Getting back on track

It seems things are getting back to normal computer wise, well as normal as they can get. And now that I don't have to spend all my time working on computer problems I'm hoping to get back to my writing schedule.
When I used to work nights and weekends I had a writing schedule and for a while it worked really well. Then my job changed and it was hard for me to get back into the swing of things. After six months I feel like I’m finally getting back in a groove and a schedule is forming.
So now I’m trying to set the schedule and stick to it. I feel like I have a few projects going on and I need to keep them balanced. I didn’t mean to start editing my NaNo novel until after I finished Human Decency but I’ve got some stuff going on in my life that brings me back to my NaNo novel. I feel like now's a good time to work on it. And I’m having a little trouble pushing through with Human Decency at this time. I’ve got a great idea and terrific characters (so I think, anyway) but I need to come up with some idea of where it’s going. I need a little direction.
Now my tentative schedule for the week is to edit my NaNo novel during the day while I’m at work. After reading through it I made a list of things I want to change or need to think about. I’ve decided to change it to first person point-of –view. I do want to add in the final short story. I liked Jenni’s idea of having her live it then start writing it. I thought it would be cool to just have the story and let the reader decide if it’s real or if it’s another one of the writer’s stories but I can’t think of a way to do it that’s not completely confusing. I’ve yet to decide whether to get rid of the first story. If I keep it I definitely need to add more about how it relates to the writer’s life. And I need to make the story less chunky. There are chunks of the writer’s life and how that affects what she’s writing and then chunks of what she’s writing. I think I need to make the parts smaller and intertwine them more.
I know most of this probably only makes sense to me but I thought I’d share so it seems like I’m actually working on something.
At night I work on Human Decency. Well I try to push through anyway. I’ve been working on introducing the characters and bringing them together but I’m worried it’s not happening fast enough and that this book is going to end up huge. That’s if I think of something past the characters coming together. I also don’t want to cheat it.
On Saturday I work on writing short stories and editing them for submissions. Sundays I work mostly on submissions. I throw in a blog post wherever I can fit it. Occasionally, I go off schedule and work on a few other things like an action/adventure short story series, a Christmas story that I would like to get finished and submitted before the end of the month (*in time for a few literary magazine deadline’s for holiday stories) and anytime I’m around my family I get inspired to write a funny story for a humorous anthology that I really should do.

Well I obviously have a lot to do so I guess it's back to work.

Yet another computer update

Someone gave me an old laptop that is in much better condition than mine so that's super exciting. I'm trying to get all my files and software on it right now. Hopefully, I'll be getting back to IMing, blogging, e-mailing and all that other fun stuff on a normal basis.

I forgot to mention another fun part of my chaotic week where an employee left the store unlocked and I had four phone calls from the police to let me know that someone had walked in and set off the store alarm. Now we have to do inventory on the entire store to make sure nothing was stolen. So the few hours that I've managed to be there this week I haven't had anytime to work on my writing.

I did manage to write a post during a quick break at work but I can't open it because it doesn't seem that Word is on my computer despite having put on Windows XP so I'll have to figure that out.
So I thought I'd write a quick update and maybe things will be up and running soon.

A quick update on the chaos that has consumed my week

Okay well this week has been insane. The short version goes that my parents won't talk to me because of a biscuit, I yelled at my boss calling him some pretty not nice things, I missed my best friends wedding reception and I've got about two minutes of sleep since I've been in the hospital with a family member. And did I mention when I finally got home and got a second to write about all this, I'm going to guess that I didn't catch the computer virus on time because my computer got incredibly hot, smelled like it was burning and stopped working. I am now functioning on the old laptop with the missing keys that has been mentioned in previous post that I don't dare look up at this time.

Anyway, amongst all this madness, mostly the hospital part, I have found the occasional few minutes to write. I didn't really have all my novel gear so I haven't been working on any of those. For some reason I felt inspired to write a Christmas story. Maybe I'll have it done in time to submit for the holiday issues of a few literary magazines.

One good thing it's been high in the 70's and raining all week. I'm sorry for those who don't care for it but I'm totally loving it.

And since I'm not sure when my next substantial post will come around, I suggest everyone stop by and read this blog .I really like the current post and the rest of the blog is great as well.

The troubles of a writing group, if you can even call it that.

The other day I met with the writing group I thought would be no more. We probably wouldn’t have met but my ad that had gone unanswered all summer got one more reply. And one of the teachers was able to make it back for at least this week so we decided to give it a try.

I felt bad for the new guy because, the teacher will call her E, (I don’t want to use her real name since I didn’t ask if I could. Not that I think she would mind but that’s not for me to decide. And yes I use Jenni’s name without permission but her name is all over our Behind the Naugahyde website so what difference does it make? Sorry Jenni please don’t hate and/or sue me.), had been so busy traveling to Maryland for an interview last week that she didn’t have any writing for the group to read and I couldn’t get to any of my writing because it was all floating around in the chaos of back-up file land. So we were going to be focusing completely on new guy's work.

Of course, E and I got there kind of late and we hadn’t bothered to tell the new guy, D, what we looked like so when we got there he was actually sitting with another writing group that had another member named E (well E’s real name). What a coincidence? We told him he was welcome to stay with the cool writing group that had a sufficient supply of members who would be around for a while, would actually bring work and be on time but for some reason he chose to go with us.

I hadn’t been able to get his story that he had sent for me to read in advance because it was in my e-mail and we all know I was having some serious computer problems. So I felt bad that the pressure was on me to read on the spot, come up with comments and do all of this in a timely fashion while I fought off the paranoia that D and E were staring at me.

Once I started reading D’s story I was grateful and annoyed. He’s an amazing writer. He had a fantastic literary story that read like poetry. It was so descriptive and filled with brilliant metaphors. He had an excellent vocabulary. The story definitely needed a lot of thinking which I had little time to do. I of course could think of nothing to say other than “wow!” so I marked a few typos to make it look like I was being helpful.
Thankfully he had questions and that gave me a little footing for some input but still I was annoyed with myself for not having more time to really think it through and grateful that I hadn’t brought the third half of my cheesy, clichéd and poorly written vampire story.

