Attack of the triffids and an apology

First off, I want to let you know why I haven't done any writing the past 24 hours.   Yesterday evening, I was going to put some of the new and used books we'd gotten recently in a storage bin, so I grabbed a handful off the shelf.  Only to discover a bazillion ants behind.  I panicked and did what I did when I discovered The World's Largest Spider in our apartment 23 years ago.  I replaced them and went back into the office (the furthest away) to wait until my husband got home.  I did some prep work, getting the step stool and a half-dozen very large zipper seal plastic bags in place.  I also got some advice from folks on Facebook (thanks all!) and got some corn meal, ant traps and baking soda out too. 

But, I'm not proud of the way I reacted.  I'm usually pretty fierce in handling stuff like this.  It's not like they were spiders.  So, when Chris got home, he got the ant spray, I started loading books in the sealed bags (freak!freak!freak!) and the great ant massacre began.  Turned out the infestation affected both bookcases on either side of the window in the dining room, about four shelves down.  Chris had a little bit of a tantrum, because neither of us had done what we should have done and cleaned and reorganized what was essentially a storage room.  I agreed and tried to put a positive spin on matters that at least the nasty critters hadn't invaded the cat food or the kitchen. 

Last year, the ants invaded the warmth of the cable box, which is right in front of a window.  The year before, they invaded my flatbed scanner, which was, you guessed it, right in front of a window.  This time, we don't have a clue what they were going after.  Doesn't matter, just that the cats forgave me for shutting them in the bedroom upstairs until we could get everything cleaned up and dry.  I'll heal pretty quickly, I'm sure.  But, we both were feeling things crawling on us all night and Chris is sure he'll get Parkinson's from all the bug spray he's inhaled.  Ugh!  I'm leaving the bags sealed for about two weeks, then we'll get things organized.  I did get my writing notes out of the dining room and in the office.  They'll go into the bookcase with my notebooks and reference books tonight or tomorrow.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that I posted here and on FB, as well as many others, a quote I didn't attribute correctly.  My friend, Brenda, gave me the link for the article explaining the mistake and it seems I'm in good company, but still, my apologies. 


http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecutline/20110504/ts_yblog_thecutline/lessons-in-social-media-the-fake-martin-luther-king-jr-quote

Placing our characters in the real world

For Christmas 1967, my parents and I went down to see my oldest brother and his wife in Florida. 

Yeah, that's a picture of my butt.  I was thrilled I could walk the dog in shorts, but I was easily amused at that age.  Joe graduated from the Naval Academy earlier that year and was serving as a trainer for the pilots going over to Viet Nam.  I was pretty young at the time, but I remember being kind of freaked out that he said he felt he should be over there, should be with his classmates, instead of being safe at home. 

He never got that opportunity.  He and his student were killed in January of 1969 and he's buried in Arlington, right down from The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 

As I was writing the first book in what will eventually be a series, I think I channeled Joe in designing my primary hero.  Scanning the boxes of pictures onto various disks and flash drives, I found almost a dozen of him with various ladies.  Mom and Dad bought him his own tuxedo in 1963, because he'd been invited to like six different proms in the area.  Mom said about her oldest, beloved son, "I don't think Joe was a very nice young man."  She never told me what she meant by that.  I just got an email from a family friend who mentioned Joe begged her to send letters to him at the Academy, because they were competing who would get the longest, the most, etc.  All these things I've blended into my stories.  You can say it sounds weird, but it is like I'm hearing Joe feeding me lines of dialog, trying to win over his heroine.  Of course, the letters became emails and he redeems himself in the end, though we all love the bad boy. 

Will, my hero, is a medically retired Marine sharpshooter, who was injured in Afghanistan.  We meet three others from his unit in this book and upcoming ones.  I've done a great deal of research on veterans, current military officers and their family members.  Through it all (I started writing again in August of 2006), I heard Joe egging me on, giving me some of his best pick up lines and bringing people to me who wanted to talk about their experiences. 

So, when President Obama announced the Navy Seal team had captured and killed Osama bin Laden, I literally felt it through his eyes and the eyes of my characters.  Will knew something was up from a vague comment he'd gotten from a buddy, but felt he was the one who should have been there pulling the trigger.  Harry (who's a petite redhead and fiercer than any of the guys) felt a flash of resentment at all those brothers and sisters they'd lost and @#$% they'd had to endure while bin Laden was enjoying a cool beverage by the pool.  Tristan remembered sitting with his parents, watching the news stories on 9/11 and sheds a tear his dad died a couple of months before and his mama's in an Alzheimer's unit.  Dessie smashes an entire set of glasses into a fireplace, welcoming the blood as a piece of shrapnel cut her leg. 

