Living with Other People in Your Head for Five Years

The other day, I realized I’ve been writing on this series of novels and stories for the past five years. The novel-length manuscript in the twenty year-old hard drive in the basement has already been rewritten in my head and notes. Its hero makes a brief appearance in SEVEN DAYS, the first book I’ve completed and am editing.

Friends and family are used to me zoning out in the middle of a discussion, grabbing my journal and pen to scribble something down or pointing out something and saying, “That’s so [fill in the blank with the character’s name].” They even egg me on, sending me quotes and links for articles or pictures.  My husband is used to dubbing all sorts of odd things onto DVDs for my “research.”

He has supported my dreams, laughing at me (of course), but saying he anxiously awaits the day I can make him a “kept man.” For Christmas 2006 and my birthday 2007, he bought me a laptop. It was an awesome statement of faith for which I will ever be grateful. Hundreds of files are there, all backed up on duplicate flash drives in secure locations. Most everything is now done on the much faster, flashier desktop in the office, but I’ll still use the laptop to type in notes or do quick edits while watching TV.

You all are backing up all your files, right?

But back to my imaginary friends. These characters are almost as real to me as my local friends, sometimes. I’ve certainly spent more time with these fictional phantoms, laughing at them, crying at their heartbreaks, rejoicing when they come up with just the right witty retort or when they’re in danger of exploding from so much love. Songs will conjure up scenes or intense feelings at odd moments. My husband works evenings and for my last job, I travelled a great deal. I was never alone, though. I’d just invite one of my peeps to tell me a story. It’s been my honor to transcribe them to share with you.

At their heart, these are all love stories, though other topics and literary events happen along the way. It starts with love, though. Lizzy and three of her four sisters are in Vegas for a bachelorette party. Will helps her during an emergency and she ends up marrying him, bringing home the ultimate souvenir.

The next seventy years are mapped out in my timeline. You see, his younger brother hooks up with her younger sister and there are kids, friends and ancestors’ stories to tell. Oh, yes, I have two historical novellas started, along with a juvenile for Grace’s story.

It’s been a wild and wonderful journey. My “real life” persona cross-stitches and I’ve given that obsession to Lizzy/Elizabeth. I’d like to share pieces I’ve done that remind me of my characters.

At the top of the article is Love Is Patient by La-Dee-Da. Elizabeth stitches it for Mary Margaret and Rob’s Christmas gift. It’s ironic, because Rob is dyslexic, but once he finds out the Bible verse, he’s very moved.

Will—graduated from The Naval Academy and loves to sail, so I chose Bass Harbor Lighthouse (Maine), by Cross My Heart for him. He sees it finished at Elizabeth’s apartment and she offers it to him for his office. She figures it would be appreciated and not sold at a yard sale for $5 (every stitcher’s nightmare).

Elizabeth—is fierce, but struggles to believe this new husband of hers can really keep her heart safe. This is an unfinished piece, I Believe, by Mosey & Me. It reads:

I believe

That myth is more potent than history

That dreams are more powerful than facts

That hope always triumphs over experience

That laughter is the only cure for grief

And I believe that love is stronger than death.

Mary Margaret—loves to garden and has hidden in her garden, at her piano, in a book, on a computer, for all of her thirty years. She sees her sister happy, gets her dream job, meets the love of her life and comes into her own in the second book, SEVEN MONTHS. This is Calla Lilies by Sue Powell and Mary Margaret has deep red ones in her wedding bouquet.

And finally,

Rob—the hardest to pick. He’s very old world, very sensual, so I chose one of Patricia Anderle’s Gothic Samplers. This piece saved our lives, literally. Our car ran out of gas outside of Atlanta, GA, in 2000. We made it to an off-ramp, but it was after midnight and cars were whipping past . I had this in my embroidery frame and we held it to flag drivers and keep us safe. Some extraordinary people helped us that night and I’d like to think Rob would be the one who stopped for us.

So, thanks for joining me on this extraordinary journey of the past five years with these wonderful characters. Though I’ll have to return to The Real World fairly soon (meaning getting a “real job” again), I promise to concentrate on editing and polishing the first two books, which are essentially written. Please follow me on my Facebook Fan Page and you may Friend me on my personal page, if you’d like. I’ll be here, trying to post a little more regularly on this blog, too.

