Saturday Dreams of Joy Ahead

As my part of the country falls once again into the deep freeze, I think I need something else to concentrate on. It's been a fun week of feedback - books we liked and books we didn't and other topics as well. I've gained a couple of new friends because of a discussion on a different blog, and I'm into the final edit (although edits are never truly final) on my LOTR Community Story. All in all  it's been a successful week. But I have a lot still remaining on my plate and I need to get back to productive work - LOL.  Here are pics for all of you to remind you of upcoming warm-weather activities (with apologies to my friends in the Southern Hemisphere).

Remember how fun it can be to set up your spring garden? These
times will come again, even if they are under the snowbanks right now.

Summer vacations will happen and taking a car trip with the family is
a tried and true way to "bond" with other family members. 

Don't forget that your local county and state fairs can be lots of fun
for you and your family. Look forward to that foot-long hot dog, watching
the stock judging, and taking a deep breath of that special aroma of
grease, sugar, and beer. I love my annual excursions to our State Fair. 

How about planning to visit a museum? Although that's something that
you can do at any time of the year, it's always a wonderful activity
to share with friends and family. 

I'll be shoveling snow, checking my father-by-marriage's house several times as we have a few showings scheduled for the Realtor, and bundling up as we drop back into the deep freeze once again *sigh*. Have a totally fabulous weekend.

More Shout Outs and Books I Didn't Like

To start, yesterday I thanked many of my friends who were kind enough to send lovely holiday cards to me and offered all of you a look at a slide show that featured pictures of each of them. Today I want to also mention those who were kind enough to send me e-cards of various types. I received quite a few of those, and loved each and every one of them. I also got a variety of directed emails and other communications over the holidays from friends and acquaintances throughout the world. It's been such fun to get back in touch with all of you once again.

Several of the cards I received were Jacquie Lawson e-cards. Her animations
are always quite lovely and very fun to watch. 

Now for some this 'n that. Yesterday I discussed writing techniques and pushing yourself to pour your writing off your mental stove and onto the physical table by actually writing it down. That's a pretty essential thing if you want anyone else to read it. But what happens if you put it out there and people don't like what they're reading? What do you do then?

Perhaps the person owning this room might want to consider a general
clear-out? Selling, donating and actually throwing away books (I know -
it's heart-wrenching to throw away a book) might help make this a
welcoming room again. 

Well, not everything will be loved by everyone. There's not a book out there that is universally loved, not even the great historical ones. Even the Bible has its poo-poo'ers. So I have a question for you on this slightly warmer Friday. Have you read (or more likely started to read and then abandoned) a book lately that just didn't pan out? A book that you opened with high expectations of being entertained, only to close it in disgust a few pages or chapters into it, knowing that you wouldn't pick it up again? I've had two of these within the past week and I'm not very happy about them.

This book was a disappointment. I won't bother
with the rest of it, nor will I buy/read the rest
of the series.

The first of these I had high hopes for. It was written by Larry McMurtry, whose "Lonesome Dove" series I found highly entertaining. But I started reading "Sin Killer", one of what he promises to be a quartet of books, and I turned to a different e-book within twenty pages of reading. The characters bored me, the multitude of odd names confused me, and the dialong's dialect really disturbed me. If I was rating this one, I'd give it one star, and that's pretty darned lousy.

This book had such promise and parts of it were really wonderful. But
when it came down to it, although the main characters were well
developed, the love interest fell totally flat and that killed one of the
major characters for me. 

The other book was one I had high hopes for. It was an interesting twist on the traditional fairy story with marvelous illustrations. The book, called "The School for Good and Evil" was written by Soman Chainani with illustrations by Iacopo Bruno. I loved the illustrations, but about fifty pages into it I started to look at the page count and wonder how they were going to fill up the remaining pages. But I forged on. After half of the book was read, I finally gave in and flipped (electronically, of course, since this was an e-book) to the final three chapters of the book. Reading those, which often will push me back to see how the characters arrive at the conclusion, told me why I didn't like the book and I finally gave up on it and downloaded something else instead. Here, the two main characters were actually well portrayed, but the love interest! Oy! The love interest was as flat and uninteresting as dried mud. No. I'll rate it as 2.5 stars because I liked the illustrations a lot, but as a story, it left me totally bored.

Some book deserve to be abandoned. But just because you don't like a book
doesn't mean it's a bad book. Someone else may love it. Leave it for
them to find and give a good home (or just archive it if you have an e-reader). 

Have you read any books lately that you put down in disgust? Have you abandoned a book that you thought had such promise? Share one or two with us here. After all, not every book can be a winner, and not every author is popular. We all talk about books we love, what about those that we don't?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if all books caught your
soul as much as your favorite ones do? 

Have a great Friday, and don't work too hard - LOL.

Writing Thoughts and Shout Outs for Holiday Cards

So, my friends, you've got this story running around in your head. It's popping up at the most inconvenient times - while waiting for the traffic light to turn green, while standing in line at the grocer or coffee shop, or even while working at your desk at your 'day job'. One of the worst things about stories is that they often don't come out of your head at convenient times, those times when you are actually able to do something about it. All too often the next plot line or that great dialog you've been struggling with between your protagonists comes through when your notebook is buried, when you're away from your keyboard, or when you have other people around that would make using your voice recorder app on your phone inadvisable. What to do...what to do?

