Today was evidently National Dog Day. I didn't know this until sometime around mid-morning when someone mentioned it at work, and then I began seeing posts about it. Being a cat person, I'd never heard of National Dog Day, and most likely really wouldn't have cared much anyway.
This little story begins last week.
My co-worker, Kristina, was having a bad week. I'm not going to invade her privacy by saying much about it but she had a difficult week last week. She said something on Friday about her dog, Finn. He's her baby. Previously, she had been praising my recent pen & ink drawings of draped urn cemetery monuments. So I asked if she had a picture of Finn. I've never drawn a pen & ink dog before, but I have drawn some cats. She told me she'd send a picture of Finn to my phone at 5PM on Friday.We hugged goodbye and went home. Shortly after I got home my phone pinged and there was a picture of Finn! He's cute!
On Saturday afternoon, I spent approximately 2.75 hours drawing Finn. I'd recently bought about a dozen different colored inks, plus a bottle of white ink. Originally, Finn was going to be just black and white with various techniques used for shading lighter areas (he's mostly black with some white and golden brown- the colors you'd see on a beagle, but he's not a beagle.) So, I got out the new colored inks, sampling them on scrap paper. I chose canary yellow and peat brown, laying down the yellow and then putting the peat brown over it to give the areas a golden brown appearance like the real life Finn has. It looked pretty good.
When finished, I grabbed a black 4x6 frame that I had on the dining room table and framed Finn. I snapped a picture, put it on facebook with Kristina tagged in the message. She posted that she was happy with it.
This morning I put the framed pen & ink drawing of Finn on her desk so it would be there when she got in. Again, I didn't know it was National Dog Day. I just wanted to make a friend who is going through a few things smile and know that someone cares.
I got two hugs, but her smile was the real reward because that's why I did it- to make her smile.
Monday, August 27, 2018
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Post Borrowed from today's Wordsmiths blog on 1867's use of Language & Words
About a month or so ago I found a book titled Burt's Illustrated Connecicut Valley Guide, published in 1867 sitting on the shelf in Blue Umbrella. Of course, being rather passionate about the 1860-1910 era the book had to come home with me.
This morning, while killing time waiting for John to come home from grocery shopping, I grabbed the book off the end table, plopped down on the couch and started reading aloud from it to Revere (yes, the cat) who was in the front window, and Kelly, who was in her room.
The volume begins with an apology from the editor's. Imagine that! Here is the first line of that apology-
"In presenting this book to the public, it has been the aim of the Editor to awaken an increased interest in New England's fairest and loveliest regions, and to assist the seeker of pleasure to obtain a more perfect knowledge of the grandeur and beauty of Connecticut Valley scenery and that bordering on it."
and then he goes on to write, and I kid you not, this is verbatim from the same paragraph-
"He has aimed to discard glittering generalities for solid substance, stopping by the way only long enough to point out the piquant condiments that each may flavor to his own taste."
Oh, and I love this paragraph to death!
"An occasional anecdote and reminiscence, many of them never before in print, have been culled from the way-side and are here presented, to enliven and relieve the monotony of description, as too much of a good thing is apt to weary the best of tastes."
The apology concludes with this paragraph-
"The Guide is at your service, Reader, and it is hoped you will find in it a help to your enjoyment of a tour through the Connecticut Valley, where it is confidently believed you can find increased health and a pleasant life-long remembrance."
At first I thought, what pompous language...but then I remembered that this was written in 1867 when we didn't have television, social media, or even radio. People spoke to one another, and people read. This was their form of entertainment. Yes, the language is florid and not what we're used to in today's world of abbreviations, acronyms and emojis- we try to communicate in the least possible amount of words or key strokes. We've dumbed down our manner of communication, and even executives cannot write a coherent, literate email anymore. Seriously, that's sad.
Have we progressed? I don't think so.
Creating a Print Proof of a Novel
I think I do much better at finding mistakes, grammar issues, continuity problems, etc. when I hold a print copy in my hands, so I am in the process of creating a print copy of The Worth of a Woman so I can read it like a real book and scribble corrections on the pages.
