Blog Plans

As promised, a post about new ideas for my blog.
The idea I had is about searches. I check my sitemeter every now and again to see how people are randomly getting here. Posting the quote by Stewie to Bryan about "How's that novel comin'?" from Family Guy has gotten me a lot of visitors and I ended up putting a link in my sidebar to the post that has the full quote.
Then after I wrote about writing a speech on leadership, I had a few searches for quotes on leadership and speech writing. I also get an occasional search for mix tapes and Batman's wedding guest list as well as my Batman sonnet.
I thought that maybe I should look into posting about interesting searches when I can. I could give information that I have that may be helpful in case anyone else is directed back to my blog for a similar search.
I'll also put links to posts that get a lot of searches. Eventually, I'd like to figure out how to work out the HTML to have a separate link section for searches but so far I don't know how to do that.
To start this off I added a link in the sidebar to my Batman sonnet for anyone who has searched for Batman poetry and Batman rhymes.

*While I was editing the links in the sidebar, it occurred to me that I should finally take down the link to Writer's Post Journal, since it's out of business and no longer works. I'm a little sad now.*

Holy Sonnet Batman!

In recent post I've mentioned a few different things. One was looking back on some of my old post that had substance and weren't just filler material I posted to let people know I was still alive. Actually that I might have mentioned quite a while ago. I don't really recall. Anyway, the other was poetry. When I combine these two things I came up with one thought. Sonnets.

Over two years ago, I sat in the last day of writing class, forced to write a sonnet. At the time this was really annoying because I was on a bad kick about my dislike of poetry after having just been forced to write poetry in many different forms, including prose poems. For the record, I still can only guess the difference between a prose poem and a short short. I really think it has to do with sharing thoughts (prose poem) and telling a story (short short). Of course, this is only a guess and really I feel the whole thing is very debatable. Jenni, if you're out there please feel free to enlighten me.

Sorry for the digression. Now back to our regularly scheduled program, which is my brilliant sonnet and the idea that followed, which wasn't all that brilliant and I have yet to follow through on.

I wrote a sonnet about Batman. To me, it seemed really genius. It wasn't something many people would write a sonnet about. I felt my use of BAM! and POW! were an awesome idea and a great tribute to the old comics and t.v. show.
It was definitely one of my favorite things I ever wrote. I loved it so much I vowed to write 154, or however many Shakespeare sonnets there are, comic book character sonnets. I started with a bang, one a week, even buying a rhyming dictionary but I fell off the wagon after a mere 4 and a half started sonnet.
It was difficult to find cool things about each character or quirky things like onomatopoeias and then make them rhyme and fit. I started to wonder if I should have just left it at the awesomeness of Batman. I still think about it. Maybe one day I'll have inspiration to finish. Until then it's in my incomplete stack.
And for anyone who hasn't read the first of my few sonnets and is mildly curious about it, just click here for the original post.

*Why did I not use the title of this post for the original post. And yes a Robin sonnet with Holy something or other in it would be a quote that would equal the quirkiness of the onomatopoeias.*

**Also why does spell check keep telling me that onomatopoeias is wrong and that it should have an apostrophe after the 's'? Am I missing something in my grammar or is spell check just nuts as usual? **

I have moved on for now so no Harry Potter but there's Kreeg, Batman, Snoopy, Family Guy and Behind the Naugahyde

Well I've got to move on with my life and my own work so for the first time in a few months I will be blogging with no mention of Harry Potter, other than to say that I won't be mentioning it.

Now that I've got that out of the way. I've been slacking off due to other things I said I wouldn't be mentioning so I've really got nothing to say about what I've been writing but I feel I should post because I hate going too long without posting. Since it's Friday I decided I would do a pointless yet possibly mildly amusing Friday Five.

Friday Five: The five weirdest searches that have brought someone to my blog.

I don't really get very cool searches like other people I know. I think this is my caused by my not mentioning enough body parts. It could also be that my blog is rather boring and only interesting to me. But the following are the craziest I've found since starting my site meter.
Before I get to the craziest but not really that crazy search topics, I will say that the searches I get most often in some form or another are people looking for 'ways to get ink off of paper', Snoopy writing/rejection comic strips and the Stewie to Bryan "how's that novel comin'" episode of Family Guy.
I don't have any of those Snoopy comics on here but I'll look into it. Also, I don't have the actual episode of Family Guy available for viewing but I do have the dialogue about the novel progress. And if anyone ever figures out how to get ink off paper, and it doesn't involve those crappy ink erasers that wear a hole in the paper, please let me know so that people's search can end here.
In short, if you're looking for the comic strips, to watch the episode or need to get ink off of paper, you're in the wrong place because I can't help you. But I'll work on it.

And now...

Friday Five (in no particular order):

crazy shoe stores in Michigan-I'm pretty sure this person was looking for stores that sold crazy shoes but I like to think that this person is trying to figure out what crazy shoe store inspired Behind the Naugahyde.

allergic reactions to ink on paper- I'm not entirely sure that this is all that weird. True, my blog doesn't actually talk about ink being on paper. It's just a name I gave my blog because I am a writer who occasionally puts ink on paper. Well, it's more often words on a monitor or something. Anyway, what I do find to be weird is that someone is having an allergic reaction to ink on paper. Not paper or ink but the combination of ink being on paper. Or maybe it's a metaphorical allergic reaction to words that were put on paper by ink.

