PamL's blog

49378 [ Permalink ]

[  Mood: Amused ]

[  Currently: Writing  ]

This week has flown by. Whizzzzzzzzz!

Yesterday was a lost day. I won't even mention it, because it just makes me disgusted when I don't get anything accomplished. although I did finally get the house vacuummed, the floors mopped and one bathroom cleaned. Oh and the laundry. So I suppose it wasn't a total waste, except that I didn't write.

I've been reading a pretty good writing book called The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri. A friend who just got back from attending Oddyssey mentioned it, so I thought it would behoove me to read it, too. It was written years ago, and the subject matter is play-writing, but it applies to any writing. And it's reminded me that the new story I'm working on is lacking something: an atagonist. And I haven't really come up with one. So that's got me a little stuck. I have a general antagonist -- the society the protag lives in, so that may work.

Well, we leave today for the coast again. My son and his girlfriend are coming too, so it won't be quite as relaxing as it normally is. But it'll be fun.

I have to go write some emails now before we go.

65535 [ Permalink ]

[  Currently: Writing  ]

So I made up my mind to do nanowrimo this year. Seems like everyone that's done it has a good time, and what better way to force myself to get started on the Rest of Erina's story? And then the other day I realized it's held in NOVEMBER! Heavens! What made them pick that month? It's a horrid month for me, time-wise. My birthday, Thanksgiving, hubby wants to go to Disneyland, Thanksgiving, son #1's birthday, THANKSGIVING!!!!. And did I mention that it's the same month as THANKSGIVING?

I drive myself crazy about Thanksgiving. It's my "gotta clean out every single corner of every room plus lemon oil every single cabinet and wash windows and make sure the wood blinds are sparkling" cleaning month. Not to mention I have to plan ahead for my son's birthday as it always follows Thanksgiving and I don't go out of the house the day after Thanksgiving... all the shoppers are out in force and the city is nothing but one big traffic jam. I figure if I'm lucky, I could come up with maybe 15 days in which I could write. That would be 4000 each day! Yikes!

Of course, I could plan ahead and do my crazy cleaning during October. That still doesn't help a lot, the vacation will be a big time crunch, if we do go that month. Well, we'll see. I'd just hate to start it and not finish, though.

WRITING NEWS! I *FORCED* myself to start on a new fantasy story yesterday. I had already done a couple of pages of background stuff, but the beginning just wasn't popping out at me. I mean, I know how I want it to start, but the words weren't popping. So I said, "Self, just sit down and start writing. If it's bad, then it's bad, and you can change it later, but at least you'll get started." Well, 550 words later, I had to stop for the evening. Am I pleased? You bet! But I'm wondering what this fixation is that I seem to have with caves in my stories!

Blessing #2: Since I named my kids as #1, then my husband is definitely #2. Although that makes me feel very guilty to say that out loud (so I'll just whisper it). Truly, the three of them are intertwined in my affections, and it's impossible to pick between them. But for the sake of the list, I have. I married a great man. Simple as that. We have mutual respect, affection, and the best thing of all is that we crack each other up. Being able to laugh a lot is important to me, and it should be to everyone, I think. There's no need to go through life all full of seriousness. Taking a break to laugh through our tears puts things in a much better perspective. I'm very lucky. Even though my friend and I often gripe about our men-folk during our morning walks, in truth, I wouldn't trade places with anyone.

3921 [ Permalink ]

[  Mood: Amused ]

[  Currently: Writing  ]

So many things to do this week! Where will I find the time? Today my mother wants me to go to lunch with some relatives. She made the bad mistake of calling to ask me (again!) if I was going or not two seconds after I got home last night, when I was tired and cranky and still needed to unpack. I'm sorry to report I was rude and cranky to her. So I suppose I must needs go now to make up for it. But I *really* wanted to write today, and it's most likely going to be a three-four hour ordeal since they want to go eat at a place that's about 30 minutes away from here. *sigh*

And I have a physical therapy recheck tomorrow, I need to go to Costco and Target/Walmart, Wed. will be Master Gardener's business meeting and then a special meeting for our tree committee for the workshop we're doing next week.

Breathe, Breathe, Pant Pant. I'm tired already.

GOOD NEWS! TSR has accepted my horror story, The 423, for publication -- I believe for October/Halloween. I'm very happy it will finally see print. It's kinda strange in some ways. I'm not sure if it's horror or dark fantasy. Is there such a thing as dark SF? I think it's a combination of all three. Anyway, I like the story, and I hope the readers will, too.

In the wake of Katrina, it has come to me that I have so much to be thankful for. The phrase, Count your Blessings, came to me on the ride home from the coast, and I think I shall. One per day. It's always a good thing to remind ourselves of what is good in our lives. Sometimes we get so hung up on the bad, we forget that the good always outweighs the bad, and we should focus on the good.

