Stuff

Stuff is one of my favorite words and I don't know why. It just is.

David's movie: Voting is open until September 30. Just click on the link in the previous post and rate it to vote. You can vote as much as you like. The deal with awarding the prizes is that the official judges at Wizards of the Coast will be choosing the top three from the ten with the most votes. So, the goal here is to keep his video within the top ten, but as high as possible so more people will see it. Thanks for your support.

I've lost 20 pounds and had to replace the boring stuff in a person's wardrobe. I also need new jeans. I used to have 4 pair, but I cannot wear 2 because they're just too big. And my belt is too big, too. I hate wearing a belt when they're this much too big, anyway. It's really uncomfortable. I'm still walking 2 miles, but I'm walking faster. I haven't decided whether I want to increase my distance next week or work on continuing to increase my speed.

Life is pretty much the same, other than that. I've been studying up on writing techniques, which is a good thing. I keep getting more ideas, but they go into the idea file. I learned a long time ago that new ideas need to simmer before you can write them.

David's Movie

My oldest son, David, and some other people, who he names in the email so I won't repeat it here, made a movie. It's a 5 minute video for a contest sponsored by Wizards of the Coast. He wants anyone who's interested to take a look and rate it a 10 so it stays near the top of the list. He's hoping that keeping it near the top will increase its chances of being watched and voted on. Anyway, he gave me permission to post his email with details and a link, so here it is:

Hi All,

My friends and family (Michelle Alvarez, Andrew Haws, and Ann and Chris Sprinkle) and I have made a movie for a contest. The contest is through Wizards of the Coast, the current owners (and manufacturers) of the Dungeons and Dragons game. The movie is intended to have to do with the game. I would appreciate your comments about the movie. It would help a lot if you would watch our movie [and give it a rating of 10 (out of 10)]. Even more important, however, is that we need your votes on the 15th of September, when the the real voting begins. Voting by the public is meant to narrow the entries down to the 10 most popular, from which Wizards of the Coast will choose the three winners.

Here is a link to our video*:

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/5534

Although it will ask you to verify that you are at least 18 years of age, I can assure you that there is nothing more adult than the average PG movie.

I will send out another e-mail, on September 15th, to remind you to vote for our film. If you would prefer I left you alone, let me know.

-David

*Note: When I put in the code to make a live link, it didn't show up on the screen, so you'll have to copy/paste it into your browser. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks for your support, anyone who happens by and reads this. :)

Summer's Almost Over

Summer's almost over and fall stuff is starting again. I think September is more the new year than January. Community and church activities all seem to start their seasons in the fall. There are lots of ads for season tickets to the theater and music scene showing up now. I feel like I should be gearing up for doing something new and different. I don't feel that way in January. In January, I feel like I should be succeeding with the old stuff I always fail at, the old New Year's Resolutions thing. Maybe that's why I prefer fall new year to January new year--new and different are more appealing than trotting out the same old resolutions one more time. That's why I stopped making resolutions in January at least a decade ago. It seemed pointless to keep promising myself to do things I never actually do.

Ladyesong started up on Monday. We have some cool stuff for Christmas this year. And, as usual, the stuff I've sung before was different arrangements, so I have to keep them straight in my head. When the music is memorized, it's easy to goof up and start singing the old arrangement automatically.

Church choir starts in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing what Barbara has in store for us this year. We do some really cool music.

I've lost 19 pounds, as of the last time I got on the scale. This is the weirdest weight loss experience I've ever had. It's the only time I've not followed a specific food plan in my whole life. I've been walking and eating the same stuff, but less because I'm not that hungry. I'm not losing it in the same pattern I'm used to. What I'm used to seeing is that I lose it in my face, feet, hands--basically the extremities first. Then, eventually the middle catches up. But this time, I've been losing it pretty much all over, pretty evenly. I measured myself for bras and I'm down a size. I've lost 50 pounds in the past without that clothing size changing. It's a good thing, in my opinion, that it's working that way. I also think I'm repeating myself, but it kind of amazes me because it's so unexpected. So I keep thinking about it and POP, out it comes when I start typing.

Nothing new with Paul's job hunt. I find between 2 and 4 jobs to send to each week. It's frustrating how often the same jobs show up. After six months or so, we resend his resume to those same companies, which keeps him in the system.

