LZ's Latest News
A window on my thoughts, musings, and updates.Monday, July 31, 2006
And it starts...
The school year has arrived once more to the house. My husband returns to his job as a high school chemistry teacher, and my son enters eighth grade.
But for a moment, between sending husband off and waking the son, I'm going to take a look back.
The summer has been a time of vast change, measured in very small moments. I actually spent five Sunday mornings greeting the dawn at the beach. I read a book each time. Five books, has been a while since I read that many in such a short time. Nothing monolithic, but FYI, they were: "Course of Action", by Gun Brooke (a reread, as I had read this one online and in its self-published form as well), "Dragonquest" and "Dragonflight" by Anne McCaffrey (I keep praying this series will get produced as TV series or movie). I've started "The White Dragon", but haven't finished it yet. The 4th book is a bit of linguistic fun for me "Slam Dunks and No-Brainers", a book about the idiomatic language of persuasion used in media, and politics to create substance where there is little, or none. The 5th book was "Unexpected Sparks" by Gina Dartt (another reread as I had read this in its Justice House printing).
Next on my to-read list is "The Growing" by Beck and Skat'si, "A Matter of Degrees" by Alex Marcoux, and "Our Reunion" by Jenah Watson.
Anyway, back to the summer reflections...
My son spent much of last year studying intensely for his bar mitzvah (or rather more often, heavily nagged to study), but once it was past... This summer he has been nothing short of amazing. It's like he "got it" overnight. He's become amazingly responsible. He receives an allowance, but it's a pittance, and yet he mows the lawn without grumbling, has sorted laundry, washed dishes, and even made Saturday morning breakfast (bacon and eggs) for all of us. So he's 13 going on 25. Wow. Hopefully he won't backslide during the school year.
We ended the summer a little short on cash. We come close to broke most summers, but this time I had to miss on one bill. Thankfully hubby gets paid in two weeks, and I got a raise at the beginning of July.
So now it is into the breach... time to wake the sleeping dead, aka the son.
Hope everyone has a good week.
But for a moment, between sending husband off and waking the son, I'm going to take a look back.
The summer has been a time of vast change, measured in very small moments. I actually spent five Sunday mornings greeting the dawn at the beach. I read a book each time. Five books, has been a while since I read that many in such a short time. Nothing monolithic, but FYI, they were: "Course of Action", by Gun Brooke (a reread, as I had read this one online and in its self-published form as well), "Dragonquest" and "Dragonflight" by Anne McCaffrey (I keep praying this series will get produced as TV series or movie). I've started "The White Dragon", but haven't finished it yet. The 4th book is a bit of linguistic fun for me "Slam Dunks and No-Brainers", a book about the idiomatic language of persuasion used in media, and politics to create substance where there is little, or none. The 5th book was "Unexpected Sparks" by Gina Dartt (another reread as I had read this in its Justice House printing).
Next on my to-read list is "The Growing" by Beck and Skat'si, "A Matter of Degrees" by Alex Marcoux, and "Our Reunion" by Jenah Watson.
Anyway, back to the summer reflections...
My son spent much of last year studying intensely for his bar mitzvah (or rather more often, heavily nagged to study), but once it was past... This summer he has been nothing short of amazing. It's like he "got it" overnight. He's become amazingly responsible. He receives an allowance, but it's a pittance, and yet he mows the lawn without grumbling, has sorted laundry, washed dishes, and even made Saturday morning breakfast (bacon and eggs) for all of us. So he's 13 going on 25. Wow. Hopefully he won't backslide during the school year.
We ended the summer a little short on cash. We come close to broke most summers, but this time I had to miss on one bill. Thankfully hubby gets paid in two weeks, and I got a raise at the beginning of July.
So now it is into the breach... time to wake the sleeping dead, aka the son.
Hope everyone has a good week.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
before I begin...
Most people I meet don't like waking up so early that they see dawn. For me it is the most peaceful hour. So here I am. The dog is walked, and the tea steeps in a cup at my right hand. I sit on my east-facing porch, laptop open to a page, and I begin.
For the next hour, I will continue some project, or edit another, but this hour, this moment, this time is mine to do with as I will. I mold it.
When I can start my day writing, that's the happiest I can be.
For the next hour, I will continue some project, or edit another, but this hour, this moment, this time is mine to do with as I will. I mold it.
