Writtenwyrdd

Good article on short story writing here: http://theelephantinthewritingroom.blogspot.com/2009/11/taking-miscroscope-to-words-from-glass.html
Thanks to Nicola Morgan for the link

What brings your readers?

I get the most google search visits from "jungian archetypes"...and I'm 7th on the page. Second largest hit rate is from hits on my magic for fantasy writers series. 

What brings people to your site the most?

When is a contest not a contest?

Ran across something that made me stop to ponder this morning.  Skullvines Press, a small horror press, is hosting a blog 'contest' and it bothered me.  Thought I'd ask your collective opinion on the structure of said 'contest' as it consistes of requiring you to purchase a book from Skullvine Press, then review it on your blog or website before you can enter. 

Now, isn't that unpaid advertising, really?  I might give you something but first you must invest in my company?  Or maybe it's closer to a pyramid scheme...

What do you guys think about this set up?  The publisher, from what I can tell, does PODs and sells via online stores and via the website.  Some of the titles look interesting, and they love dark humor which is right up my reading alley, too. 

Hemingway on brevity

"If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them." Ernest Hemingway

How long is a novella, anyhow?

"There are approximately 250 words per page in a properly formatted manuscript. Due to varying English word lengths the actual range is 175 to 300 words per page."  Tamari.com

Also, the link has the following, a handy reference chart for work lengths.

Type of Work	Length
Short-Short Story or Article	500 to 2,000 words
Short Story or Long Article	2,500 to 5,000 words
Novella	20,000 to 40,000 words
Novel	80,000 to 150,000 words
Epic (no real limit)	200,000 words or more
Stage Play	90 to 120 pages
Movie Script	110 to 250 pages

"There are some differences in opinions on these lengths, as more novels are in the 50,000 word range. Also, while some movies have managed to run three hours, most are less than 90 minutes, limiting the script to less than 140 pages. In the case of novels and movies, it is now common to “pitch” on the short end of the scale."

Writer's lexicon

I just found a great site for writers, Tameri, which boasts some great articles on story structure and a  comprehensive lexicon for writers.  Check it out and learn a few new terms. 

More on the visit of the Muse

"I never have any idea, or never much of one, when I begin. Something sets off a spark, or drops down in me like a stone in a pond, and then the part of me that is a writer begins making a story out of it with all the obsessive unconscious steadiness of an oyster making a pearl. I write the story to find out what the story is. But then-and this is what so many writers forget to mention when talking about writing stories-once I have found out what it is, I go back through it all and back through it all, over and over, knowingly, shrewdly, calculatedly, like a surgeon looking at an X-ray. And when I'm fairly certain of the story, then I am looking again and again at the writing. Is it clear? Is it concrete? Is it mellifluous and seemingly effortless? Are the lines, as many of them as possible, accomplishing more than one thing? Are the emotions expressed as much as possible in things, and in the reactions to things? Is it visible? Palpable? My ambition, my hope, is to disappear into the writing, so that one reads a story and is incused by it, moved without quite knowing how or why, and with no idea at all what my opinions are about anything at all, much less anything in the story."  From an interview with Richard Bausch from failbetter.com. 

Background info for world building

You cannot beat a few telling, reality-based details in urban fantasy to help your readers create a vision of their world from your words.  Selected details--particularly if they are familiar with the venue described, such as oft-referenced places like NYC, NOLA, SF, Paris, London, etc.--can make ALL the difference between looking like you know what you are talking about as an author and making readers lose their faith in you.

And what brings me to this point?  Shauna Roberts posts lots of links to books for New Orleans (NOLA) background information for the Post-Katrina city.

How to do an end-run around people's will to ignore you without really trying

"These days we live in an age of information overload on steroids. There are a zillion blogs, Web sites, Facebook posts, tweets, articles to read, let alone the books clamoring for our limited time. How in the word do we stand out? How do we get noticed as authors? How can we get ourselves to the pre-frontal cortex? Surprise Broca."  Jim Rubart, guest posting at Rachell Gardner's blog, Rants & Ramblings: On Life As A Literary Agent

An excellent article on marketing and how to be memorable: surprize the Broca area of your brain.  It hates to be bored.  Glazes over on material it's seen before.

Thanks to jjdebenedictus for the link.

Three common misconceptions of the new or non-writer:

Reposted from November 11, 2008 because I love it so. (It's sad when you are in love with your own wit.  By that I mean I'm more than passing stuck on myself, I suppose.)

You've heard these things before, of course: The commentaries of those who have never written and yet feel that it is a simple task and that their ideas are the really precious thing about the writing process.  You may, in your neophyte ignorance, have thought that as well.  I know I was rolling around ectatically in my own naivte' merely a few years ago, before I began to take my writing seriously.

Well, let me share and hopefully dispel those common misconceptions.

Writing, the way non-writers think it is.