We ended the meeting and he said if we had another meeting he would come back. I feel like E and our other writer/teacher, B, are skilled enough in writing to work with D but I think my presence will drag the group down if we manage to survive.

I almost thought that maybe I was just being over dramatic and maybe D’s work was great but not that great, until we were in the parking lot and E said she thought that his work was quite impressive as well.

So we managed to squeeze out one more meeting. I have no idea if there will be another. Fortunately for her but unfortunate for our writing group, E got a teaching job out of state and is moving away. B will be busy at least for the start of the school year plus he lost all of his work due to computer problems so it may be a while before he recovers from that. And D might find a group that’s more in his league.

Just saw: Underdog
Listening to: Nickelback-All the Right Reasons

My bleepin' computer problems!

I’m back and no I wasn’t gone because I didn’t pay my electricity and/or Internet bill. The pop-up virus on my computer got so bad that I couldn’t even function. So I managed to find someone to fix it for a decent rate, which was still more than I should have spent.

Anyway, they had to erase a lot of my stuff so I’m trying to adjust. I had most of it backed up so I’m not too worried about that. All my word documents are backed up but they need to be put back on my computer. And I had most of my pictures backed up or in e-mails but I did lose a few. It’s my own fault for not making more time to back things up before having someone fix my computer.

A few weeks ago one of the writers I had met with had some computer problems and didn’t back stuff up. He lost three years worth of work on his novel. I couldn’t even imagine what that would be like. Fortunately, for me I have extreme paranoia. I often hand write my work so I usually have a paper back up. And I usually print things out to edit. Sure I have to type things in again but better that than losing it completely. I also save stuff in my e-mail in case of a fire. It was either that or try to fit everything in the freezer.

My DSL software was also deleted and it took me forever to get it back on since my CD drive is 1% functional. But if this is posted I obviously got it working. (I’m writing this at work. It’s around 2pm Tuesday, Aug. 14).

The computer fixer came to my house instead of me having to take it some place and never knowing when I would get it back so that was cool. And I was worried that in the chaos of all the pop-ups I might have accidentally ended up with some crazy stuff on my computer. Especially, since I kept getting these messages saying my adult material that I had downloaded was being tracked and I could end up losing my job and ruining my marriage if I didn’t by the software to delete it. But if there was any embarrassing material found on my computer he didn’t mention it.

So hopefully this works. Then I can get my computer set up, get back online and everything will be back to normal.

What's going on

Thanks to the heat and a bad case of the pop-ups my computer is running very slowly. So I haven’t been online much. Although, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Right now, I get online and check my e-mail, read a few blogs and that’s about it. Before I would waste hours away looking up stupid stuff while I was procrastinating on all my other work. Not that the whole computer situation isn’t annoying but I’m trying to find the positive.

So that means I’ve been getting lots of work done right? Well I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t spent too many hours trying to clean my computer. While I’m waiting ten minutes for it to do one small task I’ve been reading. I think this may affect my feelings on certain books since they are being read in frustration. Aside from all of that I have been getting some writing done.

The other day I decided to open up my NaNoWriMo novel from last November. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with it but after reading it I think it’s not too bad and that I might try getting it published. Of course, it’s a total mess. I’ve been debating back and forth about whether to tell it in first person or in third person. It’s in third person right now. It’s a story about a writer’s life and how everyday events affect what she writes. So now I’m thinking that maybe her telling the story might work a bit better. And that will mean a lot of work but I’m thinking first person is better.
Also I need to come up with a name for it. If I can get my computer to function for ten minutes I plan on putting up a blogger poll. I have a name with a few variations that I’m debating about but right now I’m worrying about edits.
Bits and pieces of the stories that the writer is working on are scattered through the novel. Each story has significance to the writer’s life. I’m just not sure if the first story is on the same level as the other stories or if it’s really necessary. Then there’s another short story that I had an idea for that I think would be a good addition but I’m also thinking it might work as something that actually happens to the writer.
The stories climb in importance to the writer. The first one is nothing like her life, the next one is nothing like her life but does have a few elements, then the next one is kind of like her life but not really, and so on. So the short story I’m debating about adding can be a story just like her life or it can be part of her life. That probably sounds entirely complicated but I assure you it makes sense in my head. But me saying that is probably not reassuring either.
And if I did chose to add or delete a story I have to change the story around the story so that will be more work. Even though it's a mess I think it's got potentail so I'm not giving up on it despite all the work.

Just a bunch of stuff that didn't fit anywhere else.

I'm sure that my last post makes it pretty obvious that absolutely nothing exciting is going on in my life. So here's some random thoughts that I've been meaning to throw into posts but haven't.

Yesterday I went to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village with my grandma and sister. I can't actually afford a real vacation so that's where I ended up. I'd like to write a huge long post about how awesome it was but minutes after paying $30 a person we stepped into the hot sun and 98 degree heat. Then my sister, who was horribly sunburned the day before, threw up and passed out. She came to fairly quickly and did not want to go to the hospital so we turned right back around for our hour and a half drive home. We were sad that we did not get to see the cars of rock n' roll exhibit, the bus Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on, the presidential cars exhibit or the Oscar Meyer Wiener mobile, but we felt better knowing the tickets were good for a year. Well, we felt better until we realized that in my attempt to not let my sister crash to the ground of a vomit covered bathroom, I dropped the tickets and never picked them up.
Another thing about the day that bummed me out was that on the way there I came up with the best song lyrics ever. I couldn't wait to write them down when I wasn't driving so I kept saying them over and over in my head. Then all the madness happened and they were lost. I was sad for the first time I had actually thought of great lyrics that flowed and would have made a fantastic song. I hate it when something slips out of my mind before I get the chance to write it down. Sometimes I wonder if it comes back later but I don't recognize it as an idea I already had.

On a completely different subject, it seems the rejection notices I've been getting lately are rather rude. Before I was just getting generic notices or some pleasant 'thanks but no thanks' comments. Yet in the last two weeks I've gotten two rude comments that come out something along the lines of "I am so tired of seeing stories about this." And that's fine. Maybe my story isn't as original as I thought. I'm okay with that but what is the necessity of the rude, snarky remarks. A simple 'no thanks' would suffice and I do appreciate knowing why it's a no but you could say it nicely. Sorry, that's just me griping. I'm sure they get annoyed by the tons of people that send in "crap" everyday so it's probably hard to stay pleasant.

