And Books For All

I was moved by Doris Lessing's plea for books in Africa and wondered what I could do about it. Then life caught up with my contemplative moment and moved on. It's wonderful that others were already there, doing what I only thought about momentarily.

Books are indeed scarce in Africa. In 1996, three camels and a handful of visionaries changed all that. I give you, The Camel Book Drive.

Kitteh Can Haz Robert Frost?

Oh hai. Iz Friday and time for kittehs. Dis one is gud. How gud?

Compare fer Urself.

Kitteh even kept teh aaba, bbcb rhyming scheme.

Iz verra nice, I tink.

Stoppin By Couch when TV is Showing

Oh hai, whose nice place is dis
I dunno. Oh wait, I does. He not live here tho.
Sneeky cat iz 2 sneeky. No fear,
He not see meh watchin show.

Mah hooman thinkz Iz weird
I starez at space wif nuttin near
Not even a Cheezburger, fer gudness sake
An Iz hungry at dis time of year.

Mah hooman giveded hiz head a shake
And tries to pick me up. Misstake!
Mah claws com out to cutz him deep.
Iz last time that wrong act he makes.

Teh cushons on the chouch iz deep.
And I haz naptime skedul to keep
Now iz teh time fer kittehs to sleep.
Now iz teh time fer kittehs to sleep.

Going Half-Azzed

Have I mentioned the latest shiny in my life? No? Just look to the left. Right there. No, he's not one of mine, but his kind has been absorbing a great deal of my time.

Just this is the part where I blog about my ass. His name is Blackjack and he's an adorable, miniature donkey. He's also the foundation sire for Mossy Oaks Miniatures--even though he's only ten months old and doesn't know it yet. Soon, his future harem will arrive. Three prosepective young ladies are being evaluated at this moment.

My hubby and I have become smitten with these little guys and have been taking in Donkey and Mule shows. I love my horses and riding, but my back interferes with this more and more. I also love driving carts and let me just say that having one of these little guys wheel you around is more fun than ought to be legal.

Each donkey has his own bray, and I must be a smitten mommy because I think Blackjack has the most adorable sound. My youngest misunderstands his name and calls him Jack-Jack like the baby in The Incredibles. So Blackjack's registered name will actually be "Nameoforiginalbreeder's Jak-Jak Attack."

Yes, it's a sickness, but I love playing farmer. The only two animal breeding groups I belong to are the American Rabbit Breeders Association and the Southwestern Donkey and Mule Society.

I guess I'm all about the ears.

Rawr--I iz fierce!

Okay, I've been tagged with a new meme called Roar for Powerful Words by Melanie. She gets a nifty award for taggin me and since I loves me some awards, here's what I gotta do.

1. link back to original tagger (done!)

2. list three things that I think are necessary for good and powerful writing. (done!)

3. tag five more people via comment. (to be done.)

Oh goody. Another list.

1. Curiosity: Do I need to explain this? To me, this is truly the key to what makes me a writer. Curiosity is what drives me forward. People always ask creative sorts "where do you get you ideas" and the answer for me is simple. I find them everywhere. Curiosity is the reason I have a bookcase filled with esoteric subjects. You can find everything from ancient Japanese myths to books on tropical fish.

Take for example a children's space fantasy I've been playing with. I don't really need to know everything about our solar system in order to write Planet Hoppers, but the book has sparked my interest and find myself reading endlessly about gaseous giants and orbits and suns and moons. All this reading has given me new ideas and enriched the story.

2. Perseverance: I know of some writers who are taken on by the first or second agent they query and sell their book to the first editor who reads the manuscript. But we all know that this is a rarity. Publication isn't a sprint but a marathon. You can cross the finish line by outlasting your competition. If you give up during the process of learning your craft, you'll never find out how far you can take it. It's easy to say that you shouldn't get disheartened by all the rejection that goes with being a writer, but in reality, this is a bitter pill. You must have some sort of love for writing or it simply isn't worth it.

3. Insight: If I don't have something to say, then why even bother? Writing should illuminate something. You need a new way to tell a story or a fresh perspective or an original character that reveals something about the human condition. We always hear "show don't tell", but writing really is about showing something.

Okay, now I need to tag some folks and I will. I will. I think I'm going to tag Tori, Kristine, Carrie, AJ, and Lori. Play if you want to or ignore if you want to. Now I need to go polish something for the kittehs. I've been working too much to have new kitteh posts and I need to rebuild my Friday kitteh writings. Believe it or not, they take some time and thought to draft.

I maded you something.

This is my gift, my offering if you will. Today I went to a funeral for someone I always admired. Cheryl fought cancer for five long years, endured over four hundred surgeries, maintained her position as matriarch of her family and kept the other ladies at church in line. I don't think I ever saw her without a smile.

