NaNoWriMo


Hypergraphics of the world, unite!

I'm throwing my hat in the ring. I'm really going to do this.

It seems that the one thing I can do is write like a maniac. but if I do, I may let e-mails slide, I may not fix my gourmet meals, or even eat them...

(Although that pent up anticipation to start could be chanelled toward preparing a month's worth of meals...)

and I may not even answer my phone.

You've been warned! You've been notified! Yes, I will smile politely in conversation if you happen to catch me between chapters. All the while gleaning the moments for the story, and plotting the foundation, the character arc and the dialog - OH! the dialog.

I will, however, post excerpts from the story as I go. If something truly news worthy, or exciting pulls me from this enveloping, 50k word ride, then you will hear about it.

I will celebrate Thanksgiving. But I will not shop on Black friday.

That'a my plan. See you in the papers.

Virginia Woolf

"Second hand books are wild books,
homeless books;
they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather,
and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack."
Virginia Woolf

Barbara Tuchman

"Books are the carriers of civilization.
Without books, history is silent,
literature dumb, science crippled,
thought and speculation at a standstill."
Barbara Tuchman

I'm happy to announce that I have finished my second screenplay. WHEW! And right on time! Starting Nov. 1 it's NaNoWriMo!!!


If you're interested, you still have a few days to clear your writing plate! Yeah, I can't believe it either, but after thinking about it for two years, I'm jumping in.
How about you? Are you the next National Best Seller? It's just under 2000 words a day...If I just channel all my talking to writing....




Conscious Choices

When it comes to eating, I'm not a purist. I don't always eat Kosher and I don't eat beef or pork of I can help it. I happen to love vegetables and tofu over chicken.
My eating doesn't always reflect this. After editing a first draft book regarding dietary change as per the Bible, the authors work impressed me. But the arguments failed to convince me. The author rewrote chapters and revised and re-sent the book for another edit.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I've eaten meat maybe four times in a month as opposed to a week. I feel much more conscious of not only the foods I eat, and beverages I drink, but the consequences.

I mean, I love the smell of a grilled steak. But unless I raise it myself how can I be sure what that critter consumed till it ended up on my grill? Just how much beef can one eat until one exhibits signs of Mad Cow?

I began drinking tea as an experiment regarding some pain I had.
Tea runs through me at about the same rate, I feel less 'awake' and yeah, the purging headaches are freaking wicked.
But the lower hip pain has dissipated, my skin looks hydrated, I feel less hungry and the headaches have abated.

Hard to dispute feeling better. hmmmm.

I'm just five days into the tea experiment, but I'll keep you posted. And I'll let you know more about the book as soon as I get a copy.

Ticket Please

Where are you going?
If you know where you're going,
who are you taking with you?

90 Percent Inspiration


This post marks my 243rd post. It also means I'm 2/3 through my 365 commitment. I have to tell you, it was challenging, but not as bad as you might think.

I like that it has challenged my brain most days, trying to come up with something new to post every day. It's also been freeing. Because if I don't get to post it today, I can post it the next day.

Usually, I don't mind my brain being taxed.

Monday with a headache, our writer's group leader introduced us to the formula for sonnets. I'll probably get around to writing one, I was having an internal melt down trying to accomplish it.
Check out this one by one of my friends in the group. It's beautiful and thought provoking.

Peachy Keen


I ran into the store to get a few items. I was running low on cash, but the items I needed were kind of pricey. On the way to the check out, I picked up a peach. Eating on the way home just sounded good.

As the clerk checked out my items, I could tell I didn't have enough.
Before she rang it up I spoke up.

"I'm sorry, I don't have enough for that."
"You've got to get the peach. It's nutrition!"
"After that stuff, I might have 35 cents left."
"She punched a few buttons and said, how about the peach is 27 cents. Now you have enough."
"Are you serious?"
" I'll do it for peach. It's good for you. A candy bar, not so much."
I thanked her and left feeling pretty blessed.
It was really yummy!

Got Hope?

This band is among my favorites. They have risen from Georgia and I can't say enough good things about them. One of these days, I'm going to get tickets to see them before their show sells out.
Until then, check them out...

Third Day

A Dozen Contemplations

Today is Evaluate Your Life Day.

Does that mean on a scale of one to ten?

Perhaps you'll reflect on your accomplishments. Consider your glory days. Maye it's time to dust off those trophies and iron your place ribbons. Peruse those Certificates of Achievement, those diplomas.
Dig out the photos of you accepting your kudos at the awards banquet... Maybe they mean, you should consider how far you've traveled from you early days.
Compared to your childhood, are you better or worse off?

Or maybe you've impacted people's lives in a positive way.

How far have you come?
Did you get where you were going? Most of the time?

Were there things you left until later?
Left undone?
Left to chance?

Have you enjoyed the journey?
Do you still have goals?
What is your ultimate destiny?

Have you accomplished the one thing would ice your cake?

