So, I'm off from my day job post op. It's been 2-1/2 weeks since my surgery and now I've grown impatient with myself. I feel like I should feel absolutely normal by now (even though the surgeon told me to be patient with myself).
All I've been doing today is reading and watching TV. Okay, so reading isn't a total waste of time, but watching another episode of a home renovation show is. I search through a drawer and finally find the 65 rewritten pages of my 300+ page manuscript with the plan of reading through them and continuing the rewrite. Still, the pages sit staring accusingly back at me. Okay, so maybe another draft of the novel is a bit too daunting, even on a good day.
I guess I'll continue to read and watch another home renovation show.
Showing posts with label random musings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label random musings. Show all posts
July 21, 2013
January 5, 2013
2013 - Happy New Year
Well, here we are near the start of the new year ... just 5 days in. 2012 was a very hard year for my family. Hopefully 2013 will be a better year.
Meanwhile, I'll be getting the January 2013 issue of Literary Brushstrokes out today. It's a slim issue since I didn't get a whole lot of good submissions. I'm wondering if I need to advertise somewhere. I had hoped that my listing on Duotrope would cover that base, especially since this is not and never will be a money-making endeavor. And, I am distressed to see that Duotrope has become a paid subscription site now. I'm not entirely sure how to get to the page that has the listing for my magazine. Oh well....
My to do list for this weekend is a long one:
Meanwhile, I'll be getting the January 2013 issue of Literary Brushstrokes out today. It's a slim issue since I didn't get a whole lot of good submissions. I'm wondering if I need to advertise somewhere. I had hoped that my listing on Duotrope would cover that base, especially since this is not and never will be a money-making endeavor. And, I am distressed to see that Duotrope has become a paid subscription site now. I'm not entirely sure how to get to the page that has the listing for my magazine. Oh well....
My to do list for this weekend is a long one:
- Complete the homework for the online class I'm currently in (Effective Online Teaching)
- Put out the January issue of Literary Brushstrokes
- Complete the syllabi for my classes this Spring 2013 semester
- Get caught up with my duties for Sheree Bykofsky
- Grocery shop
- Clean the house
- Take down the Christmas decorations and put them away
January 2, 2012
Missing Augie
I read Gideon's Corpse
by Preston & Child (book two in a series where I read and enjoyed book one). I finished the book on 12/24/11 and considered writing the review that morning, but then it was time to get festivities (and a lot of baking) underway. I decided to wait until after Christmas to write my review.
Then I lost my beloved dog Augie.
Augie was just 11 years old. He was diagnosed with IMHA (Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia) in November. IMHA is a disease that causes a dog's immune system to attack its own red blood cells. Augie was on medication that seemed to be helping. He was acting a little better, up to his usual goofy antics, then December 26th he stopped getting up and wasn't lifting his head. We took him to the vet and his blood work showed that his red blood cell count had dropped. They sent us home with the plan to change his medications the next day. In the early morning hours of December 27th, Augie passed away at home.
He was such a good dog and we all miss him more than I can say.
I'm still reading and will catch up on my reviews when I'm up to it.
by Preston & Child (book two in a series where I read and enjoyed book one). I finished the book on 12/24/11 and considered writing the review that morning, but then it was time to get festivities (and a lot of baking) underway. I decided to wait until after Christmas to write my review.Then I lost my beloved dog Augie.
Augie was just 11 years old. He was diagnosed with IMHA (Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia) in November. IMHA is a disease that causes a dog's immune system to attack its own red blood cells. Augie was on medication that seemed to be helping. He was acting a little better, up to his usual goofy antics, then December 26th he stopped getting up and wasn't lifting his head. We took him to the vet and his blood work showed that his red blood cell count had dropped. They sent us home with the plan to change his medications the next day. In the early morning hours of December 27th, Augie passed away at home.
He was such a good dog and we all miss him more than I can say.
I'm still reading and will catch up on my reviews when I'm up to it.
May 30, 2011
Work, school, writing and the relentless pursuit of the masters degree
After three years of all of the above, I am flat out exhausted. I am decompressing from the relentless pursuit of my degree while life continued to chug along, Now free of the school obligations, I have continued to work full time and with my newfound free time, I read a lot.
Three years was long enough to develop the ever-busy habit of running in place, so now that I only have work left (and am still lucky to have a husband, kids, and my animals), I continually feel like I’m supposed to be somewhere. The problem is, the continuous stress of working, going to grad school, and writing a novel were too much for too long and now I feel like I can’t write anymore.
I’ll be kind to myself and allow myself to decompress and continue to read a lot while I nurture my soul and slowly coax the writer in me back to life.
