lot of gobbledygook spam comments making it through Typepad's spam filters lately.  What's up with that I ask you when complete gibberish makes it into a comment trail??

So I noticed something when exising the latest one:
Spam comments:  3,910
Real comments: 3,477

I feel like we are losing the war against the machines, people.

Newseum, a very cool site

This is an interesting 'interactive museum' idea on the web.  It's Newseum, which allows you to check out the actual front page of newspapers from around the globe. 

Today's WIPping

I got called into work because a coworker who'd slipped on ice and messed up his back was still out and they forgot to schedule anyone to cover.  ROFL on the snafu; but I do feel for him, poor guy.  Life as per usual.  At any rate, I mostly finished up putting my current project, my trunk novel Ellie & The Vampire, on 4x6 cards.  Simultaneously I jotted down the timeline on a notepad.

This is actually quite a cool technique.  I have to rewrite them all again after I make a clean word file as a template page with all the subplots and character developments noted in color so I can track them.  Then I can fill in where the characters need to accomplish certain things. 

Sounds incredibly crazymaking, but it is helping me corral all the disparate elements of the plot. 

This, of course, doesn't count as actual writing.  It's more like research. 

Or perhaps it's writing avoidance.

What do you think?

A confession

I joined Facebook.  *hangs head in shame*  I did have a good personal reason involving this being the only means of keeping in touch with one of my very close friends.  Her work, her spouse, her three kids (one of whom is severely autistic) and my schedule don't cross paths.  Nor do our time zones. 

But don't expect me to get all busy on Facebook.  I deleted my Twitter account because I couldn't be bothered; I expect my Facebook Wall will be gathering dust and the cyber tumbleweeds will be rolling across it eventually.

You can 'friend' me at D Lynn Frazier.  (Gah.  I hate that term and the ensuing usage as a verb.  'Friending'?  What the hell is that?  And 'unfriending'? Even worse!)

And don't nobody 'poke' me.  I don't know what it means but it sounds like it might chafe.

Man Rules

From a humorous email going around:

Now here are the rules from the male side.   

These are our rules!
Please note.. These are all numbered "1 " ON PURPOSE! 

1.  Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat.  You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down.  We need it up, you need it down.  You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports: It's like the full moon Or the changing of the tides.  Let it be.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want.
Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do.  Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.  In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are.  Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one

1. You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done.  Not both.  If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.  Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," We will act like nothing's wrong.  We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle. 

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine... Really .

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball or golf.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape.  Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this.  Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight; but did you know men really don't mind that? It's like camping.

80s photo

Robin S. Posted a photo from the 80s.  I thought it was hilarious (our clothing taste was so bad in the 80s, worse than the 70s in some ways, although the prints weren't nearly as hideous) so here's me and Then Hubs.  That blouse! Scarf-for-a-collar AND Leg-o-mutton sleeves!  Yoikes!

Post something of yourself should you have a notion.  Really.  I promise I won't laugh.  Much.

Excerpt

Here's a bit that I liked from my trunk novel:

He moved to perch on the couch next to her, took her hand.  "I told you that you think like one of us."  He began to unbutton a cuff of the shining white shirt.

            "What are you doing?"

            "I think I am going to offer you some blood.  You would like it, wouldn't you?"  His pale wrist threaded with blue drifted before her face, near enough to lick if she chose.

            Ellie had no idea how long she stared at it, mouth dry, before she shook herself, met the grave understanding in his pigeon's blood* eyes.  Leaned back again with an effort.  "No, Joe.  I don't think so."

            "If you don't drink, you will stay weak.  Do you want that when you go before the Council?"  She met that expression, looked at him steadily, thinking, not liking the options.  And she felt the curling motion of his presence in her head, like waves breaking on the beach, soft and foamy.  Thought of dawn walks along the shore, of cool waters and sand sucking at her toes, the cries of sea birds and the gray-blue skies of dawn.  It was like her skin slid away and a cool wind braided her into that imagined seascape.  She shook her head.  Blinked.  Narrowed her eyes accusingly.

            "Do not push me, damn it." 

            "I'm not pushing, Ellie.  You're pulling."  And his voice sounded strange, strained.  He looked away a moment, flicked his gaze back.  He blinked, then bent his wrist towards her, a thin line appearing as if by magic, oozing a thread of crimson.  "Drink, please?  Even a little will help immensely.  I am streghezze, and Maestro, whereas Magritte is a child among us."  Ellie presumed that meant a better vintage, but just couldn't, even as the scent of his skin and his blood filled her nostrils like ripe fruit, tugged her forward again before she could think -

            She turned away, and the air pulled like taffy between them.  She leaned into the sofa arm, looking down, concentrated on breathing, on swallowing around the sharp pain in her throat. 

            "No.  I can't."

