Well, How Do You Do It?

I grabbed my big mug of hot tea and headed upstairs, calling to my husband, "I'm gonna go try to give birth to a blog post."

"Any ideas?"  He already knew the answer.

"Nope."

I checked my e-mail, and Facebook, and other blogs I follow - even though I had done all that just before I went down to make the tea. 

I played a game of spider solitair. Well, two.  But I didn't clear the board on the first one so it doesn't count.

I re-read the Christmas wish lists received from various family members.  Although I already know them by heart.

I rumaged around for a nail file and repaired a chipped nail.

I found the cool e-mail I received today of "Idle Thoughts", such as: 

I planted some bird seed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it. 

and thought of putting one in this post then decided against it.

I blinked and rolled my eyes for several minutes, trying to decide if the numbing drops the opthalmologist had put in this afternoon had completely worn off.  They still felt kind of weird so probably not. 

I studied the New Post window on my monitor.  It was still blank.

Well, how do you procrastinate?


Countdown to retirement and writing full time: 8 work days to go.

I'm currently enjoying: The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters

Groaner of the Day: A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?" they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer."

What? In Public?!?

I belong to a local writers group. Our monthly meetings include discussion, some sort of writing exercize, and a critique sssion for those who brought something to share.  Usually the critquing is done by silent read (we each bring enough copies to hand out)  followed by group discussion; but on those occasions when we read aloud, there is still the comfort of reading to a closed group of fellow writers.

This Wednesday we are doing what the group calls our Beatnik Cafe.  We are moving our meeting to the coffee shop of a large local bookstore where we'll take turns perching on a tall stool and reading our work to whoever happens to be there.  Shoppers.  Visitors. Strangers!!!

Like most of us, I enjoy a little instant gratification.  I've be known to surreptitiously watch someone read my work, waiting to see if they'll chuckle over that funny line in paragraph two or mist up a little over that heart-wrenching ending.  But this is a different.  This is combining instant feedback - good and bad - with that most terrifying of experiences...public speaking. 

I've written my piece.  Holiday themed as our group leader requested, reading time approximately seven minutes.  I tried it out on various family members over the holiday and they all gave it a thumbs up.  But, of course, they're all...well, family.   What will it be like in a public forum?  Busy shoppers who may stop to listen but who will have no problem walking away if I can't hold their interest for seven minutes.  What if they laugh when I'm not trying to be funny or don't laugh when I am?

This is seriously scary stuff.

Does anyone have a suggestion or word of encouragement for me?  Writers - how do you handle reading your work in public?  Readers - what are your likes and dislikes when listerning to an author read?  Oh, and please don't offer the suggestion about picturing the audience in their underware.  I tried that once and got so carried away visulizing that hot hunk in the first row that I...well, that's another story.

Countdown to retirement and writing full time: 10 work days to go.

I'm currently enjoying: Endangered Species by Nevada Barr

Groaner of the Day: What do you call a short clairvoyant person on the run from the law?
A small medium at large.

The Twelve Year Weekend

My grandkids love for me to tell them bedtime stories.  I realize this has less to do with my wonderful story-telling abilities and more to do with them not wanting to go to sleep, but I indulge them anyway.  They especially like stories about their father, which I tell and he denies.

Last weekend, I told my grandson how our dog Chance came to be a member of our family.  It was the Friday before Mother's Day, twelve years ago. My son called early that morning to tell me he had the perfect Mother's Day gift for me.  He knew I was thinking about getting a companion for our dog Brandi and he had just the dog - an apparent stray who had followed my daughter-in-law home on her morning jog.   I reminded him I was looking for a female puppy.  He countered that this adult male was "really cute" and he knew I would love him.  I held my ground.  He agreed he would find another home for the little guy but he was going out of town for the weekend and could I help out by taking the dog until he got back?  I don't remember agreeing to this but somehow there he was.  Our weekend guest, who arrived on Friday and never left.

When I finished the story, my grandson said, "So Chance just stayed with you for a twelve year weekend."

I guess that's what it was.

This story is in memory of Chance, whose long weekend with us ended last Wednesday (we miss you, buddy).  But it's also about things that are supposed to be temporary and somehow go on and on.  What about you?  Have there been things (houseguests, jobs, responsibilities, etc.) in your world that were supposed to be short term but didn't quite turn out that way?  Will you share one?

Unwriting progress: From the original 150,000 words down to 109,874.

I'm currently enjoying: Just finished really enjoying Touch of Fire by Maria Zannini

Quote of the day: “Nobody can be as agreeable as an uninvited guest” - Kin Hubbard

Woe is Me

My tiny band of followers may have noticed a week’s gap between my last post and this one…especially after I opened my last one by announcing my posting goal of three times a week. Of course, I followed that comment with a sexy love scene so maybe not.

