Wagon Where Have You Gone?
By admin | September 2, 2008
I have fallen off the wagon.
Not the writing wagon, as you all would rightfully expect…no the blogging wagon. It happens to the best of us, and it happens to me more often than that. Still, I’m not upset. No, I’m happily here to report that I have turned into a writing fiend!!!!
I’m nearly done with the zombie short story that had given me such trouble (what with turning into a novel and all). I have started outlining the novel it spawned as my NANOWRIMO project. I’ve finished and submitted Chapter 2 of “In Harm’s Way” to my writing group. I’ve got Chapter 3 cooking like apples in the fall and am mentally organizing chapter 4. I’ve also figured out that I want about 20 chapters at approximately 5,000 words each to complete “In Harm’s Way” (although it’s likely to be longer when I get done with it). Let’s hope I can crank out chapters 5-20 by the time October 1st rolls around.
Why October 1st? Well, Day and I have a bet. If I get the novel edited by October 1st she buys me tickets to go see a local film festival…if I don’t make it by October 1st I don’t get to go. Now keep in mind I’m going away from the 17-24th to Hawaii (woot!) with family and I doubt little if any editing is going to get done there. So this means 3 weeks of editing like it is November. :) I think I can do it!
As for Photo Sunday, it has become victim of illness and brain freeze. I uploaded the pictures, but haven’t edited them and put my watermark on them…thus they sit trapped in the half state that is my compter’s hard drive. I do have them and I’m hoping to slap them up tomorrow. Tonight, though, is devoted to my recovery…
Did I mention I was sick? Yeah, on my birthday no less! (It was this past Sunday…HB to me!) I thought my face was going to explode from the pressure and the only time I could breathe was when I was asleep…oh wait, no, now I remember, I just didn’t sleep. Anyway, with me sick and the dog having issues with stairs I not only had to take care of myself but over the weekend I found myself lugging my 73lb dog up and down flights of stairs. Oye, so now…tonight…my plan is to lay on the couch, apologize to Day for giving her the illness, and eat soup with her. If we get really adventurous I may do some laundry or possibly pick up some of the mess that was left over from my 5 days of zombie-like catatonia.
Stay tuned, it’s a laugh a minute here!!!!
Topics: Deadlines, In Harm's Way, Sick, Work in Progress, Writing | No Comments »
Whose American Classics? Mine or Yours?
By admin | August 20, 2008
Talking with Day on the way home from the gym she said to me, “Haven’t you ever had the urge to the American Classics?”
My answer was a smile, “No.”
Why?
Well, because I’ve read a few but have never much been into the style of writing that is considered an American Classic. What’s worse, I’ve never had the urge to read them. I’ve got too many things on my list I want to read now to force myself to plow though something that will not only take time but will not reward me when I am done. Ok, ok, I think it will not reward me I have no guarantee that is true.
It’s not that I don’t like classics. I really like Shakespeare; I’ve read quite a few of his plays (some more than once). I love Italo Calvino, and must re-read his books when I get them back from my mom and dad. I am a big fan of Louise Erdrich. I’m an even bigger fan of Anne McCaffery (seriously folks wrote about gay boys when being a gay boy was not fun nor cool). It’s just names like Hawthorne, Melville, Williams, and Fitzgerald make me yawn mentally.
I have no desire to read anymore than has already been forced upon me thanks to high school, college, and grad school. I’m not itching to pick up copies of titles I have not plowed through before, and when I see those names on the 10 cent shelf at the Library Book Sale I pass them by rather than snatching them up. They are books that can pass me by, movies I don’t need to see, and time (in some cases) I wish I had back. As a matter of fact, I remember a friend READING The Scarlet Letter to me, out loud on my balcony while we picnicked…it was still boring. Perhaps if we were playing paint ball at the time? Even then, I doubt it.
Then again names like Twain, Henry, Salinger, Vonnegut, and Miller make me salivate in anticipation. A combination of required and elective reading has made me happier for having spent time with these authors (although Mr. Miller has a better diary than novel in my eyes). Each name has wonderful memories attached to it for me, quite a few of them related to those wild days of college.
So perhaps a better answer to Day should have been, “I HAVE read the American Classics, just not the same ones you have.”
For instance, let’s look at what am I carrying around right now. Stone Butch Blues…an American classic, albeit a gay American classic.
It is a very good book. I am captivated by it. While there times I am thrown completely out of the story due to badly planned time jumps or awkward dialogue other times I am in heaven. When the author lets us be alone with the main character, just her and us, it is magic. It is a cadence I find song in, and it’s a song that sticks with me when I hit the rocks and convinces me to keep on paddling. See, rewarding me already. Punishing me as well, but seriously rewarding me for my devotion.