So today I'm celebrating Cheryl and her spirit by letting go. I'm also celebrating breaking my writer's block. And what's a celebration without gifts? So here is my gift for all my friends. I could have sold this story, but I'm giving it away just because I want to. I'm doing this because I can.

I hope you enjoy it.

_story delted_

Writer's Block and Other Bad Things

We all have our favorite music to write to and mine would have to be Sergei Rachmaninoff. His works have a soaring beauty, underscored with a quiet pain. His pieces are complex, moody and strongly rhythmic, all things I respond to. He suffered from depression and periods of when he was simply non-productive. He started with an early splash, winning a gold medal for composing as a child.

It was his first symphony that nearly did him in. The first performance of Symphony No. 1 was a disaster. The conductor butchered the piece so badly that Rachmaninoff's wife later insisted he was drunk. It was so bad, that Rachmaninoff went and hid in another room. Critics savaged him and made a mockery of his promising career. The piece was never performed again in his lifetime. And he stopped writing music. For three years.

Imagine that. One of the greatest composers of his generation--indeed of all time-- a veritable musical genius. And he just stopped. He plunged into a dark despair. A psychologist finally helped him unlock the chains that bound him and the result was one of his best known and loved compositions, Piano Concerto No. 2.

During this time of blockage, he received some great advice (although little sympathy) from Leo Tolstoy who reportedly told him something to the effect that he should "work every day, young man. Just as I do. It's the only way. Do this or you'll never amount to anything." Not terribly helpful for someone with depression, but good advice for anyone whose craft requires you to work alone.

On another note, I had a parent/teacher conference today at the school. My son is flunking the writing portion of English. His paragraphs are short and thin. Here he should be able to write 250 words on a topic, he only manages 50. Or 30. Or 25. I asked him about this, but he got flustered and said he just couldn't think of anything to say. What if it was wrong? What if he sounded stupid? What if he was just repeating himself? So instead of say something wrong, he said nothing. If you don't try to write, you can't suck at it. I expect that sort of logic from a nine year old, but I'm surprised how often I see that from wannabe writers. They talk a lot about writing and they write a lot about writing and they blog about it and post about it in message boards. Someday they will write that novel. Someday they will finish that book they started three years ago.

Tolstoy (and Uncle Jim and a host of others) have the answer to this paralyzing self doubt. The only way to be a writer is to write. You'll never know that you write crap if you don't actually write it. So what happens to the writer, one who actually does it for years and then just stops? I go through an annual writing stoppage around December and January of each year. For me, it's two parts hectic schedule and one part seasonal depression. I get caught up in the craziness of meat space and family life until I feel myself sliding towards the darkness. So I try to keep the darkness at bay by filling it up with more activities and responsibilities and lots and lots of food. Gradually, I'm jolted out of this bad place and emerge blinking into the light a good ten pounds heavier.
I'm unstuck once again and productive this week. I don't have the answer to getting out of writer's block. I just do it. The good news is that I seem to do this even faster each year. Last year was bad. It took me until March. But here we are in 2008 and I'm writing again in January.
If you came here expecting kittehs, have no fear. They will return. Writing my Friday kittehs was something I could do, even when blocked. This year, I wasn't completely blocked. I thought I was, but the truth is that I edited, beta read for people, wrote the occasional blog post and kittehed great works of fiction. Hey, I just wrote 704 words about not being able to write. And I call that progress.

Kitteh Fairytails

Happy Friday! Here is a kitteh tail for Friday.

Dis story of Goldycat and 3 kittehs Dere a Mama Kitteh, Papa Kitteh, and Babee Kitten. Dey lives together in nice hawz. Wun day, Mama Kitteh maded cheezburger wif gud flavor, but wuz 2 hot. So Kittehs go fer ride on invisible bikes to let it cool off.

In comez bad Goldycat. She sitz in dere beds. She plays wif dere toyz. She eats dere cheezburgers wif good flavor.

Dey comez back and find her. Uh oh. Dis meanz trubble. Dere a big fight. Goldycat triez run away but failz! Oh noes, she is caught. Now whut do? Eat her? Sit on her?

Mama Kitteh haz better idea.

Oh hai. Dat better. Dat story wuz tasty and nootrishus. But wate. Dere is moar.

Oh hai! Iz speshul 2 fer 1 day. I haz won last Catmus Song. Let me sing U it.

U know Wordsmith and Jeanne
U know Carrie, A.J. and Tori!
U know PeeDee and Kristine!
U know Ferret and Lori!
But doez U recall most famus kitteh of all?

