Hug A Cat Day

For those who don't know it is supposedly National Hug Your Cat Day.  In some cases I realize this is probably a dangerous proposition, but hopefully for those of you with lazy fat cats you'll get yourselves a nice big hug.  For those who get mauled, I leave you these fun pics to at least get some joy out of the day.  Have a good one...

depth aka chicken post

Okay so yesterday was a bit of an odd post for most I would suspect.  It was meant to be a lighthearted and not taken with the utmost seriousness.  With that said I still want to make the point that I believe it matters to the readers that their writers did their research or took the time to make the story right.  When I read it is in short spurts (probably because the writing gets in the way.)  I know for many others they sit and read for hours, which sure I love to do as well, but seldom get the time to do so.  In either case, but more importantly to those like me who only read little chunks of a book at a time I think it is important that each block of words hold value.  The page should have depth and meaning to it so that the reader can feel engrossed in whatever moment is depicted in it.  I know personally I would not want to read blah blah blah and then bam a nice cliff hanger at the end to keep me on the edge of my seat.  No for me I would rather read substance, substance, substance, and then holy crap I think I'm going to pee my pants.  So have I and other writers hit that achievement every time probably not; but what a goal right?

As one of my old forums use to say "this post is useless without pics," but since this is a writing blog I think it more fit to give a writing example.  So without further adieu, the chicken crossing the road example of what I'm talking about.  I'll give ya two versions and hopefully you'll be able to pick which version is the better of them.

Why did the Chicken cross the road: Version 1

Sam the chicken thought it would be a good idea to cross the road.  In order to reach the other side he would have to traverse the pavement that stretched two car widths.  Having not previously been on that side this would be a great adventure for him.  He left behind his parents, some friends, and his girlfriend named Butterball.  On that far side were lots of food for dinner so Sam could not wait to get started.  After several moments he looked back having accomplished the deed.  He had been lucky that no cars needed to pass during that time frame.  He was now on the other side and his new life awaited him.

Version 2:

Sam's eye stared down the highway, his neck tilting slightly as he anticipated the cross.  There was so much to consider about this life changing decision.  If he crossed now, Sam would be leaving behind his parents, his friends, an the love of his life Butterball.  He had known her since they were peeps, and his heart ached as he thought of losing her.  The other side with its insect and worm lush fields and the low hanging branches for roosting held so many promises for his future.  Over there he could make a name for himself.  Yes he wish Butterball had the courage to join him, but there would be other hens.  He swallowed hard, and stretched out his neck fully checking one last time that the way was clear.  Then with his head held high he strutted across the two lane road.

Okay those were written on the fly so please be easy on me.  I hope that they still illustrate what I am trying to get at.  The first blurb is cold and quite frankly leaves as fast as it comes in.  The second though, at least for me, has a bit more oomph to it.  I feel his dilemma and then his pride at the end.  So even over such a few short words big and dramatic differences can be found.

WIP to EPIC a story of ABC and XYZ plus f ?

Talk about a work in progress (WIP).  I would have never imagined that in the midst of writing one novel I'd fall upon so many ideas.  The bonus part is that not all of the ideas that are flowing out are slated for this particular novel but for future installments.  There is so much 'machinery' to think about and keep track of while writing.  I would guess most folks just figure that a writer must develop the scenes, the characters, and a workable plot.  But ah... there is so much more to it, trust me.

I'm currently juggling the intricacies of how each character will grow over time across several plot lines.  On top of that I need to take into account how this first storyline will influence a separate but tangential tale.  Then both of these stories will combine or more like intertwine as each will need the other to complete the climatic ending of a third story.  Okay I realize this is somewhat confusing, so I'll attempt an example that is unrelated to my current piece.  Hope you like algebra.

book1
a---> A  where character one is little a and through book grows into big A.
x--->X our nemesis also develops and grows stronger in the book so by the end he is big X
So book1 the finale is A battling X where A defeats X and becomes Ax ....

book2
b--->B now little b is character two and he develops in book two and grows to be big B
Ax is still around and helps b become big B so you have B+Ax as a team.
y-->Y is our new book 2 villian and the duo defeat this new villian thus becoming (B+Ax)*Y==>(B+Ax)y

Book3
So you start with By and Axy and they are stronger than ever having survived through two installment already.
This time they will be battling z who turns into Giant Z by the end and they of course win the day as always.
So the final equation is then (By+Axy)*Z ==> (By+Axy)z where our heroes defeated Z and made him little z.

But hey this is the final installment so the boss should be huge and heck if we are crafty enough maybe they have been developing over the course of the three books, right?  So taking that into account then in book 1 we could have a little z thrown in, who by then end of book 1 is big Z.  Then by book 2 big Z has become Giant ZZ.  Finally by book three he's beyond imagination growing to a humongous ZZZ that must be whittled down by our characters who have just now mustered up enough strength and wisdom to overcome the bad baddie beast of ZZZ.  (getting tired for some reason, but lets continue anyways.)

book 1 = a + x + z ==> Ax +Z
book 2 = Ax + b+ y + Zz ==> Axy +By +ZZ
book 3 = Axy +by +ZZz ==> Axyz + Byz

Phew, are you still with me? (Yes, that weird ass crap up there is really how my brain thinks.) Well then what happens after the big 3 part story ends?.. A new beginning starts of course and with it a bunch of new characters.  This time however the setting is changed from what occurred in those first few books and we have so much history to help us create the follow up books.  Let's just say for the sake of this discussion that the author kept the 4th book and maybe more in mind when tackling the development of numbers one through three, wouldn't you think that four would be pretty stellar.   At the very least it would probably fit and flow better.