"Lansing Community College" vampire graduate- To be honest I have no idea what this could possibly mean. Yes, I have attended LCC but I have never heard any rumors of a vampire graduating. To my knowledge vampires do not exist. Of course, there are people who claim to be vampires but are not in fact the immortal vampires that everyone thinks of. So maybe they were looking for someone like that. No clue but it is unusual.

sci-fi short story about evil squirrels- During a post about scary hotels I mentioned my dog, Kreeg, saving me from evil squirrels and then in the comments it started to develop into a story idea by D.B. Echo. If they were looking for a story about evil squirrels perhaps they can talk him into writing it. However, if they were checking to make sure that no one else had written such a story, I'm not sure about others, but I have not. And there are no plans in the works on my part but you may want to check with D.B.Echo .

someone who would get invited to Batman's wedding- I imagine that a lot of superheroes would be there. Obviously, all the Batfamily, Alfred, possibly a bunch of socialites if he got married as Bruce Wayne and not Batman. The list of potential guest is just too vast, especially knowing that Bruce Wayne would have enough money to invite a ton of people.
I am going to hope that this person's search was directed here because Google thinks that I am a person likely to be on the guest list. I'm not sure if that really says anything about me or my blog other than that I just mentioned the right random combination of words, but I'm going to pretend that my writing and insight are so awesome that Batman would want to be my friend and invite me to his wedding.


And now that I have some of the crazy out of my system I am going to go write, edit and submit some work so that hopefully my next post will be a report about all the work I got done.

Who doesn't love a mix tape, really?

I finished Love is a Mix Tape today. And it's not just a book about mix tapes. It's about music, mostly, 90's rock. It's a also a memoir about how music brought two people together and how it helped the author through the loss of his wife.

Each chapter starts with a song list for an actual mix tape that the author was given or made. And then the chapter goes on to tell what the significance of the mix tape was in his life.
I think a lot of people relate to how a song defines a time in your life. How you think the song was made just for you because it describes exactly what you're going through and you're convinced that it can't possibly mean as much to someone else, even the person who wrote it, as it does to you.

I know mix tapes are completely out dated. It's been MP3 play list for a while and in between it was mix CDs but it's still the same idea. I remember a few months ago Jenni thought she might be in a mix CD battle with a fellow teacher. And for the wedding I'm in next month, the gift for the guest is a mix CD of all the couples songs that are being played at the wedding.

When I was young I used to make mix tapes by recording songs off the radio because we didn't really have money to buy actual tapes. When I finally got my first job CDs were it and I would make mix tapes from CDs. Tapes for dancing to, driving to, being mad at your parents, liking someone, being dumped. Then my friend and I actually bought a CD burner. Not a computer but a machine that did nothing but burn CDs.

I used to make mix tapes for when I would write. I like to set the mood for what I'm writing by playing music that I think a character would listen to or music that I could see on the soundtrack if the story were a movie or the music that inspired the story. I no longer have a functioning tape recorder so now I just program my CD player. Maybe one day I'll get an MP3 player but after reading that book I really want to go back to making mix tapes.

Music can tell you a lot about a person, including how their feeling. I think a new writing exercise I should do is make a play list for each character to help develop their personality.

I have this poster above my desk with a little kid wondering what Batman dresses up for on Halloween and who's on Batman's pajamas. I wonder what's on Batman's mix tape?

They should make soundtracks for books not just movies. Wouldn't we all like to know what some of our favorite characters are listening to?

Bye

Well since I will soon be leaving my house I thought I would post pictures of my first office. This is where most of my writing has been done for the last three years. Sorry, Batman fell down:(

Shaffierean Sonnet #1

As mentioned in the previous post, today in my creative writing class we tackled rhyme and meter poetry. I am not a fan of poetry and had a rough time with the free verse and prose poems we had done through out the semester. So to focus on syllables and iambic pentameter, not to mention rhyming lines in a pattern, well lets just say I was more than excited. Our professor did not have us use this type of poetry through out the year unless we wanted to, because she did not want to limit our creativity. Today however, she wanted us to give it a try.
During class, particularly when discussing the difference between prose poetry and short-shorts, it was determined that poetry tends to have less of a tale to tell or someplace it's going, but rather expresses emotions and ideas. So when we set forth today we looked into some of the most famous rhyme and meter poetry of all time, Shakespearean sonnets.
For those of you unfamiliar with them they are often about seasons, time, love, emotion. Basically everything you would expect from poetry. Our teacher said we could really do any form but sonnets would probably be easiest. Well I figured William had really set the bar high for serious sonnets so I was going to go all out crazy. The professor tried to inspire us with two words, 'strange exhilaration'. This made me think of flying, which lead to superhero's, which lead to my sonnet. You're probably thinking, "she's teasing us by writing all this and now we'll never get to see it". You're wrong! Since I have absolutely no idea who would publish this, I will publish it here, for my faithful fan(s). Don't worry for those of you who don't get it I will explain at the end. Hopefully you like it, when I read it aloud in class people actually laughed! Here it is the first of my many sonnets.

He lands in the street, dropping from the sky.
Swears to protect, always ready to fight.
He is and is not a regular guy.
Crime fighting the job, they call him Dark Knight.

The Penguin, the Joker, and Ras al Ghul,
He is strong enough to stop them. Pow! Wham!
They use their power and evil to rule,
But he is just too fast for them. Bang! Bam!

Jumping from roof to roof over Gotham,
No resting when catching the enemy.
Sending some to jail and others to Arkham,
And he will return when they are set free.

They try to get by him but no one can.
He stands over watching, he is Batman.

For reference:(Batman is often referred to as the Dark Knight. The Penguin, the Joker and Ras al Ghul are all Batman villains. In the old comics and 60's T.V. series, in fight scenes they would use sound bubbles with words such as "Bam!" when hitting and such. Gotham City is Batman's hometown. Arkham is the insane asylum where the bad guys go.)

I would also like to express how excited I am that I figured out how to make line breaks. It took me nearly two hours of frustration as my sonnet kept coming out in a paragraph, but I figured out it was a format setting.