Conda's Creative Center - Tips, Hints & Secrets

Speak up and Succeed...

2012-01-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

...without panicking.

Into every author's life comes the moment when you'll be asked to participate in an event, whether it be a book signing, a talk, sitting on a panel or doing a workshop. People love to meet the author. I've done a lot of events and will be doing many this year as part of my promo for my upcoming novel releases--the first one February 24th!

Here's a few tips that will help guarantee a successful whatever and help take those anxieties away.

First, practice beforehand. Keep notes on what you're going to say. If you're giving a read, read your pages out loud several times until you're familiar and comfortable. Practice looking up from your pages. Speak out and slow down. If your audience can't hear you or understand what you say, then enjoyment is lost. Try not to worry about it being "perfect," we all flub up and many times the audience doesn't notice!

Be brief and to the point. My mom always said, "Stop talking before people stop listening." Consider what you would like to hear from an author. Remember there's no reason to prove to your audience that you have succeeded as an author by telling about every step of your journey, your struggles and every single failure and success. The fact that you're in front of an audience means you've succeeded. Pick one to three stories and keep it brief. Less is more and leave them wanting more. Both cliches because they're true.

Think outside the box. For example, I'm going to be at an event at the Ada Community Library. This event will be by the Pixie Chicks' Writers (a group I belong to) and will be about An Eclectic Collage I and II, anthologies written by the Pixie Chicks. Instead of reading from my work, I'm going to demo the exercises from my article in An Eclectic Collage I.

Most important, relax as much as you can. Remember, the people in the audience are on your side and people too. The more you relax the more they will too and then everyone will enjoy!

Readers, any other suggestions?

It's that time--resolutions that work

2011-12-31T07:45:00.000-08:00

The cover of my upcoming novel release on February 24th.

Yes, yes, it's that awful time of year, resolution time, ugh. But, it doesn't have to be painful and we don't have to fail. With three general tools success will be the key word for 2012.

First tool: PRIORITIZE. Instead of trying to: lose weight, stop smoking, exercise, eat only fresh food cooked yourself, write five new novels, learn Spanish and French, grow three inches taller even though you're 55 years old and ... well, you get the idea ... instead ask "What's most important to me to accomplish in 2012?" Focus on that one thing. That's why I have the cover of my upcoming novel as an illustration. My most important priority is to write the second in this trilogy: THE MALL FAIRIES: WAR.

Second tool: ORGANIZE. My mom called this "clearing the decks." There are a lot of ways to stumble and fall off the ship if your deck isn't clear. While organizing, refer often to your #1 priority and set up systems that will support that priority. For example, I like to work to self-imposed deadlines, so a calendar with those deadlines noted helps. Which brings me to the final suggestion ...

Third and perhaps most important tool: BREAK IT UP. Trying to do everything all at once is an automatic failure. Imagining writing 300+ pages for the new w.i.p. makes it seem an impossible task. Break up your first priority into manageable pieces. For myself, I can't write an entire novel in a month, I've done NaNoWriMo and never turned out 50,000 words total. BUT, I can often do 1000 words a day, or one scene a day. So I compute how long it will take (and give myself a little wriggle room) and impose my deadlines accordingly.

I hope this helps with everyone's resolutions. Readers, any suggestions? Any stories of what has worked for you?

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

SEE YOU IN 2012!

Merry Christmas! TAKE A BREAK!

2011-12-24T12:54:00.000-08:00

Three views of my blooming Christmas Cactus!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

The title of this post comes from my noticing that several stores are OPEN Christmas Day--oh, for heaven sakes. Then I realized that us creative folk also often "stay open" every day. That only leads to fatigue and an empty well of creativity. So everyone, I suggest you take tomorrow off, regardless of your beliefs. Just cause.

And here's a video Christmas card starring Puck, our rat terrier, Puck the Puppy's Christmas Wish.

New Venture! New Market for Writers too!

2011-11-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

Above is the logo for my newest venture, Barbarian Books.We are an eBook publishing company.

Why would a well-published writer, with contracts with other great publishing companies, L&L Dreamspell, Muse It Up Publishing and Freundship Press, for example, open an eBook publisher? Am I insane? I'm a writer, so of course. But not when it comes to Barbarian Books. My permanent boyfriend Bruce came up with the idea to answer several important questions. E-readers mean that it's a new world for writers. With, I believe, some tremendous advantages for us writers.

Since I'm certain the majority of my readers know about the publishing world here's a couple of thing in brief: The big publishers are no longer taking newbies, or often even trusted mid-listers. Anyone can self-publish for e-readers. And many, many do. How does an author stand out in such a crowd? Unless you're someone like Jim Murdoch and you have a great blog such as The Truth About Lies or Dennis J. Smith and know all about social networking, it's a struggle to promote your self-pubbed e-book.

And who do readers trust to find good reads at a reasonable price?

The answer is: small publishers. There are a number of legitimate small publishers out there. If you've written a good book, there'll be a spot for it with a good small publisher.

This is the great thing about this new world--you can write what you want and it'll find a place. Every publisher is looking for something somewhat different. For example, Barbarian Books is looking for genre fiction (no children's or erotica). We're looking for novel length crime (including mystery), horror, romance, science fiction, westerns and cross genre. We'll open soon for other lengths and genres. And we're looking for that great, unclassifiable and unusual novel that might fit our philosophy that there are a great many readers looking for great reads.

So, if you have a finished product, do your homework (i.e. read the publisher's websites and contracts, go to Duotrope, Absolute Write and Preditors and Editors) and then submit!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2011-10-31T12:10:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN ALL!

My favorite earrings to wear during October! Today is the day I prep for NaNoWriMo and try to stay out of the candy until the Trick or Treaters have come! The little ones provide oodles of inspiration for my characters. And since I work well to deadline, I always do NaNo. I have yet to write 50,000 words in a month, but I always get further along in my writing. How about you? Do you work well to deadline? Or does something like NaNo make you shudder in horror?

How do you celebrate the holiday? Or do you?

Help! I have the life I've always dreamed of and I'm swamped!

2011-10-14T17:33:00.000-07:00

Bruce and me in PARIS!

One great reason I've been conspicuously absent from the Internet.I had something else to do! Meanwhile, everything piled up at home. And great things they were too. I've received the first round of edits for THE MALL FAIRIES: EXILE. Good stuff has come in for my new venture. FANGTALES is out. I'm doing NaNoWriMo.

Help! I'm swamped! I know there's a lot of great creative people out there to help. How do I get all this done?! How do you prioritize? How are you effective with your time when there's not enough time? Please let me know and thanks!

Sell! Sell! Sell! Outside the box.

2011-09-17T13:00:00.000-07:00


Eclectic Collage II, the just released anthology I have a story in.

Loy Ann Bell, the president of the Twin Falls Idaho Writers League and me at my talk. Wearing purple was not a requirement.

Another anthology I'm in that will be released in October.

Since I've got three (!) new anthologies (including Untied Shoelaces of the Mind) that I have a story in coming out or have just come out, this post is about thinking outside the box when it comes to marketing. Sure, you need to do what everybody else does, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon Author page, etc. etc. but it's also smart to do stuff that others might not do. You might discover other surprising connections. Here's a few ideas:

Most pages now have "like" (facebook) buttons on them, this includes Amazon Author Pages, blogs and websites. "Like" away everything you, well, like! Including your own work. )Even if you don't like your own work.) When you find a blog/website that you like to share, share it!

The publisher of Eclectic Collage, Jane Freund of Freundship Press says that the world has changed, bookstores are no longer the (only) place to sell books and may be the least effective to sell books.She's right. In a bookstore, you're title is one among many. Think of other places that might be interested in selling books. For example, my brother has a tea shop in Texas.The tea shop sells other little items. People who drink tea also read. What better place to place my titles? My mystery novel, "Starke Naked Dead" comes out next year by L&L Dreamspell. The main character is a jeweler. I love jewelry and jewelry stores. Am I going to be asking at some jewelry stores if they would like to have my titles? Have a signing?! You bet.

Book reviews--everyone says you need to get a lot of book reviews, but as my mom always said, "You have to give to get." All writers love to read. So review, often. It not only helps out other writers, but it's a great way to get your name/brand out there. (And of course be honest and straightforward with every review, no matter what. An excellent example of a good reviewer is Jim Murdoch at his blog The Truth About Lies. His reviews are interesting in and of themselves.

And last, but not least, Kathy McIntosh of Well Placed Words suggested this great idea. In Boise, there's a Community Education. People volunteer to teach classes in....everything. This type of community service is common. Kathy's suggestion--teach a class in something! Great way to connect in a lot of different ways!

So, dear readers, any more "outside the box" suggestions?

Next my newest venture!

Miscommunications means missed communication and missed opportunity

2011-08-27T10:24:00.000-07:00

Me after the wedding

Recently, I almost missed a friend's wedding.Bruce mentioned work and then mentioned the wedding and I fused the two conversations in my mind. So I believed Bruce was going to the wedding of the daughter of a co-worker whom I'd never met, much less the daughter. Bruce thought it odd I didn't want to go, but I'm all grown up and can make my own decisions. Then a couple of nights before the wedding, Bruce mentioned something about our friend going to the wedding and I asked, "Why is he going?" When Bruce said, "Because it's his daughter getting married, of course," I was all, "Ohmigod, of course I'm going too!"

This story illustrates how easy it is to miscommunicate and miss the communication and miss an opportunity all in one. This happens more often than you'd think, even in fiction. Ask yourself how many times you've been stopped while reading something and thought, "What does that mean?" Or, "I don't think the author meant those words the way they do mean."There's where the communication has been missed. And the opportunity? Why, to keep the reader reading, of course! Getting bumped from a story is never good and can be catastrophic.

So how to avoid this problem? Beta readers and critique groups both are great--if they are the readers and groups that give solid feedback. Also, set aside the draft and return to it after a pause and you'll find a lot of these mis-communications. Finally, I have a friend who reads everything aloud and swears it works best. This, however, has never worked for me and drives me crazy.

What do you, dear writers, to avoid the dreaded "mis"?

Why write short stories? To sell, of course.

2011-08-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

One of the several anthologies I have a short story in.

The world has changed. Selling our words is different now.And it's changing every day. The "old" rule was to not bother writing short stories if you wanted to make a living writing. Oh sure, you might write a few if you had a novel coming out, or for a friend's anthology, or a magazine you loved, but usually, don't bother. Or you'd bother if you were like me and loved writing short stories. But nobody, with a few exceptions, made a living writing short stories.The wisdom was: readers really prefer novels.

POD technology gets cheap.The e-book arrives and takes off. Turns out the "wisdom" was wrong. Turns out readers love to read short stories.When print was all there was it was difficult for readers to find magazines and anthologies, for they were few and far between and often expensive. Even single "famous" author collections were rare. But now many small publishers publish short stories, as a stand alone e-book or in an anthology, or both. Now there are a variety of online magazines, for all sorts of tastes, that publish short stories. Some of those magazines do both print and electronic, now.

This post came to mind because I'm doing a talk on "Selling the Short Story" to the Twin Falls Chapter of the Idaho Writers League. And boy, now the writer can really sell those shorts! I'm published/being published in several magazines/anthologies/e-book stand alones. Including a print version of a previously e-published short story by Big Pulp.

So write short and sweet and sell!

One Buck Horror Review

2011-07-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

One Buck Horror is a brand new magazine selling horror short stories for, you guessed it, a buck. The first issue is available now and I had the great pleasure of reading it for this review. As I've said before and will say again, I love short stories.

This first issue has a theme, for me a good theme. Every of the five stories have children (some of them quite young and some teens) as the main characters. Now, there are people out there who disapprove of stories where kids get...uh, into trouble, major trouble. I say, this is horror and what's more frightening than bad things happening to children? One of my favorite stories in this issue was the first so short it might be a flash story entitled, "Jenny's House," a little gem.

Now I really liked One Buck Horror. For a couple of strong reasons. One is that these are truly horror stories, awful bizarre things happen to good people. Delightful, to my sensibilities. Some stories labeled "horror" are too vague/literary for my taste. If I have to ask, did somebody have something bad happen to them or not? I don't consider it horror. The other reason is that none of the stories are horrendously long. By that I mean over 5000 words. In printed anthologies, sometimes there are no stories that are actually short. Give me something tight and quick and hard with bite.

So, if you enjoy horror short stories, buy One Buck Horror!

Happy Fourth of July!

2011-07-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

Here's Puck, the rat terrorist, channeling Uncle Sam with the help of Baxter's fur!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

My dad's frowning because he was photo sensitive and it was a sunny day. The baby is my brother, who is a dad himself now.

My Dad was an artist and the one who set me on the creative life course. Thanks, Dad. My brother is a great guy with great kids. My s.o. Bruce is too. The fantastic dads I know are far too numerous to mention. Dad who do a great job of being Dads. Thank you all!

Ohmigosh, it's been weeks since I've posted--my apologies to everyone. I have wonderful excuses. First, I sold TWO novels to two different publishers in 10 days! Woot! Plus, Bruce and I participated in this year's i48, in which film makers have 48 hours to make a film, start to finish, whew! If you like, you can view the film here:

http://video.boiseweekly.com/video/Ticket-Home;i48-2011#c=5551V21KMHL4L16S&t=Ticket%20Home.