            He stood, paced to the kitchenette, seemingly untouched by what had just occurred.  But she felt him in her head still, and it was a lie.  "I'll get you some water, then.  You need to replace more fluid, you are hypotensive at best."

            "No bags of blood in there?"  Thinking of all the vampire lore on modern television.

            "No,"  poking his head up from the fridge, a bottled mineral water in hand.  "Old blood makes us sick.  Fresh from the vein or nothing."  He handed her the cold drink.  "Not to be rude, but I know from Al and Jack that you don't bother with a glass."

            She sipped the cold water, realizing that she was very thirsty, drinking it in one long swallow and ignoring the freeze brain that followed.  "Done."

            He took the bottle, set in on a side table, but careful to avoid placing it on the bare wood.  Manners, always with the manners.

            The silence was uncomfortable.  He licked the drying blood on the now-healed wrist, eyes locked to hers.  Rebuttoned the cuff.  "What passes between us with blood is a thing to enjoy, Ellie.  And we do not force it upon anyone in this household."

            "Never?"

            His eyes did not quite meet hers.  "There are exceptions.  The Capo may decide certain things are needful, and they are accomplished.  His job is to protect the clan.  Just as the Council's role is to determine threats to our survival as a whole, and to determine which issues are brought to the People for decisions."

            She had a ton of questions, of course.  It was rather like being immersed in the middle of a soap opera's story arc, having to infer the previous events.  She hated that.  But then a knock at the door, which immediately swept open to admit Paulinus and several of the Enforcers.  He was just closing a slim cellular, slipping it into his inner pocket.  "Ms.  McBride.  Are you ready?"

            "No."  But she was trying to stand, wanting to get this over with.  Because it was obviously not going to go away so she could curl up and sleep.

            Joe caught her arm as before.  He looked up, somewhat defensively, at Paulinus.  "She declined nourishment."

            Paulinus' nostrils flared slightly, the corner of his lips curled down.  "Stubbornness is not always a virtue, young lady."

            Ellie looked up, applied her innocent face.  "I was not aware that my personal freedoms were impinged -- beyond being held against my will, assaulted, drugged and lied to.  Are you going to force feed me now?"

            "I repeat,"  he said steadily, calmly, "Stubbornness is not always a virtue.  But you can learn this for yourself.  Shall we?"  Allowing Pearly to wheel the chair.  Ellie was grateful for that, wondered if they'd let her keep him when they got where they were going.

            The route took them out a glass-walled security section, into what looked like something from a historical piece, all Louis and French and Italian palazzo all over the place.  Too glittery for her taste.  They passed along a red-carpeted hallway with marble walls and floors, pierced on one side by columned arches leading into a ballroom populated with what looked like hundreds of fancy-dressed people.  A band played Mozart in a balcony, and a huge gilded statue of a very pregnant woman with the traditional disc of a halo behind her head centered a magnificent tiered fountain. 

            As they passed along the edge of that immense room, Ellie felt eyes trailing them like the hem of a weighty gown, their drag palpable, growing in weight, becoming painful. 

            She clutched her head.  "What the hey!" 

            "Think of a wall between them and yourself, Ellie."  Pearly's voice slid through her distraction.

            She did, a steel-strapped, iron-barred, claymore-mined barrier with snarling dogs and about a zillion screaming, woad-painted Celts with upraised swords, led by Mel Gibson in a kilt.  The weight lifted from her thoughts, a guillotine cut.  Several of their escort were eyeing her like a kitten with sabertooth fangs.  It might have been respect.  She didn't care, blinking in surprise at the relief. 

            "What was that?"

            "You appear to have attracted notice, Ms.  McBride,"  Paulinus replied.  "And you also seem to be capable of serving them their rudeness back at them."

            "They were prying into your head,"  Pearly supplied.  "You smacked back."

            She thought about that, decided for once to stay quiet.  This was too fucking weird.

*This character is an albino.  (I know, an albino vampire?  Don't ask me where I came up with that one.  I think because I came up with the name Pearly Joe, lol.)

Returning to an old project

This move and hiatus from writing has got me started working on the old trunk novel again.  It actually never got quite finished, either, so is it actually a trunk novel or an 80% finished doorstop 500 pages long (including the appendices and notes)?

At any rate, there's quite a lot of good writing in this thing, and I've been rereading and thinking about plot issues today with the idea that I want to get back to it and finish it up.  I originally put it aside because my head was starting to feel scrambled.  Four years later, I'm feeling unscrambled and might be able to tackle it.

So the first order of business is refamiliarizing myself with it.  I'm trying to plot out the story so far, clarify the elements of the main plot and then add in the various elements of the subplots and organize all the scenes in a better flow.  (December Quinn's articles on the three Acts of a novel are quite useful for this, by the way).

One trick I learned as I began to mess with this massive novel draft before was that it was okay to leave place holders for things I'd yet to write or think through. Now I am paying for that choice, lol.  (Actually, it's really helpful in this novel that's set in the 'real world'; wouldn't work for a fantasy where I'm creating the world details as I go, however.)