1. I HAVE THIS GREAT IDEA.  TELL YOU WHAT, YOU WRITE IT AND WE'LL SPLIT THE MONEY.  This is probably the #1 misconception of the non-writer.  Like the actual writer is totally indebted to you, the idea giver, like to God for the gift of your life.  Not.  It's only an idea.  See #2 below.
2. MY IDEA IS TOTALLY PRECIOUS AND I MUST NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO STEAL IT.  *Shifty eyes* "You're looking over my shoulder stealing my ideas, aren't you?" says Ms. Wannabe Writer.  Well, no, actually.  Hate to tell you Wannabe, but your ideas are probably already out there in someone else's writing.  And even if they are brand new and exciting, it's not the idea that makes the story, it's the writing.  It's always about the writing.
3. I HAVE THIS GREAT IDEA, WHICH I WILL SELL YOU. THEN I'LL WRITE THE PHENOMINAL STORY TO GO WITH IT.  Mmmkay.  Let's get this straight.  You must write the story before you sell it.   You might be able to try this with a screenplay, or if you are Ms. BigName Author (a la Nora Roberts) whom publishing houses court.  But you are not.  No, you are Mr. Wannabe Writer and you actually have to show a good piece of writing in order to get it published.  (Even my genius brother read a short story I sent him and said, "I've got this great idea I, too, should write." Then he proceeded to spell out the gist of the story and say, "It's a pretty good idea, and ought to be enough to get some interest.") NO!!!! You must write the story before you try and sell it.  

Writing, the way it really is.
Butt in chair.  Write words on paper or into a computer file.  Edit, edit, edit, and then edit some more.  Revision is all.  Then there's rejection with the requisite hurt feelings.  But you write because you enjoy it, don't you?

Well, let me share and hopefully dispel those common misconceptions.

Writing, the way non-writers think it is.

1. I HAVE THIS GREAT IDEA.  TELL YOU WHAT, YOU WRITE IT AND WE'LL SPLIT THE MONEY.  This is probably the #1 misconception of the non-writer.  Like the actual writer is totally indebted to you, the idea giver, like to God for the gift of your life.  Not.  It's only an idea.  See #2 below.
2. MY IDEA IS TOTALLY PRECIOUS AND I MUST NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO STEAL IT.  *Shifty eyes* "You're looking over my shoulder stealing my ideas, aren't you?" says Ms. Wannabe Writer.  Well, no, actually.  Hate to tell you Wannabe, but your ideas are probably already out there in someone else's writing.  And even if they are brand new and exciting, it's not the idea that makes the story, it's the writing.  It's always about the writing.
3. I HAVE THIS GREAT IDEA, WHICH I WILL SELL YOU. THEN I'LL WRITE THE PHENOMINAL STORY TO GO WITH IT.  Mmmkay.  Let's get this straight.  You must write the story before you sell it.   You might be able to try this with a screenplay, or if you are Ms. BigName Author (a la Nora Roberts) whom publishing houses court.  But you are not.  No, you are Mr. Wannabe Writer and you actually have to show a good piece of writing in order to get it published.  (Even my genius brother read a short story I sent him and said, "I've got this great idea I, too, should write." Then he proceeded to spell out the gist of the story and say, "It's a pretty good idea, and ought to be enough to get some interest.") NO!!!! You must write the story before you try and sell it.  

Writing, the way it really is.
Butt in chair.  Write words on paper or into a computer file.  Edit, edit, edit, and then edit some more.  Revision is all.  Then there's rejection with the requisite hurt feelings.  But you write because you enjoy it, don't you?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm chopping veggies and making dip, baking a cloved ham, smoking a turkey breast and salmon, plus creating the traditional fixings.  (Mmmm! Candied yams--without marshmallow, thank you very much!)  Even better, several friends are dropping by to share the feedbag.  I like cooking a big meal for friends.  This year, no dining room in which to do a sit down meal, so it's a card table in the kitchen.  Makes it feel sort of like we are at Grandma's house back when I was a kid, lol.

Hope you guys have a lovely day.

Musing on Muses

Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry
 Clio, the Muse of history
Euterpe, the Muse of lyric poetry
Melpomene, the Muse of tragedy
Erato, the Muse of love poetry
Polyhymnia, the Muse of sacred poetry, and
Thalia, the Muse of comedy

I found the above list and thought you all might like it, too.  Because I've had trouble finding a list of all the muses in one place like this.

Personally, I adore fairy tales and mythology.  I haven't read much of it since I was a kid and then when taking a course on mythology during college, but I still love the stuff.  What's better than the mischief all the Greek or Hindu gods get up to?  Not much, unless you are considering the antics in the Quran or the Bible! ;)  (Not sure what that has to do with muses and inspiration, but then again my tendency to non-sequetir should be familiar to you by now...)

NaNo: Fail

Hey, I never promised I'd actually hit 50,000 words.  But the past few days I've been doing other things than writing...so I've failed the butt in chair for 2 hours pledge.  Oh well.  Most days have involved 2 hours at the word processor, and that's not bad.

Yesterday, I had to see the dentist (crown and filling in my future) and get an eye exam ($405 just for the new trifocals, and up front thanks very much).  My out of town appt got switched from Monday to December 2nd, though, so I got to spend some time refinishing those end tables.  Took hours to get them painted and then to glue the tile mosaic on the top.  I'll have to grout and then add trim sometime in the future, as well as paint and reattach the legs.  Then I have a chunk of butcherblock and a bunch of misc. things that need to become a rolling table/microwave stand.  I'll really have fun with that one, as I have to attach shelves to the legs, which are French table legs and thus round. 

Hope you are doing well with your writing projects.   

Interesting thoughts on immortality

"Vamps were the same as everyone else.  Eternal life didn't make a person anything except old.  The real value lay in what you did with all that time.  As far as he could tell, most immortals wasted that opportunity on internal politics and fashion crimes." 

From the pov of a detective in Ravenous, The Dark Forgotten, a paranormal romance by Sharon Ashwood.

