30 Days of Write: Day 31 (The End)
Wow. That last week flew by, didn’t it? I had many posts in mind, but that True North thing I was talking about blew my head off, so between exhaustion and pondering, I took a time out. Then I started to write. 2000 words a day for the last three days, and, if I may quote Crash Davis, you don’t mess with a streak.
I promise to do a recap of this month’s experiment soon, but until then I’ll say thanks for being here this month.
See you…later.
30 Days of Write: Day 25 (Show up)
Hi. This is going to be quick because I’m doing about eighty-billion things today, but I had to share the most important with you. Today I got to hear Joe Lansdale speak. Never read a word he’s written, but he and his son, Keith, were talking about pulp fiction and I had to hear that. Toward the end, the moderator asked for one piece of advice to aspiring writers and immediately Joe answered, “Show up.”
Yup, show up. Get your ass in the chair, hands on the keyboard, and write. I’ve heard the message a hundred times before, but hearing it from such a powerhouse, you know that he’s giving you advice worth listening to.
Show up.
See you tomorrow.
30 Days of Write: Day 24 (Gyroscopes, True North, and Neo)
Sometimes I get so scattered in my writing and my ideas and my planning and my editing and everything that goes into them all that I have trouble regaining my focus. It’s like my brain is trapped inside of one of these contraptions and I’m trying to get everything lined up and stopped. Now, I will grant you that these are also some of the times I get great ideas and the Girls are more likely to swing wide and be generous in their acceptance, but there are times when it really sucks. It drains me of energy and creativity and no-boundaries rules and ends up locking me up like I’m in cement. (I’ll spare you a picture of somebody in cement boots.)
And, needless to say, it sucks.
So, this weekend I’m going to try to free myself, not only from the feeling of being scattered, but the feeling that I need to balance myself like the poor girl/guy (sorry–can’t tell) in the photo above. Instead of trying to align my brain with True North, I’m going the opposite–I’m freeing it to go wherever the hell it wants, in this universe, the next, or a completely new place that’s locked to no absolute rules or borders. I’m stepping out of the wheel and launching myself into the ether like Neo at the end of The Matrix.
Excelsior.
See you tomorrow.
30 Days of Write: Day 23 (Courtney, Callihan, and Campbell)
(No, the tweet isn’t the awesome, you goofballs, it’s the people in it. Sheesh! You think I’m that vain? No, wait–don’t answer that…)
So, Kristen Callihan, Anna Campbell, and Courtney Milan. Yes, they’re incredible, but, you may ask, why did I call them out as inspiration? Let me tell you.
Courtney Milan debuted with Harlequin and had not only the historical romance world, but many other worlds abuzz with how amazingly awesome she was, yet when deal time came for book #3 in her series, she said no.
Let me repeat that: Courtney Milan told Harlequin no. (And with the full support of her fabulous agent, Kristin Nelson, btw.) She had a plan, a goal, and Harlequin wasn’t able to help her reach that, so she walked away from what many of us would give body parts for and started publishing her work herself. For that kind of strength, determination and belief in herself and her writing, heck yeah, Courtney is on my inspiration list!
And speaking of Kristin Nelson and her clients, you need look no further than Kristen Callihan (and some of you may remember my open letter to her from back in February.) And if you want a reason to be inspired by this deliciously talented author, look no further than this post here. She and Kristin kept fighting until somebody discovered how amazing Kristen was, defining not only ‘underdog’ but why she’s on my inspiration list. All it takes is one, people.
Anna Campbell I’ve adored since the minute I held Claiming the Courtesan in my eager little hands. Not only is she a spectacular writer, but I remember her saying (my words as I can’t find the quote) that she’d been writing for 26 years before CTC, so where some called her an overnight success, she said it took her 26 years to get there. That kind of determination, my friends, is worthy of the inspiration list.
So that’s it. Maybe you’ll feel the same, maybe not. But now you know why I am and why, in my world, I can look at them and believe.
See you tomorrow.
30 Days of Write: Day 22 (Wiffers, the Dark, and Baz)
First I have to say how much I love the Wiffers. You all rock (sorry, we all rock) and I thank the universe almost every day I was lucky enough to discover you.
I’ve had a crazy day/day-and-a-half and I think part of that is the internet radio station I’ve discovered at work—it’s acoustic alternative and in the first three hours, heard two songs that are sooooo going on a soundtrack. (One to a current book, another to one of my nebulous upcoming pieces.) This kind of music puts me in an odd mood—not a bad one, but certainly one I don’t want to be in at work. It gets me into my creative, dark place, and that is not a place I should be in if I don’t want to start dropping copious F-bombs in front of my boss.
Had some other writing thoughts/events that have gotten me thinking (thus contributing to my creative dark place) and I can’t wait until this weekend when I can give them the space and freedom to develop how they need to. (Let me quickly break away to clarify that when I say dark , that it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Heck—it’s what I’m hanging my pitch phrase on: Dark Victorian romance. But keep in mind there can be beauty and joy and peace and richness in the dark and holy crap am I starting to sound like Laurell K. Hamilton, but maybe there’s a reason I’m re-reading her Merry Gentry series for the eighty-seven
billionth time right now.) I am both impatient and wanting of some time for these thoughts and their development, but, as one of my mantras states, the universe will unfold as it should. No need for me to push them or hold them back because they’ll do even better left alone.
