Category Archives: Senseless Ranting

Letting go of your “Little Darlings”. Great Scenes You’ve edited OUT of your novel

Posted on March 29, 2012 | 40 comments

A “Little Darling” is a scene that you just LOVE in your novel, but somewhere along the line, you realize it is just not right… and you need to cut it.

I have TONS of them.  Most of them chapter length.  But here is one of my favorites… just 103 words from HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT.  This is my Main character, thirteen year old Magellan, having a conversation with the Great Goddess.  She basically tells him he needs to save the world:

“Why can’t you just do it yourself?  Aren’t you a Goddess?”

“I can no longer manifest in the world of man.  Darkness has taken
a powerful vessel.  He draws on its strength, and its anger.  I cannot leave
here.”  She raised her arms, and pointed out to the void surrounding them.

“You mean, you’re trapped?”

 

“Darkness alone is nothing.  Darkness in numbers decimates.”

Magellan took a deep breath, and swallowed hard.  “So, what do we do?”

“You are the factotum.  You are my hands, even when they are tied.”

He took a step back.  “You’re kidding, right?  You want me to fight Darkness?”

I don’t know why, but I am really tickled by this short scene.  Even though this didn’t make it into my final draft, I smile every time I read it.

There is just something about a thirteen-year-old boy having a conversation with an ancient, cryptic goddess, and him saying to her… “Say what?”  It just makes me laugh.  I think it’s the pure innocence of a child paired with the ethereal knowledge of a goddess.  I don’t know… it just makes me smile and feel warm inside.

Have you ever written something “short and sweet” that makes you feel like this, but had to cut it for one reason or another?  I’d love to read it.

Send me the link, or post it below (try to keep them to about 100 or so words).   This is your one chance for others to read that special scene that you have stored somewhere because you love it so much.

Artwork by Istvan Szabo:  Preliminary art for HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT (Contracted)

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Very Inspiring Blogger Award

Posted on March 25, 2012 | 9 comments

The lovely Char From Joy in the Moments recently bestowed the honor of “Inspirational Blogger” on me.

I had a giggle.  It is really nice that someone finds me inspiring.  Blog awards are so nice.  They always make me grin.

The caption says “Keeping the Blogisphere a beautiful place.”  Hmmmm.  Makes me want to recycle or something.

Thank you so much, Char for thinking of me.

Everyone hop on over to Char’s blog and give her a cyber-hug for me.

The rules of this award are to tell you seven things, and then pass on the love.

Hmmm.  I recently answered seven random questions for another award.  Let’s think of something new.

1.  My roof finally got fixed.  I have a ceiling in my office again. Yay!

2. My sons decided to quit Wrestling.  (YEEESSSS!)

3. I keep procrastinating against signing Chloe (my poodle) up for Agility Training.  I’m enjoying being “sport free” at the moment.

4. My hair is naturally straight.  But it hasn’t been straight in 15 years.

5.  There is nothing more relaxing than watching Max swim around trying to get my attention.  He’s in my office.  Chloe likes to chase him.  Max is a Koi by the way.  You can see him swimming behind Eric in the Video Book review Eric did for me.  (He’s the big white one who hangs out on the right of the screen for the first :57 seconds)

6.  I love stationary, even though I don’t use it anymore.  I just love a few good pretty sheets of paper.  It’s a shame I don’t write with ink anymore.

7.  My husband just lost something like 65 pounds.  I feel like I’m cheating with this hot young stud.  Tee Hee.  He wants a washboard stomach by summer.  I’m not complaining.

Okay… Who inspires me?

I have to put Jenny Keller Ford on the top of th list, because she’s the one who cajoled me into starting a blog.  Apparently she thought I would have something to say.  I hate a writing partner whose always right, don’t you?

Brenda Drake.  Brenda is a thorn in my side because I’ve never met a contest I don’t like, and Brenda keeps taunting me with them.  There are no monetary prizes, and I’ve never won.  But she’s the one who cracked the deadline whip on me the first time, and taught me to pace myself.

Well… I’m supposed to give you seven, and although I read TONS of blogs that I enjoy, these are the only two who I can say genuinely INSPIRE me in one way or another.  So, rather than just picking one out of a hat, there you go.