Another trick I learned working on this thing was that I'm very wordy and I'll be cutting.  (Obviously, considering its current size of 150K!)  But before I worry about cutting I am going to write the whole wordy damned thing with all the details I want and write it well and then worry about it being too frigging big.  I owe the story in my head that homage at least. 

But the trick that I am using at the moment (and will be for days, no doubt) is that I am going to plot out the main and subplots into a nice outline and then answer a few questions, as follows, for every scene, chapter, plotline and character.

Scenes:

1. Does every scene "contribute to at least two of the following elements: Plot movement, characterization, conflict, raising suspense, or revealing important information"? *
2. What subplot is this scene serving? 
3. What is the purpose of this scene?

Plots:

1. Does every plot have a resolution? 
2. Subplots should support the main plot either as a complication or a supporting theme, or serve to provide information or characterization that feels the overall story.  How does this subplot do that?

Everyone has their own way of working things out, but these issues are the ones I need to consider in hashing out the plot of this really complicated novel before I get back into writing the additional scenes that I wanted to put in there, including an entire subplot that is required to give the main character a powerful reason to resist being pulled into the world of vampires, and another subplot that entails mystical vampire prophecies.  Besides these simple little add-ons, I have a cast of fifty or more characters, a bunch of venues, vampires and weres and ancient cultures and lots of crazy twists on what we mundanes think is the real history of humanity.  Oh,and I haven't written the third act yet.

*I don't recall the source of this quote, but I've had it taped on the laptop for about six years now as my touchstone.  Helps me keep real about whether a scene has any valid purpose or I'm just being pig headed.

Evocative words

 

Sometimes, learning a single new word can give me an idea.  Here's one for you: 

NIDUS
1:  a nest or breeding place; especially: a place or substance in an animalor plant where bacteria or other organisms lodge and multiply.
2: a place where something originates, develops, or is located

Ideas.

• What if humans have a place where something can lodge and multiply--by the design of the animal or plant that lives there, as in alien invasion, body snatchers, etc.?  (Yes, this is a mechanical description of a thing that you likely shouldn't even delineate within the actual written story; but this sort of factoid is what fascinates me about developing a science fiction idea, the way you come up with a logical explanation for what happens, even if it doesn't end up in the story.)
• What if humans created niduses (nidii?) within themselves for, say, viral smuggling?  Now there's an idea that would make a border cop's bowels liquid, yes?  Terrorists/bad guys have a new means of germ warfare transportation. 
• What if in future we discover that humans or some other life form carry an entirely different life within them, an interior universe composed of discrete 'worlds' of bacterial life (Blood Music by Greg Bear covered this already, and so did Dr. Seuss!--but it's a cool idea.)  You can go lots of places with this one--from the general Help I'm Being Overtaken By Internal Aliens (whereupon they promply explode from the guy's chest) to Mankind as the New Autobus/Meat Puppet For Small Internal Geniuses. 

I'm sure you can come up with other ideas, but it's late and I need to get my beauty sleep.

Happy writing!

Colors & Twitter

I just noticed that my background color for this text column is very close to the color that I am using for the kitchen cabinets and the trim in the rest of the house.  It looks white against a dark color but slightly creamy yellow against a white. 

Now aren't you just thrilled?

Also, I just closed my barely used Twitter account.  It just is too much a waste of time for me.  Nearly as bad as Facebook.  (Sorry Facebook users, I loathe Facebook.)  And did you hear that Facebook Addiction Syndrome has just been recognized?  Sheesh.  I thought Internet Addiction Syndrome covered that sort of thing.

And on a third note, that wailing trainwreck of a gal got voted off on Idol last night.  Thank.  Goodness.

Sage advice. Now if I can only follow it...

"When you edit your first draft, you’ll have all sorts of ideas of what to change. But when you write your first draft, you want to turn off the “internal editor” in your mind, that super-ego that looks over your shoulder and criticizes everything you do. Editing is different from writing. Most people can’t successfully do both at the same time. And when you do your first draft, you need to focus on writing." Daily Writing Tips, "How to Bypass Your Internal Editor"

A good article there with a bunch of ideas on how to turn off or avoid the internal editor getting in the way of reaching the end of the first draft before you start to edit.  Of particular interest to me is the suggestion that one dictate one's first draft.  I've been tempted to try this method, but I do need to see to get the draft down, because I do need to revise to make the first draft comprehensible.  Or that's what I tell myself!

Which means perhaps I should try this method--presuming I can figure out how the dictation function works on my computer.

Interesting site

I tend to google myself occasionally just to see what comes up.  And this time I find a site called Site Dossier that lists me in a catalog of sorts.  It's interesting particularly because it lists the sites that link to me directly. 