Trees

I think that I shall never see
a billboard lovely as a tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,
I'll never see a tree at all.
Ogden Nash (1902 - 1971)

Seasonal Offerings


The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools.
Henry Bes
ton

Frost


Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

~Robert Frost ~

Television

Television enables you to be entertained
in your home by people
you wouldn't have in your home.
David Frost

Two Rejections Closer



You can’t win if you don’t play!
I see the slogans in the window of a convenience store. They are talking about the state lottery. I’ve never been a big gambler, or a small gambler when it comes to giving my money for a chance. If someone wants to raffle off of quilt, or a motorcycle, or even a house, I may buy a ticket. The money usually goes to a charity, an individual or a benefit fund. It seems, I don't know, more dignified somehow.
But, to some extent, I gamble in a different way. I write essays and then attempt to market them. I write queries to magazine and send them out.

An acquaintance of mine likes to keep “13 in play at all times.” That means she’s got 13 possible sales out there attempting to bring a check. I like that idea. When I implemented the idea, I liked watching the outgoing number rise. Of course, my expectation that an assignment or check will come in should rise as that number goes higher. I’m hopeful that as I become more consistent in keeping 13+ in play my income will reflect an increase. But there's an downside.
With an increase in submissions, comes the increase in rejections.
And now, I am two rejections closer to a Yes.

Tailor Made

My friend LV wanted me to tell this story because we were talking about the tailor made blessings from the Lord. It started a couple of weeks ago when our bible study was talking about icons of faith. My mind went to icons of people, specifically the image of a sailboat always reminding me of my dad. Not long after that, my father passed away.

About a week later, I wrote a poem called My Dad is a Sailboat. I was very happy with the way it turned out.
Two months later, when we were sorting through stuff, the kids went through boxes of beads and related items. Sam ended up with the bulk of it. However, the day we came home with some of his personal belongings, we were still raw with emotion and a strange obsessive materialism that wasn’t me. I didn’t NEED the stuff I’d brought home. It was as though I was looking for him in it.
“Mom, I found something I bet you’ll like.” She held up a little brass sculpture about 2 ½
Inches tall. A sailboat. When I saw it, I knew I didn’t need another thing. And really, I didn’t need the sailboat. I just knew that it was the perfect size, a little two sail deal and I would remember him every time I saw it. Sam and I called that a postcard from Heaven. And peace came with it.
Anyway, that’s the story. I hope you liked it.

Never Enough

Rain, shine, cold or hot.
Love my coffee, my last vice
Liquid comfort hug.

Happiness is...



Happiness is like a butterfly

the more you chase after it,

the more it eludes you.

But if you will sit quietly,

it will come and rest

on your shoulder.

~~author unknown

I went out to the mailbox. Nine times out of ten, the mail isn't for me but, strangely, my daughter. I suppose being at college age explains her recent avalanche. I don't get much mail, but about once a week a magazine shows up for me.
But, I got a surprise. I found a current issue of Harper's. I don't remember subscribing to it. I though maybe I'd sent the trial coupon in. But when I looked on the mailing label, it said that the subscription is for one entire year.
Wow! This is so cool! Someone got me a year's subscription to a great magazine. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
I just wish I knew why. Of course, I wish I knew who. But there is something magical about anonymous benevolence that inspires me. So, benefactor, if you happen to read this blog, thank you. I am truly inspired.
May you be blessed. And if you're hoping that the reading of this publication will elevate my writing to the next level, I hope I don't disappoint you.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction


We all know books burn - yet we have the greater knowledge that books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory... In this war, we know books are weapons."
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Dinner and a Story



"My family can always tell when
I'm well into a novel because
the meals get very crummy."
Anne Tyler
I have been a little guilty of this myself. If I could just get this last scene right, and puzzle together the rest of the script, we could eat elaborate gourmet meals! Or so I think.
Because just as I am about to finish the last revision, I get another idea for a story and I can cook and think until the plot thickens and then, I feel desperate to write. Currently, I'm trying to finish a script and a book.

Almost Famous

I'm trying to put my finger on the feeling that swept over me as I typed in agents web addresses of from the 2009 Writer's Market.

It's enthralling to dream about a book being bound in a cover with beautiful artwork, a title I chose and my name underscoring it all. The ink fresh on the pages. Lines of people at book signings wanting my autograph. I've been asked before. It's a real thrill.
The books I've been published in have all been anthologies. Unless you count the one I printed off for my dad three years ago.
I've been mentioned in the front pages of a few other books...it's nice.

But to be categorized with the great literary minds of the centuries. To pen a book from beginning to end, to rethink, revise and rewrite. To birth a best seller must be the most amazing feeling in the world.
I would like to make a mark in the world. Maybe get critiqued, maybe make a best sellers list. Maybe even go to New York city and brush elbows with the brilliant minds of our age. It all felt so plausible. when I was typing in the names of agents. I only need one.

Yeah...It could happen. I love this part of the process, where anything I can dream of is possible. The most amazing literary future still lies out there waiting just for me, untainted by doubt, untainted by reality, untainted by the inevitable rejections I know await me.

Today, I'm a potentially powerful voice.
Today I'm full of promise and hope.
Today, I am not yet known as good or bad.
Today while I am yet fearless, I prepare my query letters and line up the agents I hope will be interested enough to at least take a look. Through out the late fall and winter months I will begin my tentative reaching out to see what becomes of it all.
And I really want it to last longer than fifteen minutes.