WIP

On Queries

2010-06-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday, as I gritted my teeth and relaunched my cleaned up blog (did you notice all my flowers and my new sappy bio/description? heehee), I first sat down and rummaged around other blogs, notably those on the left sidebar, for inspiration.

Blogging is TOTALLY different from writing a novel and it is more than just a 'online journal'. This because you have to write tidy, short, and interesting blog posts and resist the urge to type in something that is way so personal or sensitive that your ten-year-old-self would kill your brother if he stole said-journal and read it aloud to everyone (in my case, I had four siblings who did stuff like that).

That is why I like to sit down and read other blogs to get an idea of what other people are saying. Learning experience, etc...

Other blogs I read for other reasons - such as gathering ideas of what is going on in the industry, plus I'm always learning how to write and do other things - like querying. That is why I suggest EVERYONE read Query Shark. You simply must.

But I digress.

On Sunday, I came across one entry on Query Shark that had me nodding in relief. Go ahead and click the link and read.

Apparently, QS read a query for a mg novel about a babysitter who is playing sleuth on her charge's parents, as she discovered they are in trouble. QS loved it. Some of her readers didn't. They wanted more plot and they were confused about the details in the query.

QS set them straight and I felt that the "don't be tempted to tell the entire story in the query" gist was important enough to snag and bookmark here. Other places where I've helped out with queries or just been an invisible reader, I've seen some 'helpful' comments suggesting that the author bulk up a short query and turn it into a small synopsis. As always, this is bad advice, and the link above is proof. :)

If I may be bold...

2010-06-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

Or in other words... does anyone else have problems about letting a novel develop the way it wants, even if it takes some surprising turns that may make your friends uncomfortable?

Keep in mind that in real life I tend to be fairly... conservative. I'm not militant about a lot of my religious and moral beliefs, but they are there nevertheless. My backbone.

That doesn't translate or show up in what I write. *laughs nervously*

Wip#1 - Protagonist has an abstinence ring that pretty much messed up her life. I'm fairly sure that she is going to get together with the guy character. This could change as I write the novel, but yeah... currently, it is still there.

Wip#2 - Protagonist seems to be confused about her sexual identity. I've been noticing this a LOT as I'm writing the novel... especially as she is more attentive and concerned about her friend who is very out of the closet. I'm pretty sure the protagonist is straight, but um... all the same, I'm raising my eyebrows and wondering about her. She might be bi. :O

Neither of these wips are going to be too graphic with any content, because I want them to still fit in with the upper teen audience. But it may definitely introduce concepts that will not be very popular with some people out there.

The impulse is to start all over again and make the 'implied' as oblique as possible so I don't have to put embarrassing warnings up for critters. But then that would change the flavor of the books. It would be like this lemon chicken dinner I made the other day - what would happen if I removed the lemons from the meal.

I guess I'll start scripting those warnings now. :(

Science will apparently Win

I debated about posting this bit as it edges too close to sensitive 'do not tread' turf (religion). I decided to go on ahead, because it does touch on what I DWELL on as somebody who writes about aliens and far away universes.

In an interview read here, Stephen Hawking expressed the following:

"What could define God [is thinking of God] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God," Hawking told Sawyer. "They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible."

When Sawyer asked if there was a way to reconcile religion and science, Hawking said, "There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works."

The first bit - I actually do agree with in part. I think that people try to humanize God too much, and they have through the back centuries. Take the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians - and others. They believed in gods, but imagined them in human form and exhibiting themselves in quite a human way. I feel we know God as he has deliberately made himself known to us... but it would be impossible to understand him and the rest of the story completely until we meet him face to face. Which, I hope we all do.

As to the second, I would say Hawking isn't completely correct though he is in the right neighborhood. Our ability to observe and reason is limited to what we can study via our five senses. Just because we can't see something, smell it, touch it... study it... that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Human beings instinctively feel that there must be something greater beyond us - and we have always been that way. Some peoples (native Americans) created gods from outer space - something, I'm sure Stephen Hawking would be interested in. Other peoples created a complex afterlife with various gods who all had nothing better to do than judge and control human beings on our planet. Other people saw their ancestors attain new abilities upon reaching the afterlife, turning around and becoming gods who could aid or injure humans on earth. Others believed in one God.

One thing they all have in common is they felt that there was a lot more out there that could not be viewed or reached, but they knew it was there.

So yes...

Religion is based on a natural instinct or calling, as well as culture and authority. Science is based on observation and reason.

They don't completely overlap and are frequently at odds... but that doesn't mean you have to adhere to either or instead of both. It is possible to be a scientist who also believes in a Greater Power beyond. And there is no shame in acknowledging limits to our human abilities. Stephen Hawking more than anyone else ought to realize that. :)

What does this have to do with writing?

Not much, except it reminded me anew the complication in being a Christian and writing proper science fiction or fantasy novels. It's miserably hard - and not just because readers immediately feel uncomfortable and criticize you for creating alien characters who worship a "Christian God". It's just that suddenly you start wondering if it is entirely proper creating a godlike race (and I have plenty of those) and placing them in a world where there is also an all powerful God. It's possible, but I guess I have it ingrained in my head that no being stands on equal footing with God. So I would be consciously trying to keep my characters from being too powerful... or acting too godly. Which would ruin my plots.

Random Question for the Day

If we are a post racial society, why does the census bureau still need to know what color your skin is?

:)

CLASSIC POST

2010-06-07T05:53:00.000-07:00

You can see the link to Editorial Anonymous on the left side somewhere, and odds are you already have the blog on your reading list, but!

I read the latest post with a huge grin on my face and immediately made plans to follow this guy's blog.

The gist would be the following -

I have to say the impetus for this book actually came when I misread a banner ad. I was in the middle of my morning web-crawl when I saw an ad for some manga or webcomic or something called My Dork Embrace. And I thought, That's great. I bet it's a story about the kind of awkward guy who's never supposed to become a vampire. And a minute later my brain wouldn't let go of it because the art and tenor of the ad didn't really jive with the assumption I'd made, so I scrolled back to have another look at it. And I discovered it's really just My Dark Embrace. I'd misread it. But then I got excited because that meant I could write My Dork Embrace myself, and it would be a good framework to work out some thoughts I'd been having about high school.

The author had the opinion that the THRILL about vampires was an obsession at creating a character who is permanently stuck at the peak of life. So he wanted to write a vampire novel with a vamp character who was not the epitome of good looks, attractiveness, and strength.

Why didn't I think of writing that book first? !

ABOUT BLOGGING IN GENERAL

I gave this a thought since I started up on facebook and have gotten nervous about who I friend on there under my 'writing name' for fear of them coming back to my writing or dog training blogs and seeing something I don't want them to see.

For example, on my dog training blog, I may have complained about *coughs* wasting my money on a training session. I, um, have love/hate relationships with dog training instructors.

It hit me today that this is something I need to work towards, especially since I want to be a FAMOUS WRITER (really I do) sometime in the future. I need to post carefully, and not write anything I don't want coworkers or instructors to see.

Doesn't mean I won't be honest, but I have to be tactful and careful.

Tactless Confession -

This is probably just me, but I really hate it when people refer to their characters as the hero, heroine, and antagonist. It just makes me assume that they haven't fleshed the characters out and made them complex enough.

Oddly, I don't have the same reaction when I see people refer to their characters as Protagonist, Love Interest, and Baddie.

Maybe I'm just judging people based on what I do and don't do...

Hates Posting "I'm still alive" entries, but...

2010-06-06T11:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm still alive and as you can see - ready for summer flowers, warm breezes, and lots and lots of sunlight. I need to get back into blogging and sorting out a schedule and topic schpeels.

May was an interesting month.

I did not do much writing, thanks to a busy schedule of doing other mysterious things which escape the memory at the moment. Ditto reading.

I did start writing a new WIP based on a conversation I was having with one of my sisters. This had to do with my impatience and bemusement about how people behave online (and I'm including myself in this group) as opposed to how they behave in person. It really is very easy to be dishonest and exagerative without even intending to be. Simply because you want to seem more interesting and exciting that that DULL person who had a 7-5 job in an office and spends most of the time shuffling papers and operating office machinery. :)

I did create a sorta-real facebook page. It's under my 'fake name' and I'm trying very hard to keep my real life seperate and the tone neutral on fb. I guess more than Twitter where it is very easy to get lost in the shuffle, you feel that much more vulnerable and nervous about coworkers and bosses checking up on what you're saying. Or maybe it's just all of the warnings I've heard on the news concerning that reality. One thing I do like about Facebook as opposed to Twitter = I can post random comments galore and I don't get porn-spammed to death. Yay.

That said, I will still use my Twitter page, at least in checking up what's going on in the industry and following friends. :)

I will have to post pictures of my garden - only I'm waiting for a drier/dryer (read, less mosquito ridden) day to go out back into the garden. My rose garden looks simply heavenly. They are all blooming, including one bush that had gone to root and switched from a hybrid to a more old fashioned wild rose. Only downside would be my irises which objected to being dug up and replanted - though I thought I was doing them a favor in rebuilding their turf so they weren't sitting directly in what was essentially a clay pot. <- I have to build up all my gardens so they have better drainage. The dirt is a very thick and sticky clay. It is good for the septic field beneath, but horrible for gardening on.

Plans for the month of June (late, but what the hey):

Read 5 books, including:

Spirit Bound (Richelle Mead)
The Reckoning (Kelley Armstrong)
Little Vampire Women (I don't remember the author's name)
Insatiable (Meg Cabot)
Reread of all my Diana Wynne Jones Books*
Random other 2 books I eyeballed gluttonously at Target <- I don't remember the titles atm.
Shiver (Maggie Stiefvater)... maybe.
Twilight New Moon.

Yes, more than five but I'm just dwelling on a disappointing visit to Target where I begged a surprised passing shopper to help drag me out of the book aisle emptyhanded. Miserable tight budget... :[

*Per something I read on fb, a letter posted by Maggie Stiefvater, Diana Wynne Jones stopped treatment for her lung cancer. Even though I felt the quality of the last two or three books was not the same quality as her earlier books... um, this will be an obvious loss to the Children/YA book world. I find it very hard to imagine a JK Rowling coming of age without somebody like DWJ paving the way for female fantasy writers. DWJ, more than anyone else, showed how it is possible to take a traditional fantasy plot and give it a twist beyond our world.

Speaking for myself here, I never would have cared very much about scifi concepts if I hadn't read Archer's Goon, Homeword Bounders, Dogsbody, and Hexwood. And even her Crestomanci books helped bridge the gap between fantasy and scifi for readers who might have otherwise been stiffish at the concept of wizards from far away worlds in other dimensions.

God bless her for everything she's done for fantasy writers and readers, and I hope she does not suffer but goes peacefully from this place to the next one.

Life Transfer

2010-05-03T20:35:00.001-07:00

Just thought I'd share something funny that happened over here...

I got a call from my adorable mom who was in a state of hushed panic. At our old house there is a cabinet in our living room with three or four urns with ashes from past dogs. She went over to tap the light on in the cabinet (it's one of those you tap it in the right spot to get the interior display light to go on or off).

So the light went on and displayed some weedy things apparently growing out of the one urn containing the ashes from Danny (the dog we lost two years ago).

Mom freaked out, because she was convinced that Danny's bone bits were sprouting weedy flowers. She didn't want to go near the cabinet and see exactly WHAT was growing out of the bones, and begged one of us to go in there and check it out.

As it turns out, my niece placed the weeds in there for Danny because she had been thinking about him after her parents tortured her by letting her watch Hachiko (sp?).

FWIW - that movie is evil. I can't even READ about it without crying all over myself.

The above is my old Danny. Had we not lost him two years ago to cancer, he would have turned fifteen last month. I seriously doubt that he would come back as weedy flowers. He was sugar and spice and everything nice. :)

Random Hurrah - Thank God for "System Restore". I believe my computer had a virus of some kind earlier today. I immediately shut the computer down, started in safe mode, and did a system restore. So far so good.

Don't do that to Fido, Etc...

2010-05-02T10:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Horror/Thriller Movie Makers and Horror/Thriller Book Writers,

*flicks TV off, after accidentally watching a young dog yelping as he is swallowed by a slithery thing that came out of the ground*

There are spots around the country where dogs and cats are eaten alive by wild animals. Fact of life. It isn't entertaining.

Showing something like that for the shock value just makes people hate your movie.

That is all.

ON THAT SAME DOWN NOTE:

I just lost one of my birds.... :[

I hate when this happens, because it isn't worth spending the $$$$ to have an autopsy done on a $10 critter, but you always wonder if the bird died of something else besides old age. I always wonder if there is something I'm not doing right, or if I should switch to a different kind of birdseed.

And I'm not sure how old he was. He was at least 2 when I bought him 5 (?) years ago. At the time, I bought him to keep a rescued parakeet company. That rescued parakeet died last year, so I replaced HIM with a young guy. So I had the two boys singing at each other all the time and it was adorable.

Except now I only have one and he's going nuts singing and calling at the love birds in the next cage. And I feel sorry for him.

So, I will be picking up a new friend for him today.

The only birds I refuse to replace would be my finches. Only because the bunch I have right now are all pretty old. Between 6 and 9 years old, I'd estimate. I like finches, but I'd like to get down to only two (budgies and lovvies) flight cages at some point.

It's so weird how fast the years go by. And I don't feel any older though things age and die around me. Now I know what vampires feel like. :[

How I Spent My May Day

2010-05-01T13:10:00.001-07:00

Just sharing....

Me. I'm not drunk. This picture happened when I woke up this morning and someone snuck up and took a picture of me and the dog because they thought it was HILARIOUS. Ahem. As you can tell, when I crash late on a Friday night, I skip makeup and earrings removal, the hair is knotted in a very unflattering ponytail, and it is way too early in the morning for me and I didn't have my coffee yet.

Sticky Weeds - which apparently can be steeped in hot water as a tea, particularly if you are having certain infection or fever problems. Who would want to though? They stick to everything. Like Velcro

Weeds trying to take over the lawn...

Mound of weeds after a hard morning's work...

Trilium!

The holly bush in full bloom - and it's rattling up against that bedroom window, but I don't have the heart to chop it back until all the flowers are gone.

APPLE BLOSSOMS!!! Yellow Delicious if you want to be specific. Planted those two years ago and they are finally taking off.

The lilacs started to bloom. This is an off year though (must chop bushes back)...

Some random tulips having their last hurrah before they fall apart... and give way to summer.

Technically, this falls under the weed category, but I don't have heart to pull these up. Wild Violets.

Part of the rose garden, where I have a narrow path that should actually have two sideways trellises to keep roses contained when they start filling out when warmer weather comes around (we've had frost/freezing every night for past 2-3 weeks, so they are a bit stunted and behind right now). Must build trellises... Oh! And straight ahead you can see the Irises are starting to come out of the ground.

Some lilies here, and some other things. I don't know just yet whether they are flowers or weeds. Keeps staring at them.

If you look past statue at all of those vine weeds hanging down, that's what I have to clear out next (le sigh). I have to go rock climbing to get at them though.

I'm not sure if the color shows up well here (doubt it) but these are pretty blue flowers that I remember buying and planting last year. Only I don't remember what they are. *must invest in popsicle stick labeling method re/this summer's planting. Oh, there are weeds mixed in, but their time is limited.

More lilacs on the right, but white/yellowish flowers on left are on the buckeye tree I planted a couple years ago. This is the first year it's flowered. I didn't even KNOW they have sweet smelling flowers that look vaguely like lilacs. Huh.

Jacks posing for camera...

More posing from the boy...

Such a poser! *hugs him*

Dog and Cat (Lu-Lu)checking out a bee. Must rescue them...

The Lu, pretending to be wild.

That is all. :)

Aliens Evolved Too... Right?

2010-04-30T05:59:00.000-07:00

www.space.com, Would ET really invade earth?

Steven Hawking came out recently with a flaky statement about how aliens DO exist, but we shouldn't contact them because they could come and destroy earth ala Independence Day. I'm wondering if anyone else out there feels a little embarrassed about fellow scifi enthusiasts trying to insert fiction into science.

As 'earthians' we shouldn't be so egotistical.

Think about how we are going about searching for aliens in our own solar system. We are assuming that life would not exist on a planet that has no water.

Yes, human beings (water bags) NEED water to survive. But why should we assume that a different type of creature would share this need? Especially if we believe in evolution.

Recall that evolutionists believe that humans evolved from microbes into living, moving, breathing critters who evolved upwards into human beings. That is, they evolved into creatures who could survive and thrive on planet earth.

I don't necessarily believe that the beginnings of life were like that, but I don't mind if other people do. I just expect them to be consistent.

If there was another planet out there with microbes or whatever. What would stop those microbes from evolving upwards into intelligent creatures who could survive on whatever planet they existed on?

Yes, I do believe that life is possible beyond planet earth, and I wouldn't be so arrogant to assume that we are the only intelligent creatures that exist in the universe.

But I tend to feel that we are looking at 'contact' the wrong way.

There are different forms of life beneath the ocean, for example. Maybe they aren't human-like, but they are intelligent in their own way, even if it isn't intelligence or rationality that is unique to humans.

Wouldn't it be a bit stupid to beam radio signals, lights, music, colors, probes and signs written in various languages proclaiming 'We come in Peace!' for those creatures beneath the ocean to see?

To a blue whale, human beings might be interesting little invaders who may be worth checking out... but it would be pretty silly flashing a 'We come in Peace' sign to a blue whale and expecting it to understand and feel better about us being around.

And why would a blue whale want to invade land? An inhospitable place it was not created or evolved to live on?

If anyone would invade a planet and take over things... it would be us humans. Because that is our pattern of behavior throughout our history. We traveled out around our planet and took over the land from the native species, and we either devoured or brutally cleared out those native species to eliminate them from competition for the resources in that area.

And hey - I don't have a problem with that. If our ancestors weren't adventuring conquerors, we would all still be living in one tight little place and dying out because there wasn't enough resources and space for all of us.

But I swear that scientists are looking out into the universe and instead of exploring and scientifically observing what is actually out there, they are searching for contemporaries. When they look for aliens, they just expect a mirror image of us.

Allowing Changes...

2010-04-30T04:11:00.000-07:00

I think the biggest step to becoming a better writer is opening yourself up to change.

This is/was the biggest thing I've encountered as an 'observer' of other writers, in that you might offer them what you feel is good advice that might help them fix a novel that is about there, but needs a little more help. And these writers might be initially resistant to change. Because it scares them, or because they just don't see what you see... not yet.

For example, there is a novelist out there who had a PERFECT project. I read her query and synopsis and feel that she just needs to start applying to all of the agents out there to snag one and get in business.

The problem is that the writing itself is a little fuzzy. I'm not sure if it is as strong as it needs to be. I'm comparing it (somewhat) with the writing from another friend, who is most definitely right there. In fact, this other friend has an agent for one project and has that agent's interest with the two other projects she's writing and editing.

Another friend too is one of those amazing wonderkins who writes things that have the right sound on the first draft, even if the plot workings are a little rough.

Back to that writer whom I'm trying to help... I think she's almost there, but she needs to tighten up on the writing and flesh out her characters. They aren't as strong as they should be.

That leads me to my biggest revelation or point, in that it is very easy to find fault with other people's writing. It's easy to recognize all of the things they need to change in order to improve their writing skills. But there needs to be a moment where you realize that that so-called perfect project you weaved together is not as good as it could be, because you need to change something. <- And that is the point where your edits and revisions start to have merit.

This past week I decided to add another plot thread to my BSW project. This involved going back to the beginning and working all of the threads in. Several things happened as I did this.

I realized that people were right. The beginning of the story was not necessarily as strong as it could have been. In fact, it was verging on sitting on that narrow strip of land between cliched and boring.

So I made changes to the first chapter.

Chapter 2 came next, and I realized that I REALLY DIDN'T LIKE the interaction between Wesley and her classmates, including the one character who is going to be a main character right alongside her.

The one plot point I started with when I first wrote the nano novel was this "He is unwilling to step up and take on the job he was born with, and she is terrified by the unseen world that's beginning to reveal itself to her."

I played on the unwilling thing when I first wrote Chapter 2, and urk! He came across like somebody who was just being crabby and obnoxious because somebody (er, like me, the author) told him he had to be. It was too forced.

The other thing, and I had this discussion with my sister while we went hiking recently... I was trying too hard to show chemistry between the two characters. It wasn't there (partly because he was such a whiny snot I wanted to reach into the story and smack him upside the head).

She and I laughed about how unattractive and annoying all teenage guys are - seriously. Even the slick, clean, and zitless ones. <- A good example would be Elizabeth Mitchell's son from V. Oh. My. Gosh. That kid ANNOYS ME! He doesn't deserve Lisa, who is becoming a much more interesting character now she's becoming humanized.

I moaned and groaned about how much more interesting it would be if I got to write about a guy who was in his twenties. Except then that would be pretty gross - because the plot demands that the protagonist be in high school still.

And then it hit me.

Why should I push it?

It isn't so important that the guy character have this perfect CHEMISTRY thing with the protagonist. It is important that he be an individual character who has his own agenda going on.

If you think about what everyone complains about Mary Sues and Gary Stus - it's because of the implausibility of them going to a new school and suddenly having all of the other students instantly crushing on them.

Ugh, right?

So. I focused on developing Nic last night in a stronger character. I cut 2000 words (Wesley and Nic encountering each other in the woods by the school and chit-chatting about non essentials while Nic whined and crabbed and glared at the WORLD!!!!) and I replaced them with 3000 words (Wesley exploring the woods by the school and tripping over Nic, talking a little bit during which he implies that people at the school know about her tragic story and she questions him about his 'Voldemort-stick'. The implication is he is a slitherer-outerer who isn't telling her everything but she guesses that he is possibly a little weird and is bullied by all the other guys at the school because of it. He noticeably acted nervous when they walk past a group of the other guys, including one who Wesley is crushing on).

I know exactly what's going on with the guy now - especially since I'm now thinking of him as a main character and not just a neutral soul-less love interest (think about those guys who randomly appear on shows like Bones. You know Temperance won't wind up with them, because they are definitely not as fully developed as Sealey is).

The other thing I did with Chapter 2 was scrap this scene with Tamara (the youngest sister) acting unearthly and warning Wesley about the bogeyman. I liked this... when I wrote it, but I realized last night that it gave the wrong impression and was (according to Simon Cowell) indulgent. It was also cliched. So I scrapped that scene and wrote in a new scene with Tamara doing her homework at the kitchen table and Wesley having a teeny tiny vision about something she couldn't possibly have known about. I also set up a revised scene in the next chapter with Tasha (oldest sister) going to a doctor's appointment. :)

Chapter 3 came next, and so far I scrapped the first half of the chapter (conversation between Tasha and Wesley about nothing really, but showing sulky antagonism from Wesley about Tasha trying to turn the school into some kind of rave club to hook up with guys). I SCRAPPED THAT. Instead, I used the scene to show the frazzled relationship between the two sisters... and set up the scene in the next chapter.

That's how far I got before I started to give in to how tired I was at 12:30AM. I'll keep writing tonight... and hopefully catch up to the current chapter so I can keep going and finish this draft.

Through all of this, I guess my point is that a month ago I would not have considered making such drastic changes to the project. Seriously, I wouldn't have. I'm not patting myself on the back here and saying "What a good writer I am", because I know there will come a point sooner or later where I'll be looking at the three chapters I revised per above and scrapping them while I rewrite them for the better.

I think there are different kinds of writers out there...

There are the kinds who can write something perfect the first time round. These are those noxious people who only write one draft which they only need to edit.

Then there are writers like me, who write something HORRIBLE the first time round, and must redraft a cazillion times before the plot/characters turn into something that works.

Hopefully, I'll get the results the other kind of writer does... even if it takes me a bit longer.

The main thing though is I recognize that what makes me a better writer is acknowledging that I have to make changes, and knowing it isn't going to kill me. :)

Random Fit of Weirdness...

2010-04-29T12:49:00.001-07:00

Bear with me for a moment here, but this strange post occurred to me while I was doing research for a newsletter thingy I'm doing for work. <- I'm on a local Michigana type kick now and slipping in random "Did you know" bits in newsletters this year.

"The State Fossil is the Mastodon (since 2002)
Mastodons disappeared from North America about 10,000 years ago and were estimated to be about 10 feet tall at the shoulder. One of the most complete mastodon skeletons ever found was discovered near Owosso, Michigan and is displayed at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. The longest and most intact trail of mastodon footprints (30 prints) ever uncovered was located near Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Mastodons were elephant like animals and sturdily built browsers of open spruce forests. They are often lumped in with mammoths, because of their shaggy coat and long tusks, but there were subtle differences. Their tusks were as long as the mammoths', but straighter. They were shorter and built more square than the mammoths who were more slimly built and had an upwards slope from back to front. They also had flatter heads than the mammoth.

The mastodon’s teeth could get five inches in diameter and two and half inches thick. The simple and low crowned teeth showed the animal had a tendency to eat softer vegetation such as twigs and leaves. Meaning, they ate off of trees. Their teeth are very distinctive, as they are coated with enamel and have 6-8 cone-shaped cusps and are similar to that of a pig’s molars.

The mammoth’s teeth are typical for a grazer, an herbivore. Their teeth could get up to eight inches long and twelve inches wide. The tall plates of the tooth act as grinding stones and the mammoths would probably chew grass the same way a cow would. Mammoth teeth grew similar to the process of a conveyor belt. Once a set of teeth was being completely worn down, a new set would be ready to grow in its place. This process would take place six times in a mammoth’s lifetime."

So here is my thing... I never really thought about the similarities between boars and elephants, because um -> different species and very few similarities. Duh. :P

But looking at some of the idealized pictures of the mastodons (which looked boarlike to me, well, plus the trunk) and reading about how they grazed in wooded/swampy areas with piglike molars, that just reminded me of this Monster Quest (yes, you may call me a geek for watching shows like that) that I saw where they were hunting for huge wild boars that supposedly are running around in Texas and thereabouts.

I guess it is one of those things trickling at the back of my head and has always been there since I was a kidlet and visiting the big museum in Lansing, Michigan. I loved looking at the befurred statue representations of these massive beasts, and I always wished they still were around. Wouldn't it be cool if somehow or other critters like Mammoths and Mastodons survived somehow? And why couldn't they have? Even though we are technologically advanced, we still have blind spots when it comes to exploring various spots even in our own backyards.

That Monster Quest show left it open as to whether monster boars really do exist.

Now I'm thinking it would be nifty to somehow work Mastodons into a story. As survivors.

Nudges BSW prospectively....

I guess I should explain here (so people aren't totally confused about how a mastodon could fit in with a paranormal/fantasy novel) -

BSW draws on the native American ideas/themes of animal guides + Eric Daniken type aliens.

*notices people look even more confused*

We all know the Genesis story and the history of the human race according to the Bible, right?

Imagine if we are just getting the human side of the story.

So God has been around for ages and has created other races, including one race which shares our world with us. This race is identical to all the other creatures here on earth, except their souls look a little bit different... :)

And that's about all I'm willing to put on a public website right now. But it wouldn't be too far fetched to say that one of these animal guides comes in the shape of a mastodon. :)

Maybe that will happen in a sequel or related story though....

Invasion of Privacy...

2010-04-29T06:15:00.001-07:00

... here we come.

From the sounds of it, my home state is cooking up yet another reason for cops to be gawking into your cars and giving a ticket for something you are doing in there.

And I have no idea how they can prove you were texting prior to pulling you over. Apparently they will be pulling you over under the suspicion of texting? Like if you are driving with one hand on the steering wheel while looking down at your lap or at the seat next to you while driving past that intrusive cop and his binoculars. <- I'm almost tempted to test that out. >;-)

No. I don't text while driving.

I guess I could understand if this was instead a "Driving while distracted" and had verbage in there to ensure people would not be stopped unless they were driving erratically and causing problems for other drivers.

Singling out texters as the Instruments of Destruction only makes me think about those texters I usually see while out and about. They impede traffic. They drive 20 miles below the limit or sit through green lights. It does happen they ram into somebody in front of them during unexpected slowdowns, but that could happen if they were distracted by something else in their car.

When I was a kiddo, there was a case in our area of a college student who was looking down at her purse (I'm not sure if she was digging through it too or just looking at the purse), when she rammed into a child who was waiting for a school bus. She was convicted with involuntary manslaughter. <- This was back before texting and even before the majority of regular people had cell phones.

Cops cause the biggest distraction of all when they park on the side of the road with their lights flashing. A lot of fender benders happen because of people looking over their shoulder to see what's going on instead of straight forward.

Piffle.

Walking Through Storms...

2010-04-28T06:08:00.000-07:00

... is probably safer than standing under a tree with your feet in a puddle during storms.

In theory.

What kind of storms do writers have to walk through?