Yet Another Update

I can't believe I haven't posted since the end of July and it's halfway through August!! We haven't heard anything about the job. It's still posted on the web site, so we don't know whether to assume they didn't make a decision yet or just haven't taken it down. Oh, well, back to the waiting game.

Paul's birthday's in the first part of Auguest. We went to Red Robin for dinner. I like Red Robin because the food is fresh. They have a lot of fried stuff, including the best fries and onion rings. But they also have a lot of grilled stuff and salads. You can eat really healthy food, or not. And it's always fun to get my family together because they're a bit nutty and always have good jokes and stuff to tell.

Ladyesong starts up again next week. I've missed it and am looking forward to singing again. I'm sure church choir will be gearing up for fall, soon, too. Next week is the last of the summer choir sessions.

I've been writing in my journal a lot lately. I've been thinking a lot about why I'm not writing like I used to and part of it, at least, is just that I'm out of the habit. There are other factors, too, but I think we often look for complicated explanations for things that are pretty simple. I've been reading Twyla Tharp's book on creativity and she talks a lot about routines. It's interesting and I'll probably have more to say about it after I'm done reading it and start doing some of the exercises.

On the exercise front, I'm still walking 2 miles a day, 5 days a week. Paul says I'm walking faster, which is cool. According to David's scale, I've lost 15 pounds. According to my jeans, I'm losing inches in the middle, where you need to lose them for optimum health.

Update & Something Amusing

Update: It turns out Paul's job interview is on Monday morning. I'll keep you posted about how it turns out.

Something Amusing:

This came to me via Bob's blog:

Your Bumper Sticker Should Be

Even if the voices aren't real - they've got some great ideas

What Bumper Sticker Should Be On Your Car?

Perfect for a fiction writer, right?

Good stuff going on

First, I hopped on David's scale on Thursday and discovered I've lost 12 pounds. It's pretty cool, even though weight loss wasn't my goal. Two pair of jeans are nearly falling off, so I'm losing some in that all-important middle where they worry about the fat causing heart disease.

Second, Paul's passed the phone interview and is going to be interviewed in person next week, probably Tuesday, for a good job with a good company. This is a real job, not a temp/contract job. With benefits. Any good vibes, prayers, finger crossing, whatever you do to wish others well will be appreciated. Paul's birthday is a week from Tuesday. Wouldn't a good job be a great birthday gift?

I've been gone a lot this week.

It seems like I'm hardly ever home these days. My oldest son has been walking with us once or twice a week. Then he always seems to have an errand or two to run. It's no big deal for us to take him, so we do.

We're finally in the cooling off stage of that heat wave. We spent a part of one of the hottest days at the movies. We went to see Pirates of the Carribbean--Dead Man's Chest. I loved it. I'd already been forewarned that it doesn't wrap up the story in a nice, neat package. We have to wait until next summer for the end, which is fine with me. That's no different from the last two Back to the Future films.

Next week, Woody Allen's new film Scoop is coming out. I think we're going to go see it. We saw previews when we went to see The Devil Wears Prada and it looks good. A bonus for us fans of Anthony Stewart Head of Buffy fame--according to his official web site, he has a cameo in it.

Other than that, things have been pretty quiet around here. Nothing happening with the job hunt. The paper says there's been an increase in hiring, but it's mostly in the hospitality industry, not the tech industry. Paul's put in applications in at places like restaurants and retail, but they won't even interview him. I suspect it's because nothing he's done uses a similar skill set to transfer over to that kind of business. So, we're still looking at whatever's out there in engineering technician work. And trying to keep a positive attitude.

This is Fun!

It's summer! It's the middle of a heat wave. I don't feel like being all serious and "writerly" today. Besides, it's my youngest son's birthday. Happy Birthday, Chris! So, it's a fun stuff day.

From Evil Editor: Want to know what your blog or web site would sound like if it were written in jive? Go Gizoogle it. Warning: the language is a bit rough, so if that bothers you, don't go there. (So, now I've done it. All of you know my little secret. I'm really not a prude. (grin) I think writers cannot afford to flinch at any words. You never know which ones you'll need to tell a story. But that's just my opinion.)