Meanwhile, I'm working on a new novel about a Kentucky singer/musician who leaves rehab and finds himself in the Green Mountains of Vermont at a rural but scenic inn. That's all I'm saying at this point as I'm really only five chapters into it. Since I never plot or plan what I write, just let the story tell itself, I honestly don't know what's going to happen, but some random ideas have been going through my head. We'll see which ones make the cut and then I can reveal more.
This would make two books about real people in a row, no fantasy, no magic, no supernatural beings, no ghosts. Unusual for me. But, there is the beginning of another novel that I've begun writing that has a very real young lady escaping some unknown creature in a dark park, fleeing into the woods and somehow crossing into a parallel world where there is magic and strange creatures, and a young man in black with a murder of crows at his command who abandons her because she has became infected by the scratch of one of these dangerous creatures. Needless to say, she's not a helpless teenager.
Then I still have the mega love quadrangle novel to get a handle on, again with real people.
Also on my plate is preparing for the resumption of the monthly WhipCity Wordsmiths meetings. I really need to get that scheduled for September!
How did life get so hectic. Why is time suddenly flashing by like an express train passing a daytrip train. Whoosh! Leaves me spinning!
Meanwhile, I'm working on a new novel about a Kentucky singer/musician who leaves rehab and finds himself in the Green Mountains of Vermont at a rural but scenic inn. That's all I'm saying at this point as I'm really only five chapters into it. Since I never plot or plan what I write, just let the story tell itself, I honestly don't know what's going to happen, but some random ideas have been going through my head. We'll see which ones make the cut and then I can reveal more.
This would make two books about real people in a row, no fantasy, no magic, no supernatural beings, no ghosts. Unusual for me. But, there is the beginning of another novel that I've begun writing that has a very real young lady escaping some unknown creature in a dark park, fleeing into the woods and somehow crossing into a parallel world where there is magic and strange creatures, and a young man in black with a murder of crows at his command who abandons her because she has became infected by the scratch of one of these dangerous creatures. Needless to say, she's not a helpless teenager.
Then I still have the mega love quadrangle novel to get a handle on, again with real people.
Also on my plate is preparing for the resumption of the monthly WhipCity Wordsmiths meetings. I really need to get that scheduled for September!
How did life get so hectic. Why is time suddenly flashing by like an express train passing a daytrip train. Whoosh! Leaves me spinning!
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
And Suddenly She Found Herself...
And suddenly she found herself leading a writers/authors social and support group that continues to grow.
WhipCity Wordsmiths is now 14 months in existence. The group enthusiastically encompasses a range of writing styles, genres, techniques, and voices while wholeheartedly embracing a talented collective of authors and writers. (Holy moly! I never saw this coming!) I am excited and happy about how this group is going and growing. I'm looking forward to September when the monthly meetings resume. I just wish I had the energy to hold two meetings a month so that everyone has an opportunity to attend a meeting. When a group of authors/writers get together, the creativity is electric. What's that buzz? It's just group members sparking off one another, filling their inspiration meters to the brim.
I absolutely love it!
Writing is a rather solitary endeavor. No one can get inside your mind and help you write. You just have to sit down on your own and do it. I've done exactly that since elementary school. However, it's a good feeling to be able to sit and chat with other authors and writers who share that solitary endeavor, sitting at the computer or in some cases typewriter, or with an open notebook before you, pen in hand...we share a familiar base point. We share a passion. Where our imaginations, our intelligence, our intrigues, and our ideas lead us sets us as points on a star map. At meetings we can connect the stars on the map with the little blazing trails of connectivity called sharing common experiences. It makes us feel less alone in the expansive universe. That is writer's therapy- to sit and talk to a group of people who actually understand what you're talking about. We are not laboring alone in the void.
And suddenly she found herself feeling connected in a way she never expected to be.
And suddenly she found herself with friends and acquaintances she cherishes dearly.
And suddenly she found herself smiling.