False alarms and complications, like:

1. Exhaustion. Yes, K-12 and college students are extremely busy with school hours, homework load, sports, clubs, after school job, and social life. But adulthood has the same amount of constant running around and workload, plus your body doesn't have the same kind of 'up and go' thing going on. You can't stay up writing until 3AM and wake up at 5AM. You'll die.

2. Boredom . The novel you are writing just isn't holding your attention. It could be because you have been writing on it too much and it's actually starting to make you queasy!

3. Dread. You know it isn't going to be publishable in it's present state and you are overwhelmed by how much work needs to be done to make it work. A cazillionth revision. DIES.

4. Pain. You really don't want to finish the novel, because then you know it will have to go 'public' and you just don't want all that criticism. Seriously - sometimes it can feel just like numchucks smacking the soul.

5. Loss. You don't have it anymore. It could be you wrote a LOT of stuff up to five or six years ago and received some fierce criticism that really hurt your confidence. Or maybe you've forgotten how or are too exhausted every night to daydream.

6. Detachment. You talk to other writers but don't FEEL like they do. It isn't a poetic emotional thing for you. You sometimes look at it the same way your mom looks at her knitting. It's something she does. There might be a purpose in the end, but she knits because it's what she does in the evening and she likes to keep her hands busy. You start to feel out of the loop. Like you SHOULD feel all poetic about writing in order to write well.

7. Confusion. This happens when you received so much advice from people who told you to change your writing style or whatever. You want to take their advice to become better. Maybe so you can evolve into that type of writer who waxes poetic about why she writes. But each time you try X writing style, you find it doesn't fit. For example, I don't feel comfortable starting with ACTION.

****

These are the different facets of writer-burnout that I have experienced personally (see? total soul baring here), maybe not right now at this exact second, but in the past.

I assume everyone else has dark days like that too... I guess I wanted to air this subject so they know it's completely normal and shouldn't cause them to shut their laptops down forever.

It's very easy to get caught up in the moment and feel DOWN DOWN DOWN on yourself and the whole writing thing. If you dwell.

So don't dwell.

Write.

And on a more uplifting positive note -

I revised a chapter yesterday (working in the priest/administrator side plot I semi-mentioned yesterday). I also chopped 2000 words off this chapter. :O

Yes, I was in a state of shock too. But I did it.

I saved a backcopy of the chapter before the massive cut, but I don't think I'll need it.

By cutting those 2000 words and adding that side story, I think I steered the novel back onto a clean green path. If it accomplished anything, I'm sitting here looking forward to writing tonight.

Even if I'm too tired to daydream at night. :[

Lovely Explanations...

2010-04-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

*bounces up and down*

I just got a response on a story. It was a reject [boo], but I sorta expected that. I don't know if I mentioned this in a previous post, but I felt that this story was not as filled out as it should have been.

The person who rejected the story was great, in that he explained why the story didn't work for him - even though he liked the idea.

The main thing he pointed out (and something I already felt after I came to my senses) was this:

Work more on bringing a character the reader can identify with into the story.

I intentionally focused on making the story plot driven instead of my usual character driven. <- And I hopelessly flubbed at it. :P

I'll pick the story back up over summer vacation I think. Maybe give it a slightly different spin, but from a strong character view.

Another thing I'm bouncing up and down about -

I 'snagged' a story from a religious type online magazine my mom got me hooked on. This story is about a priest who claims that the veil between our world and the spiritual world is growing thinner now that we are in the end times, and that is why so many more people are reporting weird stuff about possessions and hauntings.

I'm not sure about the end times (gaaa! I've just barely begun to live!), but when I read this guy's story, I knew it was something I could use.

It reminded me yet again - all characters must have their own personal motives and personalities. They can't just be conveniently going along for the ride just because they like the main character.

The only character in BSW I had problems with was this priest character who is somewhat conspiratorial and hush-hush about what he knows. Same thing with the administrator who is always ready to back him up.

I think I know what their deal is right now. :)

I'll share more later if this works...

Belated Earthling Greetings!

2010-04-23T04:37:00.000-07:00

What does earth day mean to you?

Yesterday, I kinda realized that there are people out there who are ambivalent about the day. Or they are downright rejecting of it - for political reasons.

Here's my thought:

KEEP POLITICS OUT OF IT!!!!! <- And you will see the good in a day that is all about doing your part in taking care of the world and environment around you. Living out in the wooded, watery, spread out, hilly, quiet, flowery areas where everyone is living off of long winding dirty roads within walking distance to horse/cow farms, but far far away from everything else... I see both sides of the equation.

I need my car. I would DEFINITELY not be able to ride my bike to work. And I don't really like biking. <- It messes up my hair and I accidentally swallow bugs sometimes.

But I love beauty.

My mom grew up in Chicago and she goes on and on about how beautiful the city is. Admittedly, when I go to visit relatives over there I kinda blank out in awe over all of the huge buildings. Where I live there is a height ordinance which means all of the buildings are somewhat squat by comparison.

But is Chicago beautiful? *shrugs* I guess it is an acquired taste and I'm not into it.

Beautiful is wide open spaces, blue skies, shady cool woods.... things like that. <- And I want to preserve all of that beauty for the next generation.

That means there is something VERY positive about planting a tree or two in your yard to replace an old ones that might have fallen down during the winter (I had a few that dropped). Trees provide shade and value to your house (provided they aren't too close to the house).

Once upon a time, my parents were driving around looking for a house after my dad's job moved 20 miles south. They were first looking for a house that was big enough for a family of eight. After that they had little picky things. When they got to our old house, they weren't entirely sure they wanted to buy, because the house had been sort of built by a madman who cut corners. It also had an in ground pool in the backyard - something my mom didn't want with three kids under eight. But! They viewed the house on a rainy day, and were able to walk out into the back woods without getting wet. The previous owners had terraced the back yard and there was some other nice landscaping done elsewhere throughout the yard. That was quite enough for my mom so she planted her feet and said, "THIS IS IT".

That means there is something VERY positive about planting a garden and landscaping your yard so it is a slice of paradise. Come July and summer vacation, you will be sitting back and enjoying the fruits of your labor. If you have mature gardens (as in flower and rose gardens), those will add value to your house.

That means there is something VERY VERY VERY positive about groups getting together and preserving land for future parks and whatever else. Out where I live, an old guy always worried about what would happen to his estate after he died. He farmed most of the land, but there were plenty of acres that he left be for nature. He arranged it in his will that the land would become a natural reserve and a place for people to enjoy. There are now gardens, butterfly walks, and bird sanctuaries on the property amidst all of the woods and hiking trails. <- WE NEED MORE PLACES LIKE THIS.

Definitely, I'm one of those people who wants to stop urban sprawl. The city lights, noise, smog, traffic.... does not have to be everywhere. There are people who want it to be pitch dark at night except for the light of the stars or the glow of the moonlight reflected off grass or snow.

Definitely, I'm one of those weirdos who feel that people need to be careful about how they impact the environment around them. For example, we are too hasty to destroy weeds and replace them with a golf course yard. The problem is that if you sit back in a naturalized yard (like mine), you will notice that bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds spend some time in your garden... but they also feed on the flowers of weeds. If you spray chemicals on those weeds... imagine what that is doing to the critters who feed on them. Even dandelions are a food group for animals and 'good' bugs like bees.

Oh!

On a different note - earth day means I really wish people would stop dropping garbage everywhere like they are all ten year old boys dropping wrappers around the house or stuffing potato chips into the couch. Garbage doesn't just disappear and there isn't always somebody around to pick it up. Most back counties do not have street cleaners (or whatever they're called) who go around and pick up after visitors. Most back counties rely on volunteers. And those volunteers go unthanked pretty much - if they aren't actually mocked by some people.

Anyhoo!

Earth day shouldn't be all about sitting in the dark and eating off of paper plates or whatever else. I mean, that's OK if that's what you're into, but there are other things you could do to make your world (as in your neighborhood and home) a more pleasant place. Or you could always don your hiking shoes and go forth and enjoy the bounties of nature at your local park. ;)

I spent my earth day at work. Then when I got home I stopped to grab a thick pair of gloves from the garage and my little claw tool, and I went out back into my garden. I let weeds grow in their place, but I draw the line at letting them take over my flower gardens. Seriously. The NERVE.

Heheh. I'll be out there again today.

On my mind...

2010-04-20T05:51:00.000-07:00

- Note to anyone in the world who might have seen the previous post on religion and politics and social issues. There is another thing I should probably add to the list of "I must not be tempted to start talking about or all hell will break loose". That would be veal and the reasons why I think it should never be eaten.

Isn't that a cutey bear? Sweetie munchkins like that deserve at least two years of a good life before they are sent to the chopper. I'm just saying. I'm not a PETA gal, but there are certain things which can definitely make me steam. Treatment of animals is a huge thing.

And on that note I guess I should add I really wish that a friendly blogger I like would remove shock pictures from the side of her blog. Unlike me, she wants to end all slaughter and she keeps posting sick pictures and vids on the side.

It makes me sick to think about everything that still has to be done to ensure that somebody eating turkey dinner or cooking hot dogs for the fam has no 'what happened to this poor animal before they died' guilt. And good food should be guilt-free. Except, of course how it concerns your waistband. Which grr. Is quite another problem.

- CHECK THIS LINK OUT for query tips from Ginger Clark re/a query she received and a novel/newauthor she snagged. That definitely sounds like a book I might pick up at the library, if not at the store. It definitely does make sense for kids to get marriage counseling in school. I mean, when they are fourteen or fifteen, they are given baby dolls to carry around. Which still seems weird and uncomfortable when I see a teenager walking around with a big doll. I'm just saying. :O

One other thought - am I the only one who read Ginger's comments and suddenly wondered if YA is what they want to do? Only because when I was a teen, I did not talk like a teen. I mentioned to a friend or elsewhere that I didn't actually use 'contractions' so much until I started up with a writing group and somebody complained about the stiffness of the writing because I refused to use contractions.

I guess I'm just going to suck in my breath and hope that my 'writing voice' passes muster and gains the 'trust' of teenage readers.

- Thoughts on bullying - Stacia Kane did a post on a bullying, inspired by this facebook group and the tragedy of kids basically getting bullied to death and/or to the extent that they have mental or emotional issues for the rest of their life. Personally speaking, I never was bullied in school. Or if I was, I was blissfully unaware. Not saying I was anti-social, but I had a set group of friends and outside school hobbies that kept me preoccupied. If somebody didn't like me or talked behind/infront of my back, I pretty much didn't notice. <- Yes, I guess that means I was spacey. :)

My thought though when I read Stacia's post is that people out there would immediately equate a harsh crit on a story (something petty like that) with what happened to Phoebe Price. This bothered me a little bit, because I think there is absolutely no comparision. People might feel bad when they receive criticism instead of the expected praise, but it just means they can take their writing and go somewhere else and forever gripe about that ONE HORRIBLE CRITTER. There isn't the same kind of personal attack that a girl might receive every day in person, or even on one of those local facebook group thingies (where everyone at the school is on the same social network) and somebody posts something embarrassing and horrible for everyone to see.

For a lot of kids attending elementary, middle, or high school... there is a sense that they are trapped there and can't escape.

Although I never went through anything like that, I know how it feels when you have to go somewhere where you know you will be emotionally or verbally abused. But as an adult it is very easy to play avoidance games and go to places like that as little as possible. Or you do the whole 'donning my shell' when you go that place, and shake free of the shell when you can go home and don't have to go back for another three or four weeks (which is about how long I can get away with not going to this certain place).

When you are a hormonal/vulnerable teenager and stuck between the pressure to live up to the expectations of your parents and even your own desires for your 'school life' and the constant fears you will have to deal with more verbal, emotional, physical abuse day after day... it's not surprising that so many kids are having psychological problems and need to be (legally) medicated just to get through their young adult years.

So anyway, while I support people standing up and protecting their children and other people's kids from abuse, I don't think we should assume a 'victim mentality' when it concerns getting honest criticism.

- Spellcheck causes a bigger woe than ever <- Penguin Australia had a minor quality issue with a cookbook it published and sent forth into the book world.

The publishing company was forced to pulp and reprint 7000 copies of Pasta Bible last week after a recipe called for "salt and freshly ground black people" – instead of pepper – to be added to the spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto.

Yet another reason why I recently jumped on a soap box and issued forth a statement that we have to make sure our kids know how to spell and write without the aid of electronic devices.

Somebody whined and complained about how difficult it is to proof read cookbooks (I haven't the slightest idea why that would be more difficult than proof reading a 50,000+ novel, but m'kay).

That's about all that's on my mind today.

Besides writing in my car over lunch. <- Something I meant to do yesterday, but lost track of time here at work and missed lunch. Urgh.

OH MY LEAPING LIZARDLY GOSH!

The linked story asks the question about what you would put up with from your neighbors...

Robert Hodges counts nine clothes lines draped with women's undergarments hanging in his front yard. The Port Orange, Fla., man says his lawn also features two sand dunes, two rusting but working bicycles, wood panels from a dismantled deck and a toilet "for emergency use." His one-story, three-bedroom home, he said, is covered in bright orange, yellow and red paint that "attracts signals from my planet."

Hodges goes by the name "Prince Mongo" and claims to be a native of Zambovia, a planet, he says, that is nine light years from Earth.

There is a wild character for you. What if he's right?!!

:)

The Dangers of Loose Lips in Social Situations

2010-04-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

This post is inspired by Tina Lynn's ((post)) on whether or not it is a good idea to talk about religion and politics on a social networking site - mainly your blogs, but includes any social networking medium you might be using to get your name out there.

First - I totally agree with her. I babbled something about this several months ago, about how much it bugs me when people use their blogs or whatever to either preach or bash, or otherwise aggressively preach their religious beliefs or their stances on social issues, or politics.

Most of us have been trained to hold our peace when it comes to our deeply felt beliefs and positions. And I'm OK with that. I can see how talking about religion can make people feel uncomfortable - even when there isn't an argument going on.

A friend of mine comes from a different religion that may sometimes be opposed to mine. Actually very opposed to mine. But this isn't a barrier between us and a lot of the time we can work through it and find a common ground. I wouldn't say anything that has any chance of hurting her. More than anything, I know she is a good person and truly believes she is doing the right thing. The way I see it, there are plenty of people out there like my friend who don't really want to be bugged or stressed out by know-it-alls.

And politics? Forget about it. I come from a community where people don't really like being 'owned' by any political party. I hate it how politics is like the new college football game. Everyone has their team that they bleed for and they go all stalker about their STARS. But if they knew any of those STARS in real life, they'd hate them.

Political and social issues....

*puts up a cross to steer away the rabid red-eyed vampires that exist out there*

More than anything I really hate when blogs and websites and tweet feeds suddenly turn into protests and campaigns about X or Y, or whatever else is going on out there. They make me feel like we are all back in high school and everyone has to wear the 'in' style of clothes, or die.

Aside from joking here or there (like saying I'm campaigning for the Tolkien trilogy to get banned from school libraries to keep little kids from trying to be the next Tolkien), I'm not going to really get involved with any of that stuff. It's way too subjective and can turn into fiercely divisive fang-flashing.

Anyway - I think the point of this rambly post was just:

1. I'm a (Catholic) churchy type and I usually vote.

2. I might casually say something about something I'm doing (like a post I did a while back about the weird Lenten fast I do, which is different from what everyone else does). I'm not really going to get any more annoying than somebody talking about training for a marathon. Or going shopping and noticing something funny at the store.

- Case in point, at my church, they just put six new ginormous lighted fans in, because our priest gets uncomfortable when it hits 70 degrees or something. So this past Sunday, I kept getting distracted during the sermon and staring upwards at all of those gleaming fans going whoosh-whoosh-whoosh. I wondered what would happen if the top of the church took flight. Because of all of the ginormous fans going at hyper speed. And then I almost wanted to write something like that. Even though it obviously wouldn't fit into any of my current wips. :P

3. Asking for prayers or posting religious type links - nuh-uh. I think people might feel a little uncomfortable when they go on a website they think is about writing and instead get treated to something about the efficacy of prayer or me talking about a huge religious experience I just had (not that I've had any, but it would be REALLY weird to put that out there for strangers to read).

4. I won't be sprinkling Latin phrases throughout my posts <- This doesn't really apply, but I wanted to throw it out there anyway. It REALLY BUGS ME when people greet each other with a Latin phrase or say stuff in Latin. They wouldn't do it in real life. They just do it online because they think it makes them look smart/holy. It's just putting on airs.

5. I will never put on airs. :P

Monday Returning Random

2010-04-19T05:35:00.001-07:00

*looks sheepish*

I technically didn't forget about the blog. Just been extremely busy!

And also - the times I told myself, "You MUST do a post or die!" - I just died. And calmly went off and did other things. Even better! Those things had nothing to do with browsing the Internet or watching TV (although, I'm admittedly addicted to Lost, Ghost Hunters, Destination Truth, and Bones-reruns-which-I-don't-recall-seeing). :)

A little bit was spent pounding buttons on my PS2 controller, however! That was purely for research (I'm gathering ideas for fearful things), and I stalwartly only did so on the last two weekends. The rest of the time, I wrote.

Or worked in the garden.

Or lounged on my cabana in the middle of the garden and stared up at the brilliant blue sky overhead and listened to all the songbirds passing through on their northerly spring migration.

Here is the list -

BSW - I planned on doing 2 chapters this month. So far, with twelve days left, I am working on the fourth chapter for the month and I've gracefully gone over the 50,000 mark for the novel. <- I don't know whether I should celebrate or cry about the 50,000 words, as I consider how much novel is left. I'm haunted by scissors in my dreams - which apparently means that my unconscious self is into symbolism. Otherwise, I would be dreaming about two buttons on my keyboard. Those buttons (delete and backspace) don't feel my pounding fingertips too much.

Yes, I glanced down and absently wondered where the delete button was on the current keyboard. Have been using this keyboard for the past eleven years and only just discovered that the delete button is on the far right instead of the far left. Huh.

Books - I notched ten books for the month. And! I might make that thirteen if I read the three books I impulsively snagged on a recent visit to the grocery store (of all places!). Either that, or I might finish reading the one I'm on right now and save the other two for next month's ten books.

Randomness galore -

I just wanted to share the following recipe, just because it was so darn good!

Friday is my mac and cheese day - only, I had no mac and cheese left except for the old kind where the cheese sauce comes in a powder and you have to stir milk in and - yucky. I don't know why I bought ten boxes of those even if they are extremely cheap.

So I made do with what I had -

Ingredients:

'About a half cup of mostacholi pasta (that was all that was left in the box for me)
'About a half cup of egg noodles
'A handful of wheat spaghetti broken in threes
'Roughly two or three tablespoons of butter (use a stick, cut into little squares)
'Roughly a couple heaping tablespoons of mayonnaise
'As much rough chopped (think chunks) mozzarella cheese as you want on a serving
'A whole can of diced tomatoes (mine were basil/garlic flavored)
'1/4 cup of shredded cheese, doesn't matter what kind (I only had cheddar)
'Two or three slices of white onion, diced as small as possible.

- Toss pasta, noodles, and spaghetti into a large sauce pot (you could use a big pasta pot if you wanted, but it's not really necessary and the pasta etc will soften faster in the smaller pot). Set on high until it starts boiling then turn down to medium heat.

- While the pasta etc boils, get everything else lined up and ready. I put a drainer in the sink, tossed the can of diced tomatoes in and made sure they drained well. Then I tossed the chopped butter, shredded cheese, and onions in and stirred them around in the diced tomatoes.

- As soon as the pasta etc is soft (takes about ten minutes or so), remove from heat, grit your teeth, and dump into the drainer. The boiling hot water will melt the butter, and warm/soften up the cheese, tomatoes, and onions in passing.

- Quickly scoop everything back into the pot and put back on the heat. You are just mixing in all of the ingredients, warming them up, and melting all of the cheese. I shook in a little garlic salt here, but just for taste.

- As soon as everything else was blended, that's when I stirred a couple scoops of mayonnaise in. It was a choice between ranch dressing and mayonnaise. The mayonnaise won.

- I scooped a serving on a plate and tossed the rest into a plastic container for lunch on Saturday. I tossed a few big cubes of mozzarella cheese on top and put the plate into the microwave until the cheese was partially melted. I like my mozzarella schplotted. :)

Seriously.... it could be my taste buds are out of whack, but this tasted like lasagna to me. Minus the meat and this-will-make-me-fat guilt. :)

More posts coming up later this week.

Randomness Ahead

2010-04-09T09:35:00.001-07:00

Ugh. I have one of those odd facial migraines which probably has a lot to do with the weather.

I have a theory that somewhere up north near where Santa Claus lives, there is a great big mountain. The foot of this mountain is fairly normal, but the higher up you get to the top, you start to see all of the little weather factories making a banging, booming, dribbling, howling ruckus, with the little wispy weather minions rushing back and forth and between, making weather and reporting to those that live at the top. Then you see the place way at the top with inexplicably safe bursts of lightning and sideways twisters bursting out of the walls like clockwork while rain pours incessantly down from the eaves. If you look closely at any of the windows, you might see snow, hail, or even a wintry mix blowing around through the glass. When you see the striking men and women wandering about the premises mumbling about storm systems, hurricanes, and nor'easters, you realize that this is the place where the weather gods live.

In ordinary circumstances, these weather gods do their job and keep everything in order. Once in a while, a change of generations happens and that is when all hell breaks loose. The radical hooligan weather gods right out of college (so to speak) are energetic and adventurous, and excited about changing everything immediately because they want to see something happen NOW while they are still young and perky. Let's say warmer temperatures in the cold zones of the world, because there are animals and people who would actually DO MUCH BETTER and flourish in those forbidden areas of the earth.

So these newbies change the weather. They dropped lots and lots of storms down onto the earth and set them running amok. And I'm sure they did a lot of other mysterious things not just to earth but to the universes beyond the planet, lining everything up in an impetuous swoosh of youthful energy.

This caused the weather to change... and only then did the young hooligans realize that there are always consequences. They were so set on the far off goal of a paradise in the north, they didn't realize what would happen to planet earth in the meantime. Then too, even after the chaos of weather turning upside down all over the world, some of the young weather gods still don't care, because dude - that paradise is so worth it.

The older weather gods freaked out and took over things from the young weather gods and are now trying to make things NORMAL again. Only, they may have forgotten what is normal. So they are taking wild guesses.

Meanwhile, in the real world - this means that people are getting 80 degree temperatures on one spring day and then the next day they are experiencing snow and 32 degree temperatures. And sometimes in the same day it might be 70 degrees in the morning and 30 degrees by the afternoon.

All which causes migraines.

Sinus ones.

Which may not be the same thing, but they certainly feel the same. *looks grumpy*

*** Just in case it isn't clear, um, I kid about the weather gods. <- I'm not that crazy! :)

OTHERWISE -

I'm well ahead of my reading goals for this month - YAY!

A visit to the grocery store inevitably led to me picking up three new books - partly because they were only $5 each (thanks to my shoppers card). These would be the vampire books by Mari Mancusi (Boys who Bite, etc). I'm halfway through the first book and I love it. OK. Some of the humor is a little corny (like why would a vampire be worried about getting AIDS again? Is that more deadly than being stabbed in the stomach?) - but so far I'm enjoying it muchly.

My goal was ten books read in April - I've read seven so far. :)

Writing goal - I'm meeting that too. 15,000 words typed so far and have 3 chapters (currently finishing up the third).

So - yay for April so far.

On the downside...

My golden has issues thanks to the two measly thunderstorms we had last week. Any little noise startles him and sends him shaking, panting, and trembling all morning. UGH.

THUNDER:
=========
This is a signal that the world is coming to an end. Humans remain amazingly calm during thunderstorms, so it is necessary to warn them of the danger by trembling uncontrollably, panting, rolling your eyes wildly, and following at their heels.

Give Me a Reason

2010-04-07T17:39:00.001-07:00

While browsing the news this evening (dragging my feet before I open the Word file and start writing), I came across the following story -

iris implant turns guy's black eye blue, abcnews.com

Basically, this guy had a head injury when he was younger, which caused bleeding into his brain and destroyed the iris of his one eye. They were able to save the eye, but when he came out of surgery his eye had turned completely black. He had one blue eye and one black eye.

Although scifi and fantasy books would make this out to be totally cool or sexy, this guy has to wear sunglasses all of the time - even on cloudy days. Because -

"In natural daylight the size of the pupil might be two millimeters," said Dr. Kevin Miller, an ophthalmologist at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute. "He has essentially no iris, so his functional pupil size is 12 millimeters or 12.5 millimeters, so light just comes pouring into the eye."

In other words - all of that light really HURTS and could further damage his eye.

This condition is caused by injuries, such as in this guy's case. It is also a congenital issue, and X amount of babies are born with an absent or partial iris.

The guy got an (artificial) iris implant which from the sounds of it is mainly cosmetic. The iris won't be able to react like a normal iris, so he will still have to wear sunglasses.

But his eyes are the same color and the one won't do that weird red reflecto thing when he poses for pictures.

Ahem.

Why am I going into all of that?

Well, the light sensitivity inevitably made me think about Twilight and the lame reason for why vampires do not go out on sunny days.

Bella: mumbles something about diamonds, says his skin is beautiful.

Edward: "Beautiful?! THIS IS THE SKIN OF A KILLER!"

No. No. No.

I'm not exactly a Twilight hater. I read the book. Didn't hate it (though I did hate the first half of the book), but that (My skin sparkles when I go out in sunlight and people GAWK!) simply is not a good enough reason.

If you want me to love what you write, then please give me a solid up reason for everything.

Like, with vampires - they are generally portrayed with those creepy black eyes that turn red sometimes. And they prefer the dark shadowy places.

Well, maybe you could work in a natural type of condition to explain WHY they are like this. Especially if you are writing a sort of vampire story where the vampirism is genetic. The vampirism could simply be what people call the descendants of certain families. They don't have to be DEAD people. They could simply be magicians or such - people who have more abilities than the average person. And they, like Elizabeth Bathory try to use blood to gain energy, rejuvination, or powers - or whatever. And of course, they don't necessarily have to kill their victims. And they don't have to be animal like and fangy. Maybe they just need a little sip (because blood smells disgusting and is bound to destroy your innards if you make a habit of drinking a lot of it, and honestly I couldn't imagine making my characters reliant on the stuff for fuel every day, because they'd be dead in less than a year, or they'll wish they were dead) to take over the world and overpower all opposition. :)

I guess what I'm saying is give me a reason and aim to make it somewhat believable - especially if you are writing urban fantasy or paranormal.

When you read odd stories like the one above, you have to assume there is something in there that you could use - maybe not right now, but perhaps later?

Does your significant other copy you?

2010-04-06T05:49:00.000-07:00

This isn't about you and S.O. getting together and writing a combined-talents FUN novel just for FUN and act all SHOCKED when it actually is FUN for the REST of the WORLD when you PUBLISH and you make MILLIONS!!!

[the caps are a side effect of being up all night with the dog who has a neurosis about thunderstorms and sat shaking and trembling on my head while I tried to get my very necessary beauty sleep]

If I weren't one of those writers who always flunked at those English class projects where you have to write a group composition (boring, annoying, you could write faster on your own and soandso is trying to do just that while electing herself the supreme leader of the group comp because she's dissing all of your ideas and enacting all of hers and you'd probably do the same thing if you were half as pushy), I'd probably see the FUN in all of that and talk the S.O. into joining me in writing a truly ludicrous Clue fan fiction novel (or something).

Ahem.

That's not what I'm talking about. I know a few people who do group projects and they seem to be well-adjusted people who thoroughly enjoy the writing process together as opposed to creeping into a secluded corner of existence to write solo.

What I'm talking about is something I noticed here and there... I know at least two lady writers whose hubbies are getting into the writer act too. As in, the female writers started their act first, joined writing clubs, and then suddenly their hubbies are right there too with their own writing projects and talking about publishing even though they are possibly 10-20 years behind their wives who have been working steadily at the craft all along. Or worse, they are thinking about publishing picture books, because they assume nothing can be easier, etc...

So... does your S.O. do this too? Is it something you encouraged them to do because it gives you an instant writing buddy and it could be a bonding thing too (like couples who go horseback riding together <- another thing that weirds me out sometimes, I must admit). Or did they just start doing it all of a sudden because you inspired them and/or they caught the writing bug?

Personally speaking... I'd be bothered if my S.O. started writing all of a sudden. It's weird too, because all of my siblings write or otherwise tell stories (drawing, telling, or writing) and I absolutely loved all of that. I think maybe the difference was that we all started writing at the same point because we had that need to create (it must be the artist genes from my one father's uncle's cousin who was into painting and photography). I knew it wasn't my brothers and sisters playing copycat. We competed with each other, but that's a natural whatever thing in big families. :)

I guess my thing is I don't want my bf to be competing with me. And that's what it would start to feel like if he joined up with my writing group and started enlisting crits from my betas and so forth. It would really bug me.

