Today we got our second snow fall and my little dachshund likes it just as much as the first time, that is to say HE DOESN'T. I suppose if my tranny were dragging in the snow I wouldn't like it either. I am kind of non committal about snow. It's pretty and I don't have to go out in it each day to get to work. Even when I worked I did so from my home office. Not overly fond of cold, but heck I was born in Rochester and I've had seventy years to get used to it.
I done all the Christmas shopping I am going to do.
I am looking forward to our Christmas Party at Basil's. I hope you all are able to make it.
In the past we each did a resolution goal for the year. What you plan on accomplishing for the next year. The goals were read the following year. It was very interesting. I would like to see this re-implemented. Many things from the old group weren't stellar, but some ideas were. I think we ought to take another look at what worked in the past.
I wish you all a prosperus and Happy New year and look forward to a great year for LCRW as well. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Tiger Not out of the Woods Yet
I'm sure I'm not the only one waiting with bated breath to hear the next installment of the Tiger Woods drama. Like every steamy bit of gossip we receive through the tabloids and newspapers, we are shocked, dismayed, incredulous. Even when we're aware nobody is infallible (and certainly not celebrities). Everyone has done at least one stupid thing they regret in their lives. Great fodder for memoirs, really.
But here's the catch: eagerly participating in listening to these tales of woe can make an otherwise ethical person feel downright guilty! How dare we want to hear more, the juicier the better? Or perhaps we devise our our own judge and jury system (Tiger's wife found out about his affairs. She chased him down the road, swinging his golf clubs at his SUV). Either way, we're ashamed to think we enjoy another person's misery.
Enter fiction. Ah, yes. Now we can read about people's failures, their deviant behavior, lack of morals, and not feel guilty! That's right. Or...even better...we can write about those kind of people without ever becoming one of them! (And if we were that type of person once, a long, long time ago, we don't have to admit to it. It's only a character we're writing about, right?)
So, I apologize Tiger Woods, for keeping up on your sordid life, and speculating on your behavior. I'm sorry I've kept track of your ups and downs even though I never watched even one of your golf games. But you're interesting, now. Like a character in a book. The difference being that the fictional character isn't hurting anyone.
But here's the catch: eagerly participating in listening to these tales of woe can make an otherwise ethical person feel downright guilty! How dare we want to hear more, the juicier the better? Or perhaps we devise our our own judge and jury system (Tiger's wife found out about his affairs. She chased him down the road, swinging his golf clubs at his SUV). Either way, we're ashamed to think we enjoy another person's misery.
Enter fiction. Ah, yes. Now we can read about people's failures, their deviant behavior, lack of morals, and not feel guilty! That's right. Or...even better...we can write about those kind of people without ever becoming one of them! (And if we were that type of person once, a long, long time ago, we don't have to admit to it. It's only a character we're writing about, right?)
So, I apologize Tiger Woods, for keeping up on your sordid life, and speculating on your behavior. I'm sorry I've kept track of your ups and downs even though I never watched even one of your golf games. But you're interesting, now. Like a character in a book. The difference being that the fictional character isn't hurting anyone.
Friday, December 4, 2009
NaNo
This was my first year trying NaNo or National Novel Writing Month. The whole month of November all you have to do is write 50,000 words. The first two weeks, I worked hard then life happened. One word... KIDS. In the end I came up short, but I'm not discouraged. I reached 25,000 words in one month. I know it wasn't my goal, but I learned much about my story.
The idea is to write, not to worry about spelling, grammar, plot or anything, to just wing it. Now in the last few years, I have plotted the heck out of my stories before writing it then i found that I wasn't interested in the writing the story so i decided this would bring it back to the basics. Now I realize I need a happy medium. Half way through the month, I was missing structure in my plot line, I was missing characters... I missing character's base line. Details, everyday life and a thread throughout the piece of congruency. So then I started to write down notes, and more notes. I'm sure if I would have wrote those notes into my NaNo work I may have gotten to at least 30,000 words, but I didn't, I wanted only the story.
What I realized in the end, I know have a great base for a story, my characters are flesh out, (at least on pieces of paper around my house). Nano taught me, wing it with a simple blot line. A goes to B then to C then oh wow D came out of nowhere and it all worked out in the E end.