Another random thing I wanted to mention is that I know I keep talking about searches on my site meter and I just wanted to assure everyone that I don't check it constantly. And I rarely look at anything other than how many people stopped by and the searches. I don't want people to feel like they can't stop by my blog because I'm spying on them.

Also, thanks to the hot weather, that makes me want to do absolutely nothing, (Yes I am a big cry baby!), I have seen way too many movies this week. I went to see 'Hairspray'. I've never seen the theater version so I can't compare but I loved it. That could of course be because I have a sick addiction to musicals.
I also watched 'Reno 911:Miami' and I was a little disappointed that it didn't seem as funny as the tv show, which I think is hilarious. Although, I haven't seen it in a while so maybe Reno 911 has just lost its touch.
'Ed Wood' was another movie I watched. I know his movies are suppose to be the worst ever but now I want to find them and see how ridiculous they really are.
And I finally watched 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. I always thought it was a glamorous, romantic film. After hearing about 'In Cold Blood', I wonder how Truman Capote could have wrote something so serious and something so fluffy. Then I watched 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' and figured out it was a bit more complex than I thought it would be. I never realized that Holly Golightly (the book character) was a little off her rocker. She certainly had some issues to deal with. A surprise I wasn't expecting. Not that it was anything as grave as 'In Cold Blood' but definitely not what I had originally thought. I hear the book is even more complicated since the movie was edited to be more cinematically appealing.

Currently, I'm reading 'Mrs. Dalloway' by Virginia Woolf. I've been meaning to read it since I finished 'The Hours', which was inspired by it. Not that I was confused by 'The Hours', but now that I'm reading 'Mrs. Dalloway' I understand parts of it better. So I guess I should have read it first.
When I get done with that I think I'm going to read 'Watership Down' by Richard Adams. I've never heard of it before but I took a 'what book are you quiz' and apparently I'm that book. So I figured I should give it a shot.

And one final note, I'm starting a new blog in addition to this one. A Positive Blog In Lansing is a local blog about HIV/AIDS. I hope to list local, state, national and world events, medical information and research, political and funding concerns, as well as stories and experience of people with HIV and those who support family, friends and patients who are positive. It will have a local focus but will not be limited to so please stop by and check it out if you have a minute. Right now it's in a rough development stage. I hope to change it and add to it more in the next few days.

Even though it's tempting, I can not quit my job and become a poor, struggling writer no matter how glamorous it seems

I’m at work right now and intend to post this on my blog later. I would just write it then but my computer is a little cranky in the summer and I feel inspired now.
Like everyday, I’ve spent the morning dealing with an ignorant boss and rude customers. (It’s funny how I get one or two customers a day and they are always the rude ones.) And once again dealing with these things has filled my head with the thoughts that this job is completely pointless and that I should be looking for more meaningful or enjoyable work. And yes I know that I wouldn’t make as much money but really, oh well. I just don’t care.
When these thoughts pop into my head I have to reason with myself that maybe this job may not be so bad and that it’s helping me toward my goal of being a published writer.

First off, it’s incredibly slow as far as sales and customers go. If I added up all the time a customer was in the store during the day it would be about an hour. That usually gives me about 6-7 hours to read, write and edit. Plus, I’m getting paid for it.
And no matter how much my boss and the customers annoy me I feel like they are training me for dealing with editors, publishers and critics. Sometimes editors are going to veto my opinion even if I think they are completely wrong. Just like I truly believe most ideas my boss comes up with are stupid but he’s the boss.
Also, every time a customer calls me stupid I have to let it go and continue to politely smiling. So when critics say that my work is awful I’ll have plenty of training of polite smiling and hopefully, by then I’ll have learned to not take it personally. Although, insulting my writing is a bit more personal than calling me an idiot over something I am certain is not my fault nor do I care.
So the demands of customers and practicing the art of multitasking will probably come in handy when I’m dealing with deadlines and multiple projects.

Another good thing about this job is the air conditioning. I don’t have it at home and the summer heat makes my computer crash every ten minutes. So it’s fabulous to have another computer chilling in the air conditioning at work, ready for me to use.
I am really not a big fan of hot weather. Once it gets over 85 degrees I’m in a bad mood. I know, all those people that live in the south are telling me to quit complaining but if they let me complain about this I won’t make any comments in the winter when they think 30 degrees is cold. Anyway, I’m not a fan of the heat and maybe I would get used to it if it was around longer. But when it is hot here I don’t feel like doing anything except sitting in front of a fan. So it’s nice to come to work where there’s air conditioning and I can comfortably type away.

I think one of the best things about this job could actually be the shoes. Not because I love to buy shoes but because I feel like shoes have their own personality. You can come up with great characters by trying to figure out what kind of person would buy certain shoes. And some times real customers help the idea along. Of course the company names and style names often help inspire character names.
We used to play this game at the store where you had to pick a shoe that had the same characteristics as a fellow employee or yourself. It’s really interesting what you can get from shoes. Remember Jenni’s project for her students about walking in someone else’s shoes? It doesn’t just give a writer character ideas, it helps us understand people and who they are, which makes us better people and better writers.

Of course what shoes they bought or wore, weren’t the only things that gave me character ideas. There were some people that became characters because they were just entertaining. Sure a customer demanding that we either drop her shoes off or open early for her may seem like a pain but without customers like her Behind the Naugahyde would be empty.

Out of all the things that have been good about this job, the best would for sure have to be the awesome people that I’ve met. I’m not talking about the annoying customers, jerk bosses and the lazy employees that make great characters; I’m talking about Jenni, Angie and Sharon.
Without Jenni there would be no Behind the Naugahyde. I also can’t figure out who would have done all my proofreading and given me so many ideas to make my stories better for the last few years.
Sharon reads anything I write and is always asking for more, which is just fantastic.
Angie has given me a few good story ideas too and her artistic personality can be inspiring. Yet, I still have to harass her to stop by and read my blog or sign the guest book at Behind the Naugahyde.
And of course they’re amazingly supportive and encouraging. I can’t describe how nice it is to have people to talk about writing to that don’t roll their eyes at me.
There’s also no way I could forget to mention that they are remarkable people who are the best friends a person could ask for.