*blushmarks*

I know that is probably a really selfish take, especially when you consider how much we depend on these people who offer support and raw feedback (the waking up at 2AM and babbling about SECRET NOVEL STUFF THAT I DONT WANT ANYONE ELSE TO KNOW ABOUT). If the person I'm babbling about MYWRITINGLIFE to 24/7 infinity suddenly gets the writing vibe, I'd have to return the favor and be supportive right back.

But... I really hope that never happens.

The Difficulty in Switching Gears and Permitted Revelations

2010-04-04T22:01:00.000-07:00

Meaning - the last two or three projects I worked on over the past five years have been in first person. Before I started the BSW revision, I waffled between first and third person and finally decided the novel would be stronger in third. And then I discovered how much out of practice I've fallen.

I really felt rusty and stiff... and it really caught me by surprise. I write a very close third person, so there isn't a HUGE difference between 1st and 3rd - or there shouldn't be. But still I found myself wanting to SCREAM as every paragraph started with the protagonist's name and I struggled to fix the narration so it wasn't so painfully choppy.

It didn't help matters that all of the books I've been reading lately are all in first person.

Only plain old stubborness kept me from switching over to first person - and I'm glad I stuck with it. The writing is finally smoothing out - this four or five months after I started the revisions. *looks sour at the waste of time*

REVELATIONS -

This concerns a short story I wrote two weeks ago. This would be a scifi type short that I REALLY LIKED and wanted to place somewhere. We'll just call it TNMO5A3

I put it up for crit twice, each time pulling it back as I made changes.

Today I saved a copy on my computer and permanently pulled the story from the critting queue. Why?

Because I realized that what I had was not a story. It was the synopsis of one.

I told the reader what happened in as little words as possible (just the facts ma'am). At first this seemed sufficient, until I went browsing a couple magazines and read some other stories which are out there. Dude. TNMO5A3 wasn't anywhere near being finished. I have to sit down and write the story for real, using that 'story' as a glorifed outline - which is what it really was.

Other news -

I wrote 11,000 over the Easter holiday. On Good Friday I stayed up until 4AM writing. The novel has taken an edgier feel than I originally planned. It's a little bit freaky. I kinda told myself to forget about the intended audience right now (even the agents who are the first intended audience). It's important to finish the novel and see it through all of the twists and turns it wants to take.

I'm currently reading -

Marked by PC Cast

*looks embarrassed* Yes, I know everyone else has read these books already. But I haven't <- Because I wasn't sure if I'd like them and I haven't had an opportunity to borrow them until now.

So far I whizzed through five chapters. Fast and interesting reading. The blood lust thing is a turnoff (because I don't really like the smell of blood, etc). I do like the spin on vampirism being sort of like a disease or condition that randomly pops up and scientists are trying to figure out why so they can stop it.

Zoey's stepfather creeps me out, and I'm getting cultist mental images about him. I'm guessing that was the author's intention. It was a barb aimed at FLDS maybe?

Random thought -

If you want to write something that is DIFFERENT from what everyone else is writing. You have to first read widely and so forth, so you know what everyone is writing.

ETA 4/5/10

(currently waiting another day for a brand new adaptor to arrive for my big laptop. Until then I'm stuck with the mini, which just isn't the same. *looks sad* The screen and keyboard feel so cramped in comparision)

Just sharing a paragraph from "Marked" which absolutely cracks me up -

Stevie Ray grinned and blushed. "I want to be a country music star. I mean, Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill, and Shania Twain are all vamps - and that's just three of them. Heck, Garth Brooks grew up right here in Oklahoma and you know he's the biggest vamp of them all. So I don't see why I can't be one too."

I'm thinking about buying this book when I'm done for that paragraph alone. The mental images!

This line too:

Well I guess being the next Nicole Kidman wouldn't be bad (not that I plan on marrying and then divorcing a manic short guy).

*IS READING BOOK WITH WIDE SMILE ON FACE*

All right... the smile drooped into a disapproving wrinkle when I saw the guy's name. Erik NIGHT? Really?

Judging by her inability to think around this guy... were I in her position I'd go all Edward, stew furiously, and then pay a visit to the admins to beg for a switch. Because being in a class with him reciting and speaking the lines DIRECTLY TO ME would be just too intolerable! :)

"Uh, by the way, I like what you changed your name to. Night is a cool last name," I said, trying to hold up my end of the conversation and say something insightful."

Hmph. I sense the authors trying to make excuses for naming the main vamp-guy character something so horribly cliche.

(side note, I'm wondering if I should be alarmed at the explosive sounds my washer is making. It sounds like a train. And I'm not the only one raising my head and twitching. Neurotic dog is edging closer to his hiding spot in closet)

12:30 AM - Finished reading "Marked". Definitely do want to read the next one now. Great read. :)

Thoughts about "The Lovely Bones"

2010-03-31T04:22:00.000-07:00

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."

So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, THE LOVELY BONES succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy. - taken from Amazon.com

The part in bold was the hook that caught my attention again as I browsed the book and magazine area at the local not-Walmart superstore. I was supposed to buy a replacement t-shirt (long story, but I didn't want to wear the shirt I wore to work that morning and couldn't just duck home to change). Instead of buying the t-shirt, I bought "The Lovely Bones", reasoning that I should have bought the book the last time I read.

The book is... powerful. I started reading after getting home from work yesterday evening, and I didn't put it down until 2AM, when I finished reading every last word. Although I already knew how the book ended - the sinkhole filled in without being emptied of its secrets - I couldn't stop myself from hoping as I turned the pages that somehow they'd find her remains.

The bad guy Alice drew... the disturbing thing is he was not overdone or over the top. You could easily imagine messed up people like that slipping through the cracks and living a normal life next door, despite all of the horrible things they have done all their life. And in fact, I immediately thought about predators in real life - such as the one over in California. People just saw him as the guy next door, son, and boyfriend until he got caught.

Where I found the book comforting and hopeful... it was Alice's perception of heaven, how those that die are healed and comforted. How it was a place where people met their lost loved ones again and lived on in a place where the slightest wish came true. The part where her dog finally died of old age and joined her in heaven... I cried.

Darn. I'm getting watery-eyed thinking about the scene right now.

Holiday lived a long pampered life and finally drifted off in sleep. Susie was worried he wouldn't recognize her as the little girl he slept with every night, but there he was walking into her heaven, sniffing, looking for her. When he saw her, his tail immediately started to wag. He almost knocked her over as he greeted her. It was a very small scene in a book of many scenes, but it made my day as a dog person who hopes to see all her boys in the afterlife.

The other thing I considered while struggling to sleep at least a couple hours last night after I shut the book -> The writing was absolutely brilliant.

If you took part in the First 25 Words contest over at Miss Snark's First Victim, then you need only take the example of books like this one for a solid hook. The part in bold up above is the first 20 words of the book.

It's funny, I've always thought that starting a book with an introduction line such as "My name is" is a bad thing. I'm not sure if it is considered a cliche or if it is just weak writing, but I've read in more than one place that it is a no-no.

But those first two lines hooked me twice.

Proof that there are always exceptions to every rule. :)

ETA - I wasn't going to mention this, but I can't resist the temptation. If you read that first 20 words of "The Lovely Bones" again, you might notice that there were three conspicuous 'was' occurrences; two in the same line no less!

*looks mischievous*

APRIL GOALS

1. Read at least ten new books
2. Write/Improve at least two new chapters in wip

Locked in a Room for a Million Years

2010-03-30T04:49:00.000-07:00

Let me preface this with a short explanation:

I have three sisters, but one has always been my mentor-of-all-that-is-bookish. I started writing first, but she started reading long before I did (she was the pretty little girl with long golden locks, blue eyes, and purple-rimmed glasses which she hated but was forced to wear in school where she got punched in the face because she was already reading high-school books at age eight and that annoyed other kids apparently), so it all evens out.

When my mom stopped reading to me, Amy was always there to help me learn to read faster, so 'reading by myself' wasn't just turning pages and picking out all the three letter words.

Then Amy and I started a friendly competition over who would read all the books in the house first, which turned into all of the books at the library. She was five years older than I and had that headstart, so of course she won. grumblegrumble.

When we grew up a little bit, we took the friendly competition to the next level when we started writing. Who could finish writing more books faster, etc... <- I always won, because Amylalala kept getting stuck in a room.

She was writing a Tolkienesque questing fantasy (just to spite me) and got to this chapter where the characters were in a bedroom, confronting a baggage eating frog in the closet. She began that scene twenty years ago, and has since moved on and written other things, but has never been able to get her characters out of that room. Doesn't stop her from trying - and rewriting the book up to that point over and over.

This morning, I thought about my sister's poor characters staring an enormous frog down for twenty years... and I cringed. Some days I feel like I'm falling into that exact same hole! <- As in, for the past three weeks (or so), I have not proceeded past a certain scene in BSW. Aack!

On the plus side: While rewriting the scene over and over, I've discovered interesting things about the characters and the plot. It is a different novel than it was before I got to this scene... I hope a stronger novel.

On the negative side: I'm afraid of turning into my sister and never finishing this book. Unlike Amy, who is a bit more stubborn and patient (yes, somehow those two attributes go together) than I am, and willing to stare at the same scene for ten years... I'm more likely to let this book slide through my fingers while I turn to something else. Or worse, I might RUIN it in a frantic attempt to get it back to rights and moving forward.

When we were children, we had a huge wooden spool thing in our yard (it came from a construction site, and was one of those things which got tossed). My parents recognized it was a better toy than any of those expensive dollhouses or playcenters from Toys R' US and wheeled it home and into our backyard. I accidentally dropped one of my dolls (Jenny! I remember you!) inside the spool and couldn't get her out. Her head was too big to pull back through the small hole.

Amy was happy with slowly working the doll and squeezing the head down bit by bit as she could get at it. I wasn't. Being a horrible five year old, I reached in, grabbed my doll by her feet and gave her a mighty yank. Her head tore open like a nightmare. :O

That should help explain my mindset right now....

In that, when I pick up my novel and type out the scene bit by bit and hope that I like it tomorrow so I can move on... I feel like I need to give the scene a lot more thought before I hammer it out and move on.

This is what I have:

NS drives W home, where she witnesses a friendly and familiar greeting between him and her sister. Turns out that his family and hers were close, but she doesn't remember anything of him or his mom from that time. Though T clearly does. T shrugs off W's questions and then announces she's preggers.

That above part is set in stone and I'm really happy with how it plays out. The part that follows the announcement is where I start to feel a little lost and confuzzled.

W retreats to her room to change out of her uniform and sort her mind out about T's announcement. She finds her old art journal and then hears a THUMP in her closet.

I feel like I'm on the right track, but I don't have everything lined up right, or I'm rushing it, or I'm not seeing the scene properly yet.

If we look at this scene like it is a computer game, the character has just found three important pieces or clues....

1. The charm from her Grandmother Kazegian
2. The art journal - the last gift from her father before he disappeared
3. The THING in her closet

There is also a fourth piece or clue -

4. The lump of coal that LRF, her best friend from BS, gave her for luck.

I know I have it all here and I have to use them. But I want to be careful so I don't ruin the novel - tear the doll's head, so to speak.

But that doesn't stop me from getting anxious and feeling like time's a wastin'.

My character is stuck in her room, staring at her bedroom closet door.

The only thing I'm missing is the baggage eating frog inside the closet. :O

Snag: Doorways to the Dead

2010-03-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

Click link, Ancient Doorway to the Afterlife found...

My first thought: It looks and sounds like a tombstone. Well, an ornate one.

Second thought: That certainly gives a new spin to tombstones, besides them being grave markers. Which only reminds me of a cemetery down in New Orleans, where they built little houses over the graves. Which em, goes in a different direction altogether.

About tombstones being doorways to the afterlife - that reminds me of all of the fairy tales I read as a child, where people entered through a big rock and entered a new world and were no longer known in the real world. It took a specific tap on a big rock by a special stick to make it cleave and permit passage to the other place.

This is something I want to hold onto, in case it will become useful later on. With the current WIP, there is a possibility that the protagonist might need to contact those that have gone to the Other Place.

The Other Place is not the heaven which regular people go to. It is a place farther away and practically unreachable, unless you are dead and have the right kind of soul (not human).

The tombstones, imo... would not be doorways. More like portals or glimpses which allow communication across the dimensions. If you know how to knock.

*is leaning on chin, deep in thought*

Otherwise - I saw a bluebird today while walking the doglet. That is a VERY good thing, especially if you are like me and in hate with this past winter.

Oh, and I was on my lunch break and had a chipping sparrow land on my windshield wipers and peek through the windshield at me. So cute.

YES, the above has nothing to do with writing, but mad bird-lady here. :)

AM READING - "Bad Kitty" by Michele Jaffe. Am only on the second chapter, but looks to be a fast fun read that has me reaching for the sequel(s). From the description of the protagonist, I'm getting a mental image of Rihanna. Which um, confuses me when she's described as not that pretty. Because Rihanna is very pretty (though her outfits are way out there). The clothes and dialogue might be dated too, if only because I'm getting a mental image of "A Cinderella Story" or something. With Rihanna instead of Hilary Duff. OK - and a totally different storyline. :)

ETA -

*laughs derisively*

I'm sure everyone lingering around writing forums and critiquing websites, that there are certain words which always get misspelled. Such as writing 'loose' instead of 'lose'.

I just one-upped all of them. Try typing 'loozing' instead of 'losing'. :O

ETA2

No reading tonight. Wrote/worked on BSW instead. I'm shocked to admit I'm thinking about changing the plot slightly. I'm not sure yet. I just deleted 5000 words and wrote up to a point where the protagonist is kneeling in her room, flipping through an old art journal of hers. She had been changing her clothes, and is only in her underwear - which puts her in a vulnerable position.

I originally had something come out of the closet that she's semi-afraid of, but now I'm waffling. I think I'll sleep on it.

All Things

2010-03-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

I sit comfortably in the living room, warm, my feet propped up. Out the front window I see the green of the white pines, their long needles drenched and glassy from the cold rain. Although the sky is gray, downcast, and drear, I know the snips of green are popping up through last fall's leavings. Rising from their scarce beds the lilies, hyacinths, tulips, daffodils wait for warm sunny days to burst into bloom. And in the shady spots where they have been allowed to grow and spread, the crocuses already stand purple and gold.

The birds have taken to the backwoods, but I only need step under the green canopy to hear their songs and drummings.

It's spring, Easter is a mere week away... I'm glad to see and hear the world today. Good morning.

ETA -

And on a completely different note, I found a link to this article on the "Five Most Overused Childrens Book Plots. It doesn't have anything to do with what I write, which is possibly the reason why I'm humored. I wonder what the fantasy novel equivalent would be? Or would they be rewrites of the following favorite stories -

1. Beauty and the Beast
Beautiful person is thrown in with an ugly person and must learn to accept that ugly person for the beauty that lies beneath.

2. Cinderella
Mistreated or otherwise forgotton person gets chance at happiness and day in the spotlight, but it comes with a time limit and strings.

3. Little Mermaid or Prince and the Pauper
The grass is always greener in somebody else's lake. Person longs for a life that he/she wasn't born with. Must learn to appreciate things right under nose, either that or learn to sacrifice self for things they believe in or love.

4. Aladdin
Poor outcast is given a miraculous chance at power and it is all his/hers for the taking, as long as he/she doesn't get too big for britches. Or, there are consequences if you steal or lie your way to prosperity. At some point, you have to tell the truth.

5. Jack and the Beanstalk
Poor nobody goes on a great adventure, finds treasure, and must use wits to battle monsters.

Optional 6. King Arthur
Poor orphan boy rises to greatness when he alone is able to do a very simple but remarkable thing and be declared King by the powers that be. Then he must civilize his country and defeat all enemies while forming an army of heroes and wooing a gentle lady - all with the help of a grizzled old wizard. <- And I would say this story dates back to King David with the help of the prophet Samuel.

The above examples, of course, do not include the other two prototypes which show up in almost all genres -

1. Romeo and Juliet
Star-crossed lovers go through a lot of trouble to be with each other, despite the fact that their races, families, friends, social set - everything that used to matter to them - stalwartly tries to keep them apart.

2. Much Ado about Nothing
Story centered around two couples, one sweetly and definitely in love and the other obnoxiously and snarkily in hate. The couple sweetly in love is pulled apart by lies and tricks by others. The couple snarkily in hate falls in love and draws together to bring the sweetly in love couple back together. <- Possibly known as the inspiration for Pride and Prejudice, which definitely has inspired zillions of such book and movie plots.

ETA2

I'm halfway through the fourth book of the seven I borrowed from the library last week. This book, "The Glass Maker's Daughter" by V. Briceland - I absolutely worship it. Imagine a place in Italy where seven noble families have made a pact of fealty to the King and the powers that be. Every sunset, they raise their flag and blow the horn, and their casa will stand. If they fail to perform the rite upon a night, then a disaster will occur instantly and their casa will fall.

Risa was distressed when she becomes the first of her family to go unchosen, when all children were taken into private schools to learn more about their families crafts as well as the magic that goes into their work. Glassmakers, for example, weave magic into the glass to make it unbreakable.

Halfway through the book the reader realizes even before she does that it was a VERY good thing that she went unchosen. For she is left at home to keep the casa safe while her family is held hostage at the palace and in the schools.

And though this isn't revealed yet at page 150, I'm placing my bets that the old beggar whose life she saved is really the king who was supposedly dead.... *picks book up to finish reading*

Oh - and if I ever become published, I'd like to have a bio that goes like the author's:

"V. Briceland wanted to be an archaeologist when he grew up. Instead, he has worked as a soda jerk, a paper-flower maker in an amusement park, a pianist for a senior citizens' showtunes choir, an English teacher, and a glass artist. He likes writing novels best of all. He lives in Royal Oak, Michigan, where there is a sad lack of ruins to be excavated."

Is amused.

ETA3

Ha. I was right. Finished reading the book. Thoroughly satisfying.

Read What You Write...?

2010-03-27T20:48:00.001-07:00

I'm casually taking part in the Read 100 Books in a Year Challenge and will be setting up a static page soon to show what I'm reading. What I'd like to do is have it set up so there is a mini review (no more than a paragraph) and a book rating with every book. And I'm also going to be including the beloved re-reads I've done this year so far.

I'll work on this tomorrow - probably.

The standard advice to new or questioning writers = READ, READ, READ, and then Write. There is no better way to learn how to craft a smooth plot, develop strong characters, and so forth. Yep, you can develop ideas from watching movies or TV shows, but that isn't going to help you learn how to describe and pace things so it reads smoothly.

After I read three books over the last two days, I considered another angle to that rule - which likely has been addressed by zillions of people who are in the know, but it is worth repeating.

When you go to the library or bookstore to grab some brain-fillers, you might want to look for books that are similar to what you write or what you WANT to write. Be selective.

Like - if you are writing YA, figure out ahead of time what kind of book you want to write, and then look for books of the same type. If you are writing a Meg Cabot type book, you probably do not want to be taking out all of the Harry Potter books. And the opposite is true.

The other thing is you need to read current books. If you are writing youth fantasy, you probably shouldn't be fixating on Tolkien and Lloyd Alexander. You need to be reading something fresh. Keep an eye on books that are currently coming out or due out this year and aim to get those on your reading lists.

This topic came to mind this afternoon as I finished reading a book. I paid a visit to the library mid last week and took out seven books. As of tonight, three of seven are read and they couldn't be more different.

In my writing, I'm aiming for something that would be more cross genre - like Urban Fantasy (but minus the city setting and monster fighting). I want to write strong teen characters and I want solid fantasy elements too.

So when I grabbed books at the library I was aiming for books by people like Meg Cabot or Michele Jaffe, or I was picking up random fantasy and paranormal novels that caught my eye.

Of the three books I read so far...

The Third Eye (Lois Duncan)
Enchanting Season (Marissa Doyle)
Jinx (Meg Cabot)

Jinx was very much helpful (and not just because I heart Meg Cabot). It had the today type characters with real life issues that they were dealing with, and then it had the fantasy elements (witches, spells, magic).

The Third Eye - somewhat helpful. It cast a fuzzy doubt on the plot for BSW, in that I unconsciously had something similar (Wesley and her guide find lost children who are in trouble). I'm going to change my plot in the next round of edits, so I do not look like a copycat. I know exactly how to do this too, so yay. Only downside about this book was how dated it was. The mother/daughter relationship, post-graduation expectations, and the relationship between the protagonist and the police officer left me feeling a little squeamy. The dialogue was awkward in spots too, especially with the police officer.

Enchanting Season - Urgh. Told me exactly what NOT to do while I'm writing BSW. *laughs* Which I knew ahead of time because it was a Victorian setting and I broke my own rule about only reading books that are similar in focus and setting to what I'm writing*. <- Still, the book really didn't work for me. I somewhat felt that it was written for a younger audience than what I'm used to reading. I couldn't believe the characters were old enough to be going to their first Season. It's like a regency romance for children + magic. :O

*And I'm sure this isn't a BAD thing.

If you aren't hunkering down and trying to focus on writing something that is NOW and would sell in X or Y genre, there is no reason why you shouldn't read widely. Especially if you are trying to figure out what genre you are going to write, or if you are just looking for different writing styles while you figure out your own or where you fit.

The other thing is that if your main weakness is developing characters, adequate descriptions, moving the pace, creating deeper plots - sometimes reading something in a completely different genre will help you figure out how to get stronger in those areas.

I could be off the wall in saying this, but I've noticed that certain genres have their own specific strengths that make them unique. Maybe there is the odd duckling here or there, but the following genres could be relied on this way:

YA - How to tighten up and keep a fast pace (look over and see how much an author accomplishes in every short chapter)

Fantasy - How to slow down and expand a plot and improve descriptions (read the wealth of words that most fantasy authors wield - the Hilari Bells and Maria Snyders, not so much Tolkien who went OTT)

Thrillers - How to deepen your plot and add twists and turns (Uhm, take a look at books by guys like Michael Crichton and Dean Koontz).

Romance - How to develop strong characters and situations that your reader will be INTERESTED in.

WRITING UPDATE

This... unfortunately... is the side effect to catching up on my reading. I haven't written a single word since last weekend. I've either been busy with work or real life, or I've been slouching in a random corner* reading.

* This is an embarrassing admission, but when I was a munchkin, I'd take the latest book with me and crawl behind our living room couch to read to my heart's content. That way I could guarantee that nobody would bug me and I wouldn't have any distractions. <- I still do this sometimes.

CURRENT PROBLEMS IN WIP

1. Making sure that the school environment and scheduling is believable. <- It's been a few years since school and I've FORGOTTEN a lot. :O

2. Character voices - I need to make sure that my five year old character sounds like she's five.

3. As mentioned above, I have to change the 'finding children' side plot. It is not going to be pleasant (gutting a few chapters... again).

- - - Tomorrow is going to be a good day for writing, I'm convinced of it. Goodnight world. :)

BOOKMARK: NEW WRITER'S TO DO LIST

2010-03-23T07:08:00.000-07:00

Lisa Schroeder's timeline and checklist

The above link is a keeper for a prospective author who is either on the verge of snagging an agent or has an agent and just received the DREADED question: How do you plan to market yourself?

Um. When I started writing twenty or so years ago, I had this daydream where I sit at home, write, send book in to be printed, and watch the money come rolling in. I knew that authors had to do interviews and visits and stuff like that, but I always had this warm and fuzzy hope that it was optional... :I

Maybe it was at one point, I don't know. Definitely in today's world, you really have to put your work shoes on, take to the streets, and unflinchingly sell your book to the masses. And definitely in today's world, it seems like agents are doing less and expecting more from the authors they 'partner' with. Well, either that and things are the same as always, but the industry is trying to ditch the Hollywood depiction of publishing and hit new writers with a touch of reality. :)

Personally speaking - I really like Lisa's list and feel that most of the items are do-able - in small steps at a time anyway.

My ideas for marketing myself:

1. I will find a website designer to do a website for me just like he/she/it did for X author whose bells and whistles website setup I worship. And I will also frequently blog, tweet, facebook, etc...

2. I will find a videographer who I desperately want to do a book trailer for me. A book trailer which I've painstakingly planned and written out ahead of time, including different options to choose from. IMAGINES STICK FIGURE DRAFTS.

3. I will commit to taking trips every weekend for signings everwhere from schools, libraries, bookstores, conventions, etc... ROADTRIP!

4. I will DEFINITELY enjoy coming up with freebie ideas. *looks mischievous* <- For starters, I want clay animal-spirit tokens and eternity stones for BSW - even if I have to make them myself!

5. I will somehow convince agent that it is absolutely necessary that I bring at least one dog on every signing with me.

Dear agent, think about it! A shiny, glossy, fluffy, smiling, tail-wagging golden retriever is a perfect people magnet. The other authors at a convention would be completely envious as those that dog-worship abandon their tables and swarm my way. <- It could work, right? :)

Story Idea

2010-03-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about lucky colors today (inspired by Julie over at juleswrites.blogspot.com and a post she did on superstitions), while I tried to remember whether my great-grandparents tied yellow ribbons to their pets and children or if it was red ribbons. I'm leaning towards yellow ribbons, but red ribbons make more sense after I googled and saw that eastern europe and asia saw red as a color that frightens evil away. And indeed, I know that my family has always seen red as a lucky color.

As I sought an answer that did not include lyrics to the song (which furthermore causes the song to repeat over and over in my head while I work), I came across the following link: factmonster.com

Quotes and information are either taken or derived from that above link.

Red

*Signal for battle, color of a soldier.
*Royalty
*Color means beautiful, but also is lucky and wards off evil.
*Red herring is a distraction, something that takes attention away from the real issue.

Green

*Symbolizes victory
*Symbolizes youth and energy
*Symbolizes envy
*Somebody one with nature
*A healer

Blue

*Color of a public servant
*Protection against witches and evil <- Say what?
*Loyalty
*Love
*The unknown

"A blue blood is a person of noble descent. This is probably from the blue veins of the fair-complexioned aristocrats who first used this term." - Fascinating.

Purple, Violet

"The Egyptian queen Cleopatra loved purple. To obtain one ounce of Tyrian purple dye, she had her servants soak 20,000 Purpura snails for 10 days." <- EW!

*Color of mourning
*Regal or authoritative color

"Purple prose” is writing that is full of exaggerated literary effects and ornamentation." <- I knew that

Yellow

*Mourning
*Regeneration or rebirth
*Courage
*Deceit
*Warning

"In tenth-century France, the doors of traitors and criminals were painted yellow." <- I wonder if that is why we call cowards 'yellow'.

"In the Middle Ages, actors portraying the dead in a play wore yellow." <- Hmm....

White

*Peace, or truce
*Spiritual, or of spirit world...
*Good luck, especially if you wed in it.
*White is a pacific color, however "white heat" can be intense passion.
*Savior, or rescuer
*Clean

"The ancient Greeks wore white to bed to ensure pleasant dreams." <- Ha! Now you know.

Black

*Secrecy
*Morbid
*Evil
*Elegance
*Expert
*Occult
*Outcast

"The ancient Egyptians and Romans used black for mourning, as do most Europeans and Americans today."

"The ancient Egyptians believed that black cats had divine powers."

What am I thinking?

Mainly about how when people pick up a book to read, they want to see something new... but there is always that small psychological part of them that wants something familiar or relatable. Or something they can look up and read and understand more about.

That was something I appreciated when I picked up the first Vampire Academy book. When the protagonist's mother gave her a eyeball bead as a present, I PERKED UP, because I'm familiar with the use of an eyeball or gaze thereof in paintings or ancient art. It wards off evil. <- Not that I believe in that, but it is something I'm culturally aware of.

Uhm. Keep in mind I was also also PEEVED when I saw the evil eye bead appear in the VA books and become somewhat popular as a result. <- That's because in my one book, "Marbles", I also made full use of the evil eye bead. Though probably not the same way Richelle Mead intends to do so in her books.

Regarding the colors, I was sitting back and thinking about possible character traits for different characters in a future novel sometime. Yes, it would be somewhat cheezy to put X character in a red dress all the time or Y into a yellow suit to infinity. I'm not talking about writing Clue (even though I absolutely loved those books when I was a kidlet). I'm mainly thinking about little clues, similar to what Steven Spielberg did for Schindler's List, or M Night Shalaman (sp) does in his movies. If you ever watched the special for Sixth Sense, he described the importance of red and white, which he emphasized throughout the movie.

I want to be the type of author who slips little easter eggs and such into my books which MAKE SENSE if the reader spots them. But I don't want to hit them on the head with it, or go over the top with colors.

On the other note... I really DO want to write a new version or fan fiction of Clue.... who doesn't?

Music to Write To...

2010-03-18T16:55:00.000-07:00

What is playing on the ipod right now as I write?

Normally I do not write well with music playing in my ears, but this is one of those days where it's helping. *smiles* I'm not working on any love scenes yet, but I'm on a part where Wesley starts to understand why her beautiful mother was so troubled and distant. :)

And it's almost the weekend. I'm gearing up to get a goodly amount of writing done. :]

Touching 30

2010-03-18T04:08:00.000-07:00

I stood in the restroom here at my work, looking into the mirror while I put my mascara on and dusted my cheeks with makeup. I considered my age and smiled. This might come across as weird, but I don't mind being as old as I am.