Rudy teh lazer kitteh
Had 2 very shiny eyes
And if U evah seen dem
Dey wud makeded U cry
All teh udder kittehs
Wuz afraid to calleded him names
Dey always let scary Rudy
Win dere kitteh games

Den 1 foggy Catmus Eve,
Santy Paws came to say
Rudy wif UR eyes so brite
Won't U guide my slay 2nite?
Now teh udder kittehs still fear him
As Rudy runs teh elf crew
If U has been naughty,Santa Pawz sending him 4 U.

K that wuz fun. But Epiphany iz tomorrow so no more Catmus stuff until December. Hope U enjoy and smileded.

KTHXBAI.

Great Expectations

I had the best of intentions this week. I would edit, write a couple of blogs for this week, clean my house, yadda yadda. None of this has come to pass. Instead of a fresh burst of New Year energy, I seem to have found inertia. I remember this happening last year. I finally seem to have crawled into motion and begun editing again.

Okay, I've been asked what the verdict was for my NaNo outline. Truthfully, I loved it. I know I'm supposed to find it confining, but I can't help it. I love a good outline.

And I finished the novel. 93K and some change which is perfect for me. Not so long that I can't add to it in rewrites or so short that I'm afraid to whack scenes that just don't do it for me.
I've been editing heavily and it makes me feel like the Godfather. I shamlessly kill my darlings--both characters and scenes--with the cold heart Don Corleone.

I look back to editing my first book and have to laugh at the amount of angst it caused me to delete scenes and lose characters. Now I read a scene, realize it's garbage, and simply hit delete and rewrite it. I don't save endless copies of my book in every revision phase. I just keep my current version (with appropriate back ups).

If the scene works but simply doesn't belong, I might save it in a folder that I call snippets for further use. If it doesn't work or there is no chance I'll ever want it again, I rub it out with savage glee.

Die! Die! Die!

Goodness but I've become ruthless. Good thing I write mysteries.

Teh Twelve Kittehs of Catmus

Hope you had a great New Year's Eve! I sure did, even without champagne.

And cause UR all speshul, I maded U something.




Enjoy.

THE TWELF KITTEHS OF CATMUS

On teh first day of Catmus, mah hooman gave to me a Lolzcat in a tree.

On teh secund day of Catmus mah hooman giveded to meh two DONOTWANTS, and a Lolzcat in a tree.

On teh third day of Catmus mah hooman giveded to meh three demon cats, 2 DONOTWANTS, And a Lolzcat in a tree.

On teh fourth day of Catmus mah hooman giveded to meh four comfy beds, 3 demon cats, 2 DONOTWANTS, And a Lolzcat in a tree

On teh fif day of Catmus mah hooman giveded to meh five kittehs of peace, 4 comfy beds, 3 demon cats, 2 DONOTWANTS, And a Lolzcat in a tree

On teh sixth day of Catmus mah hooman giveded to meh six Narnia portals, 5 kittehs of peace, 4 comfy beds, 3 demon cats, 2 DONOTWANTS, And a Lolzcat in a tree

On teh seventh day of Catmus mah hooman giveded to meh seven trojan kittehs, 6 Narnia portals, 5 kittehs of peace, 4 comfy beds, 3 demon cats, 2 DONOTWANTS, And a Lolzcat in a tree

On teh eigth day of Catmus mah hooman giveded to meh eight lolrus buckets, 7 trojan kittehs, 6 Narnia portals, 5 kittehs of peace, 4 comfy beds, 3 demon cats, 2 DONOTWANTS, And a Lolzcat in a tree

On teh nineth day of Catmus mah hooman giveded to meh nine babushka kittehs, 8 lolrus buckets, 7 trojan kittehs, 6 Narnia portals, 5 kittehs of peace, 4 comfy beds, 3 demon cats, 2 DONOTWANTS, And a Lolzcat in a tree

On teh tenth day of Catmus mah hooman giveded to meh ten pimped alpacas, 9 babushka kittehs, 8 lolrus buckets, 7 trojan kittehs, 6 Narnia portals, 5 kittehs of peace, 4 comfy beds, 3 demon cats, 2 DONOTWANTS, And a Lolzcat in a tree

On teh eleventh day of Catmus mah hooman giveded to meh leven kitteh costumes, 10 pimped alpacas, 9 babushka kittehs, 8 lolrus buckets, 7 trojan kittehs, 6 Narnia portals, 5 kittehs of peace, 4 comfy beds, 3 demon cats, 2 DONOTWANTS, And a Lolzcat in a tree






On teh twelf day of Catmus mah hooman giveded to meh twelf cheezburgers, 11 kitteh costumes, 10 pimped alpacas, 9 babushka kittehs, 8 lolrus buckets, 7 trojan kittehs, 6 Narnia portals, 5 kittehs of peace, 4 comfy beds, 3 demon cats, 2 DONOTWANTS, And a Lolzcat in a tree

Oh hai! Bought time I gotted a cheezburger! Happy New Year!

KTHXBAI.