Will I put this into what will become chronologically the third novel in my series?  Maybe not, as I've always been told it's wrong to time stamp, unless it's a historical.  But, I know it's there.  I know we'll have to deal with our mentally and physically injured veterans and the social and financial problems left behind with their military families.  And if I can give a voice to them and to Joe, I'll have done my job. 

While I've shared some of my characters' blood lust the past twenty-four hours (as Lizzy says to Will, "The only thing you should have felt when you killed an insurgent was your rifle's recoil."), I'd like to share two things I found on Facebook today. 

·         "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."--Martin Luther King, Jr.

an

·       Now I lay me down to sleep, one less terrorist this world does keep. With all my heart I give my thanks, to those in uniform regardless of ranks. You serve our country and serve it well, with humble hearts your stories tell. So as I rest my weary eyes, while freedom rings our flag still flies. You give your all, do what you must...with God we live and God we trust

Thank you for listening and joining me in thinking about these things.  God bless. 

That's what love is for

Twenty-three years ago today, I felt as special as the former Kate Middleton did yesterday, even though my dress was a $50 "try-on" and we had less than a hundred people in the party room of an apartment complex.  I'd worked sixty-five hours that week, eighty-five the week before and because of Chris's schedule at the TV station, we had to delay our honeymoon to St. Louis for a week.  Mom was, shall we say, over-medicated and I'd almost called the @#$%ing thing off, because Chris put off shoe shopping until the night before.  I would've killed him, but my inner voice said to wait until the life insurance was in my name and make it look like an accident.  All that aside, it was a beautiful, clear day.  My Uncle Bill and Uncle Herb were in the same room for the first time in decades.  Everybody cleaned up nice and my cousin's husband went and got more cups, because the caterer left and didn't tell us where the others were.

And I was married to my best friend.  I'm trying to put that feeling into my fiction for my heroes and heroines, because it's the stuff life is made of.  While I loved Christina Dodd's link on Facebook to Tiffany & Co.'s "build your engagement ring" site and Jo Beverley's link to her Word Wenches blog on a history of weddings, it's the little, everyday things that make a marriage. 

I screwed up my sleep schedule again, so slept until just a bit ago and Chris went off to play poker at a local pub.  I'm okay with that, because after 23 years (more, because we lived together a year before we got engaged), I don't need passionate and constant attention every minute of every day.  In fact, we try to give each other space and alone time as often as needed.  But--here's the kicker--I walked into the kitchen and Chris did some dishes for us!  I cried, honest.  I'd thought about saying "If you really loved me...," which is another game you play when you've been married a while.  (The other one, by the way, is "I'm going to die first, because....")  But, the "If you really loved me..." card is one you probably better keep for extra special occasions and acknowledge it's a game, otherwise it loses its effectiveness.  It was like he read my mind.  And I was grateful. 

Wait a sec.  "Hard to Say" by Dan Fogelberg just came up on my computer music program.  Particularly apropos.  And that's my second point of what I try to do in my life and my fiction:  love is the little things, day in and day out.  Seriously.  I see it in family and friends, but especially in my own life.  Love is running all over town to find the double-stick tape/favorite cheese/earrings your spouse needs/wants, staying with the grandkids on your birthday because there are three other crises going on, passing the same Valentine's Day card back and forth for the tenth year, pulling wheelchair duty for your mother-in-law without being asked, saying "please" and "thank you" though through gritted teeth, holding the other person as they cry at the end of "Field of Dreams," ordering the potato skins when you really wanted the onion petals.  Insert your special incident here. 

Now, "I Love You Always Forever" by Donna Lewis is playing.  Yeah, you're in for the long haul.  It's going to be either a shorter haul than you wanted or a horrifyingly long and painful haul, unless common courtesies are paid. 

I have to laugh--now the Beatles' "Paperback Writer" came up.  So, while traditional literature may deal with history and philosophical conundrums, I'm proud to be writing genre fiction.  It's where real life is happening.  Now, let's pause and listen to Mary-Chapin Carpenter's "Passionate Kisses." 

Follow Friday and It just keeps getting better and better...

Happy Follow Friday!  Let's take care of business, then I have some other helpful stuff I'd like to share.