Yes, I do have dark days still - and this is going to be embarrassing to admit. When I was a teenager, and even in my early 20's, I tended to look at 30 as the point in life when women became uninteresting. I mean, I would pick up a book, see the protagonist was in her thirties, and I would put it down and move along. Shame on me.

Guys are allowed to be interesting at 30, because that is the time when they have settled down and turned into the people that they are going to be. As far as I know, women go through that same stage when they are 20. <- Though, technically, I was 22 when that day happened.

Women - when they turn 30 or start getting up to that age - always seem to be fighting aging skin and hair, sagging figures, ticking body clocks, dancing babies... and they are also fighting to keep their men from losing interest and yenning after 20 y/o college girls. <- That is such a depressing prospect!

So sometimes, I'll sit cross-legged on my bed and DWELL on the fact I'm stuck on a one way street in a runaway Toyota whose brakes don't work at all.

But...

Looking at myself in the mirror I noticed that my face has more character than it had when I was a round-cheeked twenty-year old. I feel pretty and confident behind my face, and that was definitely not going on when I was getting into my 20's.

A couple days ago, I saw a story about the French President's wife, Carla Bruni. She was a model at one time - and had guys eating out of her hand. Now she's in her forties, she has had extensive work down on her face (from all appearances, anyway). She had botox to tighten up her forehead and collagen filler put in her cheeks and lips. She also had a lot of makeup on in a failed effort to hide the crinkly skin under her eyes.

Maybe I'll feel differently when I start getting up closer to my forties... but right now, I see the beginning changes in my face, and I like them. The only thing I'm frantic about preventing is the undereye problem. *grabs eyecream and smears on generously*

But seriously -

I agree that most women find themselves in their early twenties. But it is possible that there are some who don't actually feel like swans until much later.

While I'm dithering thusly, the point is that I can see myself down the road starting to write novels with thirty-something protagonists. IMO, it is just as important a find-yourself time as turning sixteen.

Family Tree Blues

2010-03-17T21:51:00.001-07:00

One thing led to the next, and I found myself doing a quick google of some of my ancestors. I was a little curious whether they were Acadians, Creoles, or just French Canadians like I've always thought. <- I'm still not sure, especially since they were French Canadians settled in Quebec territory (what is now midwest portions of the US), but then they slowly made their way south to Missouri and Louisiana.

I've always been proud of that portion of the family history - because yay. They were original settlers. <- That ranks just as much bragging points as saying that your ancestors came over on the Mayflower.

OK, it's different, I know.

Doing a google, I discovered that the French settlers in Missouri turf thereof were slave owners. As in, they owned Indian slaves. Or they owned both indian and black slaves, which begot children of mixed marriages who were born into slavery. When the Spanish won the lottery and took over the southern territories, they forced the French to give up their indian slaves, as it was against their laws. The people didn't always give up their 'inheritances' and ugh! When the US purchased the territories, the settlers threw a party because they could keep slaves again.

UGH. UGH. UGH. UGH.

*stabs horrible ancestors*

How can I brag about the ancestors knowing they were slave owners? <- On one hand, I know that several of my ancestors intermarried with Indians through all this and they were a large family. But that doesn't make up for the ones who were gleeful slave owners. Horrible. >.<

Aside from that -

Note to self:

When I get around to cleaning up Swapped Fate, I need to look more closely into the Acadians. <- The novel is a fantasy and takes place in a world far, far away. But I did base it a little bit on the French flight and forced emmigration. I see now where I cut corners and where I can make the novel stronger.

I might even include my HORRIBLE ancestors and their crimes against humanity. It would give me a chance to express my disgusted and disgruntled feelings through one of my characters.

Do you Ring?

2010-03-17T07:32:00.000-07:00

I was doing a little research for a friend on wedding rings, symbolism, history - and I came across some FASCINATING information that I'd like to use somewhere in a WIP.

Check this link out for the website + info that inspired me...

It was a while back that I paid a visit to the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit with my family. That museum isn't just about cars. They have a lot of stuff there, sharing the history of peoples who lived in this area. Some of it is history you can touch. Others are enclosed behind glass cases with information posted nearby.

It was here I realized that people did not always exchange actual rings upon getting married. Only the wealthy or upper classes had money to purchase gold rings (or such) for their brides. Some people were more into hair and brooches - something that really grossed me out at the time, actually.

During the recent research too, I discovered -

1. Guys only recently started wearing wedding rings. They did so during WWII, as a reminder of the gals back home while they were fighting. Historically, only women received that particular item as a part of the wedding. Guys DID wear rings for other reasons, just not to show they were taken.

2. The wedding ring used to symbolize ownership - as in, the woman was property of the guy who wed her.

3. The ring's circular shape symbolizes eternity, which is why it came to be used as a particular symbol of marriage. <- This despite the fact that divorces DID happen during ancient times, particularly Rome.

4. The EGYPTIANS were the first to begin wearing wedding rings. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but still, I didn't expect that.

More to the point, the above link had two items which almost caused a FLASH for me -

The Greek and Roman bridegroom often gave a ring to the bride's father-a practice that was probably a survival of primitive bride purchase. In the second century B. C., the Roman bride was presented with a gold ring. But this she wore only in public. Such a ring was much too precious to wear while tending to household duties; and so the groom gave the bride a second ring - for use in the home - which was usually made of iron and had little knobs in the form of a key. Of course, these "key" rings were weak and could open only those locks requiring very little force to turn, but their significance, in that the wearer had the right to seal up the giver's possessions, was strong.

I was thinking - WOW. Can you imagine receiving a ring that is really a key that opens something special? Yes, I know this has been done before, but I'm still thinking about the possibilities here.

And elsewhere, I came across this:

To Obey
Although the Ancient Romans placed a ring on the fourth finger of their wives hands, the practice had little to do with love and devotion. Rather, wives were a possession to the Romans and the ring was a sign of ownership. Ancient Roman women had no voice in this decision; there was no proposal. Once the women were captured and "ringed," they were married.

The above was taken from here.

And also this:

Some 2000 years ago, Asian puzzle rings were commonly used as wedding bands. It is said that sheiks and sultans required each of their wives to wear one as a pledge of fidelity while he was away.

If for some reason, the woman removed her ring, it would fall apart and be very difficult to put back together without knowing the answer to the puzzle.

The first is a historical romance writer's DREAM. Heheh. And it could work in fantasy too, especially if you are trying to get away from earthian (and Christian) influences.

The other one -

<- A Turkish puzzle ring <- Is something I want to use in a Bluebeardesque story. :]

QRY B4 U R DN

2010-03-16T16:54:00.000-07:00

*Yes, I suck at txt speak*

I wonder why people do this... querying before they finished writing the novel, even with all of the information and conversation (especially within their critting and writing groups) advising people to keep low until they have a completed and polished novel to hand around.

I know there are people who want to get experience with querying and know they aren't going to have any nibbles on the line. I'm not so much talking about them, because they definitely aren't building their castles before they bought the land.

I'm talking about the other people... like those who have done all the homework and know how the publishing industry works. They seem to have their heads on straight. But then they send a query out for a partially completed novel and start talking about all the money they will make with that novel when it's accepted.

I really sincerely hope that they will prove me wrong and make it... but dude. Where does this come from?

Yeah, it might be three months before you get a response, but what happens if you hit a wall and can't finish and have the novel critiqued in time? Life is unpredictable. You might find yourself in a position where you can't find time to write. So there you might be with an incomplete novel when the nibble happens.

Then there is the miraculous possibility in that an agent or editor might find your sub on their desk within a week and request more. They have made it clear that they do not want incomplete or rough submissions, so what will their reaction be if you have to tell them that you still need to finish the book?

In movies or books, the agent or editor is this frazzled person chasing the author around and begging them to finish the novel so they could PUBLISH it. In real life, they only make that effort for the big names who are guaranteed sales no matter what they write.

I could be overthinking this, especially since the person I'm thinking about did submit to a publisher vs agent. Publishers, especially the bigger ones, are notoriously slow to respond. That will give this person plenty of time to finish her novel. <- That doesn't make me less squeamy about sending too early and suffering the panic attack when the response comes 6 months or even a year early. But then that leads into the other point. Publishers do not rush and publish things so that authors can reap the winnings. And this author is banking on getting paid soon.

Morning Update

2010-03-16T05:57:00.000-07:00

I'm still alive (hurray!).

Don't you just hate it when a blog you are following suddenly starts randomly posting brief updates which all say the same thing?

As in, "We is writing. We is happy. Novel is growing like weed. That is bad thing, because is already too long, but we is going to deal with that later."

'Is' is a much better word than 'Was'.

In all seriousness - the novel I've been working on has morphed into something I did not anticipate - but it feels real. Real, as in I might have something publishable if I finish the novel. (._.)

Chapter 1 thru 3 are cleaned up and fully edited. They contain the character intro, plotting hints, and hook.

Chapter 4 thru 6 (what I'm finishing up right now) are semi-clean drafts. I've been writing a chapter at a time and editing it before writing the next one. <- I've been doing this to keep the transitions and pacing smooth. When you keep writing new chapters every night without checking the previous chapters, there is a chance that some choppiness will develop and characters will morph several times (depending on your mood) before you finish the book. By reading over and editing the previous chapter before writing the next, I'm getting a feel for the characters and mood, so I can keep it consistent when I actually start the new writing.

Oh, Chapter 4 thru 6 contain the side character development and plotting development. I'm starting to show all my cards.

My plan for Chapter 7 thru 10 is reaching the climax or farthest point and beginning to resolve the plot and tie loose ends.

Chapter 11 thru 15 will be the completion of the novel. \(^.^)/

Yes - that sounds VERY SHORT for a YA Urb-Fant, but remember that those are very long chapters. I have five completed chapters and the novel is already 26,000 words. <- And yes, I know that is VERY, VERY bad. But that is what final edits are for. Weeding.

The novel is character driven (like everything I write), but there is a strong(ish) plot unveiling itself too - something that really makes me happy. It keeps me interested in writing the novel, and I think that will show in the finished product.

More posts to come later this week. <- And not all of them ENTHUSING about my own writing.

12:30 PM Update

Summons inner Urkel...

"Did I do thaaaat?"

During lunch, I sat in my car to enjoy the fresh early afternoon sunshine and practically balmy (when you have been through a frigid winter, 50 degrees feels like global warming, but in a good way). I had my mini laptop with me and pulled it out to do a little work or light reading.

Rather than look at an outdated version of the current WIP, I opened Gladiitor and I read through the first eight chapters. There are 40 (I think?) chapters in the novel (short ones, so don't freak out).

I did notice my weak spots, or areas where I could have tightened up the text or fixed things, but uh...

It is a GOOD thing when you open an old WIP and realize that there is something good about it, right? I was actually thinking that even though Gladiitor is a sequel, it stands the chance of going out on it's own without the support of the first book.

The first novel is essentially first love angst and figure skating in space. *puts on geek hat* The book ended with the protagonist giving the guy up in favor of pursuing her dream to be a Warrior.

Gladiitor was the dream cracked... um, the Warrior's League falls to shambles and the Warriors are all disbanded. The guy comes back with a renewed offer of partnership on the ice, though he's no longer interested in a real life partnership. He is engaged to somebody else who is wildly planning the marriage while the universe goes nuts around them. Oh and there was a love triangle in Gladiitor.

Heh. It was kind of a soap opera <- Which means it was fun to write and even more fun to read two years later. I forgot a lot of stuff and almost was my own beta reader. (._.)

On that note -

I was doing a little spring cleaning in my closet over the weekend. I'm old-fashioned (or just old) enough to have a huge stack of cd's in my closet. Cleaning means going through and switching cds over to their proper jewel cases.

Mixed in with all my cds was a floppy disk over which I wrote in a thick black sharpie marker - "Russian Skating 2".

I have no idea what that novel is... and I no longer have a computer that reads floppy disks. And even if I did, it is a sure bet that the floppy has demagnetized over the years. Ugh. So, unless I get up the courage to take the disk over to a computer place that specializes in demagnetizing floppy disks or whatever, I'll never know. "Russian Skating 2" will be one of those fragments from my teen years, a novel never completed.

Info Snag: Ranks of Nobility

2010-03-12T11:30:00.001-08:00

I figured this would come in handy at some point...

I'm at work right now, but am planning to look up and type in the definitions of some of these. Like, Erfridder looked like Elfrider to me. And what's with the knights?! :)

I'm probably not going to be writing the type of novel that calls for titles like these (I'm allergic to using Europe as a setting, only because everyone else does). But at some point when I pick up one of my fantasy type novels (NSAM), I could use these as a guide when I'm setting up a system.

Ranks of Nobility

*Emperor & Empress

*King & Queen

*Archduke & Archduchess

*Grand Duke & Grand Duchess

*Duke & Duchess
Prince & Princess
Infante & Infanta

*Marquess & Marchioness
Marquis & Marquise
Margrave & Margravine

*Count & Countess
Earl & Countess

*Viscount & Viscountess

*Baron & Baroness

*Baronet & Baronetess
Nobile, Edler von, panek
Ritter, Erfridder

*Hereditary Knight
Black Knight, White Knight, Green Knight

*Knight & Dame

- snipped from Wiki

Random Suggestion:

Let's say you are one of those people who is writing a book (historical, fantasy, romance) based in Europe. Please pay attention to details - especially those that can annoy or distract a reader.

I recently came across a fascinating synopsis by a fellow writer. This person clearly had skillz and knew the genre, and I was really hooked by the idea and hoped to get a chance to read the book.

There was one blemish that this book had, and I was wondering if the author was having a hard time placing the book because of this blemish... this would be the names which the author chose for the main characters.

I'm not going to give them here, because it might identify the author, but it really isn't a good idea to use names of major figures in history. And I mean names that would be immediately recognizable to anyone who likes history (like moi).

If your character is fictional, try to give them fictional names.

A good example would be writing a American Revolution era historical novel, and giving the main character a name like Georgiana Washington. :O

BOOKMARK: FIRST PAGES

2010-03-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

Muy Importante!

If you are in the revision stage and trying to get your novel ready for 'ither eyes', you need to take a look at the fabulous list of elements to avoid in your first 50 pages which blogger Lindsey Edwards of The Write Words has compiled. Go directly to her blog. *looks bossy* Remember, revising isn't just about running find/replace searches for adverbs and words from the naughty list (was, been, felt, almost, very, practically, almost, etc).

Personally speaking, these following are things I'm spotting in my own writing (currently BSW) as I revise and rewrite:

Every paragraph seems to start with the same word.

Oh. My. Goodness.

I wrote a 4000 word chapter yesterday and felt quite smug about it... until I glanced over the chapter as a whole and noticed all of the paragraphs which started with the progagonist's name, or "she". Ghastly! <- Guess what I'll be editing later today. Blegh. T_T

Unnecessary sentences.

This is something I'm paying attention to both while I'm writing and also when I'm editing. Because I'm writing a YA book, I know I need to keep the writing tight and the pace fast. You don't want to keep saying the same thing over and over again, or tell the reader something that you already made clear by the situation or the characters' actions.

Too much emphasis on the mundane.

This is the reason why I cut an entire chapter a couple days ago (this is the chapter I wrote fresh yesterday). Every scene should be crafted with the objective of furthering the plot. I told myself that I didn't need to take the reader through a full school day with the protagonist, because most people already know full well what school is like. Cut the scene focuses down to those where SOMETHING HAPPENS. Even when you are providing a setting and trying to put a reader there in the classroom with your character. You shouldn't have scenes where nothing happens except for the character describing the four walls of the classroom, the smell of lysol and erasers, tables and chairs, sounds of students shuffling about and breathing. Even if you provide details like that in a scene, there needs to be a bigger plot FOCUS. Something that happens outside the norm.

Too much back story.

Yep. This is something I'll be doing in the next revision round, though I did make a lot of progress this time around. Initially, I dedicated half the first chapter to explaining why the characters were in boarding school and what life was like there in BS and other background stuff like that before I moved on with the story.

Back story is important, but you need to keep it tight and you want to provide it in pieces instead of all at once.

Stiff conversation between characters.

*NODS GUILTILY* I had that problem with the protagonist and some of the other characters. It reminded me of playing dolls with my niece when she was small and shy about getting into total doll-playing mode.

It was a lot of:

"Hi, how are you?"
"I'm fine. Nice weather we have outside, huh?"
"Yes. I like your dress."
"Why thank you. I like your dress too."

[awkward silence while dolls are moved around to different standing positions]

"Well, I have to go now. Bye."
"OK. Bye."

[end of scene]

[[[Giggles]]]

The worst is dialogue like this gets filed under mundane and unnecessary sentences, as mentioned above. Like everything else, dialogue needs to serve a purpose.

The way to fix this... I saw somewhere around the web somebody said to write the dialogue first and not worry about it. As you revise, you can add the dialogue beats or actions. And you can touch up on the dialogue itself, making it less robotic.

Just food for thought and kudos to Lindsey for posting that list. It does help - especially if you are new at this and don't know where to begin.

Skull Bumps

2010-03-01T11:56:00.000-08:00

This topic came up while I sat debating whether I should call the doctor about a bump on my head. It feels like bone - like my skull is just shaped wrong in the one spot.

Like any other hypo, I went online to figure out what the bony bump could be.

The info is taken from a website, see link below:

There are some physiological characteristics which are called ethnic markers, that seem to be passed on through the lines of some Melungeon descendants. There is a bump on the back of the HEAD of SOME descendants, that is located at mid-line, just ABOVE the juncture with the neck. It is about the size and shape of half a golf ball or smaller. This is called an ANATOLIAN BUMP, and indicates ancestry from the Anatolian region of Turkey. If you cannot find the bump, check to see if you, like some descendants, including myself, have a ridge, located at the base of the head where it joins the neck, rather than the Anatolian bump.

This ridge is an enlargement of the base of the skull, which is called a Central Asian Cranial Ridge. My ridge is quite noticeable. It is larger than anyone else's that I have felt, except my father's. I can lay one finger under it and the ridge is as deep as my finger is thick. Other ridges are smaller. To find a ridge, place your hand at the base of your neck where it joins your shoulders, and on the center line of your spine. Run your fingers straight up your neck toward your head. If you have a ridge, it will stop your fingers from going on up and across your head.
http://www.melungeonhealth.org/info.html

It sounds like my golden retriever's occiput. :)

The bump I have is not quite in line with my neck/spine. It's more to the left. I do not know if that still counts as a Anatolian bump (not impossible, as some of my ancestors were from what is now modern day Turkey). <- Hence I will check with my doctor, just to be safe.

Still!

I decided to stash the skull information away where I can find it later. There is a book I'm working on where I have members of a certain race sneaking around on a planet of another race. <- I was just getting tired of having the racial differences being based on skin and hair color. I like the idea of having the races divided based on something different - like the shape of their skulls. Easier to disguise, as long there aren't scalp checks. A golf sized bump on the back of everyone's skull seems to be one of those more likely genes that could get passed around through a planetary system. More likely than having everyone in X planetary system be blond. :L

The other option is the length of their toes. <- Anything foot related grosses me out, so I'm not overeager to go this route. -> But I did read one of those random old wives tales type things where the descendants of royalty can be identified by their feet. Apparently, their second toe is always longer than the rest of the toes.

With the bump - that is something that could be exagerated or artificially created. I'm sure I wasn't the only one fascinated in history class when I read about the Mayans who had the same head binding practices as the Egyptians.

Head flattening, also called head binding, head shaping or head moulding, is the application of pressure or bindings to cranial bones (the human skull) to alter their shapes. Flat shapes, elongated ones (produced by binding between two pieces of wood), rounded ones (binding in cloth) and conical ones are among those chosen. It is typically carried out on an infant, as the skull is most pliable at this time. In a typical case, headbinding begins approximately a month after birth and continues for about six months.

Usually it is a part of a cultural ritual, aimed at creating a skull shape which is aesthetically more pleasing or associated with desirable attributes such as intelligence. For example, in the Nahai-speaking area of Tomman Island and the south south-western Malalukan, a person with a finely elongated head is thought to be more intelligent, of higher status, and closer to the world of the spirits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_flattening

Fascinating details, eh? And it gets better - according to Wiki, Australian aborigines and then Native Americans were also known to practice the same cradling methods. Also the Huns.

Random add here - Eric van Daniken observed these similarities in ancient peoples, and took it to mean they were all binding their heads to imitate the alien god who visited them and taught them industrial and mechanical mysteries.

Stargate SG1 creators read Eric van Daniken's book. I'm convinced. :]

ETA - Do check this link out for a fascinating detail on the Melungeons. I've never heard of these people until today when I was looking up the Anatolian bump/ridge. Apparently these are a strange group of people who lived in the Tennessee/Virginia/Kentucky mountain areas. There is a mystery as to where these people came from, especially since they spoke an odd language and had a jumbled mixture of physical traits.

They are tall, straight, well- formed people, of a dark copper color ... but wooly heads and other similar appendages of our negro.7

They are of swarthy complexion, with prominent cheek bones, jet black hair, generally straight but at times having a slight tendency to curl, and the men have heavy black beards...Their frames are well built and some of the men are fine specimens of physical manhood. They are seldom fat.8

While some of them are swarthy and have high Indian cheekbones, the mountain whites, too, often display these same characteristics. Also, many of the Melungeons have light hair, blue eyes, and fair skin.9

The color of the skin of a full-blooded, pure Melungeon is a much richer brown than an Indian’s skin. It is not the color of a part Indian and part white, for their skin is lighter. The full-blooded, pure Melungeon had more the color of skin of a person from India and Egypt.10 - Taken from Wiki

They were also known to have a lot of six fingered people among their group, or it was highly hereditary.

Gathered under a tent at a public park, about 150 Melungeons had come from around the country (a show of hands indicated that about 70 percent came from states other than Tennessee) to hear results they hoped would tell them something about their heritage.

Those who were looking for black-and-white answers didn't get them. Jones' rather vague results showed that about 5 percent of the DNA indicated African descent, 5 percent was Native American, and the rest was "Euroasian," a group defined by clumping together Europe, the Middle East and India.

The most surprising finding was evidence of a rare DNA sequence common to a Northern Indian tribe called the Siddis.

The Siddis are descendants of African slaves, sailors and merchants who ended up in India as a result of trade with East Africa, starting in the 12th century and lasting into the 19th. Some of the people were stolen from their homelands and taken as slaves.

They became part of the Indian population known as the "untouchables," and are still marginalized in northwest India.

taken from wired.com

Fascinating stuff.

Music, Inspiration, and Heritage

2010-02-26T19:36:00.000-08:00

Music from following vid is playing on my ipod and somehow inspiring me to write tonight. As mentioned before, I usually need low key music (if any) to get me going. Not tonight, apparently. :)

Procession of the Sardars comes from the Caucasian Sketches by a Russian composer Ippolitov-Ivanov. I think inspired by Georgian folk music, etc...

A Sardar = Persian Commander

I'm guessing the Sardar thing has to do with the fact that Georgia was part of the Persian empire at one point. <- Same thing with Armenia.

There was this "Armenian Radio Hour" radio program that was on every Sunday morning as I rode home from church with my family. Even though my dad (half Armenian) did not want to have anything to do with that heritage while growing up (embarrassing to be different + back then Armenians were seen as communist sympathizers because of their close relations with Russia), he got over that rebellion. He turned this radio station on because he wanted us to know and identify with the music and language. He and my mom even started to learn the language right up to the point when the radio guy was explaining the different 'coughing' sounds. There is a soft sound you make, like you are politely and quietly coughing in church. Then there is a loud moist sounding cough that you make in private and don't need to be polite. <- My parents gave up at that point. :)

Anyway, the reason why I mention this radio program is it would begin and end with that familiar piece. So I always assumed it was done by an Armenian composer and was about Armenia. <- I'm not sure whether or not Georgia counts as 'close enough'. I've heard differing accounts of how friendly or tentative relations are between the two countries.

The Armenian stuff does come to play in what I'm writing. Even though I usually write about characters with black hair, large dark eyes, and olive skin, this is the first novel-project that the characters are openly part-Armenian. In a way, my main character is somewhat based on my dad, though she looks exactly like my youngest sister (Liz is very short, has long black hair, warm/dark olive skin, and beautiful almond-shaped reddish-brown eyes). I'm having fun - even though I'll probably tone some of it down before I hand it over for critters to see.

Friday Meme

2010-02-26T07:27:00.000-08:00

Yet another Friday I'm opting to do the quick and easy meme route.

*smiles mischievously*

I borrowed this week's meme from morningcoffee.blogspot.com

Yourself: TGIF

Your hair: Blackish-Reddish

Your Mother: Angel

Your Father: Happy Birthday!

Your Favorite Item: Diamond Earrings

Your dream last night: Slept-like-dead

Your Favorite Drink: Diet Pepsi

Your Dream Car: Ford Escape Hybrid

Your Dream Home: Cobblestone cottage in the woods with a bright red door

The Room You Are In: Work

Your fear: Heights

Where you Want to be in Ten Years: Rachel Ray's show, touting book

Who you hung out with last night: Mom

What You're Not: Tall

Muffins: Meh.

One of Your Wish List Items: New Kelley Armstrong YA book

Time: Hour before lunch

The Last Thing You Did: Emailed Friend

What You Are Wearing: Jeans+flowery thermal shirt under red vest

Your favorite weather: Fall

Your Favorite Book: Pride & Prejudice

Last thing you ate: Bagel

Your Life: Happy

Your mood: Slightly tired

Your Best Friends: Sweethearts

What are you thinking about right now: Sleep + Me = happy

Your car: Snow Beast

What are you doing at the moment: Entering Data

Your summer: Coming

Relationship status: Dating

What is on your tv: Olympics

What is the weather like: Snow Squalls

When is the last time you laughed: Just now

OH AND RANDOM FRIDAY THING - -

CHECK OUT MEG CABOT'S UPDATED BLOG <- I haven't looked in a while, so it could be that it's been all new and shiny for a while. But still! I'm all admiration. So nift.

It's Been Done Before...

2010-02-25T05:39:00.001-08:00

Grim Confession Time:

Last month, I saw a tweet from fabulous agent Colleen Lindsey w/regards to a trend she's seeing with growing frequency in the YA/Fantasy/Urban/Paranormal genres. That would be all of the authors killing the parents of the main character off.

I've noticed the SAME thing as Colleen, and furthermore (and this is the part that disturbs me the most), I keep seeing books which begin with a morose character who is afraid of cars because she survived a car wreck which killed her parents.

Um.

Guess how BS Wesley (one of my current WIPS) started off....

Yes. *sighs grimly*

Mom was crumpled like a piece of paper and Dad was beheaded. Wesley wasn't in the crash, but her youngest sister was, unfortunately. The kiddo is permanently damaged because her dad's head bounced into the backseat and landed at her feet.

I didn't quite figure out how one parent was beheaded and the other merely crumpled while both sat in the front seat of their Chevy Cavalier, but I was going to work out those details later. <- That was before I starting coming across all these books (including Evermore and Oh My Goth) where one or more parents was offed in this fashion.

I went through the five stages of denial at first (including - "I noticed, but it's not like anyone else will!" and "They HAVE to die! Or else the story won't work!" ).

Then I tried to fix the problem... subtly:

I toned down the car accident. I moved it back five years to allow for some healing. I took the kid out of the car. I put the parents in a crashing train instead. I took them out of the car and had them killed in a hit and run accident in a parking lot.

And with each revision attempt, I kept coming back to the same thought, "It's still too similar." The parents died in a traumatic accident and are deeply mourned at the beginning of the novel.

So I brainstormed.

Both parents had to be gone, because it's important for the three girls to fend for themselves at the old family house, etc. And it had to be traumatic for the youngest to be the way she was, and also for the oldest to drastically change mentally and emotionally. And it had to be horrific enough for the entire community to know all about it after following all of the news reports.

It was too similar to other books out there because both parents were killed and there was a vehicle involved. <- I noted this, but initially didn't know how to fix. I had to mentally get to that point where I was OPEN to changing the plot completely, even writing in new plot threads. Prior to that point, I just wanted a quick fix right there at the beginning. I wasn't willing to write in anything that required a full revision of the book.

The answer came to me while watching CNN Headline News. I didn't have to kill both parents and it didn't have to be an accident. No, Dad didn't murder Mom and he isn't in jail, but [spoilers carefully deleted and preserved].

This meant a brand new plot thread to reveal throughout the book, and not surprising, the main plot and characters changed completely with this addition of this new thread. <- And yes, this is a good thing. Both the plot and characters became deeper and feel more solid than before.

Last night, I finished up revisions for Ch1 and Ch2 and could have cried over when I recognized a quality that had not been there before. No, that doesn't mean I'm going to say, "YAH, publish me now. I quality writer!" <- Heh. Edits are neverending.

