The wind is whipping it up outside. What is it whipping up you ask? Dust and debris (such as flattened empty cigarette packs, sheets of long ago paid invoices, folded pages of newspapers fluttering about like insane butterflies) to which my horses are having fits about. One mare twirled wildly in her stall banging her head and scraping her face. Poor thing and stupid smoker for just tossing his empty pack of cigarettes in an unsecured trash can. Which brings me to our trash collectors, they are a group of works who want to get their dirty job done with speed and an obvious lack of efficiency; hence the wind blown garbage dance in my stable yard.
The house just rocked from a particularly violent wind blast. Spooky. A once blue sky is now gray with wind born desert dust, yuck. Not fit for man nor beast.
So that gives me the perfect excuse to stay inside to write. And write I have. My novel is perking along nicely, at least the first 20 pages or so. I can't seem to get past editing just those. I look over at the stack of neglected manuscript and then back at my computer screen and all I can do is shrug. I'll get to it, just let me tweak this one sentence...
I have been catching up on reading some of the blogs I follow and most of them this week are concentrating on the first 10 pages of submissions from writers they won't tell us the names of. So I guess my preoccupation with my first 20 pages is OK. Even my best girlfriend wants me to concentrate on my first few pages. So, I am going to follow their advice and slash and burn and swap around sentences and change adjectives and try to keep my writing from being passive... Wish me luck.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
New Lease on Life
This is a new day.
I have been sitting staring at the computer screen since 9 o'clock this morning and have accomplished next to nothing. Facebook, Hotmail, Google, Craigslist not withstanding, oh, OK I did email a new friend that I met at the Art Festival in Henderson this past weekend, so I guess you could say I accomplished one thing. I also requested to be her friend on Facebook, two things, and called my mother, three things. It's still next to nothing see?
I spent this past weekend on a huge slab of concrete in the heat surrounded by over 50 other crazy artists drawing with chalk. Why? Didn't you see my last statement? Crazy Artists is what I said, right? Right. And after the 100 degree heat we braved for 2 or 3 days if we weren't crazy before we are stark raving mad now! Bwahahahaha! Anyway we had a wonderful time, I met some wonderful people and reconnected with a few others that I have drawn with in the past, so the weekend was very enjoyable. Another thing it did was fire up my creative juices so I am back to blogging and back to editing my Nefertiti novel and so it have given me a new lease on life. Now all I need are a couple more people to read these words of wit...
I have been sitting staring at the computer screen since 9 o'clock this morning and have accomplished next to nothing. Facebook, Hotmail, Google, Craigslist not withstanding, oh, OK I did email a new friend that I met at the Art Festival in Henderson this past weekend, so I guess you could say I accomplished one thing. I also requested to be her friend on Facebook, two things, and called my mother, three things. It's still next to nothing see?
I spent this past weekend on a huge slab of concrete in the heat surrounded by over 50 other crazy artists drawing with chalk. Why? Didn't you see my last statement? Crazy Artists is what I said, right? Right. And after the 100 degree heat we braved for 2 or 3 days if we weren't crazy before we are stark raving mad now! Bwahahahaha! Anyway we had a wonderful time, I met some wonderful people and reconnected with a few others that I have drawn with in the past, so the weekend was very enjoyable. Another thing it did was fire up my creative juices so I am back to blogging and back to editing my Nefertiti novel and so it have given me a new lease on life. Now all I need are a couple more people to read these words of wit...
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Editing and Art Festivals
I printed out my first novel the other day. All 271 double-spaced pages. These pages include all that I have written over the past years on Panhistoria that wonderful site that got me started writing about Nefertiti and my male counterpart Nakht-Set. I have since put aside Nakht-Set's story and have been devoting my time to Nefertiti and her brood. My only problem with that is that I can't seem to get beyond the first draft.
You see, I get so far then go back and start to read what I have written and make corrections. So my first dozen pages are killer but the rest... well, let's just say that there are serious gaps in the narrative.