Check out these lovely ladies… but watch that Brenda.  She’ll rope you into a contest, I guarantee it.

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What stupid writing thing did your beta find this week? I bet you have a writing crutch, too.

Posted on March 23, 2012 | 21 comments

Do you have a writing crutch?  Is there something you do over and over again, but you have no idea that you are doing it because it feels right?

Mine, apparently, is the use of commas.  SEE!  I just did it again!  I naturally place a comma anywhere where I would pause if I were speaking.

Funny, a beta called me on this last year, and I thought he was nuts.  Several other betas have corrected my commas here and there, but didn’t mention my overall addiction.

Recently, a new beta said (paraphrasing) “I’ve read your blog, so I expected you to overuse commas in your novel, but it really slows down the reading.”

I honestly didn’t even realize I was doing this.

Now I am looking for them like a hawk in my novel.

So, what about commas my blog?

I don’t know.  I might let them fly here.  When I type out a post, you should feel like you are talking to me.  If there is a comma there, I am probably taking a cyber-breath.

What do you think?  Do they annoy you?

I find this extremely funny, to be honest. (Tee hee, there is another one… they just fly out of my fingers.)

I’m not editing any of my natural commas out of this post, just for the fun of it.  This is how I speak.

Now, I just need to make sure all my character dialog and narration doesn’t suffer from my comma frenzy as well.

What do you do in your writing that shoots out of your fingers without you even realizing it?  (Gosh, do I want to put a comma in that last sentence, just to break it up a bit!  ARGHHHH!!!)

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The end of an Era—No more Encyclopedia Britannica

Posted on March 21, 2012 | 18 comments

After well over two hundred years of publication, The Encyclopedia Britannica has decided to close the doors on its presses.

No more hard bound, tangible versions.  It will still, however, be available on-line.

I have mixes feelings about this.  Most of them are purely sentimental.  An abridged version of the Encyclopedia Britannica (One volume, that weighed about 90 pounds written in typeface you needed a magnifying glass to read) got me through all of high school and some of college.  It was an old friend.

I remember those all-too-thin pages that were almost translucent.  I remember the gold letters carved out on the sides of the pages to help me find my way.

I loved that book.  What an incredible resource.

I believe I still have it.  I think it is in my attic
(I know-not a good place for it)

I was thinking over all of the reports that I have done with my kids in the last few years.  I could have dug it out, and showed them how to do “tangible” research.

This is no longer our culture.  We don’t need to lug around huge volumes of encyclopedias when we can just “Google it”.

Yes, you need to be careful with internet research, but there is a wealth of information out there, and it is updated faster than any print-volume of a reference book.  (As Encyclopedia Britannica found out.)

I don’t know.  Part of me is still sad to see paper go.  But this is a natural evolution of the age we are in.

In my novel, there is a chapter where my main character sees printed books.  He is surprised, because printed books are such a luxury.

I wonder how long it will be before this is actually true in this galaxy.

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Lucky Seven Meme

Posted on March 18, 2012 | 9 comments

Okay, here is a new one.  It’s really an Authors game, and this is kind of fun.  I was tagged by my buddy, amazing soon-to-be published author Jenny Keller Ford.

Here’s the rules of engagement:

1.  Go to page 77 of your current manuscript or WIP

2.  Go to line 7.  Copy down the next seven  sentences as they are written.  No Cheating!

3.  Tag 7 authors and pass on the Lucky Seven Meme

Well, My current Whirlwind WIP is a 35 page novelette, so I will defer to my first love, HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT.  Here is an excerpt, fitting the parameters above.  You are about to enter the demented mind of my villain, as he decides to murder my beloved Main Character:

It was an odd sensation, being warmed by the sudden dark of a freak storm, but he welcomed it.  His father always said that the weather reacted to Castillia’s mood.  The sudden exhilaration must be her touch.  She was calling him, and he answered.  The darkness was not to be feared; it made him stronger.  It gave him the final strength to do what he knew must be done for the greater good.

Outside the window, Magellan and Meagan took shelter from the storm under a tree, huddling closely beneath its branches.  Stephen grimaced in disgust as Meagan rested her head on the snit’s shoulder.  The anger inside him boiled. 

