Oscar, a haiku

Cat nose on my face
Ten a.m. whiskered kisses
Okay, I'm awake

edited to add my friend Chip's brilliant response:

Feline morning breath
could that be processed tuna?
Sleep beckons you back

Early Reminder

Thursday is the day of the Great American Smokeout.
Do me a favor and, if it applies to you, take advantage of it!

Make it a week of positive changes. It's still WM3 week. Do a good turn for them and for yourself.

If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention

It's Free the West Memphis Three week.
Go to the website, show some support, spread the word.

OUCH!

Okay, I know it's bad when my characters are physically assaulting me. I was awakened this morning with an idea and sat up so suddenly, I bumped my face on the bedpost. So, now, my lip's swollen and the idea didn't turn out to be a particularly good one. Just for that, I think maybe I'll make this character trip on the sidewalk or something and give him a fat lip!

In other news, I've got a short story in the works that I have hope for. One friend told me I'd be wasting my talent if I don't finish it and get it published. Another told me I wasn't allowed to not send it to Asimov's.

How I really get things done:

with a little help from a furry friend. Thanks, Cordy.

I highly suggest cats as assistants. I'm sure the gas bill will even be less, as she serves as an excellent ambulatory space heater. Also, as you can see, six hands (er, paws?) are better than two. Now, if I can only get her to get my coffee order right. Keeps bringing me a decaf chai tea. What's up with that?

a moment of silence

RIP, CBGB

Lend me your ear and I'll sing you a song

So, maybe I can string a couple of words together, after all, at least when it comes to writing a novel. I spent some time with my friend Sam , reading some stuff out loud, which, I found, helps a lot with making sure dialogue is realistic. I think my biggest pet peeve in writing is bad dialogue, so I definitely want to make sure I don't get accused of it. It also really helped my ego about the project to find that she could identify with the characters and form a clear picture in her mind of what was going on in the story.
Official typed count is 23 pages and close to 7,000 words. I've given up trying to keep track of the handwritten stuff, especially now that the typing is basically starting at the beginning and including the longhand work.
I'm still taking the notebook and a box of ink with me on vacation this week, but I have a sneaking suspicion the laptop will get more exercise than the pen will. We'll see. Since the only means of easily contacting us in case of an emergency will be by e-mail, I'll be checking in once or twice during the week. I'm sure I'll have something to post about getting to spend some time writing on the beach in October, but I'll save that for when it happens.

Gray Sky Morning

What a perfect day to be in need of creative inspiration. It's very Octoberish, with breezes that blow the dead leaves around the yard, a Sun that doesn't do much in the way of providing warmth, and, the smell... mmm. There's some kind of fruit tree in the back yard that always smells like Peaches & Cream oatmeal this time of year. That, mixed with the just-rained smell and the crushed pine needles, is just about heavenly.
It's such a crime that I have to spend the afternoon indoors at the paying job, but I think I'll take a notebook with me and try to steal some time between now and then.

Before I go, forthcoming additions to the playlist include Imogen Heap and tracks from Beck's new album.

Also, while you're procrastinating from whatever it is you're supposed to be doing right now, head over to this site and read something worthwhile. Note to James Effing Patterson: see, this is how you write a female character.

Employees May NOT Smoke in View of Customers...

...reads a sign, taped to a pillar at the bar of the 3rd st. diner in Richmond. Other home-made signage includes: "Profanity will not be tolerated (by any one) - MGT," gracing the bar, above a Betty Boop thermometer, and "Machine IS Working Today," taped to the most random vending machine ever, including such items for purchase as bic lighters, tampons, cigars, pens, twinkies, plastic combs, packs of ciggarettes, and the standard array of candy bars and gum.
I love this place, which is why I was so happy to have lunch there today. I want to use it as a setting for an important scene in the book, so I called a friend I haven't seen in a while, and off we went.
We also went exploring in this park on Tobacco Row, where there are lots of cool trails and places that look like they'd be good picnic spots. Overall, I'm pretty inspired and am going to make use of the feeling.
BTW, no idea of the current word count, since I haven't typed most of it up yet, but my guess is about 15,000 words all told. Also about 1/3 bottle of ink and lots of pages in several notebooks.

New, but not necessarily improved

Whenever I really get in to a book, whether I'm reading it or writing it, I always feel like there should be a soundtrack to go along with it. Usually, I create one in the form of an iPod playlist and play it in the background.
I found out that I'm not the only person who feels this way. When I was loaned a copy of Please Kill Me, I was also presented with a CD, created by the owners of the book, to be listened to while reading. Fantastic!
This brings me to my latest foray in messing with the html in the template for this blog. In the bottom-right margin, you'll now find the playlist for the book I'm writing. I'll try to keep it updated and maybe I'll get around to making clickable links, but for now, Google or iTunes will help you find samples of the songs.

I assure you, we are open!

I got a phone call from my old boss, asking me to come and work for him at his new book store (the one I mentioned previously) to do some PR, some basic retail stuff, and some keeping-neighborhood-gromits-from-stealing-stuff stuff. Come out and see us at the corner of Aragona & Haygood and get some cheap books!