I thought you all might like to know who links to you as well.  Go here and put your blog Facebook or web addy in the search box and see if you come up.  It's still being beta tested, but I suspect most of us will show up here.

And a big thank you shout out to my linkers!!

THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING:

1.   http://abysswinksback.blogspot.com/
   
2.   http://bernitaharris.blogspot.com/
   
3.   http://bloglesstroll.blogspot.com/
   
4.   http://bookfraud.com/
   
5.   http://charlesgramlich.blogspot.com/
   
6.   http://claredargin.bravejournal.com/
   
7.   http://coffeequill.blogspot.com/
   
8.   http://cornerkick.blogspot.com/
   
9.   http://decemberquinn.blogspot.com/
   
10.   http://dscribwomen.blogspot.com/
    
11.   http://editorialass.blogspot.com/
    
12.   http://fairyhedgehog.blogspot.com/
    
13.   http://freddiescafe.blogspot.com/
    
14.   http://jjdebenedictis.blogspot.com/
    
15.   http://kierstenwrites.blogspot.com/
    
16.   http://mapelba.wordpress.com/
    
17.   http://mom-in-scrubs.blogspot.com/
    
18.   http://morgandempsey.wordpress.com/
    
19.   http://musing.typepad.com/
    
20.   http://obfuscationofreality.blogspot.com/
    
21.   http://pacatrue.blogspot.com/
    
22.   http://randomactsofunkindness.blogspot.com/
    
23.   http://saipanwriter.blogspot.com/
    
24.   http://sherricornelius.com/
    
25.   http://shetoldmehewastasty.blogspot.com/
    
26.   http://stacia-kane.livejournal.com/
    
27.   http://stonehengepicnic.blogspot.com/
    
28.   http://telecommutingtruths.wordpress.com/
    
29.   http://theswivet.blogspot.com/
    
30.   http://thethrillionthpage.blogspot.com/
    
31.   http://william-hammett.blogspot.com/
    
32.   http://wisb.blogspot.com/
    
33.   http://writerlystuff.blogspot.com/
    
34.   http://writtenwyrdd.blogspot.com/
    
35.   http://writtenwyrdd.typepad.com/
    
36.   http://www.bernitaharris.blogspot.com/
    
37.   http://www.bloglesstroll.blogspot.com/
    
38.   http://www.charlesgramlich.blogspot.com/
    
39.   http://www.claredargin.bravejournal.com/
    
40.   http://www.decemberquinn.blogspot.com/
    
41.   http://www.editorialass.blogspot.com/
    
42.   http://www.mom-in-scrubs.blogspot.com/
    
43.   http://www.musing.typepad.com/
    
44.   http://www.obfuscationofreality.blogspot.com/
    
45.   http://www.randomactsofunkindness.blogspot.com/
    
46.   http://www.saipanwriter.blogspot.com/
    
47.   http://www.theswivet.blogspot.com/
    
48.   http://www.traviserwin.blogspot.com/
    
49.   http://www.william-hammett.blogspot.com/
    
50.   http://www.writerlystuff.blogspot.com/

Rejections and goals

New Weird just rejected my zombie story that I sent them in October.  For some reason, it made me happy.  I think that was because it reminded me that I'd gotten three stories out there last year, which is a vast improvement over not bothering for about forever.

See, for me writing was always a back burner activity, even though I loved to write, was constantly thinking about stories, and I even got that degree in English with a focus on Creative Writing. 

I didn't take it seriously.  To some extent I still do not.  But I am working on that issue with goals to actually get my writing out there in submission form, not just fan fiction, nor blog posts or half-finished stories that scratch the creative itch.

Before, my goals in life were threefold and all about exterior things:

1. Buy a house (a big deal for a single gal, especially one living in California as I did for many years);

2. Have a career job with a retirement plan and stability (California job markets were notoriously unstable; I got laid off five times in under four years once in the 90s);
3. And move to somewhere back in New England where this was actually a viable plan.

And I accomplished these things nearly a decade years ago.  The job ate my life for the most part, and other issues like home improvement and a newfound love of quilting (adding to my list of hobbies that includes painting with acrylics, bead weaving, block printing, digital photography, needlepoint, crocheting, pen and ink/pencil drawing, cross stitch and general sewing) sort of sidelined the writing, too.

But I've been at an 8-hour day since June, and I have most of the home improvement stuff under control.  So I have no excuse not to start making the time for...(said in a Pigs In Space echoey voice)...Butt In Chair!

So I'm stating right here (which I think I said previously since the New Years) that this year's single goal is to write and submit (and hopefully publish) at least one short story.

Just one story, and I'll have met the goal.

The point being that you have to start someplace, and that's my starting point.

Because my newest life goal is that I want to be a multi-published author after I retire in about ten more years. 

I'm a slow mover, so ten years seems about right!

