Living the Fictional Dream

My poor muse must be tired of me. She has packed her bags and flown the coup. I imagine her reclining in a beach chair in Hawaii or Aruba, sipping mai tais and being glad not to be tied to me any more.

Was it NaNo that sent her running?

All I know is that my inspiration and writing ideas have totally deserted me. I did manage to turn something into my writing group to be critted at our meeting this week, but it was a story I’d written the bulk of before the holidays.

Sometimes it seems like there are so many stories out there that I could never write them all in a million bazillion years, but lately it seems like my creative landscape is a dull, featureless void.

Maybe I should take advantage of the writing prompts that Alex supplied for our writing group prompts contest this month. Or maybe I should start trying to write the prompt a day that Stephanie has been sharing with the world (get aload of the Twinkie one if you’re looking for something really off the wall to write about!).

I keep telling myself that I should do that, but when I look at the prompts, nothing creative comes to mind.

**sighs**

Hopefully my muse will return soon, tanned and rejuvenated from her illicit vacation. Speaking of vacations, in a couple of weeks, Stephen and I will be heading to Sedona on a vacation of our own. Perhaps my muse will find me again there!

I’ve had writer’s block before, but this really isn’t writer’s block per se… it’s more like creativity block.

Here’s hoping that whatever it is, it goes away soon!

I’m sure that question has been plaguing all my loyal readers. Assuming I have any left!

Between holiday house guests, crazy vacation schedules, too many big work projects, and one of those colds that burrows into your lungs and refuses to leave, writing has not been high on my to-do list lately. I think my muse went to Aruba for the winter, and took all my good ideas with her!

However, at today’s Writer’s Ink meeting, I signed up to submit a story for critique at the next meeting, so hopefully that will spur something remotely resembling fiction out of me. Our annual collection theme this year is “Genre Collision,” so we all have to write a story this year that combines or somehow smooshes at least two genres — or as many genres as we want, really.

I have a story I’ve been tinkering with for a while. It’s set in my sci-fi universe where there are five self-sustaining human colonies on the moon. I tried to write this story back when the “Return to Luna” anthology was soliciting, but I couldn’t get the plot to turn out right. I tried two different moon colony stories, and while I really liked the world that I built, I had issues with the plot in both stories. However, I hope that I have reached a turning point with one of them. And if not, heck, I’ll send it into my writing group any way — they are great at helping ferret out a problem with a story and brainstorming ideas on how to fix it!

As far as colliding genres go, I hope that this story will end up as a space western. We’ll see. Thus far, the western elements are a lot lighter than the sci-fi elements, but there’s a wandering stranger, a woman who seems helpless, a dog, a farm… I see a bit of western in all that.

Hopefully, now that the holiday obligations are over and the walking crud is slowly but surely releasing its death grip on my lungs, I’ll be able to resume my more regular posting schedule. I actually have a few topics in mind that I’ve wanted to write about lately, which is a step in the right direction! I got a thought-provoking rejection letter the other day, and I’m interested to know what other people think of it. Maybe that will be my next post!

I hope all of y’all out there in blog land are doing well. I will try to resume my normal blog reading soon, too. If I could comment on Blogger blogs from the office, I would even start that today. Sadly, I’ll have to wait on that until I get home.

Oh, and something else to leave you with — my flash piece, “The Care and Feeding of Your Sleeping Knight,” will be up on Every Day Fiction later this week. I’ll post here when it’s live! I’m looking forward to that.

Thanks for all the votes on “Fortune Cookies,” guys. For a brief and shining moment, it’s cracked both top stories lists at EDF — top 10 in the past 30 days and top 10 of all time. I’m sure that latter won’t last long — my stories appear there for a while and then drop off — but it’s always nice while it lasts.

Part of me really wants to write today. I’m feeling that creative urge. Sadly, I left my latest work-in-progress at the office, so I would either have to start over on it or wait on it until after my vacation. Bummer! And I don’t have the brain power to start something new this morning (yes, it’s still technically morning for 13 minutes in my time zone!). I was awakened at midnight last night and couldn’t get back to sleep until 4 a.m., so this morning, I’m a zombie, good for little other than surfing the net or playing Settlers of Catan on the X-Box.

This keeps happening this holiday season — me being woken in the middle of the night (either by people being loud or playing the piano at ungodly hours or by something I’m stressing about) and then being unable to get back to sleep for hours and hours. **sighs**

On the plus side, still over a week of vacation left. That is a good thing!

