Get back to work

Yes, I have a new computer. So why haven't I posted more? Well I have a job that takes up too much time. And I'm not at home much (it just recently occurred to me that a laptop is mobile). Plus, the holidays are hectic for me. In my family, I always host the holidays. I do the planning, the shopping, the cleaning, the cooking, the cleaning and it's time consuming.
Enough excuses, I need to get back to it. Writing group will be meeting a week from today, which means I need something to send by Fridayish.
What to send? My last story was such a success that I'm worried nothing will live up to Secret Identity Crisis. I have no new funny stuff. So I might have to go back to drama.
I have a short story, Worth Something, that examines the value of money and what it means to different people. It's basically done. I wrote it in long hand and planned to put the finishing touches on it as I typed it up, which I'm about half way done with.
I could take a section of my short story turned novella that I still have no title for. No one dies in either story but they are both a bit depressing.
There's also the option of scrounging up something super old or writing something completely new.

Aside from writing group I need to get reading. I need to finish four more books by the end of the year to finally accomplish my goal of reading 50 books a year.

The Bestest Friend Ever!

Jenni is the bestest friend ever because she gave me this new awesome computer that I'm now using. It's much faster and has many more great attributes than the last one I had. The best part is that Jenni gave it to me out of love, not because she wanted free Internet.

And since I'm using terms like "bestest friend ever", let me tell you what I did last night. I went to see Twilight. I know, why, when I didn't really care for the book? I had some weird hope that the screenplay would add more action and cut out a lot of inner-dialogue, which is usually what movies do to ruin stories that I loved in book format. This movie left in all that whiny, selfish inner-dialogue and had about five minutes of decent action. No good. I wanted to leave in the first fifteen minutes. Slow moving and completely unsuspenseful. Of course, the giggling and applauding teen girls in the crowd apparently thought differently.
I dragged Slipstream with me and he says it doesn't matter if he "looks" 17, he's still over a hundred and dating a 16 year old. And that's just not right.

Reading update

Since I've been away from blogger world, I haven't had a chance to update on what I've been reading. I haven't even been able to add to goodreads.com.
While my new job doesn't allow much extra time for writing. I also haven't had a lot of time for reading. I miss those eight hour shifts with nothing to do but read.
I'm still on track to read fifty novels this year. I'm up to forty-three. So that means a novel a week for the rest of the year.
Right now, I'm finishing "Odd Hours," the most recent book in Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas series. I go back and forth with these books. I really liked the first one. Odd is funny, even though he's not trying to be, so his interaction with others is what I like most. Unfortunately, in book two he was solo most of the time, which I didn't really enjoy. Book three brought back some of that great interaction, which I enjoyed. Book four he's mostly solo again. And it's too bad because a lot of characters, that help Odd, are real fantastic. Not to mention, the book has a very vague ending, which does set up a sequel, but left me feeling really lost.

Back in time.