Cool site with writing inspiration and tips

A site that you might like to add to your blogroll or link list for inspriation is Daily writing tips.  And that's about all I have to say today.  Just give me a day or so to read the dozen or so magazines littering my desk and I'll come up with some ideas posts for y'all, okay?  Okay.  Thought you'd see it my way! ;)

Didn't get all I wanted to done yesterday.  Got some done, but not all.  Hung shelves, did some prep work, hung some pictures.  Wasted half a day at that stuff and that's it.  Now I have a headache and don't feel like it.  Nya nya.

Ah, sweet remembrance...not

From an email my friend Ken in Oregon sent me.  I haven't vetted this via Snopes.com yet, although I suspect it IS an urban legend.  But it's funny.  So I share.

 

Ben & Jerry's created Cherry Garcia ice cream flavor with Jerry Garcia in mind, and "Yes Pecan!" ice cream flavor for Barack Obama. Customers were then asked to fill in the blank to the following:

For George W., Ben & Jerry's created
"_________".

Here are (supposedly) some of their favorite responses:

- Grape Depression
- Abu Grape
- Cluster Fudge
- Nut'n Accomplished
- Iraqi Road
- Chock 'n Awe
- WireTapioca
- Impeach Cobbler
- Guantanmallow
- imPeachmint
- Good Riddance You Lousy M********** Swirl
- Heck of a Job, Brownie!
- Neocon Politan
- RockyRoad to Fascism
- The Reese's-cession
- Cookie D'oh!
- The Housing Crunch
- Nougalar Proliferation
- Death by Chocolate... and Torture
- Credit Crunch
- Country Pumpkin
- Chunky Monkey in Chief
- George Bush Doesn't Care About Dark Chocolate
- WM Delicious
- Chocolate Chimp
- Bloody Sundae
- Caramel Preemptive Stripe
- I broke the law and am responsible for the deaths of thousands ... with nuts

Progress!

I got the spare room painted, hung the blinds and got most of the pictures up.  Now I have no excuse to avoid el treadmill, as the junk is not in the way now.  (darn...)  I didn't get much more done because I felt really tired and after church lay down for a nap and woke up at 4:30!

When I get the place organized, I'll post a couple pictures.  Except for the kitchen, which won't be done for a while.

Tomorrow I'm hanging the  blinds and curtains in the living room, and then I'll paint the new kitchen cabinet units.  If I get that much done I'll texture the kitchen walls and paint them.  And maybe get the filing done.  I have a couple gift certificates which are misplaced, and I want to spend them!

And my eye is still pink but not as itchy/burny. 

In case you, like, cared

I got out the drop clothes, draped the furniture, taped the woodwork off and cut in the primer in the spare room.  Primer and paint tomorrow, woo hoo!

And I've developed an infection in my left eye.  Wonderful.  Just in time for the weekend.  I'm going to be pissed if it doesn't go away and I have to go to the emergency room to get it treated.  (Because Monday's a holiday and the immediate care doc is closed, and so is my regular doc.)

Oh, and HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to those of you with a burnin' yearnin' for luuuurv.

House

I have Sunday and Monday off and have to work on the house some more.  Also a task or two at the old house.  So I'll be MIA for much of that time. 

But we hope to finally get the spare bedroom painted so the treadmill can be set up and used by me, and misc. junk can be stowed out of sight instead of in the living room.

And I also hope to get the new kitchen units painted, leveled and installed.  I have a new stove vent hood coming in a few days and need to get the area set up so I can install it. 

And maybe, if I'm feeling good and have time, I can get the rest of the kitchen walls textured and painted.  And my filing done.  And my workshop area organized so I can find my tools. And the garage cleared up so I can park in it.  (Okay, maybe that last one's a bit overambitious, lol.)

Not that I'm overly ambitious or anything.

Moodiness and your product

"As I sit writing here, sick and grown old, / Not my least burden is that dulness of the years, querilities,/ Ungracious glooms, aches, lethargy, constipation, whimpering ennui,/ May filter in my daily songs."  Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, First Annex: Sands at Seventy 

And he's correct.  Your mood and troubles can easily bleed into what you write.  Been thinking about mood and attitude a lot lately in relation to my eventual surgery, and reremembering better habits from days gone by where I pay attention to my thought landscape.

Shifting into the present high-stress and (until recently) long hours job changed the metaphysical thinking me to a more front-brain, hypercritical mode. The long hours when I had to work about 80 hours per week really jumpstarted the slacking on the mental caretaking mode; but it doesn't help to let yourself be thinking negatively--particularly about yourself or your writing.

You do need to think positively, even hopefully, about your writing; because if you aren't believing in it, and particularly if you are punishing yourself by thinking badly about your writing, you aren't enjoying the process.  And how successful or productive are you going to be if you aren't enjoying your creativity?????