In the end I guess my classics and your classics don’t all have to be the same…As a matter of fact, I’m sure if I read the entire library of American classics the day I was done another “classic” would be published and pushed upon me.
So this is me saying…find your peace and live it, even if the landslide of classics never stops!
-Renee
Topics: Books | 4 Comments »
Give back the short story and no one gets hurt.
By admin | August 12, 2008
I laughed at Day the other night when, in response to a friend talking about ‘novelists who are incapable of thinking small enough to write a short story’, she looked at me and nodded.
I laughed because until about 3 years ago I was incapable of thinking large enough to squeeze a novel out of any of my ideas. I could write some long short stories, but none of them were anywhere near the length it would take to get me into the world of novels. Seriously. When people talked about writing books instead of stories, I just gaped and wondered how on earth they could find enough to write about. It wasn’t until I wrote my “truth” short story…and began to wonder about her past and her future and her world that I decided to really give Nanowrimo the chance it deserved and actually banged out 50,000 words on it (and continued on to give it an 80,000 word final -well almost final- count). Then the next year I did it again, this time ramping up my wordcount to 100,000 words when all was said and done 4months later. Then I began working on a novel with Day, and began my planning for this year’s NANO.
Yeah, I laughed…because I knew that deep down I was a short story artist trying to pull off the novel act.
And then I started working on a new short project…
I am trying to write a zombie story, one that involves the evolution of the voodoo church into a Christianity sized epic religion after the rise of zombies. I’m just trying to write one little story, a short for a contest, about the struggle between two very different girls that both want to become the priestess for a mega-voodoo church and what happens when one decides winning is more important than the faith she professes to have and the other is struggling to hold onto what little faith she has left.
Now I’ve got a lesbian deacon and resident bad ass.
I’ve got a dead priestess that is haunting the church.
I’ve got a council of elders that are aligning behind one girl or the other for their own nefarious purposes.
I’ve got the entire city watching this power struggle.
And out in the swamp…hiding…is an infection that is beginning to spread and conventional treatments are not standing in its way.
Could this be the second coming of the zombies?
Could this finally be the end for humanity as we know it?
COULD THIS BE ANOTHER DANG NOVEL!?!?!?!?!?
Shoot me, just shoot me.
Topics: Nanowrimo, Work in Progress, Writing | No Comments »
It was the thieves, I tell you!
By admin | August 6, 2008
Someone (Day) ran off with my SD card, thus this week’s peach picking pictures are delayed.
Forgiveness is not required, but will be accepted with graciousness and relief.
I’ll put a reminder in my phone…let’s hope I don’t leave it on silent…and hopefully I will be able to upload the pictures tonight.
Topics: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Dreamsick
By admin | July 31, 2008
A writer I keep up with has a wonderful word she uses for bad mornings… “dreamsick”. I love it. It captures, for me, that horrible waking up and knowing something was/is/continues to be wrong in the world (or perhaps just in your head). It is a word that slips off the tongue with that greasy feel that lets you know it’s bad. Yeah, it’s a good word for…well, let me explain.
I’ve been having some “dreamsickness” myself lately…sleep, usually my best friend, has skittered off in favor of bad television and fluffy books. I’ve done everything I can to make myself sleep, and I even succeed in getting to sleep. It’s the staying there that is the problem.
I can’t really write during this time, it either engages me too much forcing me to keep my eyes open when I should be letting them drift shut or I wake the next day to find the things I have written have a lot of extra letters and make little to no sense. It is frustrating because I feel I should be getting something done during this time…I should be editing or at least working on the Zombie story I wanted to have done for tomorrow. I should be finishing Persephone, who has gotten shoved aside for other tasks. I should be…well, honestly, I should be sleeping but I’m not doing that so I should buck up and get something done, right? Wrong.
Really, I work better when I am bright and alert…just look at this post for an example of not quite awake me…I like having a full night’s rest under my belt and I enjoy not falling asleep at work. I am the kind of person that gets up early (not crazy early but usually in the single digits of morning) and gets to work before the rest of the world has to wake up and get in my way. I especially like getting up too early for the dogs…that is a treat for me. Being totally alone to do what I like.
When I don’t sleep that does not happen. Funny that, eh?
Add onto the loss of alone time, which impacts how I treat people for the rest of the day, the dreamsickness (waking up feeling bad and unrested) and you’ve got me in a mood. It might not be bad, it might just be sad or quiet or worried, but it is not the typical me. And not typical me has a harder time devoting herself to the typical tasks she need to be doing.
Instead of escaping the pressures through my writing, I find myself escaping into online games or television or movies. Books and writing don’t work when I’m like this…unless the book is REALLY good. And those escapes are not helping me…they are draining away my time and not giving anything back.
UGH! I feel like it is a no-win situation. Really, seriously.
Time for a nap.
Topics: Events, Life | 2 Comments »