Back when I was still struggling with keeping my 'car crash' thread, I didn't have a lot of confidence about those two chapters. I knew that anybody reading them would likely lose interest as the 'cliche-device alert' warning lights came on. Maybe CH3 and CH4 were stronger and more unique, but I couldn't assume that a reader would choose to read that far, if they've already been turned off by the 'same old'.

The fact that I did something completely different, that I know for a fact isn't in any of the books I've read lately... that's what I mean by a recognizable quality. Maybe I still need to revise a touch more (and finish the book), but there is a chance that this one will make it.

Final Word and Bossy Advice for the Day:

If you read over your working copy and have this feeling that you read this story before (and not just because you wrote it), you shouldn't cross your fingers and hope your readers are idiots. If you noticed it, you can betcha other people will. <- And you can't always rely on critters, because most people are going to be too nice to point out something that essentially means the entire novel in its current form is trash.

Keep reshaping the plot and characters until you are satisfied. <- And I mean REALLY satisfied, not just you telling yourself you are.

BOOKMARK: Ancient Mosaic Map

2010-02-24T06:43:00.000-08:00

The below pic is something I wanted to keep on hand. It is known as the "Madaba Mosaic Map", and according to Wiki it is part of a floor mosaic in an early Byzantine church, depicting Jerusalem during the early (6th) centuries. The pic below is the center of the larger map showing the Holy Land.

The mosaic clearly shows a number of significant structures in the Old City of Jerusalem: the Damascus Gate, the Lions' Gate, the Golden Gate, the Zion Gate, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the New Church of the Theotokos, the Tower of David and the Cardo Maximus. The recognisable depiction of the urban topography makes the mosaic a key source on Byzantine Jerusalem. - Wiki

Link with each location/building labeled.

I have a feeling I could use this somewhere.

BOOKMARK: Languages

2010-02-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

Just sticking this link in here -

Liana Brooks, Creating Alien Languages

Liana THUMBED something that I'm a bit sensitive about as a fantasy (as in the kind with aliens from distant galaxies) writer.

One of my projects (GLADIITOR) in particular needs a little help in this area. And that is something I've been meaning to look into as soon as I've managed to clear out a little extra time.

When you create a strange new civilization, it isn't enough to make them look a little different and give them strange new abilities. You also have to figure out the clothing details, their food, their religious habits, their idea of fun and games, and yes - their languages.

Liana brought up Tolkien - and we all know the strange old guy spent 12 years writing his series, including setting aside a little extra time to write a language for his elves. Yes, this came easy for him because he was a linguist. But that doesn't mean that language-challenged (according to Obama, that's most Americans) writers have no hope of doing the same thing.

Currently I have Spanish, French, Armenian, Japanese, and Polish dictionaries I can flip through and find words that look close to what I want. I can also go online and find word lists for any language I want.

Grammar isn't so important as finding words that are close to the type of culture I'm aiming for.

If you use a gaelic type word, then people are going to have a Merlin/Guinevere/Wort mental images in their head complete with wailing bagpipes as you have your characters interact.

If you use a norse type word, then people are going to be thinking Vikings and the mighty bearded gods of the north. :]

Next step is just playing around with the word so it is less noticable as X language. You don't want your language-knowledgable reader to be sitting there and thinking that X character just greeted Y character by saying something like "Toilet Footstool Sing."

If you are very detailed orientated (as Tolkien obviously was), you can also write up little grammar rules. Like how words change when addressed to a woman vs a man, or how words change when spoken by a child vs by an adult. You could even go into the possessive, plural, singular - and so forth rules... if you wanted. <- Keep in mind that too much linguistic gymnastics could lose your reader.

Then the other thing -

I'm not going to be using too many 'foreign' words in my novels. But I will need a spattering of words, especially if some characters are to be believably foreign (as in alien). I just want to make sure the words have the same sound to them. Like I don't want to mix Spanish and Polish words for the same race/planet.

Good ideas -

1. Keep a list of every word you use, complete with a 'definition'

2. Don't worry about foreign words in first draft, you can always do a search/replace later if you want.

3. Write names/words in CAPS if you plan to go back later and change them.

4. Research foreign civilizations, particularly the unusual ones. <- Everyone uses the Irish/Norse influences in their work. Because Tolkien did. Same thing with Japan/China (Joss Whedon). But there is no rule you can't research other new civiliations and their mythologies and traditions for inspiration.

Get a Life

2010-02-23T05:34:00.000-08:00

This post is based on a poll I saw recently which asked writers if they were willing to give up their day job in order to write more. The majority of writers said 'yes', only a fraction said they wanted to keep their job for the sake of stability and the dependable paycheck. That poll went right along with all of the tweets and comments and posts I've seen from writers all over the web, wishing they could stay home 24/7 to write.

While I give a nod to those writers and say 'Yep, I feel that way too!', the point is that we need to start looking at our day jobs a little differently.

This includes all of you who are a stay at home moms (otherwise known as 24/7 babysitter, cook, taxi driver, shopper, cleaner, fixer of all booboos for offspring), teachers (yes, you people who work 7-3 every day, are necessarily over-the-top nice to someone else's offspring even if they are bwats who make you obsess to unhealthy extremes about corporal punishment) and then come home and grade papers and set up work for next day all afternoon and evening), IT professionals (work 7-5 every day, work remotely at home fixing or creating programs, while you also remain on call the rest of the day and night in case you have to go in to work to fix something), etc...

Getting up early in the morning is not a happy prospective - especially when you mentally count up all of the mornings you have to do this until you reach retirement age (YEARS!). <- This retirement expectation part doesn't include SAHM's, because of course they never retire. They just move up into a posher management position with fringe benefits (spoil grandkids and blissfully send them home) after graduation.

While we moan and groan about our jobs and our plebeian existence, it is important to consider how much experience we get every day. We interact with different people and get to view all the facets of life - which we then get to knowledgeably plague our characters with.

If you have a day job away from home, you get to hang out with adults during the day and learn new ways to build characters. Yes. This includes those evil coworkers who make you think of those horror movies where a person digs fingernails into floor and loses them in a bloody cuticle massacre while a monster drags them away by their feet.

If you are home with your kids, then you know more than anyone else what kids are into and what they read. Well, either that or you get very good at escapist fantasies in galaxies and dimensions farfaraway while you change diapers and listen to the endless cackle of Spongebob from the TV.

The other thing is that although most of us dayworkers only get 1-5 hours of writing time in the evening, we learn to value that time and make the most of it. <- I say this as somebody who rarely finds any writing time while on vacation, even if I'm just sludging around at home.

So!

Don't feel bad about your working life.

Don't quit your day job.

A regular paycheck is good and experience and exposure to humanity is a bonus.

Remember, if you went totally hermit and actually spent all your time writing and zero time interacting with other human beings - there is still no guarantee that you would spin out a masterpiece.

Make do with the time you have - especially when you are away from the writing. Learn to look at life a little differently.

On that note, yesterday while stuck driving very slowly through a snowstorm in the early dark of morning, I entertained myself by playing what if games. My favorite of the morning was contemplating giant smokey black wraiths weaving through traffic in search of SOMEBODY. Other mornings, I imagine dinosaurs or even Big Foot running out into traffic. <- Yes, someday I will write a novel which has a Raptors running out from the nearby metropark and crossing the highway. Not now, but someday.

Friday Meme

2010-02-19T12:14:00.001-08:00

Thought I'd shake things up today with a meme just for fun. :)

I found a quicky one that works for me right here.

1) My favourite quotation about writing is ... Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~Anton Chekhov

2) The first thing I had published was ... "The Mudling King" - a short story about the fall of the angels. At least I know it was accepted and I got a token payment. I don't know if it was used in the magazine though. o_O

3) I can only write ... Stories with female protagonists. Last time I had a guy protagonist, an editor turned down the story and very kindly pointed out that my mc sounded like a girl. #blushes

4) I write best at this time of day ... Night time - providing I can keep my eyes open. The sad truth is the writing/imaginative side of my brain is only wide awake and perky when my body isn't. It's so unfair.

5) I've tried several times to write ... historical fiction. And one day I'm going to succeed and have something I can show other people without shrinking into a tiny ball of embarrassment. My biggest problem is the realistic aspect and finding a way to support my plot schemes without turning off history buffs.

6) I'm in the middle of writing ... a paranormal fantasy novel that DOES NOT have vampires in it. Admittedly it is a struggle to keep my horrible guy characters from sprouting fangs and skulking around at night. They do skulk around at night, however I absolutely will allow them to flash inordinately long canines.

7) I write blogs because ... I like expressing myself and giving online friends and other people a glimpse of me, my life, my writing struggles, and just... I like to show people that I'm nice and easy to work with.

8) My lowest moments when writing come when ... I want to write but I'm too tired to think. Those are the times when I think about everything I have to write or fix and feel like a shallow writer who just isn't going to make it.

9) My best moments when writing come when ... Duh. When I'm writing. When the words are just pouring out of me and I know they are heartfelt and have that smooth liquid feel when I read over them again. When I write something that sounds right.

10) The one thing that's most helped my writing has been ... Acknowledging where my weaknesses are. I heard something in the Olympics yesterday from one of the announcers. It was something like 'You have to acknowledge your weaknesses in order to improve and succeed'.

Random Thoughts...

Do you ever pick up a book to read and feel DIVIDED about whether you like it or not? I'm feeling that way with a book I picked up to read again - oh my goth by Gena Showalter.

So I read the first chapter where the main character, Jade, is having a bad day. It starts off with the trig teacher singling her out and making abusive comments about her in front of the class. He kicks her out of class with a note begging the principal to expell her. Meanwhile she is totally goth in school, which invariably reminded me of the my immortal fanfiction project (the one based on Harry Potter/Hogwarts + Vampires), particularly the videos. <- And yes, that is a bad thing. :O

Yet, there I am reaching for the book and prepared to head off to a comfy couch somewhere to finish reading. As much as I have a tiny 'hmmph' voice going on in my head, it isn't enough to make me throw the book at walls. And I vaguely think I like Jade's character in a way. *is confused and wanders off to read*

BOOKMARK: YA GENRE BOOM

2010-02-17T10:37:00.000-08:00

See following post for fabulous tips on YA Genre from three great agents (including Richelle Mead's agent (!) -

Alan Rinzler, YA is Red Hot

I'm bookmarking this as a nudge to stick to my guns and finish writing the two main YA novels I have right now (Marbles and BSW). I only wish I were done with them NOW so I could be querying.

If you are in querying stage - take notice!

Good luck!

Rationalizing Plagiarism?

2010-02-17T06:41:00.000-08:00

So I read the following article -

Salon, Plagiarism the Next Generation

In which a 17 year old author of a book published in Germany tries to excuse the fact that she ripped off another published book, including lifting entire pages.

She says: "I myself don't feel it is stealing, because I put all the material into a completely different and unique context and from the outset consistently promoted the fact that none of that is actually by me."

As somebody who would never dream of consciously copying another author's work, I was appalled at the idea that this author had, that it was an art form and should be an accepted style of writing.

Yes, I know that this generation has the example of Seth Grahame-Smith and his highly successful Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I expect that the young author looked at what Seth did to P&P and decided she could do it too. I'm not sure if the book she ripped off is in the public domain or not, but regardless, she went about it the wrong way. From the sounds of it, she did not fess up until she got caught.

She was trying to pass it all off as her own invention.

*exhales*

This is part of the reason why authors are so protective of their work and hesitant to submit to critique groups. And it's also why they even are nervous about posting plots, ideas, snippets online for the world to see.

It isn't always about them being too shy and defensive of their brain-offspring.

It's because there are other authors out there who would do stuff like this.

No - there is nothing wrong with getting plot ideas from other people's work, providing you do something completely original with them and make them your own.

-> Points at all the literal offspring of Tolkien who borrowed ideas from him and thankfully did something else (and better) with them.

But it is another thing if you read somebody's story or idea somewhere and write the exact same novel.

Besides it's lazy.

Don't do it.

Music...

2010-02-16T11:45:00.000-08:00

Just sharing an odd experience I had today when I stopped over at the post office to pick up the mail for my work. Our box is a large square drawer, close to the floor. I just knelt down in front of it like usual and was using the key, when I started to hear music. Haunting music. Or an undefined song that you would hear coming from a cheap music box.

I pressed my ear to one of the post office boxes to the right of ours (which probably looked freaky to the overhead cameras) and confirmed that the music was coming from the box.

When I opened our drawer, I gave the inner sorting area an eyeball - just curious if somebody was messing around with the mail and coincidentally turned a music box on just as I knelt in front of my box. But nah. There wasn't anyone back there.

Meanwhile the music mournfully continued to play.

I have no doubt it is still playing, unless of course it stopped when I left the post office.

This link Dress 'Em this Way goes to The Rejectionist website (which is also listed on my lovely left column placed there with schemey html codes that I forgot to write or print down somewhere where I could do it again without starting from scratch), and their hilarious post on guy fashion on the runways.

Um. I know the Rejectionist was being funny, but I'm very tempted to DO this to one of my main characters. Not one of the side characters. The main character.

*laughs mischievously*

What about you?

Would you DARE do this to one of your characters?

Happy Paczki Day!

2010-02-16T07:23:00.000-08:00

If you are a resident of the state of Michigan, that generally traslates into a huge Polish festival the day before Lent begins. Listening to the radio this morning, the bars in Hamtramck, MI opened at 7AM and some businesses actually took the day off so people could all the more enjoy the excesses of the day. Lots and lots of polish sausage and paczki.

Or if you grew up in my house, it means paczki (jelly filled glazed donuts) for breakfast and then coming home in the evening to enjoy a full Polish dinner, followed by something like nalesniki (crepes or rolled creme or fruit filled pancakes) and cakes for desert.

From the way I look at it - it is the Polish version of St. Patrick's Day - except you wear red instead of green. And listen and dance to polkas instead of limericks and ballads.

About the Lenten Fast ->

Back before the Catholic church switched to the kiddy fast (give up favorite things for lent, abstain from meat on Fridays), adults age 21 and older were expected to adhere to the Lenten fast. This means they are only permitted three meals a day. Two of the meals had to be very small and meatless. Together could not equal a main meal. The main meal on the other hand could contain meat.

The way I understand that - a main meal is calculated as more than one item or serving. It doesn't necessarily mean you could cheat and have a feast for supper every night, and two regular supper sized meals during the day.

A sample day would be something like:

Breakfast - Bowl of cereal or scrambled eggs.
Lunch - Meatless sandwich (grilled cheese or fish sandwich).
Supper - Regular meal (main dish, side dishes, salad). Followed by desert, if you wish.

Kids under the age of 21 merely were expected to follow the 'meat once a day' part of the fast, except for Fridays (kids 7 and older were expected to abstain from all meat on Fridays). They could still eat as much as they want throughout the day.

<- That, btw, was the moderate fast. Back in the early days of the church, fasting would be a lot more strenuous and food-deprived.

On the day before Ash Wednesday (the official start of Lent), people would have festivals to clear out the pantry and 'fatten up' before the 40 days of denial began.

St. Patrick's Day lands right in the middle of Lent and many (at least here in the US) regard the day as mid-lenten break. There was a special dispensation given for just that day, so people could put aside the fast and feast as much as they wanted.

Anyway!

I'm posting this, because instead of writing topics, my mind is on the fast ahead and I'm already planning out my battle plan. <- I'm an old-fashioned type of Catholic, so we adhere to all of the old fasts and rules of abstinence. I've done the fast for several years now, but it doesn't get any easier.

The funny or stupid thing is I don't normally eat three meals a day. I generally have something light for lunch (bagel and coffee for example) and then just supper in the evening. So 1.5 meals?

But it is human nature to suddenly WANT something the instant it is forbidden. In other words, the selections in the vending machine suddenly start to look yummy throughout the day.

The other problem is 'accidents'.

Accidently eating something - even swallowing gum! - in the middle of that would count as one of your three meals.

If you are enjoying paczki today... or if you are enjoying the other ethnic varieties of Fat Tuesday. Have fun!

I'll get back to thinking about writing tomorrow. :]

Premonition

2010-02-15T07:21:00.000-08:00

This thought ocurred to me this morning as I perused the morning news on the web. I'm sure everyone has heard something of the Luge accident in the Olympics. Just a quick brush-up, the young athlete from Georgia (country, not state) crashed during his training run before the official start of the Olympics. He lost control and his body went flying through the air and hit a metal post along the rink (or whatever they call it). He died soon after.

His friend (grew up in the same town) and teammate was devastated. He did not complete his training runs and pulled out of the competition.

The Olympic people there in Vancouver seem to hold the opinion that the guy's inexperience caused the unfortunate accident, but they shortened the rink and built a wall to prevent something like that from occurring again this year.

The athletes themselves have been saying the rink there in Vancouver is pretty fast, and I read today that the kid who died was terrified of the rink. This was something he confided to his father.

Why am I mulling over these details?

It goes together with something that my mom has said time and again w/regards to a person's death. She believes that when people are about to die, they generally KNOW. They get a certain feeling. A premonition.

More to that effect, I think there is such a thing as sixth sense. It is that voice that whispers in your ear from time to time, sometimes preventing death, sometimes preventing chaos and trouble - should you heed it.

And it doesn't always concern life and death situations.

An example I have was the little voice in my head that convinced me not to write a check on Sunday, assuming my paycheck on Monday would cover the check without any trouble. I didn't write the check, which was a good thing since when I went to the el banco Monday morning I discovered it was closed for Presidents Day. Ugh. I would have overdrafted, darnit. Thank the maker I listened to the voice.

How does this concern writing?

If the characters are human and put in a dangerous position, odds are that certain thoughts are going to flicker through their head. If they are sharp, those whispers would be enough to keep them on their guard through the event.

Or else...

They are very human and don't always listen to those whispers - perhaps because caution had misled them in the past.

I can see this coming in handy with the WIP I'm working on right now (BSW). In this WIP I'm fighting to keep the main character from assuming outright supernatural abilities. She is superhuman, but was 'blinded' as a child - and must rely on a very determined spirit guide to find her purpose in life, despite her handicaps.

Besides the spirit guide, for the most part she is going to see certain clues along the way, and must learn to rely on her instincts. Her instincts (premonitions) will tell her who to trust, who to fear, and which paths to follow.

The other thing - if you have characters who feel chaos or death approaching, don't feel that it is too George-Lucas-cliche to make them 'have a bad feeling'. The thing about people in real life is they receive multiple signs or feelings before disaster strikes.

Ideal Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T15:12:00.000-08:00

I mentioned on Twitter that I do NOT want pajamas, chocolate, flowers, or questionable expectations from bf for Valentine's Day.

Seriously.

The ideal V-day for me would be like the one I enjoyed today -

Handholding in church and breakfast afterwards with a special somebody.

Then of course there is the celebration part with family which includes yummy homemade strawberry cake.

.

And don't forget plenty of time in between with me slouching on furniture, computer in lap, and Olympics on TV. Even though, dear NBC - I wish you could show something more interesting than Luge. Like watching paint dry.

About the people out there who are talking about St. Valentine committing suicide if he knew what his 'name-day' has turned into - Um, guys. It isn't all about rampant fornication.

It can also be pretty sweet.

And yes, this is an ideal day to get engaged on - something that happened to the youngest sister.

Never mind that the family has raised eyebrows about the girl's choice in men (he's a schmudd). And never mind the entire family is hoping this is a passing phase that the girl is going through, and that she'll sort her thinking out long before any wedding.

Hints to guys out there. If you have a sweetie dropping hints, it could be she wants a little commitment in the form of a diamond ring from you.

Unless of course she is like most of my female characters and commitment-phobic. Then, of course, she might be trying to figure out how to tell you how much she ENJOYS spending time with you, but she just wants to be very-close friends for forever. But don't you DARE be friends with any other girls.

*grins wickedly*

Love, love love....

2010-02-14T09:20:00.000-08:00

First of all, before I get started with this post, let me explain I grew up a pseudo-tomboy.

This means I was always a girly-girl, but one of those awkward teenagers who hated to be TEASED TO DEATH by older siblings if I did anything girly - like reading romance novels, watching romance movies, writing romances...!

If you remember that scene from Ben Hurr where Judah and Messala are having a happy reminiscent gabfest. They shouted, "Up Mars! Down Eros!" <- That was the attitude I took through my teens, even when guys started to look interesting and one finally convinced me to go out with him. Along the way I grew more confident in my skin and stopped caring what other people thought.

So it isn't that ironic that my female characters all seem to have that same awkward beginning. Because I know what it feels like to hide your emotions if they are too embarrassing. =)

When they meet The Guy for the first time, they generally turn into Saturn with defensive (I know it is just dust held in place by the planet's gravity, but I like to pretend they are like a shield) rings all the way around. This means they become like Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice, and don't recognize the fact that the guy has been flirting with them for half the book. Or they become like Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and keep refusing the guy's advances because the relationship would be TOO COMPLICATED to deal with.

My guy characters - sometimes are the same way. Or they are as clueless as Darcy from Pride and Prejudice and have no idea how much trouble they are getting into as they begin to harbor feelings for the untouchable female character. By the time they realize that the female character is going turn into Julia Roberts and do a Runaway Bride routine, they have already gone 300 miles down a one way road.

Marbles is a good example of this. The female character has already experienced a failed relationship with her boyfriend and is anti-men as a result. When the guy character first makes his appearance, there is an immediate and obvious physical attraction between the two of them. It is something he acknowledges right away and is willing to act on, but not exactly with any permanent intentions. She KNOWS that is the case, which probably makes him just as bad as her failed boyfriend, but ten times worse. So she goes into defensive mode and fights to keep her 'weakness' from growing. The guy sees right through her and thinks she's hilariously naive and prudish while she fights 'nature'. It is all a game until he actually starts to care for her and realizes that making her love him isn't enough to win her over. Which freaks him out. :P

Or sometimes I have guys who feel that immediate attraction and know exactly where it will lead, and willfully commit to either winning over the female character, or simply learning to live without her.

Gladiitor is probably a good example. The main guy character first sees the female character at a vulnerable moment and falls for her. But she is not interested in him that way, or anyone - partly, because she is that self-absorbed and ambitious. Every time he thinks he's gotten through to her and drew a like response from her, he sees her shrug the moment off as something that made her feel too vulnerable and uncomfortable, painful even.

A while ago, I read a complaint from another person about romances, and why they don't read them. It had to do with the characters angsting after each other the entire novel. The consensus was that the couple should jump into bed and get it over with. And here I was going - AAACK!!!

In real life, the sweetest and most natural romances are the ideal ones. There are exceptions, but the general rule is if you are fighting all the time and not communicating while dating, it will get worse when you are married.

But when I'm reading a book... um. I actually prefer lots of conflict, even after or while the characters battle the hormones. Think about why so many of us are obsessed with reading Pride and Prejudice, or watching the A&E version. There isn't ANY kissing in the book. The most that the characters touch one another is during the dances, and even there it is little more than holding hands for a few minutes.

I'm sure the craze isn't all about Colin Firth jumping in the lake and walking up to his house all sogged.

Well, even if it WERE about CF, you must admit that P&P would be a completely different novel altogether if it went this way:

Bingley points Elizabeth out to Darcy, suggests that Darcy dance with her. Darcy takes a look and immediately trots over to ask Elizabeth to dance with him. During the dance he avidly compliments her and expresses his admiration. During the next dance, they duck out onto a balcony (or closet) for a snogging session. Ten minutes later, he introduces himself to Mr. Bennett and asks for Elizabeth's hand. Elizabeth stands next to him blushing and mentally counting all of the trinkets she'll buy as Mrs. Darcy, mistress of Pemberley.

*laughs*

Fine. I'm not denying I've seen books like that.

If there is anyone out there, what's your opinion?

If you are writing a romance - what is your favorite part to write? Do you prefer to have the realization/consumation (could be also first kiss if you're writing a 'sweet romance') early in the book, or would you rather spend the entire book building up the tension?

Writing and Music

2010-02-13T12:54:00.000-08:00

I had this thought when I clicked on Julie Dao's blog Silver Lining earlier today before I moved on to my own work. Julie has the most lovely and tasteful music playing on her site.

When discussions at the various writing forums turn to music, and people ask what kind of music I listen to while I write - I usually say none. But it's more complicated than that.

I know there are some pieces of music or instrumental pieces which drive me in the direction of my computer and make me want to write. I think they make me feel content and comfortable, and maybe even take me back to my elementary years when I was still taking music lessons (before I gave them up so I could have riding lessons). That was also the time I began writing, and sometimes the two worlds converged. I wrote music as well as stories. They were not Mozart level creations, but they worked for me. I remember spending hours sitting at the piano listening for the notes that sounded well together and marking them. When I was really feeling the music, I'd sit there with tears streaming down my face.

Music is plugged into my emotional core. So is writing. That's how listening to music can affect or impact my urges to write.

When I went to see LOTR with my friends, I was agonizing over my itching fingers. The music spoke to my soul (to be dramatic) and filled my head with words that needed letting out.

That doesn't mean it works the same just by plugging in a little LOTR music on any old day. It seems that the music which 'speaks to my soul' brings about more than one effect. If it doesn't drive me to write, it relaxes me and puts me in a far-off mood so I don't really see the computer or feel like working.

Various piano pieces and soundtrack themes (like the Last of the Mohicans) affect me the same way - they either draw that artistic nerve out of hiding. Or they take my brain to join that artistic nerve in that dream world where it lives.

But again, if I were to nail it down -

The types of music which I believe feed the soul are those that draw a positive and reflective response from you.

I LOVE things like Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance', but I could NEVER write to it. It is music I prefer to jog or drive with.

For writing, I prefer instrumentals - preferably classical, contemporary, and folk. Some vocals are alright, but I can be fairly finicky. :)

Your First Sentence

2010-02-12T16:31:00.000-08:00

This will be a quick and sweet post, as I'm seated in front of the TV and avidly looking forward to the beginning of the Olympics. I love-love-love to watch the opening ceremonies and the parade of nations.

The other thing is Canada and America share a similar heritage, at least when you think of the First Nations. I'm looking forward to seeing how much of this heritage is shown in the ceremonies.

Moving on, this is a thought that struck me when I was glancing over material at one of my critting groups.

I understand the difficulty in 'starting off' your first chapter. When you are forbidden to begin with a character waking up in bed or meditating on life in general while staring dramatically out a window or gazing at his/her reflection in the mirror... it leaves you scrambling for alternatives.

But you probably don't want to begin your story with your character making declarations like, "She sighed, pondering her ultimate boredom with her boring life." In fact, you probably don't want to have the word 'boredom' in the first paragraph at all. Furthermore, you do not want to spend the first half page expanding on why your character is bored. Because you will bore your reader.

The main things to keep in mind when you are writing your first chapter:

1. Don't worry about getting the first line perfect at first. That is something easily fixed before presenting the chapter to your beta readers to shred. Or you can ask your beta readers to brainstorm with you on the best way to begin the chapter if lounging in bed and reflecting on life is the best you can come up with. <- Yes, I know this contradicts what I said above, but I didn't want people to spend months writing one line over and over.

2. When revising and fixing everything, you can sit back and figure out what would make an 'exciting' or interesting beginning. A really wonderful agent who offered a helpful crit on a novel she rejected said she did not want to see any background information in the first chapter at all. She told me to look at my synopsis and begin closer to the exciting stuff I mentioned there.

3. Don't forget to do your research - the most successful writers out there know how to begin a novel. Something I picked up from the books I like - you don't necessarily have to start in the middle of action with THINGS HAPPENING. But you want your main character to be doing something and on the verge of encountering the THING THAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO THEM.

So like with my 'Marbles' WIP, I have the main character reacting to her longtime boyfriend dumping her. The first scene reveals her character while she and her boyfriend have it out. He's pressuring her to move in with him or else. She's trying to hold out for more while still hanging on to him. The THING THAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO HER occurs next when she stumbles into the house, rejected and dumped, and receives the second shock from her parents.

At no point do I tell the reader that the character and her life is boring. Nor did I stall before beginning the story. As I learned from that fabulous agent, background in the beginning is stalling and stalling is bad.

OK - Olympics is on.

*stares fixedly at TV*

I wouldn't want to live there, but I'd like to visit Vancouver.

So lovely....

Finding Your Voice Method

2010-02-11T05:48:00.000-08:00

This is something I've been thinking about for a while, and suspected that it could help other people in a way. I'm not sure.

Since I first began writing, I initially wrote for myself and my sister (my only reader in the world back then). This meant I had the freedom to write EXACTLY what I wanted, and I knew what to write to bring about a desired reaction from my sister.

That is how I've approached writing for years, and it worked for me.

But when I started writing the newsletter for work, I realized that in order to make the newsletter a success, I had to figure out how to write things for a wider audience.

Basically, I had to figure out how to switch over from writing a 'my-opinion-of-the-world letter to the editor' to writing an interesting news story.