When I can start my day writing, that's the happiest I can be.
Labels: ramble
Thursday, July 27, 2006
The blog as creative aide
I am sitting here at work with (at the moment) everything to do already checked as done. Nice feeling. So naturally my mind turns to its favorite topic: writing. I check personal email (it's nice to have an employer that doesn't block that), and run across a post about novel and series outlines. Wandering over there, I check them out. I've got several stand-alone novel ideas, and of course, "Turning Point" is the first in a series of Bren/Cass novels. So maybe there's something in the method presented that I might be able to use to keep all my facts in order between books. And online too, so that I don't always have to have paper handy, just a computer with internet access.
Hmm... "Your blog," I answer to my unspoken question. Could I use the blog feature to jot notes, even write chapters out of order, or scenes as they hit me?
I'm always after ways to reduce the constant scatter of handwritten and half-written notes/scenes and scraps to something easier to track. Novel-writing software, like "New Novelist" and "WriteItNow" always have parts I never use. I always end up using the freeform sections, and still end up with scatters of notes. But Blog entries can have titles, can be archived, can be re-edited and added to, and can links back and forth easily accomplished, and better still, MY organizational style, not someone else's.
I may try it over the next few weeks taking my incomplete stories and putting online the notes and half-written chapters and scenes and see if I can flesh them out any more easily. If I feel I'm having any success increasing my productivity, I'll share the stories, as I'm writing them, with links from this blog.
Whatever happens, I might simply be reducing the amount of trees that get sacrificed to my muse. And that'll be a good thing. *smile*
Oh, and hey, check out my blogger's profile. I now have a favorite quote, and an audio clip from a favorite song, for another glimpse inside me.
Hmm... "Your blog," I answer to my unspoken question. Could I use the blog feature to jot notes, even write chapters out of order, or scenes as they hit me?
I'm always after ways to reduce the constant scatter of handwritten and half-written notes/scenes and scraps to something easier to track. Novel-writing software, like "New Novelist" and "WriteItNow" always have parts I never use. I always end up using the freeform sections, and still end up with scatters of notes. But Blog entries can have titles, can be archived, can be re-edited and added to, and can links back and forth easily accomplished, and better still, MY organizational style, not someone else's.
I may try it over the next few weeks taking my incomplete stories and putting online the notes and half-written chapters and scenes and see if I can flesh them out any more easily. If I feel I'm having any success increasing my productivity, I'll share the stories, as I'm writing them, with links from this blog.
Whatever happens, I might simply be reducing the amount of trees that get sacrificed to my muse. And that'll be a good thing. *smile*
Oh, and hey, check out my blogger's profile. I now have a favorite quote, and an audio clip from a favorite song, for another glimpse inside me.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
The comfort of routine
(my first ramble)
It's all very exciting when there are a lot of changes in life. After all, life is filled with change. If we don't embrace it, it'll run us over.
But most of the time, I find routine comforting and relaxing.
Most weekday evenings for example. There's coming home from work, changing out of my work clothes, or at least taking off my shoes. There's very little as relaxing to me as bare feet on a thick rug.
I'm not the cook in the house, but that's because my husband enjoys cooking, and he's home easily two hours before me since he teaches at a high school, so he has the time. If dinner waited every night for me to get home to start it, we wouldn't be eating until 7:30. Far too late for my son's stomach.
So I help with the final prep, the salad usually. Now there's something I like to get creative with... Anything can go in a salad, and usually does.
Dinner conversation is really the first time I speak. De-stressing from the drive home takes about the half hour from entering the front door to sitting at the table. Then I'm ready to find out about everyone's day.
Because I don't make dinner, I do the clean up afterward. Here's where my writing starts.
While handling the rote activity of dishwashing, I begin to think about what I want to work on that evening, which story, which characters, what scene.
My husband usually pulls out his guitar to work on some music piece or another for his rock band. My son pulls out his trombone -- if his homework is done -- and rehearses a piece for his school band. The music fills the air while I dry and put away the dishes. Then I'll throw a load of laundry on, or fold one, continuing to think about the writing I want to do. Narrowing it down at this point to a single scene as a goal.
When I pull out my laptop, ready to begin, sometimes the music has stopped, both John and Harry having moved on to their next evening activity. Sometimes it hasn't. In either case, I take my laptop to the back porch, catch the last of the day's sunlight, the warm breeze, and begin writing. Because I've been thinking on it, the writing tends to come easily. If it isn't, I switch to the internet, read a few emails, browse a few bulletin boards. I might get 30 minutes of actual writing done. I might get an hour.