As for Evil Editor's blog--go there. It's funny and informative. He skewers and revises one of the things all writers dread having to write--the query letter. I've learned a lot about how to write one and you will, too.

Another fun thing from my friend Andi's blog:

You Are Kermit

Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know. You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems. Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green. Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

The Muppet Personality Test

I love Kermit and I agree--it's not easy being green! :)

I don't usually post on Saturday, but...

I haven't been home to write posts the past two days, so I thought I'd better write something, just so you know I haven't disappeared again.

My husband and I have discovered Sudoku. It's actually quite fun and it does make you work your brain. Keeping our brains healthy is as important to us as keeping our bodies healthy.

We've still been walking. If I lose another inch or two in my tummy, hips, or butt, I'll be able to pull off the jeans I'm wearing without undoing them. I think I need to buy a smaller pair of jeans. I don't get it. I've spent decades of my life exercising and following Weight Watchers and doing what you're supposed to do when you want to lose weight. I struggled so much, ending up following the usual pattern of losing weight and regaining it, although I never have gone back to my highest weight. I don't know if this weight loss will continue or how much I'll ultimately lose, but it's pretty cool that it's happening mostly in my middle, which is where you need to lose it if you're going to have good heart health.

I had a couple of writing topics I wanted to post about, but I can't remember what they were. When I do, I'll write and post them. It's so annoying to have that happen. I wasn't at home to stick the ideas in my file, so out of my head they went. Rumor has it that when you're finally through menopause, you stop having so many memory glitches. I certainly hope so.

Fun Stuff

Everyone is deserting us tonight. Chris has a D&D game. Mom's taking David out to dinner for his birthday. So, we decided to go to Red Robin instead of eating leftovers. We'll have the leftovers for lunch.

I looked at my list and discovered I have a lot of fun quizzes I haven't posted on here. I'm going to post a couple and save the rest for later.

Quiz #1:
Animal quiz: found on Stuart MacBride's blog

Your Animal Personality

Your Power Animal: Eagle Animal You Were in a Past Life: Whale You are active, a challenger, and optimistic. Hard-working, you are always working towards a set goal.

The Animal Personality Test

That's pretty true, even if I do get sidetracked from the goal every so often.

Quiz #2:
From Jean's blog:

Draw a Pig personality test

You drew your pig:

Toward the middle of the frame, you are a realist. True.

Facing left, you believe in tradition, are friendly, and remember dates (birthdays, etc.). My family's tradition is to not do traditions. We don't try to force traditional times to be the same every time we celebrate because sometimes it just doesn't work. I am friendly. I used to remember birthdays, etc., but I have trouble remembering what day it is at the moment. Rumor has it that when I'm done with this menopause stuff, my memory will get better again.

With many details, you are analytical, cautious, and distrustful. I'm not distrustful. I tend to be too trusting. But I am analytical and somewhat cautious, depending on the situation.

With 4 legs showing, you are secure, stubborn, and stick to your ideals. These are true.

The size of the ears indicates how good a listener you are. You are a good listener. I try to be, but my original family was full of interrupters. You didn't get heard if you didn't interrupt to make your point. It's a horrible habit I catch myself doing way too often.

The length of the tail indicates the quality of your sex life. You have a great sex life. I'll just say, "You all can figure this one out for yourselves." (grin)

Catching Up

It's been really busy around here. I haven't been home much to post. Sunday Ladyesong sang for the church service. I heard a lot of compliments, which is always appreciated. Then I conked out and slept for an hour or so. It's been hot and we've had the windows open. It's a noisy neighborhood so I don't sleep that well at night. Thus, I conk out in the afternoon. I'd rather not, but me and not enough sleep is not a pretty sight.

Sunday night we had a snack and listened to some music by a local singer. She didn't introduce herself while we were there, so I can't give her a plug. Then we went to Mel's recital. It was an interesting program, starting with music from a composer who lived in the 1500s, I think. (I don't have the program, so I'm doing this from memory.) The pieces moved forward in time until the last two, which were by Irving Berlin. The singers sounded great and it was a lot of fun.