I recently did an Interview with Susan Wiggs, and I left the last question open up to her advice for writers. Her response was perfect it got me thinking about all those out there. Here's her quote: "Besides reading my books? (Kidding.) Seriously, read and learn. Like Maureen in Lakeshore Christmas, you can find the whole world in books. And then, sorry to tell you, roll up your sleeves and get to work. I've heard it said a writer's apprenticeship is a million words. So let's get cracking."
A million words and to think I did 25,000 in one month. I'm proud of what I did and what I learned. Perhaps next year, come November I will have a plan and I will meet the Nano goal of 50,000 words. Just write.
The idea is to write, not to worry about spelling, grammar, plot or anything, to just wing it. Now in the last few years, I have plotted the heck out of my stories before writing it then i found that I wasn't interested in the writing the story so i decided this would bring it back to the basics. Now I realize I need a happy medium. Half way through the month, I was missing structure in my plot line, I was missing characters... I missing character's base line. Details, everyday life and a thread throughout the piece of congruency. So then I started to write down notes, and more notes. I'm sure if I would have wrote those notes into my NaNo work I may have gotten to at least 30,000 words, but I didn't, I wanted only the story.
What I realized in the end, I know have a great base for a story, my characters are flesh out, (at least on pieces of paper around my house). Nano taught me, wing it with a simple blot line. A goes to B then to C then oh wow D came out of nowhere and it all worked out in the E end.
I recently did an Interview with Susan Wiggs, and I left the last question open up to her advice for writers. Her response was perfect it got me thinking about all those out there. Here's her quote: "Besides reading my books? (Kidding.) Seriously, read and learn. Like Maureen in Lakeshore Christmas, you can find the whole world in books. And then, sorry to tell you, roll up your sleeves and get to work. I've heard it said a writer's apprenticeship is a million words. So let's get cracking."
A million words and to think I did 25,000 in one month. I'm proud of what I did and what I learned. Perhaps next year, come November I will have a plan and I will meet the Nano goal of 50,000 words. Just write.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Whine Country--the rest of the story
Some of you know I provide child care to a few of my grandchildren three days a week. The perks are many, like watching the three year-old's face after she woke yesterday morning and discovered snow on the ground. That was really special, considering things went downhill from there--but that's a nightmare story for another time.
Another of the perks is being able to read [for free] issues of Entertainment Weekly. Not that I always agree with the articles or reviews, but I never know when I might find a jewel in the rough. And Stephen King's essays are always a hoot.
The November 6, 2009 issue featured a small piece about author Kathryn Stockett whose debut novel "The Help" [a February 2009 release] has close to 800,000 copies in print and ". . .its steady word-of-mouth sales have kept it on the NYT's best-seller list longer than any other hardcover novel this year . . ."
The point: nearly 60 agents turned down Ms. Stockett's book before publisher Amy Einhorn paicked it up in 2007. "Those rejections lit a fire under my rear end," says Stockett. "I would say I've got to make it better."
Enough said, I think.
Another of the perks is being able to read [for free] issues of Entertainment Weekly. Not that I always agree with the articles or reviews, but I never know when I might find a jewel in the rough. And Stephen King's essays are always a hoot.
The November 6, 2009 issue featured a small piece about author Kathryn Stockett whose debut novel "The Help" [a February 2009 release] has close to 800,000 copies in print and ". . .its steady word-of-mouth sales have kept it on the NYT's best-seller list longer than any other hardcover novel this year . . ."
The point: nearly 60 agents turned down Ms. Stockett's book before publisher Amy Einhorn paicked it up in 2007. "Those rejections lit a fire under my rear end," says Stockett. "I would say I've got to make it better."
Enough said, I think.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Endings
Stephen King once said, “If you already know the ending, why write the story.”
I always think I know how my stories will end when I start, but more often than not the characters take over and create their own endings. Working from an outline allows flexibility in my writing, but keeps it on target.
My WIP is a longer version of a short story written about five ago, so the ending was pretty much set. That was until I went to Astronomicon.
I believe it was Rick who said, “Ask yourself, What If.”
“What if?” I asked myself and came up with another ending.
I’m only halfway through, so there still may be another ending. I’m not going to know until I’m finished.
I always think I know how my stories will end when I start, but more often than not the characters take over and create their own endings. Working from an outline allows flexibility in my writing, but keeps it on target.
My WIP is a longer version of a short story written about five ago, so the ending was pretty much set. That was until I went to Astronomicon.