Because, as Mary Margaret says, “Fate and faith puts us where we need to be.”

Love ya, Julee

More tunes, another varied collection

Just your usual selection for a middle-aged white chick from Indiana. Here are the YouTube links for your amusement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODOOo-R6kg8&ob=av2n

Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars (don't know why, but this really grabbed me)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcCw1ggftuQ

Right Round by Flo Rida (from “The Hangover”)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSVHoHyErBQ&ob=av2e

Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake (one of my characters was in a boy band...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yt849wJyVk&ob=av2e

Get Back by Ludacris (I got the uncensored version Tom Cruise danced to at the end of “Rolling Thunder,” but this is the one for public consumption)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZUdzr9e2GQ

Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) by Melanie (swiped this album from my brother)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_7-vVyECbE

Hell Yeah by Montgomery Gentry (Hell yeah! They have video taken from their concert in Evansville, IN on YouTube too)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NhmYH26YVc

Looking for Clues by Robert Palmer (I'd forgotten this one, but like it.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De6Oj5vIe9Q

Mean by Taylor Swift (the little girl at the end so looks like one of my characters at that age)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiXbRBS5Z58

Yeah! By Usher (the other "The Hangover" cut)

What's your favorite lately?

Links and funnies and a moment of mourning

www.facebook.com/pages/thingsweforgetblogspotcom/59899066172?sk=wall

Both John Scalzi (president of Science Fiction Writers of America and kick-ass novelist) and Laura Resnick (Word Wench and SF author) had the link to this website posted on Facebook. This guy will draw on sticky notes and post them throughout the city, taking a picture. They've been collected on posters and I love the little bites of philosophy.
Here's another cool, recent discovery:

gapingvoid.streetcards.com

gapingvoid gallery

Hugh MacLeod works in the advertising business, but draws on the back of business cards. Yet again, we have pithy, moving, tapas of thoughtfulness to smile at.

This was a bag found by author Teresa Medeiros in a gift shop. Other than the unfortunate expectations we're giving our children, especially our daughters (did you see the poll where more girls said they'd rather win "America's Next Top Model" than win a Nobel Peace Prize?), it's purple and cute and I would probably buy it to hold my Hello Kitty collection for my character, Mary Margaret.

 

 

http://www.snorgtees.com/t-shirts

A great source for hilarious T-shirts, but I love this one. It's a pet peeve of mine you should know about, while we're in that awkward, getting to know each other phase.

Now, for the moment of mourning:

The Business Rusch: Third Quarter Blues | Kristine Kathryn Rusch

kriswrites.com

Kris not only gives a very learned essay on the impact of the closing of the whole Borders chain, she's found out from her sources that Barnes & Noble has told their employees to prepare for a massive return of stock in the immediate future. Now, having been in the bookselling business (I ran a bookstore in the B&N chain for almost ten years), I can tell you that they have many long nights of strip lists and pulling and boxing returns ahead of them. Get your mind out of the gutter. Mass market paperbacks aren't returned whole copy. The bookstore employee pulls the number of copies called for on the list, takes them off the sales floor and rips the covers off, destroying the rest, either by tearing out pages or putting in a locked trash compactor. It made me sick, how many poor, defenseless books I destroyed. It was a practice developed during WWII to provide books to the troops and allow returns of unsold books. The trade paperbacks and hardcovers are returned whole copy, of course, but have to be pulled, boxed and prepared for shipping. I can't tell you how many times I'd find myself at 3 a.m., still working on getting stuff out of the store, because being management, I was salaried, of course.

What does this mean for us, the readers? I'm going to be making a few trips to the Books-A-Million store about a forty-five minute drive away in the next six months to get my fix. Yes, I'll also be buying on the interwebs. May I recommend:

BetterWorldBooks.com - New & Used Books for Sale, Textbooks, Book ...

Shop over 9 million new and used books, college textbooks and more at bargain prices. Free shipping worldwide. We donate a portion of all sales to fund literacy programs.

www.betterworldbooks.com

 

But it is truly the end of an era.