From the mouths of characters

"Terror is the instinct that tells you to run, dear God, run," she murmured.  "Run for your life.  But it just makes you into meat.  Predators take the ones who run.  Horror is the mind-thing, the worm of knowledge you can't stop turning over no matter how awful it is.  It grows in your mind and destroys you by your own intelligence." 

A line I particularly liked from Kat Richardson's "Vanished," the fourth Greywalker novel...and a pretty good definition of horror, too.

I hope this works with the new computer

I'll have more hair and fewer curse words coming out my mouth!

Windows 7 Easy Transfer:
Migrate to Windows 7 the Easy Way

The Easy Transfer Cable was officially designed for the Microsoft Windows Easy Transfer utility, which is featured in Windows 7. All you need to do is connect the cable to USB ports on your old Windows XP or Vista computer to your new Windows 7 machine, and run the utility.

Easily Transfer User Accounts, PC Settings, Files, and More

Your user accounts, Windows settings, files and folders, pictures and photos, MP3s and other music, videos, program settings and program data, and e-mail messages, settings, and contacts will all be transferred over to your new computer without a fuss. Thanks to the "Map User Accounts" feature, the destination PC is not required to have matching User Accounts. Gone are the days of losing important email messages or having to reset all your user settings! 

Once the transfer done, a post migration report is generated, which gives you a comprehensive view of everything that was transferred. Because of possible incompatibility issues, programs and applications are not transferred to the new computer. Instead, the utility provides a list of all the programs and applications that were installed on the old PC along with links to the latest versions of the programs if they are provided by the software developer.

Best. Travel info. Evahr.

Every Australian I've ever met has had a wicked sense of humor.  I think this Q&A list is proof, as it's (purportedly) from an Australian Tourism web site and is (again, purportedly) actual answers to actual questions sent in by prospective visitors. (From a humorous email.)

Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia ? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? ( UK ).
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.
__________________________________________________
Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? ( USA )
A:Depends how much you've been drinking.
__________________________________________________
Q:I want to walk from Perth to Sydney - can I follow the railroad tracks? ( Sweden)
A: Sure, it's only three thousand miles, take lots of water.
__________________________________________________
Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in Australia ? Can you send me a list of them in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville and Hervey Bay ? ( UK)
A: What did your last slave die of?
__________________________________________________
Q:Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Australia ? ( USA )
A: A-Fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe ...
Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the middle of the Pacific which does not
... Oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Kings Cross. Come naked.
__________________________________________________
Q:Which direction is North in Australia ? (USA )
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.
_________________________________________________
Q: Can I bring cutlery into Australia ? ( UK )
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do...
__________________________________________________
Q:Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? ( USA )
A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is
Oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Kings Cross, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.
__________________________________________________
Q: Can I wear high heels in Australia ? ( UK )
A: You are a British politician, right?
__________________________________________________
Q:Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? ( Germany )
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers.
Milk is illegal.
__________________________________________________
Q:Please send a list of all doctors in Australia who can Dispense rattlesnake serum. ( USA )
A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca which is where YOU come from.  All Australian snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.
__________________________________________________
Q:I have a question about a famous animal in Australia , but I forget its name. It's a kind of bear and lives in trees. (USA )
A: It's called a Drop Bear. They are so called because they drop out of Gum trees and eat the brains of anyone walking underneath them.  You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.
__________________________________________________
Q:I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in Australia ? (USA)
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.
__________________________________________________
Q:Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia ? (France ) 
A: Only at Christmas.
__________________________________________________
Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? ( USA )
A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

By the way, if you are an American traveling abroad, you can register your trip with the Dept. of State.  At least then someone will know where you were supposed to be if you ever go missing or run into trouble (due to some untoward 'accident of fate' or 'being in the wrong place at the wrong time.'  Yeah.  But your country loves ya.  Really.)

Musical Monday without the tunes

I have this double album, "Stranger Than Fiction," which is by a group called "Don't Quit Your Day Job" and is comprised of a bunch of writers, to include Amy Tan, Stephen King, Normal Mailer, Tananarive Due, Dave Barry and many more.  They redo a number of classic rock-and-roll and country songs, plus a few new ones, like "Tupperware Blues" and "Happy Birthday, Mitzi Gaynor."  It's amusing and witty and not bad musically, either.  And it's also amusing that best-selling or Pulitzer-winning/-nominated authors are up there doing their things, and are actually pretty good. 

I think my favorite song is Tupperware Blues; but the whip cracking in Amy Tan's version of "These Boots Are Made For Walking" still has me snickering.  And where else would you hear the line, "bacon flavored vaginal gel" -  found in "Happy Birthday, Mitzi Gaynor"?

This is a funny album, and proceeds are donated to charity. (However, I believe it's out of print now and you can only obtain used copies.)

Holiday...cheering?

"Why...is the phrase "Happy holidays" so insufferable to Christian fundamentalists, but not the vulgar, surfeiting exploitation of Christ's name to sell smokeless ashtrays, dessert toppings, Droid phones and trampolines? I'm not a theologian but I think the Gospels are pretty clear that Jesus was no fan of merchants."  LA Times article

The quoted article cracked me up.  Apparently, a faith-based group slammed The Gap for not using the word Christmas in its ad.  But they do!  Have you seen that "Christmas cheer" ad yet?  I snickered when I heard it the other day, and wondered what was up with that because the ad came across to me as a bird flip to someone or thing, but I had no idea what or why...  Here's the link to the ad.

"Go Christmas, go Hanukkah, go Kwanzaa, go solstice," chant dancers in a Gap ad, released days after the American Family Assn. called for a boycott over Gap's "failure to use the word 'Christmas.' " (Gap)

Thanks to Heather over at the I'm Not Hannah blog for the mention.

