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Seriously, A Writing Spider?

10/31/2014

After looking up this spider on the web (sorry) I discovered it might be the argiope spider also called garden spider or writing spider. Writing spider?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_(spider)

Then I looked closer and wondered if the letters are NaNoWri?
http://nanowrimo.org/

If so, I know what this one's going to be doing the month of November.

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Age Spots but No Wrinkles

10/29/2014

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My doll is holding the large print version of Safe in the Earl's Arms. This is a bittersweet photo for me. The doll is rather older than she looks. Her face is not in the pristine condition of the past, but she's been around a while. I'm thinking she's old enough to have completed a college degree.

The little skirt she's wearing is really an apron. I know approximately how old it is too. One of my earliest memories is from a time when I had the apron on. I was trying to fill the pockets. When I did that, they became heavy and uncomfortable.

My mother made the apron, and later she made the doll.

She didn't get to see the published copy of my book but together we dreamed of it. I can imagine her seeing this photo and smiling.

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Who Has Time To Be Organized?

10/22/2014

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I took a test on organizational skills and received a rather daunting response. It seems I am so well organized that I should "take care I do not become obsessive" about it.

Uh...Me?

As the deadline for my novel approaches... I am not on the right page in my computer... possibly because I may have taken a few too many detours from the keyboard.

Parkinson's law or theory or whatever, teaches that a person with ten hours to do a job will take ten hours, but if she has only eight hours to finish, she'd manage to get that project completed in eight.

I think this theory was decided on long before FB, blogs, or texts--and this premise might be obsolete now because as everyone knows, it takes twelve hours to do an eight hour job with all our social media commitments.

And as for my skills--my true talent is on multiple choice tests about organizational skills. Me--obsessively organized? Nope.

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The sunset at 7...am?

10/17/2014

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I was asked during a blog interview whether I preferred sunrise or sunset.

Hoping to illustrate my definite preference, I asked, "There's a sunrise?"

But this morning I saw the hues in the sky changing and rushed outside with the camera. You only have a few moments to catch the best colors.

When I told someone how beautiful it was, I said, "You should have seen the sunset this morning."

He said, "Sunset?"

Apparently, that's just how I think of it.

Above photos:
A violet on the garden fence.
A dead walnut tree.

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A Romance Writer's Conference...

10/14/2014

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While waiting to board the plane to return from my last writer's conference, I asked a lady next to me if she'd been at the same event. She said no, that she'd been at a legal meeting. When she asked where I'd been, and I told her, her eyes widened. She commented that it was probably more fun than her meetings. I think it might be.

Every conference I've been to has been a little different from the others, but the Romance Writer's Association works hard to pack a lot into a few days.

Stacks and stacks of books. Free. Signed by the author. Plus a booth to assist you with shipping the books home. Free books do not include free shipping.

Workshops often have authors who model clothing from different eras. This one included Native American dress, and the Roman upper class.

Decorations for photo ops are available, and sometimes cowboy hats, masks, feather boas... You know, the usual.

But who needs decorations when there's a stairway...

I hope the lawyer had as much fun at her conference as I did. But if she gets a chance, I recommend she attend a romance writer's conference.

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I just had an idea but I lost it under the dust..

10/12/2014

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One day, I decided to start an "idea" file in my computer. It's literally named "Idea."

Through three or four computers, I've kept that file. Lost a lot of other ones, but that one I've uploaded, backed-up and generally saved. The file is a security blanket for me so if the light bulb doesn't come on above my head--if it's covered in dust--I can still have a story idea.

I just didn't realize how big the file would get.

At the beginning I have a short section of names I wrote down so that I could go back and have a bit of an unusual name for a character. Names like Jolley.

It's a quick scroll to the next section of the file. This contains the beginnings of historical romances. One scene after another. I wrote some of them in the same way an artist might doodle on a sketch pad. Sort of a way to relax, or a way to hold on to a thought and see if I like it later.

If I click the key to go to the end of the file, I can scroll up and see the beginnings of contemporary novel ideas.

Sometimes after I see the ideas, I know I don't want to write that story--ever. But sometimes I see the words and I think I really, really want to write that story some day.

I know I'll never ever write probably one half of a per cent of the stories in that file. It's 90,000 words long. My sketch pad.

(The photo above is from the abandoned barn near my house.)

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"Used" Books

10/8/2014

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Cars are sometimes "pre-owned." Books are "used".

I'd never thought of my book being used until I saw it on Amazon. If you count library books, I'd say I've read thousands of used books. Take away the library book count, and I've possibly still read thousands of used books. Once on vacation I stopped at a used bookstore and then returned the next day so I could peruse it again before I left town. Wonderful vacation moment for me. And if I go back that city, I'll plan for another stop there.

At first it surprised me to see my book "used" on Amazon. But then I realized I'm pleased someone else is giving another person a chance to read the story. Books should be used up, read again and again until the pages are too tattered to read and fall from the bindings. Or they should be put on a shelf and cherished just because it feels good to have them in the room.

Here's a story about a book lover from the Twilight Zone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAE1nXn3XFU

I admit, I feel a little bit like Burgess Meredith in the story. As a writer, books are now such a part of my life that the stack at my house seems to grow and grow. I don't have enough time to read them all, but as someone posted the other day—isn't it better to have too many books to read than too little?

Speaking of people who sell books, I'm pleased they can get a bit of a return on their financial investment. If I know readers, those few coins from the sale of a book are turned right around to the purchase of another novel.

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Introvert With An Extrovert World

10/5/2014

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No one has to ask what I do with my time. These last few weeks I’ve hardly moved without writing a blog about it or taking a picture. And sometimes I’ve just taken pictures and written and hardly moved.

Nearly everything in my backyard has been photographed now.

Pretty sunset. Snap. Snap. Manuscript I’m editing while outside. Snap. Bug on tree. Snap. Snap. Snap.

All to be posted on that most introverted place—the internet.

I’m a very private person. An introvert. Or so I thought. Snap. Snap.

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Spiders and Snakes and Romance Don't Mix

10/2/2014

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For a blog, of course you have to have content. And photos help. So I went out on the acreage for about four hours--off and on--yesterday.

I erroneously thought I needed a spider picture to go with the quote the hero made about spider webs. So I searched—for hours—for a spider that would pose.

I found one, took its picture and returned to the house. That's the Reader's Digest version.

Seriously, imagine where you're standing and what you're kneeling around when you're out spider hunting. And then imagine you take the photo, don't move away, and look at the digital image and go.... Oh, there's a snake in the edge of the photo. You don't move your feet. And the above italicized version of my thoughts has been expanded and edited a huge, huge amount for clarity.

It took a considerably long time of double checking my feet and the image to realize I'd made a mistake. No snake. I am not particularly afraid of snakes but the ones the copper color of fall leaves--yes, I am terrified of them. This was a curled fall leaf at the edge of the photo with the flash reflecting it into a lovely snake sheen.

And after all that searching and staring at webs, I decided my romance does not need any spider picture to go with the hero's quote. It just doesn't mix well. Wasted time, but steps forward. Sometimes that's how you figure things out.

—About the snakes. It wasn't all imagined. Not all. Here's the picture I took earlier after looking down at my feet.

I do believe I had to back up a bit to take this photo of the snakeskin. And I had to calm myself and make sure it was the shed from a non-poisonous one. Somehow that reassured me. I have encountered the real deal--the ones with venom, when I've been out and about.

No, I'm not particularly scared of snakes but I do prefer them to introduce themselves from a long distance.

Oh, then I decided to take another picture of the snakeskin... He didn't need an introduction.

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