Latest obsessions

Let me explain--one of my characters is obsessed with Hello Kitty. Mary Margaret loves all things Japanese and always wanted a kitty. She finally gets her chance in my second book to go to Japan, but in the meantime, her love became a little bit of a joke for me. I got a few things HK:

Note, they were all on sale. AND no, I did not get the little Hello Kitty vibrator, but one of MM's sisters did get it for her.

She is the middle one of five sisters. Yes, they were named after the characters in Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice and "We Are Family" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNAQ8LLptUo just came on my MP3 file. I love coincidences like that! In the original novel and most adaptations, Mary is a bit whiny, always preaching and not very pretty. She has an embarrassing piano performance, which my character has always wanted to avoid. MM finally has a drunken karaoke performance a "friend" records on her cell phone that goes viral. With some designer clothes and makeup tips, in later books, MM is widely considered one of the most beautiful women in the world. She also gets to marry a handsome, wealthy, talented man who loves her very much. It's not a perfect life, but it's perfect for this formerly shy wallflower.

Pardon, while I get up and dance to Jermaine Stewart's "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off." One of my faves. The link on YouTube has been blocked on this one, unfortunately. I had to buy it off of I think Rhapsody. It's also on the "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" soundtrack.

Another thing I've been doing recently is going through some of my journals to enter and sort things, getting them on computer. I have a ton of quotations, songs I want, ideas for different stories, notes from magazines and books and other ramblings of my twisted mind. Here are some of the blank books:

I have about thirty of them filled and about that many more that have not been cracked open yet. I keep one in my purse, one in the upstairs bathroom, one in the drawer of the desk here and one on the table by where I watch TV. Looking through the one in the upper right (with the artwork on it), I see scribbled notes from a Food Network show, "Semi-Homemade" where they did a bread pudding with cinnamon raisin bread and canned pumpkin. Did I mention Mary Margaret's favorite flavor and smell is cinnamon? There's also  a song listed called "Love, Sex, Magic" by Ciara with Justin Timberlake. The man MM marries used to be in a boy band, like, guess who? Also some notes from a travel show that featured Catskill, NY, where they have decorated cat sculptures all over the city. And what were we just talking about?

I love this $#@%! Thanks for joining me on this journey and I promise more later. What has been your latest obsession?

Every ten years or so

My friend, Pam Asberry, posted about how we tend to “change” every seven years (Every Seven Years). It has something to do with our bodies producing new cells. I know a hairdresser told me one time, when my part changed and cowlicks started acting up that it seemed to be true. Pam also shared a bunch of fun pictures I hadn’t seen of her with her kids, from the time we lost touch.

She got me thinking. You know how dangerous that is. My life truly seems to change about every ten years or so. Or as I said after I applied for the job I got downsized from last year, “About every ten years, I tend to do something that scares the $#%& out of me.” Life-changing events seem to occur then for me too.

So, here are a few pics that may amuse. Several of the things I have incorporated into my fiction, because that’s how I roll. But, you’ll have to wait for that….

1968. I recognize the dress from 4th grade. Right before this picture, I fell and skinned my left elbow. I still have the nasty scar. It was a weird year, because I'd just gotten my first pair of glasses. Mom noticed I had trouble seeing my brother on the plane and while we were waiting for the glasses to come in, I had to move to the front of the class. Funny how I date most of my pictures by which glasses I was wearing. My vision without correction is now 20/200, despite special drops in my eyes every night during my teenage years. Glasses continue to be an important part of my life. I tried contacts, but my eyes are fairly close together and I think I actually look better with them. My opthamologist said it was the first time he'd ever heard anyone say that. Anyway, my oldest brother was killed the next year, so my life definitely changed. 

1978. College picture. One of the few times I actually liked my hair. College was the first time I'd been away from home for more than two weeks at a time, the first time I was making decisions on my own. The first time I really fell in love. I was still suffering from mono and developed a severe depression my sophomore year, that resulted in me spending four days in the infirmary and missing two finals. I was able to make them up, but it resulted in me changing my major from pre-med. I'm grateful it happened, though it was a difficult time to live through.

