50k!

Yay! I "won" at NaNo! Though I'm not quite done with my story, at least I'm 50k in!


How 'bout you all? Did you write a lot this month? Did you hit 50k? Or did you wrap up your draft for NaNoWraMo?

Writer's Block

While I don't believe in writer's block, per se (I tell my students--and myself--that it's more of a writer's mountain and it just looks daunting), I do believe in procrastination. I, myself, am an expert at it. 


Why, just a couple of days ago, when I had plenty of time to write I cleaned out my filing cabinet, shredded bills, colored my hair (pesky grays!), washed a large pile of dishes, scheduled the roofer, changed my insurance to my new car (well, not new--it's a 2003 Jetta--but new to me), downloaded and filled out paperwork for a new title and registration, read blogs, wrote four reviews and scheduled them to post, and played Zombies vs. Plants. 


Yes, I got a lot done--stuff I HAD to do and had been putting off.


What I didn't get done was any writing. Well, besides the book reviews. So, when I ran across this music video by Jackson Pierce (yes, she's multi-talented and HI-larious), I knew I had to post it. Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are so many things I'm thankful for in this world and, in 2010, I added even more to my list.


Family: they're an awesome bunch of people. And this year, my brother joins us for the holiday from Chicago! Yay!


Kids with fur: for always greeting me at the door with wagging tails (and entire bodies), for dragging me out of my comfy chair for walks so we can patrol the neighborhood, and for snuggle-time.


Friends and co-workers: for making me laugh, for getting me through those rough-and-tough days, and for all the fun we have.


Online friends: for your support, your writing, your comments and tweets, and your love of reading. The blogging community of readers and writers is one of the most encouraging and friendly groups of people I know--and something non-bloggers usually don't understand (they so don't know what they're missing!).


Books: wow, the amount of quality literature out there is amazing and I wish I could sit & devour each and every book out there! We're blessed to have such a plethora of stories to immerse ourselves in.


Writing: what can I say, writing has added new dimensions to my life. I'd forgotten how much I loved it, getting lost in worlds of my own creation, playing with words, and having characters come to life. While I'd love to be published and share my stories with the world (*sends prayer out into the universe*), no matter what, I'm going to keep writing.


Happy Thanksgiving to all you U.S. folks and Happy Day to everyone! What are you thankful for?

Enough with the talking dogs already

I'm a dog person. A huge dog person. If it were allowed in the city, I'd have a huge pack of dogs just like Sigfried in the (way old) show of All Creatures Great and Small. (Have you ever seen it? My parents are Anglophiles and Masterpiece Theatre folks and always forced us kids to watch their shows but I liked Creatures because it followed James Harriot around England as he did his vet-ly duties. Hum. Now, I want to watch that show again. Wonder if I can find it on Netflix...)

Anyway, Sigfried had this massive pile of dogs who always greeted him at the door with intense canine excitement and, when I was a kid, I wanted a pack just like that. (Really. I swear there had to have been 10-20 dogs of all shapes and sizes in that pack!) Of course, my parents, sensible people that they are, denied me my dream and I was stuck with just one bassett hound. (Who, in hindsight, was more than enough dog for any one family.)

But I've got dog exhaustion. There are fifteen-million heartwarming dog books glutting the shelves. There are adorable pups snuggling with high-fashion models who want to sell us too-expensive perfume and underwear. There are commercials filled with furry critters of all breeds carrying things and rolling in things to sell bath tissue and other consumer products I desperately need. And then there are the cutsie kiddie movies with those damned talking dogs (pardon my French).

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for personification. When it's used effectively, it's fantastic. When dogs' mouths are manipulated through CGI so they "talk", it makes me just want to roll my eyes. Okay, maybe you're a fan. Sure, I thought it was cute the first couple of movies--Babe was adorable (Baa-Ram-Ewe!). But enough already. Please. I'm begging you. The fake-talking dog (all critters, for that matter) craze needs to come to an end.

Thank you. *steps off soapbox* Now, back to writing! How's your NaNo project going?