By 10 o'clock though I'm ready for bed. "Early to bed, early to rise..." Ah well, it's never made me wealthy, but I like to think it might have made me a little wise.
It's all very exciting when there are a lot of changes in life. After all, life is filled with change. If we don't embrace it, it'll run us over.
But most of the time, I find routine comforting and relaxing.
Most weekday evenings for example. There's coming home from work, changing out of my work clothes, or at least taking off my shoes. There's very little as relaxing to me as bare feet on a thick rug.
I'm not the cook in the house, but that's because my husband enjoys cooking, and he's home easily two hours before me since he teaches at a high school, so he has the time. If dinner waited every night for me to get home to start it, we wouldn't be eating until 7:30. Far too late for my son's stomach.
So I help with the final prep, the salad usually. Now there's something I like to get creative with... Anything can go in a salad, and usually does.
Dinner conversation is really the first time I speak. De-stressing from the drive home takes about the half hour from entering the front door to sitting at the table. Then I'm ready to find out about everyone's day.
Because I don't make dinner, I do the clean up afterward. Here's where my writing starts.
While handling the rote activity of dishwashing, I begin to think about what I want to work on that evening, which story, which characters, what scene.
My husband usually pulls out his guitar to work on some music piece or another for his rock band. My son pulls out his trombone -- if his homework is done -- and rehearses a piece for his school band. The music fills the air while I dry and put away the dishes. Then I'll throw a load of laundry on, or fold one, continuing to think about the writing I want to do. Narrowing it down at this point to a single scene as a goal.
When I pull out my laptop, ready to begin, sometimes the music has stopped, both John and Harry having moved on to their next evening activity. Sometimes it hasn't. In either case, I take my laptop to the back porch, catch the last of the day's sunlight, the warm breeze, and begin writing. Because I've been thinking on it, the writing tends to come easily. If it isn't, I switch to the internet, read a few emails, browse a few bulletin boards. I might get 30 minutes of actual writing done. I might get an hour.
By 10 o'clock though I'm ready for bed. "Early to bed, early to rise..." Ah well, it's never made me wealthy, but I like to think it might have made me a little wise.
Labels: ramble
Friday, July 21, 2006
Take Cover!
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Saturday ramble...
Bad back and bed rest means I'm rambling again today...
The connection between art and words. I wrote in my UberEtc.com ramble that I don't use music to write by. But there is no denying that music, and visual art, play a role in my creative process. The inspirations come from so many sources, I could never possibly pin them all down, but between manipulated graphics, and music videos, I have tried to put my story themes into visual contexts from time to time. And vice versa, taking visuals with me to the page in order to recreate them in words.
The reason this has hit me today? I received a draft image for the cover of "Turning Point." Trying to "condense" this story's plot into broad themes and then even further, to create images to convey these themes, is complex.
My girlfriend has a degree in Art History. Not me. Just instinct. So I'm relying on the publisher and the publisher's cover artist, and my own instincts. The whole process is fascinating, and of course, mental fodder for another character somewhere down the line.
Writers may not be experts in any one particular thing, but we can become aware of so many colorful aspects of life to enhance our writing.
I think I like that most of all about being a writer. Yep. *nods to self* Sounds good.
The connection between art and words. I wrote in my UberEtc.com ramble that I don't use music to write by. But there is no denying that music, and visual art, play a role in my creative process. The inspirations come from so many sources, I could never possibly pin them all down, but between manipulated graphics, and music videos, I have tried to put my story themes into visual contexts from time to time. And vice versa, taking visuals with me to the page in order to recreate them in words.
The reason this has hit me today? I received a draft image for the cover of "Turning Point." Trying to "condense" this story's plot into broad themes and then even further, to create images to convey these themes, is complex.
My girlfriend has a degree in Art History. Not me. Just instinct. So I'm relying on the publisher and the publisher's cover artist, and my own instincts. The whole process is fascinating, and of course, mental fodder for another character somewhere down the line.
Writers may not be experts in any one particular thing, but we can become aware of so many colorful aspects of life to enhance our writing.
I think I like that most of all about being a writer. Yep. *nods to self* Sounds good.
Labels: ramble
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