Hooya! A Week off! (And thoughts about being thankful)

This is my 1243rd post on this blog.  And, just so happens a lucky confluence of days off, doctor appts and a yummy-nummy holiday cause me to have a week off of work.  Well, six days.  And with no canned posts up, you won't hear much from me for a while most likely.  Nevertheless, I have a few thoughts for my Saturday ramble.  Even worse, spirituality and creativity issues, lol!  Thus Writtenwyrdd waxes philosophical, oh my!

Me, Me, Me!  All about ME!  This upcoming week I have a bunch of writing to catch up on, some exercise to wrack my muscles with (walking the dog, actually) and a bunch of people coming over on Thanksgiving to feed.  Mom and I have to go out of town on Tuesday to Bangor to see the docs about my post-surgical check in, shop and do girly things like look for smaller clothing.  All good things, especially having my friends over to dinner.  Some of the usual crowd can't make it, but my doctor friend and her hubs (who usually are the ones unable to attend) can make it this year, yay!

Oddly--or perhaps not unexpectedly--being ill has shrunken my new small stomach back to walnut size.  I find it odd that three or four bites makes me unpleasantly full.  Perhaps it's an advantage, but when you can't even eat half a sandwich it's odd.  And for some reason suddenly finding myself painfully full comes as a shock every time.

Anyhow, besides the advent of my migraine cycle, which losing 65 pounds was supposed to stop (Waugh!) I'm back to normal from my faux flu. Not sure what that was I caught, but it was pretty darned mild, for which I'm grateful.  And believe me I'm incredibly grateful that my migraines, with preventative meds, are merely an annoyance and discomfort.  I'm not huddled in the bathroom crying for about a week during which even breathing sets off incredible pain.  I tell ya, without the drugs, I'd probably have jumped off a cliff or something several years ago.  It was that bad.  I might have been able to function with week long migraines, but live?  Hah.  These minor things that are my present migraines?  They are nothing in comparison.  I complain somewhat because they hurt like any strong headache and no one likes pain; but I know how much worse it could be, and I'm very grateful for the blessings of meds that help me.  It was so much worse five years ago. 

Thanksgiving thoughts.  And on that note, let me just bring up the topic of thanks giving.  Not the holiday itself, but the inspriation for it. 

It's an appropriate thing to do, going into the dark season of the year: Thanking diety, luck, life, your family and friends for the people, opportunities, things, jobs or whatnot that feed your spirit and your body, that teach you, love you, let you love in turn and experience the fullness of life. 

Yet, despite the vaunted holiday that's supposed to be aboutThanksgiving (okay, it's about eating turkey), our culture doesn't tend to emphasize gratitude; in fact, I find that there's a sad tendency to think that people who do nice things are schmucks.  Losers, even.  So, in a sort of convoluted yet related mental flip, we tend to think that being grateful smacks of loserhood, too.  I mean, if you have to be grateful, you had to receive.  And, if you had to receive, you were weak, a loser, a failure, a schmuck yourself.  That's a sad generality, but I don't think mistaken.

And, on the other hand, I think other aspects of our modern lives poison the spiritual well.  We are so busy rushing about (trying to be winners and not schmucks/losers/charity cases) that we cut ourselves off from recognition of things that are really important to our spiritual and emotional selves: Creating art, seeing friends, enjoying time with loved ones, spending 'quality time' or any significant/meaningful time with your kids (especially playing with them), volunteering and community work--things that feed the soul--are considered less because they are not generally considered 'real' or 'work' or 'career.'  And yet they are the mortar that holds society and family together.  (Similarly, that old tendency to denigrate stay-at-home moms or dads as not really working, e.g. not doing anything meaningful comes to mind...)

We really do forget to recognize, to feel the connectedness of things, in particular the connectedness of ourselves with the world and people around us.  Being thankful is one way of connecting, as it allows you to ponder the points where you affect and are affected by the world.  We don't do that enough.  We tend to go through our days thinking of our body as a machine without feelings or 'real needs' and not seeing how our actions affect the rest of the universe.  We tend to be distracted by data streams, email, phone messages, blog reading, fiddly bits of business that really can wait or even be forever ignored as not really adding to the quality of our lives.  The butterfly effect is real; but we are generally too shallow-minded to consider the implications...not because we can't; but because we won't. 

It takes a bit of practice to sort the chaff from the wheat.  And what's chaff and what's wheat are, of course, variable.  It depends entirely on your personal filtering system.  It's where you could say "the rubber meets the road" on your life's journey.

An odd but useful tool.  A habit I've had for years, especially when I was going through some major depression, was to set out to notice and focus on at least three good things each day.  Three is a small and simple number, it's a doable number even when you are emotionally distraut.  And if you stop and recognize three good things in your life, no matter how small or insignificant you'd usually think them, you build a repertoire of thought that allows you to find a more positive framework for things.  It's so easy to drop into a "everything's useless, why bother?" mentality.  But counting three good things per day (and constantly revising, rating, considering or referring yourself to your mental list) will help you step outside that particular bad frame of reference and--at least temporarily--into a more positive one. 

When I'd despair of myself fixing certain problems, hanging onto those three things or choices I'd made that were good things helped a lot.  Might help one of you guys, too, if you find yourself in a bad place.