The truth is I’ve had a lousy week. The kind that makes you want to rant and scream. In fact, I’m really feeling the need to do a little ranting (my apologies to Stacy's Rantings and Whatnot for borrowing from her blog name). And it came to me – hey, I have a blog. I can rant, vent, whatever here; get it all out of my system, and get back to more important things. So here goes, and I promise I won’t make a habit of this.

Last Friday, we brought my mum-in-law home to her apartment from the nursing home where she was recovering from major surgery. She wanted very much to come home and we wanted her home so this was a good thing. Unfortunately, we had not come close to anticipating the level of care she was going to need. The minimum requirement for getting out of the nursing home – being able to walk on her walker – she met. But she is unable to get from a sitting position to a standing one so that she can use her walker. She is also unable to move around the kitchen well enough to get something to eat or to get in and out of bed. In other words, she’s pretty much helpless.

Now let me establish here that my mum-in-law is a dear. She is also a lady of fierce independence and personal dignity, so needing the level of help she requires is very difficult for her and I totally acknowledge that my griping about it is incredibly selfish.  But I'm doing it anyway.

Her first weekend home unfortunately coincided with an out of state golf tournament that my husband attends every year. He offered to skip it but I know how much he looks forward to it so I told him to go. And I spent my three day holiday weekend doing full time caregiver duty. On Tuesday, we began the juggling act between work and caregiving. It was a challenge but we worked it out. What we were having more trouble working out was what to do about the following week – which we were supposed to spend on vacation in Vegas (already paid for and non-refundable). Our backup support crew was standing by, but really not up to the level of care she needed. We decided to play it by ear and see what happened.

On Wednesday morning, I had to do an emergency vet run with our older dog, Brandi. A calcium deposit on the cornea of her right eye which we’d been treating for months had ulcerated and the eyeball was in danger of rupturing. The vet prescribed an assortment of medications but offered slim hope that he can save the eye. He said to bring her back on Friday and be prepared for surgery. This was the tipping point on the trip. On Wednesday night, we cancelled.

So here we are on Friday. I started the day at the vet. The ulceration is about the same so we're giving it a couple more days. I take her in on Monday morning, again prepared for surgery to remove the eye, if necessary. My mum-in-law still requires a high level of care – I put her to bed tonight and will be getting her up in the morning. We are not leaving tomorrow on our eagerly awaited vacation. I’ve lost my running schedule in there somewhere (I was doing a 5K 3 – 4 times a week). And I’ve allowed myself to seek solace from my old friend, the refrigerator, and have completely fallen off the diet wagon (did you hear the thud?). I’m also behind on my blogging - reading, commenting, and posting - and, more importantly, on my writing.

So there it is. Boo hoo. Woe is me. Alas and alack. Let me finish tearing my clothes and rubbing ashes in my hair and get on with things. No more whining, I promise. (Although, if anyone wants to offer me an “Aw, poor baby”, I wouldn’t mind.)

Unwriting progress: From the original 150,000 words down to 114,961.

I'm currently enjoying: Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear

Quote of the day: Drag your thoughts away from your troubles... by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.  - Mark Twain

The Agony and the Ecstasy

Okay, ecstasy first.

Last Wednesday, or actually the wee hours of Thursday morning, I came across a contest: Janet Reid, Literary Agent: A writing contest that will knock your sox clean off!  It was a writing challenge that was kind of quirky and looked like fun so I gave it a shot.

The results were posted on Saturday: 101 Things I Learned in Contest School aka We have a winner! There were 165 entries. The post opened with Janet’s comments on certain lines or clever references she particularly liked. There were over twenty mentioned. I didn’t really have any great expectations but hope springs eternal. Alas, no mention of my entry. Then she got to the heading, These entries made the final cut:   And there…the very first name…was mine!!!   No, I didn’t make the top three finalists but I just got the biggest kick out of having been noticed at all. I mean, this is an agent! A for real agent!  And my little 100 word impromptu entry made the final cut.

I was so pumped I unwrote another 755 words from my overweight novel.

Oh, the agony? I have to go back and scratch off all those 4th grade football games from my calendar. My grandson fractured his finger in Sunday’s game and will most likely be out for the season.  (Hey! This is important stuff here!!!)

Unwriting progress: From 150,000 words down to 118,459.

I'm currently enjoying: A Murder Hatched by Donna Andrews

Quote of the day: All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.  Charles M. Schulz

The Twenty Year Journey of Kiri Hunter

Yesterday I was poking around in some old files and found myself reading through the history of Kiri Hunter. I created the character of Detective Sergeant Kiri Hunter in 1990. I liked Kiri. She was smart, tough, fiercely loyal, and had a most unusual secret. She came to life in a sci fi romance THE WYDAR WAY. It was the first book I tried to get published and it did, in fact, get picked up by an agent in 1994 but the agent didn’t seem to know quite what to do with the mixed genre (I don’t think they were as common back then) and after while we went our separate ways.