Being mean to yourself serves no real purpose, anyhow.  Except to increase your stress level.  And bad habits in thinking, like negative affirmation tapes (now there's an oxymoron!) will continue to reinforce your negativity.

You have to break that chain of hateful thinking, be it directed at yourself or outward.  You need to do this by paying attention to what you are thinking.

So I challenge you, my blog friends, to pay attention to what you think about yourself and your writing the next time you sit down to write.  Note your mood, note your thoughts if you are resisting the process.  Don't ignore them, either.  Address them by asking why you feel that way, and telling the negative tapes (if you find any; most of us will) with a positive affirmation instead.

And let me know what your experience is.

Because I'm curious if you all have similar ways of beating yourself up.  Because I think/suspect it's cultural.

For myself, I think the primary negative response is I don't wanna.  I'm not in the  mood.  Or, if I'm being really negative/cranky, Oh, you suck anyhow.  You'll never finish that, it'll never be sold and so you shouldn't waste time bothering.  Go have a cookie. 

"For Books are not absolutely dead things."  John Milton

Saddlesores

I'm supposed to be getting 'back in the saddle' on the whole writing thing; but I think I may have saddlesores, lol! 

Seriously, isn't it hard to get back into doing something--even something you really like doing--when you have fallen out of the habit for whatever reason?  Exercise springs to mind.  Also, to my chagrin, writing. 

But after I do some work on the house I plan to sit down and write for a couple of hours.

The trick is writing new prose and not editing.  That's where I get in trouble. Because I like to read, to get the story back inside my head, and that leads to the inevitable tweaking and editing and fiddlign and in general not getting any forward progress made.

Do you do that, too?  And if you have broken yourself of the habit, what tricks did you do?

Speaking of habits, on a personal front, the whole process toward gastric bypass surgery is a rather daunting one.  I have to take psych evals, personality tests, nutrition classes, physical therapy classes, start an exercise regimin, and get a surgical evaluation (last but not least).  And all this to mentally prep you for a drastic change in your life which I really don't want to make but need to.  I really wish actual dieting worked for me, but whether it's my failure of willpower or my metabolism (largely the latter, but I admit to some of the first as well--dieting is difficult!) no surgery is just killing me slowly.  Sigh. But it appears I might be getting this surgery rather sooner than expected, given that all the appointments are crammed into Feb and March! 

The mammoth in my kitchen

I just wanted to tell you guys I have been writing.  Two whole hours so far.  Fixing a problematic beginning to a story I started a while back. 

On the other hand, I also spent the afternoon spending another $450 on the house.  But I have a pantry and more storage crap for the kitchen.  Now I just have to crack the whip so Mom gets them all painted and installed, lol.  Then have her make the shelves that go in after that point.  (Why is that woman so darned lazy?  Being nearly 70 shouldn't be any excuse, right?  ;) 

Seriously, I'm doing the painting and installing and shelf building.  Eventually.  I feel like I've already stalked, hunted, killed, skinned and gutted the wooly  mammoth and now should hunch beside the fire gnawing on knuckle bones and beating my hairy chest and grunting.  Or something.  But at least not be working.

Endings and why I write (in part anyhow)

Was reading today's post on Marta's blog, Writing In The Water, and her question was what sort of endings we like.  My answer was something I'd like to share, and ask you, my blog friends, what sort of endings you write, and why you write, too.

I think my favorite endings are the ones that haunt you–whether in a good or bad way emotionally–with the question of What If. What if the MC had made a different choice? What if events had unfolded differently? Et cetera. It means I was hooked by the world, the story, that I bought into it.

I love that almost as much as when I finish a novel and positively yearn to become part of that world.

That latter experience is what makes me want to write. I want to create that experience for others.

Happy writing!  I'm off to a haircut and then to Lowes in Presque Isle to buy a pantry, which I then must paint.  And install. 

Avoid qualifiers

"Qualifiers are words like (very, often, hopefully, practically, basically, really, mostly) – they take a strong statement and muddy it with vagueness."  Helen Ginger

Above, Ms. Ginger is talking about developing your writing style, but you might want to read her excellent series of articles on editing your writing. Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 are at the links. There may be more to come, just check out The Blood Red Pencil regularly!

(Didn't I just say yesterday that I wasn't feeling like posting?  Then I go and read my blog lists and get inspired.  Sheesh.)

But the point of the quote about avoiding qualifiers is a good one.  In general, your writing may be littered with the little bits of fluff we commonly toss out in speech.  You  might like to call it your Voice.  But you'd be wrong.  I like all that crap when I write my first draft of a scene; and then I have to prune much of it out. 

I think perhaps the biggest danger for the extraneous stuff like qualifiers is in first person.  So, writers beware! 

Ye gods

I just got caught up reading blog posts.  Nearly three hours.  I admit to skimming quite a few and posting to fewer.  But my lengthy absence from commentary is over...until the next time, of course.