I had to learn how to be impartial and present information the right way. The best story is one that is 90% information, 9% guidance, and only 1% personal opinion.

So, you gather information that you find interesting. Guidance is how you put the information together so that your reader will reach the same opinion that you have. Personal opinion is extremely limited and professional.

Prior to reaching that conclusion, my inclination was to write something that was 10% information and 90% personal opinion. A bit like what I do here on the blog. And while I write this, I recognize that the best bloggers out there are those who do not do this. They are the ones who learned the above technique long before I figured it out.

So how does this work for stories and novels?

I think it translates... roughly. Or at least is related with looser percentages.

You have a full plot in mind and scribble down all your ideas. Then as you write the novel... you have to figure out how to present that story so it appeals to the greater audience of people.

That isn't the whole answer, of course. <- Hence the reason why I've been stalling about this topic for a while. You can't sit down and think about a novel as a VERY LONG impartial news article. The best writers (or the ones I love best) are those whose books 'sound' like them. Their personality and humor are present in every single word. A writer's voice is the result when a writer learns to harness his/her personality and emotions and deftly use them to engage the reader.

A novel can't be just a ham-session by a personable writer. Nor should it be a soap box from which an emotional person preaches and emotes loudly. On the opposite side, a novel shouldn't be all information presented without any emotion or influence by an author.

There has to be a balance.

18 Signs of Good Luck

2010-02-11T05:37:00.000-08:00

The following list is something I wanted to keep it on hand in case I ever needed ideas for a plot thread. ->

18 Omens of Good Fortune ->

When Bats Nest In Your Home
This is one of the most powerful indications that the family is about to become seriously wealthy. The Chinese regard bats as symbols of abundant wealth. The circular pattern of five bats is a very popular design feature found on furniture, paintings and ceramics. The Chinese believe that bats nest only in auspicious places – they have highly developed sensory parts that are able to “smell” out places with auspicious chi. The next time bats come and nest in the eaves of your home, rejoice because this heralds good fortune.

When Someone Gives You Money On A Lucky Day
It is the surest sign that you will enjoy a significant increase in money luck. A lucky day is usually a new moon or full moon day. Or it can be a day of your animal sign. Check the Feng Shui Almanac for these lucky days. Make sure you keep the cash given to you on that day, as it is described as “good luck money”. Money can be given to you in many ways. It could be someone repaying a debt owed to you, or someone giving you an unexpected tip for some favour performed. This is the belief behind the tradition of giving lucky money on the fifteen days of the lunar New Year. These fifteen days of the year’s first moon are looked on as “days of miracles”, so money received on these days is always regarded as lucky money.

When Bird Droppings Land On Your Head
Many people believe this to be a major sign of wealth coming from heaven. Hence, although, it is really yucky and a major inconvenience, when something like this happens to you, take comfort in the fact that this is described as good luck being just around the corner! In fact, most things associated with birds tend to spell good fortune, such as when birds fly to your home and start making nests in and around your house. While bats bring abundance, birds bring good news and opportunities. The next time a flock of ravens, pigeons or magpies come to your home, feed them with bird seeds. Birds are also said to be powerful protectors and guardians. Even crows are said to be messengers of the Gods. So welcome birds with open arms.

Finding Your Initials On A Spiders Web
Is said to be an indication you will have good luck forever. All your plans will develop to fruition and whatever obstacles may be blocking your projects will be dissolved. Like the spider, you will attract food and money without even trying! This actually happens more commonly than you realize.

Meeting Up With A Snake
Is another sign of good fortune. Whether in your garden, inside the home, or out trekking, if you meet up with a snake, it means something or someone important is coming into your life. Never ever try to harm or kill a snake when confronted with one. The more poisonous the snake, the better is the good fortune. The king cobra is described as a snake of extreme good fortune. Whatever you do, never kill a snake as they are also associated with some spiritual presence. They usually slither away themselves when they sense human presence.

When Your Hands Tingle
It is a sure sign that money is either coming to you or leaving you! The general consensus is that when it is your left hand that tingles, money is coming to you – the 4-digit kind or winning a lottery. When it is the right hand, it means money is leaving you. The same interpretation is also placed on hands that suddenly start to itch. If your left palm starts to itch, mercilessly rejoice. It means you are about to come into a windfall!

When You See A Shooting Star
And immediately make a wish, whatever you wish for will manifest within the next thirty days. If you are sick, you will get well; if your luck has been bad, it will take a turn for the better; and if you have just had a quarrel, you will make up. If you have lost something, you will regain it e.g. if you have just broken up with your boyfriend, you will make up with him or find a new boyfriend. Seeing a shooting star can be quite a common occurrence, so always have a wish handy. Close your eyes and wish fervently!

When Your Date Of Birth Adds Up To 8
(without any remainder) such as in 9/6/65 (9 + 6 + 65 = 80) you will be lucky all through the period of 8 which does not end until 4th February 2024. 8 is already a magically powerful number, so when one’s birth day adds up to 8, it is an indication of good luck. Those with kua 8 will also enjoy good fortune all through the period of 8.

When Your Ears Start To Itch
Many believe this meams that someone is talking about you. If it is the left ear that itches, it means that whoever is talking about you is saying nice things, while if it is the right ear, then whoever is talking about you is saying uncomplimentary things. Next time your ear starts to itch, you know you are being talked or gossiped about. Some say, “right for spite, left for love.” Others reverse this omen. If you think of the person, friend or acquaintance who is likely to be talking of you and mention the name aloud, the tingling will cease if you guess correctly!

When A Butterfly Flies Into Your House
This is commonly interpreted to mean that you are about to receive some important guests. If the butterfly has bright colours, it means the visitor will bring good news relating to your love life. If the butterfly is dark – almost black – the visitor is bringing you good news related to your career or business. Never chase a fluttering butterfly out of your house. They almost always bring good tidings. Do not try to catch it, as inadvertently killing a butterfly causes your good luck to change into bad luck.

When A Cat Comes Into Your House
It usually means some kind of bad luck. Usually black cats signify treachery and betrayal, so it is better to chase them away. White cats signify death, but some say that golden cats signify good luck hidden in bad luck. In the old days cats were often associated with witchcraft and bad omens.

If You Put On Your Clothes The Wrong Way Round
This is said to be a sign of extreme good fortune. It doesn’t count if you do this on purpose, but if for some reason you wear your clothes the wrong way round, it indicates that you will shortly receive some windfall or some very favourable news. This is a particularly good omen for those who have been suffering a spate of bad luck, as it suggests that your luck is about to change for the better.

Finding A Good Luck Symbol
Such as an acorn, a four-leaf clover, a horseshoe, a coin all spell good luck of some kind coming your way. You should not throw away the lucky symbol, as signs of prosperity often possess some excellent energy. It is also believed that if you bury them in a metal box in your garden, the good luck multiplies.

Meeting Up With A Cow
Is said to be a most auspicious sign as the cow is a symbol of prosperity and fertility. Of course this is not something likely to happen in big cities except perhaps in India where the cow is so highly revered it is allowed to roam freely on roads and highways and motorists are required by law not to run them down. But if you do take a drive to the countryside one day and are confronted by a cow, rejoice, because it suggests great good fortune coming your way!

When A Dog Comes To Stay
When someone brings you a dog as a gift or if a stray puppy decides to adopt you, welcome him or her into your home. A dog entering your home is a very favourable sign, as it means you will have faithful and sincere friends come into your life, helping you overcome obstacles of all kinds. Black dogs bring wealth and protection. Golden dogs bring prosperity and happiness and white dogs bring love and romance.

When You Hang A Flag
You should make very sure that it is hung up securely and that even with the daily wind and sun causing it to flutter, it should not fall. When any flag you hang up falls from the staff, it implies danger is coming OR that your success takes a tumble. A flag coming down sometimes also means a car accident or some tragic accident. On the other hand, when the flag flies proudly and flutters in the wind, it brings plenty of good fortune. Usually flags flying indicate victory.

Garden Creatures That Bring Good Fortune
Include insects and grasshoppers. If a grasshopper were to hop into your house, it means a very distinguished person is about to visit you. It can also mean that you are about to receive a great honour. Ladybirds suggest visitors, while frogs jumping into your home suggest money is coming to you.

When It Rains And The Sun Is Shining
The simultaneous appearance of the sun and the rain is a very good sign indeed. This is when it is most likely for you to see rainbows in the sky. Indeed when the sun is shining brightly and there is also a shower of rain, it means that everything you are working on will be successful. You will receive the support of some very important people. If a son or daughter is born on such a day, it is a wonderful sign of a great life. If you happen to be getting married on such a day, you will enjoy a very auspicious life together.

Temporary February Thaw

2010-02-08T21:07:00.000-08:00

Hiya....

Sorry about the lapse between posts. January was a tough month for me - not anything truly bad, just incredibly busy and distracted.

I am still writing and doing other stuff, and will be posting more frequently (hopefully) if you are eavesdropping on my life.

I'm going to think out a minimal schedule at some point (probably Mondays and Fridays). As far as posting content - I'm really going to play it by ear until I get back into business.

Am currently playing around with the blog format, because I got tired of the old one. I actually don't know what I'm doing for the most part, so you may see weird little things here and there until I figure out how to fix them.

Offhand, I am very glad it is February - even if we are facing the worst snowstorm of the winter this week (actually tomorrow). I can smell spring approaching deftly and secretly, nudging the sun out a little earlier each morning and letting it stay out just a little bit longer each evening. And I can actually smell spring. Visited the grocery store today and was thrilled to see the garden section is up and running. The one section was filled with citronella candles of all kinds. I love that smell. I was seriously in heaven.

Olympics are coming up next week - which means I am going to be rooting for USA in all of my favorite sports - including (gulp) curling. Yes, I enjoy watching curling and wish that all of the guys on TV would stop joking about it like it is the worst thing since boiled spinach. It is only fair, since I don't offer my true opinion of golf.

At any rate - I'm working on things and should be posting more regularly. And yeep! This also means I'm going to start checking out the blogs on the side and following properly, including commenting. If you suddenly see an influx of comments from me (not likely to happen, since I'm generally a gentle lurker in most cases), it just means I'm moving around again. I believe that the frigid dry winter temperatures froze me in a dark earthen spot for a month or two.

So rah!

Emerges Briefly

2010-01-13T18:16:00.000-08:00

Hi!

I have been busy writing, editing, living, and bundling up to stay warm (seriously - this is the first winter in a long time that I packed a blanket in my car for my morning commute).

And to be a bit honest - the only times I've thought about the blog are those times I'm at work and a little shy about blogging on the job. :)

I'll try to talk a little bit more frequently so my blog stays alive. If you are still looking in on me - thank you so much. *waves in sheepish gratitude*

I did have two thoughts today (OK technically more than that) -

If somebody tells you that you wrote a 'See Spot Run' novel

This came up at one of the writing places I hang out at. The writer was upset because a critter had made such a comment about his/her work, and he/she didn't quite know how to react.

This instance reminded me of something that I'm fighting with in my own writing. When somebody tells you that you wrote a 'See Spot Run' novel, they are trying to communicate to you in a rather rude way that you are telling them stuff instead of showing them. And it possibly is a hint that your writing style and sentence structure is too simplified and too unvaried.

See Spot. See Spot run. Clever Spot. Spot sees Jane. Spot likes Jane. Spot runs to Jane. (or whatever - it's been years since I've seen one of those books).

I would say the best thing to do is seriously look over your writing and keep an eye out for 'telling' if that is your problem. If you are guilty of writing over-simplified sentences, that just means you need to pick them up and flesh out your story. Make your reader feel like they can see and feel what's going on. If you aren't sure how to do this, pick up the nearest book and check out the sentence structure. Compare it to your own writing.

This doesn't mean nitpicking about adverbs and scoffing at the Mary Sue's and Gary Von Stu's that run amuck in X popular novel. This means picking up a book like that one and seeing how that author conquered the basics.

Something I'm doing while editing is keeping an eye out for any lazy writing and cliches.

Lazy writing would be any of those spots where you have characters acting unrealistically because it fills dead air and moves the plot along. I let this be in first draft, but when I go back and edit I try to fix these areas.

Cliches - one thing that cracked me up was the fact that I had unconsciously created an Edward type character in the first chapter of this WIP I'm working on. At the time I wrote the first draft, I hadn't read Twilight yet and hadn't even seen the movie. Imagine my shock when I picked up my novel for editing earlier this month and realized that I had the female main character moving to a new school and encountering a creepy white faced vampirish guy with messy dark hair in her first class of the day. The guy acts strangely towards her and doesn't actually talk until they both skip Health class. She skipped because she accidentally burned her hands. He skipped because they were discussing diabetes and pricking fingers. He had a fear of needles and skipped.

My hair stood on end when I read the book and spotted all the similarities - as subtle or general as they might be. I'm cutting or changing all of that, literally bending over backwards to make sure that nobody thinks about Edward when they read Nico's sections. :)

With the lazy writing, I'm noticing spots where Nico and Wesley (two main characters) are chatting in the hall outside one of their classrooms. I wanted to show an underlining tension coming from him, because his life is complicated. The same thing is true of the other main character (Kelly) who is the only student besides Nico who notices the new student (Wes). These are characters who I intend to be major characters by the fifth or sixth chapter, but I need to build the tension early on when they are first introduced - this without slipping into the cliche territory.

The way I'm doing this is concentrating on real life people that these characters are based on. I'm constantly thinking about how those real life folks would react if they were in the same position as these characters, or dealing with the hefty personal problems. It's also a way to keep the dialogue realistic.

About dialogue - if you think about TV shows (like reality ones where they aren't scripted) - a lot of them are edited so tightly that every snippet of dialogue moves the plot or subplot (which could be character development) forward. If there are any random conversations, they are muted or brushed over. See? Watching TV can be very educational.

Relations

2009-12-27T20:04:00.001-08:00

I'm diverted from my writing by the information that my youngest sister and her boyfriend are spending quality time in the living room at parents' house. This would be something that the oldest sister and boyfriend did for two years before he popped the question and they shortly after married.

That is to say - things seem to be calmed down with the family and our way of handling the interloper.

He is still not exactly what the parents want in a son-in-law. But he has been going to church with her for the last year, given up dating everyone else (including his strange Scrubs-like relationship with another guy), and he spent Christmas with my family instead of his own.

Her car is a victim of the weather (dead battery, frozen gasline, or bad starter/fuse) - which means she is stuck at home and had no way of driving over to his apartment to see him. So he came out to see her the last two days.

Good on him.

I'm humored at the moment, because I sat down with the lovely and thick Jane Austen collection book that mom gave me for Christmas. I opened to page 187 and immediately saw the following paragraph:

"Because honour, decorum, prudence, nay interest, forbid it. Yes, Miss Bennet, interest; for do not expect to be noticed by his family or friends, if you wilfully act against the inclinations of all. You will be censured, slighted, and despised, by everyone connected with him. Your alliance will be a disgrace; your name will never ever be mentioned by any of us."

This was the speech which Lady Catherine gave Elizabeth upon falsely hearing from Mr. Collins that E and D were involved and about to declare marital intentions and relations to the world.

I read that parag and laughed, because it reminded me of all of our correspondance with Elizabeth (baby sister) when she and boyfriend began their courtship on the wrong foot according to our family. There was a difference of culture and values between his family and ours. Liz got caught in the middle and chose his side. She fled with him to Chicago and afterwards moved into his apartment with him and two other guys. Our parents meanwhile were stuck with all of her growing debts and dealing with debt collectors (they'd call up to 20 times a day looking for her) and were panicked and worried sick over her moral and physical welfare.

My sisters and I understood Liz' conflicted emotions, but stood by our parents. There were many emails from us to her, begging her to moderate her behavior and not burn all of her bridges.

Let me just say my remaining sisters and I watch Pride and Prejudice and read it with a different perspective than before. The situation with Lydia especially... hits close to home.

It is definitely a reason why I appreciate Jane Austen's books, and always have. While Charles Dickens used his writing to pour out his own personal grief and frustrations in life and gain the relief and satisfaction which he may or may not have found in real life, Jane Austen used her pen to explore some of the social situations which impact people and families even now. She either experienced those things herself in life, or perhaps she was a very observative bystander.

Lazy Americans

2009-12-27T16:44:00.000-08:00

"Lazy American Students -

Writing Note here before I get carried away - I am writing, slowly but surely. One of my projects. I have a vague goal of having one of my favorite projects ready for crit by my birthday (September) and then possibly ready for query by Spring 2011. That is my more generous goal. I really want to have something to query by my birthday.

The above link goes to a muy interesante article regarding one teacher's perspective on the American education system, and in particular her American students vs. foreign transfers or immigrant students.

Chinese undergraduates have consistently impressed me with their work ethic, though I have seen similar habits in students from India, Thailand, Brazil, and Venezuela. Often, they’ve done little English-language writing in their home countries, and they frequently struggle to understand my lectures. But their respect for professors - and for knowledge itself - is palpable. The students listen intently to everything I say, whether in class or during office hours, and try to engage in the conversation.

Too many 18-year-old Americans, meanwhile, text one another under their desks (certain they are sly enough to go unnoticed), check e-mail, decline to take notes, and appear tired and disengaged.

Of course, it would be wrong to suggest that all American students are the same. I’ve taught many who were hardworking, talented, and deeply impressive. They listened intently, enriched class discussions, and never shied away from rewrites. At their best, American students marry knowledge and innovation, resulting in some astoundingly creative work.

But creativity without knowledge - a common phenomenon - is just not enough.

On the subject - personally speaking, I believe it is a culture thing. Speaking for myself, it is really easy to not take the education side of school seriously when your parents, teachers, and peers are pressuring you to have a normal social life. I could be wrong, but elsewhere, parents pressure their kids to put their education first. This could be because a quality education is the difference between living in utter squalor and being successful and going places.

There are other things - like I'm sure we all had to read Amy Tan in college. There is one short story taken from one of her books, where the protagonist's mother is trying to steer her daughter in a direction where she will be rich and famous. The daughter obeys and fails each time, and grows up resenting her mother for pushing her so hard and never being satisfied with her as is.

Compare that to a Christmas movie I watched over and over the past week... I forgot the name of the movie, but Melissa Joan Hart (one of my alltime favorite actress people) plays the main character. She is all set to have a really cwappy Christmas because she has to go home for the holidays and she doesn't have anything BRILLIANT to show her family - not even a boyfriend. Her older sister is going to college to become a lawyer. Her brother is practically married to somebody. She is the only one who doesn't have a lot to show - and she works at a diner as a waitress. So she kidnaps Mario Lopez' character, drags him home with her, and introduces him as her boyfriend.

By the end of the movie, her parents fall apart and mom attacks dad for trying to mold the children into mirror images of him - all successful, respectable, wealthy, and fab. And one by one the children confess how they are all well short of his expectations (sister dropped out of college, brother dumped gf and is gay, Melissa Joan Hart's character is now a felon).

Actually, the only person who stands up and embraces being successful is Mario's character, and the cool thing is he explains how he worked for every bit of his success on his own - this because he came from a poor background.

On one hand... I'm thinking that the movie had one thing right - there is nothing wrong with doing what you want in life, instead of bending yourself out of shape to fit somebody else's expectations. That is the American way. Our kids are taught from daycare on that they can be whatever they want in life. If they think that math is a braincell-straining-nightmare, then nobody is going to push them to become an engineer like Dad. If they want to play games for a living, then maybe there is a career that needs somebody like that.

Hey! Anybody watch Stargate Universe?! The main character is a video gamer who was swooped up by the army because of his gaming skillz.

On the other hand, movies like that drive me nuts - especially since so many are aimed at kids. Somehow or other, they take respectable and wealthy people (who worked for their living) and tear them down to size just because they wanted their kids to be successful and self-sufficient. It kinda encourages parents to look the other way when their kids spend high school and even college goofing off with friends instead of going after those difficult and demanding degrees where they are certain to get a hugely successful job.

ALL RANTING ASIDE -

I read that article a different way, at least from the aspiring writer's perspective.

That line - "creativity without knowledge - a common phenomenon - is just not enough" - reminded me of something I was gabbing about with my older sister the other night. This was after I read "Twilight" and realized to my HORRRRRRRROR that I enjoyed it (you know I did if I started reading Christmas afternoon and didn't stop until 5AM yesterday morning).

We started out discussing Twilight and how I refused to read it beforehand. Then we gabbed about people who simply refuse to read - period.

There are actually people who only read when absolutely forced to (like in HS and college), but spend all their time writing.

I know how easy it is to get into the mental block that reading while writing might unconsciously affect your writing style. This is so true! But the risk is well worth it considering how reading expands your mind and perspective beyond the confines of your skull.

Because writing is so solitary an exercise, it is very easy to get into writing block situations - recycled characters, situations, unrealistic plotlines based on your own narrow worldviews, etc...

Reading teaches you how to develop stronger characters and to go out of your own personal comfort zone.

And not just reading fiction.

Go online and read everything you can of the news, gossip, history, and science.... everything you think will expand your mind and feed it new ideas. And also learn to see the world as other people might see it.

This doesn't mean you have to give up your own viewpoints and go wishy-washy. It just means that when you decide to write a novel with a current issue (teenage pregnancy, for example), you will know how to write that novel to show a certain viewpoint in a way that it can be absorbed by people who have other viewpoints.

FWIW, I reached this 'open your mind and expand' point after logging onto a sorta-religious chatroom and eavesdropping on people I thought I knew well. When chittering to them in person, it is easy for people to be on their best behavior and socially conscious. When it comes to writing on forums or elsewhere, these people turn into something different.

I was honestly shocked by their lack of understanding.... basically they held the proper viewpoints, but didn't know how to explain WHY. They never took the time to educate themselves. Theology is hard and boring, I understand. But if you go onto chatrooms and start arguing with people over theology, you better know how to explain yourself.

What usually happens is these people resort to emotional warfare. And fight by personally attacking their opponents. Their weakness is immediately perceived by their opponents who go to town exposing that ignorance and capitalizing on it. Those opponents not only destroy the ignorant-arguer, but use the ignorant-arguer to attack the establishment that the ignorant-arguer was trying to defend.

This is something that may and frequently does happen with beginning writers.

The DARK SIDE of Christmas Shopping

2009-12-16T07:35:00.000-08:00

I thought about this topic after seeing a headline from someone else's blog and relating it to my own experience yesterday while visiting the local Target for dolls for my niece. I also stopped over in the cologne dept, looking for my younger brother's favorite cologne. It also occurred to me to look for my sister's favorite perfume (I haven't figured out the difference between cologne and perfume, and instead of looking it up or asking, I idly assume they are male/female type words like blond/blonde, yes my bad) since I was over there and everything was on sale.

What happened instead was I saw all of these perfumes that I wanted, and it distracted me from the real reason why I was standing in the aisle.

The same thing happened when I was in the jewelry and then the clothing sections of the store. I saw ME THINGS, but forgot to look for THEM THINGS. Fortunately, I didn't buy anything for myself. My conscience/budget reared its authoritative head and ordered my compulses and my checkwriting hand to cease and desist.

Heh.

But this reminded me of something in writing.

See? There is always a correlation. ^.~

Basically:

I've also found myself many times sitting down to write a new chapter, and only thinking about what I want to see in the chapter. There's nothing wrong with that. You SHOULD enjoy what you write, especially since you will have to write it over and over again until it is publishing quality.

The problem is when you verge in the 'lazy writer' direction and forget you are writing for somebody other than yourself. Means you have to be a bit more universal in your topic (there is ALWAYS a topic) and you have to remember that agents and publishers are not evil meanies who reject your work because they hate you. It is a business. They will take on something if it will sell. I know there are agents who say that they won't take a project if they themselves do not have a passion for it, but I'm sure they will make compromises if the market is selling projects of that type. It's survival of the fittest.

In Christmas shopping terms, it is either buying shampoo for somebody who is bald, or buying a certain kind of shampoo for somebody who already had ten full bottles of the same exact shampoo.

Maybe find out what that person already has TOO MUCH of and see if you can give them something similar but of a different fragrance. You still get to get them what you want (shampoo), but it will be snagged up with joy.

What? Am I the only one who gladfully snags up presents of new bottles of shampoo, soap, and lotions with joy on Christmas? They can get expensive if you buy them yourself. :)

Twitter Twash

2009-12-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry about whatever anyone might have seen down on the twitter feed. I'm not sure WHY this happens, but once every while somebody else's feed appears instead of mine. I don't know if the person is a troll trying to get attention, or if this is something I can blame on Blogger for being stupid.

I just did a quickie search, and apparently this is a known problem with 'third party' (meaning blogger, myspace, etc) widgets. I had to use the official Twitter widget, which you can see below. Shouldn't ever happen again - fingers crossed in hope.

Sorry again if you saw whatever - and nope, that wasn't me.

Where I've been....

2009-12-15T15:14:00.000-08:00

More or less...

I finished NANO, and then went through a week of nought - meaning I did absolutely nothing worth mentioning in a literal and writing sense. I've been going over my budget and writing up Christmas lists - and checking both twice.

Then starting this past weekend, I started my Christmas shopping. First it is window shopping, and now I have money to spend, it's buying presents. And happily I'm staying within my budget. Squee!

Ahem. On a less mundane front!

I picked up a new writing project. This is a supersecret one that I've been thinking about for a while. It's based in the same world of another supersecret project, both which will shy away from the real world until summer I think. At least I hope to have them done by then. These are both YA fantasy novels of the same type as my NSAM and MQTRTDTP projects (two old favorites), except they are a bit more between the urban fantasy world and epic fantasy world. I realized that some agents may be looking for something like Harry Potter or Twilight - not the plot, but the semi-real world setting - and I took that tip and picked up this new world.

I'm also working a little bit on Marbles, though I'm treading very carefully on that one. I really don't want to mess it up. It needs a lot of editing and revision work still, but I know it has the right feel.

My nano - I put aside until I have time to pick it up. I want to gather more ideas before starting again. It needs to simmer on the backburner for a while.

Christmas vacation is coming up in three days. HURRAY. If I don't get too buried by baking, shopping, visiting, sleeping, eating - heh, I may take one of the above projects (not nano) and surge ahead. I hope.

RANDOM ADVICE

I was going to describe some people as villain or Wormtongue type fodder inspiration, but realized that it wouldn't be very kind or polite - even if I'm confident that the two characters I wanted to mock were not very likely to find my blog (they think novels and novel-writing is the work of the devil).

Instead I'm going to broadbrush this and say something that I know we have all heard: if you are at a loss when it comes to building a believable bad guy without resorting to cliches and borrowed traits, open your eyes and watch and listen to people around you.

Even the best of people show their faulty side on occasion - and they are all the more dangerous, because they have the trust and good opinion of people around them. People would find it most difficult to believe that 'wonderful x' could be capable of such VILE behavior. The wormtongue types too, whatever else you feel (disgust, annoyance), you feel somewhat guilty picking on them, because you wonder if they are 'children' or have a mental problem which causes them to behave in such an odd or paranoid way.

The best characters in the world are those that have a human base - whether they are based on somebody the author knows personally or somebody the author imagined based on research into the character (bios of Marie Antoinette, for example), people in the news (criminals like Knox out in Italy, the girl who murdered her roommate), even people that the author only knows a bit about (like people you meet on online forums).

Keep in mind I heard about a case somewhere about a woman who sued an author for writing her into one of his/her books - and she won!

While you borrow from real life people that you may know, for goodness sakes! Don't put those people in any recognizable fashion into your books.

OTHER

When writing accents and such, be aware of the thin line between gimick and worldbuilding.

A proper accent can definitely put a reader right there in a setting and help them see and hear everything.

Too much of a proper accent can also make a book unreadable for somebody who doesn't want to muddle through pages and pages of mangled words.

CHRISTMAS PLANZ

As noted by the pic way above, that is about all I'm MAINLY thinking about this moment, when I'm not thinking about writing. :P

I may do more posts during the next couple weeks, or it might be as skimpy as it has been the last month and a half.

If you are following the blog or peeking in - thank you and welcome!!!

If you follow me, I'll be sure to follow you back (as long as your blog isn't something... ooky or creepy), and I'll keep an eye on you - in a nicest way possible, of course.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays <- I should post before then, but you never know in case I get VERY BUSY.

I hope and pray the holidays find you safe, warm, and happy with your loved ones at home. If this has been a bad year for you, ah, you are not alone. I'm sure I'm not going to be the only one gleefully cheering the banishment and death of 2010. Horrible year that it's been. Speaking to friends at work and on the road, everyone has high hopes for the year to come. May it be.

Encouragement and Confusion

2009-12-02T16:37:00.001-08:00

The above picture (martial arts fun in Gaza) could be taken a couple different ways:

1) The next time you go to Kickboxing class and feel vindictive towards your teacher, because he's making you do those horrible squat/kick combos which leave your legs feeling like brutalized flubber, go look at the above picture and put a relieved smile on your face. Your evil teacher could always go the total demonic route and have you lay on a board with your head pressed into what looks like a pile of octopus* while your classmates dance around on your back.