Here's to returning to the writer's life and...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Memorial Day

2011-05-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

A Rose for Remembering

I'm back! It's been a while since I've posted because Google blogger has been having problems.Still a few difficulties, but at least it's back enough for me to post!

And may everyone have a day to remember those who have gone on. In so doing they live on, with us.Honor the dead this Memorial Day.

Market! Promo! SELL!

2011-05-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

Here I am at "An Eclectic Collage" book signing partaking of a wonderful cookie the publisher provides--with the cover on the cookie--great marketing idea!

Since every author, whether published or not, whether they want to or not, must now sell themselves, here are some ideas and tips that I've culled from all sorts of places. Plus, how to create an Amazon page.

To get started...my favorite tip: have a bumper sticker of one of your book's titles or web page created and place on your car(s) and your relatives' cars. This tip comes via The Marketing Goddess and she mentioned that here in the mid-size city of Boise, a bumper sticker gets around 600 views a day of driving around town! Try to make your bumper sticker funny/dramatic/curious/odd. I've noticed that I remember certain bumper stickers because they're funny/dramatic/curious/odd.

Now everyone will tell you about Internet marketing, here's a quick rundown and then the best piece of advice I've received about the overwhelming world of the Internet.
1. Join social networks, including those that are about what you write (ex. have a mystery with recipes? Join cooking groups, etc., think outside the book!).
2. Have a blog, post at least once a week, cross post to Twitter and Facebook and your other groups, comment on other blogs.
3. Tag EVERYTHING. Try to think of all the tags appropriate to your book or blog post or whatever.
The best advice I've read about all of this: the writing comes first! Remember if you do a little of the social networking, etc., you're doing a lot. It's not necessary to spend your whole life on the 'net.

How to create an Amazon author page:
First, google Amazon author page (I swear, this is the only way I've found to get to this site, anybody have a better way?). It's called Author Central. Follow the prompts to join and create your page. The prompts will ask and show how to list your books. It's easy! (One flaw: if you are an author of several in an anthology you will need to e-mail, on Amazon's provided form, Amazon telling them you are one of the authors of that title. Hopefully, they fix that soon.)

Have I missed anything major? Let me know!

And since this post is about marketing, here's my next signing--come and enjoy those cookies!

How about a good book and beverage to start your weekend? You’re invited to a book signing event for

An Eclectic Collage: Creative Works by
the Women of the Pixie Chicks’ Writers Group

Saturday, May 21, 2011
(10:00 AM to Noon)

Moxie Java Coffeehouse (1750 State St. – Boise)

Other Freundship Press books including Mooser on the Loose, Grandma, Does My Moon Shine Over Your House? (English and Spanish versions) and other books will also be available.

Come meet the local authors of An Eclectic Collage: Creative Works by the Women of the Pixie Chicks’ Writers Group, a collection of short stories, poems, life essays, recipes and other writings.

Questions: jane@freundshippress.com or (208) 407-7457

Happy Mom's Day!

2011-05-08T18:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Mothers Day!

And IMO, there should be lots of Mother's Days!Not just the one. Thanks to all the moms of the world.

A Successful Week to Celebrate!

2011-05-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, here's the fun part that writers often don't do. And the fun part that we need to do. It's the part that fills up the well for our writing. We all slog along and struggle with the work and then wince at the myriad rejections. So we all need to celebrate our successes! Here's mine this week, with thanks to members of the writing community for all their help and support towards these successes.

First: thanks to Aubrie of Flutey Words, who mentioned the market on her blog, I sold a short story to the anthology Fangtales.

Second: thanks to Su Halfwerk of Vivid Sentiments, who mentioned this wonderful promo market, Munaty Cooking, my incredibly delicious recipe is just released in their May issue. Writers if you like to cook, submit one of your recipes!

Third: The contract for my short story "Blood Tells" arrived for it's reprint in Big Pulp's June paper edition.

Fourth: My article, "Kiss a Garden" will be released in June's edition of Treasure Valley Family Magazine, both online and print.

AND LAST (does the big happy dance): I sold my mystery novel STARKE NAKED DEAD to L&L Dreamspell! Yay! It will be released in 2012, I can hardly wait! L&L Dreamspell also published my short story in their anthology Dreamspell Nighmares and it's been a pleasure working with them and I'm looking forward to doing that again.

And a big thanks to my friend and fantastic editor, Kathy McIntosh of Well Placed Words for her great help in getting the novel edited for submission! It worked!

So there you have it, my celebration. What do you have to celebrate? It can be a tiny success, writing a new paragraph on your w.i.p., for example. But celebrating creates success!

Next up: Nowadays, all writers must market, even before they submit. I've been doing this for a while, so I'll compile some tips and easy ideas and how to create an author page on Amazon.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T10:03:00.000-07:00


HAPPY EASTER!

Some virtual flowers for everyone. And did you know chocolate is good for you? Everyone enjoy a chocolate egg today!

Life Changes Fast and What to Do or Not Do

2011-04-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

Cleo and I and Bruce and Puck

Cleo passed away a little over a year ago and now we have a new dog, Puck, who was not a dog when we got him a little less than a year ago.Life changes fast! Since I'm a writer, my head is spinning from the whole world of publishing changing every moment now. How do I keep up? How do I decide what's next for my books? What would be best to do? Every day I see blog posts about this and apps and other wild stuff for promoting and social networking. What's Tweepi? What's Amazon vine? What's....Aargh! When do I write?

And yet, I love this new world too, and want to KEEP UP! I love my new e-reader! I love the ease of e-books, except for one small problem, reading in the bath tub by candlelight...ah well. Now I have plenty to read. So when do I write?!

After asking myself this question several times and realized the answer is simple: Content is King! Write first and foremost. If I don't have product, I won't have anything to sell. So I'm working to avoid the incredible time suck of the electronic world (although, as I now get e-mail on my phone, it can be hard) and write first!

Readers, are you having the same problem and if so what are you doing about it?

Don't Niche Me Out

2011-04-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

Yes the title is ungrammatical, but apt, as is the poster for the next signing of "An Eclectic Collage" next Saturday in Eagle, Idaho.I'm one of the contributors to "An Eclectic Collage" with both an article on exercise and several recipes.The Collage contains, well a collage of writing: short stories, poetry, articles and yes, recipes!

Which brings up the reason for this post. There's been a lot of e-talk about writers needing niches in this new world to succeed. Why? Because a niche becomes a brand which becomes the impetus for traffic to your publications. Of course, that seems to make sense. But I resist it. Why? See above. I'm one of those writers who are the definition of "eclectic." I like to write almost anything (even a little bit of bad poetry from time to time) and while I'm sorta/kinda in the genre (mystery, horror, fantasy) camp, some of my best short stories have been literary.

It feels like a niche would cut off some of my writing arms, to my dismay. Doesn't "niche" mean restricted to a small space? Or does it? Perhaps it just means that I'm a writer obsessed with dead things and bright shiny objects (many long stories, and short ones too, although not so much in my articles and recipes) and that's my niche. Now all I need to do is let readers know, right? Or?

What do you think? Is a niche like a brand or completely different? Is it a good thing...or maybe too constricting ala the writers who are forced to write books in the same series...forever. Or just another tool to get your words to the readers?

And those of you who live close to Eagle, hope to see you Saturday!

An interview with Fiona Dodwell

2011-03-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog, writer Fiona Dodwell, author of The Banishing, released this month from Damnation Books here.

Fiona's great answers to my questions about the creative process of writing follow. Be sure to check out her blog and website.

You say on your blog that you starting writing at age 11, what was the impetus for starting at an early age?
It is true that I began writing at an early age. I think it's because I surrounded myself with books that I loved from the first moment I learned to read. Books were a passion of mine, and as a child it was my escapism, to get lost in a good book. Reading so much at an early age in turn inspired me to try writing myself, and even when I was still in primary school, I received some very positive and encouraging feedback about my creative writing - I think that is what spurred me on to create poems, short stories and novels over the years. As a teenager I entered fiction contests (some I won, others I wasn't so lucky) but it all gave me a good grounding in writing and helped me find my voice.

Has your preferred genre always been horror, and if so, why? If not, why not?
Yes, I fell in love with horror right from the start and my passion for it has simply grown over the years. I have read other styles and genres, but I always find myself returning to horror. I certainly only ever write horror because it's what I love the most, and, like anything in life, if you love something, you want to be a part of it.
I think I love horror so much because I love the element of suspense, mystery and fear. It's a dark cocktail and I am addicted to it. I read, watch, write and breathe horror!

Like many writers, you seem to be interested in a wide variety of different subjects. Did you pick psychology, theater and theology, or did they pick you and if so, how?
I am quite an inquisitive person by nature, I am always striving to learn, cultivate, experience. I have been interested in so many things over the years - from acting to studying sea life, so you see, it's just who I am to learn and explore these worlds. I don't think I consciously chose to study particular things, I just notice something that grabs my attention and see where it leads me. Often, it will help plant ideas for stories in my mind, which is always helpful.

Do you believe it is a necessity for a writer to study/experience far and wide in order to write? Or is it more an individual thing--a writer can find plenty within a simple life to write about?
I think it might help to experience and study different areas - the more we learn, the more we can explore these things in our writing - however I don't think it's always a necessity. I believe we each learn from everything in our every day life. It doesn't have to be a significant event, sometimes we can learn from watching people on the train next to us, or talking to a manager at work, or even chatting online to friends... learning comes in all shapes and sizes, it's not restricted to academic studies, in my opinion. A writer can learn something valuable even popping into town to shop... it's being part of everyday life that influences us, when all is said and done.

Please tell my readers something about how you work as a writer and creative person.
I try not to plan my novels rigidly. I like to find a tiny seed of an idea, have a very general outline of what I want to happen in my mind, and then write freely as the inspiration comes. Some writers cannot work this way, but our methods vary because we are individuals - what works well for one might be useless to another. I loosely plan plots, events and characters and then let the story come alive in its own way. That's where the magic truly happens as an author: when you see your story come alive and take off on its own journey.

And what's up next for you, Fiona, in your writing career?
I am writing my third novel at the moment, called The Shift. It's another dark horror story, but it's early days so I don't want to give anything away. I'm also working on a novella called The Governess. My second novel, Obsession, is currently being considered for publication.

Thank you, Fiona! Readers, any questions for our guest?

Film Cautionary Tale

2011-03-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

Photos of Bruce and me at the recent shoot for my short film ENCORE. These were taken by Kathy McIntosh of Well Placed Words, thanks Kathy!

Recent shoot? On February 20?! And there lies the crux of this post. When I say "short film" I mean a page and a half of script, two characters, one location and silent--no dialog. A simple, easy, really short film. We even kept the cast and crew to a bare necessary minimum. So I kept a running tab of how long it will take start to finish for this film.

Around a 100 hours.

What?! How could that be possible? Why would it take that long? Simple. The process of making a film is long and complicated, with many different elements and myriad details. All of which take time and effort.

What's the cautionary part of this tale? My realization that this time sink is true of all creative projects, whether filming or art or writing or jewelry making or...And my realization that all creative people always underestimate the time it takes to create, start to finish. Why? Because it's so much fun! We're doing what we love to do!

The caution: remember it will take more time, effort and energy to create. Don't beat yourself up about it, just recognize it and try (try) to put a little wriggle room in your projects.

Do any of my readers not have this problem? Do any of my readers have some solutions to this problem?

Happy President's Day Let Freedom Ring

2011-02-21T16:33:00.000-08:00

OUR FLAG FLYING FREE

And oh, how grateful I am that two great men struggled mightily so that I now live in a land where I pretty much live as I want!

What do you do with your freedom?

The Revolution is OVER

2011-02-16T16:07:00.000-08:00

What revolution am I talking about? Why, the one important to writers, the e-Revolution! What made me realize that the revolution was over? Simple.

Back in the nineties, the dinosaur age of the Internet, I used to work for a little, independent bookstore. I was also published in anthologies and magazines during this time. Fast forward to now, when I'm again being published in anthologies. And it's totally different.

How? Well, did I, while I worked for the bookstore, promote all the other authors in the anthologies I was in? Or the publisher who bought my short stories for the anthologies? Or even the publishers or their magazines? Of course not! Why would I? To what purpose? I might have signings for the anthologies, might mention to friends and family and that's it. Nobody even considered promoting another author or publisher.

NOW: Every time an author in An Eclectic Collage talks/mentions/sells the book it promotes me. Every blogger who blogs about Dreamspell Nightmares is also blogging about me. Instead of just me alone telling my friends and family about my writing, I've got all the authors promoting. And promoting authors of the publishing company that published my e-book story Changing Woman Ways, promotes my name. Why? The Internet. Connections are quick and easy to make and the more presence on the 'net the better.

Why do you think, my dear readers? And those of you who are writers, am I right? Or all 'net wet?

Happy Valentines Day!

2011-02-14T12:37:00.000-08:00

HAPPY V DAY with some virtual roses

And may you all, my friends and family, follow your passion today.