Musical Monday

Robin has a cool site she shares on her blog, Dance a Day.  Her daughter's uni has some art students who have decided to post a dance a day on the blog, and they are dancing to classic rock (so far).  No telling what's next!  Check it out and spread the word.  Details on the project here, on Robin's blog.

Where angels fear to tread

My last post was a cop out, wasn't it?  My primary interest was in what the President had to say; but reading between the lines it's all about how I didn't want to state my feelings on the legalization of marijuana.  I really don't want my blog to be all about my political opinions, and so I shy away from using it as a platform to state them.  Mostly.  Besides, I have a job, which brings up other issues I won't discuss either! ;) 

That said, I am not posting much at all this week because I haven't felt like writing anything.  I think I have hit a burn out phase. Either that or it's the winter doldrums.  I usually do start feeling blah and blue and so what about this time of year.  A combined effect of too little sunshine, exercise and outdoors time.  I  don't have SAD (SEasonal Affective Disorder, where you need light therapy to be normal); but pretty  much everybody starts to get good old 'cabin fever' right about now.  It doesn't help that the temperatures are unseasonably cold.  We usually get a thaw in January, for example, and we have had two days about freezing since Christmas, and they were both last week, several days apart.  One day in the 20s.  And tonight it's going to be about fifteen below zero (again).  Bleh.

I'm not planning on writing anything writing related for a few days, so I hope you all don't mind the blathering.

(did I mention clipping my nails?  That I have a haircut appointment tomorrow?  Or my annual physical?  I didn't?  You're probably luck, at that, lol.)

Interesting article I cite but I carefully refrain from voicing my personal opinion

From my friend Ken in Oregon. 

Much better, thanks!

I appreciate all the kind thoughts re my being under the weather.  Perhaps it was your good energies that had me relatively chipper by mid-morning?  At any rate, other than a bad but non-migraine-level headache, today went pretty well.  And I got a bunch of stuff unpacked and did my laundry.

Amazing how much stuff I bothered to move then threw away, though.  I'm talking ancient toiletries, cleaning products and suchlike.  Relatively few items to donate, because I really don't have that much stuff to donate any more; I do cull regularly.  It's just that I can't get rid of books, art supplies, or useful items that are seasonally used, like fans, flannel sheets and down blankets or jugs for making sun tea.  I use the things during the proper season; but there's a lot of it.  I can't imagine what the clutter would be if I still had all the sports equipment of my youth!

After moving to Maine I've made up for many years of living in studio apartments, it seems! 

How many of you discovered, after purchasing a house, that home maintenance equipment and 'stuff' (to use a technical term) you acquired?  A whole garage full?  A basement packed full?  Raise your hands now... *counting wriggling paws*... Yep.  I thought so!

And now, for my final prestidigitation, I shall segue off to do an ammended tax return, because, unbeknownst to me, I had two more 1099s I didn't expect.  They just came in the mail yesterday.  Bleh.

First Twitter, now this:

It's Google Latitude, folks!  If you have a cell phone you can allow your friends to know where you are (or at least where your phone is).

Now, this is just waaaay too much for me; but I suppose it's going to get real common, real soon. 

And I can think of a few uses for this.  What if you are kidnapped and the dummies don't hijack your cell, too?  Or you can 'borrow' someone's phone to stalk one of their friends using Latitude.  Whatev' peeps.  I know you could do all sorts of fun things with this applet on your iphone.  You know you want it. 

Me, I'm going to say no thanks.  I haven't got a cell because there's no reception up this way unless I'm in town, which I can, like, totally walk across in fortyfive minutes.

Happy plotting gang.

And on the me front, I feel better but I stayed home sick.  I might get more stuff put away, or I might read.  And I found my passport.  Hah. 

Flu

On top of everything else, I apparently have a virus.  We'll call it the flu.  It has the typical symptoms except I don't have chills or a fever.  Bleh. 

And yet, I am still plugging away between naps in the recliner...

Miscellaney

Today's earlier post was the last preprepared one from before the Great Move.  I have nothing written in advance now and I'm likely not going to get anything written for you all before the end of the day today, unless I am inspired before my lunch break.  So I might be just posting random junk about my personal life for a few days instead of anything terribly thought provoking, which I like to kid myself my blatherings are wont to do!

At any rate, we are at 16 degrees today and were at 41 yesterday.  That was a nice change of pace!  It's been a really cold January this year, as we usually get a thaw for a week or so in January.  Looks like it might not even occur in February at this rate; but in four weeks we will be seeing days above freezing on a regular basis.

I have nearly all the things out (a few tools, a few bits of junk) from the old house.  Just need to dust and sweep and mop.  Then, on my day off tomorrow, I can organize my desk and office, and hopefully get the stuff cluttering the downstairs all stowed away.  And, just maybe, I might find my passport thereby.  (At least if I have to replace it I had less than a year on it anyhow!)