2. The next time you sit down to read through your novel and edit it into shape, even though you are starting to hate reading the same thing over and over and thinking that getting published isn't worth stretching your poor helpless brain out of joint in trying to read your work as a stranger would, despite the fact you have been mulling over the same chapter for the last month at least trying to figure out why the scene doesn't zing like it should - take some relief. Somewhere out there somebody is being forced to lay flat on a board thing with his face squashed in a pile of octopus* while his classmates (or enemies?) dance on his back. Editing is easy compared to that, surely.

The CONFUSION part of my post today has to do with sorting out my emotions upon reading the summary of Meg Cabot's new book coming out next July. She describes it as the 'sequel to Dracula'. The main character, Meena, is a writer who is being forced to write about vampires even though she's sick of them. She meets a vampy guy with a Romanian last name who is like a real life prince. Of course she falls in love with him and then discovers that he's technically dead. Oh, and she also can see the future of everybody she meets, but doesn't know anything about her own future, which leaves her wondering if she has no future.

Two alarms went off in my head -

1 - When I saw sequel to Dracula. I hate Dracula.

2 - When I saw the seeing the future of everyone she meets, etc. Because that's a cliche thingy. I've really seen it a lot in the books I've read.

*exhales*

But it is Meg Cabot!

She's one of my favorites, and I usually enjoy whatever she writes.....

But is's so cliche... and... and... Draculaisbleh.

Maybe it's going to be one I borrow from the library.... This is "Insatiable". See the Meg Cabot link on the right.

............. <- Yes, I've been abusing these things again. You should see my NANO project. Gleeps. I blame the fourth finger on my right hand getting carried away.

Repeats:

LoOk B4 U LP - whether it is on forums or twitter or blogs, there will always be people who go all ranty about things to the point they are abusive and meanspirited. Protect yourself and don't try to reason with them. You can always ignore them until they get over themselves. :)

*Upon second look at the picture, the octopus looks more like somebody's dirty laundry all bunched up. Which may well be a lot worse than being face-rubbed into seafood. Dirty laundry could be a weapon of mass destruction from some people....

Writing Joy

2009-12-01T18:48:00.000-08:00

This would express the mood I'm in right now.

At first I was disappointed when I recalled a little too late that my new favorite TV show (V) is on pause until March, next year. But then I sat down with my computer and began working on nano revisions.

I chopped the novel down to 10,000 words - which yes, I know is APPALLING and against everything that NANO should stand for. It is my most severest post NANO cut ever - agreed. But as I mentioned before, I was not very happy with some of the chapters which I felt went the wrong direction. I printed them off for reference, but deleted almost all except the first four chapters of the novel.

So I got a little writing and revamping done tonight (and plan to do more), and I'm just in an upbeat mood. I feel like I can do this.

Oh, yes. Today was a good hair day too. Maybe that's all I need to make me feel more positive and glowing about everything - including the normally dreaded revisions. Every day should be a good hair day.

LoOk B4 U LP

2009-12-01T15:38:00.000-08:00

This is something that occurred to me this morning when I saw a comment from somebody responding to something someplace else. This person is a teenager, I think, but I understand how he/she felt the NEED to speak up and dive into a barbed wire trap. I've felt the same way in the past, right up to last year - even though I'm not a teenager. There is that feeling like you have to stand up for what you believe in. But you are going up against sharks who start swarming as soon as you take their bait.

Something I've done or have started to do now - learn to walk away from conversations if you start to see the warning signs that they aren't civil conversations at all, but a tank full of those nasty sharks out to rip into the first gullible surfer to stick a leg in the water.

So!

If you are that teenager, or have felt like that teenager at some point of your internet and forum surfing life, keep everything in perspective.

Learning to walk away from conversations gets a lot easier if you take the lesson from Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice), when she's telling Caroline Bingley how to ruin Mr. Darcy's good mood -

"Laugh at him."

Ok, maybe don't laugh at ALL of them, but sit back and sort out their weird little deals.

Look at their conversations in general and consider all of their weak points and human fralities. Everybody has a weakness and character defect. Sometimes it is just a minor case of thin skin, or an impulsive temper (like me). Other times it is a bit more serious, and explains why they seem to be so bitter and hateful all the time.

In general, the main reason why people go trolling around trying to pick fights is because it makes them feel intelligent and important. Maybe in real life they're that awkward guy at the gas station on the night shift - you know, the one who looks like Napolean Dynamite except he has pimples and doesn't look people in the eye when they talk to him. I always feel so sorry for that guy at our gas station. Shyness and lack of self-confidence are the WORST things to overcome.

Or it could be that person who claims to live in an exotic location really lives in a cramped and rusty mobile home in a bottom level mobile home park where they are pretty much stuck because of the poor choices they made earlier in life. Or maybe this person DOES live in an exotic local, but is all alone because his/her friends have forgotton that he/she exists.

Once you humanize your attackers, it becomes a lot easier to shrug off their "Need for Attention" inspired attacks.

Or if they said something that really hurt, you can always sit back and wait. They are the types who get bored very easily if they don't have somebody to fight with. At some point, they are going to attack the wrong person and be handed their own gravy in a care package with a little bitter mustard on top (which sounds utterly disgusting, I know).

End line here - don't take trolls too seriously. They usually hide under bridges for a good reason.

Weakness

2009-11-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

Just for the record, there is nothing worse that having a low normal temperature (95.5-96.5). Because nobody believes you when you walk around complaining of fever and chills when the temp goes up to 98.5.

And why is it my head feels like it's floating gently from side to side up and down even though I'm just sitting still. What is going on inside of there!

*pokes sides of head gingerly, half afraid something might poke back*

NANO 2009

2009-11-28T19:53:00.000-08:00

Just remembered that the Nov 25 deadline has passed and it was time to upload my entire NANO novel on the NANOWRIMO site to get my Winning count.

I get to brag...

54,600 words - at least according to my computer. I'm not sure how but the NANO official counter added a couple hundred extra words to my total. Er, which I'll take. :)

Rah!

Fwiw - I still like last year's banner the best. This year's banner seemed a little blah compared to the past two years. Just saying. <- And that might just be my dazed and confused swaying inflato head talking.

For the Word...

2009-11-25T13:40:00.000-08:00

While looking up cheesecakes for Christmas*, I came across www.sporkorfoon.com and saw the picture above.

Although I'd been planning to cut back on cookies this year and only make MY FAVORITES (Kolacky, Walnut Crescents, Shortbread, baklava), I'm sadly losing control of my will again.

It won't hurt to make a few sugar cookies... I suppose. Maybe a dozen or two...

*Every year, my oldest sister (Marianne) and I have a cheesecake competition. About this time every year, we start our recipe hunt trying to find a new and different cheesecake recipe to try out, and we keep it secret until Christmas Eve, when we actually make the cakes.

This year, I'm thinking about doing a pumpkin cheesecake - as it's probably one of those I haven't done in a while. It is also to make up for the cheat I did last year.

Fact: My mom (the judge) loves anything with strawberries in it.

I was out of ideas and made a quick and easy strawberry white chocolate swirl cheesecake last year. This was made with gelatin, so it was lighter than the baked kinds (yet another cheat, as my mom's constantly dieting).

It was yum, and I won as I evilly knew I would.

This year, I'll play a fair game. Ur, even though I did wonder what a pumpkin cheesecake with strawberries would taste like. :O

Don't do this - any of it!

2009-11-25T12:50:00.000-08:00

A word of advice:

If you want to find an agent for your novel, posting a query on Craigslist is not the way to go.

The following particulars especially show you might not be informed as to how the publishing industry works.

Location: MI, NY, CA, IL
Compensation: Going Literary Agent Rate or Best Offer

RULE #1 - You do not pay an agent to represent you (although some might charge you random fees for copies, possibly). They make their money after the book deal.

Could be this woman meant that, but the way this ad is written, it makes me wonder if she's getting a lot of scammers suggesting an hourly rate for handling her work.

Also -

I also have a finished screenplay that could also use the benefit of a literary agent to sell.

I could be wrong, but I really don't think agents handle screenplays. Or not the same kind of agents.

OH GOSH! Here is another one!

I am a writer i have written many short stories and a book. I am working on a sequel to the first book and a skit that would fit the format of shows like saterday night live. I am having trouble publishing my book and I am looking for an experienced agent to help me get it published. The job would pay based on how much i make. i need an agent asap so please reply quickly to the listed email XXX or call me at XXX and ask for XXX to schedule a time to interview

No! Don't DO THIS!!! You are just asking for somebody to come swooping in and scam you.

Furthmore -

This book is kinda of a spin off the Larry David show Curb Your Enthusiasm and the movie Crash. Where this will be a best seller because of the outrageous funny rude people I have met over the past 40 years. This project is for Journalism students, and previous writers who want to Co-Author a book that will pay Royality's if we sell 500,000 books we will both get some $2 million from the book alone not including what we can make off the movie. Look at the movie Paranormal Activity.

I just don't know what to think about this ad.

From the sounds of it, this is somebody who has a great idea but doesn't actually want to do the writing work. That part isn't the huge deal (because God knows there are good writers out there who are wall-blocked for ideas, or work best when given assignments).

The huge deal is I'm not sure how he thinks he will sell that many copies of a book.

Dude. o_O

Look, I have a great story to tell; a true story and I have been writing it but i keep getting twisted up...I need help and I am willing to share credit as well as proceeds for someone that can help me get this thing on paper.

This one actually...

Sighs.

Have you considered how much credit a writer wants for doing all of the work? Anyone can come up with a fantabulous idea. The writing work itself is the part that makes you a writer and the author. That's why ideas aren't copywrighted, but words are.

On one hand, I know how this feels. When you have this idea in your head, and know it will be good - then yes! It can be really frustrating when you can't get the idea to take shape on paper.

If you think about it in sculpting terms (something I wanted to do all day today, because I'm making some presents instead of buying them) it's like lying in bed dreaming up these fantabulous little statues which you want to make for friends and relatives. Then you sit down to sculpt and the clay is too hard to shape properly, or too soft and keeps falling out of shape. Or the paint just doesn't have the glossy finish that you dreamed of (clay statues don't have the same delicate shape and shine as porcelain statues, but I fall for the same daydreams every single time).

Back to the writing deal -

The best thing to do is work on becoming a better writer. Don't rush. Keep in mind that most qualified writing help books tell you to regard writing as an apprenticeship that may take YEARS before you master your trade. Until then, be patient and open yourself to learning and growing.

After NANO...

2009-11-24T20:31:00.000-08:00

I won NANO this past Sunday, though I haven't quite stopped adding to my word count. I haven't gone purple yet. I'd like to stretch myself upward to 60,000 words at least. I'm gaining that point at almost 52,000 words.

Yesterday and the day before I concentrated on going back to my first chapter. I'm fighting a couple of issues that have been bothering me, especially upon witnessing the usual quibbles about the Twilight series spurred on by the recent New Moon movie (which I want to go see).

The main guy character is an alien - or the type of aliens which I like to write about. This comes from my love of Stargate and also my latest fascination with the TV series V. There are nifty particulars about him, but I'm keeping under my hat right now.

Problem is I started the novel with him being a new transfer student - something that happened because he wanted to fit into the community while taking care of family business.

I keep flipping back to the scene where he walks into the homeroom the first time. It's like he's Bella and my main girl lead is like Edward. As if I subconsciously thought switching the gender roles would keep people from noticing the cliche.

Haha. You understand now why I felt COMPELLED to go back and rewrite that first chapter?

Writing plans for the weekend - I'm going to continue revising Bottles (my nick for the NANO).

Winning NANO

2009-11-20T05:59:00.001-08:00

I wasn't really going to do a blog topic on this, but it occurred to me when I saw grieving comments from people who began NANO with high hopes and then never got going. It also may expand on my viewpoint that the last thing you want to do is write cwap just because it adds to the word counts and you have lost control of the plot anyway.

See, my thought is that NANO is one of those affairs where nobody is watching over your shoulder. I know people who are pasting in sections they wrote months earlier for different projects - just so they keep making up the word counts per day. It's all for show, and in the end they won't have anything really to show for it.

There's nothing wrong with this, but it just... I dunno. It belittles the efforts of people who really are writing fresh material every single day and have a mostly finished novel by the end of the month. Then again, those people get the last word, because at least two that I know of have polished and cleaned up their novels in less than a year and have tentatively hooked agents. Compare that with people who deleted their nano novels directly after the Dec. 1 deadline, because it was such a mishmash of junk.

Speaking for myself - I have been in the in-the-middle camp. I am highly guilty of writing all my favorite scenes first and getting my word counts that way, while err... getting stranded in the end because all the dull drab annoying parts are left over waiting for me to get my bum into a seat and write them. :)

I'm also guilty of blocking a LOT of stuff out and pasting it at the bottom of my document while I continued to write and replace scenes I didn't like the day after I wrote them. That's why my 50,000 word WIP gets chopped down to 20-30,000 words after Dec.1. Gladly so.

That is completely different from continuing to write the novels in a steady line, even though you know a bad scene has led you in the wrong direction and you are wasting time writing stuff that you don't want to keep. That's probably about the time that some people get silly and start spoofing their work, just so the word counts grow. <- I could never do that. My brain doesn't work that way. I imagine if I had a novel like that, I'd wind up deleting the entire novel and going back to square one. Something that a LOT of people do.

W/regards to the people who ran into a wall and can't meet the first milestone (10,000 words), my advice is that maybe they just need to organize their thoughts a bit.

1. If they want to just be able to have 50,000 words in the win column, they can do the spoof route. While I look at that as a waste of time that could be better spent on something that WOULD sell (even if I stop doing nano and go back to my old novels), other people see it differently. As long as you are writing and playing around with characters and worldbuilding, you can look at it as practice for that moment when you are READY to write that novel.

2. Don't compete with people who are better writers than you are. Do what you know you are capable of - especially if you are like me and have a dayjob. I know a lot of people get burnt out and stressed during NANO, because OMG! I'M SO FAR BEHIND THE BFF AND LOOK LIKE A BAD POKY WRITER! GADS! MY BRAINS ARE FRIED AND MY BURNING EYES ARE FALLING OUT OF MY HEAD AND I'M STILL BEHIND. I REALLY AM A CWAPPY WRITER!!!!!

Stop it. Just remember 1667 words a day wins NANO. If you really have a hard time nicking out 1667 in one sitting, then break it up. Write a little at different points of the day.

Poky or pokey? Pokie...?

3. Do what I do. When you get stuck trying to explain how characters know each other, even though one just appeared out of nowhere and gives off mafia vibes, jump ahead and write the scene you enjoy writing. I know somebody who wrote 20,000 words in her last week of NANO simply by writing all of the love scenes in her book. Made me laugh at her, but she was just happy she scrapped out a win.

4. Write or Die - I mentioned this in another post, but it really does help if you sit there and have to write 1000 words in a half hour, or DIE! It's all mental, but it helps. Do a couple of sessions of WOD a day, and you will stay ahead of the game.

5. Another trick when you are completely stuck and don't want to go the 'write anything' route - go back to the beginning and start expanding. This does two things. While you expand out in scenes, describing surroundings and developing your characters just a tiny bit more, you are also going back and finding the threads and intrigues which will hopefully guide you out of your blue funk and make you remember where you are going next with the novel. I've used this trick often, not just with this year's nano, but with other stuff in the past. It works.

6. Add action, throw in turns - thought I'd add this one, because it serves more than one purpose. By giving your character PROBLEMS to deal with, you are giving yourself plenty of material to constantly work with. Because, if you cause a problem, you have to show the character getting out of the problem. It also trains you to think outside the box and get away from cliches and similarities to novels already on the bookshelf.

The other purpose is that agents and them who know want to see more action and nonpredictable (as opposed to the 'blah predictable') turns. If you spend huge portions of the novel with characters talking and looking at each other (something I'm so guilty of doing in WIP), then you got more problems than your characters.

7. Indulge in all of your bad habits. This is not the same as writing scenes and whole chapters you do not intend to keep. This means, write as many adverbs as you want, because you can always edit them out. Start every chapter with your character waking up in bed, if it gets the ball rolling fast. You can always figure out a different way to begin each and every one of those chapters later. If you want to throw in sparkly vampires, do it. Just remember to change the vampires to something less Twilightesque when you edit. If you want to make your main character a Mary Sue or Gary Stu - DO IT and relish the moment. You will have plenty of editing to do later, but it isn't like you will have to scrap the entire novel. You will have something to work with.

8. Always remember that you don't have to be perfect. Agents request that people do not send their NANO novels in directly after finishing them. You are expected to edit and revise over and over until you have a polished product. So, see point # 7 and have at it.

9. Write up a quicky summary of what you want to accomplish in the novel. This could be an in depth synopsis like I wrote, including various notes and info I copied from around the web to help. I did this and sometimes consult those notes at different points. It keeps me from going too far off the beaten path.

10. Talk out your problems with your friends, even if you don't really want to show and tell re/your plot just yet. If you are stuck on something, then go forth and ask people questions. Don't expect anyone to write your novel for you. Gather inspiration.

********* Speaking of NANO *************

I've officially notched the 45,000 mark. This means I could be done with NANO - TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <- Yes, all of those exclamation points are necessary, because this would be the earliest I've ever finished.

The harsh reminder of limitations

2009-11-17T22:00:00.000-08:00

Or the limitations that go along with being human.

That is - a human who spends an awful lot of time sitting in front of a computer (at work) all day, and then comes home to do the same on own computers can expect to have certain issues with the blinkers.

I have a bad case of eyestrain, and have been trying to rest my eyes the last two days. It is slow going, but I'm hoping it's settling down. I tend to think that eyestrain is just like bronchitis and pneumonia. Once you have it, you will always be susceptible to developing it at the most inopportune times. Like NANO.

So I'm stuck at 40,000 words at this time, waiting for my eyes to calm down and defraz.

Wish everyone else luck with their writing and editing.

Random Thoughts...

2009-11-15T15:12:00.000-08:00

"All right, I'll admit it. Radisson, Georgia is a quaint little town. I say little because, well, it is. The welcome sign at the city limits boats a population of 14,877." - Ghost Huntress, Marley Gibson

The above quote made me grin, because I'm fully aware that the sign for my hometown boasts of 7,700 people. And we like to think of ourselves as busting out and growing. Certainly we are compared to neighboring towns who are still stuck in the hundreds. :P

Speaking of small townisms - stopped at the bank on my way home from work on Friday. This is a little story that has stuck in my head and has been bothering me all weekend long. The gal at the bank is vaguely familiar to me, but not to the point that I know her name or would tell her apart from my dog's vet. However, she knew me. I offered to show my ID, and she laughed at me. Said that she recognized me as one of the K- girls. She sees my mom and sisters all the time. Said we are so similar we are practically clones.

Ugh. I thought as I usually do when people say things like that, "Huh? Is she BLIND!"

It is something odd though, and I wonder how it would be described if writing in a book - people don't just recognize people based on the color of their hair, skin, eyes, or their height. They are looking at something else... I haven't quite figured out what.

Sunday - EARLY

2009-11-14T21:48:00.000-08:00

So I don't forget in the busy restfulness that is tomorrow...

Writing - hurrah and huzzah! <- I've moved my numbers up to 35,000 words typed. This means I'm officially 1/4 of the way through my plot and almost halfway through the novel. I have all of my characters introduced, detailed the backworld information, established my main character quite firmly, and suddenly brought a character (whom the reader is led to believe dead and rotting) back to life. Or at least, her texts. As in, she's suddenly texting her sister after being mia for two years. Where is she? Is it really her texting my main character? Oh my goodness! And that is where I stopped off tonight, because my fingers hurt. And my eyes are going crossed and blurry. Tomorrow is another day though, and there is always tomorrow for dreams to come true... *hums madly* Or, I'm hoping to hit 40,000 tomorrow. It can be done.

Writers Tooling Friend That would be "Write or Die", or This place. I used it all day today, and it got me 7000 (or so) words. What I usually do is set the word count to a manageable rate and speed (1000 words per half hour) and I get to work. I generally come away with 2000 words per 35 minutes, which I will definitely take. If you stop writing and get to daydreaming, the screen goes red and rather alarming looking. Supposedly it makes sounds as well... only I've never dared let it get to that point.

Round of Published Author Websites that I admire and browse frequently:

Maria Snyder - or she who wrote the Study books. I like how understated, noncluttered, but full and useful her website is.

Sherwood Smith - who is the reason I grew to love fantasy. It had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with that dull boy Tolkien. She has made herself very accessible to her readers and her readers who are writers, which I think is lovely of her.

Maureen Johnson - I'm sure I mentioned her website already, but meh. I loves it. And not just because waving my mouse over the buildings on the front page makes that ringing sound and I like little gadgets like that. Check her blog. So much fun.

Meg Cabot - who is the diva of authors, and probably the one who got me hooked on reading and writing books in the 'first person'. Nobody else does it half so well. Her diary is hilarious, but she also has an extremely helpful forum for writers. Check for necessary info.

I know I browse plenty of other author websites at random or as I have bookmarked around my computers... but these are the main ones that come to mind. Just lovingly sharing.

Books to read: I'm reading one book at this moment, and trying to make up my mind whether or not I like it. Invisible Touch by Kelly Parra. The writing is good (expected, as I like Kelly), but at different points the plot reminds me of something else I've read or seen. Hmm. I'm looking forward to hitting 40K on my WIP tomorrow, so I can relax the rest of the day, curled up in bed reading the rest of the book.

That is all off the top of my head.

Happy new upcoming week to everyone.

Hopefully it goes very fast and brings us closer to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Friday's Free Moment

2009-11-13T08:11:00.000-08:00

- before lunchbreak anyway.

NANO Writing: Going strong. I'm now just about at 28,000 words and aiming for 30,000 words before tomorrow. If I'm not too tired tonight, that is.

I was going to wait until Sunday to plop in my next post, but something occurred to me while reading Fiction Groupie's post yesterday (see bloglist on the right) about how to do a successful blog.

I've fallen off my blogreading this past month and a half while prepping for and now doing nano, but Roni's one of the handful of people I still regularly check, even though I don't always have time to leave a comment.

Roni's advice stands up, btw - I found her blog after she posted a comment on somebody else's blog. I snooped and immediately liked the way she knows her stuff but isn't overbearing about it. So I 'followed' her and began making a point to click on her blog every time it updates.

There are other people I follow regularly - some I have on my blog following list on this site, and some who I need to add to said blog following list - who are the same way. They don't always use their blog presence to lecture other aspiring writers on the finer arts of writing. There is this other blog I absolutely love which is done by two gals (sisters and coauthors). They blog on anything and everything, including celebrity critiques ala GFY (Go Fug Yourself where Fugly is the new Pretty). Love it. And there are other bloggers who supply info on the publishing industry as they themselves scope out possible agents and their likes and dislikes. And other bloggers who do book reviews and just post random comments on their life and writing progress.

There are many reasons to follow a blog... but it all comes down to maybe a couple rules:

1. Extend beyond your inner circle and acknowledge that your audience is a bunch of strangers who want to be entertained.

- Meaning, don't be tightly centered and assume you are talking to somebody who knows you well, is a relative or critting partner. Some people can pull this off if they have a theatrical sense of humor and can make cleaning house details sound like a RIOT. Like Maureen Johnson. I really haven't read any of her books (though I probably should, idiot me), but I'm this horrible stalker who is following her blog and twitter feed. I'd probably also follow her on Facebook, er... except I've made an eternal vow to pretend Facebook doesn't exist.

Treat your blog like a novel or a story and supply information if you think it is interesting and necessary. If it is just dull or mundane, infodumping, whatever, then edit it out.

2. Post regularly. If you slip on posting (as I have), you will lose the interest of new readers who will peep at your blog and think "Dead Blog" when they see the last posting date was a month ago.

*** Back to my original point. When I read Roni's post, I thought about myself and my blogging habits. I like people who post informative posts on the writing craft with all the howtos, bewaries, and inspiros, but I haven't really felt the tug to do such a blog myself. My excuse has always been: I'm an aspiring writer, I'd feel weird telling other people how to write. That's not going to change that much. If I've learnt something or have a little detail to share that might be helpful to other people, I'll post it, but in general, I'm shy about getting too bossy on a blog. :P

That said, the ironic thing is how I feel about dogs and training dogs. I'm training my young dog (that's him in my blog header) for AKC Obedience shows. We are in Novice B and getting ready for his shows (Novice B is the level you have to show at if you have already gotten an obedience show title on a previous dog, as I have). While I have met success at the training, that does not mean I'm expert or teach classes for a living.

Still, it was tickling at the back of my head to start writing an Obedience Training how-to blog to help people train their own dogs, or at least do all of the groundwork on their own before they get their dog to the first obedience class. Or even if they aren't going to do the obedience classes, there are still things they can and should do at home.

I'd post informative things on this other blog and be bossy about it, in other words.

I laughed at the contradiction... well, until I realized the wincing difference. Confidence

I guess I'm afraid of coming off like one of those people at dog class that you see sometimes.

There's a good example from a puppy class I went through this past spring -

I always show up to classes at least ten minutes early, to allow my dog to settle down and acclimate. I did so this one Saturday and did my usual quick warm up (basically walk around the room, mixed with quick sits and play comes), and then I sat down in my usual spot to let my dog relax while we waited for the teacher to arrive.

These other people showed up early and their method of warming up was completely different from mine. They...um... let their four mostly full grown poodles (think giant dogs about the size of a German Shepherd but 10X as hyper) loose to run around and play on the training floor.

OMG. I was in a state of shock - and not just because my puppy had jumped into my lap to get away from the four zoo animals whipping around the room at full speed in a four-way playfight.

The rule I've always stood by is teaching your dogs there is a time and a place for them to act all goofy and hyper - and that is never on the training floor.

Those people on the other hand thought they knew exactly what they were doing, and they were happy during class because their dogs were too tired out to behave badly during class.

When it comes to writing and writing advice, it could very well be the same thing. People who are a bit more rigid about writing rules (the outliners, for example) would probably die from shock if I started telling them how to succeed... my way.

Another example (and probably a more relevant one) that doesn't include dogs, I guess, is if you are a mom and a woman who isn't a mom starts telling you how to raise your child. <- Urk and ick, right?

Because I have a title (including two show wins) and years of training backing me up, I feel fairly confident offering dog training advice to people.

Writing though... even though I've published shorts.... I still feel somewhat unproven in my methods. Even if I had years of training and education behind me (which I do have), I still feel somewhat squeamish speaking up for fear of treading on uncertain ground and looking like an idiot.

Mweh.

How about you and your blogging habits? Do you feel somewhat embarrassed or second guess yourself when you give advice? Are there ever any points when you write this huge post on how to do something (like writing a query) and then feel like a total fraud?

Or is this lack of confidence the reason why you are mentally hiding under your bed when you think of all of the unpleasant sales work that comes after hooking an agent?

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH btw!!!!

Looks Hassled...

2009-11-11T13:53:00.000-08:00

Clicketty me

I'm using the computer without a proper mouse and paint program, so don't laugh at my really really bad graphic art skillz. :P

Or laugh. That's ok.

The above really bad pic expresses my quandary most days perfectly. Finding time to write when you really have a real life pulling you in other directions. Or, as my pic expresses and I feel today, I'm like a ladybug walking up a tree that has two main branches leading in opposite directions. The one I really want to go to doesn't have a branch at all and I'd have to go flying up after that goal, but it will make me look bad in front of my friends if I skip out on BOTH of them. <- Oh, ladybugs reveal their true beetle ID when they take flight and are less than adorable.

*sighs*

I'll have to make a decision soon.

Writing is going good. 20,000 words baby!

*** DANCES ON TOES!!!!!! <- My toes, not anyone else's'. :)

12:40AM ET - Finishing word count is close to 26,000 words. That means I'm a pinch over 50% completed. I'm now going to take care of my burning eyes and rest them for the night.

Aiming for 30,000 tomorrow. Hope I can get there.

Hope everyone else out there in the nanosphere are doing as well. :)

Irresistable Sidetrack

2009-11-10T10:39:00.001-08:00

Avert your eyes while I make a necessary sidetrack here -

Top 100 movies of the 00's -

Check out the list and see how you fare.

For my part, I was thinking that there were a a LOT of movies surprisingly NOT on the list. I know I've seen more than the following movies in the past ten years.

Least I'm pretty sure. :O

96 Shrek
90 Bend it like Beckman
79 Spiderman
75 School of Rock
66 United 93
64 Spirited Away
62 Devil Wears Prada
43 The Dark Knight
41 HP and the Sorcerors Stone
38 Pan's Labyrinth
33 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
31 Pirates of the Carribean
28 The Queen
9 The Passion
5 LOTR
3 Incredibles

That's all. I either chose not to see the others on the list, or I never heard of them. Bah.

Monday Pop

2009-11-09T06:27:00.000-08:00

*waves*

I'm still in nanoville over here.