Try it.  It's not that hard, especially if you reinforce it by trying to expand the listing to categories, such as Three Good Things Others Did For Me, or Three Good Things I Did For Strangers, or Three Paying-It-Forward Actions I Did Today, or Three Times I Looked For And Found The Silver Lining.  Soon, you can be much more positive by habit.  Because expanding the list is also a form of play, which is always good.  Lightening up is good.  Smiling is good.  Hugs are good.  (But you guys know this, right?)

And what brings this "Three Good Things" thing up?  Well, I've gotten out of the habit lately.  Probably a lot longer ago than lately.  Years?  Might be so.  See, I used to practice all sorts of self-cleansing ritual, meditation, self examination as part of my religious practice*.  It was a spiritual lifestyle I lived, and then I moved to the back-of-beyond Maine, got The Job That Ate My Life, and fell away from that constant practice.  And now the knowledge is there, but the habit is not.  Because entropy has occurred.

You see, slowly but surely, my creativity has suffered in the ten years since I moved to Maine.  My happiness, oddly enough, has not.  I have maintained (mostly) my long-sought-for peace of mind; but I seem to have lost the raw joy of creativity that used to burn in my soul.  I've grown tired or complacent or something.  In particular I noticed it this NaNoWriMo, as I've been feeling "so what, I don't wanna, why bother" after the first bloom wore off that particular rose (after about four days.)  So I got to wondering just why I was like this the past few years, feeling burnt out and lacking that joy in creation.  Because I really don't like feeling defeatist and negative, especially not about my art or writing.  I miss feeling totally high on the experience of making something.

And it came to me this morning:  I've been getting back that old negative state of mind I described above.  Not depression, but negative habits of thought.  It's a cancerous thing, and it spoils the fun in life.  And life should be about joy and good things. 

Small steps got me happy; small steps will get me back where I want to be.  And deliberately setting out to notice good things, positive things, is a way to be postive.  Life is all about being in flux, anyhow, so you cannot expect to achieve a perfect mind, creation, relationship and stay there; but you can gain the 'sea legs' that allow you to shift with the flow of things and remain stable.  It's about balance.  And we proved as toddlers that we could learn to balance quite well, didn't we? 

The skill's there; we just need to practice our spiritual balancing.

*I spent most of a decade studying, ahem, religiously as both a wiccan and in some other non-christian faiths. I talk about it quite a bit in my magic for writers series. 

The Goat Nerd

I particularly love this one.  In fact, I want the tee shirt!

From Cute Overload:

Online book catalog

Over at Debuts & Reviews blog, they have a cool link to an online book catalog database, the Eidelweis search tool.  You can find upcoming new releases there, which is handy.  You do have to join first, though, which requires you give a phone number and email addy.

jjdebenedictus shared a really cool link. Driftwood horses so real you'd think they could move. http://www.hemmy.net/2007/04/25/driftwood-horse-art/

Nothing on the internet is gone forever

Just so you know, there IS a "wayback machine" function on the internet.  You can google and find cached versions of web pages (to find removed info--there is generally a link marked "cache" below the "live" link, although you can set up web sites to prevent caching, I've done it myself!) or go to www.archive.org, click on "advanced" and input the dates plus the URL.

An example of a cache is this site, wikipedia's page on caches and caching.  And, for your reading and edification, here's a link to an article about the hows and whys of web caching.  A bit technical, but interesting.

How could I have loosened my teeth from this one? Round Robin time!

Back in March, 2008, I started a round robin experiment.  I think we should pick it up again!  Here's what went before:

An Experiment: A Round Robin story.

It's time for an experiment: A round-robin story!  I'll provide the first line, and you guys supply the continuations.  A line, a paragraph, but not more than 150 or so words, and preferably less.  When I find a continuation I like, I'll add a new post for the next continuation.  Or we can spread this around and have someone else host the next installment.  (Or you can do a rewrite of the first line with your submission.)  (They do one of these on Critters and it's pretty amusing.)

Now, the backstory.  In a recent comment Bernita says that her son's toy gun picked up CB radio.  It made me think of a first line.   

Ready? 

Here goes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"My son's toy raygun is picking up someone's cell phone. Russian guys talking about murdering somebody.  Or at least I think it's murder; hard to tell with those accents."

Charles Gramlich: The worst part about it is, I'm convinced the conversation is coming from close, very close. Next door, in fact.

Billy:  The sports equipment store owner hasn't been seen since the Leningrad Jumping Circus arrived. The three brothers and two sisters smoke black cigarettes and speak into their wrist watches frequently.

Scott from Oregon:  I've tried to tell the local Sheriff about all of this, but as one can imagine, I didn't get much further than "Russians talking on my son's toy raygun..."

I yelled, "It can't just be a coincidence that the Leningrad Jumping Circus is in town, can it!" to a Sheriff hell bent on escaping into Betty's Donuts on a Monday afternoon.

Bernita:  Betty's, by the way, was a bakery and coffee shop, not a brothel. In case you were wondering.  Veronica served as our small town whore.

David:  Come to think of it, where's Veronica? and why isn't the sheriff there, his usual location on a Monday afternoon?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, to play, all you have to do is add something in the comment trail.  Silly works, so does serious.

Learn Writing With Uncle Jim

Jane Smith at How Publishing Really Works blog has a great post about James D MacDonald and the ongoing discussions about writing.  She says it better than I (perhaps because this whole thing was news to me):

Six years ago today, a discussion called Learn Writing With Uncle Jim began on the Absolute Write message board. The Uncle Jim in question is SF writer James D Macdonald, who is perhaps better known as Yog, of Yog's Law fame. Learn Writing With Uncle Jim has now expanded into a second volume, and has grown into one of the most useful discussions about writing that there is.