Somewhere around 2005, I went back to Kiri Hunter and decided she was too good a character to let die. I did some re-writes on the original story and tried again. I was working my way through the query process when a family tragedy put everything on hold for a couple years. When life started up again and I went back to my writing; I had a light bulb moment (right above my head, just like in the cartoons!). I realized most of the books I was reading were mysteries. Preferably with some romance mixed in, but basically mysteries. I really loved mysteries! And here I had this great police detective wasting away in a sci fi romance.

So I disassembled the sci fi romance - pulling out the characters I wanted to keep, some key story elements, and the romance - and started working on a mystery. New characters, new plot lines, clues and red herrings…cut some love scenes, added some action…now Kiri’s got a lot more to work with. And in keeping with her long journey – a new title: HUNTER’S WAY.

HUNTER’S WAY is in re-writes now and I’ve got a ways to go on those, but I hope this time Kiri can make her way out into the world. After all, she’s been trying to get there for twenty years.

How about you? Do you have a favorite character you’ve kept resurrecting because he/she is too good to let go?


Unwriting progress: From 150,000 words down to 119,000.

I'm currently enjoying: A Murder Hatched by Donna Andrews

Quote of the day:  Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life. ~ Lawrence Kasdan

Confessions of a Closet Head Hopper

Back in the dark ages, when I first started writing, I took classes and read books on writing and tried to learn the craft side of the art. One of the basics that seemed pretty clear at the time was point of view. The most likely candidates for me were first person, third person, and third person’s cousin: omniscient. I understood most of the advantages and disadvantages of each and I usually felt most comfortable using third person omniscient. I liked having the ability to let my reader know what was going on in the minds of multiple characters.

Fast forward to the present. I’m still writing and trying to position myself to make a serious run at getting published. I’m following blogs and listening to other writers and I run into the phrase, head hopping. Head hopping, as I understand it, is using the third person omniscient POV to move in and out of multiple characters’ minds and is considered a definite no-no. Slightly confused, I go back to books I’ve particularly enjoyed reading and study the POV. I find an assortment of POV’s, including some that seem to be guilty of head hopping…but that are hugely successful. Of course, I then discover that one of the exceptions to the rule on head hopping is Nora Roberts and some of the books I’ve been re-reading are JD Robb’s In Death series (is there anyone out there who does not know JD Robb is Nora Roberts?). But as a reader, I still enjoy a certain amount of head hopping.

So I’m still working on my re-writes and I’m focusing on the POV and cleaning up some random head hopping and I get to this scene: Four people are sitting at a table having a conversation. POV is on person A. Person A leaves the table for a minute and something is said by person B to the other two before person A comes back and the scene continues. I want the reader to “hear” this comment but not person A. From the omniscient POV, I should be able to do this but since person A is not present to hear the comment, I believe this constitutes a head hop. Unfortunately, the most common solution – splitting the scene – would create an awkward break in the flow of the story.  Now I'm sitting here scratching my head, trying to decide what to do?

I’ve reached a point where I’m getting absolutely paranoid on the subject, so I’d like your input. As a reader, do you like some forms of head hopping or does it hamper your enjoyment of the story. As a writer, do you think there is such a thing as an acceptable head hop? Where do you draw the line?


I'm currently enjoying: Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais

Quote of the day: We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. ~ Ernest Hemingway

Monday Moaning

Some days I sit down to write and it’s just not happening. It’s my own fault…I’ll check my e-mail hoping to find something to answer or I’ll organize my in-box a little. Then over to my blog list to read and comment. And read the comments that came after my comment. Facebook is always good to kill some time. I read what everyone’s up to and toss in my two cents here and there. And if I run out of ways to procrastinate, there’s always Spider Solitaire.

Yesterday was different. I had the whole evening to write and I was ready, I’d worked out the sequence of events, I could hear the dialogue, I just had to get it all down. My only distraction was getting the laundry done – which works in nicely because it gives me those little ‘walk away’ moments to think as I move loads from the washer to the dryer, from the dryer to the folding table (or hanging rod). I was on a roll!

Until I popped downstairs to do one of those laundry moves and stepped into cold water. The basement was flooded. The main line was blocked and all the water draining from the washer had backed up (along with other, less desirable water) through the floor drain. The multiple loads of laundry I had left sorted on the floor acted like sponges, sopping up the incoming flow but not enough to save the carpet in the finished section. Luckily, we own a wet-vac so we were able to take care of some of the mess but I still have a basement full of sodden laundry and soaked carpet and we can’t use anything in the house that would send water into that blocked line without re-flooding the basement.

So now it’s Monday morning and I’m home waiting for the plumber. And I'm trying to write and it’s not happening. Don’t you hate it when life gets in your way like that?

Maybe I’ll play some Spider Solitaire.