How do you celebrate this holiday? Or don't you celebrate? Do you think it's delightful? Or disgusting?

A Childhood Recipe to celebrate An Eclectic Collage

2011-01-24T19:00:00.000-08:00

Crispy Rice Cereal Treats Dyed Bright Pink!

Okay, I realize the top photo looks like hamburger...but I promise, it's not. This is a new beloved childhood recipe I'm posting to celebrate the release of An Eclectic Collage a compendium of the Pixie Chicks Writers. In An Eclectic Collage, you'll find more of my fun recipes that you can add/change and foster your creativity.

Basic Recipe:

4 tablespoons margarine or butter

6 cups crispy rice cereal

1 16 ounce bag of marshmallows (fresh mini marshmallows work best)

In a large saucepan, heat the butter on medium heat until it melts. Add marshmallows and stir constantly until marshmallows all melt. Remove from heat. Add crispy rice cereal and stir well. Using a greased spatula, spread mixture in a buttered 15 X 10 inch pan. Cut into bars when cooled.

Okay, now for the variations:
Add vanilla or rum or orange or lemon extract, a teaspoon or two.
Add a cup of nuts, or raisins or any dried fruit, or a cup of chocolate bits (or a third a cup of each!).

Add any spices you like, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, cardamon.
Add 1/3 cup of cocoa.
Or be daring and trying a bit of pepper and hot sauce to the cocoa! Strange but good if you like it weird and spicy!

Cooking creates!

And just one off topic note--there's an interview about my childhood life and how it comes out in stories at midlist writer. No recipes, just the Navajo!

BSP is hard to do

2011-01-16T15:15:00.000-08:00

Above are a couple of examples of BSP. The first is a recipe card that is a teaser or taste (pun intended) for the second, a signing for the upcoming release of the compendium, "An Eclectic Collage." The recipe cards I make by cutting and pasting onto Avery White Quarter Fold Greeting Cards Avery 3266. I copy and paste till each section is filled and then I have 4 cards per sheet.Then the cards promote the book at the signing.

I've had the good fortune to be published several times lately and have an upcoming release, a couple of things in "An Eclectic Collage." So I've been attempting to promote my work. And finding it a bit difficult. Oh, not in opportunities to promote, but rather in the feeling that BSP is somehow a four letter word. Perhaps it's the word, "blatant," does anybody want to be blaring an accomplishment? Doesn't that seem egotistical? Then I remember what my mom always said, "If you don't tell people, they won't know." She repeated this often because my dad was an artist and, a very shy man, he hated gallery openings, media interviews, etc.He just wanted to go do his art. I think that may be true of many creative people.

So when I worry about mentioning something and I'm procrastinating about promoting I tell myself, "Maybe some people might want to know about this."

How about you, dear reader? Do you enjoy promotion? Hate it? Don't care? Care too much?

New Year's Resolution, just one

2011-01-01T10:03:00.000-08:00

My one resolution this is year is to relax as much as possible about my creative life. Yes, all creative people are neurotic and driven, I believe, but this year I'm working hard to remember what my friend Kathy of Well Placed Words says, "Writing is my love, my passion. When I remember that, I write more, better." How true for all us creative types!

Anyone else have a "creative" resolution?

And...

HAPPY NEW 2011!

Clearing the Decks instead of Decking the Halls

2010-12-30T16:48:00.000-08:00

Every year I take a photo of the tree before I take it down.This is 2010's photo.

This is going to be a short post as I am in my annual "clearing the decks" before New Years. I clean, sort, put stuff away, update my files and eat leftovers. I find clearing out a year's accumulation of all sorts of stuff leaves space for the creative ideas to flood in! Plus, it's a good way to review the year to set the intentions of next year. Now, if I could just find the two missing "stocking stuffer" gifts to give New Year's...

Do you "clear the decks" before New Year's? Or do you wait until New Year's itself?

Merry Christmas from Puck the Puppy!

2010-12-24T09:02:00.000-08:00

A Video Christmas Card, my first!

Here's hoping that all my friends out there in the net world have a fabulous and fantastic holiday! Everyone relax and enjoy and take a well-deserved break. I'll be baking a virtual pie for everyone.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A recipe request

2010-12-22T19:17:00.000-08:00

Every Christmas season, I try new recipes. I find it keeps me in the creative mode. This one has been a hit.

Gingerbread Spiced cookies:
2 cups white flour
2 generous tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp ginger
1/2 tbsp cloves
1 tbsp vanilla
3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg or egg substitute
1/4 cup molasses
sugar in a bowl to roll cookies

Sift together dry ingredients. Beat butter and sugar until combined and add egg and molasses and beat until mixed well. Beat in dry ingredients. Roll dough into 1" balls and roll in sugar. Place on cookie sheets and press slightly. Bake at 350 degrees 10-12 minutes or until lightly brown around edges.

Like many of my recipes, you can play a little with this one. Try adding chopped nuts. Or a couple of different spices, allspice or cardamom perhaps? This is also good filled with whipped cream and frozen or vanilla ice cream. Or come up with your own version! Create!

Tis the Season...

2010-12-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

He's stalking me.

...to be overwhelmed. Isn't it? This year has been particularly frantic and frenetic. First, at the start of the month, we traveled to Texas for my niece's college graduation, which was fantastic, but took the first week of December away, so I started out behind. Second, two short stories of mine were published end of November/beginning of December from two different publishers, one in the anthology Dreamspell Nightmares and my story Changing Woman Ways. I've got another story coming out in another anthology soon, plus an article.This means I need to be promoting my new and soon-to-be releases and self promotion is so hard for me! Hmm...perhaps it is for every writer--and a subject for a separate post.

Is there anyone out there in blog land not struggling with the season?Of course, the entire world doesn't have the overkill (and I do mean "kill") of Christmas that we do here in the States... but many people do celebrate the season. How do you still write, create, survive? And perhaps even enjoy?

On a completely different note: I've had a few requests about how to add the "Share" buttons at the bottoms of my posts--I haven't answered these requests because I can't remember! I was ditzing around and fell upon the way to do this by accident and the buttons showed up! Can anybody out there help?

HAPPY TURKEY DAY EVERYONE!

2010-11-25T07:07:00.000-08:00

A few flowers for your holiday table!

Three things I'm thankful for:

Freedom
Family
My love of writing

There are many more, but I have the Thanksgiving meal to cook.
Readers, what are you thankful for (and my other blog friends all over the world, chime in, gratitude increases creativity, it's a proven!).

And everyone...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Three Seconds of Fame via Social Networking

2010-11-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

Bruce on Manzanita Beach

Bruce mentioned the idea for this post, hence the picture of him above. Social networking is all the buzz right now. Or at least it's the buzz I'm hearing because I have one short story out in an anthology, L&L Dreamspell Nightmares, and two more coming out in other anthologies in the next couple of weeks, plus a couple of articles in e-format. I'm also shopping two novels and working on a third during NaNoWriMo.

I've been reading up on platforming, branding and social media and I've come to the conclusion that six billion of us know each other now and we all get three seconds of fame. Okay, maybe because my mind is spinning with all this stuff, I'm exaggerating. I find all this a bit overwhelming...and a bit frustrating, not to mention time consuming. I could use some opinions about all this brand new world.

So, I'm asking my readers--what do you think about social networking? What do you do with social networking? What works for you? What doesn't? Any advice on how to focus efforts/time/whatever in this vast world? Help!

It's also been suggested that now is the time to set up my writer's web page. Once upon a time, I had a web page for my exercise classes. This was not a great experience as I never had the time/knowledge/ability to change/update the page. I'm not a techie, I struggle with doing new things and updating the old on my blog! I've heard good things about wordpress, the best being it's easy to update, change, publish more--more like a blog than a webpage? Dear readers, what do you think? What do you know about webpages? Again, any help is truly appreciated!

Kill the editor

2010-11-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

This year, I'm doing NaNoWriMo again. Yesterday, I had a great meeting with my writing friend Kathy of Well Placed Words.

My main struggle in the first three days of NaNo--I know too much. By that I mean I know too much about writing. I was editing every word, sentence, paragraph. Which made writing terribly difficult.

So, here's a few suggestions to kill the editor:

1. Repeat often: it's a first draft, rewrites are for the second draft.
2. I can always remove it later.
3. If I don't write it down, I won't know what it says.
4. Sometimes I have to write the bad stuff before the good stuff.
5. Often I don't know what's good when I'm writing it.
6. I can't edit a blank page.
7. NaNo is to get me writing, not stop me writing.

Okay, readers, how do you kill the editor?

Happy Halloween--NaNo coming up! EEEK!

2010-10-31T08:51:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

This post is going to be quick--I'm alive, I'm alive. And I'm doing NaNoWriMo! Why? Because this year has been crazy and my new book is aching to burst forth ala Alien.

On one of the NaNo threads, someone asked me about healthy edibles during long hours of engorging pages with words. My favorites: plain yogurt with cinnamon, yum, and peanut butter (only a tablespoon or two, max!) with cinnamon--the cinnamon lowers blood pressure (easier to think) and the peanut butter and yogurt are packed with healthy stuff to keep you healthy--add half an apple and you've got great fiber as well to keep you going. Add a couple of cups of green tea with a bit of lemon and you'll live forever--or at least be undead enough to finish NaNo!

Good reading, a new publisher market and a short story of mine

2010-10-02T17:01:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Carol and Ann.

Carol Kilgore of Under the Tiki Hut tagged me, ahem, a bit ago. So did Ann of Long Journey Home. Thanks to both of you--although life got away from me and I never did my bit.

Speaking of Carol, she has a great, fun story in the anthology Map of Murder called "Buñuelos for the Beach." Good work, Carol (and the rest of the anthology is good too).

This is a market call from my friend Jane Freund (her last name means friend!) http://www.janefreund.com/freundship-press.html:

I am looking to get as many high caliber writers and authors to publish e-articles and e-books (non-fiction and fiction) as a part of my November 1 kickoff of the newly redesigned Freundship Press website and mission. If you are interested, contact me at jane@freundshippress.com.

The writer gets a percentage of each sale--and Jane is looking for all sorts of things, give it a try!

And last, I've had a couple of requests for a short story of mine to read, here's a link:
http://www.untiedshoelacesofthemind.com/Issue3/sweet.php

Next post may be from my vacation in Manzanita!

Flowing into glorious lives

2010-09-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

My Friend Kathy of Well Placed Words dog Mattie, the catahoula hound and my rat terrier puppy Puck, BFF!

The illustration illustrates what I believe we, as writers, should do. Embrace the joy of being what we are. Or, as Kathy said with her own well placed words, "It's supposed to be fun."

Yeah, it is. For most people, writing is not an 8 to 5 job. Not a requirement. So if it's not fun, why do it? I think we all get caught up in writing for the markets, rewriting, editing, selling, re-editing, promoting, blah, blah, blah. Of course, that's part of the creative process too--BUT it's so easy to forget the simple joy of simply creating. And, of course, when I fell so far behind in my entire life, the guilt was great and a glorious excuse and energy suck to not do any thing--even write on my blog! Am I the only one who struggles with these problems?

I suspect not, as was also brought home to me at the Pixie Chicks meeting on Saturday. It's a group of writers of all ages and stages of writing headed by Jane Freund of Freundship Press. All ages and stages, and yet we all struggle with the same blocks to our creativity. (Note: you can join the Pixie Chicks Writers Group on Facebook and participate, even if you don't live in Idaho--although it might be hard to get to the meetings.)

The best is to get into the joyful flow of creating--so how do we do that more often? Readers?

"I'm not dead yet. I'm feeling much better and..."

2010-09-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

...I think I could blog a bit.

Yes, I mangled Monty Python--I doubt they mind. In fact, I think they like being mangled. Or at least twisted.

This is a post to mention I'm crawling back into what passes for my normal creative life, with an addition of film, which is no longer film but now digital. What did I learn most these last few weeks? EVERYTHING TAKES LONGER TO DO THAN I THINK IT WILL.

Repeat, repeat, repeat. Time is supposed to be malleable (ala Einstein) so how come I can't stretch every minute, every hour, every day enough? Because everything takes longer than I think!

Do you have this problem?

Honoring the Dead by Living

2010-08-23T06:38:00.000-07:00

My mom and me, Christmas 1966.

(First, a technical note: my internet provider is having major problems. There have been times this past week when I was unable to get on the internet. Add to that my film editing project and I'm behind on...too much!)

This month has been a strong sober reminder to me to live my life every day. First, a 24-year-old co-worker of my boyfriend's, a Type A diabetic, died of complications of his disease. Then, a long term (almost 40 years) friend died from a brain tumor at 81. Then a friend I'd lost touch with died at 57 in a car accident--mutual friends let me know via Facebook.

Finally, yesterday would have been my mom's 90th birthday. She's been gone for almost 20 years. To me, they all died too soon.

What have I been reminded? That we'll never have enough time for life. Life can end at any moment. Yes, it's a cliche to carpe diem, because it's true, if we don't seize the day, we come to the end of our lives with nothing.

I'm going to try to celebrate every moment I can, even the most painful ones, for without the grief, where's the contrasting joy?

Change is all we ever have

2010-08-13T09:17:00.000-07:00

Puck, getting grown.