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot to mention the office supplies. I can print out everything at work and save paper and ink. Plus I get some use out of envelopes, paper clips and other random things. Don't worry, it's not stealing. When I tried to conserve this stuff to save the store money my boss actually lectured me about how it was a waste of time because it was all so ridiculously cheap.

Needless to say there are a lot of good things that have come from selling shoes, aside from having unique job titles such as Bench Wench and Ass. Man. It’s also pretty obvious that I was grasping to find some purpose in a few of these things. But this is the list of stuff I have to go over in my head ever time a customer comes in and tells me that people have no idea what they go through and complains about how hard life is for them because they have a narrow heel.What are they suppose to do? The agony. At this point going over the benefits, keeps me from shouting out “well at least you can afford shoes. I'm pretty sure that people who can't even afford to eat would love any shoes no matter how they fit you whiny, selfish *beep*”.
I thought I’d write them down so I can reflect on it and so everyone can remind me that things aren’t bad when I’m screaming that I’m going to slap my boss and I don’t care if I get fired.

I don't have to worry about going over these things for the next few days because I'm on a mini-vacation. Two days off plus my weekend. My boss wasn't too thrilled about giving me the time off because apparently it's pointless to want a break for yourself if you can't afford to go camping for two weeks or Vegas or Mexico, which he has taken off enough time to do all of those things in a five month time frame.
When he said this to me I had to really think about the good things listed above and I for surely need them when I'm forced to go back after seeing how great four days of not being there is.

I've got a secret

Well I didn't want to mention it because I was afraid I would jinx it. Everyone knows how that happens. But don't get too excited it's not about publishing or agents. I'll keep dreaming.
The last few weeks I've been meeting with a writing group. I'm one of three people. One of the writers is an old acquaintance from high school. The other was/is a teacher at my old high school, although I didn't realize it until the other group member pointed it out.
Every week I worried that one or both wouldn't show up. Leaving me alone again or in awkward conversation with someone I didn't know. But it worked for a few weeks so I've been pretty lucky.

And I just want to say that my meeting with this group does not mean that I have given up on a writing group with my southeast pals. Writing is my life and the more I get of it the more I'm thriving. Plus it's always wonderful to have more opinions. Not to mention that I hold back a little with the work I bring to this group because one of the writers seems a bit more conservative (not in a political sense) so I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable. It's not like I'm writing erotica but some of the content of Human Decency might be a little harsh.

Besides the only reason I dared to mention the writing group today is because I'm not certain it will be around much longer. Both members are teachers, one that will be on vacation for the next three weeks and soon after that school will be starting so I imagine time will be limited. And the member who I went to high school with is also a teacher. She's going to Maryland next week to interview for a job that I hope she gets. Not because I don't want her around but she's been looking for a job and Michigan is pretty much out of them. So I'm fairly sure that it won't be long before the group is no more. We've been trying to get a few more people. There have been potentials and still are but so far not much has come of it. With as hard as it was to get it started in the first place I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway, I've gotten a few stories reviewed by my group so far. The first one is my story about companion animal abandonment. The second was a story that I just recently submitted to a somewhat prestigious magazine and to be honest I probably wouldn't have done it had I not had advice and proofreading from others. The third was a dark comedy of sorts about a somewhat unfortunate girl that my group wanted to make even more unfortunate.
I've gotten positive but constructive feedback. And I've gotten a lot of tips on grammar. I worry more about the story than the technical aspects so it's been a super bonus having two teachers read over my work. I've also greatly enjoyed reading their work. Second to writing, reading is a big chunk of my life and I love to read works in progress.

So I'm bummed that it may come to an end but glad that I had it for the short time I did. And I'm optimistic that I'll maybe have a writing group with others, no pressure though. I know everyone's busy having lives and careers.

**Oh and I just want to sincerely apologize to the person that was directed to my blog today while searching for "allergic reaction to paper and ink". In my last entry I did not mean that it was weird to have this type of allergic reaction but more that it seemed unusual to be allergic to the combination of the two. If this is a serious allergic reaction, I am so sorry for my idiocy.**

*BTW: On the subject of weird searches, in the last two days I've gotten two searches about whining. I've never had any searches about whining before but apparently the past few days have brought on people who wonder "why do people whine?" and "do I whine?"
Wouldn't it be awesome if it turned out it was two people fighting and one said the other whined. So why they were trying to calm down one went searching for why people whine and the other didn't think they were a whiner so they went searching to find out if they did. Oh the possibilities there.*

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.

One more Harry Potter post before I get back to the real world.

I have finished. Of course, I won't be discussing it. I'll wait until more people have read it. What's best is that I made it without hearing any spoilers. There was a moment when I was worried that it was going to be ruined for me.
When I was standing in line at 11:30 some jackass drove by and rolled down his window. Then he yelled that someone died. Of course, rather than be devastated, everyone in line broke out in laughter. One, because he said the name wrong and also because that person died in the last book. So whether he meant to ruin it for us or just thought he was funny, it didn't matter because I avoided the ruiners. I hope everyone else was just as lucky.
I will say that while it is not at all happy( I'm sure it's no secret people die in this book), I felt okay with what happened because it just needed to happen to show the severity of the situation. There's no point in fighting the ultimate evil if everyone can just live happily ever after regardless.

I'll reread it again. This time I will take my time and won't put most of my life on hold. And even though it seems Pottermania is over, I'm sure in the years to come the obsession will come with more movies, the planned theme park, conventions will pop-up similar to Star Wars and Star Trek, fan fiction will be everywhere, books about theories and studies will be around. And of course the toys and the collectibles will be out there. So it's not really over, not for the true fans. And, maybe, we'll find out the things that J.K. Rowling knew but never told us.

When I read the last sentence of the book I said goodbye to a part of my life. Something I enjoyed and anticipated for a good part of my life. No matter what, I'll never step back into Hogwarts with Harry, Ron and Hermione for a new adventure again.

Only one more day. Hopefully, I can avoid all the spoilers until then.