I think this is why I now understand why so many fantasy novels end up as epic fantasies.  The worlds created by these writers are truly 'green' ever changing and growing as the stories develop over time.  In my case, and probably with many other writers, the 'green' state is alive even before the first printed copy of the novel hits the shelves.  I cross my fingers that all this hard work up front will pay off in the end and that the world I have designed is intricate and wonderful, a place that readers will enjoy visiting from time to time as new installments are released.      

Oh, just for fun... keeping the string theory algebra fun alive a putting book four into the equation then you'd have to add in the elements that might foreshadow the characters or events that could take place in this book in the first three books.  We'll call this foreshadowing the variable f.

book 1 = a + x + z +f ==> Ax +Z +f

book 2 = Ax + b+ y + Zz +f ==> Axy +By +ZZ +f

book 3 = Axy +by +ZZz +f ==> Axyz + Byz + f

book 4 = f + c + u ==> Cu  ... as in Cu L8ter

:)

How Long

What is your retention time for book ideas before you just have to put it down on paper or type it up?  Does it have to be immediate or can you let it stew up their in your mind for a while and develop a bit.  I'll be honest I have a tendency to forget things; my memory is a bit faulty.  So on a general rule of thumb I need to write down pretty much everything the moment I think of it whether it be a single word, phrase, or an entire page.  I believe I've discussed this concept before so I won't linger on it again, but I did want to share a couple of pictures to illustrate it and let you know how much goes into creating a manuscript.

Yes, I do use napkins, backs of crossword puzzles, information tags from work, post its, fliers from horse shows I'm attending, etc.  basically anything I can get my hands on at that moment.  I never want to lose that creative spark/moment.

Advice

Let me first point out some darn cool things I have got going on this evening all of which are associated with my new droid phone.  Did I mention I love this little thing.  I feel like a a coma patient who has just awoke from a long slumber with reguard to all this new technology.  The smart phones are simply incredible devices.  I seriously had no idea just how far they had come in the last 5 years.

So for example I'm using my droid phone (via pdanet application) to give my netbook internet access.  That inself is quite cool.  I can imagine being out in the boonies at one of my wife's horseshows and still able to use all my social networking and internet games.

There are so many other apps that are of interest on this tiny machine that i dare not get into it, but it should be noted that it has been a slight distraction from the writing.  However, tonight I definitely made some headway with the book.  I took some terrific advice from the gals over at Confessions From Suite 500 and did a rewrite of my first page. 

The advice was simple, probably why I could handle it, heh.  Seriously though it plainly said that the first page and heck even the first couple of sentences should establish voice, character, setting, plot, conflict, and tone.  Piece of cake right?  LOL Well not for us all I can assure you of that.  Never the less, I took it to heart.  I understood and respect that these folks are doing this stuff for a living so their advice is definitely worthy of acknowledgement and in my manuscript's case...implementation!

Did I achieve it?  I'm curious to see as well.  I've submitted it to my close network of readers to determine.  Important point is this, never be so close minded in this art form known as writing as to not take some much needed advice from time to time.  Plug yourself in to blog sites that are as much fun to read as they are informational after all knowledge is power and hopefully it is the goo that helps make us better writers.

Journey

Have you ever heard the saying that goes something like, "it’s not the destination but the journey that is important."  What a true statement I am ultimately discovering during this writing process.  There is so much joy in finding out what is going to come of the characters I have created.  Why even more of us don't sit back and try this art-form is quite baffling to me.  

Keep in mind that for a reader the story unfolds over a short period of time.  They pick the book up and within hours, days, maybe months depending on their reading speed, the story brings to fruition the labors of the writer.  However, the author has mulled around the plot and character development for months or more likely years.  So to them the discovery of the twists and turns or the sorrows and elations of the people in their book is savored.  

So the journey the author has of creating these plot points and characters is like molding different puzzle pieces.  When the pieces of the puzzle finally start fitting together magical things start to happen.  It is quite satisfying knowing something exists by the sweat of their brow.  Heh, come to think of it, I suspect it must be like having a kid.  So now I know why many say that writing a manuscript is like giving birth.  I suppose it does parallel that sort of curve of emotion roller-coastering.

    

For example, would you want to give up those moments of pregnancy such as the first kick, or those sonograms, or the figuring out of his/her name?  Of course not, and the writer will never forget their creation of the first confrontation of the protagonist and antagonist.  They will not forget the epiphany that brought to life their main plot line or title to the manuscript. 

I will be curious to discover the similarities of this analogy after the writing process is complete and the child/novel is birthed.  Will I, the writer, just have an offspring that brings joy and laughter to my life or will it just sit around and stink up the place?     

Droid

I thought I would make a simple post hyping up the new phone I got.  The motorolla droid is quite simply an amazing piece of gadgetry.  I think I must have skipped a couple generations of cell phones because this thing is light years more advanced than my previous phone.  The amount of interactive apps is mind boggling.  I can't tell you how long I've sat here staring at the lil thing in awe learning all of its ins and outs.

First off I always dread having to input my contacts into a new phone.  The droid syncs up with facebook, gmail, yahoo, etc to auto input all the fields for you.  Wow this saved me a lot of time and added so many more contacts than I would have ever thought of manually entering into my phone.  Not to mention it also automatically inserts the contacts picture (from facebook) next to their name on the menu.  So as long all my friends have their stuff up to date on my various social networks then I have likewise up to date contact information.  Like I said that in itself is just amazing.