If you write fiction then you will find things in it which will help you. If you write non-fiction, then you probably will too. If you're not sure it's for you, have a look at this partial index of the discussion and I'll bet that you'll find something there which interests you; if you'd like to read all of Mr Macdonald's posts without comments from other readers you can find them here; and if, confronted with all that linky goodness you find the discussion's length and detail a little daunting, just dip into it. Start reading. You'll soon see what I mean.

Want to see my photography?

Cafe Press has a new offshoot, ImageKind, and I've joined.  I do not expect to sell my photographs very often, but hey, what the heck, at least my friends can see what I've got posted.  You can check my galleries out here.  I'd love to know what you think!

(The above image isn't properly scanned so it's not up on the site, but it's my favorite photo-realistic drawing I've done.  Colored pencil and various densities of plain lead pencil.)

What is a plot reversal?

"The Reversal is a turning point that appears in many stories (and is particularly important, I think, in film). This is an event usually quite close to the midpoint of a story, that is, in Chapter 10 of 20 or 1 hour into a 2-hour film. It’s where something reverses, where what seemed true or important or self-evident in the first half of the story is shown to be false or trivial or mysterious.

What that does is force the protagonist to stop, regroup, assemble perhaps a new set of skills or apply a new strength. It creates conflicts because what might seem to be feasible in the first half no longer works." Edit torrent, by Alicia

The plot reversal, as Alicia points out in another brilliant article at Edit Torrent, is the point where everything the main character has been working towards seems wrong-headed and now they have to go back to the drawing board.  It's often, I believe, at the point where the characters think they've got a handle on things, and time is of the essence to get everything lined up for the big conflict, the Climactic Moment.  And O Noes! there  is a wrench thrown into the works that adds to the tension and forces massive scrambling.

I like plot reversals.  Do you? 

Agents looking for authors

Helen Ginger kindly posted a link to a Writer's Digest article listing agents who are seeking writers.  Lots of good stuff here.  Go get 'em!

Update: It's a virus!

Well, I got home and after trying to eat dinner (unsuccessfully, if you know what I mean) I can definitely state it's some sort of virus.  My temp is 97.7 so I don't think it's the flu.  But I do have me some kind of disease.  (Oh darn, I get to stay home tomorrow.  Breaks my heart, it does.)

Truthfully, I'm feeling a bit better at the  moment, so I'll bundle up and write for a while.

Want to find a critique group?

Over on her blog, Lynnette Labelle is offering to play matchmaker.  Details here.

Oh Lordy, I've got a Migraine!

Dang, first migraine I've had since I had my surgery.  I even went off my beta blockers thinking to see if the headaches would go away.  After about six days I went back on the things because my background headache started up.  Thank ye gods I did, as I am apparently entering the migraine cycle yet again.  Usually it hits in September or October, but I guess this year it held off to tease me with hope and dash them. 
 
Seriously, the meds make this bearable.  I'm at work and am only extremely nauseus with a severe headache and light sensitivity.  I am not nearly as bad off as I'd be without the meds blocking it.  But about every 12 to 16 weeks, I have a couple or three weeks with pretty much constant migraines.
 
But dang.  Seriously is going to irritate me if I have to go to bed and lay in a dark room listening to television all night.  I am supposed to be writing.

Querying

"The description of your work. Get. This. Right. Get it right. Get it right, get it right, get it right. Get it right. Sweat this. This is what we care about. We're looking for a good story idea and good writing, and you want both to jump out in the query."  Nathan Bransford

Great post here, with great links.  Thanks to Sarah Laurenson for the heads up on this one. 

Otherwise, he really does believe you shouldn't sweat every. single. detail.  But don't try and get cute or fancy, as it makes you look crazy.  And don't start with rhetorical questions.  But really, don't sweat the small stuff, if you make your story sound interesting and make them want to read it.  You'll be forgiven the small slip ups in the query.

This cat contorts herself mightily!

And it's the Floating Paws Position with a lumbar-loosening twist!  Mikey used to do this sort of thing when he was her age.  But  not any more.  He got his shots yesterday and is feeling a little under the weather today.  He's also 22 pounds, mostly flab.  Molly weighs about 8.5 now. 

Dum de dum dum dum...

Singing to distract my thinking brain from the greedy parts, which are directing my fingers to order a new HP laptop.  (This one is starting to have problems.  And the new one will have a much faster processor and many bells and whistles.  Did you know you can get a terabyte hard drive now?  I resisted, having trouble using even100Gb...but it's so cool that you can get that much.)

Prizes are all mailed!

I got everyone's prizes mailed yesterday.  It would have been Monday, but  my schedule was changed so you have two fewer days to wait.  And postage to Australia was much cheaper than postage to Europe for some reason.  Got to wonder about that!

I wrote some yesterday and plan to set down this morning and write, but I'm off for a shower and possibly a return to bed if I'm still this sluggish after coffee.  I think I might be fighting something virus-y and cold-ish off.  Been sneezing, getting randomly stopped up, and I've been cold and achy. 

Or it could just be getting old!

This could be dangerous

Have you heard about Dragon Age: Origins?  I'm pretty sure I could waste a couple of weeks with this one.  So I'm going to avoid it like the very plague.  Fable killed a few brain cells and gave me motion sickness and a migraine, I had so much fun playing for over ten hours straight. 