Not that anyone would probably notice since I don't post everyday anyway, but I'm following in a few other Harry Potter fan's footsteps and will be avoiding the Internet until I finish reading the book. In fact after today I have to avoid the radio, T.V. and newspapers because all of them are shouting out spoilers with no warning. Part of me wants to not go out tomorrow because I feel like someone is going to try to ruin. I'll still buy it and read it either way but I would rather not know until I get to it in the book. And of course people could be yelling out the wrong thing because not all the spoilers are true but still.
It's weird I can't remember another instance where people saw a movie or read a book and just started purposely trying to spoil it for others. I'm not entirely sure why this is an exception. I guess there are always going to be mean spirited people in the world and you just can't let them get to you.
So until I'm done with the book, I'm offline. Good luck to everyone else trying to avoid spoilers.
CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

A blogger award for me? You've got to be kidding.

No way! I can't believe I won an award for blogging. Now I feel like a bum for being a blog slacker lately.
Thanks to D.B.Echo for giving me this lovely award. And now I have the task of passing it on to someone. To be honest I'm not entirely sure what the criteria is. My interpretation is that it should go to someone that give something to the blogging community so I gladly give this award to Tiffany.

Tiffany writes an entertaining blog, If I Were Queen Of The World, that makes me laugh. I particularly enjoy her stories about the customers that wander into her bar. However, the thing that I admire most about Tiffany and her blog is that she is very honest about how she feels. She'll tell you if she thinks someone is an idiot. And she is not afraid of people not liking her for it. If Tiffany has something to say, she says it. To me that action itself is louder than the words she writes, which are thoughtful, intelligent and funny.

**Honorable mention goes to D.B.Echo and Whim, who both have great blogs but already won the award!**

I think that anyone who writes has to be willing to put themselves out there. I do try to keep my opinions to myself because I want this blog to be about writing and not a fighting spot for people to disagree with me on politics or comic books. But I think everyone that blogs (because they have something to say, not those who do it just for profit) has to have a bit of courage because they are putting some small or large piece of themselves out their for anyone to find and potentially criticize, no matter what the subject is. So every blogger brings their own little something and should all get an award.

It's quite nice to receive this award, although, I'm not entirely sure I deserve it. If anything it has got me to make a post today, which I probably wouldn't have done otherwise. So thanks for the award and the motivation to make a post!

Reading done ahead of schedule and now the waiting begins

I've finished rereading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Now I just have to sit and stew for a whole week while I wait for the Deathly Hallows. And during this time I have to avoid all "rumors" because I will be so pissed if I know what happens before reading it. Last time I had heard that in the area where the book was being printed they stopped taking bets on Dumbledore dying and then I pretty much knew what was going to happen. I held out hope.
I was thinking of writing down all the things I think are or aren't going to happen but there's just too much to think about. Although, I do think it's amazing that J.K. Rowling is able to keep quiet about what's going to happen. If it were me so much stuff would have accidentally slipped. And of course I would be bursting at the seems to tell people.
Aside from keeping all the details a secret, I couldn't imagine having that much pressure on me to write something. Not only did people want the book as soon as possible but they are expecting so much. She has to answer all the questions that people have had for years and no matter how it ends someone won't be happy about it.

Speaking of writing, now that I'm done rereading all the Harry Potter books, it's probably about time I started actually getting some work done. I haven't actually written any new fiction in a few weeks and I haven't worked on submissions in quite a while. So, hopefully, my next post will be about how I actually got something done.

It's a great movie. I was not disappointed.

I went to see the Order of the Phoenix on Monday and it was awesome! They cut out a lot of the book out but the action, especially the last 20 minutes in 3D at IMAX, was bad ass! It was the shortest movie, I think, for the longest book but they did a good job of fitting the major parts of the story into the movie. And while I did want more it was kind of nice that it wasn't three hours long like every other summer blockbuster usually is. Although, it would be nice if they eventually came out with longer director's cut DVDs like they did for the Lord of the Rings.
Now we wait for the book!
I didn't finish the Order of the Phoenix before going to see it but I finished yesterday. I guess I'll just have to see it again now that I'm done. And I started on Half-Blood Prince today. It's a bit ahead of schedule but my reading time at work has dwindled down due to the huge sale and absence of employees. So it's good I have extra time.

Speaking of work there is some scandalous stuff going on that would make great book material. I hope to have news to report on the progress of Behind the Naugahyde soon. No promises.

So with an even crazier schedule at work and Harry Potter mania going on I don't have much to report about writing. But both things should be over with soon and then I'll get back on track.

I never thought this week would end so needless to say I'm ecstatic!

This week has made me so tired. I haven't gotten anything done. I made it through the wedding and that's all I'm going to say about it. There's just too much to tell.
I'm still working on my Harry Potter books and I'm still behind. I had planned on reading all day at work yesterday but I had to rearrange the whole store for a surprise huge clearance sale, which has me worried.
I did go see Transformers earlier this week. I liked it. I spent all day yesterday listening to my boss complain about how he hated it because the robots were silly and ridiculous. They're talking robots! And Transformers were made to entertain children. Stop taking everything so seriously. I thought it was a fun movie.
Well that's the recap on my week. When I'm more awake and I have more to talk about I'll write a nice, long post. Until then I'm off to fall asleep while I finish Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The mania begins!

To be honest I'm going to be a complete blog slacker this week. I'm the maid-of-honor in a wedding on Wednesday which requires a lot of pre and post wedding obligations.

Also, I'm trying catch up on my Harry Potter schedule. Yes, I had it perfectly planned out and I'm on track. However, my plan included reading Order of the Phoenix the week before I saw it in the theater. Originally, the opening date was July 13 but then they changed it to July 11. Of course, I was totally depressed that because of my financial situation, which was so grim my electricity got shut off, I didn't get tickets to the first showing at midnight on the 11th (for the first time ever!). Don't feel too bad for me because then I got tickets to an exclusive sneak preview on the 9th! I'm so excited!
Of course, that means that I have to finish the book a day after I planned on starting it. Not that I'm upset because it can be done and it's not like I'm going to not go to the sneak preview just because I'm not done rereading the book.
They gave me a list of everything I can't take to the theater so that the movie won't leak. No phones, ipods, blackberry's, purses, fanny packs, coats, loose clothing. Everyone is subject to be searched and will have to pass through a metal detector. Isn't that crazy?!