Another wonderful idea is to link up all of my email into one app.  I love how it will sync up with facebook and all my email addresses and pop them into the phone under one page.  Saves me so much log in time and allows everyone to keep in touch with me however they like.  Okay, so now I'm not able to use this as an excuse so maybe I should not have mentioned it.  lol...

There are just so many apps that it would be impossible to explain them all here in the blog.  At any rate, I'm fascinated that technology has jumped this far ahead.  To stay with the semi theme of this blog though I guess I should also mention before I check out for the day that the droid has a great qwerty keyboard and many apps available for us writers.  Heck, it even allows word, powerpoint, excel, pdf  type of items to be created and displayed.  

Off to do some more "research" on my lil droid. 

What Happened to February

Odd thing just happened and I swear it was not on purpose or by any design of mine.  I was chilling my heals and minding my own business when February just up and disappeared on me.  I have not the slightest clue where it might have run off to.  It was like one minute it was there and we were good pals and then the next minute, poof, it was gone.  I do not believe we had any crossed words that would have prompted such a hasty exit on its part.  This leads me to believe that foul play my have had a hand in February's disappearance.

So for the next several days I will be offering a reward to anyone who might have details on its whereabouts.  I am truly worried as to February's wellbeing.  Is it getting the proper nourishment, does it have adequate and clean water?  It boggles the mind to think that it might be out there in the weather still, lying there all alone, no one to keep care of it.  I know February is but the smallest of months, but it is precious to me.  Please help me in locating it.  I will be forever in the debt of any news brought to my ears of it.  Thanks in advance.

P.S.  March seems filled with angst and wants to be let out, spring fever I suspect.  Be careful not to let him sneak out the door when you head out.

Contraction Subtractions

Ahhh, the final stretch is upon me and I have the darn book nearly complete.  When I say complete, I really mean complete this time.  Unfortunately, there is but one endless finding that plagues me.  I keep running across contractions and apparently they are my bane.  I'm using them constantly throughout the bloody thing.   Not to worry though I believe I've caught most of them and took the document to a heightened state of professionalism.  It's simply amazing how much of a difference it makes in the work.  So much so I would like to challenge all of you to take a step back and look hard and long at your work in progress.  Does it make use of contractions like I'm, can't, he'll, etc.  Pull them out and read again.  See what I mean.  :P

So now you're saying, well it's dialogue so it's okay.  Here's where you and I would tend to disagree if this is your standing.  Sure I'll concede that there are times where a well placed "don't" is appropriate, but certainly not throughout the entire manuscript.  People are reading these books quickly and expecting high quality. Their minds will naturally contract the words for them if needed.  So keep from letting your book look like an elementary school kid wrote it and fix them.  It's tedium sure, but this is no time for laziness... It's the final stretch and you can do it.  lol  Have a good day...
--
Below just for fun is my version of the above post written without the contractions...  Which one looks better, did you feel the voice of the two posts differed much?
--

Ahhh, the final stretch is upon me and I have the darn book nearly complete.  When I say complete, I really mean complete this time.  Unfortunately, there is but one endless finding that plagues me.  I keep running across contractions and apparently they are my bane.  I am using them constantly throughout the bloody thing.  Not to worry though I believe I have caught most of them and took the document to a heightened state of professionalism.  It is simply amazing how much of a difference it makes in the work.  So much so I would like to challenge all of you to take a step back and look hard and long at your work in progress.  Does it make use of contractions like I'm, can't, he'll, etc.  Pull them out and read again.  See what I mean.  :P

So now you are saying, well it is dialogue so it is okay.  Here is where you and I would tend to disagree if this is your standing.  Sure I will concede that there are times where a well placed "don't" is appropriate, but certainly not throughout the entire manuscript.  People are reading these books quickly and expecting high quality.  Their minds will naturally contract the words for them if needed.  So keep from letting your book look like an elementary school kid wrote it and fix them.  It is tedium sure, but this is no time for laziness... It is the final stretch and you can do it.  lol  Have a good day... 

Coffee

 
I'm not sure what it means but this time last year I was strictly a black coffee guy and now I'm dabbling in all flavors imaginable.  Am I spending too much time in the coffee shops?  Quite possibly but never the less I'm addicted to the wonderful new flavors out there.  As of this posting I'm working my way through a French vanilla kick. 


 
Like I said, this all snuck up on me and I will probably have to end up blaming it on my little girl, Brook.  She was curious about the whole coffee thing but knew that the bitter black drink was not for her.  Then we were handed a cup of French vanilla cappuccino at a local store while shopping for Christmas and let us just say she was quite partial to its sweet taste.  No longer did coffee hold the negative stigma she had held to it for all her life. I won't say she is hooked for life, but at least a barrier was lifted for her that day to try new drinks.


 
Now for me after that day, I have tried dark chocolate, French vanilla, hazelnut, caramel, and of course regular creamer. The dark chocolate was actually nice but needed to be a little bit lighter and it favored the hot chocolate taste rather than the coffee. The hazelnut and caramel are definitely not for me, my wife Kim likes them quite a bit, but I just can't get into them no matter what amount I use.  


 
Foo Foo drinks are what my wife and I call these types of coffees. We say it affectionately of our coffee concoctions that help us bring in the day. Do any of you have particular odd flavors you've tried with success?

Cake

We celebrated my wife's birthday last week and I thought i would share this pic of her cake. 