After the recital, we still hadn't decided where to go for dinner. We were dithering between one of the restaurants at Santana Row and Max's. It was late enough that we decided on Max's. Max's is down the street from the church and we were hungry. Good dinner, as usual. All in all, we had a really wonderful anniversary.

Then yesterday we took David to run errands and he bought us lunch. The joys of adult children--sometimes they pay for the meal. I had Laydesong rehearsal last night, so I wasn't here to post. I've noticed I've been kind of serious lately, so I think tomorrow I'll look for some fun, silly quizzes to post.

Exercise, Patience, & Writing

First, Tech, who started it, has given me permission to link to The Great Slim Down. Anyone interested in joining the gang in our efforts to lose weight is welcome.

So, how does Thursday's essay relate to writing?

1. Just like you have to think of yourself as a thin person in order to be one, you have to think you're a writer in order to be one.
   
   If you call yourself a teacher or mother or volunteer or whatever, that's how you see yourself. Those roles are where you'll put your focus and energy. And you won't get much writing done because being a writer isn't in your list of who you are. You have to add writer to your list.


2. Just as you have to see your true image in the mirror in order to be successful with weight loss, you have to see yourself the way you are in order to write honestly.
   
   If you're hiding from the dark parts of your soul or hiding them from your readers, your writing will be "fluffy bunny". Nice doesn't catch people's attention. But dark does. Dark is where the conflict comes from. It's where your themes come from. I tried writing nice and I was bored. Good thing I didn't inflict that on any readers. I had to learn to kiss the monsters, a term my online writing group uses to identify the things you don't want to write about, but are the most powerful things you could write about. That's where honesty as a writer comes from, the hard places.


3. Just as permanent weight loss takes time, so does creating and selling a publishable novel.
   
   People want their novel, their first novel, finished--now. And sold and in the bookstores. More people want to have written a novel, and have it out there being bought and bringing in the bucks, than want to sit down and write the story. But neither writing a novel nor the process of publication is fast. If you need to be rewarded quickly for your work, don't become a novelist. It's a rare person who can write and sell a novel, first time out. Most published writers have more than one sitting in a drawer or on a hard drive somewhere that will never sell. You have to take the time to write the practice novels, where you go from beginner to publishable, plus the time to acquire an agent, plus the time it takes the agent to sell the book, plus the time it takes for the publisher to get it onto the shelves. Add that all up and you have a long, slow process. Weight loss seems easier and faster. (grin)
   


4. Just as you have to "use it or lose it" to get and stay in shape, a writer needs to write regularly or you "lose" it by becoming blocked.
   
   If you don't write, you "forget" how. Now you don't really forget. Like riding a bike, when you get back on, you remember. But you get full of doubts about your ability to write again. You say, "I'll do it tomorrow." And tomorrow is just as full of procrastination or other things that keep you from writing as today was. You have to write regularly, if you want to be a writer. It's kind of the definition of writer. Writers write.

It's Friday & I'm Supposed to Post

I even promised an essay. But my internet connection went down yet again and it's late. I just want to go to sleep. So, I'll try to get that essay written and posted over the weekend, even though it's a super busy weekend, with our usual Saturday errands, our wedding anniversary on Sunday to celebrate, Ladyesong singing for church and going to the recital Sunday night. That's not a complaint. I like busy. I just don't know when I'm going to have time to finish the post. We'll see how it goes. And if I don't get it done before, the gods of the internet willing, I'll post on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Exercise & Weight Loss

I originally wrote this post for a blog that's a group weight loss effort. I'm not trying to lose weight, per se. I mostly post motivational things that occur to me. But since I've been walking, some thoughts occurred to me that I wanted to share with those who read this blog. I don't know if the weight loss blog is a public one, so I'm not going to link to it. Tech is one of the writer buddies I met on Forward Motion.

I'm up to seven laps on the track, three days a week. And a mile and a half on the Los Gatos Creek trail, two days a week. My jeans are getting loose, which is weird because usually when I lose weight or start exercising I notice it in my face, wrists, and ankles first. Not complaining, just observing. (g)

When I was reading Tech's post on patience, a couple of things occurred to me. One good reason to be patient is that it gives you time to see yourself as a normal person. We all think of ourselves as "fat people". Sometimes that image can derail you. It's important to see yourself as you are, not as you were. As you lose weight, take pictures of yourself in clothes that fit well. Post them up and look at them often so your mental image is the smaller you.

