What are you guys doing this fine old day? I'm going cross-eyed with the last 40 pages of proofreading I have to do (which is why I'm procrastinating by checking out the - nonexistant - contest results).
Now I'll have to find another way to procrastinate :(
No coffee here; I can't sleep. And I have to get up at four o'clock tomorrow morning. I gave up on counting sheep (well, doing mental long division; I find it more effective) and decided to get out of bed to do some late-evening writing. That's normal, isn't it?
Morning...well afternoon for me and I'm sure evening for a few others...no worries, Janet, take your time. Your blog has become a regular part of our lives and, as you well know, we manage to entertain ourselves here on topic or off.
Ooooh, yes, Amy; that late evening writing when one has to get up early the next day...! Gotta love it :D There are just some nights when sleep won't happen. May as well be profitable, eh?
Yep, that's often when I get some of my best writing done. The muse draws away the cares of the day and says, "Let me tell you a story." If you're very still, magic happens.
Yes, 2Ns, I'll have a cup of cappuccino. Thank you.
However...mayhaps these queries the Shark is working on for the MidWest Writers create some interesting fodder for the column. (pun intended. That's what Maximus eats, right? Or, since he's a princely horse, does he eat better schtuff?)
Good morning, all! I'm not usually here this early (6 am for me), but we finally received some much needed rain, the fire breaks are as done as they're going to be, and I'm really enjoying this cup of coffee. Of course, if I'd known someone else was buying, I'd have checked in here first!
The best of Monday to all of you, and good luck to the flash writers (well, that didn't sound quite right, but you know what I mean)
Well, I've got me proofreading all done and I'm off to bed! Enjoy the coffee, guys, and have a lovely day :) I'll be back to check out the contest winners later.
I need coffee. Make it iced coffee - I tend to spill the hot stuff more often, especially when I'm tired. I'd rather spill cold stuff, but my hands don't seem to shake as much when I'm holding a cold beverage.
I have a feeling I will be drinking a lot of coffee this next week. I'll either be very talkative and weird or completely absent for the next several days. This will all depend on wifi, battery power, and the amount of coffee I'm able to drink as I wend my way from Saskatchewan to Vancouver to Kent, WA and back. It will also depend on what spare time there may be at the Cascade Writers Workshop.
Of course, I might wind up spending a LOT of time here, while in Vancouver, because I'll probably be spending a couple nights in either airport or train station.
But you've got me here for a couple more days. This could wind up being a quiet week, with Colin on jury duty, Janet at MWW, and me at Cascade. Don't worry. I'll probably be VERY talkative Wednesday night, Thursday morning, Sunday night, and all day Monday. Lack of sleep makes me yammer too much. Even more than usual.
Amy: You're a writer. It's absolutely REQUIRED that you will spend sleepless nights writing.
I didn't enter the contest AGAIN. Even though I've written a lot of drabbles. Something about the word requirements always stalls me, I get hung up on those and can't come up with a story to go with them. Maybe I'll try a different approach next time. Like... something.
Me and the hub had a bet on the winning entry - although I only managed to read those posted Saturday as I'm currently in a caravan in the land of intermittent internet!
Jenz - I had total writers block the last contest, so this time I decided I'd write 10 stories, the first 5 of which were bound to be thrown away, then I'd pick the best of the rest to work on. I ended up stopping after the first one and polishing that! I also totally mis-read one of the words so had to go back and fit it in! :-/
A question for Janet: have you ever signed someone who is not ready for a career as a writer? And if so, how do you deal with that? I still have a great deal of work to do in learning the craft of writing, but I started thinking about the work that goes into the profession of writing. Is everyone who is talented enough to be engaged by an agent, ready for that career?
For those of you who are going to the Midwest Writers Conference, just know there is a person in Montana who is feeling slightly envious of your excellent Writer's opportunity to glean, bond and unite this coming weekend!
Never in my whole life did I ever think that one day I would be hosting a compelling desire to go to Muncie Indiana, but right about now... I am.
Janice - you need to come to Writers Police Academy in Wisconsin in August where there will be yet another confirmed Shark Attack. Muncie is fun, but Wisconsin is going to be off the rails.
While we're waiting I'll take a cup of tea and a croissant, please.
Terri - Thats Fantastic!! I love the information/instruction that will be provided there - In fact im a strong advocate that every citizen should go for a "ridealong" (willingly of course lol) once in their lifetime to understand the concept of Police enforcement. I really would be interested in the Forensics/lab aspect. Looks like thats going to be another conference to envy too... !
I drink black coffee two cups daily. If I need more pickup, it's grinded twice, then double brewed. And the pot is only rinsed, never cleaned. I wonder if they teach that at the Police Academy Conference too :D ?
Please take you time. You are much more than extremely considerate of us. In fact some flash fiction contests take months to get their results out. So take some time to smell the roses. Unless you are allergic.
Now that I have sucked up nicely I have a hypothetical question.
