There are owls outside in the woods, hooting and echoing to each other. The cat ignores them, languorous on the cat tree, awaiting royal attention. She doesn’t feel the stress of my days except when it is all too much. Then she reaches a paw out and taps my hand, reminding me that the center of the world does indeed exist and needs to be petted. We all must pay the pet tax....
Continue reading...Writing
Playing catchup
Life has been hectic, to say the least. The new job I started in January has been good, but it’s a lot more time and focus than my previous gig. Also more travel: I’ve visited Miami, Malaga in Spain, and soon San Francisco. No complaints. It is fun and interesting work, if a bit stressful and chaotic. Combine work with riding and gaming, and well, that’s my week without too much time set...
Continue reading...Playlist for writing
I have a playlist that I use when I’m writing horse-related stories. There are two I’m working on currently, one short story and a novel-length, tentatively entitled The Lady in the Tree. The playlist corresponds approximately to events and characters in the novel and shows their progression through the story. Related Images:
Continue reading...Video on writing research papers
Excellent presentation by Professor Simon Peyton Jones of Microsoft Research. He provides a seven step process. One enlightening thing he said is to start writing and *then* do your research. The process of writing can help hone what research is necessary (and prevents being bogged down in research). Additional resources on research are available on Professor Jones’ web site. Related Images:
Continue reading...Neil Gaiman reads Jabberwocky
Neil Gaiman does a lovely recitation of Lewis Carroll’s famous poem, Jabberwocky. Of course, this can’t be compared to the Muppet version. Related Images:
Continue reading...Playlist for stories
I tend to create playlists for stories I’m working on. I have a playlist on Rdio that I created for Lady in the Tree (novel) and also use for Ride Softly (short story). I was helping a friend with her writing project yesterday and we started discussing play lists we make for our characters. Here is my play list for what I’m currently working on. Related Images:
Continue reading...Poem: Toys
Deaths seem to be hanging in the air this month. Two of my friends are dealing with the deaths of their fathers. One of them loved their father, the other not so much. Lots of conflicting emotions. It’s been many years since my Dad died. I still miss him, especially around Father’s Day. This poem was written the day he died (October 1, 1994). I didn’t have a phone at the time, so...
Continue reading...Less writing underway
I kept up with the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood’s Winter Writing Festival for about three weeks. I was on target and felt great about being productive (without writing in tech writer voice for fiction). Unfortunately, Stress hit from various things. And writing screeched to a halt because all I wanted to do after work was either ride, play games, or vegetate. So. I made good progress on the short story about Isis but haven’t...
Continue reading...More writing underway!
The Winter Writing Festival has been a big boost to productivity. I’m not writing as much on the fiction as I would like because of all of the role-play related writing I’ve been doing. Still fiction but kinda a mixture of the technical writing (explaining how to do a scenario is rather like writing a procedure) with the fiction (writing scenario descriptions, battle mechanics, etc.). Tonight I finished a good draft of one...
Continue reading...Progress on Winter Writing Festival!
Score! I’ve been working on gaming material in addition to the short story, Ride Softly. Play-through of newly written material is worth five points. Monday we had a gaming session and a play through. Definitely a work in progress because we were carefully revising material as we went. However, it was FUN and amazing! The main idea for the boat challenge was my co-GM’s (who is friggin’ brilliant and a great mentor). Gamers...
Continue reading...First day’s goals met
Some how 500 words or so seems like such an easy goal. And I did it. I wrote 620 words tonight on Ride Softly. I could go more, but I find myself shifting out of the lyrical writing style and more into a technical writer voice. I’m stopping for the night. Yay! I did it! One night down, 49 more to go. I think I can do this. Related Images:
Continue reading...Ruby Slippered Sisterhood Winter Writing Festival
One of the ladies in my writers’ group at work belongs to the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood. She let us know about their Winter Writing Festival, and it sounded like a perfect opportunity. I’ve been wanting to get back into writing more fiction. I miss it. I’ve felt blocked but by stress and too many other things going on. The truth is, I don’t need to go home and watch TV. I should go...
Continue reading...Where did October go?
Where did October go? I suddenly blinked and it was gone and November is looming large. December isn’t too far behind, judging by the Christmas crap that’s appearing in the stores. (Christmas crap = the tacky decorations that get shoved on unwilling consumers to encourage them to buy buy buy during the ever-extending holiday season.) I think I lost most of October partially due to shock. October 11 was a very hard day...
Continue reading...Tonight, we write
The characters are playing. Specifically: one story, Ride Softly, is pounding to be written. I’m seven pages in, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you consider it’s the most fiction I’ve written in a year (much less in two sittings). It’s Isis’ story, with a twist. When I write her scenes, I have my eyes closed and the tears stream down my face. There are two scenes that were the hardest: when...
Continue reading...Chronicles
I’ve always been a writer, and it’s always made sense to me to deal with issues by writing. I was reading through old posts on here and discovered just how much I’ve captured of Isis’ saga on this blog. Same with Basette and Ambush, my old kitties. A friend here at work suggested pulling Isis’ blog posts into a book to detail exactly what happened to her. Maybe others can learn from what...
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