First of all, be sure to hop on over to read  Jenny Keller Ford‘s brilliant excerpt from “In the Shadow of the Dragon King”.

I am officially tagging a few people just to see what their WIP’s look like.

Gloria Richards http://gloriarichard.wordpress.com/ No!  You cannot let Brinda do it for you!

Brinda Berry (Okay, so– you just released your second novel.  I know you must have book three drafted.  Give us a sliver!)

Tristan http://sanguinestream.wordpress.com/

Cara Olsen http://thislittlelight516.wordpress.com/

Florence http://ramblingsfromtheleft.wordpress.com/

Sherry Isaac http://sherryisaac.com/

Dianne Wilson http://diannejwilson.wordpress.com/

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10,000: Why is that the Magic Number? Welcome to My Madness

Posted on March 17, 2012 | 21 comments

I originally wasn’t going to post this, but I changed my mind.  This first part I wrote on February 1st, 2012.  I will continue it below with an update…

Feb 1, 2012

I have officially been blogging for six months.  I don’t want to seem redundant, but I NEVER expected anyone to read me.  Today, my rant ticker is at 5,700.  Pretty amazing if you ask me.

When I reached 1,000 hits, I blogged about it.  I couldn’t believe it.  When I hit five-thousand, it was numbing.  That was just a little over a week ago.  I don’t think I even said anything.  I didn’t want to jinx myself.

Now, for some of you this might not seem like a big deal.  I know there are bloggers out there that get this many hits in a day.  But little old me?

A friend of mine had her blog recently hit 10,000.  I shook my head (I was at 3,000 at the time)  I figured it would be years before I could even think about that number.  Then I had an epiphany.  My numbers were increasing… quickly.  Why?  Dunno.

I just write.  It’s what I do.  Apparently though, you guys like it.  Hits increase, and followers increase.  Blog awards?  You’ve got to be kidding me.

Hi! She waves.  It’s still just me.

I looked at my “background view” and perused the monthly stats from startup July 17th 2011 through today.  I giggled at the astounding average of “seven hits a day” that first month.  The second month had a whopping average of five hits a day.  (Yeah, it actually went down.  Pitiful.)

Then something happened.  I can’t tell you what.  You tell me.

Hi! It’s me… the same person **she smiles and waves enthusiastically**.

Smack me upside the head to make me believe it… I glanced at the numbers.  Even stared for a few minutes.  They forecasted I would hit 10,000 hits by early May.  Before I even hit my one year Blogiversary.

Nope.  Can’t be right.  Not possible.

I looked at it again a few days later, and the stats changed.  Now they forecasted hitting 10,000 by the end of April  (April 29th, to be exact)  My numbers were going up.  My daily hits were up 25-50 percent.  Really?

***she giggles*** Still just me.

Gosh, I wish I could give you the magic potion I drank.  I wish I knew what it was!  I’d drink more (as long as it tasted like green Gatorade)

Again, some may look at this and just laugh at me.  Yes, I am still small time in the eyes of many… But this spunky opinionated lady is pretty dern excited to have so many people stopping by every day.  Thanks so much for following!

—–Well, the reason I decided not to post that, was it sounded too goofy. (and I didn’t want to jinx myself) But this is why I changed my mind…—-

Part two… Written today

Stop reading now.  Look on the upper right of the screen.  “Join the Insanity:  ?????? Minds ranted to date.”

Do you see what I see?  Holy Cow with a capital MOOOOOOO!

And what’s today?  How many days ahead of schedule?

Omigosh.  This is incredibly cool!

I really don’t know why 10,000 was so stinking important, but in my deranged mind it is.  For some reason it makes me feel like I am doing something right.  I don’t know.  It’s crazy, but I like it!

I want to personally thank every one of you.  Thanks so much for stopping by every few days, and thanks for hanging out and adding your two cents to the conversations.

If I was out there, ranting with no one responding, I probably wouldn’t do this at all.  You guys are what makes this special.  I love the friendships I have made, and look forward to new ones.

If you told me last July that I would be here right now, I would have rolled my eyes.

Thanks Guys!  Really.  Thanks so much!