Oooey Goooey Cream Cheese Icing, Buttermilk Glazed, Carrot Cake

My wife Kim really enjoys this cake recipe, so for her birthday I whipped it up for her. Originally I think she had planned on sharing her birthday cake with her friends, but that never came to be. Her and our daughter Brook nibbled on this thing for the whole week and afterwards we went ahead and made a second one. I can't wait for the reciprocation to occur with my birthday, chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

New Years Eve

Not sure you all know what a Krystal's is, but that is exactly where I was this past New Year's Eve at the stroke of midnight.  Okay, first off Krystal's is like a southern version of White Castle it just has different condiments on the burger.  I hope that helps the southern-deprived readers out there.

That's right I rung in the new year with the lady in the drive through asking me if I wanted my combo number 2 in the large size.  Which I of course didn't because like all of us, I'm watching my weight after such a terrific holiday vacation.  So anyways, you are still scratching your head wondering why I chose to spend New Year's Eve at the burger join.  Well short answer is I didn't 'want to.'

Let us back track a bit so that I can catch you up to speed with what happened.  Every weekend of New Years I spend at a horse show.  It is like that for Thanksgiving too, so don't ask.  I'm not sure why the horse folk pick busy weekends to do their shows.

One thing is for sure, this tight knit community of horse racing friends and families are with out a doubt the nicest and most caring folks I've ever come to know.  My daughter and wife ride/compete in the shows and we are talking about a sport where the winners and losers are seconds from each other.  It is a very competitive event that takes a great deal of coordination, skill, and luck.

Unfortunately for my daughter luck was not with her.  She had a slight mishap that flung her off the saddle.  Falling to her side, several yards away, with quite a profound thud she quickly complained of back and hand pain.  I have never run so quickly in all my life.  I scaled that six foot metal fence like it was no bigger than a city curb rushing to her side.  I wife too was there and so were many of our friends.  Like I said, the horse community came together to assist us like we were family.  Some retrieved the horse from running away, some called and directed the ambulance, others stayed with us helping her through the trauma and others drove our horses back to our house.

I said luck wasn't with her, but truthfully I guess it was.  We went with her to the hospital that late New Year's Eve and spent the evening going through all the scans and x-rays.  She didn't have the slightest break anywhere thankfully.  They let us out at a quarter till midnight and literally all the three of us could think about was food.  As you can imagine the choices are quite limited that time of night and especially on a holiday like that.  So Krystal's hamburgers sounded great to us.

We spent the ride home traveling down empty streets; scarfing down the bite sized vittles and watching the explosions of nearby fireworks.  They say whatever you are doing at midnight on new years eve is what you'll be doing through out the year to come.  I guess that is why so many people are partying, or shaking fists full of dollar bills.  For me, I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing than spending time with my wife and daughter.  I hope a full year of that is in store for me.  Of course, I also hope it does not mean I am doomed to eating crappy hamburgers the rest of the year.

New Year’s Resolution

Thanks to Christmas I am enjoying my afternoon at my local Barnes and Noble at someone else's expense.

It is rather enjoyable, I must admit, to sit here guilt free. The book is complete so there is no pressure to crunch it out before this year's end. If there was to be any guilt today it would be that I have not blogged nearly as often as I should.

So maybe as a New Year's resolution I'll make a pact with myself and those who read this that I will blog more often. Okay, maybe that is not realistic given the number of 'honey-do' items I have listed on the paper hanging on the refrigerator. How about this then? What if I instead make a promise to complete the next book of the Protect the Risen series by this time next year? Can we all live with that? I hope so. In fact, I would like to shoot for a novel a year, maybe more if I can. Again though, let us stay in the real world and just consider one a year.

Have you made your resolution? Is it achievable? Does it make sense to you and can you work towards it all year long. I find so many people this time of year ask of themselves such difficult and oft times unachievable things. I believe I have not done that; I truly think I can knock out another novel this year. So again what is your resolution? Did you pick one that challenges you? I hope so and I wish you well with it.

Good luck and happy New Year.

Timing and Editing

Timing is everything, or so it has always been told to me.  Therefore it should come as no surprise that on the particular day I'm dreading putting pen to paper I come across a nice blog post that nearly mirrors my thoughts.  Okay, maybe dread was a bit harsh just then, never the less, I'd rather not tackle my manuscript today.

The book I've been working on for the past year is finally complete, content wise, so the long trek of editing now begins.  I'm faced with reading and rereading the same words over and over again, a task I submit to you is quite daunting.  Heck to be honest it is can be darn right boring, working day after day tweaking ideas that have been floating around your head for so long.  Now don't get me wrong I'm happy overall with what I've composed, so it is mostly just the repetitive nature of this beast I’m dealing with.  


There are days where I will read something and go what was I thinking right there.  Then others where Word will nearly explode trying to figure out what I'm trying to spell.  However the fun days are the ones where I'm looking up the phone number for Webster's letting them know I'm creating a new word and can not believe they don't already have it listed.  Like the word 'dumblify' it should definitely have its place in our literary world.  It would mean the act of lowering someone's intelligence by someone or something else.  For example, have you ever sat at a table with someone and realize the longer they speak to you the dumber you feel, almost like they are bringing you down to their level.  Yeah its kinda like that.  hey wait your not thinking this post is dumblifying you is it.  Dang, sorry about that.     


Back to being serious again though, I do run across the other days with my book.  Those rare gem of days where, believe it or not, I get a single tear roll down my face as I read.  I'm so overjoyed with happiness and pride for what I have created.  Then  I can simply bawl when I get caught up in a character’s story too.  So it is those days quite possibly that help me roll passed the boredom and the dread.     