When I first started I didn't have a lot of readers. Of course, I don't have that many now either. I feel like my first posts have never been read by anyone but myself, so I thought I'd repost a few. What was on my mind three years ago ? Here's a post from November 13, 2008.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Sharing your imagination
Another comic book show today and I couldn't stand to be there. No, I'm not getting tired of comic book shows or comic books. I'm getting tired of not being there to promote my own comic book. All I do is sell and by other stuff and it makes me feel gloomy. It's not that I want to make money, I have no expectation of making the big bucks or the small bucks for that matter, I just want to see my work done. I want to see my accomplishment. I want to see other people enjoying my work.I've been thinking about my writing a lot this week. With the new Harry Potter movie drawing near it makes me think. This happens often when something I really enjoy comes into the spotlight. I get envious. Not because J.K. Rowling is rolling in piles of cash or bombarded with fan mail. I'm sure those things are great but I think about how much I love her books. When I come home from work or have stressful moments I jump into these things and I feel better. I leave the world and life I am tired of and enter these amazing places and become these amazing people. I have always had the imagination to create these places for myself but it's wonderful seeing others. Sometimes you get bored or in a mental block and you can't carry yourself away. That is when you engross yourself in someone else's imagination and you experience things and learn things. It's when you get the chance to experience happy times that you don't have in your own life right now, you get to see horrible things that make you realize your life isn't that bad, or you get to see that their are other people who face the same things you do. That is how I feel about the things I read and watch. I don't know if it is the same for everyone, maybe I over think things or don't think enough. Perhaps I am even bordering on insanity. All I know is that if there is one person or everyone in the world that feels the same way I do, I want to share my imagination with them for the times when they need help breaking away.It's not that I write only for other people, I write for myself. If you told me no one would ever read my work, I'd still write everyday. I have so many thoughts in my head and I'm so afraid one day I'll forget them. I have to put them down. I don't need to be rich or famous, I've never had either and I have had a great life this far. Yet when I did have tough times I always had somewhere to go. Whether it was in my own head or in a book, when my parents yelled, the kids teased, or my heart was broken I didn't sit around and focus on how much I hated things. I ran away to a place that let me be free from troubles. Then things were good. It's those good things that give you the strength to face the bad things, because you know the good things will come again eventually. I want to give the good things.That is why I write. I'm just getting anxious because I really want to share it with as many people as possible, if they want to read it. I think about how much I enjoy diving into worlds created by others when I need a break from my imagination as well as my life. If no one else wants to see it that's okay because I have it for myself. That is how it started and I still love it.

Pass it on

Normally, I'm not down with chain mail. If you send me an e-mail saying I'll have good fortune if I forward it, I won't do it. If someone sends me a myspace message that says I'll die if I don't repost it, I'll take my chances. However, today I got a cool chain letter that I actually think could be fun. I'm asked to send a book, just one, that I've enjoyed to another person, that is named on my letter. Then I send out six of my own letters that will have the person that sent the letter to me listed on it. The people I send the letters to should in turn send a book to my sender and then send out letters with my name. So if each person sends one book and six letters they will receive 36 books.
I know it seems like most chain letters are a scam, and some are, particularly those that involve money, but I have to get behind this one. First off, it's one book. It can be used and I'm sure everyone has one book sitting around somewhere that they don't plan on reading again. Second, books are cheap to send. Ask for media mail at the post office. It's less than $3.00 for books. Third, it's basically just a book exchange, which I do with lots of people already. The number one thing I give to and lend to people is books. I like to encourage reading. It's becoming a lost art, in a world of t.v. and video games.
So I'm going for it. I'm going to do it. I already know what book I'm going to send and I plan on listing any books I may receive. I hope it works out and that the people I select keep it going because it seems like a super cool idea.

Moving On

With the new job, new apartment and a few other things in life, I've really been putting a lot of things behind me for good. And for once I can honestly say I'm happy. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't miserable before now. I've been content for a while, but right now I'm happy. Life's not perfect but it's pretty good.
Of course, during the bad times, I wrote a lot of stories. And I'm starting to think that my writing was a little too personal. Now I look back on those stories and I don't even want to touch them. That part of my life is over. No need to go back.
When I was with my writing group, talking about the last piece of the Christmas Bells, I realized I just didn't like the story anymore. And a lot of me wondered if it was because I wrote this story for a person that I had to leave behind. A person who isn't in my life anymore because it was them or me and I chose me. Who wants to look back and dwell on that?
So I'm left with the question of how much of my own life should I put into a story? And if I chose any at all, how do I push forward with my work, when that part of my life is over?
If I choose to keep my personal experiences out of it, then where do I find the ideas and the emotions to write?

Things to do

Now that I'm back online, I have a ton of stuff to do. I've missed out on so much, which means there is too much to catch up on. So I'm making a little list to keep track of what I need to do.
First, I need to get my blog in shape. I need to update my side bar and, of course, post on a regular basis. Second, I need to go around to all the blogs I use to read frequently and let everyone know I'm alive. I've actually already commented on a fair few so that one should be done soon.
Third, I need to catch up on blog and live journal reading. I'm not sure how far back I should go. I did catch a post here and there at the library, but I feel lost when reading some of them.
Fourth, MySpace and Facebook need updates. This again is mostly so people know I still exist.
Fifth, I need to get cracking on submissions, this goes for snail mail as well.
Sixth, list tons of books on half.com
Seventh, just to be on the safe side, I should keep up on the job hunt. Just in case.
Last but most important, is to catch up with my friends. I did get an e-mail out to Jenni, but it's no where near the length it should have been. I haven't IMed with D.B. Echo in a long time. Not to mention my other friends that have moved away and I kept in touch with through e-mail.