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What stupid writing thing did your beta find this week? Darth Vader Syndrome

Posted on March 16, 2012 | 18 comments

My characters breathe.  There.  I said it.  THEY BREATHE.  People breathe, right?  Get over it!

Ugh.  A beta recently said “your characters breathe a lot.”  Hmmmmm.  Do they?  Nifty little count-it trick to the rescue (Click here if you need the trick)

Yikes!  In 50 pages different characters breathed deeply, or took some sort of a breath 23 times!

No No No NO!  She smacks herself in the head.

Now…. breathing.  It’s normal.  Everyone does it, right?

Ergghhhhhh.  I think the deep breathing was a spastic reaction to making sure they don’t sigh too much.  I guess my sighs turned into deep breaths.  Now they all walk around sounding like Darth Vader.

The problem is, this seems normal to me.  If I think hard about something, or I am about to say something important, I feel myself taking in a deep breath.  Some call that a sigh.  Because I do it, my characters do it.  I guess I need to curb that habit.

It’s hard though, isn’t it?  There are just so many descriptive words in the English language that don’t jostle you out of the story because they are too “odd”.  It leaves us stepping, looking, sighing, and taking deep breaths.

Ugh.  No one said this writing gig was easy, my friends.

You just have to stop breathing.

I’m talking about your characters.  Breathe, QUICK!  You’re turning blue!

Whew!  That was a close one.  You guys gotta stop taking me so literally.

Watch for words you use too much.  Trust me, you won’t even see them.  Someone will have to point it out to you and make you feel silly.

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Cancer Sucks. I can prove it.

Posted on March 9, 2012 | 29 comments

Cancer Sucks.

Well, I guess it’s a given.  No one would disagree with me.  The good news is that I’m cancer free again.  Modern medicine is a wonderful thing.  Yes, skin cancer is curable (if you catch it in time).  But I don’t think people realize what they have to do to cure it.

My malignant basal cell was on my arm.  It was only about a quarter of an inch round.  Like the size of a squashed pea.  No biggie, right?

When I lay on that table, and they started drawing on my arm with a sharpie, I actually said:  “You don’t have to cut that much, do you?”

My surgeon explained that they have to cut bigger and wider so they can close it evenly.  He assured me that the scar wouldn’t be that big.  Okay… not really worried about the scar at that moment!

Holy freaking cow.  Get a ruler and draw a box that is a little over two inches long, and about three quarters of an inch wide.  Now put that baby on your arm.

Say what?  How stinking deep do you have to go?

Well, about ten minutes later, they were picking me up off the floor, and calling my husband in.

Okay, maybe I’m a wimp, but I think there should be a law that says you have to knock someone out before cutting two inches of flesh from their arm.  Sounds logical, right?

My husband is such a trooper.  He stood beside me and held my hand and talked me through it.  When they prepared to close me up an hour later, he glanced at my arm and his eyes told me everything that his fake smile did not.  Today, he told me he couldn’t believe how long and deep the cut was.

I don’t know what it looked like.  I kept my eyes on him.  I didn’t want to pass out again.

Not to gross you out, but this is what the stitches look like a day and a half later, from a pea-sized cancer cell.

Okay.  I lied.  I do want to gross you out.  Now will you go and buy some stinking sunscreen?  Yes, that scar is going almost completely across my arm.

Don’t be an idiot.  I did this to myself 25 years ago, when we didn’t know any better.  Now, we do know better.  Do your best to protect yourself.  Stay out of the sun, and if you can’t find shade, get some descent sunscreen.

Like I said before, if going through this helps a few of you to avoid it, it is all worthwhile.

You can go puke now.  (It’s okay, I don’t mind) and then get back to writing your novel.

(After you order some sunscreen— SPF 50 or higher.)

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Confusing Me and I… Ahhh the never ending quandary of a writer

Posted on March 3, 2012 | 20 comments

There was a great article on Dictionary.com this week about confusing “I” and “me”

Click over here if you’d like to take a look.   http://hotword.dictionary.com/youandme/

Misuse of these two words is really common.  I hear people do it all the time.  Even in my own house, which I try to keep as grammatically correct as possible.