     

Coincidentally, like I said, I'm not alone in my dread or ‘hate’ for hitting the manuscript during this truly important phase of creating a story. I discovered over at Rants and Rablings many others who have gone through this as well.  

I plan on pushing through it using the time off from work I have coming up and the cold weather blowing in from Ole Mr. Winter to snuggle up to my work and just 'get r done.'  Thankfully, along with my inner editor, who slows me down and doubts what the heck I’m doing; I also have an inner work ethic to help push me through till it is ready for the public.  A day I'm really looking forward to, a day when the words ‘complete’ and ‘done’ will hold treasured meaning for me. 

Eerie Dream

So I guess the message for the day is 'careful what you listen to before heading off to bed.'  As a writer one of our basic natures is to have a creative and oft times environmentally susceptible mind.  Meaning we take what we know and what we experience and use them to fuel our storytelling.  Quite intuitive, nothing new I suspect is learned from that being said.  As it turns out this tool though is hard to turn off or so I'm coming to discover.  With practice I hope to at least learn to throttle it better.

If your thinking of writing a novel, or any length story I would suggest a dip in the research waters on the actual art of storytelling.  Myself I'm doing it backwards, my story is complete and I'm going back now and making sure I've including all the important stuff, with the hope of not having to rewrite to much of it.  We'll see, so far I'm doing okay.  At any rate, one particular lecture I have recently watched was called Creative Writing Story Structure, broken into 12 parts posted on youtube by architectus777.  

In the lecture he describes the basic elements of crafting a good story.  I had listened to the first three parts before drifting off to never never land.  During those three episodes he covered such things as plot, opponents, themes, and goals and in doing so a nice little story of his own was beginning to form.  In it the main character seeks out his sister's rapist and wants revenge, along the way he has a revelation and decided killing the bad guy wouldn't do any good.  

The lecturer also through the course teaches that a spectacular ending can really make or break a story and gave a good example of how Sixth Sense achieved its success from having such surprise ending.  The Sixth Sense had a so-so beginning and end but it was really the ending that drove it into another realm.  On a side note, I was thinking of another good one that has a great ending, The Scent of a Woman.  When Pacino delivers that address at the end to the school disciplinary committee I was in awe (goosebumps), and have remembered the story to this day.

So off I go to bed with bad guys and surprise endings on my mind.  The dream I had, which unfortunately I remembered when I woke, began all nice and sweet.  The main character was a guy who had moved into an uppity condo/apartment complex.  Shortly after his arrival he discovers an attraction for the neighbor lady.  They go on a date and when he attempts a second is snubbed, she's just not interested.  We then seen him walking the streets passing by schools, houses and ball parks.  He is alone and depressed with ahead hung low and eyes darkened under the brim of a hat.  A short time later we get a news flash that a man was caught by the police a suspect in a homicide and rape spree he had committed.  Scene then pans back to his apartment and on his bed face down is the neighbor lady obviously the victim of a viscous murder her back soiled with blood stains.  The news flash then switches back to the police car, and inside is the feller again.  he's the bad guy, eek!

Now I realize it doesn't feel like a surprise ending the way I described it above, but trust me it felt that way in the dream state I was in.  The guy had seemed so unassuming throughout the entire dream, no malicious nature about him at all, then wham he's the bad guy.  Go figure?  Needless to say I woke up in an eerie state of mind, but at least I had something to chat about today.    

  

Words and Phrases

There is a terrific post over at Rants and Ramblings about writing habits during the holidays. Her blog post for nov 23^rd suggest we as writers should make a 'holiday plan.' This is a superb idea and not only for the holidays but for all year. However let us stick to the theme she started and only address this busy and festive time of year.

With all the extra activities pulling our attention away from our writing it is easy to lose the drive, the desire, and the momentum of writing. I offer a simple method to combat this through this time of year. Real quick rummage through that desk of yours and grab a small notebook, or heck a blank sheet of paper will work too. Now stick it in the back pocket of your jeans or into a purse whichever is appropriate for you. Oh and don't forget a pen, you'll of course need it.

Okay now the next part is a bit trickier. I want you to tuck back into the desk your ability to write complete sentences. I want you for the next couple of weeks to become more of an observer than a writer. The caveat of course is that I don't want you to completely forget your work in progress, as if you could anyways.

Pay close attention to what you see over the holidays, the scenes, the smells, the colors, etc. More importantly take a moment to really take a close look at people, because let's face it our books are pretty much about how people interact with one another. Even if you are working on a period or fantastical piece where the characters are nothing like the humans in the here and now, one very important fact remains true. The people around you at the mall, the in-laws house, the gas station and the subway are all your potential audience. They will need to feel the connection to the relationships and scenes you depict in a way that they can relate to. Good observation skills can definitely help you. What better time than during the holidays will you have at watching the behaviors of folks you normally don't interact with on a daily basis. You are out of your norm and so are they.

Remember I told you to forego the writer in you, that person inside of you that fights to be an artist. Stop it, just let go and stop trying so darn hard to be poetic with your usage of our incredible language. Instead listen and watch the world around you. Now jot down a single word or phrase to remind you later what it is you are experiencing. Like I said though keep it relevant to you WIP so that when the busy part of the year is over and you get back into the grind, you have some material to work with and help you get back into the swing of things smoothly and easily.