The only constant is change. Sayings are a cliche for a reason. This saying has certainly been ball peen hammered into my head these past few weeks (ow, ow, ow). First, Puck the puppy being a puppy is changing every day, sometimes every hour. It's like meeting a different dog each day! He's three times the size he was when we first got him! Quite a bit more dog, although almost potty trained and that helps. A lot.

Second, I'm currently shopping a novel, plus a few short stories, so I'm following...um...embroiled in the whole e-book revolution. Revolution?! Before people start screaming, oh wait, too late. It has surprised me no end at the hysteria and vitriol flowing through the Internet about e-books, e-publishers and e-magazines. Yes, it is the end of publishing life as we now know it, but it's not the end of printed books. Remember, horses still exist, radio does, movie houses are bigger and better and still show movies. All it is, is different. Changing. And what will be the change? Too soon to tell--which is crazy making for all us authors.

Third, my film life exploded unexpectedly a couple of months ago and now is taking up much more time and energy. That may change after this project...but maybe not. I'll know when it happens. Meanwhile, I'm playing catch up with my writing.

And trying to stay in creative flow--not easy when I'm so busy that I'm afraid the lights will go out because I forgot to pay the bill! Everyone's comments helped a lot last time...this time I'm asking how you, dear reader, flow with changing current while still being focused and creative and effective?

All suggestions gratefully accepted--or your own struggles.

Take Time to Eat the Flowers

2010-07-31T09:52:00.000-07:00

Baxter enjoying the lilies--by eating them!

Have you ever had a time in your life when you're so busy there's no space to breathe? If not, why not?! How do you live? I'm asking because I need to know--this whole summer has been swamped--I'm mired in projects and behind on all of them. Next week is even busier as I'm camera person and editor for a film project.

How to find time to eat the lilies?

Big bits

2010-07-18T09:34:00.001-07:00

This post is about a little of this and a tweak of that.

First up, a couple of good blog sites to visit today. Simon over at Constant Revision is having a great, fun and quirky contest. Elizabeth at Mystery Writing is Murder has some great links. And Michelle at Author Michelle McLean has a fun interview and contest with Shaun David Hutchinson.

Just three big bits that show how much there is on this great blogosphere of ours.

And a note about my infrequent posting recently and a thanks to all my readers who check back. Puck is growing every day, so I have less puppy-take-care-of time involved...and as soon as that happened, I became involved in a lovely little film project. I'm going to be camera and editing! Fun...but taking that precious time.

Meanwhile, there's a deadline looming for my w.i.p. and I need to decide if I need sleep for the next few months or what else I can do to give myself the time/energy/focus to get it all done?

Any suggestions? Please?

Jester's Folly, A review

2010-07-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

I've just read a delightful short story by my friend, Aubrie Dionne over at Flutey Words: Jester's Folly, published by Gypsy Shadow Publishing. It's a 6300 word story in her CARNIVAL OF ILLUSIONS series. This is the first one I've read and now I want to read more of her stories.

It's always useful to see what another writer does right. Aubrie draws you into the world of the Carnival and her main character, immediately (can be difficult to do). Her main character is sympathetic while being unusual and her problems are great (good writing here). There's plenty of excellent action, an unexpected event and a satisfying ending rounds it all off. With a touch of a twist to boot!

What might be missing? Not to give it away, but one relationship seemed a little...too easily resolved. It's hard to have too much complexity and conflict in 6300 words, but I wanted a bit more struggle between two characters.

Overall, a fun engaging read.

Aubrie also writes novels--so my novelists out there, what do you think about writing both novels and short stories? I find doing so to be useful. But I have friends who find it only confusing, switching from one format to another.

FREEDOMS!

2010-07-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

Puck is amazed at his first July Fourth!

And I'm grateful for the freedom to write, live and love!

If you're one of my readers in the States, how do you celebrate the Fourth?

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYONE!

Puck--My Other Excuse

2010-06-20T17:14:00.000-07:00

For why I've been a bit absent over the last couple of weeks! Here's the first video of my new puppy--and one of the first videos I edited. It's fantastic, having a new puppy, but also time consuming, exhausting and distracting. Add to that a couple of writing deadlines...and well...some days it's been all I do to maintain the basics. Some days I've been in survival mode.

So I haven't written nearly as much as I've wanted to--insert guilt and shame here--but have also realized over the last couple of days that Puck won't be a puppy forever. And I'm learning an editing program. And I've found the back of my brain has been working on my w.i.p., now that I have a few moments to return to it.

I'm working on forgiving myself and not offering excuses, because what good do they do? But I had to post this one...because he's so cute!

My first edited video!

2010-05-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

Here's what I've been doing recently instead of...much of everything else, save teaching exercise classes and playing with the new puppy. I'm learning an editing program for next weekend's i48--a local film festival in which you have 48 hours to produce a 3-6 minute film.

What have I learned so far from this besides how to use the program? Writing counts. I didn't bother to script any of this footage as it was all "practice," I just did the exercises. But even a little scripting would have helped the entire process. Saved me time and effort. Writing's often the most important part.

Our i48 film will be scripted!

WriTueWedNoMo

2010-05-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

The grin on my face is no lie--away from the distractions of everyday life, I'm writing!

As Kathy of Well Placed Words mentioned in her latest post, a couple of weeks ago she and I headed up north for a two day writing marathon.

Here's Kathy on the way home, snow in May!

How did it go? Fantastic for me, I achieved my goal of a rough draft of an outline for my new w.i.p.Both Kathy and I focused and accomplished a ton in a couple of days. What have I gotten done since then? Um...not so much. Where we were, there was little to do except write, walk the dog, write, eat lunch, write...you get the idea. No Internet service, no e-mail, no snail mail, most people knew were gone, so few calls. No TV, either. No laundry, no dinner to cook, no house to clean. No teaching exercise classes, my other job. Gone were the excuses and distractions of everyday life.

Kathy's dog, who didn't do any writing (that we know of).

And now all those lovely "reasons" for my not sitting down hour after hour have returned--with the problem of being behind in all of them. It was only two days for heaven's sake! My mom always said, "If you're gone for two days, might as well be gone for two weeks" and she was right. With prep work and catching up, it takes time, energy and focus. And oh, how I miss my writing marathon time. But I can't take two days out of every week to drive north to McCall to stay in Kathy's friend's cabin to write.

So, what to do? One thing I've determined is to "Do it first" as Margie Lawson so wisely says. I haven't yet--I returned to a couple of major distractions, but I'm setting my intention here.

One glorious distraction: Puck, my new puppy who arrives here soon, at 4 weeks.

What else? Lists always help me--unless I can't find the list! I'll admit I'm still scrambling for other ways to be focused and effective, whether it's writing my new w.i.p. or shopping my current novel or paper training Puck. Readers, ideas? Please?

HAPPY MOM'S DAY!

2010-05-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

A few lilacs fresh from the garden for mom

A little late, but here's a fun brunch for mom and everybody any celebration (and healthy too).

HEALTH NUT WAFFLES:

1/2 c. quick oatmeal

1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. ground flaxseed (or increase amounts of oatmeal and flour)

2 teas. baking powder

2 teas. or more cinnamon

1 teas. vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 c. milk

3 tablespoons healthy oil

Mix dry ingredients together, then wet, let set for five minutes, add milk or egg if too dense to pour. Pour into wafflemaker (should make about 4 good sized waffles) and cook. Eat and enjoy.

My mom always loved waffles for breakfast and then LEMON cake for dessert on her special day. Any traditions for this day that you'd like to share? I'm sure there are a number of different ones--all unique. And family traditions can be a great addition to a work, either as characterization (Mom loved lemon anything) or background or even a telling event.

AND ENJOY MOM'S DAY!

Never give up the new novel

2010-05-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

Behind this lovely magnolia bloom are a lot of dead ones

In case you've noticed, I've fallen a bit behind in my blogging lately. This is for several reasons, some good, some bad and this post is about one of them. I'm working on my new novel, while sending out the last one. I say, "working on the new novel" but it'd be more honest to say "struggling with the new novel." I have a great premise, but a premise is not a novel. The characters, especially the main character, are busy talking to me about who they are. But characters are not a novel. The plot is beginning to take shape, with even an unexpected event. But a plot is not a novel. I'm working on an outline. Again, not a novel.

So what is a novel? And how do I wade through all this...decision making? How do I have the courage to never give up on the new work? How do I have the confidence to continue? It's hard not to second guess myself ala "maybe this would work better" or "what genre is this specifically? I have to know before I write" or even "this will probably suck big time, no matter what I do." It's hard not to endlessly prep by reading and studying books on writing (many of them excellent, but that's not writing the novel!).

One way, that I clutch to as a strong guide, is: I love to write. So write. The truth of this novel is in my heart, if not yet in my head. It will come.

But I'd love some suggestions and advice about how to get over the new-novel-hump. Readers?

Basenjis, ratties and character building

2010-04-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

Cleo on the lookout, and yes, we let our beastie family members up on furniture--even place furniture for their enjoyment!

As I posted earlier, Cleo passed away. The past couple of weeks, I've been on the search for a new dog family member. This is partly for myself and partly for the cat--who is missing having a dog sibling.

Bax grooming Cleo, now the cat insists on grooming my hair!

So the search is on--and over the past couple of weeks I've learned a lot about a different breed, rat terriers or ratties or feist dogs. I have friends who have ratties and I adore those particular dogs so I read up on the breed and fell in love with a new type of dog. Why? Because the breed is different in a way I believe will add a lot to my life (and I can add a lot to theirs because of who I am). Rat terriers are healthy, curious and active dogs, who adore their people. In the last three ways they are like my previous dogs, basenjis. But they are different in that they are very social, and adore being in the midst of it all, are not overbred so not prone to many diseases and are a terrier--so trainable and love to "do stuff with others." Me too. It gets lonely sitting in a room by myself, writing.

Cleo, under the clean towels on the bed, wondering what all this has to do with writing.

Well, Cleo, I got to thinking about how, basically, all dogs have much the same character in many ways, because they are pack, i.e. social animals. Overall, they get along and need to be with other pack members. This is part of their secret of success with humans, who are also social beings. The huge majority of dogs are friendly, love being with people, etc., no matter what the breed. (I've known a pit bull that knew he was just a big lap dog.) That having being said, I thought about how the dogs I've known personally have all had very distinct personalities one from another. And while a particular dog might be "of the breed," basenjis for example love to eat paper products, each dog will have their own unique twist. Cleo liked to eat paper-like weeds:

Cleo going in for the kill.

If dogs have these many unique differences, how about sentient, supposedly more evolved, people? It doesn't matter if my book is set in a small town where most people are middle class and staid and...would seem indistinct one from another. But then one goes and eats a weed.

So now, as I'm building characters for my new novel, I question: How is this character like other people? How is this character different--and why the differences? Why does this character eat weeds? How does that work with the plot/the other characters/the entire book? (In real life there may not be a reason, but there needs to be in fiction.)

Dear readers how do you build a character? Or do they come to you fully formed? Or?

Of this and that and t'other

2010-04-17T18:54:00.000-07:00

This is my dear friend Kathy's of Well Placed Words daffodil, thank you Kathy!

This post is a spring mix of various blossoms and one weed.

First up: a couple of FANTASTIC contests if you're looking for an agent:

Sarah with a chance is holding a contest with several great prizes, including lunch with well-known agents! This contest closes Sunday, April 25th.

On the QueryTrackernet.blog, they're having a one line pitch to an agent contest starting April 27th.

And speaking of great places, great places to go to find agents are QueryTracker.net and Agentquery are both excellent resources.

Now the one weed: I doubt if the spammers will get this message, BUT--here goes. At least I'll feel better. I vet every comment on my blog and say yay or nay on it's being posted. I allow anonymous comments because I have some family members and friends (Hi, Cynthia!) who don't have a screen name. However, if you're trying to sell me something that enlarges a part of my anatomy that I don't even possess, or trying to sell me cheap, bizarre drugs from some other country, or marry me to become an American citizen, or post something in gobbledygook, I reject your comment. I don't post it. Nyah, nyah.

There, vent over. I do feel better. Does anybody have a better way of handling this problem?

The Devil You Say?

2010-04-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

In the comments of my last post, several of you mentioned eating oodles of eggs so I thought I'd post my favorite recipe for deviled eggs.

Deviled eggs Conda style:

Take a dozen hard boiled eggs, cut in half, and remove the yolks. In a large bowl, place the yolks, a half cup of mayo (fat free works), a tablespoon or two of any mustard you like and...my secret ingredient, a tablespoon or two of curry spice. Blend well until smooth, then spoon into the egg halves. Sprinkle with paprika or chili powder.

Eggs are healthy, so eat! Good brain food for being creative!

Readers--variations?

Egg and Spring Day Greetings

2010-04-04T13:37:00.000-07:00

Daffodils for a HAPPY EASTER

One of the funnest things about being a *semi* Buddhist is that I feel that I can embrace all holidays! I'm a semi-Buddhist partly because I was raised by a declared atheist who participated in Navajo ceremonies and a come-to-it-late sloppy sorta Buddhist. Our tradition was a morning egg hunt, but we had to find all the eggs and have egg salad sandwiches forever after. And why we celebrated Easter...