Perhaps one thing contributing to this current state of mind is the half-hour of Moulin Rouge I watched last night. You all know of my love for Joss Whedon, but also high on my list of tremendously talented creators who swings wide is Baz Luhrmann. I first discovered him way back when with Strictly Ballroom and have drunk deep of that, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge, and Australia. What he does speaks to me the same way Joss does and I’m not saying he’s for everybody, but wow does he get my sparks flying. Maybe I need to have a Baz-a-thon one of these weekends. If it feeds the Girls, right?
I was going to start this next paragraph by saying “And now for something completely different…” but I realize it’s not, not really. I wanted to share with you a photo I have on my desktop (technically, I have 4 desktops, so this is on one of them) and in looking at it, I realize it falls into that dark, creative side. Ladies and gentlepeople, I give you the Chagall windows at the Art Institute of Chicago:
And since that is one of my happy places, I’m going to sign off here.
See you tomorrow.
30 Days of Write: Day 21
Okay, so I might have stumbled a bit in my goal for the month, but, yanno, a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, yadda yadda yadda. And to give credit where credit is due, Caryn Caldwell gets full and mighty props for calling me out. Guilt from myself I can live with, guilt from others, not so much. Given that I have plans this weekend, I’m not sure how I’m going to attack the last weekend of the month, but I’ll do my best.
And suddenly I can hear Yoda saying, “Do or do not. There is no try.”
*sigh* Hoisted by my own Star Wars petard again. (Startard? Wartard? StarWarTard?) Such is the case when you drink deep of the SciFi geekdom. (True story–at a work meeting last week, I had a question for the speaker, and he referenced “These are not the droids you’re looking for,” which tickled me mightily, but I had to chastise the group because more people didn’t laugh.)
And speaking of SciFi geekdom, Montana and I finally saw the Avengers last weekend. Speaking of deep, dreamy sighs and goodness on so many levels that it threatens to collapse upon me in a pile of awesome rubble and spectacular debris….
Joss. What can I say? He was the topic for Day 14, and if I wasn’t so concerned about spoilers, he’d be the topic for Days 21-856, but I refuse to speak anything of Avengers until at least a month, lest a fraction of my post break free and whack somebody in the unspoiled eye. But I will say this–if anybody…anybody…doubts what a storyteller this man is, you either haven’t seen the movie or are TSTL.
TSTL= Too Stupid To Live
See you tomorrow…
30 Days of Write: Day 15 (Auction)
So, have you checked out this site-full-o-awesomeness yet?
30 Days of Write: Day 14 (Joss)
Yes, I know I missed yesterday. To be honest, I thought about it around 7:00 p.m. and didn’t have much more in me than “Blog.” so decided to spare you from one more day of just-to-get-a-blog-in post. Maybe that will be my 31st day…
So, on to bigger and better, something worthy of Monday and having missed a day. Ladies and gentlepeople, I give you one of the most awesome quotes, one worth copying down and referring back to time and again, from the ruler of my universe, Joss Whedon:
“Basically that you can do anything. If you pool your resources, and in my case all of your connections after 20 years in the business – actually, God help me, 21 – and just give up the idea that you’re going to act like a normal person or sleep, if you want it hard enough and do it well enough, it happens. I think a lot of really talented people either sort of get crushed under the wheel of the movie studio system or desperately try and get their next gig in TV. I understand why, because we’ve all got to put food on the table and the brass ring is out there, we’d all like to be making the Emmy-winning shows and the blockbusters and all that, but at the same time you could be doing stuff yourself. I wish more people would take the extraordinary talent they have and just let their id go because that’s what we discovered. We discovered that the sillier we got, the more people believed that we were speaking from our hearts.” ~ on what he’s learned from making “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” that may help when making another
I was going to bold the really worthwhile parts (IMO) but then realized that practically the whole quote would be bolded, so take from it what you need, what you will.
And speaking of Joss, I leave you with this:
See you tomorrow.
30 Days of Write: Day 11 (Happy Fun Friday)
Hello. To keep you from another short post day, I give you the Happy Fun Friday edition of 30 Days of Write. (Yes, my brain is mush. Why do you ask?)
Really, does this beauty need any commentary? I think not.
OMG, I don’t know if I want this doormat for my house, or need to remember this for an awesome gift for some friends of ours. Or both…
This one made me laugh not only because of the comic/cat overlap, but because lifting a cat like this is something my dad used to do with our 17lb longhaired calico so she could “chase” bugs on the patio screen door.
I was trying to find a fun donut picture, like the biggest or the most ultimate nom, but when I got to the picture of an apple fritter as BIG AS MY HEAD I lost it. My only question is why is that fool using a fork and not picking that bad boy up with both hands and attacking it like a cobra with an ostridge egg?
I was going to leave it at just this tattoo for a true Friday 8-0 moment, but c’mon–you’ve really got to look at all of them. The 40 (well, now 39) Nerdiest Tattoos ever? Yeah, click here.
Replace “vacation” with “Friday Night” and you’ll have a hint at what I’ll be doing tonight. Hope you’re doing something that brings you as much joy. 
See you tomorrow…