And suddenly....well...you get the idea.
She did something she loved and made it even better.
WhipCity Wordsmiths is now 14 months in existence. The group enthusiastically encompasses a range of writing styles, genres, techniques, and voices while wholeheartedly embracing a talented collective of authors and writers. (Holy moly! I never saw this coming!) I am excited and happy about how this group is going and growing. I'm looking forward to September when the monthly meetings resume. I just wish I had the energy to hold two meetings a month so that everyone has an opportunity to attend a meeting. When a group of authors/writers get together, the creativity is electric. What's that buzz? It's just group members sparking off one another, filling their inspiration meters to the brim.
I absolutely love it!
Writing is a rather solitary endeavor. No one can get inside your mind and help you write. You just have to sit down on your own and do it. I've done exactly that since elementary school. However, it's a good feeling to be able to sit and chat with other authors and writers who share that solitary endeavor, sitting at the computer or in some cases typewriter, or with an open notebook before you, pen in hand...we share a familiar base point. We share a passion. Where our imaginations, our intelligence, our intrigues, and our ideas lead us sets us as points on a star map. At meetings we can connect the stars on the map with the little blazing trails of connectivity called sharing common experiences. It makes us feel less alone in the expansive universe. That is writer's therapy- to sit and talk to a group of people who actually understand what you're talking about. We are not laboring alone in the void.
And suddenly she found herself feeling connected in a way she never expected to be.
And suddenly she found herself with friends and acquaintances she cherishes dearly.
And suddenly she found herself smiling.
And suddenly....well...you get the idea.
She did something she loved and made it even better.
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
3 Novels Written
I have 3 novels circling the dining room in a holding pattern.
The first novel is one I wrote AGES ago. It is the first novel I ever wrote. It was written before 2007 when I went back to work full time because I remember writing all day when Kelly was in school. The characters had flip phones. I need to bring it forward at least a decade to a decade and a half. Although It's kind f retro already!
Anyway, Medina was a labor of love for my friend Darlene for her birthday. I labored on it so long it grew to over 400,000 words and became an epic love quadrangle story. A number of years ago I cut it back to somewhere between 165,000 and 166,000 words. More manageable, but still lengthy. I spent the weekend reading the still rough draft. It's strange how I can hear my future voice in the pages of this novel that is twelve or thirteen years old already. I still like the story, but it kind of drags out (although it's sort of necessary because I am dealing with a lot of characters, relationship developments, and things going on. There're also some continuity errors that need to be corrected because I guess I had two versions and ended up combining them, so Medina's back story kind of drifts back and forth between the two versions. Will be working on that in the future.
The Worth of A Woman is done and in manuscript form in the hands of two beta readers. One has already read it, told me it's good, that it made her cry a little (she was prepared to cry because she's a co-worker and had heard how I came into work crying because of an event in the book). She has passed the manuscript on to her 18 year old daughter who has read some of my books to get her feedback on it. Meanwhile, I did my proofreading of the manuscript, and need to do the Word review to catch any other issues I otherwise missed. It will be a slim novel released with no great fanfare in September. I need a cover for it still, and some back cover copy...always difficult for me.
Memento Mori-Garnet & Quella (a tentative title as I may do a series of Memento Mori novels with different paranormal situations...I haven't made a final decision on that yet) is also written and partially proofread. It also needs some bolstering in its backstory because I discovered what was actually going on only when I neared the end of the novel, so need to go back and rake in some red herrings and real clues/unsettling situations that will help give the ending greater impact.
Projects...for a few months (since The Clockmaker's Son, I really haven't written much of anything...and now I have three novels written (well, 2 new, 1 old) and another flitting its fledgling wings against my gray matter....feast or famine, so they say...ain't it the truth!
I also want to get some artwork done-moving from cemetery draped urns to butterflies to lighten up a little!
