Writtenwyrdd

Shamelessly flogging a friend's blog

My writing friend Beth has a new blog.  Her main occupation is breeding gorgeous German-bloodline shepherds, training them, and running a menagerie/farm to boot, so like me,the writing gets held up by real-world things more than she'd like.  But she has great things to say so far.  You can check out her blog, Instinctive Impressions, here.

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.

2 Year Bloggaversary!

August 7th marked the 2nd* anniversary of me as a blogger.   UPDATE:  I'VE DECIDED TO EXTEND THE DEADLINE UNTIL MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH.  Sorry, I lost track of time and didn't notice when the post didn't.!  But it's been 431 posts on the typepad blog, 502 on the old blogger site.  (Has it really been 933 posts?  Gawd, you can't shut me up!) 

Anyhow, in honor of this less-than-momentous event, I'm having a contest.

I'm going to keep it simple, which is to say simple for me in the area of judging.  You can get as elaborate as you like with your submissions.  The judging part, however, is going to be subjective, or I might draw names from a hat if I can't pick a clear favorite.  (And knowing all y'all's talent, that's likely the end result). 

The challenge.
K.I.S.S. rule applies.  Or not.  But I want a 150- to 300-word narrative describing a different reality.  I want to feel pulled in to that world you describe so hard and so deep I'm deafened and my ears rupture from the power with which I'm forcibly transferred to your fictional world.  You can use dialog if you wish, but I would prefer mostly description.  The real challenge is to do this with a minimum of dialog and a maximum of exposition--and not be boring.  Extra points scored for adding in a character or action that makes me want to know more.  (You know, a story beginning, but heavy on the worldbuilding.  What one calls a 'scenic' opening.)

Wow me.  I love it when you do that.  The deadline shall be next Friday, September 5th, 2008, at 6pm.

The prize.
WINNER receives a signed photographic print of my logo California poppies. (I'd frame it, too, but my experience of shipping art says it's gonna break.)

I also have a couple of RUNNER-UP PRIZES:  An Evil Editor mug up for grabs if you can tell me (in 100 words or less) why aardvark is a funny word--or anything else side-splittingly amusing; and a nifty forest green Maine souvenir mug if you can give me something more bizarre than this, yet which is somehow (no matter how vague the degree of separation) Maine themed.

*In a couple of recent comments I got the times confused and said it'd been 3 years.  Yeah.  I'm getting senile.  I forget how old I am sometimes, too.

Shameless promotion of Chumplet's new novel!

Fellow Evil Minion Chumplet has a romantic suspense novel, Bad Ice, being released in electronic format on Canada Day, July 1st.

To celebrate, she's running a Canadian Trivia Contest.  The winner will receive a pdf copy of her book.

"You don't have to be Canadian to win, you just have to drop by and have fun." 

The contest will be up on July 1st, so drop by Chumplet Writes tomorrow! 

Check out the awesome post on Moonrat's blog!

Okay, so it's a bit of shameless self promotion because I wrote the article.  Anyhow, her series by readers and writers on books that moved them is proving very interesting.  Link in sidebar under Editorial Ass.

And the kitchen project?  Well, plugging along slowly because of a few circumstances I won't bore you with, mainly dealing with physical limitations.  I hope to be finished with the cabinets tomorrow and work on the ceiling and the exterior doors Wednesday and Thursday, which will give me two whole days to clean the house and do some yardwork before I go collect the Mom unit from the Bangor airport.

We are having our summer weather, in the 70s and 80s and humitidy anywhere from 70-90 percent.  A few thundershowers and a lot of bugs.  Except for the bugs, the reason I moved up here. 

Celebrate Evil Editor's Blogaversary!

Congratulations, Evil Editor! Today is the day to celebrate, fellow writers! Two years of Evil Editor's blog!  Check out This site for the celebratory mosh pit of glee...or something like that!  Join the party!  Prizes!  Humor!  Fun!  BYOB!  BYO Snark!

Evil Editor is the mysterious blogging editor with more wit in his pinkie than any ten of us will ever possess.  He's sumpin' sumpin' alright  Seriously, I love Evil Editor's blog and if you haven't ever been there, you ought to go on over at least once a day.  The query shredding, the weredingos, the zombie cows and the nexus of time travel itself are all there.  What more could a speculative fiction writer desire?

Besides, everyone else is doing it.

Congratulations, Evil Editor! Even though you are a pimply teenager lurking in your grandma's basement.  Cuz I know.  I have the pictures.  (Email me about the price, okay?  And don't forget the SASE.)