So that's about it.  I'm looking forward to having a desk area upon which to work and get some writing done.  It's been about five weeks since I've been able to do any writing, and I'm missing it.

Cool Site: Talk Reason

Found an interesting site (Talk Reason) written by a scientist who rants against "creationism, intelligent design, and religious apologetics." 

Whether or not you agree with his premise, the guy's arguments are fascinating in their wealth of detail.  I can't follow a word of it, basically, because I don't know enough about genetics.  But all the statistics in the argument had me sitting there mesmerized as I read.  Made me think gleefully of what would happen if you trotted out some of these paragraphs in revenge to a boring proselytizer at your door... (I get tired of telling them I'm a Satanist; I need the option of variety.)

Or,if you have a relative who likes to go on about such things, pontificating about why your beliefs aren't 'right' or whatever, just memorize a few paragraphs of Talk Reason's arguments and start spouting back.  You can spoil the mood at your family get together in no time flat!  Either that or there will be familiar faces on America's Most Wanted or Cops.

Please don't think I'm trying to argue for or against the idea of creation by a god/dess here, although I firmly disagree with the whole creation science stupidity as a profound rape (or perhaps prostitution) of the scientific method.  So far as I am concerned, the scientific method works, the theory of evolution hasn't been disproved, and a lot of current science is based on the understandings derived from evolutionary science; so whether or not a god has involved him or herself in that process is entirely irrelevant to my life on this planet.   Really, it's as much of a non-issue to me as the consideration of how many angles might dance comfortably on the head of a pin.

The afterlife, on the other hand... Well, I'll just have to wait and see who's right!  ;)

Almost through!

I'm so tired!  But I only have maybe a carload of junk to haul to the new house, and a couple of small tasks to perform in the place, like mopping and a bit more paint touch up.  (Turns out that if you put semigloss over flat paint, even in the same color, it is really noticeable.  Gee, who'd have thought?)  I do have to get the new dishwasher installed in the old place, though, because the hole where my freezer lived needs a dishwasher again to look presentable. 

The downside is the new living room looking like a jumble sale about to commence.

I had eight years to accumulate a household of stuff, and eight years in which to add shelving, built in shelving, organizational stuff, extra cupboards in the kitchen...  In short, I have too much crap!

But I will be acquiring a new pantry unit shortly, whereupon I can add some shelves for cannisters and whatnot in the kitchen.  The progress of stowage depends largely on a series of small and interrelated projects, like putting in a pantry so that I have a corner in which to add shelves.  Or adding a shelf in the laundry room on which I can stow hats and gloves and miscellaney.  Or clearing out the mudroom and adding a bunch of storage for odds and ends that are currently in the house.  Or getting shelves in the basement so I can drag more stuff down there.

In the meantime, I haven't touched my office area, but I did get a piece of plywood to act as a desktop.  I have to stain and seal that and install it before I can organize upstairs.  I can't even vacuum up there until I can stow stuff.  And it's a mess.

But now that the house is going to be a done deal (mostly) I can focus on the new house again.  And maybe get the guest room painted so I can, ahem, hide more junk in there!

And I still haven't found my passport. 

Camping vs. Marching

"Many writers, for fear of losing readers, will explain everything in their story, not realizing that they will definitely lose their readers this way.  So, how do writers tell us everything?  They might tell us everything a character has on, explain every piece of furniture that’s in a room, detail an entire conversation from beginning to end, relay every minute feeling that comes through the narrator’s mind, and bring us into every sight, smell, taste, sound, touch that occurs within a story – all in the name of making the story feel real to the reader.  In the end, this may make the reader so full off “stuff” that’s unimportant to the actual story that he/she may close the book and find a less tedious (or as I like to say “less chewy”) book to read." Writing Coach Shonell Bacon

The linked article discusses two concepts of exposition: Camping and Marching, or, too much information versus moving the story along.

Ms. Bacon says the way to avoid the problem of camping (too much info) is to focus on the story's purpose.  She says avoiding the clutter by focusing on the story's purpose.  However, she says you should NEVER think of the story's purpose or central idea until you have actually written it.  (I have to agree.  More bad, unwieldy, concept-laden novels have been written with theme dazzling the author's eyes!)  So the decluttering occurs after the first final draft.  Then you prune by focusing on the purpose and ideas and what you are trying to convey to the readers, what you want them to take away from the book. 

Interesting concept, which I agree with for the most part.  I still believe you can do some cleaning up as you go along, if you are the type of writer, like me, who likes to get stuff fairly decent before proceeding ahead. 

Nice to learn more writerly jargon!  I hadn't heard the camping vs marching terminology, although I am familiar with the concept.  Seeing as I write genre sf/fantasy, I am practically required to do some explaining, and it is really a fine line between too much and too little.  The trick, as I see it, is to get as much as possible in small bites amidst the dialog and action.