 

Wow… I can’t believe how long it’s been since I posted here. Sorry, guys! The last push at work and the overwhelming task of getting ready for Christmas (not to mention hosting Christmas Eve mass at my house and celebrating my husband’s birthday on Monday) took over everything!

Well, to celebrate Boxing Day, you can read a new story from yours truly over at Every Day Fiction. It’s called “Fortune Cookies.” It’s a fun little flash piece that I wrote on a lark, and I was thrilled that EDF decided to pick it up. You can vote on it there (please do!), and leave a comment there if you want. You can also leave a comment here to let me know what you thought.

The following will be somewhat spoilerish if you haven’t read the story yet. Just warning you.

A few years ago, I got a fortune that actually said I would get my heart’s desire. I carried it in my wallet for a long time, because if there was some place to cash that in, I wasn’t going to miss out! I think it’s lost now — victim of a purse swap or something — but I kept that thing for several years. That was the inspiration for this story — the girl in this story, finally gets to do what I never got to do, turn in her fortune and claim her heart’s desire.

As long as I was writing about fortune cookies, I had to get all of the traditions in there. Especially the classic “in bed” and “then you die” bits.

So, I hope y’all enjoy this little piece of light-hearted fun to celebrate your Boxing Day. And a belated Merry Christmas to everyone!

I mentioned previously that my sister got engaged last weekend, and now she and her fiance have their very own wedding blog. I thought I would link it here, especially for any family members or friends who read my blog and hadn’t heard yet.

I’m really thrilled for them, as they make an awesome couple. They compliment each other so well. And I’m also looking forward to helping out (as needed — I don’t want to be pushy) with wedding planning. I’m such a nerd! But, all that stuff I learned when I was the bride can finally go to good use!

I purchased my copy of the EDF anthology. I look forward to receiving it. Hopefully, it will come in time for Christmas!

I spent the day working. Blah. But I made good progress. Hope to finish by deadline (which is somewhat miraculous because my schedule was cut quite a bit from the norm because of holiday vacations).

My sister got engaged yesterday. Very exciting! I was there when the proposal happened — very fitting, since she was there when my husband proposed (has it really been 7.5 years since then? Yikes!).

I need to remember to keep my most updated stories on my laptop. I hate it when a story gets rejected and I want to submit it somewhere else, and I realize that the last time I worked on the piece was on a lunch break at work and that’s where the current copy is saved. Arg!

Well, this post is particularly boring, so I will sign off for now. Perhaps next week, once the work binge is over and now that the NaNo juggernaut is over, more interesting writing topics will come back to the forefront of my mind. That would certainly lead to more interesting blog entries!

…but I don’t really have anything to say.

My brain is mulling over a few short story/flash ideas, but nothing has solidified yet. I think NaNo has stolen all my words!

Got another huge project at work, so if you don’t see much of me here until the 9th, you can imagine me slaving away.

Also… yikes! Christmas! I have two of the three December birthdays taken care of, but only one Christmas present purchased. Eep!

Speaking of Christmas, what kind of books would you buy for an 11 year old? Middle grade, I guess… I always read way in advance of my actual age, so it’s hard for me to guess what my friend’s daughter would like to read. I also think she’d probably like something more modern than, say, Little Women, which was one of my go-to favorites at that age. I’m much more into the Y/A realm than middle grade now, and know a lot of good books for that age bracket, but I think she’s still a bit young for the full-on Y/A (especially the Y/A vampire crack, LOL).

In honor of a lovely Friday where I am home and don’t have to even attempt to work, I thought I would post some links for y’all. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

First of all, Kevin has today’s story of the day at Every Day Fiction. It’s called “Krupper and Jons,” and it’s quite a chuckle. When you get the to end, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Yesterday, I stumbled upon this set of posts on author Shanna Swendon’s blog. They’re all about character archetypes. I find character archetypes a fascinating tool for character building. Of course, you can’t cheat and use the archetypes for character. Then your characters turn out flat and boring, predictable and lame. But I find thinking about the archetypes helps me to write characters that are all wildly different, and not based solely on myself. They are a tool to help me broaden and improve my writing. Shanna’s post talks about the archetype constructs based on the hero’s journey.

Tami Cowden, on the other hand, explores different character types based on personality. Each archetype has a male and female equivalent, as well as heroic and villainous incarnations. I’ve read her book, and it’s really interesting. The thumbnail sketches on her website are a great starting place, but to really get the depth out of this idea, you need to read the book. (I’m fairly sure I’ve linked to this before, but how can I not in a discussion of archetypes?)