This is great because it's few enough hours in the actual store, so it won't cut in to my writing time.
I'm also going to write some copy for my brother in law's business, so he'll have a snazzy web site. I'll link to that when it's up and running.

OH! and in the continuing trend of amazing new products and services which have recently done so, this site has well and truly changed my life. Go. Gawk. Be amazed. Never e-mail a document to yourself again.

Note to self: update link list to include these mind-blowingly revolutionary additions to public service.

The dangers of writing

What they don't give in undergraduate English courses is the essential warning about the temptation to write a world for yourself, crawl into it, and find yourself there, seemingly unscathed by the reality that induced you to write in the first place.
It doesn't work.

Dear Robin McKinley,

I'm sorry I judged you so harshly when you wrote about being merely the funnel for whatever the gods sent to you to write. I thought you were totally crackers and/or just giving a cop-out answer to the FAQ about if you're going to sequel Sunshine.

As it turns out, the scorn I heaped on you has landed in a big, steaming pile on my hard drive, as I find myself experiencing the same sensation of having no clue whatsoever what is prompting me to write this random series of thus-far mostly unrelated episodes in a story which, I can only hope, will begin to make sense to me soon.

Regards,

Heather

procrastination cleverly disguised as productivity

I thought this was cute. This is of course, not the overall target word count, just what I'd like to have done today. I've got way more than that handwritten, but actually getting it typed up is the hard part for me this time around, since I got my awesomely comfortable Sensa fountain pen. I purchased mine at Swisher pens at hilltop and have been really happy with it.

Speaking of local businesses, if you live in Hampton Roads, go visit my friend and former boss, Drew at Little Books, at the corner of Aragona Blvd. and Haygood Rd. in Virginia Beach. It's not much to look at just yet, but it's an all-discount store, he's getting some really good stock in and will order any book in print at a 20% discount to you. I've also got coupons for the place; if you come and visit me or drop me a note, I can send one to you.
I promised him I knew lots of his ideal clientele: cheap bibliophiles who like to support local businesses. Don't make a liar out of me. Go in and tell him I sent you.

why reword what's already been said?

"Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of a job: it's always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins."
–Neil Gaiman 02/03/04

Shameless plug

By the way, Swisher Pens has opened a brick-and-mortar shop in the Hilltop East Shopping Center in Virginia Beach, near Laskin Rd. and First Colonial Rd.
The store is managed by the family of one of the few nice classmates I had in high school, and they do have an amazing selection of writing instruments and stationary. I'd like them to stay in business, so do stop by the store or their website and show some love.

Thanks for... none of the fish

So much for one idea. It seems that the editor of Flesh & Blood has decided, within the past month, to cease production. This is kind of a harsh blow, since in the description of what they were interested in publishing, they could have been describing my work in particular.
Oh well... at least I know that they're not closing because no one was buying. They always sold out. It seems that the editor had a system crash from which he never recovered and is experiencing financial hardship.
Well, back to searching...

just call me Paul Clifford

I've spent most of today struggling with the revised opening for No Stranger Companion. I've only just talked myself out of "it was a dark and stormy night," and I think I have something passable in the works. The most frequent comment I've recieved about Stranger is that the opening doesn't quite fit the rest of it. That's probably because it was the last thing I wrote on the original draft and I never did get it right. I think each different opening (there have been about 6 so far) has been better than the one before it, with the current one being the best.

the pun is intentional, and I hate myself a little for it.

I suppose a good way to start my first real post would be to talk about what I'm currently working on. At the moment, I have three short stories in various stages of development, on which I'm focusing most of my energy. There is a novel, which I think could turn out to be important to me, but it's taking a back seat at the moment while I try to get things done.

The short story that is most promising right now is one titled "No Stranger Companion." This piece started as a 25th birthday present for my husband, but has since gone through several edits to a nearly-satisfactory, almost-final draft, which I plan on submitting to such publications as Flesh & Blood magazine.
Moving on to the next project, another short, titled "In Our Own Little Corners." This piece decided a couple of nights ago that it wanted to be a little darker and a little more fantastical. It woke me up and told me it was tired of being a fluff piece that was not representative of my style, so I've been adding and taking away and making over and starting over since then, and it's slowly showing signs of moving past this awkward stage and maybe turning out okay in spite of neglectful parenthood in its early stages.

Finally, I've discovered with my newest project, which has yet to earn a name, that the walls of my office make wonderful chalk boards. This will be part of an anthology, put together by several friends who are showing the beginnings of starting a writing circle. This anthology, with the working title "Cursed," is the brainchild of my friend Scott, who really has a great ghoulash of ideas simmering in his head, which I firmly believe will shortly begin to escape and haunt him if he doesn't commit them to words soon. I won't give away too many of the details about the Cursed project just yet, other than to say I'm privileged to also be contributing to the prologue and epilogue, which will hopefully unite all of the shorts in to a cohesive whole. On a tangent, I'm fairly certain that this project is the reason for my dream in which MacGyver was knocked in to a coma.