I just need to mention that I was stunned when I went to do a goodreads giveaway for The Hanging Man and Other Stories and The Clockmaker's Son only to find that it will now cost $119 (that's just the minimum) to have a basic giveaway. Um...self-published authors really don't have large budgets to work with. So, why do I want to pay $119 to have a giveaway AND pay the expense of printing the books, buying the mailer materials, and paying for shipping costs to put my books in a few readers hands when hardly any of those readers have ever posted reviews or feedback?
So- giveaways on goodreads are on hold because I don't have the extra money lying around to do it right now. It's really very disappointing.
The first novel is one I wrote AGES ago. It is the first novel I ever wrote. It was written before 2007 when I went back to work full time because I remember writing all day when Kelly was in school. The characters had flip phones. I need to bring it forward at least a decade to a decade and a half. Although It's kind f retro already!
Anyway, Medina was a labor of love for my friend Darlene for her birthday. I labored on it so long it grew to over 400,000 words and became an epic love quadrangle story. A number of years ago I cut it back to somewhere between 165,000 and 166,000 words. More manageable, but still lengthy. I spent the weekend reading the still rough draft. It's strange how I can hear my future voice in the pages of this novel that is twelve or thirteen years old already. I still like the story, but it kind of drags out (although it's sort of necessary because I am dealing with a lot of characters, relationship developments, and things going on. There're also some continuity errors that need to be corrected because I guess I had two versions and ended up combining them, so Medina's back story kind of drifts back and forth between the two versions. Will be working on that in the future.
The Worth of A Woman is done and in manuscript form in the hands of two beta readers. One has already read it, told me it's good, that it made her cry a little (she was prepared to cry because she's a co-worker and had heard how I came into work crying because of an event in the book). She has passed the manuscript on to her 18 year old daughter who has read some of my books to get her feedback on it. Meanwhile, I did my proofreading of the manuscript, and need to do the Word review to catch any other issues I otherwise missed. It will be a slim novel released with no great fanfare in September. I need a cover for it still, and some back cover copy...always difficult for me.
Memento Mori-Garnet & Quella (a tentative title as I may do a series of Memento Mori novels with different paranormal situations...I haven't made a final decision on that yet) is also written and partially proofread. It also needs some bolstering in its backstory because I discovered what was actually going on only when I neared the end of the novel, so need to go back and rake in some red herrings and real clues/unsettling situations that will help give the ending greater impact.
Projects...for a few months (since The Clockmaker's Son, I really haven't written much of anything...and now I have three novels written (well, 2 new, 1 old) and another flitting its fledgling wings against my gray matter....feast or famine, so they say...ain't it the truth!
I also want to get some artwork done-moving from cemetery draped urns to butterflies to lighten up a little!
I just need to mention that I was stunned when I went to do a goodreads giveaway for The Hanging Man and Other Stories and The Clockmaker's Son only to find that it will now cost $119 (that's just the minimum) to have a basic giveaway. Um...self-published authors really don't have large budgets to work with. So, why do I want to pay $119 to have a giveaway AND pay the expense of printing the books, buying the mailer materials, and paying for shipping costs to put my books in a few readers hands when hardly any of those readers have ever posted reviews or feedback?
So- giveaways on goodreads are on hold because I don't have the extra money lying around to do it right now. It's really very disappointing.
Thursday, August 9, 2018
Something was Missing Today
A day without rain is like a day full of sunshine!
For the first time in what seems like weeks we had sunshine and no rain! No pop-up thunderstorms. No torrential, brief downpours. No rain with the sun shining. No sweeping gusts of wind and rain from blackened skies.
This evening I turned off the central air for the first time in ages and opened windows t let fresh air indoors!
There is a neighborhood wide 3-day tag sale going n up here n Eastview Heights this weekend. We had one access road into and out of the neighborhood...I'll have to fight my way out through all the earlybird tag salers tomorrow morning so can get to work! Kelly leaves at 7AM. I leave at 7:40AM. John is working from home.
By 5PM I should be able t make t home all right...I hope!
