Storming

I don't want to write. I want to listen to the thunder that's shaking the house. I should be searching for a surge protector to protect my laptop, but I just want to lie outside on the grass in the pounding rain. Talk about a massage! Unfortunately, that might provide an efficient ground for the lightning.

But isn't nature a force?

Saturday

But the week has flown by. More Internet troubles and then some time on a line edit. Now, back to proposals.

But right now, I'm listening to a guilty pleasure. Justin Timberlake's Future Sex/Love Sounds. I don't know how this has happened, but I love this CD!

Off to work with a pot of Earl Grey and my current fave music. :-)

Lifelines and other dial-up things

I'm addicted to email. It's not a shock to me. I knew. Believe me, I knew, cause I leave it on, and I grin when I see a note come up from say, Karen, or Kath or Jen, or Carmen, and many others.

But for the past few days, I've been suffering Internet problems and I think I've been stranded on the non-Information-Highway tundra. Miserable. I'd think, "I need to look that up." Couldn't.

"I need to ask Amy ???" Couldn't.

"I need to see if this movie's available for watching during Insomnia Moments." Couldn't.

Our connection has risen like the Phoenix, but I have a ton of work to do so I can't swim in the lovely coursing (okay, on dial-up, meandering) byte stream!

I love a good library!

Don't get me wrong. Any library is a great library, but the one in my town is so small I've had a hard time finding something to read. (Partly, my own fault. I have a hard time just pulling a book off the shelf and reading it--as I did in my youth thereby finding many wonderful reads!)

Anywhooo, I discovered I'm also allowed to use the library in the next town and I stopped by there yesterday. I found some lovely mysteries written during the 30s/40s. I love that for the same reason I love old movies. It's like time travel. Of course we put things in movies in our time that don't have anything to do with reality, and I guess folks did the same then, but right now, because I couldn't put the Leslie Ford mysteries down after just one--I'm reading Honolulu Story and learning how much the city changed before I lived in it. I can see so many bare spaces in her narrative where buildings and people live now. And yet I see the places that her characters visit where I've been, too. Also, I'm learning something as a writer. These characters never spend time in a kitchen! :-)

And oh, yeah, the story's good, too!

I've stumbled, brain first, into a treasure chest! How will I climb out to do my own work?

Writing is a Business?

Today is kind of a work vs. fun-work day. I've had to distill TEMPORARY FATHER into twenty-five words. Okay--I cheated and got it down to twenty-six words. It's really hard to describe a story in that many words. A lot of writers start out with a blurb of around that size, and every time I have to do this, I think I should make myself begin the next story that way.

As usual, though, I'm looking into a bowl of 75,000 words, and I have to choose 25 that describe the story in a meaningful, "buy me" kind of way. That cackling you hear is me. Laughing hysterically. This is why I have a creative job. Because I can't create a story in twenty-five words.

Here are the ones I chose: Aidan Nikolas and Beth Tully have only her deeply troubled son in common. Aidan’s the man this family needs, but can he make Beth believe he’ll stay?

Oh, no--that's twenty-seven!

Writing/Reading

I've had a migraine and haven't been in the mood for either--but that's over! Had some chat last night with writer friends and came home, tearing to get at my proposals. I'm hoping to have them both ready to go by next Monday--and then, on to something completely new and different.

I've enjoyed the talk in comments about paintings being a creative spark. I find historical places the same. A friend and I are going to visit Biltmore House in Asheville, NC soon and I cannot wait. I have never left there without an Edwardian-set story begging to get out of my head and onto paper. At last, new timeframes are opening with houses, so maybe now's the time to let that story come.

What sparks a new idea for you? I mean, what's your surefire spark?

A Break--Who Needs It?

Had to break from writing today because I had a trip to the dentist (apparently my new best friend), and then we took my brother-in-law to see a museum exhibit I've anticipated seeing for months.

All the while, I wished I'd slipped my laptop into the car (traffic was terrible because of bad weather). Then at the museum, after I saw the new exhibit, my husband wandered the rest of the collection, which I've seen many times, but he's never visited before. I could have used a notepad and pen! (I did peruse the notepads in the museum shop, but the beloved would rightfully have inquired why I needed yet another notepad/pen combo for my addiction.)

Does anyone else make up stories about the people in the paintings? I can't help myself! (What kind of writer goes anywhere without notepad/pen?)

Off to work! Yay!