You can also use the set of pictures to help you see the weight loss. If you're really big, you can lose a lot of pounds, as reported on the scale, and not really see it in the mirror. But if you have a picture of yourself before you started, you can compare the current picture with the first one you took and you'll see the difference.

Also, even if you have to go to Goodwill or the Salvation Army or a consignment shop, as you lose weight, toss your fat clothes and get clothes that fit. Take more pictures. If you're wearing clothes that hang on you and look terrible and don't show your body at all, you can't get an accurate mental image. So you keep seeing yourself in your mind as the fat person who started this weight-loss program. And that's the person you'll keep trying to become. Plus, if you're clothes are too big, it's tempting to let yourself get big enough to look good in them again.

The other thought I had about patience is something my husband reminded me. It took a lot of years to put on these pounds. He's a bit discouraged because he hasn't noticed any weight loss and he walks a lot farther and faster than I do. (An aside: This is funny, since men tend to lose more easily than women. But if we diet, no exercise, he takes it off way faster than I do.) So his comment was that he doesn't expect to lose it quickly. And, he reminded me that it's about good health, not pounds on the scale.

We hope to be like the 90-something grandma of an online buddy of mine who slipped off a stool and broke her hip. She apparently recovered fine. But what's special about that story is that the stool was in front of a slot machine in the Bahamas. I'd love to be in good enough health to be able to travel when I'm in my 90s. And as much as we all want good health now, isn't it really about not being bedridden when we're really old? That's all about the true cliche--use it or lose it. I'm not saying that if we don't get that, it's our own fault. I just think there are things we can do to increase our likelihood of being that way when we're really old.

One more thing about exercise in general. I've been eating less food since we started walking. I'm not dieting or following any particular program. I just haven't been as hungry. That tells me I'm walking about the right pace and distance for me. I'm not overly hungry, as I would be if I weren't fueling the exercise enough. But, obviously, I didn't need as much food as I thought I did, either. It's not a huge change. Just substituting larger portions of salad and veggies for slightly smaller portions of meat and pasta/rice/bread, etc.

Ok, so what does all this have to do with writing? Well, it's already a very long post, so I'll do that essay tomorrow. Stay tuned. (g)

Nice Concert & Fun Stuff Going on These Days

We did find seats. The music was kind of blah. Then they had a break and fixed the drum mix. They added a second sax. And then they were cookin'. It was a nice evening.

I have a busy week coming up. Ladyesong is doing the special music in church this Sunday. The choir only does four Sundays during the summer. We're singing two pieces, both favorites of mine. "Steal Away" is hard for me because I memorized a different version for another group I sang in and sometimes I start singing the other version, out of habit. We're also doing a spiritual called "Witness", which is more upbeat and is a nice contrast to "Steal Away".

Sunday is our wedding anniversary. 29 years with the same guy and we're still happy, despite the job issues and stuff going on in our lives. We're going to splurge on dinner out somewhere and go to a freebie recital. Mary Elizabeth Enman (Mel), the founder and conductor of Ladyesong, is doing a duet recital with Kathleen Nitz Kazdorf. They will be accompanied by Michael Touchi. If you live in the area, the recital is at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church on the corner of Saratoga and Cox Avenues in Saratoga, CA at 7 pm. We might get a late afternoon snack and do dinner after the recital, so we don't have to rush. It mostly depends on how long the recital is and how late the restaurant stays open on Sunday.

Then, next week, Ladyesong has a concert at The Villages. It's a long one. We're doing 22 pieces and I'm trying to memorize them all because that shoulder/arm injury I had isn't 100% healed. It hurts to hold even one or two pieces of music, even without the folder, because in order to see the music, I can't move my arm. I have to hold it in a position that's awkward for the not-quite-healed muscles. I can use a stand, if I have to, but I'm hoping I won't because that's awkward, too. I'll probably end up tripping over the darn thing. My biggest problem with memorizing the music is that I haven't been home the past couple of days to work on it, but I've been able to listen to the rehearsal CD, which does help.