Meanwhile, manuscript copies of The Worth of a Woman are going to co-workers for beta reading tomorrow. Kind of anxious about how they will react to this one since it is not my usual lightweight stuff with a happy ending. This one does not have a happy ending. There are positive things and changes evident in the epilogue, but it's not a happy ending per se.
Like an onion, you have to peel back the layers. Like a treasure hunt, you have to look for the clues. Like a walk on an unfamiliar rail, you have to watch for the signs. And when you reach the end, you need to think about the beginning.
That's all I'm saying.
Happy Day Without Rain Today!!! :)
For the first time in what seems like weeks we had sunshine and no rain! No pop-up thunderstorms. No torrential, brief downpours. No rain with the sun shining. No sweeping gusts of wind and rain from blackened skies.
This evening I turned off the central air for the first time in ages and opened windows t let fresh air indoors!
There is a neighborhood wide 3-day tag sale going n up here n Eastview Heights this weekend. We had one access road into and out of the neighborhood...I'll have to fight my way out through all the earlybird tag salers tomorrow morning so can get to work! Kelly leaves at 7AM. I leave at 7:40AM. John is working from home.
By 5PM I should be able t make t home all right...I hope!
Meanwhile, manuscript copies of The Worth of a Woman are going to co-workers for beta reading tomorrow. Kind of anxious about how they will react to this one since it is not my usual lightweight stuff with a happy ending. This one does not have a happy ending. There are positive things and changes evident in the epilogue, but it's not a happy ending per se.
Like an onion, you have to peel back the layers. Like a treasure hunt, you have to look for the clues. Like a walk on an unfamiliar rail, you have to watch for the signs. And when you reach the end, you need to think about the beginning.
That's all I'm saying.
Happy Day Without Rain Today!!! :)
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Sometime's You've Just Gotta Have Soft Serve
Tonight, after dinner, I drove over to Kelly's house with her to collect a bag of wallpaper she'd stripped off her future bedroom walls as tomorrow is our trash day. She collected her mail. On the drive home, as we were cruising along South Maple Street I asked, "How about some soft serve tonight?" We've been in the midst of weeks of heat and humidity, have had ice cream at home, but nothing good was on sale this week. We've only been for soft serve once, in Easthampton at Tasty Top, the ice cream stand I grew up visiting with my family when we lived there, before moving to Westfield in 1973. Kelly replied, "We're thinking along the same lines again." Then it was a quick debate- Northside Creamery or Golf Acres? We chose Golf Acres because it's a little bit closer to home so we could get some soft serve in a cup home to John before it got too melty.
We were the only people there besides the girl manning the booth. She gave us our choices then said we could pick up he to-go cup when we were finished. We walked along the sidewalk past the mini golf course. Kelly had recently played the course with Galen. Although it was a mild 80 degrees this evening, no a soul was around. Would have been a god night for mini golf, the driving range, the go-carts or the batting cages. Ghost town!
We headed home and delivered soft serve to John. Kelly was excited about a 10% off Home Depot coupon she got at her house to welcome her to the neighborhood.What she's planning on purchasing? A weed whacker!
I have about 25 pages to edit in The Worth of a Woman tonight...heading off to get that done before bedtime. If I self publish this book it will just quietly appear on Amazon...no fanfare. It might be too raw for my usual readers...I have to think about this some more. It is not my typical book.
We were the only people there besides the girl manning the booth. She gave us our choices then said we could pick up he to-go cup when we were finished. We walked along the sidewalk past the mini golf course. Kelly had recently played the course with Galen. Although it was a mild 80 degrees this evening, no a soul was around. Would have been a god night for mini golf, the driving range, the go-carts or the batting cages. Ghost town!
We headed home and delivered soft serve to John. Kelly was excited about a 10% off Home Depot coupon she got at her house to welcome her to the neighborhood.What she's planning on purchasing? A weed whacker!
I have about 25 pages to edit in The Worth of a Woman tonight...heading off to get that done before bedtime. If I self publish this book it will just quietly appear on Amazon...no fanfare. It might be too raw for my usual readers...I have to think about this some more. It is not my typical book.
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