Blessing #1 - My boys. Becoming a mother was the best thing that ever happened to me (besides meeting their father, of course!). If something happened to either one of them, I don't think I could go on. They've turned into such fine young men; I'm very proud. And lucky. It's such a worry when they reach the teenage years, and waiting for them to reach the other side and become adults. I'm happy to say son #1 has made the transition beautifully. He's settling into his life, engaged, looking for a house, and I think, planning to start a family soon after they're married. Son #2 is on his way -- still has a few things to figure out, but he's a great guy, very loving. He's a writer, too. They both seem to like hanging out with us sometimes, which is truly the greatest blessing. I love both of them very much, and always carry them with me in my heart.

18656 [ Permalink ]

[  Mood: Cool ]

[  Currently: Writing  ]

We're back at our little home away from home at the coast. It's been a month since we've been here, and I was surprised to realize that I missed it and was very happy to be here. I'm not a traveler, and haven't particularly ever cared for it all that much. I'm perfectly happy staying at home. But this little place has become a home for me. Plus, I can just laze around and relax and not feel guilty for not cleaning, paying bills, cooking, etc etc.

It was a little overcast this morning, but the breeze has sprang up and blown the clouds away, so I'm sitting here watching the flag downtown wave in the breeze and the sun glisten off the waves rolling to shore. I should go out and water my little planting bed. It's turned out so gorgeous -- a perfect little English cottage style. The blue hibiscus, such a sorry, scrawny thing when we bought it in Feb., has turned into a thick bush of delicate lavender blooms as big as a teacup saucer. The lavendar bush is one of my favorites, I don't know the variety, but the foliage is a meadow-grass green, and the flowers are of the spanish lavendar variety -- like little butterfly wings on top of a cocoon. The pentemon is blooming, too. Another lavender bloom. I did the plantings in a mix of purple, lavender, blue, and pinks, with some white thrown in. I love that color combination in a garden, they're on the "cool" side of the color wheel, and very soothing and calming, I think.

Speaking of "cool", I had a really cool idea for a element in a fantasy story. I can't wait to go write it down. It's just a description of a place, (which I won't give away, sorry!) just one of those little details that I think make a story/world seem real. And, I think, unusual and hopefully creative. So that's what I'm off to do right now!


*playing with emoticons!*

2502 [ Permalink ]

[  Mood: Happy ]

[  Currently: Writing  ]

I've had a good day. No procrastinating!

Got up right away and threw a load of clothes in the wash, shampooed my hair, and watered my gazillions of pots on the back patio before my walk. Came back, cleaned out the tent trailer and then took the car to the car wash and zipped by the bank. Got home and did an edit of a horror story and got it submitted. I started another edit but got myself confused on what to do with the second paragraph so went to answer emails. Was surprised to find another 5 crits. The story was actually better received than I expected -- I actually invited people to rip it to shred. I really didn't get any takers. Some people thought it just fine. Of course, it's not. I'm still not sure it's worth the trouble to try to resurrect it, although I did get some ideas as to where it strayed, I think the problems would involve a complete re-write. I have too many other irons in the fire right now.

I have another story that's in the "ruminating" stage. I have a couple pages of different scenarios/plot points. Haven't started any actual writing yet, though.

And three other stories that need revisisions. Actually, now that I think about it, one I think is revised. I should check that. It might be ready to submit again.

4275 [ Permalink ]

[  Mood: Amused ]

[  Currently: Writing  ]

So our camping trip went great! The weather was absolutely perfect, and I didn't even get cold. In the last 15 years or so that we've been renting this group camp, I think we've had a bear in camp maybe once, a long time ago. And so, we've gotten careless about leaving food out.

Friday night was fine. Sat. night -- well, we didn't actually get a chance to leave food out. It was only 10:30 or so and I had just gone to bed when I heard the shouting. A bear knocked over Matt's ice chest. The campfire was still going, and his ice chest was only 20 feet or so away. They all turned their flashlights on him/her and scared it away. Then when they went to look, they found that it was the bear's SECOND trip into camp. He/it/she had already come in and made off with Matt's rubbermaid container full of snack food and ate every single bit of it. Even the Ranch dressing. Needless to say, it's a BIG, FAT, HUGE bear.

Then about 1:30 a.m., he/it/she came back and ripped the lid off another ice chest, but only made off with a container of potato salad that time. Most likely, he/she/it was quite full by then. If it came back later on, there was nothing left for it to get. The owner of the ice chest (it had been in the back of his pickup) had taken said ice chest back to his tent trailer and CHAINED the lid back on and around a tree. I guess the bear wasn't hungry enough to try to get it loose. LOL.

The next night, everyone had just gone to bed when I heard a shout, "BEAR!!! THERE'S A BEAR IN CAMP!" It had brushed up against the tent of my son's best friend, giving him quite a fright! It then headed back to the truck where he/she/it had got the potato salad the night before. But the ice chest was still chained to the tree, and everyone chased the bear off. If it came back after that, no one heard it. But it's amazing how quiet such a huge animal can be.

Oh yeah. The last night, we were sitting around the campfire and a deer came by about 15 feet away. It just stood there for a minute, and then started looking back behind it. We thought maybe there was another deer. But it kept looking and then it bounded away. Shining flashlights up behind where it had been, we saw eyes. Yep, the bear. We like to think the deer came through to warn us the bear was up there.