What are these people thinking? Each one could be writing the
next great American novel in their heads right now!

I suspect that most of us have become excellent at thought writing and compartmentalizing. Thought writing is when you write the store in your head, but it never makes the progression from your head to your fingers to a page. If your story stays in your head, it will never be shared or read by anyone else. Thought writing has its good points - you can work out several diverging plot lines and follow them for a while before going back to think about another one. That can save a lot of work and time. But it is imperative that thought writing have a limited lifespan. You cannot live your writing life just thinking about your stories or your plot. You have to write. You're a writer - an author, something that only really happens when what you write is read by others.

Just start writing, you'll be amazed at what your fingers
can do if you turn them lose on a plot. 

Then there is compartmentalizing. This is thinking about small segments of a story or a particular character, focusing on that to the exclusion of the greater story. Although I tend to do this more often with art projects and crafting because of the many stages that a piece has to go through before becoming reality, I have been known to do this with plotlines and character development on occasion. Again, you don't want to leave these things sitting on the mental stove top, You want to actually bring them to a boil and take them to the table to be shared by others. That requires the commitment of making the physical effort to matche your mental effort.

Here are some standard steps for making a plan, but these
steps also work for plots and characters. Don't forget that
replanning arrow that can come into play...

So, if you've been bouncing a plot idea around, write it down. Start telling the story. It's not going to just happen on its own, you have to actually do it. You can go back and change things later, just get the stuff down on the paper or screen. Also, let your characters have a little leeway. They're not always right, and sometimes need to be pruned back or even whipped back into the main plot line, but sometimes their wanderings add some really fascinating aspects to the story, so let them play a bit.

Tell your story. We're all waiting to read it. 

So why am I writing about making that next drastic step and putting things down into a physical form from your head stories? Because a lot of people have signed up for B2MeM 2014 and this is a challenge unlike others we've had before. The goal of B2MeM this year is to have something that can be put together into an anthology - something where these stories written by so many talented people will all work together in a full and focused tale. So start writing, we're all counting on your unique contribution. Additionally, you'll feel better about your story and your muse when you allow that muse to play a while.

This beautiful card sent by Curious Wombat is one of my favorites. I love
the use of shades of red in this card. It is elegant, tells a full story, and
uses a color with great depth. I loved it. To see more of the cards I got for
Solstice and Christmas, click on my link below. 

On a totally unrelated note, I wanted to thank each and every one of you who sent me a holiday card. I scanned those that weren't family pictures, etc and set up a slideshow here. There were some really outstanding and beautiful cards that I was privileged to have gracing my house for the Solstice and beginning of the new year. I treasured each and every one of them and my archway was completely filled from floor to floor. Have a totally fabulous Thursday while I go out and freeze once again *sigh*.

More Snow and Warm Thoughts

My sympathies to my friends on the East Coast. While we only got 1-2 inches of snow overnight (which will have me shoveling for a few hours this morning), some of you out East got many more inches than that. The Federal Government closed down because of the weather. Of course, I'm waiting on some forms from the IRS which may have been delayed by the snow out east. I'm not really looking forward to digging out this morning, but all of you have it so much worse than I do. I extend my sympathies to all of my friends who have been affected by the snow.

Let's start our warm pictures with a shot of Curacoa in August. Beautiful
water, warm sands, and maybe even a beautiful cabana boy with a
drink featuring a little umbrella. Oh yeah!

It's my day off today and that means laundry, housecleaning, some writing and store repairs. I have two repairs sitting ready for me to dive in. One of them will actually require my use of my glass saw. This is rather kewl because I haven't used it for many months, so I will have to re-learn how to use it, in essence. And I love equipment, so even though it's a silly repair, it will still be fun.

The contrast between the beautiful ocean and the surrounding desert
is one of many attractions to the Baja of Mexico. The resorts in this area
cater to their clientele with above-average service and amazing memories can be yours.
I'm still looking for that cabana boy, though...

Our temps will be falling all day (oh joy!), so I'm grabbing my shoveling first thing this morning. Although the thermometer is reading 6 F, the wind chills are well below zero. We're into the cold temps until Friday when we'll get one warmer day before dropping down again. *sigh* This is really becoming boring!

I don't know where this beach is located, but if you offer me a ticket there,
I'll find out for you. I'll even review the amenities.
Still not seeing a cabana boy, though...

Roads are icy over much of the nation today, so drive very carefully.

Guess I'm not the only one looking for the cabana boy...

I think I need thoughts of warmth today, so I'm choosing pictures of warm things for all of us stuck with snow and cold today. Enjoy your Wednesday!

Stuff and Such

To start, on-demand came through and DH and I watched Sherlock, S3,E1 last night - The Empty Hearse. It was good. I liked it. Actually both of us liked it. I really like Mary - she's a perfect foil, and I loved who Molly ended up with - very funny. No spoilers here, just a recommendation to see it if you haven't. It's not the strongest episode they've ever had (an "off switch"? Really?) But, it was entertaining and it was fun to see Freeman and Cumberbatch in their familiar roles once again. All in all, it was lots of fun. I look forward to the rest of the episodes and I'm sure I'll buy the DVD when it becomes available.