Get tested for HIV, no matter what day.

It was such a short time no one probably notice but I got my power shut off yesterday. That's why no posting, e-mails, comments or blog views from me. I managed to get things worked out and it's back on now. I'm just disappointed because I didn't get to post on my blog, livejournal and myspace about the importance of getting tested for HIV since today is National HIV Testing Day. It's not too late though you can get tested any day. And you should. If you have it you can live a long and happy life but you have to know you have it so you can fight it. And it's important to keep yourself and the people you care about safe.
For free and anonymous, testing near you visit www.hivtest.org . If you're in my area got to www.laanonline.org

Doesn't it seem that these things always happen at the worst time? Like when I got my Internet shut off the day NaBloPoMo started.

Today has been madness between trying to get my power back, promoting HIV testing day and work. I'm so tired I could fall over. Sorry for the lack of good posting.

I have a nice, long nine hour day at work tomorrow in which I hope to turn my old sci-fi/western comic script into short story form so I can enter it into a contest. The deadline is July 1, which means I better get working on it. My flash drive will be put to the test since I need to get the story off this computer and to work.
And I'm still working my Harry Potter books but I'm still behind on my schedule.

currently reading: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Another post that mentions a crazy hotel

I went to see 1408 today. It's based on the short story by Steven King. I've only read the short part of it that he put as a writing example in On Writing so I have no idea how it compares to his story. However, I can tell you that it was quite scary, at least for me. I get freaked out real easily so who knows for sure.
The guy's a writer investigating paranormal activities for cheesy haunting books. I do think it would be interesting to go to places that are supposedly haunted and see what happens. Not by myself of course but I would never have went into that room after hearing everything about it. No matter how good of a story it would make.
I used to work in a bar that I was convinced was haunted. I'd go into detail but everyone I tell thinks I'm off my rocker and I don't need anymore people believing that. I ended up writing a story about it but it was more a crime mystery than a horror story.
Someday I should try to actually write a horror story since I do like them. Of course, when I read Stephen King books, or most horror books, I have to sit with my back against a wall. I'm always afraid that something is going to come up behind me. And I'd probably only be able to write it during the day. Although, I do feel safer with Kreeg around but I'm not sure how he's going to do against evil spirits. Now if it were an evil squirrel, I'd have no worries.

More stuff about music and writing

In my last post I talked about songs that inspired characters or story ideas. So I thought it would be cool for Friday Five to give five examples. It's not as easy as I thought it would be. I'm even having such a hard time remembering these things that I've busted out the idea cards. My giant stack of index cards that each list a story idea that I've had.

Hotel California by the Eagles- I know this is really a story itself but there are so many unanswered questions. Like why this guy is out wondering around? Who are the people in the hotel and why are they there? So my story came to me when I started imagining the answers. It didn't really turn out all that similar except for the crazy hotel part.

Wicked Game by Chris Isaak- To be honest I wasn't really familiar with this song until Jenni and another co-worker were talking about it. And if you would have heard what the co-worker said about it you would have wanted to know exactly what was so "great" about it.
It didn't inspire a new story but it inspired parts for a story I was already working on. Why would someone not want to fall in love? Why would making someone fall in love with you be a wicked game? More questions that needed answers.

Deny by Default-Most people probably have no idea what this song is. It was a hit the year after I graduated and they played it like every hour on the hour so it really got drilled into my head. It's really only the first lines that inspired me. "Today I woke up and you were gone.The whole day wondering what I did wrong." For some reason that made my mind drift to what would happen if that someone had been so devastated that the person was gone in the morning that they committed suicide. Then later you find out the person had only went to get breakfast. Kind of like a Romeo & Juliet of one night stands.

Dragula by Rob Zombie- Really it's just about any Rob Zombie song that gave me this idea. They remind me of people that I knew in high school that thought it would be cool to be zombies, vampires, witches or undead and evil in anyway. The song(s) made me start to wonder what those people would have done if they were faced with real vampires and witches and what the undead would think of people pretending to be them.

Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper- When I was about 4 I was obsessed with Cyndi Lauper. And I remember her saying in this song "If you're lost, you can look and you will find me..." During this phase of my life I was with my parents at Sears and I got lost in the clothes racks. When I found my way out my parents were no where around. I didn't know what to do but all I could remember was what Cyndi Lauper had said in her song. So I ran through the store in extreme excitement realizing that I was lost and if I looked I would find Cyndi Lauper and I could go home with her. I was so mad when my parents found me I thought they had totally ruined my chances to meet Cyndi Lauper. I thought it would be interesting and kind of experimental to write it from the little kids point of view, how they don't realize that songs and movies aren't real.
Or it could make a children's story. Like the Wizard of Oz where you go off looking for something better but find out what you wanted all along was in your own back yard. Of course, mine would have a different kind of ending because I have no idea why Dorothy ever wanted to leave Oz.

There are five examples of how I come up with my story ideas. I haven't actually made a complete story out of any of these. They're just ideas in different stages.
I would have went and found the links to all these songs but my computer keeps randomly shutting stuff down. I think it needs a break. Plus, I'm a slacker.
Besides I started Friday Five as an easy, effortless way to update my blog more often. How simple? A quick list and I'm done. Yet, this post has taken me over a half an hour to write. No wonder I never get anything done.

Just watched: The Virgin Suicides
Currently reading: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

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?

Complain and you shall receive

For some reason a letter I posted on this blog that I had written to Wizard magazine (that never got published) was linked on When Fangirls Attack. My site meter showed I got over 100 visits yesterday. I don't think many of them stuck around since my blog isn't mostly about comic books but if you can't get your letter published in Wizard, having over 100 people stop by your blog to read it is pretty kick ass.

I have tomorrow off. I don't usually have Wednesdays off but my boss is about to come back from vacation to find out that we had a negative Saturday (it's suppose to be our busiest day), the plumbing is broke and that the only assistant manager he has left to run nights and weekends is done at the end of the month. So I'm going to let someone else deal with that anger. I'm taking a vacation day.
The whole point to that little story is that, hopefully, I'll get a lot of work done tomorrow and I'll post something more substantial and by that I mean longer.