So that is why I took the time to print it all out. I wanted to have those awful gaps stare me in the face so that I could devote the time and energy to them and leave well enough alone. At least until I have the full first draft complete. Good luck you are probably saying. You see I have the word procrastination tattooed on my forehead. In fact I catch myself talking myself into just forgetting about the whole thing! I think it's a Gemini thing. One side of my brain says "write, write, write," and the other side (the evil twin) says "ah, just go watch TV or play that cool new app on your iPhone!" Even at this very moment I am trying to put down the laptop to go outside and check on my horse... not that I need to, noooo, I just have this problem with sitting and working for more than 10 minutes at a time... attention span of a fruit fly.
The horse is fine. Yeah, I went out and checked on him. It's f'ing hot out there! Las Vegas in May is like any place else in the dog days of summer.
This weekend I have the honor of competing in a Chalk Art Festival. It is here in Henderson which is kinda like a suburb of Las Vegas. This is the third year that they are having it but my first competing. I have been lead to understand that the Rotary Club, which had been the hosts in subsequent years, is not hosting this year. And because of that fact a person that has never put on one of these chalk art thingies is running it. I shudder to think about it. Oh, and I haven't decided on the artwork that I will be drawing. Sigh... Here are my choices:
1. F. Schommer's painting of Alexander Taming Bucephalus. Wonderful BLACK and WHITE (did I say black and white?) copy of Alexander the Great and his big black horse Bucephalus. I want to do this but like I said, it's in black and white and I can't find the original painting anywhere. Nowhere. Nada.
2. William Bouguereau's painting entitled Charity. It's absolutely lovely. Ethereal. Stunning. A glowing woman holding to infants against her breast. Sigh... boring.
3. Sebatiano Ricci's The Fall of Phaeton. Dramatic colorful rendition of Icarus in the sun god's chariot plummeting to earth. It's number 2 on my list but I am afraid that there is too much going on and I would have a difficult time completing it.
Well that is the line up. I'll let you know on Monday what I chose and how I did... Oh, I almost forgot, there will be a People's Choice award. That's where the public votes for the drawing they liked best. But the rub is that it costs one dollar ($1) to vote!!!
See you Monday.
3.
You see, I get so far then go back and start to read what I have written and make corrections. So my first dozen pages are killer but the rest... well, let's just say that there are serious gaps in the narrative.
So that is why I took the time to print it all out. I wanted to have those awful gaps stare me in the face so that I could devote the time and energy to them and leave well enough alone. At least until I have the full first draft complete. Good luck you are probably saying. You see I have the word procrastination tattooed on my forehead. In fact I catch myself talking myself into just forgetting about the whole thing! I think it's a Gemini thing. One side of my brain says "write, write, write," and the other side (the evil twin) says "ah, just go watch TV or play that cool new app on your iPhone!" Even at this very moment I am trying to put down the laptop to go outside and check on my horse... not that I need to, noooo, I just have this problem with sitting and working for more than 10 minutes at a time... attention span of a fruit fly.
The horse is fine. Yeah, I went out and checked on him. It's f'ing hot out there! Las Vegas in May is like any place else in the dog days of summer.
This weekend I have the honor of competing in a Chalk Art Festival. It is here in Henderson which is kinda like a suburb of Las Vegas. This is the third year that they are having it but my first competing. I have been lead to understand that the Rotary Club, which had been the hosts in subsequent years, is not hosting this year. And because of that fact a person that has never put on one of these chalk art thingies is running it. I shudder to think about it. Oh, and I haven't decided on the artwork that I will be drawing. Sigh... Here are my choices:
1. F. Schommer's painting of Alexander Taming Bucephalus. Wonderful BLACK and WHITE (did I say black and white?) copy of Alexander the Great and his big black horse Bucephalus. I want to do this but like I said, it's in black and white and I can't find the original painting anywhere. Nowhere. Nada.
2. William Bouguereau's painting entitled Charity. It's absolutely lovely. Ethereal. Stunning. A glowing woman holding to infants against her breast. Sigh... boring.
3. Sebatiano Ricci's The Fall of Phaeton. Dramatic colorful rendition of Icarus in the sun god's chariot plummeting to earth. It's number 2 on my list but I am afraid that there is too much going on and I would have a difficult time completing it.