Anyway, I'm planning to post in here weekdays, as I used to, before I started into a downward spiral into a black hole you don't want to hear about. Paul and I started walking a month ago and it's helping a lot. We do the all-weather track at the local community center three days a week and part of the Los Gatos Creek Trail two days. I'm doing seven laps on the track and 1-1/2 miles on the trail. I must have lost some weight, too. The jeans I wore yesterday are getting way too big. And my appetite is down. I'm not eating as much because I'm just getting full. After our walk, I go get a plain, black coffee and write in my journal. The combination is making me feel, and act, like a normal person again. Whew!

We're walking with our son tomorrow and then we're going off to Target, because we both forgot to pick something up when we were there today. Carpooling is cool, especially when you actually like your kid. (g) I'm looking forward to it. He's done with school for the summer and it's nice to be able to spend some time with him.

Happy Independence Day to you Americans out there!

It's interesting to read what people are putting on their blogs to celebrate this day. I have four I'd like to link to because they said good stuff.

• Holly Lisle
• PBW
• Tamara Siler Jones
• Jean Schara

We're going to celebrate American music, I think. One of the local malls has a free jazz concert every Tuesday from May through September. They get great local talent and it's a fun time, if you can find a place to sit.

Changing Things or Not Changing Things

A Pet Peeve

Ok. You're writing along and come up with a situation that totally sucks. All of your ideas to fix it don't work because you set up your world a specific way. What do you do? Stubbornly stick to your worldbuilding and ditch the story because it doesn't work? Or change the worldbuilding so you can write the story you really want to tell?

At Forward Motion, an online writing community I belong to, there's a thing called a "Think Tank". Sheila Kelly, aka PBW, originated the idea. It's a brainstorming session. People come to Conference Room One. Everyone has an opportunity to ask one writing-related question and the participants brainstorm answers until the moderator calls "time". I moderated the Friday Night Think Tank for nearly three years.

One of the things I saw over and over again is that people asked for help with plotting or character development or whatever and automatically dismissed suggestions because they conflicted with something else the writer had already developed. The writer would say, "But it's this way, so that won't work." That attitude sort of defeats the purpose of brainstorming. When you brainstorm, you don't evaluate ideas. You accept them all and let them sit until after everyone's run out of ideas. Then you consider whether or not they're useful.

Sometimes an idea isn't useful the way it's originally presented. But there's a seed in it that can be tweaked and grown so it becomes a way to solve the original problem. Sometimes you have to rethink the whole thing because you've written yourself into a corner. Or you've built a world that has conflicting elements and something has to change if you're going to tell your story. Sometimes, you know what you need to do, but you're looking for a way out because it's too emotionally difficult to write the best way to tell the story. You dismiss the ideas because you don't want to go to that place inside your head.

But if you want to write your best stories, everything you write is up for grabs. You can't hold onto your words as if they were precious gems. You have to look at them in the context of the story you're telling. Delete, revise, edit, find the best ones, the ones that say what you mean. The same is true of plot ideas, characters, etc. They need to be as up for grabs as the words themselves.

Writing a story is a process. Until you've finished the draft, everything can be mutable. You're not taking dictation, although sometimes it feels that way. And even the "dictated" parts are up for evaluation, revision, editing, etc. Eventually, you get to a point where you're not changing anything essential. That's when it's time to say, "This is the way it is." And send the thing out. Or stick it in a drawer as a learning experience, depending on how it turned out. Before that, everything can be changed as you hone it to reflect the real story you're trying to communicate with your words.

So, my pet peeve is that people restrict the possibilities in their writing by making choices that they refuse to reconsider as they make other choices. For me, telling a story is about refining the choices I make to form a whole. I don't know any other way to do it, at least not with a story the size and complexity of a novel. You can't get a whole novel into your head at one time. You have to do it in chunks, and the later chunks can mean changing the earlier chunks. If you read the original premise of the novel I'm currently writing, then looked at what it's become, you'd wonder how in the world it's the same book. Well, it's the same book because it's the same basic idea. I just changed, refined, honed the details to tell the story behind the idea. That's what you have to do if you want to get closer to getting what's really in your head onto the page.