Currently reading: Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
Song playing on the radio: "Funky Cold Medina"- Tone Loc

Getting up to date

This weekend has been pretty boring. I finally stepped into this century and bought a USB flash drive. My disk drive doesn't work so I haven't been able to type any of my writing up while I'm at work. And I also bought an ink jet so that I can get back to printing out submissions. Of course, I guess now I could just use the flash drive to take it to work and print it out.

Speaking of submissions, I'm happy to report that I am still receiving rejection notices despite the postage rate change. All the literary magazines have been graciously adding a $.02 stamp just to let me know that my writing stinks.

On a happy note, Jenni is now officially done with her first school year of teaching. YAY! So when she gets back from her vacation in the Smokies, I'm hoping we can get back to work on Behind the Naugahyde and maybe finish before her summer break is over.

Also, I'm thinking of taking a few days off of work at the beginning of August and going to Wizard World Chicago since it doesn't look like I'll be able to vacation in NYC like I had hoped. Chicago is much closer and if I go to the convention I can take some time to chat with independent publishers and maybe talk to some artist or fellow writers. Plus it would be nice to spend some time at the Art Institute and lots of other places. Mostly I just want to get away.

And since I spent all my money on flash drives and ink jets I still haven't gotten around to buying any comic books in over a month. So I have no idea what's going on.
I thought selling shoes for a living would provide me with enough money to make all my wildest dreams come true but I guess not.

I think that's enough random thoughts for now. I need to get some work done.

Geez, do I whine a lot or what?

Sorry I haven't been around. I really don't have a good reason why I haven't posted. I've been consumed with trying to finish the 1153 pages that is The Stand which has already put me behind on my Harry Potter reading schedule. That's why I gave myself a week for each book even though I knew I wouldn't need it.
Mostly, I've been a little discouraged lately. My writing group didn't work out. I got a 'can we change the time', and a 'can we change the place', then when I e-mailed the other few possible writers they weren't sure if they could make the new time if I changed it. Not that they were positive they could make the original time either and the person wanting the time changed wasn't sure they could make either time but was more likely to make the newly suggested time. So I'm pretty much just running around in circles trying to pull teeth and a bunch of other proverbial cliches that have something to do with getting no where and having a difficult time doing it. Or something like that.

Then, there's the wedding thing. I'm going to be the maid-of-honor in a wedding at the beginning of July. I know, how exciting my best friend is getting married but that is not quite the case. While I spend my time and money running around trying to make sure that she has the best day(s) possible, for the second time I might add, I think to myself, would she do the same for me? Then I think wow, this person who claims I'm her best friend has never, to my knowledge, read my blog. I know, big deal it's just a blog but it's not. It's about my writing and that is my life. It's what I do in my spare time and my not spare time and it's something I want to do and will do for the rest of my life whether I make money doing it or not. It's one of the most important things to me and this person and a lot of my other so called "friends" have never taken the time to stop by even once in the last two years. I know they have Internet access because I talk to them on-line all the time and I mention my blog all the time. I just think that if it was important to my best friend I would stop by occasionally.
They haven't even stopped by the Behind the Naugahyde website. And I sent out an e-mail to everyone I had an address for announcing that.
It just makes me sad. If I can't get people who consider me their "best friend" to read my blog how the heck am I going to get anybody to read it? Or does it just really show how pathetic my life is that random strangers and people I've only met through the Internet read this more than people who want me to be in their wedding.

Not to mention that my number of visits drop in the summer. My few regular readers are there but a lot less people randomly stop by. Probably because they are all outside living life. Not that it matters because most of them probably don't stick around to read it anyway. It's just nice to feel like I'm not talking to a wall sometimes.
For those of you that do read this, whether I've met you or not, thank you!

Alrighty, self-pity party over. I'm off to finish the last hundred pages of The Stand so I can finally got on with my life. Curse my horrible need to know how something ends right away. I just can't handle not knowing.

An interesting, yet slightly depressing Friday Five

Well Friday's almost over but here is still a Friday Five. This week I'll list five writing related projects I would like to do or have an idea for but have yet to start. This one is hard for me because you know how I hate giving away details about my work before it's completed.

1. I would love to write a children's book. I have an idea for it and I think if I kept the art pretty basic and practiced a lot, I could even do the illustrations. It would feature a dog very similar to Kreeg, some kids and it would be about not fitting in.

2. I always thought it would be fun to do a comic strip. I have an idea for it and the idea would involve very minimal art so I could possibly do that too. The few ideas I have for it would make it a political cartoon but in a subtle way that only clever people would get.

3. There is a mini-movie script that I wrote. I would love to get it made. I've had two other three minute movies made for a contest and those were a lot of fun. This one is longer. Since the writing is actually done it's not technically a writing project but I would never try to get it published in script form. I would need to produce it as a movie. It's something like Mean Girls meets comic nerds.

4. One project that I've been planning for a while but I am seriously afraid of messing up is turning some of my writing into a piece of art where it would hang on the wall.

5. While I hate public speaking in anyway, I always thought it would be interesting to read some of my work out load. Kind of like a poetry reading, except probably not poetry. Sounds weird for someone who hates public speaking but I love performing. Little known fact, in my school days I performed in various dance recitals, choir concerts and in school plays on a regular basis. My plan, once I graduated from high school, was to move to New York City and be on Broadway or move to Vegas and become a flare bartender. But my plans didn't really work out, obviously.

Anyway, enough about that. I'll only depress myself.

On a side note, I heard from one of my writing group no shows. Apparently, 'something came up' and she was only in town for one week so she won't be there next week or ever. I did get another reply from another person but I'm worried that now it will only be me and one other person.
Also, I got another rejection with only $.39 worth of postage. Is the post office slipping up or being nice?

Just finished reading: A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
Currently reading: The Stand by Stephen King
Just watched: Stick It

The start of 'Human Decency?'