Whether you're celebrating the traditional holiday or love eggs or simply enjoy a new spring day my good wishes go out to you.

My favorite Easter candy is Cadbury cream eggs--but I only like them NOW. How about you? Any traditions you'd like to share?

The Unexpected Event

2010-03-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

Cleo (wearing her dress)

December 2002-March 17, 2009

On St. Patrick's Day this year, I took Miss Cleo into the vet for her blood test. We were trying a new drug to help her with her autoimmune hepatitis. We don't know when she first developed this deadly disease. She was a rescue and perhaps always had it. But she'd been in remission for years and now the disease had returned. She wasn't ill, yet, this was a preemptive strike against the disease. The drug wasn't working and made her dehydrated and so they gave her fluids. Being a curious basenji, she always enjoyed the vets, always loved the activity. She was sitting up, watching the world, then laid down and stopped breathing.

She died.

This is the unexpected event.

First, I know all my wonderful readers will be sympathetic and empathetic and thank you. It's been a rough couple of weeks, but the family is recovering from the loss of this sweet dog.

Second, as all you creative people know, everything is used for our art. The last few days, I've been considering what many writing coaches call "The Unexpected Event." If used well, it's one of the most satisfying parts of a novel or short story or screenplay, etc. IF, that is. After this unexpected event, I realized some of what is needed to make it work.

The event must be improbable but not seemingly impossible or random. Although the vet was shocked and horrified that Cleo just...stopped breathing, she did have a serious, often fatal, disease. Although her disease seemed to be in remission, there was no knowing how much damage it had done, or even if it was in remission. Cleo was a basenji. All basenjis in the US are descended from 4 breeding pairs, so all basenjis suffer from inbreeding. Who knew what else was wrong? As the vet said over and over, "I didn't EXPECT Cleo to die today."

So the groundwork has to be laid carefully when writing the unexpected event--not too much or the reader will guess what's going to happen. Not too little or the reader will think "Where'd this come from? Ridiculous. Absurd." Having an unexpected event happen in my life has helped me sense where that balance of enough planted information or enough setup without forecasting the event.

Dear readers, have you had an unexpected event in your life that you can think of? Or several? Or many? How about in your writing?

Sunday Places--Books and Odd

2010-03-28T14:21:00.000-07:00

The last few Sunday posts have covered a wide range so I was going to cover books with this post but my good friend Kathy of Well Placed Words just blogged about books and her choices are fantastic. I'd add Writer tells all : insider secrets to getting your book published by Robert Masello and Thanks, but this isn't for us : a (sort of) compassionate guide to why your writing is being rejected by Jessica Page Morrell.

Here's a link to a one line pitch contest with an agent at the Query Tracker blog: http://querytracker.blogspot.com/ thanks to Suzette Saxton of Shooting Stars. Thanks, Suzette.

Next, why I've been absent the past couple of weeks because of an unexpected event.

Telling truths, telling lies

2010-03-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

Helen of Straight from Hel awarded me the Creative Writer Award a couple of weeks ago. Since then, I've read and enjoyed several other award winners. But it got me to thinking about truth, lies and fiction and where the lines between them all are. Or are there lines? Any boundaries at all? Doesn't a story change as the storyteller changes? Don't we all "tell to our audience"? Even when writing the truth in the form a memoir such as Elizabeth of Sixth in Line, I believe writing or simply telling changes the tale.

Part of that is because truth is so odd, so fantastic, that it must be explained or simplified or something to be enjoyable to read. As proof here are a few truths that read like lies:
1. I graduated from college 3 months after I turned 19, the same year I was supposed to graduate from high school. This created many problems with employment as nobody believed me.
2. I can chew my own toenails (but don't).
3. The photo above is of the first blooming flowers on the original Oregon Trail. The trail is a few feet from my home in a suburb and my great-great grandfather traveled this same trail 150 years ago. This flower is considered a weed by many people because it grows wild.

So, dear readers, what do you think? Am I right about my ideas? Wrong? And what are some of your fantastic truths? Please share.

Sunday Places--Classes

2010-03-07T11:00:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

This week has been one of computer problems and taxes. Hence, my absence from the Web. I'm baack...this time with some classes to increase writing skills.

First, the online classes:
WritersOnlineClasses.com offers inexpensive (usually $30.) on a wide variety of subjects with excellent writing coaches.
WriterUniv.com offers different classes (again usually $30).
The Romance Writers of America's Suspense and Mystery offers classes ($30--this seems to be a standard).

Writing advice, much of it fantastic, abounds on the Internet. A couple of my favorite sites:
WritersWeekly.com has a wealth of articles interesting to the writer (and markets).
Margie Lawson's newsletter contains great lessons and contests to win her lecture packets.

Now, before I'm knocked off the Web, I'm headed over to visit some of my favorite blogs, some of which are listed in my sidebar (more soon).

Any classes or sites, dear readers, that you'd like to add?

Sunday Places--Cautionary and a Contest

2010-02-28T10:23:00.000-08:00

Two great sites to check for scams, bad contests (only looking for the fee money) and really bad agents (remember anyone can say, "I'm an agent") are Preditors and Editors and Absolute Write. Both contain a wealth of info about legitimate agents, contests and markets as well.

And here's a blog contest with oodles of great prizes that's easy to enter (but hurry, ends Monday): Author Michelle McLean. In general, Michelle's blogs are chockablock full of info too!

Sunday Places--A Couple

2010-02-21T09:47:00.000-08:00

First off, here's one that's new to me, www.storypilot.com. This is for the genres of sf, fantasy and horror and is not always updated, but I spotted a couple of markets I'd never heard of before.

Last week I mentioned a contest on Guide to Literary Agents, a blog on Writers Digest.com and I realized that Writers Digest.com also provides a wealth of information, articles, markets, contests, all for free! (Although, an aside, Writers Digest's own contests have fees. I consider WD contests about the only "fee" contests that a newbie might consider entering, because of their reputation.)

That's it for this Sunday!

If Winter Comes...

2010-02-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

...you all know the rest of the quote and here's a little I'm looking forward to:

Unlike during the summer, these are store bought.

January is always the toughest month for me. The holidays are over. Where I live, in the Northern part of the U.S., the sun vanishes far too often. This January and part of February has been particularly difficult. Three close family members had big health issues, two with broken bones and one taking radiation treatments. (Each is doing okay and going to be all right, in time.)

What I've noticed is that I'm even more distracted than usual. And less effective than usual. Gone is much of my focus. So, I sat down for a very few moments and tried to remember what worked in my life to recreate creative focus, even in a snowstorm of "this has to be addressed NOW" emergency distractions.

One, lists work for me. Even if I don't refer back to the list, keeping one keeps me on track.

Two, deadlines work for me. Deadlines for contests, etc. are better, but even self-imposed deadlines keep me going.

Three, forgiving myself works for me. Life intervenes and guilt about what's not accomplished is an energy suck.

Dear readers, do you have suggestions for what works for you when the distraction monster gobbles focus?

Next post, a bit of lying.

Sunday Places on Valentines Day

2010-02-14T11:49:00.000-08:00

First up, Aubrie mentioned in my comments another great, updated often, site, www.ralan.com, which is primarily for genre: horror, sf and fantasy. Aubrie has several good blogs (how do you do it, Aubrie?) but two favorites for me to visit are Book Reviews by Aubrie and Author, Flutist, Teacher, Aubrie Dionne.

Next, for markets and contests and great writing advice (and I'm not just saying that because I've had an article published there) go to WritersWeekly.com.

Last, if you're looking for an agent, check out (often) Guide to Literary Agents Editor's blog. Even if you're not, this blog contains a wealth of info and some great contests with agents as judges (why not get a free critique from an agent?) and fabulous prizes.

That's it for this Sunday, hope you're all submitting and succeeding!

Happy Valentine's Day...

2010-02-13T11:34:00.000-08:00

A rose for all my friends.

For some of you, my faithful fellow bloggers, this post will come a bit early. For some it will be "on the day." Whichever, here's a yummy, full of brain helping anti-oxidants, recipe to wish you all a

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

Chocolate Walnut Shortbread:

1/2 c. walnuts

1 c. white flour

1 stick unsalted butter, or baking margarine, room temperature, plus more for pan

1/2 c. chocolate bits (mini baking choc. bits work best, but any chocolate is great)

1/4 c. powdered sugar

1 teas. vanilla

Preheat oven to 325. Pulse walnuts in grinder until finely ground. Transfer to bowl, add flour & stir thoroughly. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy, add flour mix and beat until combined. Stir in chocolate bits. Butter 8 inch round cake pan, place dough in pan, cover with plastic wrap and press until dough is spread evenly in pan. Cut with sharp knife into eight wedges, prick all over with fork. Bake until golden and firm in center, 30-35 minutes. Recut into wedges and prick again.

Can eat when slightly cooled. EAT!

Sunday Places

2010-02-07T09:13:00.000-08:00

This first post on various places to go to find contests and markets is focused on the short story. Jim Murdoch of The Truth About Lies pointed out, one of the best places to go is Duotrope's Digest. This site is user friendly and updated often. A blog that is fantastic for short story markets is Sandra Seaman's My Little Corner, again she posts new places often, including flash and contests, plus interesting news and tips about the writing world.

Finally, yes, this market listing is a whole big dollar an issue, BUT Kathy Ptacek finds and lists so many different markets in a vast array of formats (e-publishers to anthologies) all organized for quick referral that she deserves a mention here. And because I've found several markets last year alone that I sent to and sold to. So check out the Gila Queen's Guide to Markets.(For my artist fellow bloggers, her listings include artwork.)

Most of all write, so you can submit! And because you are writers!

What do you think, dear readers, does this, my first "Sunday Places" help? Or not? Something else you'd like to see? Or add? Let me know.

I know everyone

2010-01-31T16:00:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was searching for writers I'd met at the Willamette Writers Conference on Facebook. One fellow's name didn't come up, but Facebook provides "alternative possible spellings" of names. There, first, was the name of a fellow blogger who often commented on a blog I follow.

I know everybody.

At that same conference, most of the agents discussed the now invaluable tool of writers establishing their own platforms. Gone are the days when publishers promoted a new author or even an established midlist one. For more info on this subject and how to self-promote, I'd suggest J.A. Konrath's excellent blog A Newbie's Guide to publishing which ranges far and wide on the world of publishing as it exists today.

Since I'm now in process of finding an agent, I've been working hard on platform. But I also want to work different as well. In that vein, I'm mentioning (and listing to the left) different blogs and webpages that have contests or markets or agent and publishing news. My first listing is for a contest. The deadline has passed for this contest, BUT the agent will do more.

What do you think, dear readers? Useful? Something else might be more useful? Or something additional? After all, I know everyone.

An added PS: after your first few comments, I've decided to have a Sunday post with useful blogs, contests, etc. Thanks and keep those great comments coming.

New Starts--Don't Stop!

2010-01-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, the book or project is finished. Okay, it's submitted, hanging in a gallery, delivered to a client. Now what? If you're like me, the strong tendency is to slump in your computer chair and take a nap. Or read a book. Or watch a movie. Or whatever activity or non-activity I've neglected and yearned for since I began now-finished project. Which I believe is healthy and wise.

Unless. Unless it becomes a new lifestyle. When taking a break becomes a full stop. Yes, it's intimidating to start again and anew, but it's far worse to get stuck. And then go into full waiting mode--for the rejections to come in the mail.

What helps me? Goals, deadlines and working with friends on same. While working on one project, I'm thinking of the future and what's next. Deadlines, whether outside world real or self-imposed, help keep the idea that time is limited, time to get onto the next project. And most important, friends such as Kathy of Well Placed Words, encourage and support that all important, "get doing it"!

Dear reader, do you find yourself stuck after a big push? What was a small break has turned into a chasm? If so, what do you do to get started again? Blog? Clean and organize? Look up markets? Or?

Keeping Going and Going On

2010-01-15T14:00:00.000-08:00

This is an addendum, or a going on of the last post, focusing on the process of keeping going, in this sense finishing and sending out. This can be difficult for any creative person, whether beginner or pro. The belief is that it gets easier after a few successful sales. In my experience, it becomes more difficult.

A story in point:
Once I attended a two-hour fused glass jewelry workshop. The only requirement to attend was having attended the basic workshop in how to make fused glass (which is easy with some safety precautions, and the teacher provided the kiln). The class was full with mostly us beginners, mostly for fun. One attendee was a professional jewelry designer who had her own shop with her designs. While the rest of us happily prepped piece after piece of jewelry to be fired (no limit on number of pieces), this poor woman attempted to "design" one single piece.

Now glass doesn't act the same as metal--while being fused, glass melts. Metal in lost wax casting can be very exact, glass can't. With all her knowledge and experience with jewelry design, the poor woman didn't grasp that main fact. She also mentioned several times her ability to design, so she was worried about her reputation.

While the rest of the class played, relaxed and having fun, she struggled to design one piece. Despite the encouragement of the teacher and the rest of us insisting she relax, we weren't judging her, she couldn't. She ended up with that one piece, which she almost didn't let be fired and finished. She hated the end result. Meanwhile, I made 11 pieces, 6 of which were beautiful and all of which were suitable for gifts. One gal made 34 pieces! Again, all lovely.