"Dating" Writing & Love/Hate the Internet

"Dating" Writing

I haven't written about writing for a while. You probably wonder if I'm really an SAHW or a SAHBum. Sometimes I feel like the latter, but writing is rarely far from my mind, even if I'm not doing a lot of work on the novel. I've been learning a lot about technique and the publishing business and storytelling and other writing stuff this year. Lately, I've been itching to get back to working on the novel and I know what the next one in that "world" will be about. You can't keep a writer from writing forever. No matter what happens, we always get back to it.

A couple of days ago Robyn Harper posted on Romancing the Blog about dating your story. By "dating" she meant using specific news events that would cause the reader to know exactly when the story happened. Current consensus seems to believe that you should try to write a contemporary novel so that it's within the parameters of the current time, but not so specific that it must be 2006. I started to write a comment, but realized I had more to say than a sentence or two.

I think you have to consider the impact of news events on your story. In many stories, they have no impact because it's not what the story is about. You don't even have to mention them. If I write a mystery about San Francisco in 2006, I don't have to mention any of the catastrophes that occurred in other places around the world unless something about that catastrophe specifically impacts the story. But if I write a mystery set in San Francisco, post-April 16, 1906, then I must mention the earthquake because the earthquake had an impact on everyone in the region. And it would have messed up clues, taken people's attention away from whatever they may have witnessed about the murder, etc. That would be especially true if the murder took place prior to the earthquake.

Another side of this issue is how the culture "dates" a story. I'd write a story that took place in different parts of my lifetime very differently. If I wrote about the 60s and 70s there would be no cell phones, no personal computers, no world wide web. But if I wrote a story that takes place today and ignored those things, it wouldn't feel right to the reader. So, in that way, all stories have things in them that set the timeline. If you try to leave out all of that stuff and write a story that is contemporary, yet not specific to a particular contemporary time, you end up with an empty stage. Your reader doesn't get grounded in the world you're writing about and can feel lost. Plus, setting makes a difference in the story. How characters relate to the world around them is important, but how can you show that if you don't show the specific world they live in, including both the historical setting and the cultural setting?

On the other hand, I think it's possible to get too specific in writing contemporary settings. Marketing people want to "brand" everything. They want to define us by the brand of clothing we buy, the brand of car we drive, and so on. So there's a temptation to use branding as a shortcut to defining our characters and the world around them. The problem is that when you assume that saying your character drives a BMW rather than a Ford means something to the reader, you're making another assumption--that your reader has the same perception about BMWs vs. Fords that you make. And that everyone who drives one or the other is the same kind of person. Obviously, that's not true.

I wonder if Mark Twain, Jane Austen, or Agatha Christie's books would have stood the test of time if they were so nebulous. Could Twain's biting wit even work if he hadn't addressed the specific life he saw around him? When you read his work, you're drawn into his time. Ditto for the other people I mentioned. Christie gets slammed for her British upper crust racist attitudes. But that was who she was and the world of the 1930s she lived in and wrote about. If she had been born into contemporary society, her attitudes and the attitudes of her stories most likely would have been more in line with ours.

I think chasing the "dateless contemporary" is a futile exercise. Maybe you won't be writing about specific current events, but you will be writing about things that ground the reader in the current time period. That specificity is what I think creates a timeless story. The argument is that people won't buy a book that was written a couple of years ago because it's "dated" makes no sense to me. People still read stories written in past times, stories that don't pretend to be any other time. I think that they don't sell because the story isn't a timeless one, a universal story that has appeal beyond the time it was written for. But if writers admit that, then they can't blame the fickle reading public for not wanting "dated" stories and make themselves nuts trying to write a story that's not "dated", hoping that simple answer means it has a chance of selling beyond the immediate release period. They'd have to admit that maybe the problem is with the story itself. They didn't write a timeless story. Very few people can write timeless stories that sell for years and years, or become classics that still sell decades or centuries after they were written. We can only write the best story we can and the rest is really out of our hands. Personally, I take my advice from the example of Twain and co.--write as honestly as possible about the world as you see it, whether it's contemporary or fantasy or horror or whatever. And let time decide the rest.

