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 |  Now my story begins in nineteen-dickety-two... |
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2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me, Threatening the life it belongs to And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud And I know that you'll use them, however you want to -Breathe(2AM), Anna Nalick ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** For Daddy, the real world gets fainter and fainter every day. -Homer Simpson Homer, Please Don't Hammer 'Em ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **
If we shadows have offended,/Think but this, and all is mended,/That you have but slumber'd here/While these visions did appear./And this weak and idle theme,/No more yielding but a dream... -William Shakespeare, A Midsummer's Night Dream |
They actually changed who my position reports to like I asked! I can't believe it. Diane said she had no idea how hard it was for the assistant dean to convince the dean, but she thinks since I requested it, it made the whole thing easier. Nothing changes much except who I report to, but it will make some things so much easier. I felt like I was being tugged apart at times between night and day. Now, everything should be as when they first hired me. And I'm most happy with that.  Although, the first day I'm back under ERC, Diane unloads a bunch of book lists for me to check, almost as if she were waiting for this... It's keeping me busy this evening, so I guess I can't complain too much.  Of course, that shadowy part of my head is paranoid about the whole thing, but it's always like that...  |
| This maybe the longest I've gone without posting an entry in awhile. I don't know if anyone was waiting to hear the rest of Cassandra's story, but I haven't felt like writing part 2 yet. I meant to do that on the 16th or close to it, but I haven't felt inspired to do so. I think I'm on the brink of depression again. If I'm feeling depressed, I'm less likely to post an entry to my blog, I've noticed. That's not to say every day I don't post, I'm depressed, but I have noticed that about myself since I started keeping a blog. Over the past few days, I've had ideas for entries, I just didn't do it. I've been revising Chasing and that's going slower than I expected. Yesterday, I was itching to start a new story. I settled for working on the sequel to Chasing. Since it's so poorly written, it's almost like starting from scratch.  I'm becoming worried about how many details to add from the previous book to the second. I also had an idea for a short story about Anthony and Irial before Chasing takes place, so I maybe writing that soon. It's a story that will actually be referred to in the second book. It is a little in the first one I guess. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI2XENX_kzE This morning I was reviewing someone who is using past lives in her story. I had an idea that involved past lives for a story, but it's been on the back, back burner for a long time. Who am I kidding? It's wrapped tightly in tin foil and sitting on a shelf and I'm hoping it doesn't go bad. Anyway, I thought it would be amusing to say that all my books are about the same characters and that they get reincarnated into different worlds as well as different people. But I can't see any of my characters from Apple or Chasing that would be the reincarnation of another. Except maybe Anthony and Richard. I can see that, but Richard is much nicer... There's my Sunday morning thought. Depending on how today goes, I may post more... |
| Will someone please tell me this is a joke and the woman isn't serious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sq-VmBMHkw |
| Okay, well, that's irritating. I can't access my e-mail on WDC at the moment. I was right in the middle of revising and I wanted to go back and look at a review. I guess I could try to use the 'My Feedback' link to find it, but with a book format that can be kinda bothersome. So then I thought, I would respond to a blog comment I received, but then, d'oh, I realized that's also in my e-mail. I have to mosey on down to work soon anyway. My boss's last week is this week, but today maybe the last day I see her. Wed. and Thur. she's coming in at 11:15 and I leave at 11. *sigh* People come and go so quickly here... We have to report to my boss's boss until they find a new one. Transitions like this always make me nervous. You hope they'll hire someone cool, but you never know. I don't know if we'll get a say in the hiring or not. Even if we do, it doesn't mean they'll listen. I haven't heard about my request to be moved back under ERC. Like I said before, that was a long shot to begin with. I need to make this writing career thing happen... Ah, well... The book I mentioned yesterday, the plot is picking up. There are little, interesting moments in the book, but nothing that's really grabbed a hold of me yet. It doesn't suck. But I also think I'm relativity easy to please. Which probably makes me the worse reviewer ever. I guess I'll check my e-mail again... The urge for coffee is strong today... Probably the gray sky, but the colorful leaves look so pretty against it... |