Hence, my post about "going on." A pro can never let anything, including professionalism, stop the work. Yes, it's difficult when you have published some, to face rejection, to send out more while questioning your own judgment and the critiques or compliments of others.

At some point, if a pro, finish and go on. Take a chance, and then another. Finish another and send it out. Submit. Go on to the next.

Does this resonate with you, dear readers? Do you find it difficult sometimes to go on to the next? Or to finish? What do you do then?

Pro or no?

2010-01-07T10:29:00.000-08:00

All the diverse responses from my posting about pay for creative people sparked a fire in my mind regarding the question of professional versus amateur. Many of the professional groups I belong to have a two-tier system where you have to have sold X amount to belong to the "pro" level. Yet every group has differing criterion and calls the levels different things. From "Pre-published" to "Associate" (sold a bit but not enough) to "Affiliate" to "Full" (Pro) member, the list goes on and on. And of course they need some criterion for membership. But still...

So: What does it mean to be an amateur? Or a professional? Can you be both at the same time? (I believe you can.)

After long thought I've decided what comprises a pro for me is more what they do. What a pro does:
Realizes, accepts and embraces that anything creative is also hard work.
Is willing to continue to learn and question and challenge the work.
Understands that criticism can be the best tool.
Understands that all judgment is subjective.
Understands that rejection is part of the process.
And most important, the sign of a professional in the creative world: Keeps going.

The last means no matter what. No matter the setbacks, the rejections, the lack of recognition or pay, the difficulty of getting up and creating each day. Keeps going.

So, dear reader, what do you think of my list? Do you agree with my criterion? Does something need to be removed? Added?

Beginnings

2009-12-31T16:41:00.000-08:00

Last snow pic of 2009

There's an old adage: Begin as you expect to continue. So I'm beginning with writing.

And a recipe for Snickerdoodles:) Just for fun.

1 cup softened shortening of your choice (butter, margarine, Crisco)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
2 3/4 cup white flour

Cream together the sugar and shortening then add the eggs and mix well, until somewhat fluffy. Mix the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, nutmeg and salt together and then add to the sugar, etc. Roll into walnut sized balls. Roll balls in mixture of 1/4 cup cinnamon and 1/4 cup sugar. Place unflattened onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees 10-12 minutes until flat and slightly brown.

This makes a lot of chewy cookies, but that's never a problem.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A VERY short New Year's list

2009-12-29T08:59:00.000-08:00

My Goddess of Compassion wearing her Christmas scarf

I've been enjoying the different lists on my friend's blogs (many of which are listed under the blogs I follow). Being creative people, they've all come up with creative, fun ideas.

This year, I'm having a list of one. One resolution for the new year. One to focus on. It is: for the next year, I'll strive to go beyond my limits. To dare new writing endeavors, to dare new experiences, to expand to my horizons and further and further. Why? Because I've noticed how the more I challenge myself, the more I succeed. Besides, it's fun, in a scary way.

There's an addendum to this short list of one, a resolution to possess compassion for myself, for my flaws and failures. If we don't forgive ourselves, we can't forgive anyone.

What are your New Year's resolutions, if any? Why? Why not?

Holiday Greetings!

2009-12-24T11:03:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

And here's hoping you're at home (or traveling) with loved ones, safe happy and well.

Creative Product Pay

2009-12-21T10:49:00.000-08:00

An uncopywrited photo for some color and cheer and that's the profit, but if I were a professional photographer...

My friends, fellow bloggers and different threads have been discussing the problem of the often low or no pay of many short story markets. This has brought to my mind the ongoing larger problem of what I call the "creative=not-being-real-work=free" problem. From my experience, every creative person struggles with the attitude, "You love doing this, right? So you shouldn't want to be paid, right? Isn't that crass commercialism that will only destroy your passion?"

Funny how nobody ever asks a surgeon or electrician or lawyer who has passion for the work about commercialism, i.e. being paid, destroying the enjoyment of the work. This was first brought home to me while I grew up. My father was a well-known, well-respected artist with his paintings hanging in museums all over the world. Still, often, way too often, someone would say, "You want me to pay HOW MUCH for this work of art?" Or even, "We're friends, this piece is small and Christmas is coming..."

Then, when I started film editing, I ran into the same belief. Editing is creative and fun, so why be paid money? And then was when I realized the crux of the problem. People who are not creative, aren't creative. Therefore, they don't create and therefore don't understand it's hard work. It takes tons of energy and many work hours to create something. And it can be tedious and boring (if you don't believe me, look at the same 10 seconds of film 400 times and then we'll talk!).

What do you think, dear readers? Is this part of the problem? Maybe the main part? Or maybe a comforting illusion?

A Time of Deep and Lasting Change

2009-12-12T14:34:00.000-08:00

Snow scenes out my front window

The solstice is headed our way. The days are drawing in for the new year. I've noticed that oftentimes this time of year creates frantic, stressful behaviors. Often, people change/shift/deconstruct and reconstruct their lives during the holidays (or shortly thereafter). Why? I believe it is because the world (or at least the Northern Hemisphere) is undergoing a time of deep and lasting change. In the cold and dark, living organisms are not merely asleep (including bears who hibernate--female bears give birth during the winter months). Instead, the living are profoundly...changed, altered, and different forever.

What does this mean for creative people? I believe it is a time to rest, relax and reflect on what's passed then move on to re-energizing and renewing. During this time, it's useful to ask many questions. Such as, "Where do I want to go with my creative passion?" "What's different about my creativity NOW?" "What do I want to keep?" "Discard?" "Change?" "What feels right?" Then I believe it's useful to sit with the questions and not worry about the answers. Let them come as they will.

Dear readers, what do you think? Has this been your experience of the dark days before the return of the light? Or? (And my Southern Hemisphere readers, is this true during June for you?)

Favorite Flavors for Characters

2009-11-29T09:29:00.000-08:00

My Great Room mantelpiece, with a friend's artwork and the shadow of Shaolin.

Above is an example of how I like to decorate and my type of artwork, plus the shadow of a statue I have in my front hall. What does this have to do with favorite flavors and characters?

We all have differing tastes, even with the simplest, most common things. This came home to me this Thanksgiving. Myriad examples abound. Everyone has specific ideas of what is traditional food for Thanksgiving--all very, very different. For example, yams are traditional, but with marshmallows or without? Without for me, for growing up, my dad (he who hated sweets) would only eat them plain.

What this has to do with characters should be obvious. We're all so different, in so many ways, from the small (no marshmallows!) to the great and sublime. Adding those differences, big and tiny, to every character will create characters fascinating and walking around in your readers' heads. They may even live past your writing!

What are some of the ways you find to create characters? How do you do their makeup? A touch here--or layer it on with a trowel--or?

And finally, another pumpkin recipe in honor of the holiday season:
Pumpkin curry soup:
1 c. cooked pumpkin
1 c. milk, soy milk or broth of your choice
curry powder to taste
Mix, heat and ENJOY!

Gratitude and pumpkin nut bread

2009-11-25T11:33:00.000-08:00

My stomach-with-legs kitty on the lookout for Thanksgiving leftovers.

Proven facts: Gratitude increases creativity and productivity. Chocolate decreases inflammation. So I remember every day I'm grateful for family and friends and chocolate!

PUMPKIN NUT BREAD (I always buy big cans of pumpkin so I can make this)

1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2c whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp salt
dash cloves
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs beaten
1/3 c. water
1 c. cooked pumpkin (fresh or canned)
1/2 c. chopped pecans (or any nuts or can be omitted)
1/2 c. dark chocolate bits (can be omitted, but why?)

Grease 9x5x3 loaf pan (cake pan works too).
Place all dry ingredients in large bowl, mix well. Add oil and eggs. Add water, pumpkin, nuts and chocolate bits. Bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours until done, let cool, ease out of pan.

Variations: use different spices, mace and allspice, used mashed sweet potato instead of pumpkin, frost if baked in cake pan with sprinkling chocolate bits on top and when slightly melted, spreading with a knife, cream cheese frosting works as well, as does raisins or any dried fruits.

Enjoy! And

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Branding--OW!

2009-11-23T07:55:00.000-08:00

A platform Bruce built

First snowfall of the season

A couple of posts ago I talked about the necessity of creating a platform. Above are a couple of instances of same. The first is of course a different type of platform, one created by Bruce, my permanent boyfriend. But it illustrates how to create "branding" as well as a platform: Bruce uses recycled materials in his creations. The platform was built with a shutter from our previous home and the basil was re-planted from this summer's garden. Bruce's Brand is becoming the guy who recycles while creating useful art. A brand can be created by creating different projects using the same creative process.

And what does branding have to do with snow? Well, I grew up in Sun Valley, Idaho, a world famous ski resort. And the ski resort is world famous for skiing in the sun. In fact, Sun Valley has been so successful at branding that many people don't know that during summers, it's also a great resort for all sorts of outside activities, with superb trout fishing, golfing, hiking, horse trails and on and on.

What does this mean for a creative person trying to establish or maintain or grow a career? It means branding requires some thought and planning. It needs to be original and specific, but hopefully avoids "Sun Valley is ONLY a ski resort" type of branding. Narrow enough to be distinct, but broad enough to be attractive to a wide audience. (How many people never read fantasy until Harry Potter?)

Difficult to achieve, I know, and I'm working hard on my own brand, coming up with new fresh ideas for promoting myself and my writing. I remind myself often, that branding, like any creative process is always a work in progress.

What are some of the ways you've branded yourself? Any that have worked well that you'd like to share? Failed miserably? Or do you take the organic approach and promote as it comes?

Next up: networking.

Veterans Day

2009-11-11T10:16:00.000-08:00

In my life, I've lived in several different countries, including those that do not have the freedoms we enjoy in the U.S. Much of the reason we have those freedoms is because of the efforts and sacrifices our veterans have made.

Honor them today.

Cooking up Creativity

2009-11-07T20:57:00.000-08:00

Last rose of summer in November!

Powder Biscuit rolls, we ate the cake.

The holidays are roaring towards us, laden with expectations and promises and angst. First up (at least for my U.S. readers) is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the easiest holiday for me. Perhaps it's because it has the fewest expectations, promises and angst--and most of them are around food, or rather the creation of food. In my experience, many if not most creative people enjoy making stuff, in this case, food.

For example, my dad, an artist, adored making fudge. He never ate sweets, but every couple of months he'd make an enormous, vast amount of fudge, two to four pounds of the sweet stuff. He'd use all the best ingredients and spend hours creating pan after pan. When it had cooled, he'd take a tiny square to taste and make sure it worked. The rest of us ate the rest.

I've wondered about why he made fudge and have come to the conclusion that he enjoyed the process. He enjoyed using myriad ingredients, sometimes in new and different ways. And when those new and different ingredients and ways didn't work, he'd toss the batch out and start over (even if we wanted to eat the experiment). Because it was only fudge, only took a limited amount of time, and unlike his art work, was not going to go up for sale, he played while he created.

This is transferable to our creative work. When I remember, during process, to play, to try new ingredients and new ways, and to be willing to toss the entire batch out, I'm much more creative. I'm more likely to get into the flow of the work, instead of slogging through page after page.

I wish I had my dad's fudge recipes, but they were all in his head. Instead, in honor of the big food festival, follows are two recipes, both easy and delicious.

Here's a baking powder biscuit recipe:

2 cups white flour (can be unbleached)
1 teas. baking powder (I use more)
pinch of salt (omittable)
5-6 tablespoons of any oil or fat (I use canola)
2/3 c. of milk (soy ok)

Mix, dough will be stiff, I usually don't bother to roll into roll shape, 'cause I like 'em weird, but feel free to roll your dough.400 degrees for 15 minutes. Done.

Molasses Cake (This is one you can play with a lot, very forgiving.)

1/2 c. molasses (light or dark, your choice)
2/3 c. water
1/2 c. raisins (can be omitted, other dried fruits can be substituted)
1/2 teas. cinnamon
1/2 teas. cloves
1/2 teas. baking soda (I use more)
1 and 3/4 c. white flour

Boil water, combine with molasses and raisins, boil 5 minutes (to soften dried fruit) let cool.
Combine other ingredients together, add mixture.
Spray 8" by 8" pan (or oil and flour) bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.

I use more of the spices listed above and often add ginger and nutmeg, sometimes even a touch of chili powder. I often add a half cup of chocolate bits and/or a half cup of nuts. This cake is a little dry and not terribly sweet, so sometimes I melt chocolate bits on the top for a quick frosting and sometimes I frost the cake, depending on mood. Plain, this makes a good breakfast cake.

So, dear readers, what are your favorite recipes for creativity? How do you bake up a wonderful novel or painting or song or?

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T07:31:00.000-07:00

MY LITTLE DOGGIE WONDERING IF THE MONSTERS HAVE LEFT AND IF THERE'S ANY CANDY LEFT TOO!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

My favorite story of Halloween is of my very first one. I was three and wore my bunny pajamas and my dad carried me around the apartment complex where we lived. Such an adventure! And candy too!