Well that is the line up. I'll let you know on Monday what I chose and how I did... Oh, I almost forgot, there will be a People's Choice award. That's where the public votes for the drawing they liked best. But the rub is that it costs one dollar ($1) to vote!!!
See you Monday.
3.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Reinstilling Myself with the Desire to Write...
...again.
Depression comes in many shapes and sizes and can be triggered by many things. This time the trigger was no job and no money. Each time I have had a crisis of faith in myself it has taken a few months to pull myself up by the bootstraps, but I have always rebounded. This time it is taking me way too long to even reach for the bootstraps let alone pull on them. My life has changed, I no longer read nor write. This is the first time I have put fingers to keyboard and I wasn't playing a stupid game on facebook. My subscription to Panhistoria lapsed and I was too broke to renew it so that fact sent me into another death spiral. But now my job situation had changed for the better so maybe those bootstraps are nearer my fingertips than they have been in a very long time.
So enough with the 'oh, woe is me' brewhaha and on with the good news. I have found a wonderful Thoroughbred mare that moves like a dream come true and whose owner is financially strapped and can't keep her. And she is right in the same barn as my gelding! Lucky me! Now all I have to do is convince the owner to give her to me. If it is meant to be, it will be.
As to my writing? How is that going, you ask? Well I have picked up some of my research material off of the nightstand and dusted it off and even cracked the spine, flipped through some pages and read a paragraph or two. The desire to write is still there just a little bit dormant. But the desire for finishing at least one of my novels is as strong as ever. Look out world I'm baaaack!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Paying the Piper
...by robbing Paul, or is that paying Paul by robbing Peter. I always get that metaphor confused. Be that as it may I am broke and I just got paid. So I have been spending the last few minutes using the calculator and crunching numbers. I still can't make my salary pay all my bills. I am just talking about the barest of necessities! I am not even including food for the dog, cat or Guy. Me, I can eat at the restaurant, but I have to buy food for everyone else.
This does not make for a very good writing atmosphere. In fact I feel sick and nothing but the thought of empty bank accounts and the impending need to purchase a tent fills my mind. It's too cold to live in a tent. I refuse to live in a tent in Las Vegas. Lake Tahoe on the other hand wasn't too bad, except when it was 12 degrees. Then it wasn't too pleasant.
So what to do, what to do. Oh yeah, I could make the lump on my couch get a job, but no, he's collecting unemployment and he says no one is hiring. How does he know? He has tried. Tried and tried he says but no one is hiring. Argh!
We live in the state with the highest unemployment rate. We live in the city within the state with the highest unemployment rate. So I guess I will have to get a part time job to take up the slack caused by my lack of full time hours. Oh, I forgot to tell you, my boss has cut my hours and that is why I am having a terrible time paying the piper. Heck, I hate that song anyway.
This does not make for a very good writing atmosphere. In fact I feel sick and nothing but the thought of empty bank accounts and the impending need to purchase a tent fills my mind. It's too cold to live in a tent. I refuse to live in a tent in Las Vegas. Lake Tahoe on the other hand wasn't too bad, except when it was 12 degrees. Then it wasn't too pleasant.
So what to do, what to do. Oh yeah, I could make the lump on my couch get a job, but no, he's collecting unemployment and he says no one is hiring. How does he know? He has tried. Tried and tried he says but no one is hiring. Argh!
We live in the state with the highest unemployment rate. We live in the city within the state with the highest unemployment rate. So I guess I will have to get a part time job to take up the slack caused by my lack of full time hours. Oh, I forgot to tell you, my boss has cut my hours and that is why I am having a terrible time paying the piper. Heck, I hate that song anyway.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Return From The Dead
OK, I really wasn't dead, but for all intents and purposes I felt dead. I pinched a nerve (or something like that, I'm poor, have no insurance and didn't see a doctor; just Googled my symptoms) and lost a lot (OK all!) movement in my arms! It was awful! At the same time I tore cartilage and my menecus in my right knee. It seemed to me that my body decided that just cause the knee was bum that the rest should join in so it wouldn't feel lonely! Geesh, I was a mess!