Three years was long enough to develop the ever-busy habit of running in place, so now that I only have work left (and am still lucky to have a husband, kids, and my animals), I continually feel like I’m supposed to be somewhere. The problem is, the continuous stress of working, going to grad school, and writing a novel were too much for too long and now I feel like I can’t write anymore.
I’ll be kind to myself and allow myself to decompress and continue to read a lot while I nurture my soul and slowly coax the writer in me back to life.
April 30, 2011
Absence makes the readers go away
Well, my hiatus is coming to a near end. I have finished my thesis and am now awaiting suggestions for revisions from two university professors who act as my first and second readers. Essentially the hard stuff is done. I’m prepared to appear in the public reading phase on May 4, 2011 – a bit of a nerve wracking appearance as I read a portion of the novel to the university community and friends and family in a public forum.
The pros of writing to this deadline:
One thing I learned through the blitz writing that I have had to do and re-do for this thesis is that you really can come up with a decent framework on deadline to work from in later drafts. In fact, pushing myself so hard resulted in hitting the 32% mark (out of 80,000 words).
The cons of writing to this deadline:
The deadline created tremendous anxiety for me with regard to finishing in time to receive my MA before the university community on whole goes off on their summer-long vacations. It also highly impacted my personal life – after working all day and going to school three nights per week, obliterated almost all of the my free time.
The impact on blogging:
Clearly, the impact on blogging is that I had to be absent from both this blog and my genealogy blog … more so from the genealogy blog since I did post a book review to this site while on hiatus (I never stop reading no matter what). My absence brought down views of this blog to zero many days, where it had previously see quite a bit of traffic. The blog most impacted, however, was my genealogy blog – where I had as many as 60 hits per day on that blog, traffic slowed to single digit numbers and I even had two days with no traffic at all.
The final analysis:
… there’s that analytical mind again … I see blogging as an expression of my writing and my genealogy research. Having to put those outlets on hold, will cause an uphill battle to gain momentum again and get my readers back. Last lesson, never stop blogging – just one weekly post gives your readers something to enjoy and increases the volume on your website.
The pros of writing to this deadline:
One thing I learned through the blitz writing that I have had to do and re-do for this thesis is that you really can come up with a decent framework on deadline to work from in later drafts. In fact, pushing myself so hard resulted in hitting the 32% mark (out of 80,000 words).
The cons of writing to this deadline:
The deadline created tremendous anxiety for me with regard to finishing in time to receive my MA before the university community on whole goes off on their summer-long vacations. It also highly impacted my personal life – after working all day and going to school three nights per week, obliterated almost all of the my free time.
The impact on blogging:
Clearly, the impact on blogging is that I had to be absent from both this blog and my genealogy blog … more so from the genealogy blog since I did post a book review to this site while on hiatus (I never stop reading no matter what). My absence brought down views of this blog to zero many days, where it had previously see quite a bit of traffic. The blog most impacted, however, was my genealogy blog – where I had as many as 60 hits per day on that blog, traffic slowed to single digit numbers and I even had two days with no traffic at all.
The final analysis:
… there’s that analytical mind again … I see blogging as an expression of my writing and my genealogy research. Having to put those outlets on hold, will cause an uphill battle to gain momentum again and get my readers back. Last lesson, never stop blogging – just one weekly post gives your readers something to enjoy and increases the volume on your website.
March 23, 2011
Truth is stranger than fiction
One thing that writers are cautioned against is writing about a character who fits neatly into a cliché, in effect a caricature. So we strive to create multidimensional characters in our fiction where characters at both ends of the spectrum have both bad qualities and good qualities. Another important thing is that their descriptions should not be like a stock character out of a movie, in effect, a caricature.
Well truth was stranger than fiction tonight. I was sitting outside our local convenience store waiting for my daughter to come out. My car sat next to a red and white El Camino of undetermined age – let’s just say it was old. Inside that vehicle were two scraggly looking people, an unkempt male and female, who looked like what we imagine a desperate criminal might look like. They were smoking so vigorously that their cheeks were being sucked in with each hungry drag on their cigarettes. I wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised to see them jump out of their old vehicle and go in to rob the convenience store.
Truth was stranger than fiction tonight. Truth was the caricature that we, as writers, strive to avoid with our fiction.
Well truth was stranger than fiction tonight. I was sitting outside our local convenience store waiting for my daughter to come out. My car sat next to a red and white El Camino of undetermined age – let’s just say it was old. Inside that vehicle were two scraggly looking people, an unkempt male and female, who looked like what we imagine a desperate criminal might look like. They were smoking so vigorously that their cheeks were being sucked in with each hungry drag on their cigarettes. I wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised to see them jump out of their old vehicle and go in to rob the convenience store.
Truth was stranger than fiction tonight. Truth was the caricature that we, as writers, strive to avoid with our fiction.
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