Do you celebrate the holiday? Have a Halloween story, fun, silly, sad, scary to share? Please do.

Fall Musings: What is Failure? Success?

2009-10-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

Fall views from my daily walk on the Oregon Trail

Several posts of my fellow bloggers such as Beth, Helen, Kathy, Sandra, Enid and Lynda made me think about how every time the seasons turn it is a opportunity for reflection on a life's course, past, present and future. This time of year when the ground goes fallow is especially conducive to contemplating the past. Not only the past, but what it means for the present and the future. And though the past is gone, it still impacts our behaviors and attitudes today. And while judging our experiences is a bit of a folly, still it's human.

But I've discovered that in judging the past, I'm continually...wrong. Which brings us to the topic. Because, what is failure? Success? It might seem easy to say, "I wish I'd been a bestseller with my first novel and therefore I'm a failure." Except that my first novel was written when I was 11 and much of it was written in colored markers. Now I believe that attempt was a success--certainly I knew I had the passion and discipline to write at an early age! And who can know what a "success" might bring?

And what is success? Again, the definition shifts like fine sand in a loosely grasping hand. I grew up in a posh ski resort and rubbed my hand-me-down Kmart coat elbows with the children of the rich and famous and "successful." And while having money is quite useful--still I'll never forget my friend who could never be without her nanny's supervision (we couldn't go outside often--fear of kidnappers) and who had never tasted peanut butter (chef didn't approve).

I suppose we'd all agree that failure is when we hurt someone, a successful life is when we leave the world a little better off for us being in it--but what about the less important aspects? For me, I count successes when I remain true to my writing passion and true to the love I feel for friends and family. I count when I forget those truths as my failures.

How about you? What do you see as past failures? Successes? Or perhaps more importantly, how has your perceptions changed over time of what might be a success or failure?

Basil and Creativity

2009-10-10T16:41:00.000-07:00

Clipped basil re-rooting along with coasters I won in a contest by Enid of Steamy Darcy.

This year, none of the tomatoes were successful. But the basil exploded, witness the photo above, these are the leftovers. So what to do with all the basil? Ah, and there's the link to increasing creativity, because after using it in spaghetti sauce and in tomato cucumber salad and giving it away to friends...what's next?

Here's a few of the recipes I created:

First, preserving it:
Rinse the basil, chop fine and bottle with olive oil. Can use as is for the basil flavor alone or add garlic, onion, pepper, lemon, etc. and make salad dressing. Keep refrigerated when not using.
Hang it upside down and dry it, although this is my least favorite way of preserving it. It loses a lot of flavor, IMO.
My favorite: Rinse the leaves and put whole into a plastic bag and freeze. When the basil is frozen, crunch it up in the bag into little bits and use. A thank you to my s.o. Bruce for this, it works great.

Now for three recipes:
Add basil to any curry to make it "Thai" style.
Basil is great added to any Chinese dish, especially fried rice and chicken dishes.
Add basil to ground chicken or any ground meat when making meatloaf.
Puree basil with garlic and butter or margarine and spread on a halved French bread loaf, bake in oven (low temp or the basil will burn) for a twist on garlic bread.
And my favorite:
Tomato Basil soup:
2 cups of tomatoes (for spicier soup, can use 1 cup green tomatoes)
2 cups milk
1/2 cup of basil (it will taste strong)
Tablespoon of olive oil
2 tablespoons nutritious yeast (optional)
touch of pepper (optional)
Puree tomatoes. Heat olive oil in soup pan and add tomato puree and cook 5-8 minutes then add slowly the 2 cups of milk and simmer for 10 minutes, then add basil, yeast and pepper and simmer another 10 minutes. Soup will be thin, if you like thicker add 2 tablespoons of flour when adding milk and stir well. And my disclaimer: I'm not a professional chef so your results may vary.

Now the creativity piece--I discovered that having such a wealth of one thing, basil, led me to be creative in how I thought about basil. It became much more than "one of the spices that goes into spaghetti." It expanded and took on a more complex role in my cooking in some unexpected ways. And showed me a way to be more creative in my writing. With a character, for example, expand the character so it becomes more complex and then use the character in unexpected ways. Same is true for the plot--try thinking of it as many different ways as possible, play the what if game. What's an unexpected event? Another? Twist and turn the elements of your creativity and then jump out of boxed in expectations to another level.

Anybody got any other recipes for basil? How about a story where a plethora of whatever led to more creative thinking?

One Lovely Blog Award

2009-09-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Sandra of My Little Corner presented me with this award a few days ago in her post One Lovely Blog Award. Sandra's site is great for new short story markets and other of interest to writers sites.

The rules are simple:

1) Accept the award and don't forget to post a link back to the awarding person.

2) Pass the award on.

3) Notify the award winners.

And my first rule is say thanks, thank you Sandra! (Anyone who is looking for short story markets NEEDS to visit My Little Corner.)

Passing the award on is difficult only because there are so many great blogs that I follow. Many of them are on my "Blogs I read all the time" list, so check it out, but that needs to be updated (soon, I promise). Please check it out and go to those blogs.

So, in the interests of brevity and because I'm partial I'm awarding this to one blog, to my dear friend Kathy's fun, wonderful and full of great writerly wisdom, blog: Well Placed Words.

Next, what basil has to do with creating.

Beyond and Above Platforming

2009-09-18T20:44:00.000-07:00

This week, a good friend of mine, Lance Thompson, a script doctor will be presenting at the Idaho Writers' League's 2009 Writers Conference: Paint with Words. As well as teaching some excellent workshops, he'll be on a panel about "The State Of Publishing Today." He asked a couple of days ago for my thoughts on same, having gone to a major conference recently.

My recent experience at the conference and elsewhere is that the bottom line is (and will always be):

Like any major business, the publishing world is always in flux. At this time, two major factors are in play. One is the recession and the other is electronic publishing. So there's a lot of "It's harder than ever to sell" out there. But I've been writing and submitting and selling for a long time and that's always been the publishers' lament. In my experience, a recession helps the publishing business, which is usually slow and reluctant to change. And the electronic revolution provides a wealth of new opportunities for publication (I was published on Twitter, for heaven sakes!).

Every agent/editor who I spoke with or who was on a panel said the same thing: "We want to see the writing. It's only the writing that truly matters. Yes, we talk about platform and the publishing world and what's hot right now, but the quality of writing is everything. And as long as some people somewhere still read, we'll still be looking for good writing to publish."

It's the writing. We all need, in our desperate desire to publish, to remember it's the writing that sells.

Do you put the writing (often the most difficult part) first? Do you write first? Write every day? Or set aside times for concentrated writing and then work on other parts of your career by working on your platform or attending workshops or conferences or? Is your focus correct? Is there something you'd like to change?

Writing of workshops, Lance is also giving one of his excellent workshops, "Lance Thompson’s Screenplay Story Structure Workshop," in Eagle, Idaho on October 10 and 11--comment if you want more info.

A Platform for Success

2009-09-04T10:32:00.000-07:00

This seems to now be all the buzz. "Platform, platform, platform!" was what I heard at the Willamette Conference from the editors and agents. Platform before publication? Before you sell your book? It seems out of the natural order and it seems the stuff of controversy amongst groups and bloggers--for example see Sandra's post on My Little Corner and the link to the Writers in Residence blog that discusses how and why to platform.

One event, however, convinced me of the reason behind all the insistence on platform. The first night at the conference there was a "pitch practice" session where writers could get up and...practice their pitches, of course. One writer's first words were "I've had a million (!) hits on my blog." That's all the agents and editors needed to hear. Why? Think about it. Even if those million hits meant only, oh let's say 200,000 people have visited her blog and only 10% of those buy the book, 20,000 copies are presold. Plus it's still true that book sell by word of mouth most, so even if it's 10,000 people who visit a lot--the writer has name recognition. Though not a guarantee, chances are the book will be a bestseller.

The publishing world is changing moment by moment and the electronic revolution is driving much of that change. We writers have to change our expectations (the publisher will do all the promoting of my book, I don't even have to think about it) and our business plans.

Does this mean spend all your time writing your blog or developing a web page or working on Facebook at the expense of the writing? Of course not. The writing always comes first and foremost. But creating virtual and real "face time" and "name recognition" is now a necessity, I believe.

So, dear readers, what do you think? Do you believe this may be just another reason to turn down authors or does it have merit? What has been your experiences: with creating a platform, or promoting a novel, or both?

Catching up is hard to do

2009-08-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

My niece, Vik and I standing outside of the balcony (above) where Ernest Hemingway wrote "A Farewell to Arms."

My forever boyfriend, Bruce, riding on the ski lift down Baldy.

Me, doing the same as Bruce.

No, I'm not dead and neither is my blog. Both have been on what I believed was a short vacation. Or rather, a longer vacation than expected by me. First there was the vacation, then there was the recovery-catch-up-return-to-normal-life period, often the longer of the two--or at least it seems. While having fun, the time soars away.

Before, I used to balk at this "vacation recovery stage." After all, I'd taken plenty of time off, I should return home invigorated, energetic and enthusiastic, ready to leap back into, well, everything. Instantly have the house clean, the bills paid, and write all the pages I didn't while I was gone. I spent energy berating myself instead of doing what I could do and when.

Now, after vacation is part of the vacation. This works much better. Especially if the vacation has been of the American style "Go!Go!Go!" variety, instead of sitting on a beach somewhere, napping. At the most, guilt cuts into my energy and makes it that much more difficult to catch up and get back to normal. At the least, relaxing about returning from vacation allows me to realize the fun lessons, the epiphanies, the life memories, that help me with my writing. And recognizing the need for recovery time makes it much shorter.

How about you? When you return from a vacation, do you leap into action? Or are you like me, and need a break from the break first?

Post Conference Part One: Time is Money

2009-08-12T15:42:00.000-07:00

Let's all pretend this is Monday's posting, as promised. Don't all creative people struggle with high expectations of what will be accomplished in a short time? Don't we all expect to come back from such an event invigorated and ready with tons of energy to leap to write or whatever? Do you experience this type of over-expectation?

Since I received a "yes" (go ahead and send pages) from several agents, I'm excited to send those out. But as my good friend Kathy of Well Placed Words mentioned to me, we forget that even good stress is stress and while the fatigue doesn't last as long as from stress, all the excitement and focus and work is tiring. And everything takes longer than is expected. Unpack, do laundry, catch up from days away...meanwhile it's frustrating not to work on writing.

So, dear readers, does this resonate? What do you do when over-expectations get in the way?

Of Groups and Conferences, Pros and Cons

2009-07-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the first meeting of the Idaho Writers Guild. Fascinating and fun, but also amazing how much dedicated and professional talent there is in Idaho, the state with the least population of all 50. After a couple of hours, I returned home energized and invigorated about my writing career. On August 6, tomorrow, I head out to the Willamette Writers Conference for four fun-filled days of pitching agents. Or at least fun for me.

There are writers out there who despise attending any event or joining any group. Often true introverts, these authors point out that conferences and groups take away a lot of valuable writing time and energy. This can be true. The last few weeks I have been taking time to prep my manuscript, my pitch, my wardrobe, etc. and probably doing much more than I need--I'm a writer and being neurotic is required.

However, that time, for me has done several useful things. It has re-initiated and reinvigorated my enthusiasm for my craft and w.i.p. I've had myriad epiphanies about my work, both current and future. I've made a large number of wonderful, supportive contacts, fellow authors and other creative people. People who feed my creative spark, sometimes into a roaring blaze. And will meet many more this weekend. I always return from a conference energized to work and work harder, faster and more effectively than before. So for me, some group participation and some conference attendance are useful tools.

One point, don't make the groups and conferences and workshops become the writing. It's easier than you might think to replace the difficult work of writing, just plain writing and writing, with the far easier and entertaining activity of a group or whatever. It feels like you're working, progressing. And to a certain extent, that's true. But nothing replaces write, write, write. I suspect this is true of other creative disciplines as well, hence the "disciplines".

So, dear readers, what do you think about attending conferences? Joining groups? Does it help you? Or the opposite?

And I'll be back on Monday with a report on my experiences.

Summertime, summertime and shift happens

2009-07-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

This is what summer is supposed to be like: lazy and relaxed.

But not this summer. Unless of course, you're my cat, when it's always summer. While visiting Swu on Swubird's Nest in the comments, he asked where everybody went this month? Well, I don't know about everybody, but I know where I went. I went frantic.

Perhaps it's worldwide, this overwhelm of everything. I know that amongst my friends and family, including my blogger friends, everyone seems to be in the same busy, busy, busy state. For example, I've filled every weekend in August! All with what I want to do and will love doing, but still, enough already.

Yet, I suspect and hope that this is a symptom of a healthy shift. When major change happens, it can be frenetic, especially right at the beginning of the change when the most energy is needed to shift. Most of the ultra-busy I know are that way because they are re-evaluating and then re-inventing portions (if not all) of their lives. In good ways.

Perhaps the answer then, is not to resent the lack of the summertime lazies, but to embrace the energy of change. Of course, it'd help if I had time to get the dishes and laundry done...

What about you, dear reader? Do you see major change in your life? If so, is it good or bad? Or neither? How do you get the laundry done?