The question this week is:


Who has been the most supportive of your writing?

My husband.  I started writing Seven Days and my other stories in August of 2006.  I was doing a lot of traveling for work and for Christmas (and 2007's birthday), he bought me a HP laptop.  It was a total thrill that he believed in me, because at the time, it was quite an investment.  I still use it, writing in the living room on MS Works, then Save it in Word and put it on flash drives and the new desktop in the office.  He gives me great lines for my characters, humors me when I'm "in writing mode" and says he looks forward to "being a kept man" when I make it big.  We'll talk some more about editing and writing Seven Days down below.

Your rules for Follow Friday (join the fun!)

1)      Follow this blog.

2)      Follow Elizabeth Sharp, the originator of this hop 9http://somesharpwords.blogspot.com/

3)      Follow the featured author of the week, MD Christie. http://writingafternine.blogspot.com/2011/04/follow-me-friday-blog-hop-and-little.html

4)      Go to Sharp words and copy the image code found there and paste it in your blog. Add your name to the link at the bottom of the post while you are there.

5)      Copy and paste the rules in your blog, as well as this week’s question.

6)      Answer the question

7)      Follow, follow, follow. This is about networking, people, making connections with people in your community. So talk to us. We don't bite!

8)      If someone stops by, says hi and follows you, the polite thing to do is follow back.

9)      Comment here and introduce yourself and you just might find a new follower or two
So, the most current Jane Friedman blog link (http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/) had a reference to the blog from Robert J. Sawyer, the science fiction writer (http://www.sfwriter.com/owindex.htm).  I haven't read his work yet, but my husband and I were fans of ABC's "Flashforward," which was based on his novel.  Anyway, he has some lovely essays in the "On Writing" section of that link that would be helpful to any writer in any genre.  While they were written in the '90s, most everything still applies today.  BTW, I wrote him a "thank you" email and he wrote one back!

One in particular I printed out and did tonight, "Word processing Tricks."  I used the "Search" feature for words like "just" and "very" a few months ago and was horrified at how many times they showed up in my mss.  Mr. Sawyer suggests doing the search for "ly " (with the space after), to seek out some adjectives and adverbs.  He says, "If you needed an adjective or adverb to modify another word, perhaps you didn't choose the right word to begin with."  He suggests "huge" rather than "really large" and "thundering" rather than "pounding loudly." 

You may remember my dilemma of having to cut over a hundred pages, so I'm all over this.  You know what I found in just the first two sections of my mss.?  Enough single words on the following list to cut another page.  Let me repeat:  ANOTHER PAGE.  I didn't cut all of them, but there were enough that I was embarrassed. 

How many of these do you not need? 
honestly
really
originally
certainly
gently (I never realized how often I used this)
quietly
quickly
probably (probably 3rd on the list, LOL)
only
exactly
incredibly
hopefully
actually
briefly
calmly
slowly

Do I have your attention now?  Seriously, I used "immediately" and "quickly" in the same sentence!  He also suggested:  utilize (UGH!) => use, in order to => to and the fact that => that.  I still need to go back over the flipping thing to lose some more dashes and exclamation points.  *sigh* 

I've already used the Search to remove The F Bomb, which was unfortunately one of my character's favorite cuss word.  My aunt said she would love to read my work someday, but really hated when it was used.  You know, we don't want to do anything that would limit your market. 

There were other helpful hints in this one and in "Heinlein Rules."  So, I (started to use "just" dang it!) wanted to share another resource to thank you for giving me all these informative links.  Read:  Time sucks I putter around, rather than writing my own stuff.  Seriously, I'm a better writer for it.

Golden Heart results

Just got the email with my Golden Heart results for my manuscript Seven Days.  Pretty much the same thing that happened last time, but with only one low score of 1.90 and the rest around 4. 

What have we learned from this?  Same thing as last time--not everyone will like your work.  You know, I'm okay with that.  I'd really like to see all the criticisms to consider if it is the readers' personal opinion or if there's something I could do to make my fiction more exciting and compelling to the wider audience.  I've already edited it down quite a bit, made it tighter with less repetition.  Of course, I wish I could have submitted the new and improved version, but I was doing good to get it into first person and edit it down from the monstrosity it was by a hundred pages. 