Ruh-roh

I'm out of canned posts, and with NaNoWriMo efforts underway, I am going to be posting significantly less for a bit.  Because I'm not doing the blog reading that would spur me to compose posts. 

And, so far, I've sat down at the computer for at least two hours daily with one exception (and one day off due to errands I had to run after work) which is doing well for me.  Not that I've made much progress, proving to myself that I am not in anything close to verbose at the moment.  But something is better than nothing. 

Interview with Betsy Mitchell, Editor in Chief at Del Rey Books

Good article.  This is from 2003, but it seems like good information on how the publication process works.  (Of course, you can read this stuff elsewhere. Like Moonrat's blog.)

Cool Cover

I'm not the least bit interested in reading a Warhammer world novel or Worlds of Warcraft or any spinoff from a MMORPG or whatever the acronym is...but this cover for a book due out in 9/2010 is awesome with awesome sauce!  So I'm sharing the art. 

Thanks to Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews for the linkage.

We have heard from Bernita, and the world is a better place.

www.bernitaharris.blogspot.com

Let there be...action!

"Fiction is the stylized rendition of reality for an emotional effect." James Scott Bell

A while back, Merc Rants linked to the above quote and article about action scenes by James Scott Bell.  I hadn't run across this blog before, and there are a lot of great insights and useful tidbits to be found there.

Have fun trawling through the old posts!

Self-editing articles to tattoo on your forehead

The other day, Kiersten linked to a very helpful and informative article by Stephanie Perkins on editing your manuscript.  And QueryTracker's blog had another article on editing that was even more helpful.

These are the sorts of articles that you should bookmark and read before engaging in our favorite writerly passtime!

Biology for SF writing links

Biology in Science Fiction blog had an interesting link to an article about a Kenyan College professor, writer Joan Slonczewski, who offers a biology for SF course.  Links below for your edification.

Course syllabus here.
The course study guide here.
Student projects here.
Related wiki here.

Thank you veterans and active service members!

I'm not a particularly patriotic person, but I firmly believe that if you live in a country, call it home, claim its citizenship, you should give something back.  Your choice on that, but the type of service that speaks to me most particularly is the service of those who take the oath to defend and protect our constitutional rights, our lands and our people.  Not necessarily in that particular order.  Considering how the military is so stressed from being used over and over and over for multiple missions overseas in combat, the mental stress the troops are under is as bad--if not worse--than it has ever been.  The fact that the men and women in uniform are an all volunteer force speaks more loudly for their integrity than just about anything could.  I respect that.   

One thing I'm particularly glad about is that, despite the questionable nature of the rationale for getting involved in Iraq (oil, anybody?) and the much  more legitimate reasons for Afghanistan, people in general are behind the service members who risk everything to serve over there.  They don't judge the soldier by the arena in which they serve.  And they shouldn't.  Viet Nam and the cultural mistreatment of the military was so wrong, especially considering most of the men who fought over there were drafted; and I'm glad to see that's not happening again.   

Which brings me to Fort Hood...  In the wake of the unfortunate shootings at Fort Hood last week, I can't help but  feel for all the soldiers who'd thought themselves safely home and are now looking over their shoulders.  And my prayers go out to the families and friends of the victims and the deceased. 

But I also must reflect on the fact that the shooter was Muslim, and hope and pray that, no matter his rationale, state of mind, and possible terrorist connections (as yet unproven) people give the same grace and respect to Muslims as they do the soldiers.  Theirs is a different sort of issue, but indivisibly tied to the present political issues.  Timothy McVey's Oklahoma City act, the murders of Dr. George Tiller and the torture/murder of Mathew Shepherd adequately prove that such insanity is not bred by any particular creed, religion or nationality.  It's everywhere, and, by their willingness to take a stand and make an oath, the military service members of our volunteer force make a commitment to unity under our flag that makes me pretty proud...even though I'm not particularly patriotic.  I hope they and the general public consider these points as we move ahead with our lives.

Apparently a couple thousand posts gets you some notice

Wikio, a blog listing site, tells me I'm ranked #70 for their writing/literature blogs.  Apparently massive posting habits like mine get you enough hits to get some notice, lol.  Very flattering, but I shall endeavor not to let my relative 'fame' go to my head. 

Worth mentioning for real usefulness (and the extreme need for more writing avoidance reading material) is that wikio has a great listing of writing-related blogs.  Check out the little blue wikkio icon in the left-hand column of the blog, or go here. (Nathan Bransford, I should mention, is number two, because we all know he's trying harder.)

Electrical power converters explained

Recently, I had an unpleasant surprise when I bought a power converter for my upcoming vacation overseas.  To explain, I bought a power converter for my electronics--but it wasn't high enough amperage.  Because the box only listed wattage, I had no clue it wouldn't do the job for higher input amperage requirements for items like hair dryers. 

What's a power converter for?
You should understand what the traveling and power conversion requirement is and how it works.  US/Canadian power is 110/120 volts, and Europe/The Rest of the Universe is 220/240 volts.  That's approximately twice what our US/Canadian devices can handle; so you have to get a power converter to step the voltage down to something your devices can handle without getting fried into expensive doorstops or paperweights...or burning your lodgings down with you in them!  So, you buy a power converter if your devices are not designed to handle both 110 and 220/240. (Check your device labels, these should tell you the acceptable range right on them or the power converter.  Failing that, there's the handbook that came with it.)