Now, I’ve never really talked about politics on this blog. I would share my political views with you, if you asked, but this is a writing blog… posting about politics would be way off topic. However, I want to share this post with you, written by my friend, Ms. Eclectic. It’s a really thoughtful post-election post, and I especially thought that it spoke well to people here in Texas. Though, I think anyone who’s dealing with this post-election world might find it interesting.

And, now, for something entirely different, here another friend Kevin’s take on the newest restaurant in downtown Fort Worth, Simply Fondue. I’ve been a fan of this restaurant since it was only in Dallas (now you can eat there in Dallas, Arlington, and Fort Worth), and I’m thrilled that there is a new location close to home. My husband and I ate at the new location once, and it’s top notch. From Kevin’s article, it sounds like they’ve been improving since we ate there. It’s not cheap, but if it’s a special occasion, it is definitely worth the price of admission.

Here’s something that’s a little related to the last link (it’s about food) and also related to this blog (its about books), there is a new site called TasteBook that I’m very intrigued by. On this site, you can make your own cookbooks, either with recipes from their partners or by inputting your own recipes. I haven’t yet ordered a tastebook of my own, but I’m working on compiling the recipes for one. I don’t know that it’s worth the cost unless I can get at least 50 recipes in there! But, so far, it’s been really fun collecting the recipes and choosing my cover images and everything.

And, finally, still on the food theme, I’ll leave you with the link to a new recipe I found during my TasteBook adventures — cheesy tacos. These were a great hit at my last pot luck dinner party. If you’re doing a low carb diet (like my hubby and I are, under advice from our nutritionist), these taco shells made out of cheese are completely awesome! I’m planning to use the same idea to make us some “chips” for dipping. (It wouldn’t be so great, I suppose, if you’re doing a low fat diet, though.)

However, even the guests who weren’t watching their carbs enjoyed the cheesy taco shells — they were that tasty. Once I got the trick down, they worked out really well, but while frying the first few, I dubbed this the most hilarious recipe I’d ever made, because those first taco shells ended up a little malformed. But after I’d done a few, it was easy. (The counter full of a cobbled together drying rack of wooden spoons and cups was hilarious, too.)

And now, I will leave you to enjoy that random collection of links, and I hope that everyone has an awesome weekend. My husband and I are planning to travel to the cabin (the land of no Internet) this weekend, so it may be Sunday or Monday before you hear from me again. Have a great weekend!

Hello, fellow writers and other assorted readers!

Is it just me, or has it been really quiet around the blog-o-sphere lately? Perhaps everyone is madly preparing for NaNoWriMo and too busy for much else? I hope it’s not that everyone else is as work-crazed as I have been of late. I don’t want to get into the work thing too much on this blog, but suffice to say that the fall is our busiest time (gotta get those manuals out by year-end!), and every deadline I meet has another one right behind it.

The nice thing about fall has been the weather these past few weeks. If everyone else has been having the same great weather Fort Worth’s been having, I would highly recommend leaving the computer and enjoying the cool breezes and sunshine. It’s been such a relief after those 100+ tempertures that accompany a Texas summer. This morning was the first one that was positively chilly outside. I pulled my favorite boots and turtleneck out of the closet with glee, as I haven’t been able to wear them since last summer.

My lack of time for writing lately has given me fewer ideas for blog topics lately. I did notice last night that I have stories out at 16 locations on submission. I think that’s a good total. Maybe a few of them will bring home an acceptance! I think the creative part of my brain is taking a rest before NaNo madness — I can’t believe that Saturday will begin the one-week countdown!

Well, I suppose I’d better quit babbling for now. I hope all is well for everyone out there, and that you are enjoying a beautiful autumn thus far!

I’ve been a busy writing beaver lately — sadly, it’s all work writing, not fiction writing. Hopefully, that will change once the big deadline this Friday is met.

I’ve been wishing I could chuck it all right now and whisk my husband and I off for a beach vacation — either S. Padre Island or maybe the Outerbanks in NC. **wistful sigh** Sadly, busy season deadlines wouldn’t allow it. And, even if they did, it would take all my vacation and leave none for Christmas.

I’m getting excited about November. My writing group is planning tons of write-ins, which always rock. Even the year I didn’t write a NaNo novel, I still got tons of writing done in November. It’s a great time to challenge yourself to write more, no matter what you’re writing.

Well, I should stop avoiding those governmental financial statements. The life of a technical writer is such that the day-to-day writing/updating is on boring topics (my particular line is products for CPAs), but it still must be done. At least I’m on the last big update of this product, and this it’s on to the 1065 tax return project. The plus side of the boring subjects is that a gripping plot or witty sentences don’t distract me from doing my job!