Tough I know, but let me give you an example from my work (Chances Are - Chap 20.)

"The cracks continued to grow and rippled outward from the walls and more Leesermen were tossed off of their feet. The keep, upon a pillar of soil and rock, was then lifted skyward. Upwards it climbed with all of its contents and occupants; dirt spewed forth and stones fell from the cliff face that was being created."

Now this isn't too bad but we can definitely add to it. I'm riding along the rural road out near Jackson GA on my way to a horse show with my wife and I look out the window. The angle of the sun and curvature of the road have aligned themselves just perfectly to make it appear as though the shadow of the horse trailer we are pulling is actually out pacing our truck. It struck me then that the excerpt above is lacking one key detail that would be obvious to the Leesermen army if they were observing the rise of the keep upon the pillar of stone. In my notebook I simply wrote. "Shadow of the keep."

(Be nice on my handwriting, I was in a truck going down the road, lots of bumps.)

Sometime later I came back and added this to the above passage:

"The cracks continued to grow and rippled outward from the walls and more Leesermen were tossed off of their feet. The keep, upon a pillar of soil and rock, was then lifted skyward. Upwards it climbed with all of its contents and occupants; dirt spewed forth and stones fell from the cliff face that was being created.

Dust bellowed out and rolled towards all that stood on ground level. A great shadow was cast downward and grew larger as the keep rose higher and higher. The Leesermen cried out and began to pray as the darkness fell on top of them. The sun was eclipsed and they feared their god's wrath was behind this cataclysmic event."

So yes please set a goal for yourself during the holidays and throughout the year, it is a crucial step to writing in my opinion. You should also certainly reward yourself for reaching those goals, but also make sure to include the tools you'll need to make the goals possible when life gets busy. So you are at a holiday dinner party and have no access to a computer, whip out your tiny notebook and joy down that cool word or phrase that will later add levels of details to to your work to help make it shine.

Also if you are looking for other great holiday advice, check out this blog post over at Confessions from Suite 500 and get some tips on your query.

Madscientist

Today, I wanted to share where I got the nickname Madscientist254. The nickname consist of two parts with vary different origins. So give me a few moments of your time and I'll divulge its conception in great detail. Probably more detail than anyone actually wants, but hey I need a topic to talk.

The first part, madscientist, originated from my best friend Eric. If you have read my bio you'll known that I graduated with a B.S. in Life Sciences, which is basically a biologist. So when I obtained my first job as a researcher my buddy gave me a name placard to put on my desk. I suspect he got it at a place like Things Remembered in the mall. For anyone not familiar with that store it has a selection of nice nick-nac items that you can get engravings put onto. Long story short, he got the word Madscientist put on the placard and gave it to me as a gift. I kept it on display throughout my time at the research facility and now it sits in a nice predominant spot on my desk at home. This was the year of 1998 and I was just getting into needing a internet presence and therefore required a login name for things. What better name to pick than that which sat in my line of sight while sitting at my desk. Yeah I know, real original huh?

On a side note, in case you were doing the math, yes I was on the internet before 98 but not under the name of Madscientist254. I'd guess I was on the net somewhere in my early college years of 92 or 93. You know back when color pictures had not really hit email yet. Folks were still using green screen cmos and unix based systems to transmit messages back and forth to one another. At any rate, originally I had been using the name Cokeman. That name was directly related with my last name. All through college and even to some extent my career folks have just called me by my last name, Koch. The correct pronunciation of which is "coke", like the soda brand. So naturally my nickname evolved into Cokeman from that.

Okay the text part of the name is out of the way, so where did the number part come from? As many folks have come to understand picking an internet ID is a fun challenge, especially when the name you choose is a common name, which apparently Madscientist is. So to understand the number we have to travel back to my college years again. The last few years of university life for me was spent not only deep in the books but also deeply searching for funds. I was fortunate enough to have some terrific friends and roommates that helped me get on-board at the campus police station. It was a pretty swell job too. I helped them with campus events, parking, building patrols, and even some dispatching for the police officers.

As you can imagine communication is very vital organization to a police department. So to keep confusion to a minimal each member of a police department, even the student security officers, were given a number designation. Our department was small and therefore we used three digit numbers to represent us. Mine was 254 and I'd use it for all of my radio transmitting with the base. For several years this number became a part of my daily lingo to identify myself to others I worked with. Naturally it was easy enough for me to remember and truly dear to my heart. So when yahoo told me Madscientist was taken (Dang-it) and that I needed to pick another name I just combined the two and thus Madscientist plus254 were united forever into internet infamy.

Some folks have been amazed at just how quickly I can type the ID of After a decade of using it though, I'd have to say my fingers know where the keys are quicker than my mind is registering. Maybe its the other way around, I don't know but basically it is a subconscience thing at this point. Especially when you take into consideration that I really don't know how to type very well. My fingers don't rest on the home keys, rather they hover over the keyboard like a vulture on the side of the road picking away at the latest roadkill. If I had to figure out what my natural home keys were ...hmmm... let's see... left hand w-d-f-v and right hand n-j-k-p. Oh, and yes I do have to stare down at the keyboard as I type, so I make sure to do a lot of proofreading before I hit the submit key. Gee-sh, I wish everyone did more proofreading, but that is a story for another day.Well I guess we learned a couple things about me today, my name and my typing oddities hope you enjoyed my little diatribe today.
Oh one last thing, the avatar of mr. bunsen. Yeah guess I geeked it whenever I chose that one. Madscientist when typed into the search engine like google returns with lots of odd stuff, one of which is good ole mr. bunsen. Now please don't date yourselves by asking who he is or isn't. Let's just say he's a great character whose adventures with his pal beaker will live on well past their time.

