I just finished doing the major edits on the most difficult scene of the most difficult story I’ve ever written!
I would say I deserve a beer, but meh. I finished the scene before dinner, and had a glass of wine then. And I have a very strict no-drinking-and-writing policy, which I’ll probably say more about later.
Until then, imagine me doing a happy dance. Then imagine me getting back to work.
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Do you ever get those Celestine Prophecy kind of moments, where you start thinking about how much you need something (an answer to a question, the sound of a friend’s voice, how to spell Algonquin), and then all of a sudden, there it is?
I love it when that happens.
It’s almost always writer-related stuff with me. I needed to find some research on the long-term affects of child abuse, specifically confirmation that the survivor might be a bit more “sensitive” than others, even after the absuse was ended.
Now all I have to do is bring my protagonist out of her messy circumstances. Happily for us, this is one of my favorite things to do.
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I collect bookmarks. I spend a great deal of time reading, so I pick a different bookmark from my collection for each new book. They are of varying size, shape, and fanciness, just like the books I read.
When I read The Name of the Rose recently, I chose (appropriately, I thought), a bookmark with a rose on it. Joke was on me, though. The title had nothing to do with the plot.
Sometimes a book doesn’t get a bookmark. I occasionally devour books whole in one sitting, so it’s no dishonor for such a book to be ‘markless, as it were.
But some books are not worthy of the distinction. It’s a sure sign of dismissiveness or resistance to the ideals of a book if I end up marking it with a grocery store receipt or worthless-business card.
There’s something quite fun about going through my collection and choosing the perfect bookmark.
Here we have: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Choronicles of Narnia, and Jane Eyre.
All of these books are wonderful, by the way.
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Is the idea of a feminine truck odd? I say no. I have spoken.
I used to adore trucks when I was little. My Dad had a 70’s-era Chevy… Behemoth, this ancient thing that used to roar down the road like a friendly lion.
Sitting in the passenger seat, windows down in the summer (this is when trucks were trucks—no air) I could peer out of the window and see everything. It took us where we wanted to go, and brought anything we needed on its back. I loved that truck.
So when I decided to give a truck to my Morgan, the horsewoman heroine of my newest story, I immediately cast an ancient Chevy complete with an irritable muffler and rust spots. Then I read Twilight. Since this story has a supernatural element, the heroine-with-an-ancient-truck was immediately out. Stephanie Meyer, I am glaring in your direction.
I drove around my neighborhood and had a look at newer trucks. I found them seriously wanting. Most of them totally impractical for anything besides showing off in suburbia. Morgan is not that kind of girl; she needs the truck to pull a horse trailer.
So I settled on either a Chevy, a Ford, or a Toyota.
From left to right: Dodge, Toyota, Chevy, Ford. I finally picked the Ford, because I liked it best.
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“Tough,” not to be confused with “strong,” which we will discuss later.
So these are just names that I think could be tough when shoved in the right direction. Don’t be offended if you find your name here, because I love most of these names. Or, alternatively, own it. You’re tough!
Tough Girl Names.
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I think the two most common denominators are hard sounds (Kat, Vikki) or masculine sounds (Jo, Alex).
Thoughts?
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I absolutely love Word-of-the-Day type things, so I thought I’d do something like that. This won’t be every day, though: just when the Spirit moves me.
Monday’s child is apparently. This word never struck me as thorny. In fact, this word never struck me at all. Until the other day, when the moment I sat down to lunch a friend said, “Define ‘apparently.’”
I totally had a moment. I could not, for the life of me, define “apparently.” I stared at him blankly for about five seconds before he got a triumphant look on his face and said, “Exactly!”
He got into a bit of a conflict over this word with a mutual friend. He’d said, “Apparently she’s unable to do it, can you think of anyone else?” She got mad because she assumed he was using the word sarcastically. I can say categorically that this was not his intention. Happily he convinced her of that, too.
I looked in several dictionaries. Because that’s how I roll.
Apparently, discussing appearances presents the same problems as trusting them.
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I’m back!
Didn’t even realize I’d been gone that long. I’ve been thinking about the format of this little gig I’m playing during my time-out. A few things will change around here in the future, and hopefully it’ll be a little more entertaining.
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I really want to keep moving as quickly as possible, so I can keep my momentum up. My next project, after closing my eyes and hitting “send” on my Phrases Essay, is to write my Tea Article.
This article is going to be about making the leap from traditional to (mostly) caffeine-free tea. I was forced to make this transition myself when I complained to my doctor that I was randomly waking up in the middle of the night. Cutting my caffeine intake down has really helped me, so I’m excited to share my discoveries with everybody else.
I’ve written papers and formal essays before, but never an article, per se. So: last night I took a field trip to Barnes ‘n’ Noble and picked up a stack of health and food magazines. I’m hoping to learn how it’s done by reading them.
Happily for me, most of the research is already done. (If I can really call drinking vast amounts of tea “research.” ) All I have left to do is make sense of it on paper. Despite being unpracticed with the format, I’m a little more optimistic about this one than the Phrases Essay. Most of the people I have talked to about it have gone, “Oh, wow! What a good idea! I could use something like that.”
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I’m super-excited about this: I have a research interview for “Teach Me” with a Pittsburgh-area detective! This is golden. I really wanted, no, needed to interview a detective to learn about the process of investigating and prosecuting kidnapping and child abuse. I wanted a Pittsburgh-area cop because that’s where the story is set, and laws differ so widely state-to-state. But I definitely didn’t relish the idea of just calling up the police station and saying, “Yeah, hi. I need to speak to a cop about kidnapping and child abuse. No, I’m not reporting a crime. It’s research. No, no, I’m not a reporter…”
I think this may be one of those examples of working one’s contacts. My Mom is seeing a man named Joe, who works on (or at least with) city council, so he knows a guy. And he very kindly agreed to contact said “guy” to set up an appointment for me.
Unfortunately, no good deed goes unpunished, as our friend Joe has discovered. He called the courthouse to speak with the detective, whom he’s already friends with, by the way. The receptionist seemed to think Joe was either a criminal or about to become one…or perhaps an overly ambitious member of the press. In any event, she grilled him relentlessly before he finally convinced her that the nature of the call was personal.
Poor Joe!
My next step is acquiring a decent recording device. I’m thinking of getting one of those things that plugs directly into the iPod, so I can store it as an mp3. I just really don’t want to be taking notes.
Not to mention finalizing my list of questions…
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