That's not funny. Is it?

Last night our writing group met and I took Secret Identity Crisis, my script turned prose story. It’s a bit of a parody and meant to be comical. It’s not something I normally write. In fact, as I’ve mentioned before, my writing group was actually making fun of how tragic my stories usually are. So I guess I thought of myself more as a dramatic writer rather than a comedy writer.
Although, I must admit I love comedy. I think comedy writer’s have to be incredibly intelligent to know what will make a person laugh. Tina Fey is one of my writing role models, and it was actually Mean Girls that inspired me to write Secret Identity Crisis. And for the record, I am not a fair weathered fan. I was admiring Tina Fey long before she was doing an almost scary impression of Sarah Palin.
Anyway, I never really thought of myself as a comedy writer, but I do like to write comedy, I attempt to be funny and sometimes it does make people laugh. I just don’t really think that I’m funny. But I took my comedy story to writing group mostly because I didn’t have anything else finished and I thought I would take a silly story to show them I wasn’t a completely depressing writer. I didn’t really go with high expectations.
What shocked me is the writing group’s love of the story. They thought it was funny and they liked it. One of them said they thought it was my best work thus far. Another said I should seriously look into submitting it because it was so unique.
To be honest I was shocked. I got really excited and started thinking off all the possibilities for it. Maybe I could make it longer. Or maybe it could be a comic book or movie.
Then I realized something. The first story that I got published in a literary magazine was Sweaty Palms, which was humorous, not a serious story. My most favorite thing that I’ve ever written and the story I thought had the most promise of anything I’ve ever worked on was Behind the Naugahyde, a comedy. There were agents who actually wanted to read more after a query.
So maybe comedy is my thing. Maybe I’m not as bad at it as I thought. It’s definitely something to think about.

Alive and well!

Guess who's back on the Internet in the comforts of her own home? If anyone guessed me, they're right! I'm so excited. I can't wait to get back to blogging regularly, IM chatting, checking out all my favorite blogs, and finally listing the hundreds of books that I have sitting in my room. Did I mention I'm totally excited?

Today I hope to get around to a few of my favorite blogs and say "hi". So I'm off but I'll be back tomorrow with an awesome post. I'm going to post everyday this week in celebration. Let the joyous news be spread!

Two in a row!

Over the past week, I made my first attempt at converting a script into prose. It was actually a mini-movie that I wrote. There were never any plans to make it but I always thought it would work better as a movie. If I were forced to describe by using other movies as examples I would say that it’s kind of a cross of Clueless and Clerks.
I was worried that it wouldn’t work in prose but the transition seemed to work out okay. I was able to use inner monologue for the main character and I think that definitely added something. Although, I think visuals would add to the humor.
The plan is to take it to writing group tonight and see what they think about it. I’m sure they’ll just be excited that I finally sent a story that is upbeat and funny (I think).

I'm still alive.

It’s November 1st. The start of NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo. It’s probably no surprise that I don’t plan on committing to either of these this year. Without Internet access, NaBloPoMo would be a difficult task. And while I really should do NaNoWriMo, I just don’t feel like I can.
I have started adjusting to the new job and finding more time for writing. But I still have a lot of unfinished projects to catch up on. There is one significant change that I would like to make in my life that would give me more time to get things done but that change isn’t possible at the moment so I have to make the best of what I have.
The past two Novembers I got slammed with serious family problems. I hope that doesn’t happen again this year but I’m always worried about the possibility. While September through December is my favorite time of the year, it’s not always the kindest to our family.
So no commitment to either NaMo but I do want to at least post more than the few times I managed to post in October, which was twice. So that shouldn't be hard to do.