The worst thing of all this was I couldn't sit in a regular chair without someone near by to help me out of it, nor could I use a keyboard as my fingers didn't want to obey my brain. Thus I was limited to my communication online. Limited to zero. I became a TV junkie because all I could do was lay around and stare at the tube. I felt a million years old.
But now I am back and my fingers once again are tripping all over themselves on the keyboard. My pain is very minimal and I owe it all to my physical therapists! They were great. They even gave me exercises for my arms and shoulders though those parts of my body weren't covered by the Workman's Comp claim that my knee was. Marvelous people.
So I am back from the dead, just in time for Halloween!
The worst thing of all this was I couldn't sit in a regular chair without someone near by to help me out of it, nor could I use a keyboard as my fingers didn't want to obey my brain. Thus I was limited to my communication online. Limited to zero. I became a TV junkie because all I could do was lay around and stare at the tube. I felt a million years old.
But now I am back and my fingers once again are tripping all over themselves on the keyboard. My pain is very minimal and I owe it all to my physical therapists! They were great. They even gave me exercises for my arms and shoulders though those parts of my body weren't covered by the Workman's Comp claim that my knee was. Marvelous people.
So I am back from the dead, just in time for Halloween!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
He Loves Me He Loves Me Not
He loves me he loves me not. Since we were little girls we all have pulled petals from flowers and asked the universe the question that is closest to our hearts. He loves me he loves me not, funny but we never truly know the answer to that question. Why is this, why does the eternal question remain unanswered? Doubt. He loves me. Today you are in his arms and everything is roses, the next day you don’t hear from him and you feel that doubt creeping in and the next petal falls. He loves me not.
I believe that there should be a mandatory class for all boys and girls. This class would teach our children the art of romance. Today we see an increase in writing and reading that is unprecedented. Text messages, instant messages, emails, everybody is writing again. But they are writing quickly, without thought and they are writing poorly, LOL, ROFLMAO, BFF, and all the new abbreviations that take the place of common phrases. But where is the romance? In the last century a man would take days to pick the right stationary, the right ink and the right words to woo his lady love. Remember the flower petals? There was also a way to woo your love with flowers. Each flower meant something to the recipient. The nuances of the language are now mostly forgotten, but red roses still imply passionate, romantic love and pink roses a lesser affection; white roses suggest virtue and chastity and yellow roses still stand for friendship or devotion. Also commonly known meanings are sunflowers, which can indicate either haughtiness or respect. Gerbera (daisy) means innocence or purity. The iris, being named for the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology, still represents the sending of a message. A pansy signifies thought, a daffodil regard, and a strand of ivy; fidelity. What girl or lady would not want a bouquet of red roses sent to her on Valentines Day?
On my 24th birthday I received 25 beautiful red roses from a man I truly loved. He was not free to give me his love but he gave me the flowers all the same. He loves me he loves me not. I have been pulling petals ever since.
I believe that there should be a mandatory class for all boys and girls. This class would teach our children the art of romance. Today we see an increase in writing and reading that is unprecedented. Text messages, instant messages, emails, everybody is writing again. But they are writing quickly, without thought and they are writing poorly, LOL, ROFLMAO, BFF, and all the new abbreviations that take the place of common phrases. But where is the romance? In the last century a man would take days to pick the right stationary, the right ink and the right words to woo his lady love. Remember the flower petals? There was also a way to woo your love with flowers. Each flower meant something to the recipient. The nuances of the language are now mostly forgotten, but red roses still imply passionate, romantic love and pink roses a lesser affection; white roses suggest virtue and chastity and yellow roses still stand for friendship or devotion. Also commonly known meanings are sunflowers, which can indicate either haughtiness or respect. Gerbera (daisy) means innocence or purity. The iris, being named for the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology, still represents the sending of a message. A pansy signifies thought, a daffodil regard, and a strand of ivy; fidelity. What girl or lady would not want a bouquet of red roses sent to her on Valentines Day?
On my 24th birthday I received 25 beautiful red roses from a man I truly loved. He was not free to give me his love but he gave me the flowers all the same. He loves me he loves me not. I have been pulling petals ever since.
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