Perfection or Progress

Here's a helpful tip from one writer to the next. When you are drafting that magnificent manuscript make an effort to not get yourself bogged down. Getting hung up on that special word or phrase can be detrimental to finishing your story in a reasonable amount of time. Instead, I implore you to write something down even if it is not exactly linear to your current line of thought. In other words skip it and come back.

Whenever I get stuck you can find '…' or 'xyz' listed in the manuscript. The name of a new character being introduced is a good example; they generally get named xyz until I figure it out. Another example, in Chances Are (chap 15), I originally wrote the following while drafting it:

Gavinar signaled Sir Macimar to join him on the dance floor.

"Macimar, I wish to be left alone for a few moments. See that I am not disturbed while I drink my next cup of mead." He then escorted Fardea to a long table and offered her a chair.

"You sing absolutely beautifully." Gavinar remarked as he joined her.

"Thank you; I was quite impressed by your skill of verse as well." She replied while taking a cup of mead offered to her and Gavinar

She laughed in response, "I'll bet, but you have plenty to offer that isn't related to your voice. I can assure you of that."

He followed her gaze into his lap and laughed back. She …"

(Fardea sings, he joins in having been classically trained in arts and music as a child of the court.… afterward they discuss why each sings.  She learned how to soothe men, and to make them feel at ease with her.  Who could suspect a pretty singer. )

--

'Bamph' came the sound of the ball room doors as they flew open and in burst Red Eye. He was still in full armor surrounded by five others also in full war gear, a sight that made many of the attendees gasp with surprise of the sight.

 

Yes I realize to most folks that is a bunch of gibberish, but to me it makes perfect sense. Let me clarify how it all works; from the above nonsense to a full-fledged storyline. So as you can see I was trucking along with some fun dialog between Fardea and Gavinar and then boom, I ran out of steam. So I tossed in the dot, dot, dot to signify that more was needed there and I moved on. The next part you'll see is a cut and paste section in parentheses that instructs me later on when I'm editing what the overall theme for that little section was. Finally the dash, dash lets me know a new scene or dramatic event is then being written about. Whenever I see the dashes I know that I've transitioned and might need more input either before or after it.

So basically I didn't hesitate when I ran out of steam. I just did the dots and dashes and moved on to another topic. In this case it was describing how Red Eye storms into the room and breaks up the flirting/story time between Fardea and Gavinar. It was days later before I went back and fixed the dots and missing text.

The more finished product is listed below:

Gavinar signaled Sir Macimar to join him on the dance floor.

"Macimar, I wish to be left alone for a few moments. See that I am not disturbed while I drink my next cup of mead." He then escorted Fardea to a long table and offered her a chair.

"You sing absolutely beautifully." Gavinar remarked as he joined her.

"Thank you; I was quite impressed by your skill of verse as well." She replied while taking a cup of mead offered to her and Gavinar from the servant Macimar had prompted.

"My story is an easy one; I was the son to a king. My father saw to it that I was classically trained in such things music and art. There was a time when entertaining was very important to me." He made a slight pause, leaned in smiling, "it always helped with the ladies."

She laughed in response, "I'll bet, but you have plenty to offer that isn't related to your voice. I can assure you of that."

He followed her gaze into his lap and laughed back. She was a fiery woman who was not afraid to hint at her sexuality, a trait Gavinar very much appreciated in her.

"So how did you learn to enchant an audience like that?"

She shrugged slightly, "I'm not sure to be honest. It has always been a natural thing for me." Her eyes drifted upwards as she searched her memory. "Hmph, I can't recall ever learning the trade properly come to think of it." Fardea smirked and continued on. "I have although sat many a night in taverns and listened to the entertainers. I guess I've just copied what I heard."

"Well whatever the reasoning behind your melodic aptitude it certainly casts a certain serenity across a room." He stated nearly bordering on poetic, an effort to impress the beauty before him.

"As you can imagine, soothing a crowded room can be very helpful in beguiling the men who sit in it. I have always found this misleading, for a profession like mine, quite helpful. Who would ever suspect the likes of me?" She rebutted back also trying to impress.

"Certainly not me, if I didn't know you better Fardea Panthrex."

"I guess I shouldn't give away my secrets to the king of the realm." She jested then added with a change of inflection to a more serious tone. "Honestly Al. I mean Gavinar, you probably understand me better than any other has. I hate to say it, but…" She hesitated to finish her sentence.

"What is it? And Fardea, you can call me Al. In fact, I kind of like it when you call me Al. There is just something about that accent of yours that drives me wild." He threw one more flirtatious smile her way.

"Okay Al, here's the bitter truth. A part of me wishes you were still that adventurous soul I met back at sea, on the deck of that galley. A king? You? How is that going work? You forget Al, I know you too!"

***********

'Bamph' came the sound of the ball room doors as they flew open and in burst Red Eye. He was still in full armor surrounded by five others also in full war gear, a sight that made many of the attendees gasp with surprise of the sight.

 
It is hard to always have that perfect adjective or witting rebuttal ready. Sometimes you just stove up and I totally get that. Who cares, move on, at least that's my motto. Haven't you ever done a crossword puzzle and locked up unable to finish it, but then a day later with a fresh perspective you breeze through that empty set of blocks? It's a lot like that.