1988. How do I know? Hideous dress, old apartment, Elton John glasses and gardenia hairpiece I wore at our wedding at my waist. While I was thrilled to marry Chris and knew it was the right thing to do (he just took out the kitty litter trash and started a load of laundry, God bless him!), the retail store I managed took a hit in sales that year due to construction in the area, so hours were slashed. I worked 65 hours the week of my wedding and many more each week for most of the year. Later that year, we bought our house. I don't recommend getting married and buying a house in the same year, but it all worked out somehow.

1998. Fangirl personified, as this was taken at the Rivercon Science Fiction Convention Chris and I were Fan Guests of Honor for. Chris started the SF conventions in our city and I'd volunteered at a bunch, so we were thrilled by this honor. I'm wearing a T-shirt for Contact 15 (our pro guest was Kris Rusch, who wrote some "Star Wars" novels). Chris and I met at a Contact and discovered we'd both attended as teenagers a "Star Trek" fan club event. Small world. I've met so many friends, authors and artists at conventions, I am very grateful.

2008. Chris and I on top of the Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas, celebrating our 20th. No, we did not go on the rides, because we had to get the airport shuttle for our flight home, darn. A good portion of my first novel is set in Vegas and I was thrilled to discover a lot of details to "make it real." While I'd been writing seriously again for almost two years, this was when the story really started coming together, actually walking down The Fremont Street Experience, taking a ton of pictures, playing the "Star Trek" machines in the casinos and discovering the VIP entrance to The Forum Shoppes.
So, looking forward to 2018. I plan on still being here and having a good time! Here are a couple of other fun pictures that fell in between:

1972. Stylin'. Don't know what the damage is at the top, probably my loud pants blinded the scanner.

1993. Contact 11 Toga Party, with me in the classic "Roman Holiday" toga. There was a wedding reception in the hotel, but everyone wanted to party with us!

Thanks for wandering through my photo album and please share a picture of you on my Facebook page from an important time of your life and comment below.

Do you want to know a secret?

So, another thing my friend Pam Asberry did in her blog was give me an award.

While I failed in my miserable existence of passing the award on to other bloggers (most of the ones I follow are the ones she chose anyway), I need to follow the other requirement of telling you ten things about me that you wouldn't know. They're not really secrets, but I made you click and read, right?

1. There are certain songs that make me cry. Every time. If I ever had to perform them, I would have to practice a bazillion times. But, I love them and always stop what I'm doing when they come up on the computer or on the radio and I've worked them into my novels, with my characters performing them (Rob used to be in a boy band and they do various charity and fund-raiser shows). First is Warren Zevon's "Keep Me in Your Heart" which he recorded right before he passed : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMTKb-pgxGI  Next is one I've referenced here before, Edwin McCain's "I Could Not Ask for More": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPXRJkla7fI Finally, one I haven't heard on the radio in a long time, England Dan & John Ford Coley's "Love Is the Answer": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH8PVPel15M&feature=related There are others, but those three come to mind right now.

2. In one of my previous lives, I ran a bookstore. It wasn't always the dream job that everybody thought it was. I worked 65 hours the week of my wedding. I spent many late nights finishing returns and strip lists (for mass market paperbacks). But, I got to meet many super people, including my husband and doubled my library with my employee discount.

3. In that capacity, I got sued by the local group, Citizens for Decency. Actually, I was named in the suit against the store, because we carried a little book called Joy of Lesbian Sex. The woman minister who was so outraged about it didn't say anything about Joy of Gay Sex or More Joy of Sex, but they were right next to the religion section. The suit was dismissed, but the entire chain was rearranged, with the Sex Ed books going on the other side of the store next to the nature books. (Truth) Oh, I also got interviewed by The Gay & Lesbian Alliance, where I gave the quote, "I have something to offend everyone in this store."

4. Since 1995, I've been obsessed at various levels with counted cross-stitch, spending waaaay too much money on patterns and supplies.

Wedding sampler I did for one of my Framing Goddesses.
5. Since about 2008, I've been obsessed at various levels with beading and jewelry making. Oh, good. Yet another expensive, time-consuming, sedentary hobby.

6. Back in 2005, when my husband and I boxed all the books so he could refinish the floors, we had 65 boxes. Let's add another 40 in the intervening years. So little time....

7. I'm the biggest fangirl. There are pictures out there of me in a "Star Trek" costume and video of me "filking" (singing with science fiction lyrics substituted).