The words “I” and “me” get my husband and me into a rumble once in a while.  He will correct one of my sons, and then I will correct him, because my son was right.  In our culture in the USA, there is so much “overcorrection” of the word “I” that it is starting to sound right when people use it incorrectly.

Let’s take the first sentence in the previous paragraph.  “The words get my husband and me into a rumble.”  It sounds wrong, doesn’t it?  I actually typed it incorrectly the first time (yeah, I am admitting it) because “I” just sounded right.  I then went back and corrected it.

How can you tell if you are wrong?  Take out the other person, and leave the sentence the same.  Let’s try it.

The words get my husband and me into a rumble

The words get me into a rumble.

The second sounds correct, so we did it right.  In this example, “My husband and me” is correct.  Now, let’s do it incorrectly

The words get my husband and I into a rumble.

The words get I into a rumble.

Oh!  That didn’t work too well, did it?  In this case “My Husband and I” is incorrect.  If you are ever unsure, just take out the second subject and see how it works out.

Need an example when “I” would be correct?  Well, ask and ye shall receive!

George and I should have dinner sometime

I should have dinner sometime

That sounds good.  Okay, how about “Me?”

George and me should have dinner sometime

Me should have dinner sometime.

Oh, Yuck!  That didn’t work at all.  So, in this example, “I” is correct.

The problem is, that “You and I” has been so OVER-CORRECTED, that the word “I” almost always sounds correct.  Even to me.  In the first example, I really wanted to write “My husband and I.”

This is a case of English being an evolving language.  As a writer, you need to make a choice to follow the natural progression of language, or to adhere to “correctness”.

Honestly, between us… your reader probably won’t even notice.

The questions is— which camp your editor/publisher is in?

Ahhh… the quandaries of a writer.

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Writing to a Deadline Part 1: “I got Nothing.”

Posted on February 29, 2012 | 33 comments

For the first time since college, I am writing to a deadline.  A publisher’s deadline.  Have I sold my work?  No.  A publisher has opened for submissions in a short window, and I figured, “Why not give it a try?”

The publisher is putting out an anthology.  They have one short story from a published author, and they are looking for more to compliment it.

Here’s the catch.  There’s a writing prompt.  It has to be a story about a particular picture, which I imagine will be the book’s cover… and it has to be a happy ending.

Ugh.  Why couldn’t it be a picture of planets or spaceships with explosions galore?  That I could handle.  This?  My enthusiasm drained as I stared at the interesting piece of artwork.

A vague idea of a story sparked in my head, but it led to death and mayhem—  Definitely not a happy ending.  The picture just didn’t do anything to grip me emotionally.

Wait!—is that a spaceship up there in the top left corner?
Is it? Ugh. No, it’s not. Shoot!

I stared at the picture for a few days in a row.  I read other’s comments.  They were all excited. (At least they said they were)  But I still “got nothing”.  I closed down the Web-site and forgot about it.  I would have to pass on this opportunity.

It made me think about a fourth grade parent-teacher conference I had a year ago.  We were talking about creative writing, and she commented that my son wrote really well when it was something he was interested in.  When he got odd topics from her writing prompts, he didn’t seem to engage himself in the writing.  She thought this was a problem.

As a writer, I wanted to smack her upside the head.  Okay, yeah, as a student you need to write stupid book reports- about stupid people- who you don’t care about- and will never, ever remember again after you hand the paper in.

But creative writing?  If the kid wants to write about Spiderman, or spies, or original super heroes saving the world… and they are THAT good…  Stinking LET HIM DO IT.  (I have to admit, for a ten year old… his stories totally rocked.  Lots of excitement and explosions… the leaves don’t fall far from the trees)

Anyway, he and I had to work on his ability to make his teacher believe he wanted to write about a boring little puppy playing ball with a stupid little girl (I resisted the urge to point out that she could get kidnapped, and a super hero could come and save her life… with lots of action and explosions.)

He wrote the boring story.  It was okay.
He got a decent grade… on to the next one.

It made me think.  I used to be a master at this.  Give my ANYTHING in school.  Give me the prompt… be it creative writing, an essay, or a book report.  I could write my way out of anything.  Could I still do that? Could I find a story in that picture that didn’t spark a single bit of creativity in my heart?

Stay tuned.

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