The simple solution to the problem is to buy a power converter.  But various converters are rated for different outputs.  The one I bought was rated for 200 WATTS maximum, or 1.6 AMPS.  This is barely sufficient for my laptop, which has an input power requirement of 1.5 amps.  (See your device's power supply for the INPUT AMP REQUIREMENT.) And you can forget a hair dryer - not enough power available! 

And because I did not know how the conversion of numbers (from watts to amps) worked, I got caught with my proverbial shorts down.

How the math works:
Watts are a measurement of consumption.  The wattage of a device tells you how much power it requires as raw consumption numbers (which incidentally allows you to figure how much you will pay for its use per month.)  

But your device almost always lists amperage requirements on the power supply...so how much wattage or voltage do you need in a converter to provide the needed amps?  

It's simple math, thank goodness.  Here are the formulae, which I wish I had earlier:   

• WATTS / VOLTS = AMPS. So, if you have a 200watt converter, you divide by the volatge (120) and get the result of 1.6 amps.
• VOLTS x AMPS = WATTS
• WATTS x AMPS = VOLTS (not particularly useful, as voltage should be constant)

So there ya go. 

Contest results!

First, you may have noticed this post was up really early today, and it had placeholders for the winners because I hadn't tabulated the counts yet!  Forgive me for the early posting.  This post was in the queue for today and I had the time on it incorrectly.  Small (yet typical) oversight on my part.  (No wonder they wouldn't hire me as a proofreader.)

Anyhow, results are in.  First, congratulations to everybody for some really great entries!  And thanks for participating and making this fun for me, and (I hope) fun for everyone else, too.

Congratulations to the winners!

THE WINNER (with the most votes, and who wins a large Chthulu plushie and bragging rights), with five votes:

Charles Gramlich!!!

THE RUNNER UP (second highest vote count, who gets a choice of a small Chthulu plushie or a book by Charles Stross) with four votes: 

McKoala!!

 

THE WINNERS OF A COPY OF "CHILD OF FIRE" BY HARRY CONNOLLY (Mention made in this post): 

Barb Toth

&

Sarah Laurenson!

I have to say that at the 11th hour, four people [Sylvia, McKoala, H.R. Holsclaw, and Amanda Toth] were tied for second place, and first place was only edging out the others by one single vote!  That's close!  But a couple more votes came in, and the runner up and winner were determined without any fancy-schmancy necromantic hand waving and gibbering by yours truly.  (Because, although I like the Elder Gods on paper, I do not want to call any of them down on accident.  Just saying.)

THE PLAYERS: 
Entry  1: "Pea Soup," by Candace McBride 
Entry  2: "Armageddrox," by Writtenwyrdd 
Entry  3:  "Child Find" by jjdebenedictus (whom you also might know as Goblin) 
Entry  4: "Phantom Scratches," by Bevie James 
Entry  5: "The Haunted House," by  Amanda Toth 
Entry  6: "untitled," by Whirlochre 
Entry  7: "sleeping souls," by  shadow 
Entry  8: "Vengeance On The Unknowing," by  Sara Daly   
Entry  9: "Priest Of Parker's Knoll," by   H.R. Holsclaw
Entry 10: "The Fear Of Monsters," by   H.R. Holsclaw  
Entry 11: "Relief," by  Fairyhedgehog
Entry 12: "As I Pondered," by Sarah Laurenson
Entry 13: "Lost In Greenery," by  Charles Gramlich
Entry 14: "Bottomless," by  S.E. Sinkhorn  
Entry 15: "Facing the Nameless Eldritch Horror," by  Daniel Jarrell
Entry 16: "The Camera," by  McKoala
Entry 17: "Nothing," by Anna Rae
Entry 18: "Lost Cases," by Pacatrue
Entry 19: "Maria," by Sylvia
Entry 20: "What I Seed," by "Laughingwolf"
Entry 21: "When Twilight Has Come," by Sabrina

Congrats again winners!  Please email me (writtenwyrdd AT live DOT com) with your snail mail address so I can send your loot. 

Rethinking the spaceship

"[W]hat intrigues me is the possibility that the entire conceptual framework of the starship is a dangerously misleading dead-end, and that what we need is a new framework for thinking about interstellar travel."  Charles Stross, from his blog

Charles Stross has another thoughtful post on his blog, this time regarding spaceships.  Lots of food for thought there.

Mr. Stross has some excellent scientific information describing all sorts of things on his blog.  He's obviously a smart fellow.  But the thing I admit to taking away from the post?  I can't help but consider the quote above and thinking...What if there were some other way of transporting ourselves from our planet to another?

Hmmm... Whether you choose fantasy or science for the method, you can use many other means of interstellar or interworld travel.

How about psychic pilots - something similar to what Herbert uses in Dune? Or portal technology - similar to L'Engle's tesseracts or Dr. Who's Tardis -  where you step from one world to another.  Or technology that's so advanced (and not relevant to the plot) that we don't really care about the impossibility of exceeding the speed of light.  Or (and this is my favorite) the larger-dimensional character in the Jade D'Arcy series that shifts travelers through its dimension and thus from one location to another.

In any event, there are plenty of variations on travel modes from one world to another.  But if we put on our thinking caps, perhaps we can think of more.

NaNo reveals your real writing style...at least the phase you are currently inhabiting

I'll say one thing for this NaNo project:  I'm getting much better at just writing editorial notes instead of revising.  But I haven't been going full bore ahead with nary a look back.  Can't seem to make myself do that with an established project.

Still, doing good getting in the writing time.  In fact, it's almost time for today's daily dose!