Today I finally got over being afraid of doing an awful job of writing my current novel and forced myself to write the first and second section/part. I've been putting this off for so long that I can't believe I actually did it.
I say sections/parts, rather than chapters because it's going to jump from character to character and I don't feel the parts are full chapters.
Anyway, I'm always scared to write the first part, especially on this novel. Even though, I've had the scene perfectly plotted in my head for sometime. It's weird though because once I actually started writing it, it just flowed and turned into something completely different. Something better. It's a lot more harsh than I had planned but if you want to hook a reader, I figure you gotta come out swinging. I think it will definitely capture people and they will connect with a character. My only worry is that it might be a bit much but I can't worry about it now. I have to push forward.
The second part I didn't really have planned out in as much detail as the first but I think it was strong maybe not as strong as the first but it definitely keeps up the intensity. I think the next part will be more mellow. Sorry for the crypticness (I know, not a real word). I don't want to give anything away but I feel like if I don't talk about it I'm going to explode. I will share something about it though.
While writing that part I actually found one line that made me think of an interesting title and to my knowledge there isn't a book or movie called this yet. I'm thinking of calling it, at least for now, Human Decency.

I'm ready to put my novel on paper. Plus I have a potential title, which if you've been reading this blog a while you know that I'm horrible with naming novels. Take my first and second Nano novels for example, because that's what I call them. And thank goodness Jenni came up with Behind the Naugahyde. I wanted to call it Retale. Get it? Probably better for a sequel anyway.

Writing group hopefullness

Thanks everyone for wanting to come to my writing group. Everyone reading this is invited to stop by. Maybe one day we can have a meeting near Tiffany and Jenni's corner of the state. I'm not sure about a writing group road trip to Pennsylvania but anything is possible.
Seriously, though, anyone that wants to come by just let me know and I'll give you all the details. I have a feeling the details may vary week to week in my attempt to have people actually show up, otherwise I'd just post them. For now the meetings will be on Monday evenings but that could change. And I've already got one person that I kind of sort of know that might be able to make it next week.
To me a 'might' is better than a 'will be there' followed by a 'no show'. If that makes any sense. A 'might' doesn't get my hopes up to have them smashed. Anyway, I got to thinking that maybe someone did show up but didn't approach me or didn't know it was me because I was solo and not a group as they had expected. Of course, I did give them plenty of ways to know who I was and one of them I had a class with a few years ago. Besides they should know that a group starts with one person and isn't a group until some else steps up. I don't know. I e-mailed them all saying no hard feelings and feel free to stop by next week. I haven't heard anything from them. With the two that answered my ad, I just don't understand it's not like they would say they would be there to spare my feelings or to help me out. They contacted me about it. Oh well, no time to dwell.
According to Jenni, I got a cool post out of it yesterday and I have people potentially coming from out of town and out of state. I have to love that! Even if they don't stop by it's still a very nice thought.
So despite the pitiful writing group yesterday, I feel good today. I've got hope that the writing group will get better and that's good enough for me.

So exciting you'll laugh, you'll cry. Oh, wait, that was me.

So...what's the exciting news I mentioned yesterday?

Well, remember how I've been trying to find a writing group with no luck?

And then how I asked some people if they wanted to start one and they never answered me?

I got tired of that b.s. so I put out an ad and a few people answered. I sent notes to a few people and one of those people answered.

The result?

I started a writing group! And the first meeting was tonight!

I was nervous, anxious and excited to meet new people and to finally have someone to talk to about writing. A little worried as always that they wouldn't like my stories (remember class workshops) or that they wouldn't like me.

And there I sat looking around the room trying to find my fellow writers I had yet to meet and one that I hadn't seen in a while. I was proud of myself that I hadn't sat around and waited for some else to start a group or to be invited to one or to hope that someone would answer my request. I had taken action and it had worked.

So I sat there waiting for them to arrive...

...for a whole hour before no one showed up.

There I was with a drink I had only bought so I could sit in the cafe with my writing group, with a stack of copies of my stories, with my spirit crushed, watching the rain fall outside, completely bummed.

So much for exciting. See why I didn't say anything. I knew if I got my hopes up I would jinx myself.

Maybe more people will answer my ad. There's always next week, I guess.

Nauga research, library book suggestions and some goals. That's about it.

Sure I promised a much more exciting blog post this weekend but I'm just too boring. I have gotten work done on the "what the heck is Naugahyde?" page for BehindtheNaugahyde.com, but really that's about it. I miss not having worked on Behind the Naugahyde in a while so every time I get a chance to do a little side project it fills me with joy. I'm also excited that Jenni will soon be done with school. Then we can write like crazy!
Also during my research I found out that Naugahyde is actually a name brand of pleather/vinyl-coated fabric. I'm not sure if that is going to be a problem. So far everything I've found says we can use the name just not the logo, which would not be a problem at all.

I did go to the library this weekend as well. And I checked out a few books that seem to switch from one character to the next, which is what I had been looking for. I checked out A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby and The Stand by Stephen King. I looked for Lost books based on the t.v. show but they didn't have any. I'm not sure if they even made them. Those were all the books suggested to me by various people. Thanks everyone!

Since I haven't really done much work on writing lately I thought I would list a few of my short term goals and plans. If I write it out then I might actually have to act on it.
First, I would like to have another sci-fi story completed and ready to send to a contest by the end of this month.
Second, I'm thinking of submitting something to Glimmer Train magazine. It's quite prestigious to get published by them but also very difficult. They take mostly literary short stories. I have a few of those that need some editing and their next submission period ends on July 31. This is excellent because Jenni will be on summer break by then and will hopefully be able to help me out with some suggestions and editing. I will definitely need it.
Third, I would like to have my current novel, that I've barely made a dent in, done by the end of August.

There are a few other things that I have in mind. Comicspace.com is attempting to have a contest for writers, pencilers and inkers coming up soon so I'll have to keep my eye on that.
And I think tomorrow I'm going to do something really exciting regarding my writing but I don't want to say what yet in case I jinx myself.

Just saw: Knocked Up
Currently reading: Batman Year One and Batman Year Two (TPB)
Just read: The Kite Runner-Khaled Hosseini

Another Friday Five

I'm so glad it's the weekend. So here's another Friday Five.
This week is the last line from five of my completed works.

1) They deserved each other.

2) It had gotten her through the mess that had been her life and she could never abandon it now.

3) How cool is that?

4) She had hope that she might find something better.

5) I realized I would never know as I fell asleep.

Once again my two NaNo novels but three different short stories this time. Hopefully, I'll get a longer, more exciting post up this weekend.