So, I would say I submitted a third or fourth draft.  I'm working on the next edit now and also doing a whole new story in which the characters from Seven Days are secondary.  I'm also making frantic notes for two other stories, the second in the series called Seven Months (the hero's brother falling in love with the heroine's sister) and a novel that has Will's niece as the heroine.  I've moved on, realizing it wasn't really ready for publication.  I'm not heartbroken or distraught that someone didn't like my precious and I don't take it personally.  It was a step in a process.  I'm proud I met the deadline and that most of the judges liked it pretty well. 

I worked as President and board of directors member for a local writers group over almost twelve years.  I helped organize a bunch of workshops and writers contests for them, along with monthly meeting programs and newsletters.  One year, we had the president of a local arts group ask if she was the winner of a contest, because she was so busy, she didn't really have time to show up for the awards ceremony unless she won.  The contest coordinator and I agreed--you need to attend or find out from the press release the next day.    Bitch.  We also had someone file a request for the Better Business Bureau to investigate whether our contest was "legitimate," i.e. if the prizes were awarded, if we were really non-profit, etc.  I muttered under my breath on that one too, having to fill out a five page questionnaire filled with legalese, when he/she could have just called, but I respected their concern.  There are a lot of  charlatans around. 

In other words, I certainly thank the judges for their time and consideration.  I value opinions, knowing they're especially valuable when I might learn from them.  I know the RWA National headquarters must be crazy busy, with the contest and preparations for the national convention, so I appreciate the time it took to send all the notifications.  But, it's time to move on.  Might enter a few more regional contests, to get a few more notes and opinions. 

Get back to work, Julee.  And thanks to all those who volunteer their time and effort.  Been there, done that and will definitely do it again in the future. 

Here are two pictures of my husband and I at parties for two of the science fiction conventions we ran.  The toga party was the banquet during Contact 11, with the theme of "Pledge Psi Phi."  We did pledge pins for those who pre-registered and had a heck of a lot of fun.  I chose the "Roman Holiday" toga, complete with pearls, but Chris just got one of our bed sheets.  The other is from a party to promote Contact 13, which was on a Friday the 13th that year.  The party theme was "Follow the trail of blood to Contact 13" and "Prom Night Massacre."  I was picking out the dress at Goodwill, torn between this one and a purple one and Chris pointed out, "The blood will show up better on the pink."  Thought the clerks were going to die.  He's wearing my brother's prom tux jacket, vintage 1963.  Yes, he had his fly open, because, you know.  The kids who have sex are the first to get killed. 

Here's hoping conference and contest organizers have as much fun with the hard work as we did!



Follow Friday--your best search resources

Welcome to our Friday visit!  We're going to take care of this business, then I have some things of my own to talk about.

For Elizabeth Sharp one of the most useful tool in my writing arsenal is Urban dictionary. What is your most referred to website for your writing?

 

Okay, I've not visited the Urban Dictionary, but I will now.  For writing site links, I visit Jane Friedman/There Are No Rules/Writer's Digest websites and Kristine Katherine Rusch's blog

www.kristinekathrynrusch.com.  I write about such diverse characters, I search everywhere.  BTW, I use bing more than Google as a search engine.  Don't know why, I just do. 

Now, if you're interested in following the Follow Friday Blog Hop

The rules:

• 1)      Follow this blog.
• 2)      Follow Elizabeth Sharp, http://somesharpwords.blogspot.com/ the host of this hop
• 3)      Follow the featured author of the week. Michelle Ferguson
  of Michelle Ferguson Books
• 4)      Go to Sharp words and copy the image code found there and paste it in your blog. Add your name to the link at the bottom of the post while you are there.
• 5)      Copy and paste the rules in your blog, as well as this week’s question.
• 6)      Answer the question
• 7)      Follow, follow, follow. This is about networking, people, making connections with people in your community. So talk to us. We don't bite! This post serves as a perfect place for you to say hello!
• 8)      If someone stops by, says hi and follows you, the polite thing to do is follow back.
• 9)      Comment here and introduce yourself and you just might find a new follower or two.

Now, having mentioned Jane Friedman:
I'm a follower of Jane Friedman, http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/ , after hearing her speak last year through a local writers' group.  One of her links this week was for Laurie Rosin, http://thebookeditor.com/ , who had a couple of articles/blogs that were also published in Writer's Digest, which Jane works for.

The first was labeled, "Tighten Up," where she asks "Why do novices produce paper Everests?"  Rosin explains that it is very rare for an acquisitions editor to chance accepting a manuscript over 100,000 words for economic reasons.  Also, no matter what that author says, there is always room to revise a manuscript and the task is daunting for a new writer when they have to go through something so huge. 