I believe it was Rick who said, “Ask yourself, What If.”
“What if?” I asked myself and came up with another ending.
I’m only halfway through, so there still may be another ending. I’m not going to know until I’m finished.
Monday, November 30, 2009
A Side Note
Today, working on my mss is the furthest thing from my mind. My mom is going in for a pacemaker insertion early in the morning. We had a scare the week before Thanksgiving when my dad called to say she was being admitted to the hospital. This was not the phone call we'd been expecting.
You see, my mom has always been the strong one, the one who held the family together. On the other hand, my dad has been steadily become more frail. He's unstable on his feet and smokes like a fiend. A life of bad habits has made him the most likely one to have health problems.
The doctors were going to insert the pacemaker a week ago Friday, but decided to send her home with a monitor for 24 hrs. They said the new medicine seemed to be doing its job. However, after I returned the monitor that Monday morning, they promptly called her within a few hours and asked her to come in the next morning. I went with her, per doctor's orders, and found out that even though the medicine was working, it couldn't do the job needed. So, a pacemaker was definitely in order.
Thank God, we managed to get through the holiday with no mishaps or emergencies. Now, I'm camped at my folks house getting ready to turn in for the night. Four a.m. comes mighty fast. Luckily, my kids are in their late teens and early twenties and can fend for themselves, with a little help from dad
I'd like to think some day when all the tension goes away and life gets back to normal, I'll be able to make a great story from this. I'm certainly taking notes on what goes on around me.
With luck, I'll be able to get some hours in on my mss later tomorrow. Kept my laptop at the folks overnight. I'll keep you posted on how things go.
You see, my mom has always been the strong one, the one who held the family together. On the other hand, my dad has been steadily become more frail. He's unstable on his feet and smokes like a fiend. A life of bad habits has made him the most likely one to have health problems.
The doctors were going to insert the pacemaker a week ago Friday, but decided to send her home with a monitor for 24 hrs. They said the new medicine seemed to be doing its job. However, after I returned the monitor that Monday morning, they promptly called her within a few hours and asked her to come in the next morning. I went with her, per doctor's orders, and found out that even though the medicine was working, it couldn't do the job needed. So, a pacemaker was definitely in order.
Thank God, we managed to get through the holiday with no mishaps or emergencies. Now, I'm camped at my folks house getting ready to turn in for the night. Four a.m. comes mighty fast. Luckily, my kids are in their late teens and early twenties and can fend for themselves, with a little help from dad
I'd like to think some day when all the tension goes away and life gets back to normal, I'll be able to make a great story from this. I'm certainly taking notes on what goes on around me.
With luck, I'll be able to get some hours in on my mss later tomorrow. Kept my laptop at the folks overnight. I'll keep you posted on how things go.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
The Allure of Vampires...
What is the allure of vampires? Since I was a child and I’m sure long before that, the world’s been intrigued, horrified, fascinated, and compelled by the idea of vampires.
What does that bite feel like?
Are vampires wholly evil, only out to kill in the worst imaginable ways? Are they seductive creatures of the night, looking for the one woman (or man) to complete them? To spend the rest of their eternity with?
In the movies we see both. Some portray them as scourges of mankind. Others, the vulnerable hero-monster, wanting to love but so afraid of the monster within. Afraid of turning their beloved, or hurting them with their supernatural strength.
My sister and I both went through periods of time where we feared vampires. She often slept with her neck surrounded with stuffed animals. (Stuffed animals apparently work like garlic and/or holy water – no vampire can get past those sacred teddies!)
Tonight, when you’re lying in bed, close your eyes, expose your neck, and hope for the best (whichever best is the best for you…)
What does that bite feel like?
Are vampires wholly evil, only out to kill in the worst imaginable ways? Are they seductive creatures of the night, looking for the one woman (or man) to complete them? To spend the rest of their eternity with?
In the movies we see both. Some portray them as scourges of mankind. Others, the vulnerable hero-monster, wanting to love but so afraid of the monster within. Afraid of turning their beloved, or hurting them with their supernatural strength.
My sister and I both went through periods of time where we feared vampires. She often slept with her neck surrounded with stuffed animals. (Stuffed animals apparently work like garlic and/or holy water – no vampire can get past those sacred teddies!)
Tonight, when you’re lying in bed, close your eyes, expose your neck, and hope for the best (whichever best is the best for you…)
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