Sherlock, Mary and John. I really like Mary - she's absolutely perfect
for this dynamic and she's a strong character in her own right. 

I am almost finished with my LOTR Community story and I have a good start on my B2MeM story, but for some reason my drabble for TW isn't jumping out at me. Hopefully something will come to me at the shop today, but right now I'm spinning my wheels on what should have been an easy prompt.

Sugar is the prompt this week for the drabble, and all I can
think of is that insipid song "A Spoonful of Sugar Makes
the Medicine Go Down" from Mary Poppins. That's NOT working
in with the rest of the prompts for this series. I have to make
something work out! 

We're back into the deep freeze today, so I'm bundling up and I am already planning my day because scheduling today is necessary. I have a dental checkup this morning, so that means a late meal *sigh* and no coffee *SIGH*. I'm totally non-functional in the morning without my coffee so this is serious! They always put this gunk on my teeth at the dentist to help convince cavities to leave me alone and find an easier target, but I can't drink anything hot for four hours after it is applied. ACK! I'll have to buy fancy coffee from the coffee shop next door once I can have a hot beverage, and I really don't like their coffee very much. It is an extreme sacrifice - all for the sake of clean teeth and keeping my own for as long as I possibly can (which so far seems to be working, so I really shouldn't complain).

How much caffeine is in your coffee? Check the chart to find out. 

I've been reading through Dan Brown's "Inferno" on my NookColor. I know that lots of people don't like him as an author, but lots of people obviously do because he's madly successful. I have always enjoyed his style of writing. I usually listen to him on audio, but the e-book was offered on special for a very good price so I bought it. I'm liking it. It's the usual fun mix of plot interwoven with history and art that make his books really live for me. I keep wishing I had a second screen open to reference a visual on so many of the places and the pieces of art he is describing. His books are like getting a wonderful tour of different places in Italy. "Inferno" gives the reader great background and art for both Florence and Venice - it's hard to beat that!

The top of St Mark's Cathedral in Venice features a statue of
St Mark atop the winged lion with his paw on an open
book and a blue background with gold stars. The winged
lion is the symbol of Venice and you'll find it all over the islands.

So, as I go out into the cold, I'll be looking forward to a day during which I might be able to get some more writing done, some times when I'll certainly read some more, and a span of time during which I'll be going crazy until I can have some coffee. What's your day going to be like? Surely you can have your tea or coffee sooner that I'll be able to? Happy Tuesday!

Lazy Day and Early Night

Sometimes I need to just kick back and have a lazy day. Sunday was one of those really rare times when I didn't write a thing, watched lots of football on TV, ate food that really wasn't good for me but that tasted wonderful, and called it an early night.

Don't bother me, I'm watching football!

To start, it was the divisional playoffs yesterday to determine which teams would play in the Super Bowl on February 2nd. The first game was my own Denver Broncos against a very good New England Patriot team. But good or not, the Broncos had it in the bag and we're going to the Super Bowl in two weeks. I'm REALLY happy about that!

The final score doesn't really show how entertaining a game this one
was. It was a really fun game to watch and well-played. 

We'll be playing the Seattle Seahawks, a team who has had really good luck over the season. There are some excellent players, but San Francisco could just as easily have been the winner of this game if a couple of bad officiating calls had gone differently. I have friends and relatives who support Seattle, but all I can say is it will be a pleasure to play against you, but orange will carry the day and the Broncos will win it.

So now the two divisions of the NFL have their champions and
we move on to the Super Bowl on February 2nd. I'll be watching!

Of course, it is an outside arena in an area of the country that can easily be extremely cold, snowy, or maybe fair but cold. It's February in New Jersey, so anything goes. Mile-High Stadium is open air and I think that Seattle also has an open air stadium, so that maybe won't be as much of a problem as it might have been for a covered stadium team. Either way, however, it'll be a great game and I'm already looking forward to it.

The stadium looks like it will be a good venue, but weather will
be the question mark and the 10th man. It holds 82,500+ so it will be
a good crowd there to cheer the two teams on. 

THEN...last night was the premiere of Season Three of Sherlock. DH and I have been waiting for this for what seems like forever, but we were both too tired to stay up and watch it. We made an attempt to record it so that we could watch it later since it may not be available on on-demand, but if not, we'll just catch up when we can buy the DVD. I know that so many of my friends probably saw it last night, or were already streaming it from Britain over the past few weeks. No problem. Spoilers never spoil much for me anyway, so go ahead and talk about it. I'm sorry to have missed it, but I wasn't willing to operate on 4-1/2 hours of sleep today just to watch it.

I am disappointed that I just couldn't stay awake to watch
this, but I'll catch it at some point and enjoy it more
when I'm awake. 

So I hope all of you had a fabulous weekend and I will bid you farewell for another day. Travel safely, do good deeds, and play nicely.