15,000 words written. Which means I'm 30% into the game. Plenty more time to get the remaining 70%.

70% <<- Urk. So intimidating. Especially considering that last week I was at 90% to go. Unless I'm opening my Word doc and actually checking out the three chapters completed, it doesn't really look like I've done much. :)

Writing inspirations:

While reading the news this morning, I came across the one story about the guy in Colorado who woke early in the morning (Saturday or Sunday) to the sound of his dog barking. He went outside and found a dead body on his front yard. The body was that of somebody who had lived nearby.

That is a mystery waiting to be written. There is always a mundane explanation - the guy 's corpse got dropped off at the wrong house. The killer just randomly threw the body out of his truck/car/bike* and amscrayed.

*Yes, I'm mostly kidding about the bike, but you never know.

Where the imagination comes in is trying to figure out an out of the ordinary explanation for the body. Like maybe it was deliberately planted on that guy's property. You never know. I have neighbors who keep getting pranked by people who don't like them. They get dead deer or parts of a deer dropped off on their yard every once in a while. As the corpses appear to be several days if not months old, the neighbors assume they're getting planted.

Other story recently in the news which is a bit darker and... well, thought provoking is the one down in Ohio. That would be with the guy who had been living with 11 (if not more) dead bodies all over his house and property.

What an author can take from this story is the character details - learning how to create a perfect villain without falling into the cartoony "he did this evil thing because he is evil and likes to do evil things for the heck of it".

Looking at vids of the guy in court, I felt almost a bit sorry for him. I know that sounds BAD and I'm by no means excusing anything he did. It's revolting, horrific, terrible... monstrous. But that guy is clearly mentally ill. You can tell by the look on his face in the videos and pictures. I know people like that. They generally live in an alternate reality, and get all obsessive about imagined wrongs or perceptions.

One guy I know snapped suddenly in his mid-twenties. Suddenly he started talking about a relationship he had with a neighborhood girl who had died ten years before. A completely fictitous relationship that we knew couldn't possibly have happened. But he was convinced it had. He was convinced the girl was haunting him and he hated her passionately. And he was convinced regular girls he saw at the stores or elsewhere looked like her or were her. There was another neighbor, a boy this time, who this guy had a similar reaction to. According to the crazy guy's alternate reality, they were friends who played basketball together, but this guy betrayed him horribly, so the crazy guy hated him passionately and kept trying to get out and throw rocks and dirt at his house. That crazy guy had the same look in his eyes as that guy down in Ohio. As he got worse in his head, the more violent and obsessive he got about those people he hated. There is no telling what the crazy guy I know would have done if his family were not involved and keeping him under control.

The thing that bothers me the most about the case down in Ohio is the feeling like this sort of thing has happened before throughout history. If you read up on Jack the Ripper, it was basically the same deal. The unwanteds in society were preyed on and murdered. If anyone got away from the guy, they were afraid to go to the police because they had their own problems with the law. The local police were slow-moving or nonresponsive, because they had no real interest in that portion of society - because they were the common rabble and petty criminals.

It's just really sad and sickening how the worth of some humans can be less than others. Even now, the public reaction is mesmerized, but there isn't the same level of instant HORROR and OUTRAGE that happens when a single person of higher ranking in society is murdered.

Anyway - If you are a writer and trying to build a believable villain, consider cases like the guy down in Ohio and build the layers.

I DID have a post today, and this...

2009-11-01T19:01:00.001-08:00

...had something to do with my procrastinating last night before the NANO hour (I didn't make it - I fell asleep on my computer quarter to). I was looking up idioms, and found a website with a list of the more popular idioms, organized by alpha.
Here - http://www.idiomsite.com/

I read through and thought about a fun exercise for a future novel, and this may be something I take advantage of if I start wuthering off the deep path (or something mixed up like that).

Take the first idiom of every alpha and set it as a Chapter title. You would use that chapter title as a theme for that chapter, as you develop your plot and push forward.

I would honestly change the order of some of those chapters and trim out the ones that I find less inspiring or whatever, but overall this gives you a theme for every single chapter, and gives you a focus point for when you otherwise might be floundering in between plot points.

So:

CH1 Back seat driver
CH2 Dark Horse
C3 Feeding frenzy
CH4 Get down to brass tacks
CH5 Jaywalk
CH6 Make no bones about
CH7 Nest egg
CH8 Off on the wrong foot
CH9 Pass the buck
CH10 Raincheck
CH11 Saved by the bell
CH12 Under the weather
CH13 Van Gogh's ear for music
CH14 Wag the dog
CH15 X marks the spot

***

My (writing buddy) sister and I used to play the same game when we were bored. We'd write down the first line of every single page of a book we were reading, and figure out a story from the muddle. It could be hilarious sometimes what we came up with.

NANO HEADS UP

2009-11-01T17:17:00.000-08:00

I'm going to be posting less this month thanks to NANO work. I will still try to post regular stuff as it occurs to me and I'll still be checking in on people during the day, but expect that production may be hampered as I'm distracted.

I may post random weekend progress notes on the NANO blogsite. Those will be on Sundays, just before the start of the work week.

*nudges blogsite thoughtfully, it doesn't wiggle back like jello which seems to be good, I think*

Turn your attention to the sidebar...

2009-10-23T19:44:00.000-07:00

Or just go to this link: Agent Savant, Post Apocalyptic fiction the new trend in YA, bye bye vamps...

What do you think?

The main theme of this new breed of YA books (and Laurie gives examples in her post) is the bleak future when civilization breaks down. And about here I should note that I know various people who currently are writing dystopian novels. If they get done soon enough with the editing and revisions, they should be able to cash in on the new rush.

Personally speaking though, I can't say I'm ultimately thrilled. I don't like darkness and chaos. The other thing that worries me a little - the 2000's were ideal for fantasy and paranormal writers. It was our heyday with the Harry Potter and then Twilight series.

A dystopian novel on the other hand sounds more like scifi instead of fantasy. Makes me wonder if we are on the verge of scifi taking over the toadstool while fantasy slides sadly off the chart.

I'm not sure if readers of Twilight would switch over that quickly. I really can't see that. But who knows what the future will hold. Suppose a dystopian novel comes along that has the necessary romantic and supernatural elements to wood readers over... that would work, I suppoose. Does anyone remember the series Dark Angel? I LOVED that. I'd read something like that. :)

Have you done something smuggable today?

2009-10-23T17:18:00.001-07:00

I have.

Could be wrong, but a guy decided to pick today to be rude to me and label me as something I'm not by any stretch of the imagination. And he did this publically. This guy did the same type of thing a year ago at this time. That time I was a year younger and upset enough to send an email to moderators (this was a writing forum) and then I personally emailed him. He got into trouble then, at least judging by the moderator's response, they edited whatever he said, and that was that.

When he made his stupid comment today, it occurred to me to repeat my actions from a year ago. I actually typed up a very long email going into my private family history and experiences, and even the topics I choose to focus in my writing because of that history and experiences, to show how wack he was for throwing that label at me. And I wanted to send that email to him in a huge booyah backatcha thing.

But I deleted the comment and played the adult. I brushed aside his comments on that public forum. Something I remember from school days - if somebody tells a ridiculous lie about you, no comment is necessary to defend yourself. You just draw attention to the lie and make yourself look touchy. :)

Yep, it did hurt that nobody corrected him for me, but meh. It wasn't necessary in the long run.

Considering I'm impulsive by nature, it felt good drawing myself back and deleting that comment.

I smug.

I also stayed awake until 3:30AM yesterday, editing three chapters for my Marbles novel project. It's amazing how I can always find something to edit when I pick any of these WIPS up. But the edit lists are shrinking and for once I'm perfectly satisfied with the first few chapters of Marbles. They feel right.

I also stayed awake that long because I was seriously freaked out. My mom waited until midnight to call on me and tell me all about a Ghost Hunting meeting she attended yesterday. Ack!

The guy explained he first got into spiritualism when he was a teenager and he and a friend were playing around with a oujia board. He said that they wound up opening a vortex to a very bad place. The entire house smelled like rotting garbage and flesh, and they were freaked out about their grandma (it was her house) coming home to that. He read from the bible and suddenly the smells vanished.

There were other stories like that, going into local spots that he and other investigated. My mom was fascinated. Me? Well, I stayed awake, knowing I'd otherwise be lying in bed listening to every sound in the old house and twitching.

Paid off in the end, because I got necessary edits done.

Personal Reflection

2009-10-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

This has nothing really to do with writing, and it is personal. Long story short, there has been a rift between my family and the youngest. If you think about any of Amy Tan's books, she's like one of the protagonists, struggling for independance to the point that she will not permit herself to take comfort in what family and culture has to offer even if she just meet them halfway.

Everything my parents have said to her - it has given me a new appreciation of the one aria from La Traviata. This would be the one where the father tries to woo his wayward partying son to give up the salon life and come back home.

The sea and soil of Provence --
who has erased them from your heart?
From your native, fulsome sun --
what destiny stole you away?
Oh, remember in your sorrow
that joy glowed on you,
and that only there peace
can yet shine upon you.
God has guided me!
Ah, your old father --
You don't know how much he has suffered!
With you far away, with misery
has his house become full.
But if in the end I find you again,
if hope did not fail within me,
if the voice of honor
didn't become silenced in you,
God has heard me!

I've heard the same sentiments from my parents, reminding my sister than she knew only happiness and comfort in our home, that they love her and wish her no evil and would not hinder her pursuits. That they are there to support her, if she'd open up and kinda remember they aren't the enemies.

Call me names.....

2009-10-20T17:21:00.001-07:00

... but when people misspell things (consistently) and/or misuse words, it gets under my skin.

And I'm not exactly a fussy (1) type person who snickets about little weird things that other people scarcely notice or care about.

Yep. I'm guilty of typing whole passages (stories or comment) really fast, misspelling a few words and leaving other important words out. Or I phrase things wrong or backwards (because my brain works weird sometimes). But I try to correct as fast as I can, because little errors rattle my cage.

The funny (or sad) note about the story I published recently is I was terrified about what I was going to see when I clicked on the magazine and read my story as published. This has happened to me before, because not all online magazines edit the things they publish. They probably should, but sometimes minor typos sneak through. It's like with your local newspaper too, sometimes typos slip past all the editing staffs' eagle eyes. With online magazines slipped-past typos are all the more prevalent, because the mags have a smaller staff.

When I clicked on my story, you can bet I immediately spotted two errors that still bug me. I pointed them out to my sister (my writing and reading buddy for forever) and she laughed at me. Even though she is exactly the same way! Hfff.

Do other people feel the same way? Or are they ambivalent to their errors until somebody else spots them? Or do they just not care?

While browsing the forums on NANO (they are alive and stirring in anticipation of the month ahead), I noticed various posts with various blatant typos. These are the type of typos that are excusable if a child under ten makes them (my niece has the most endearing typos ever), but they get a little embarrassing the older you get.

I don't really like people who are correct all the time and put on airs. Everybody needs to remember that where they might have strengths, they still have weaknesses elsewhere. That isn't the point.

I'm just saying that if you practice good grammar in speech and good spelling/grammar in writing, it gets to the point where you instinctively spell and write things the right way the first time without relying on your spellcheck and critters for editing. And of course, you don't have to worrying about paying $ for editing services just to make your novel readable for critters.

I'm saying you should practice good spelling and grammar all the time, not just when you are officially writing. Good habits save time.

The other thing that bugged me is the misuse of words - and this quibble was triggered when I spotted somebody saying they were 'humbled' to receive an award. PEOPLE PLEASE STOP SAYING YOU ARE HUMBLED WHEN YOU MEAN HONORED OR PROUD. THANK YOU.(2) The proper use of 'humbled' would be in those cases when you realize how far you have to go to measure up to the greatness of others. I am humbled every time I read a great book and realize how much I need to improve my writing.

Random notes that may or may not have something to do with writing:

*Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote a sequel to the Phantom of the Opera (POTO). I'm not 100% sure of the title, but technically is "The Phantom of Coney Island". In the story, Eric has given up on Le Parisian life and moved to New York (or New Jersey) where he became the founder of the Jersey Boys. No, I'm kidding. He becomes the owner or something at a Coney Island (which apparently is some kind of park?!) . The story is all about him wishing he could hook up with Christine again. Something we know isn't going to happen, because we all saw the tombstone in the movie where she was the wife of Raul and mother of his offspring. I haven't the faintest idea WHY you'd want to see this. Even if the music is good (my sister has been listening to snippets on Youtube time and again, and vouches for the goodness). Phantom of Coney Island? That just brings up mental images of coney dogs and striped uniforms. Also, greasy coney island diners. Never!

*NANO is officially next week. Saturday. Midnight. Thanks to DST, it means I can stay up an hour later without worrying about being a zombie the next morning. YAY. I'm planning on getting my first 1000 words done. Tempted to cheat and begin at 11PM, claiming that in my house the clocks are switched before bedtime, not at 2AM. I'll behave though.

*We are having a real fall after all! Went for walk with doglet and friend, and it was warm and golden outside. I'm pleased. We have odd birds lingering in the area - possibly stopping in for the nice weather before they continue their travels south. Heard a bird call that made my heart twist up. It sounded like a hurt puppy. I almost thought it was a hurt puppy and would have gone trompsing rudely into somebody's backyard to check. It moved very quickly and silently almost a city block distance while still making that weird call. Very likely an owl or night hawk. This means I'll be sitting on bird id trying to find the exact same call.

*While looking up owls on "What Bird", discovered that a group of owls is called a "bazaar", "glaring", "parliament", "stooping", and "wisdom" of owls. Why do those terms crack me up? Particularly the "glaring". Can you imagine announcing to the world, "World, I just saw a glaring of owls." Haha.

(1) Said fussy, simply because I hate using the word 'anal', even if that other word would probably fit better.

(2) Yes, I screamed that, and it was necessary.

Monday Chatter

2009-10-19T06:23:00.000-07:00

Preliminary Weekend Summing

Writing - Some
Editing - Some

Some = I opened the document, stared, changed a word here or there, added a word here or there, deleted unfavored lines, saved, closed the document and called it a day.

My favorite excuse is I'm saving up all my energy for doing NANO, but in reality - I'm just really tired by mid-day and can't keep my eyes open. I'd like to be dramatic and claim sleeping sickness, but meh. Just change of the weather affecting me. It should settle down as my body gets used to the cold and early darkness.

Winter is officially here...

I bought a new horse blanket for my horse and put it on him. He looks adorable. Dark blue is his color (he's an old chestnut). He is also lame, possibly from the ground hardening up and the cold bothering his old joints. If my energy levels aren't too plummeted by end of working day, I plan to head out there with apples (because he's adorable) and a fresh pound of mineral ice (for joints).

We're lucky it's just joints bothering him. His older brother doesn't tolerate his shots the way he used to. He's sick bad.

Random Cheer

Not even the end of the month, and I have the company newsletter (my portion anyway) typed up. For fun, I plopped in something on Massasoit and how he and his tribe helped the pilgrims survive the first couple years of their existence. Fascinating guy, and I wish that somebody would do a Thanksgiving play on his side of the story. Or from a member of his tribe's perspective. Or maybe it would be better as a written story. Massasoit and his tribesmen went around completely naked, except for decorative furs thrown over their shoulders and beads strung around their waist.

This reminds me of a reenactment I attended this past year, where the clothing details were as true to facts as possible. This meant painted and naked 'indians' walking around in the woods by the lake. I couldn't believe they did that... er, with kids attending the event. Indecent exposure anywhere else, right?

The odd thing is the bio I read had a critical view of Squanto (does anyone else remember Squanto from their 5-8th grade history books?) and a positive view of Massasoit and the other 'indians'. What I can remember is how sorry I felt for Squanto becuase of how he was used and betrayed by everyone. Massasoit was downplayed compared to Squanto. In school, EVERYONE wanted to be Squanto. Poor guy.

Personal Good Advice for the Day:

I debated about adding this, because it does delve into personal life stuff, which = boring to most other people.

But I thought it was important, just in case anyone is going through the same thing.

I live in Michigan, which has been going through a major league recession. I thank-the-bosses still have a great job. Unfortunately, my wages have not gone up to balance out the rising costs of everything, so that means that most times I'm pinching pennies and stressing out about paying off credit cards so I can buy a car if and whenever I need to buy a new car (current car is 9 years old and starting to burn oil faster). Argh! Stress.

I realized I was making myself sick worrying about things, and that led me to opening up to my parents. Not asking them to pay my board bills, give me money, or whatever - I just wanted somebody to talk to, and somebody to tell me that everything was going to be all right. My parents are made of awesome and didn't mind me talking their ears off about everything. I'm still dealing with weather-change-sags, but at least the heartburn and migraines are less frequent.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you find yourself in my position. Don't do what I did for the past five months and hold it inside and let it eat you up. Find somebody in real life to talk to and ask advice from - preferably people who won't fly off the handle and slam you for not doing enough. It makes for a healthier mind. And of course, a healthier mind is more imaginative and inventive.

A Few Notes While I Edit

2009-10-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

*Excedrin is a miracle worker. The overal fug(1) that had wrapped around my head and suffocated off all of my energy and left me feeling like I'd been rolled over by a steamroller - GONE. Just two little white pills.

(1) Fug is a stuffy atmosphere: a stale or airless atmosphere.

*I have a very bad habit of using dashes, emdashes, and hyphens with reckless abandon. Must stop. Now. Without abusing periods, commas, and ellipses.

*Since I'm all perky (thanks to that lovely Excedrin boost), I'm going to see how far I can get in UF. 1000 new words tonight would be splendid. Am working in the adult first person pov version right now.

Friday Etc...

2009-10-16T11:44:00.000-07:00

Click on the below for a bigger image:

The above picture was the first thing I saw when I got the mail yesterday. Front page of the Wall Street Journal. My prayers are with his family, and I hope this doesn't come across as too callous if I note that I would come back and royally haunt my family if I were this guy and this was the only picture that they made available to the newspapers. Poor man.

For the record, in case I drop dead anytime soon, I already have a picture saved on my computer (somewhere) that I want to go with the obits. Nothing showing me awkwardly half-standing, half-lunging at the camera with a devious grin on my face (thanks to Disney, the grin of a green-eyed person is always devious).

Week in Review - Urk. We'll skip this.

Weekend goals - I got nothing. It's 3PM on a Friday, and all I'm thinking about is curling up on the couch, wrapped in my favorite blanket, and snoozing the evening away. Sleep. Sleep. Glorious. Sleep.

Personal note: Embarrassing, but I'm gullible. One of my sisters called and told me that my cat got inside a helium balloon and floated away. I was like, "What? (heart pounding) What happened?" I completely forgot about that national story which had me glued to the TV all evening yesterday. Or mainly, I was just listening to my sister's voice (darn she's good), registered something BAD happened to one of my creatures, and I didn't exactly hear what she said. Yah. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Random Query of Frustration...

2009-10-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

The previous post (telling families) reminded me of a personal issue that I'm dealing with right now with a family member, and I'm wondering if other people have the same problem or know how to handle this.

My brother-in-law is also a writer. If you think about the series Psych, he writes something like that except with superheroes. The novels are based on a comic strip series which he did through high school in his school newspaper. He is a talented artist and he knows how to write to entertain. He's really funny.

The problem?

He's not doing everything he can to understand the publishing industry, right down to editing his work before sending queries in. Then when he queries, he isn't following the submission guidelines - and I think this is partly because he isn't looking up how to write a proper query or cover letter. You have looser agents out there, but from what I can tell some are sticklers for form. So many agents point out that if a person doesn't follow submission guidelines, this generally shows a lack of respect and first clue the person would be a difficult one to work with.

I just glanced at something he sent out, and felt myself squwinging (yes, that's a word in my dictionary) when I saw the unorthodox query style and punctuation and grammar errors in the first chapter (which he sent to an agency I know only wants to see the query). <- These are amateur mistakes, and those he'd figure out if he signed up with a critting group and took advantage of the websites and books I've subtly pushed at him.

The other thing is this guy is nearly fifteen years older than me, and is higher up on the family-respect rung. This means that when my next older sister and I sounded the alarm when he submitted his first novel to a shall-not-be-named-defamable-vanity press-that-everyone-intheknow-avoids-and-loathes, nobody listened.

He learned his lesson... sort of. I freaked out when I saw he is touting the first book as a publishing credit, not knowing that it is very much a discredit.

He was in danger of making the same mistake all over again when he found another defamble vanity press, because apparently vanity presses are the only presses opening doors to him. The traditional presses and agencies are gently turning him down because of the errors above.

My question for the void - how do you help people like that?

I do like the guy and want him to do well. And somehow I want to help him and set him right without telling him outright that he has been burning his bridges left and right and needs to take a year or two off of querying until the publishing industry forgets his trespasses.

The other problem - in real life, I'm not as pushy as my adorable little green-eyed mascot. This isn't the first time I've seen a query of his that is ALL-WROOOOONNNG and felt compelled to set him right... somehow. The last time, I pulled my parents aside and discreetly told them to talk to their daughter about talking to her husband about what he shouldn't put on queries. I printed up a thing from Predators and Editors and highlighted a couple things on there to be passed over in his direction. I'm still not sure if the message got to him.

Don't Tell Me...

2009-10-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

... which is exactly what I hope my parents will say if and whenever I finally start publishing some of my novels.

This is a topic that came up over at one of the critting groups I hang out at, and it is something that I ponder sometimes. I'm not going to get into religion or morals or anything like that, but let me say I had one of those Catholic upbringings, and it is a huge part of who I am and how I conduct myself in real life. When it comes to writing though, I don't like to feel limited.

I like writing fantasy - BAD thing over at the church I attend. Technically, I wasn't allowed to read any fantasy through school. Thankfully, my parents were OK as long as I was reading and there weren't any dirty pictures.

I like writing romance, and sometimes that means writing edgier stuff - "Content", in other words. I'm sure my parents would be amused and baffled, but not exactly puritanically horrified if they knew. Doesn't mean it isn't an awkward topic to broach.

How do you let your families know then?

I'm of the opinion that people need to be conditioned before you throw something at them. There are things you really don't want to SUDDENLY surprise them with, particularly if your family is more puritanical than mine.

The way I handle it is through levity and opening myself up little by little. Remind them again and again that the way my protagonists think, feel, and act doesn't reflect the way I think, feel, and act. I remind them that the best part of writing is going out of your comfort zone on some things. Maybe exploring the other side from time to time.

That's part of the reason why I posted the previous thingy about Heather Graham and the news bit about the transgender person in trouble for trying to go back to school under false pretenses. I'll admit that there are certain parts of the story that I don't know. It could be that person intended to hook up with teenagers in the school, or had a record. What I immediately thought about though is what prompts people to do stuff like this. Are they really just doing it for pervy reasons, or is it a psychological glitch?

If I wrote that story and my parents found it, I'd simply give them the original news story and talk their ear off about the what-ifs.

With the NANO project I'm planning to do, there may be content (I'm not sure yet). If there is, I do have a clear reference as to why it's going in. The novel is partially based on something in real life. I simply took the original facts and built a story around them.

Re/people who write hot romances and erotica, then you probably have a LOT of hinting and warming up to do before you tell anyone what you write. I'd definitely use a fake name, just so you have control over how people find out about what you write. But even if you want to write under your real name, the worst you can do is get all defensive or militant about what you write. A good sense of humor and fun is the best icebreaker.

Worst case scenario - tell your family that instead of writing hot and steamy novels, you could be acting in them. They may count their blessings. :)

Ever feel like your life is a cliche YA novel?

2009-10-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

I looked Heather Graham up on IMDB, partly because I've secretly wondered if she and the author were the same person (yes, I'm happlessly weird and out of it). I know who Heather (Actress) Graham is, partly because I've always thought she was so pretty. If I ever were to break down on my (NO BLUE-EYED BLONDE PROTAGONISTS) rule, I would probably make my protagonist look like her. Heather (Author) Graham - I still have to look her up.

Just quickly though, this is Actress-HG's profile on IMDB:

Heather Graham

Birth Name
Heather Joan Graham

Height
5' 8" (1.73 m)

Mini Biography
Heather Graham was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and raised in a strict household. Her father worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and her mother was a former schoolteacher and author. Heather and her sister, Aimee Graham, were forced to relocate often as a result of their father's occupation, and Heather became increasingly shy. Surprisingly, she had a passion for acting from an early age and despite being labeled a "theater geek" by her peers, she was voted Most Talented by her high school senior class. Unfortunately, her love of acting created a tension between her and her family, although her mother obligingly drove her to auditions in Hollywood throughout her adolescence. After high school Heather moved to Los Angeles and got small roles in a variety of films, including Drugstore Cowboy (1989). When her career did not take off as quickly as she had hoped, Heather enrolled in the University of California at Los Angeles to get her degree in drama. It was there she was noticed by actor James Woods and he secured her a part in his film Diggstown (1992). Heather dropped out of UCLA after two years to pursue her acting career on a full-time basis. Aside from gaining a modeling contract with Emanuel Ungaro Liberte, Heather has starred in such films as Swingers (1996), a role she received after being taken out swing dancing by Jon Favreau, to blockbusters like Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Boogie Nights (1997).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Kimberly Hannigan

Trivia
Was voted "Most Talented" by her Agoura High School class.

Modeling contract with Emanuel Ungaro Liberte

Had to turn down the female lead in the film Rounders (1998) because of scheduling conflicts.

Older sister of actress Aimee Graham.

Was fired from Scorchers (1991).

Graduated 1988 Agoura High School, Agoura Hills, California. Dropped out of UCLA her freshman year to pursue acting

Worked at Toys R'Us when she was a teenager

Was forced to turn down the lead role in Heathers (1988), because her parents thought the language was too risque.

Her father is an FBI agent. Her mother is a schoolteacher/author.

She once worked as an usher at The Hollywood Bowl

Enjoys yoga and cooking and playing poker

Has not spoken to her parents in two years because they disapprove of the movies she stars in.

Was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People Magazine in 2001.

She is of Irish Catholic extraction

Was the subject of the power pop song "Heather Graham" by the Washington, D.C.-based acappella quartet, Da Vinci's Notebook. The song appears on the group's 2002 CD, "Brontosaurus."

Ranked #4 in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women in the World" (2002).

Went to the same high school as Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson of Linkin Park as well as Adrianna Costa.

She attended Augora High school with Shane Stanley, Beverly Peele and James Robb and Mike Shinoda.

Played a porn actress twice: in The Guru (2002) and Boogie Nights (1997)

Practises Transcendental Meditation. Appeared meditating on the cover of the August 4, 2003 issue of Time Magazine.

Ranked as #74 in FHM's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005" special supplement. (2005)

Named #98 in FHM magazine's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006" supplement. (2006).

Chosen by Femme Fatales magazine as one of the "50 sexiest women on the planet". [February 2006]

Was a contestant on "Scrabble" in 1986 for the Teen Tournament.

In 2003, for a photo shoot by photographer Sam Jones, she was levitated several feet in the air by a magician. Later in the same photo shoot, the magician also sawed her in half.

Had her ears pierced in her teens, but has now let them heal up again and can no longer wear pierced earrings.

Has a cat named Mittens.

I'm still grinning at her Dad who was in the FBI. The sounds of this - it struck me as a synopsis or something for a YA book. An edgy one.

Reminds me - I really want to do something like that for my NANO project. Sort of like all of the background unimportant before-the-story-began information that you aren't supposed to put in the book. Not a prologue.

More like if you remember those old Nancy Drew mysteries (the ones from the 90's, not the old ones), where they had the crime profile on the first page. I loved those things.

The other thing I saw today which snagged my attention - somewhere, a 24 year old person who is in the process of getting a sex change (female to male) claimed to be abandoned and homeless, lied about his/her age, and enrolled at a high school as a 15 year old boy. She/he is in trouble now - as a sexual predator. I'm not sure if that means he/she enrolled at the high school to get at teens. Maybe I'm naive, but I immediately wondered if it could have just been a troubled person trying to relive the teen years the way she/he wanted to. I may write a short later on topic. Must run home now. Ta.

She's a doll

2009-10-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

This has nothing to do with writing. I just couldn't resist commenting.

As seen here, there is a toymaker making Michelle Obama dolls.

Let's ignore the fact that they were so rude as to put the poor doll in the black widow dress, and focus on the overall looks of the doll. Ick.

No politics here. Michelle Obama has one of those pretty faces and I know my kid sister ran out to get the Michelle Obama hair cut during the elections. Doesn't look like that doll. Or vice versa.

It uhm... looks like a caricature doll to me. Or a bobblehead doll without the head-bobble.

Maybe little girls are different now, but um, I liked the GLAMOROUS collection dolls. That would be really cool if somebody came out with GLAMOROUS dolls of the first family. With sparkly REAL dresses and nonplastic hair. Unless they have and I haven't been paying attention. I only go down the doll aisle twice a year: niece's birthday and Christmas. :P