'Nuff said. Geek.

8. I was in dance squad and flag corps in high school, then on several drill teams in grade school and Job's Daughters (Masonic organization). Oh, freshman year in college, I took Arthur Murray Dance Studio lessons.

9. Speaking of Job's Daughters, I am Past Honored Queen and Majority Member of Bethel #74 (now defunct), International Order of Job's Daughters. I gave my doll and charm bracelet to my niece.

10. I graduated from DePauw University in 3 1/2 years because of classes I took at the local junior college during high school. Good thing, they cut my financial aid for my senior year. I did not go to my class reunion this year and I'm not telling you which one it is. I will tell you, Jane Pauley, Erma Bombeck and the CEO of IBM at the time spoke at our graduation.

Thanks, Pam! We live to amuse, so I hope you all enjoyed. Tell me a secret about you in the comments, please!

Goals and catching up on business

I still consider myself new to this blogging thing and I'm not as regular about it as I would like. My apologies. I don't post at scheduled times and I'm not as active checking in with other blogs as I should be.

One person who has motivated and inspired me is a high school buddy that I've reconnected with on Facebook, Pam Asberry. She has her personal blog called Sometimes It's Cloudy, Sometimes It's Clear:

http://pamasberry.blogspot.com/

And she's started a new project with some of her fellow romance writers down in her home area of Georgia:

http://writerslipp.blogspot.com/

Love the lips!

Plus, she works with her Georgia Romance Writers of America group and contributes to their blog AND at least one other I know of. My head hurts. While I was The Queen of the 300 Word Essay for my local writers group and SF club back in the day, that was still only one per month for each.

So, a few weeks ago, when Pam posted some of her goals for the rest of the year, motivated by a non-fiction book she read, I wrote down my goals on some scrap paper. I promptly put them in the drawer of the desk and forgot about them. That's how I roll and I don't even have the excuse of antibiotic brain now! Anyway, I thought I'd better get my act in gear, having just applied for A Real Job that IF I were to get it would scare the @#$% out of me.

Sorry I don't have the cool video embedded, like she did. As I said, I'm still learning and to be honest, I have the link somewhere, but I need to spend some time cleaning up my notes. *sigh* Another thing I'll put on the goals list, promise. I do remember that the goals, in order to be more effective, need to be "I will..." statements and have a definite date attached to them. Simply by writing them down, they are more likely to be accomplished, right? They need to be doable, which means I need to get off my fat @ss and stop playing Jewel Quest III all afternoon, while watching bad TV.

So, here are some goals for the remainder of 2011:

1. I will finish one large needlework project by 12-31-2011. I love stitching and have several that would only require a little more effort to finish.

2. I will be more active and watch my diet to lose at least 10 lbs. by my doctor's appointment the first week in September (let's say 9-1-2011). Really. It's not that hard, Julee.

3. I will get the boxes of cross-stitch magazines and craft stuff that I no longer have need of or want to the place that sells them on eBay for me by 9-1-2011. I've made several hundred dollars so far this year off of stuff that had been in boxes in the garage, not seeing the light of day for years.

4. I will clean and organize the dining room, kitchen and living room so that we can host a Christmas party this year, say before 12-23-2011. The dining room has been a storage room for the past year. I will include re-upholstering the six chairs I spray painted black last year.

5. I will find full-time employment I enjoy by 10-1-2011. The TV station my husband works at is being sold, so this is an issue.

6. I will finish editing Seven Days by 7-31-2011, so it can go to my beta readers.

7. I will finish writing at least one other novel-length manuscript by 12-1-2011. Shouldn't be a problem, because I pretty much have Seven Months done, except for putting it in first person.

8. I will research and query at least three agents by 9-31-2011.

9. I will research and make a decision about self-publishing by 10-31-2011.

10. I will get my writing notes re-organized and get at least five notebooks transcribed into the computer and saved on flash drives by 10-31-2011. 

How 'bout them apples? All reasonable. I've got them written in my purse notebook and on a card I'll keep by where I write. Only 4 and 5 depend on others--my husband has to finish the bookcases in the dining room and a total stranger has to decide to hire me. So, these are my mid-year resolutions. How are you doing?