Internet Provider Rant

I'm in a love/hate relationship with the Internet. Actually, more with the local internet provider services. Our options are old-fashioned, slooooow, dialup or the local cable company. We're too far from the central service thingie to have DSL. The phone company has been promising to upgrade for the past several years. No go, not yet, at least. So, we have the local cable provider. That was great when we first got it. But lately, I've had entire days when I couldn't get online. That makes job hunting very difficult because you can't check job boards, send resumes, etc. without a solid connection. I can imagine trying to fill out some of the forms on some of the company web sites on dialup. Most of them would time out before you got the form finished. So, we're slogging along and hopefully, the job hunt will be faster this time. We do have some unemployment money coming. Only 4 months, though. I don't know why only 4 instead of the usual 6, unless it's just what we didn't use from the last time Paul's contract ended. And, of course, it means less time for me to keep up the blog. (Sigh) I hope whatever readers I have won't give up on me because I'm not able to post as often as I used to.

What's Up?

Life sucks, but then you get over it. Paul's contract ended. Yet again, we do the job hunt thing. I was kind of numb all last week and disinclined to post anything. My eternal optimism eventually takes over, though, and I figure out how to cope.

My arm is almost 100%. There's still a bit of a limit on what I can lift or carry with it. I have almost complete range of motion. I can do all of the basic things like shower and get dressed by myself. I'm grateful for that. I do still get aches or move it the wrong way and cause it to hurt. That's going away more slowly, but it is going away.

I thought I'd share a couple of fun quizzes. They make me laugh, which I need these days. That's why I like to post them. These were discovered on my friend Andi's blog:

Your Seduction Style: Au Natural

You rank up there with your seduction skills, though you might not know it. That's because you're a natural at seduction. You don't realize your power! The root of your natural seduction power: your innocence and optimism. You're the type of person who happily plays around and creates a unique little world. Little do you know that your personal paradise is so appealing that it sucks people in. You find joy in everything - so is it any surprise that people find joy in you? You bring back the inner child in everyone you meet with your sincere and spontaneous ways. Your childlike (but not childish) behavior also inspires others to care for you. As a result, those who you befriend and date tend to be incredibly loyal to you.

What Kind of Seducer Are You?

That one's obviously not aimed at folks who have been happily married for almost 30 years. If I were not married, I think it's pretty accurate to how I am.

Here's one more:

Your Theme Song is Beautiful Day by U2

"Sky falls, you feel like It's a beautiful day Don't let it get away" You see the beauty in life, especially in ordinary everyday moments. And if you're feeling down, even that seems a little beautiful too.

What's Your Theme Song?

Do I see a theme in these things? I always seem to hit on the "sees the beauty in everyday moments" kind of answers. It fits and I think it's a good way to live because I'm more content, in general, than people I know who are always complaining about everything because it's not perfect enough or because they thought it would be different or whatever.

So, I'm curious. What's your life theme? Do you have one?

Music & Shopping

This has been a busy time for my music life. Ladyesong had a concert last weekend. I'd have posted a promo here, but my Internet connection was gone more than it was on last week. It went really well. I enjoyed doing it. West Valley College's Chamber Orchestra did an arrangement of Go Down, Moses that I'd love to do with my church choir.

This week is the big celebration of the 50th anniversary of the church I attend. Lots of musical opportunities there. We're doing a hymn fest before the dinner on Saturday. And singing a favorite anthem for Sunday's church service. Ladyesong is celebrating along with the church, so we're singing two pieces during the service.

Then we have a few weeks and choir stops for the summer. Ladyesong takes a break in August, but we have a concert in July to prepare for. That's going to be tough because most of the music is new to me and a lot of it is supposed to be memorized. I'm going to have to spend a lot of time with the music because this concert is 45 minutes to an hour and it's just us. I guess I'll have to figure out how to memorize music fast. We don't have a rehearsal CD, so I have to play it on the keyboard. Then sing it a capella to see if I can sing it without the music.

My wonderful hubby's been complaining that I need new dresses. Can you believe it? A guy telling his wife to buy clothes? lol So I bought some online. The first one came today. I really like it and it fits fine. The other two should be here tomorrow. Me, the "hates to buy clothes" person bought three dresses in one online spree. Hmmm . . . I think I need to be careful about online shopping. It's way too easy. lol But, now, I need shoes. Maybe on Saturday, before choir rehearsal, I can take a trip to the shoe store.