Good Support is Hard To Find

It's absolutely amazing what a good support system can do for you. While this is true in many aspects of life, it's especially true in the writing life. Writing is a solitary activity, hard for those who don't write to understand completely. After all, we live in our heads an awful lot.

Which is why it's so important that those you're close to support you or, at least, don't get in your way. It's fine if they look at you funny when you say you have to write or when you drift off in the middle of a conversation, muttering about plot holes or a character's need for chocolate (oh, wait, that's me--I've got to get to the grocery store...). As long as they get that you're chasing a dream, following a passion, writing because the story has to get out of your head (okay, so they may not understand that last bit but, again, it's okay!).

Today, in the middle of NaNo and plot holes and misbehaving characters, I had a soul-affirming conversation with one of my best friends. I've been feeling bad because I've had my head in the writing sand, so to speak, and haven't been hanging out with my group of friends too much lately.

But she understood. She *got* it. She even offered to be my aide-de-camp when I "become a famous author" (knock on wood!). But her support gave me the boost I so desperately needed.

So, find your support system. Don't be afraid to lean on them. They want you to follow your passion and to succeed in your endeavors.

Day 7 of NaNo

is a big time-suck! But so much fun.

So...how's it going? Have you been writing or procrastinating--or a little of each, like me? I'm sad to say, I discovered Plants vs. Zombies yesterday and, well, lost a couple of hours arming little plants against the invading hordes. If you're not familiar with this game, don't go search it out until after November. It's curiously addictive. Then again, it could be because I haven't played a game in too long that I was so intrigued. Or maybe I was just killing time.

I did, however, still get my WIP up to just over 40k so, all in all, NaNoWraMo isn't going too badly! I'm aiming for about 60-70k, which I should be at or around once all the pieces fall into place. I hope. There's a lot of moving chunks around, cutting and reworking that needs to be done so the story fits the plotline (it veered far afield not too long ago and I've been trying to rein (is that the correct rein? I think it is) it in ever since. Almost completely back on track (I hope)!

For some reason this year, there's been a lot of controversy surrounding NaNo--have you all noticed it? Some people have said how terrible it is, that it encourages every average Joe, letting them think that it's possible *they* can write a publishable novel. Well, yes. But isn't that the point? To encourage people to expand their horizons, try out something that maybe they've been talking about doing for eons? Of course, most of what comes out of NaNo is pure dreck but there's some good stuff, too. Think of Julie Kagawa, who wrote what became THE IRON KING during November. Or Shannon Delaney, who wrote what developed into 13 TO LIFE during NaNo--on her cell phone, no less. See, not all bad.

Plus, I like how it makes writers feel like we're part of a larger collective (BORG! haha). It can get lonely, pecking away at the keyboard each day. It can lead to self-doubt and other self-destructive thoughts and emotions. With NaNo, we've got our buddies on the website, we can chat about it on Twitter--it connects writers from around the world. Someone (I can't remember who, sorry) pointed out that NaNo isn't national, it's international and really should be InNoWriMo. So true.

So, what do you think? Is NaNo good or not? Whatever your feelings, I hope you're writing!

The Great Rawhide Battle

It started last night when I gave my kids with fur, Finnegan and Fiona, each a rawhide. Fiona's only about 12 pounds, so she gets a little rawhide twist. Finn's about twice her size and is usually thrilled to get a Cheweez--a longer rawhide strip. His, whatever the size, is usually gone within minutes. Fiona's a bit more of a delicate eater and prefers to first lick all the chicken flavor off her twist, leaving Finn to stare at her and her treat longingly since his has long-since disappeared into his belly. Usually.

Don't mess wit me. I haz da crazy eyes.

Last night, however, Finn had enough of Fi's teasing and decided to turn the tables. He pranced around the house with his rawhide in his mouth until she was done then he put his rawhide in the middle of the living room floor and sat back. He looked from her to the rawhide then back again.

Fi had no idea what to do. She danced forward. He moved closer. She took a couple steps back. He walked over to his bed and laid down (facing the rawhide, of course). She jumped up on the couch. Then back onto the rug, slowly approaching the tasty treat. He moved in, snatched it up and ran for the bedroom. This little dance continued most of the evening, until bedtime.