Next post: of groups and conferences, platforms and product

Let Freedom Ring!

2009-07-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

It's early here, so our flag is not yet up!

And the flowers are appropriate because the vase comes from Bruce's mom whose birthday is tomorrow. Happy B'day Dorothy! And it's appropriate because the most important part of our freedoms is the freedom to express ourselves any way we want! This includes all my blogger friends, no matter where you may live--and ain't the 'net a wondrous thing?

What are your unique ways of expression? How do you celebrate the freedom in your life?

LET FREEDOM RINGFff

Learning Gratitude

2009-07-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

My friend, Kathy of Well Placed Words got me to thinking about how I learn. And the Fourth of July got me thinking about the freedoms I'm so grateful for, a primary one being freedom of speech. So here's a list of some of my favorite blogs with why I'm grateful to have each blogger expressing their freedom.

Well Placed Words: A great place to visit by a great friend of mine who's a fabulous editor and has fantastic and fun advice.
Pics and Poems: Dave has glorious examples of both with his posts.
Straight from Hel: Helen's another great editor who covers a wide range of writing topics well.
The Truth About Lies: Jim always has interesting, thought provoking content.
My Little Corner: Sandra provides market info to markets big and small, and everywhere in between.
Sia McKye's Thoughts: Sia's writer guests always provide entertainment and information.
Swubird's Nest: Swubird's often hilarious stories show how truth is stranger than fiction.
Cornish Dreamer: Rebecca's beautiful photos have to be seen to be believed.
Beth's Adventures: Beth has some great ones while she travels on her life journey.
Inspired Day by Day: The Muse is inspiring in her posts about her day to day inspiration for her writing.
The Book Lady: Caryn delights with her love of her subjects.
Peripheral Vision: If you aren't moved by Lynda's photography, then you aren't breathing.

There are more of course, and it's getting late so I may have missed a fav or two or three, but overall these are blogs that I visit often and am always glad I did!

How are you celebrating your freedoms?

Submitting and Succeeding

2009-06-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

Weird pic, I know, but I didn't have any eggs!

Beth of Beth's Adventures inspired me to this somewhat-old-but-still-works metaphor. A couple of weeks ago, I taught a workshop in writing and marketing the short story. Most of the audience were newbies to the marketing aspect. When we got to that portion of the program, I was surprised by the resistance several displayed in submitting their short stories. I got strange questions such as, "If I enter this contest and win, then they'll want to put the story online and then it's published and I can't sell it to a 'real' market." This was for a no-fee online contest that paid a first prize of $700!

What you do when something like that happens is take the money and say thank you! and write another story. I wondered about this until I realized that, as new writers, the people protesting probably hadn't written many stories. So every story was like a precious, single, golden egg. To be treasured and protected and never broken (i.e. submitted just anywhere where it might make sell or win).

To make everyone groan, "You have to break a lot of eggs to make an omelet," AND "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." First, you need to make a lot of eggs to break. Write and write and write. Then repeat. This is even true of novelists. It takes on average 3 to 5 novels before a writer has written a publishable one. Plus, it's difficult to not keep your eggs in one basket (i.e. a few specific markets) if you only have a few eggs. After writing, submit and submit and submit. If you're writing short stories, start writing to the markets. The anthologies and contests that are specific...write a story for them and send them off. If it comes back, ship it to another market. That way you're not keeping all your eggs in a single basket.

This may seem obvious to more experienced authors, but I'm not certain about that? Every story is after all a delicate beloved baby. And rejections are painful. However, in my experience, if you have myriad babies out there then if they don't do well--write another. I remember coddling every single egg/short story at the beginning and then every chapter of my first novel. I've found it's much easier now to "let go" and move on.

What's your experience? How much do you write and rewrite? When do you release a work and submit it? What about other formats? Poets? Novelists?

Guerilla Learning, Part 2

2009-06-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

A couple of pics of me editing.

As promised, here's the second part of what I learned from participating in the i48 film festival. First, and most significant, there are so many creative people out there that are so good at creating--since most creative endeavors are done alone, it amazed me how many people in a small city appeared and made films start to finish in 48 hours. 60 teams! And how well creative people could work together, as so many of us work alone. Plus, I discovered that working with others meant that the creativity increased exponentially. Instead of blocking ideas, ideas flowed, building one upon another. Fabulous.

Second, working to an incredibly intense deadline showed how to focus and get-it-done. Make the decisions and move forward. Don't hesitate. Don't second guess. Go with the first gut impulse. It worked. Could it have been a better film if we'd had more time? Yeah, probably, but the surprising thing is, just not that much better. What did that teach me? It's not necessary to edit and re-edit, re-think and re-do most of the time. Sometimes the first draft is the best. Surprising, huh?

What do you think? Have you ever worked creatively in a group? What was your experience? How about working to deadline? Or letting your first draft be your last?!

Guerilla Learning, Part 1

2009-06-07T12:43:00.001-07:00

Me on the set of the movie "This Sucks."

Me and the great director of "This Sucks," Sherry Cann.

This post is about two things: learning a lot in a BRIEF period of time and learning from doing something creative that is very different from what you've been doing.

For the first time, I participated in the i48: Idaho's 48 hour film festival. Teams of filmmakers receive a prop, a line of dialog and a character at 6pm on Friday and must turn in a completed 3 to 6 minute film by 6pm Sunday. Exhausting! Fun! I helped write the script, acted, did a touch of the filming, and a bit more of the editing.

What did I learn? First, how to think in action scenes. Since I've been primarily a fiction writer, I never thought that in order to show a story (especially in a film) it must be action. Talking heads are boring (this holds true for fiction as well). In a film, you can't rely on describing the character's emotions or their conflict, you have to show it by their behavior. Dialog can be used, but again, I learned that dialog must be brief and very strong. People don't want to watch other people just talking. Same is true, I suspect, of reading dialog, unless it's powerful. Finally, in the editing, I learned that it can be hard to know where to start a scene and where to end--when do you have enough information without having too much?

Those are the three main things I will apply to my writing ASAP!

Next post: the creative process in a group.

10 Weird Things

2009-05-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

Beth of Beth's Adventures asked for a list of 10 things people might not know about me. So...
1. I can chew my own toenails, but don't.
2. I grew up in a ski resort but prefer to ice skate. I was so small when I started skiing I kept falling off the ski lift.
3. I met the love of my life on Match.com (Hi Bruce!).
4. I love basenjis (an African hunting hound, barkless but not silent, not obedient but loving) and I'm on my second one, 20 years of basenjis!
5. I started college when I was 15 (and made it through by attending a liberal arts school and taking English and History classes only).
6. I'm of mostly Scots descent. I've been to England and spent a summer in Ireland but I've never been to Scotland.
7. I have eyebrows, but my hair is so light as I am a natural redhead you can't see them. Means I have to pencil them in, BUT I never shave my legs either!
8. My oddest job: hmm, I've had lots, maybe cold sales calling for a guy with a cold storage truck business?

Okay, that's only eight, but I'd love to hear from my readers...what are a few weird things about you? Share!

Teach to learn

2009-05-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

The purple lady is me, presenting a workshop on manga.

On June 13, 2009 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m in Twin Falls, Idaho I'll be presenting a two hour workshop on Writing the Short Story. This is not my first workshop, nor will it be my last. I also attend workshops, including Margie Lawson's on June 6 in Boise. For myself, I find teaching to be more valuable than attending. Not that I don't learn tons from being a student, but the old adage that if you really want to learn something then teach it is true for me. I've been remembering all sorts of things about writing the short story (my first love) plus learning new things as I prepare the class.

Do you, gentle reader, attend workshops? Teach workshops? Both? If so, what are your experiences? If not, why not?

2009-05-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

My Grandma and Dad

Yes, my grandmother was taller than her son. She was 6'3" and he was only 6'. The photo above was taken in 1939, when my dad was in the Royal Canadian Airforce. He captained troop ships for the Canadians until the U.S. entered the war, then B-17 Bombers for the rest of the war.

Yes, it's Memorial Day, but what does a photo of two of my ancestors have to do with the creative process? Because, I believe, without our history we have nothing to create from. My father rarely spoke of his experiences in WWII or the Korean War, yet they had a profound impact on who he was and therefore who I am and what I create. Without that understanding and acceptance, we cut off so much of ourselves and therefore the raw stuff of creativity.

My grandmother is also in the picture because without her I wouldn't be a writer. When I was little and staying with my grandmother, every night we'd lie in her big bed underneath her chenille bedspread. "Tell me a story about when you were little," I'd demand. "Oh, child, you don't want to hear those stories again." "Yes, please." And every night she'd tell me the stories of her childhood as I fell asleep.

So this Memorial Day, honor and remember.

Prep Work

2009-05-17T10:38:00.000-07:00

My honeysuckle bush in full bloom.

Helen Ginger of Straight from Hel mentioned my glorious roses in the comments of the previous post and Swubird of Swubird's Nest talked about his process in the comments of my post "Learning Curves" inspired this post on prep work.

We don't always think about the preparation that comes before a project, although it is one of the most critical steps. Without all the prep work that my wonderful s.o. Bruce does, I wouldn't have the glorious results you see above. But so many times creative people are inspired and rush into a project without taking the time to prepare. And get caught up as a result, stopped, or lose their way in the labyrinth. How many projects are abandoned because of lack of prep work?

To add to this, everybody's prep is unique. I, for example, must do an outline of a new novel, BUT only a loose outline. I know other novelists who almost write the book before they write the book and others who only have the story arc and main characters in mind. Some artists have sketches galore, while others have the picture only in their minds. But one certain way to know if you're not doing enough preparation is if you get lost in your work--and no I don't mean the right-brained kind of lost.

And yes, you can do too much preparation before the actual work. So much that you lose the energy of the project. But my experience with creative people is that overall we tend towards too little instead of too much.

What do you do when facing a new project? What do you consider an absolute necessity for preparing? What have you found on earlier projects that you wished you'd prepared for?

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T08:26:00.001-07:00

Virtual flowers from my garden, real ones have yet to arrive.

Holidays are a time of remembrance, celebration and honoring others. May you do all three this day.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Learning Curves

2009-05-08T14:32:00.001-07:00

Our new baby.

Above you see my reason for the slowdown in my posts and comments. We're the proud and excited new owners of a netbook, a nine incher, about the size of a trade paperback. Bruce, my wonderful s.o. realized that since my elderly (8 years!) writing laptop never got on the net and might die at any time, a backup computer might be good. And since it weighs less than 3 pounds, it travels well! But, right now, I'm on a learning curve. The keyboard is different and smaller. The screen is smaller and I haven't used a mouse pad in years. So, I'm slower than usual right now.

Which brings me to the subject of learning curves for creative people, because I've noticed when they occur in the creative process, it can be frustrating. To the point of blocking the process, or worse, abandoning the project altogether. While it's acceptable in everything else to have to take the time to learn something new, it seems unacceptable when it's writing or painting or even playing a musical instrument ("Well, if you just practiced more..." when you're practicing as much as you can.). Perhaps this is because people believe talent=proficiency, which it doesn't. Everything new takes time to learn and for what we're good at the curve can be a cliff instead, because we're already at a high level.

Add to this that creative people often dismiss any accomplishment (Of course I can write short stories, that's so easy. It wasn't when I wrote my first one.) that we "guilt" ourselves for not being instantly proficient at any new creative task. And all this takes the energy that could be used for learning and creating! So give yourself a break the next time you tackle a new anything!

Does this resonate with you, dear reader? Do you have learning curves going on that you may not even be aware of, and if you are, are you beating yourself up about now learning fast enough? Or even that you need to learn?!

Oh oh, low battery, now where do I plug in the charger...?

Merry May Day

2009-05-01T15:59:00.001-07:00

What my rose garden may look like in a couple of weeks!

MERRY MAY DAY

May is a month for major growth, as you can see from the photo above. Here's wishing all my creative friends a fun, productive new month.

(And a postscript, I've been visiting my blog friends this week, but a busy end of month beginning of new month has kept me from commenting as much as I prefer. To my readers, please visit my favorite blogs listed here--they're all fabulous!)

Recycle, Reuse, Renew

2009-04-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

I make dirt. But first I make dinner. Then soup. Then dirt.

How? First I freeze all my vegetable trims (a bit of lemon and lime rinds and fruit peelings can be tossed in as well) while I cook. When I have a bag full, I fill a big pot half full of water and light boil the trims for an hour or two, adding water as needed. Voila, nutritious, tasty broth. All that's left is to take the leftover vegetables out to the composter and I've got new dirt.

What does this have to do with writing? Simple. Reuse, recycle and then it's renewed. Stuck in your novel? Pull a character and write a short story. Short story is way too long--maybe it's a novel. Try using your characters/ideas/plots in a new genre. Write an article about what you learned. Need to research something for your novel? Research it for an article as well. How about a blog post?

It goes on and on. Painters have been doing this for a long time, scraping off parts of oils they didn't like and redoing. Or reusing the same canvas. Or cutting the canvas into sections (my dad did this and it worked).

So, recycle, reuse and find it renewed.

How do you do this in your creative endeavors?