| Yesterday, I started to prowl for another book to read here at the library. I went to the Bestseller section and choose, Acacia, by David Anthony Durham. I had see it there for awhile and I knew it was a Fantasy book, so I went ahead and checked it out. So far, it hasn't really wowed me, but I'm still reading it. It made me realize one reason people may not like a story with a bunch of different POV's. I just finished chapter 4 and each chapter is told from the POV of a different character. I looked a little further ahead and it seems like there isn't a repeat of a POV until chapter 9. I'm disappointed, because I haven't had the chance to connect to a character yet. In fact, the same characters aren't even around so you don't even get to see any of the POV characters from someone else's eyes. I thought people may have a problem with me telling a story from different POV's, but most of my chapters are in the main character's POV. I don't even know who the main character is in Acacia. Maybe there isn't one. It could very well be the kingdom of Acacia is supposed to be the main character. The last chapter I read, dealt with the prince learning fencing and getting his ass handed to him, but the author went into too many details about the fighting. It was kinda boring for me. We'll see how it goes from here. I also decided to look up and see what are some popular fantasy titles currently. I've been out the loop, really. I used to belong to the Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Club and that helped keep me on top of things. But I never liked buying books if I didn't know if I was going to enjoy them or not. It's hard to tell that through mail order. It's hard enough to tell in a bookstore or library. My first attempt at seeing what was out there was to look at some award lists we have at the library. I looked at the Hugo, Neubla, Bram Stroker, and World Fantasy. While this won't necessarily tell me what's popular, I figured it was a good place to start. But I noticed a problem with some of the books on the list and it's something that's annoyed me about Sci/Fi, Fantasy books for a long time. Some of the award winning books were part of a series and often book 2 or 3 in the series. When I researched one of these award winners, I found out the trilogy it belonged to was a spin off of another series. I hated finding a book in the library that looked interesting and finding out it was later in the series. In some cases, the library didn't have the rest. (Which is the libraries fault...) or finding out that different authors wrote it, so then the series would be dispersed over the entire collection. For some reason, it seems like Fantasy and Sci/Fi books tend to belong to a series more so than any other genre. Except maybe for mysteries. Sometimes finding out where a series really begins can be a pain in the ass. I'm one of those people that has to read a series from the beginning. I'm fine with going in publication order instead of chronological order. I love reading series, I just want to be able to know where to get the books and where to start reading. I had one or two more things to add, but this is kinda blah already... I've forgotten them at the moment anyway... |
| Today is my account birthday on WDC. I had actually found the site a few months before I joined a year ago. I wanted to make sure that Chasing the Goddess was as good as I could get it before I joined. For where my skill was at the time, it was perhaps the best I was capable of. I was also worried about posting my novel on the internet so I did a little research before I did. Hopefully, my items are still safe and secure. I was gifted with a upgraded account soon after and that pretty much made up my mind to post Chasing. I have no idea who gifted it to me. At the time, I had one suspect, but I'm beginning to wonder if some groups or the staff don't just randomly gift upgraded memberships to newbies. The person I had suspected was someone I gave a review to. At first, he/she basically told me I had no idea what I was talking about. Then about a week later, he/she sent me an e-mail saying they saw my point and rewrote the chapter I had reviewed. I went back and read it and there was vast improvement, but I never heard from that person again. I'm not even sure if he/she is still on the site. After a couple of weeks, it was clear I was going to have to find a review forum to get my novel read. I don't know how people get their novels read without belonging to one. Maybe Chasing just sucked that badly back then that people didn't want to continue. I can't believe how much I've learned in the past year. I am so grateful to the help I've received. I can't imagine submitting Chasing a year ago and getting rejections not knowing why. I'm certain it would have been rejected. Now, I feel like I have a fighting chance. Or will. Once the revising is done. I also meant people I consider friends and I never thought I could make friends over the internet. When I was playing Final Fantasy XI Online, I never connected to anyone. Benn had no problem doing that. He doesn't have a problem with it in person either. I'm not saying people instantly love him, but people do seem drawn to him for one reason or another. I'm still learning how my creative process works. It's never been this unfettered before. I came to a conclusion today that I hate to admit. It's unseasonably warm right now and I'm having a hard time focusing on my writing. Every time I think about past days I've had that problem, I've been slightly warm or just out and out hot. I like heat better than cold if I have to choose, but apparently, the heat makes me lazy. I do know if I'm too cold, I'm wrapped in a blanket and it's hard to accomplish things when wrapped up in a cocoon. So that's a brief reflection on the past year. It's been a great experience for me. It's had it's share of frustrations, but what doesn't? I'm glad I found this site, because I had no one to share my work with to get the feedback I needed. I don't think I can ever convey how much I appreciate it. Oh, and here's another amusing link Craig sent me yesterday... I didn't want to make another entry yesterday. http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/fail-owned-three-handed-fail.jpg |