And it picked back up while I was at work. I came home to pillows and blankets everywhere and one very triumphant little Fi, carrying around a half-eaten rawhide in her mouth. Poor Finn. Dude may have won last night's battle but he lost the war.

I don't know what it is with these two but they're more entertaining than most of the stuff on TV.

UPDATE: I let the dogs out this morning and, yanno, did my morning stuff then let them back in. Finn's usually right there at the door, ready to chow down on some kibble. But he didn't want to come in. Guess what he had in his mouth? No, not cat poo (his favorite snack. Yes, dogs are gross). It was a piece of The Rawhide. He must have buried it last night. Fiona ate her kibbles and a pile of Finn's, since he was in the living room, devouring the dirt-encrusted rawhide. And the battle rages on.

Hey, Politicians: Show, Don't Tell

This is a bit of a rant--sorry! I promise, my next post will be much more upbeat. Maybe even funny.

I IZ TIRED OF ALL DA NEGATIVITY.
(This is Fiona, my newest rescue. Isn't she cute?)

Another election season almost done, thank all that is good in the world. And, yes, I voted (did you?).

But something I came away with, watching all the negative ads, the muckraking, and the smear tactics used by politicians in South Carolina (and, from what I've seen, across the country), is that politicians really need to learn how to show who they are and not just tell us how terrible the other person is.

Every good writer knows that you have to show what's going on in your stories and with your characters, not just tell the reader. But, for some reason, this year's politicians just didn't seem to get it.

Go, Happy Bunny!
(yes, I have this poster)

Let me explain my thinking (see, I told you what I was going to do. It's annoying, isn't it?). In watching all these negative ads, I only learned how evil the other candidate was, how they were taking away jobs or taxing us to death or aligned with *that* party (whichever *that* might be). What I didn't learn was much of anything the candidate the ad stood for. Not really.

In fact, before I voted, I had to go online to try and find out some facts about the candidates: what they really believed in, how they really voted on issues important to me, who they really were. (Okay, yes, that's something you should do anyway--Know your candidates.) Because the ads, out there to influence my vote, didn't tell me much of anything and showed me even less.

I'm not saying it's easy to get your message across in a thirty-second ad. It's not. And I'm not saying that a politician can show everything he/she wants known about him/herself in that time.

But don't tell me how horrible that other person is. What they did wrong. How they're going to destroy life as we know it. I won't hear what you have to say because I'm too busy tuning out the negativity or changing the channel. (However, because of all these negative, annoying ads, I watched less TV in the past month than I have in a very long time. So, I guess it wasn't all bad!)

For the next political season, please--I beg of you--please drop the negativity and show me what you can do for me, my community, my state, and my country. If you do that, I might just vote for you.

Be sure to vote today! Earn your right to complain. :P

Or, if you're an old-school Chicagoan, be traditional and

Heehee. Just kidding. That's illegal.

NaNo: Day -1

Well, um, *scratches head*, so yeah. So, it seems like the first of November is just not my day to officially start NaNo. It all started with a sick dog and stepping in vomit first thing in the morning. And, yes, I squealed like a little schoolgirl then danced around with my foot in the air. Not the best way to wake up.

My computers, which were supposed to come last Thursday all shiny and pretty in their cart, didn't arrive. Thus, no computers for my kiddos today. And no computer lab either, considering all the social studies classes were using them to vote for class president. (Being middle school, it's more the voting experience than anything. But the president just gets to give a speech and say he/she is president. Pretty cool & the kids like it.)

Then, I celebrated a (very) late birthday with my parents (they were traveling & I was busy...you know, life.).

But--TOMORROW, I have a day off (election day...weird, I know but I'm not complaining) and nothing pressing besides laundry. So that means *trumpets and a shower of multi-colored confetti* A Writing Day! Yippee!

I'm still doing the whole NaNoWraMo, for those of you who are NaNo-ing with me. Gotta get this WIP done! I'm super-determined. This is GOING to happen (the power of positive thinking, what-what!).

Happy writing to all of you who started on the correct day! I'll join you in the fray tomorrow. Merry NaNo! :)