*sigh*  Here is where I admit my manuscript for Seven Days was originally almost 700 pages.  Now, I admit I had a lot of unnecessary and duplicate scenes in there.  My original thought was how cool it would be to have an overlap as it were of a bit of dialog here and there from two different points of view.  Also, I still had tons of notes about back stories and characters that I hadn't even touched.   I got it down to 584 pages simply by changing the point of view to first person and some not too painful revisions.  But, Rosin isn't the only one saying that we shouldn't give an editor/agent/reader an excuse to turn us down. 

So, I put on my big girl panties and started cutting.  Now, I was careful to put what I cut from both edits in folders on my computer, Just In Case there was something to sprinkle back in later or if I wanted to publish an "alternative version" as an ebook when I'm rich and famous (yeah, it could happen, rabbit).  But I was slashing.  And you know what?  There was a lot of stuff that could go. 

It killed me to cut a favorite scene from a sister's point of view, but this book wasn't her story.  She gets her voice in the next book, Seven Months.  Rosin also suggested  in another very helpful article, "Stellar Revisions," you really don't need a scene showing someone making a plane reservation when you have a scene later with her either on the plane or in another city.  There's also, "Replace Discussion with Action," which will help as I have quite a bit of dialog and that takes up more space.  Finally, she says, "View the revision process as a fascinating mind game, a Puzzle for the Intelligent."  It is kind of fun, but I definitely have to be in a mood for it.  If I'm tired or distracted, I won't be able to cut or rewrite anything.

My story starts on a Monday night.  Last month, the last Tuesday scene was on page 183 and the whole thing was 584 pages.  One version at a whopping 568 pages had a word count of 125,156.  Last night, Tuesday ended on page 143 and I had the whole thing down to 529 pages.   I'm going to be cutting most of Thursday, quite a bit of Saturday and I'm well on my way to my goal of getting it below 400 pages. 

So, this creates another problem.  I see from previous passes little errors, like extra spaces or fragments that got missed in the cut.  The mouse pad on my laptop is well worn and when I'm highlighting something to cut, it goes too quickly taking up pages instead of paragraphs, even though I set the speed slower on the Control board.  When I get done with this hard edit, I'll put it aside for a few days at least, then go back to look at it with fresh eyes.  Lord knows, I don't want to reference something earlier or later that was cut. 

Anyone else out there with a monster to edit?  Someday, when everything is E, maybe length won't matter.  But, as for now, I'm a cutting fool. 

Of passings and new beginnings

First, let me say that our trip to Oklahoma City and the memorial there several years ago was very moving.  It was peaceful and beautiful and fitting to remember the lives lost.  Then, all of a sudden, the hush was broken by, "Jonathan!  Get back here!"  My nephew was several feet out into the shallow reflecting pool, splashing in the water.  Then, I took these pictures and sat for a bit on the steps, looking at the chairs, lit at night, one for everyone killed during the bombing.  The smaller ones for the children sent shivers down my back.  The quiet was interrupted by, "Jonathan, NO!" and my brother in law moving faster than any human I've ever seen, because his little boy was on the very high brick wall, getting ready to climb the Survivors' Tree. 

He's not bad, just a little high strung and a teenager now.  Since my husband and I were not blessed with children, I closely observe at family events and public places, listening and watching.  I hear the words my mother warned me with coming out of my mouth to my cats.  They sigh and roll their eyes as I'm sure I did. 

Another passing happened recently. 

This was a picture of the shuttle they had at Space Camp, in Huntsville, Alabama, which we got to tour quite a few years ago when we were in the city for a science fiction convention.  I grew up reading SF and as a little kid, couldn't decide if I wanted to be a ballerina or an astronaut.  Mom often told the story of how distraught I was I didn't get to hear my name read for my birthday on the local kids' show, because it was interrupted to report John Glenn orbited the Earth.  She stayed up with me to watch the Apollo 11 landing and said it was a thrill when we watched the Apollo-Soyuz launch.  Ah, good memories and the latter was the source of one of my greatest sunburns. 

So, I guess what I'm saying here is that in our fiction, as in our lives, our characters have to change and grow.  Events are often catalysts to the change, but sometimes, it's just maturing.  We know we truly have a winner when we can also change the reader with our work, while we're creating those word images in their minds.  Just a little something to aspire to, as we try to decide those pivotal events that made our characters what they are.