Besides, who said a writer has to think linear, this is the twenty first century for goodness sake. We aren't all plunking away on typewriters with a bottle of white out ready to douse our pages with. Word processors allow us to revisit any part of our manuscripts on the fly. What is the word they throw around here at work so often, "a green document?" It means that the document is living and therefore ever changing and flowing with the current state of things. Let us make our manuscripts "green" up until we submit them then.

So this method is also handy in another respect that has nothing to do with getting stuck. Rather I get an idea for a follow up chapter. In order to not lose the concepts of where I'd like the story to go I'll jot or type them down in a miscellaneous document. Using the dash-dash concept becomes very handy in this situation, keeping all the different scenes, chapter plots, and characters separate. Later I'll fill in the material that was missed and place them in their correct sequence in the story. As a result, I'll often time work on two, three, or four chapters simultaneously as a result of this methodology.

In my opinion this allows the chapters to become more unified and work more integral to each other. Sure the tempo or flow of the book has to be revised, but at least the content is there. Anyways, not sure this will help anyone but thought I would share. Happy writing!

Flexible E-Reader

New tech to help the e-book market.  link
(text copied in case link becomes broken)

Flexible, Unbreakable, Displays, Coming Soon to an E-Reader Near You

POSTED BY: Tekla Perry  /  Wed, November 03, 2010

Sometimes, it pays to break for lunch.
That’s what researchers at Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) found out. They’d been struggling for years to figure out a way to manufacture thin, flexible, flat-screen displays. These are the stuff dreams are made of—futurists have long envisioned newspapers and maps we can fold and roll, that don’t break. They just haven’t made it to the mass market yet, they’ve been tough to manufacture cheaply.
ITRI’s been working on that manufacturing issue for years. Its goal was to use standard manufacturing equipment—for OLED, LCD, or electronic paper displays—but sneak a thin layer of film in on top of the standard glass panel. Detach the film from the glass at the end of the process, and bingo, flexible display. ITRI Display Technology Center Director John Chen told me yesterday that that after successfully coming up with a transparent polymer film that could take the high heat of semiconductor manufacturing, researchers struggled to figure out a way to attach the film to glass in such a way that it would stick tight through all the manufacturing processes, but be easy to peel off at the end.
“We failed 63 times in four years,” he said.
And then one of the researchers involved in the effort went out to lunch, to a little creperie in a local market. He watched the crepe maker prepare a crepe, noticing that he didn’t spread the layer of oil to the edges of the pan. The crepe clung tightly to the edges while cooking, but, when it was done, the chef had an easy time popping it loose.
That technique, of adding what Chen calls a “debonding” layer, but not bringing it all the way to the edges of the substrate, worked just as well in display manufacturing as it did in crepe making. ITRI is being honored next week by R&D Magazine’s Top 100 Awards for the innovation. And Taiwanese company AU Optronics Corp. will be releasing a line of e-readers using this flexible display technology in 2011; Chen thinks these will be of particularly interest to K-12 educators, because of their durability.

The Noble Bookseller

So another visit to the dentist (fillings) brings me into the town and I figured I would taste another bookstore while I had the chance. I say taste in jest because I still can't feel any part of my tongue or jaw. Sometimes I wish whatever it is those dentists are using on our mouth could be put into a drink so that we could get our whole bodies numb like that. Wouldn't that be a fun day, wobbly, but fun.

Today's adventure takes me to Barnes and Noble. Thus far I love the way they set up their stores over the Borders store. The only negative thing I can point is that this store is attached to the mall and therefore I don't have a nice window to look out as I work on this blog. So other than that I'm in love with this place. Their stacks are taller so that you feel like a kid in a maze. A maze of books, I mean does it get any better than that?

I forgot to mention in the Borders review that right when you walk in the door the first thing you get confronted with is a display on electronic book readers. I'll have to talk about that in another post, but it is still quite interesting that they are shoving the electronic gizmos right in your face at both stores. Barnes and Noble even had a clerk behind the counter selling them like they are cell phones. Kind of scary, I'll have to keep in mind that this could be my future audience. From what I've been reading in money magazines and other sources the nooks and similar devices are on the rise as well as electronic book sales. So yes there is definitely more to say about this, but on to more review of the store.

Their café is up a short flight of steps, which is great. This vantage gives you a feel of sitting above the books; looking down upon the mass of stories. I bought my coffee, a venti? Whatever language that is; I guess the important part is that it's the biggest size.

Barnes and Noble, like Borders, have the back corner of the store dedicated to music and movies so I guess this is a norm of major book stores these days. I suppose I'm still okay with this. I will give B&N credit they are much more designed to sell stuff. More so than Borders was. Their cashiers are promoting things and their stacks like I said consume the likes of an impulse buyer like me. One other reason I think this place works is that folks are allowed to lookup authors and book titles on computers set up throughout the store. This gives them a freedom from having to wait on store clerks or customer service reps.

I think I'll buy some Christmas gifts from here. Anyone want anything in particular? My parents love books so they will be first on my list to buy for. At any rate, I need to get back to the book. So to quickly summarize both stores are quite similar in 'what' can be purchased, but the flow and set up mof the stores is completely different. The feel of Barnes and Noble is less collegiate and more geared to the professional, in my humble opinion. So I suspect they will therefore sell more books in the long run. Plus being setup attached to the mall will allow them a good source of traffic for the average Christmas shopper.

Just bumped into someone I knew who just came from Books-a-Million, apparently they are remodeling the store getting themselves ready for the holiday season. So stay tuned for a review of them, I'm looking forward to it.