| It's about time for hot chocolate weather. I've used this recipe for a cocoa mix before and it keeps for a good while. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/hot-cocoa-recipe/index.html Don't let the cayenne pepper bother you. It's just a pinch and I guess you could forgo it if you want. But never question Alton... Not about cooking... |
| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B7bVD_DkM4 Before I drifted off to sleep last night, I came across a show on TVLand called Myths and Legends. I had heard about it before and was interested in seeing it, but not enough to go out my way to find and record it. Anyway, during one of the episodes, they discussed Carly Simon's song You're so Vain. Of course the topic of discussion was who the song was about. This entry isn't about theorizing who it is. But I will say, I didn't realize she was giving away the name one letter at a time. I knew she sold the answer to someone in a charity auction and swore him to secrecy. I didn't know about the secrecy part until last night. I thought she was going to let him do with it as he wished. The three letters that are out there are E, A, and R. Which isn't helpful at all as those letters are in the three top suspects' names. For those of you who don't know who they are: Mick Jagger, Warren Beaty and James Taylor. I wonder if she's waiting on the person to die. If it's Mick Jagger, I don't know if he'll ever die. I suspect his body may give out, but his spirit may just go on and find someone like, say, Steven Tyler and continue existing... There are a few things I did want to say about this song. I remember hearing it when I was growing up. I remember my mother really liking it. I'm often left to wonder if she knew a person that fit the song. I liked the song when I was little, but I didn't want to because the the following line drove me up the wall: I bet you think this song is about you, don't you? I tried to wrap my mind around the logic of that statement. I loved this line:I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee, Clouds in my coffee. So, I decided I would just ignore the previous line and enjoy the song. As I grew up, I met people that this song could be applied to and I liked it even more. During the episode last night, one of the commentators referred to this line:You had one eye in the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte. I thought, how freaking wonderful that a word like 'gavotte' was used in a popular song. As I read through the lyrics, I'm finding it's filled with some wonderful imagery and reads just about as good as a poem. It made me wonder about current poplar music and if such words and imagery can be found in it. Of course, I don't know if other songs written in the seventies could match Carly Simon's either. It made me think about something I saw on one of VH1's shows, before it turned into a really crappy reality show channel, one of the GoGo's commented on a word in Rick Springfield's song, Jessie's Girl. At one point in the song, he uses the word 'moot'. I wanna tell her that I love her, but the point is probably moot. She thought that was odd. I think the trend lately is to make up words. Which has a place, but there's something to be said for having a wider vocabulary. Benn's co-workers make fun of him for using 'big words'. Once he used the word 'cease' in one of his reports and they asked him why he couldn't just say 'stop' like he had earlier in the report. Both of us are mystified at what they consider big words. I don't think I have a huge vocabulary, but every once in awhile I get people asking me to define a word I just used. Back to the song. It reminded me of the occasional thoughts I've had if I should ever get published. I wonder if people from my past will read my stories and try to figure out if used anyone I know as a basis for my characters. I used to do that long ago, but eventually the character became a person in his/her own right and there was nothing left of the inspiration. I don't do that anymore really. I may get inspired by someone, but I'm not trying to comment on any actual person. It may be fun to see what old acquaintances think... If they can figure out I'm the author anyway. I do wonder if Mr. Beaty, Mr. Jagger, or Mr. Taylor know damn well who's she talking about in the song. Surely, someone has asked them at some point in time if they believe the song is about them. Carly Simon probably did a good thing by not revealing who it is. Even if she did, I think a lot of people would have liked it still. Everyone has to have known a vain person some time in their life. I think that was most of my thoughts on the subject. Now that song will probably be with me the rest of the day... |
| The debate on the signs is funny even if it's not true. There's a link to a church sign generator web site at the bottom... I'll have to check that out... http://www.snopes.com/photos/signs/dogheaven.asp |
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