If I drop everything, fly to Muncie, and figure out who you are is there a chance I can find a way to see your tattoos? I'll bring a wild query with me. One that starts with something like:
Come Monday Amanda Frost might be the most famous scientist in the world.
Like bmuntain, I prefer my coffee iced! I ran out of my usual creamer yesterday and mixed vanilla ice cream with my espresso. It didn't change my life, but it was pretty tasty. Of course, I used the last of the espresso yesterday, so today it's going to be dark roast (maybe it's French?) with the ice cream.
But. There were storms in Central New York last night, and I guess part of my street had a power outage. I did not. Or at least, not before the electric company people showed up. They turned off the rest of the street on purpose (that we could figure) to chainsaw a bunch of trees. It was about 1 a.m., only a big deal because we were watching an episode of Knights of Sidonia on Netflix and it cut out. I'd already broken 35k on my WIP and was ready to unwind a bit before bed. Oh yeah, and they didn't say anything to residents, perhaps assuming we were all college rentals.
But the thing is, this house used to be a college rental. An illegal one (i.e. not registered as such), but still following one of my town's basic apartment rental rules, wherein at least one smoke detector in the house must be hardwired to the electricity, not just battery operated. We have three.
We don't think much about them most of the time. Occasionally one chirps and we replace the D cell, because it still needs those. It needs both. And if one of the ones in the chain is "out", they all go off. Because that's what they did at 3 a.m. And the only thing that would fix it was pulling the batteries out of all of them, because we had fresh D cells and replacing them didn't make the alarms stop. That was amusing for the humans here, and the darling dog. She and I took a drive to Wal Mart for more batteries, in case, in case that would magically fix it, because what else do we mere mortals do with smoke detectors? We change batteries or we take them out.
So good morning. Afternoon now. My head is splitting still and I'm gonna try my ice cream coffee. At least Elka seems okay now.
I finally got a chance to sit down and read yesterday's WIR and comments. You guys, we crack me up! What a great, info-packed week.
I was glad to see Julie's quote up on the header! Although I loved Janet's quote too - hopefully that will end up at the top of the page soon as well.
Yesterday and today I am smoking all of the salmon we brought back from the river. Everything smells like smoked salmon. Steak and corn on the cob last night tasted like smoked salmon. My hair smells like smoked salmon. I dreamed last night about smoked salmon. I love smoked salmon, but I can't eat it. I'm allergic. Tomorrow, I will pack it all up in jars and can it to go in the pantry. I have some wild rose and fireweed and dandelion jelly that needs making as well. And the whole time I am working, I want to be at my computer writing and working on my pitch for the Writers Digest Conference in NYC next week. I am so excited! Is anyone else going? Gawd, I hope I don't still smell like salmon by then. Do New Yorkers mind smoked salmon?
BTW the QOTKU is doing a workshop on query letters at NYC too! I wouldn't miss that for a truckload of chocolate. I am jealous, though, of all those lucky MidWest-y writers who get their query actually critiqued, in person, by Her Sharkness.
Christina - when I took a query workshop from Ms Shark, we got our query letters critiqued, too (just in front of the whole workshop, not one-on-one). Maybe you'll have that chance, too.
I'm so jealous of everyone in Indiana, Wisconsin and NY. Why can't Mme Shark come to Paris? (Whaa!) Anyway, forget about the coffee and tea. It's almost 21h and I'm ready for a glass of wine with dinner.
She even had the submitted queries up on an overhead, so everyone could read. Mine was the first up, so it was on the overhead as everyone walked in.
Thankfully, she's wonderful at pointing out the good parts, too, and what needed to be fixed. She's a great teacher, and the exercise she gave us helped me polish my query nicely.
But if you haven't submitted a query, I don't know if she's going to run your workshop the same way.
By the way, I met one of my most loyal critique partners in that session. It's one of the best workshops I've been to. Only Don Maass's workshops can hold a candle to hers.
Here is the link to the longest group drum roll. I don't know why the link didn't work. http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-group-drum-roll
Angie: But I have a darn good query now. It was well worth sitting through. And my secret woodland creature sense decided that freezing was better than fighting or fleeing, so I sat and learned.
I highly recommend her workshops (in case you didn't get that from my previous messages).
40 comments:
It probably doesn't count to be first on a placeholder post. But I take my victories where I can! :)
Hey Sam, want a coffee while we wait in the corner for the band to arrive. I'll buy.
That Shark. She's a sly one, all these different times just to jostle the water and slosh us around a bit.
Mornin' all.
Yes, yes I DO want that coffee 2Ns! Can you do a flat white? ;)
Mornin'! (Even if it is night here :D )
I'll take a cuppa tea, white, no sugar, 2NNs.
What are you guys doing this fine old day? I'm going cross-eyed with the last 40 pages of proofreading I have to do (which is why I'm procrastinating by checking out the - nonexistant - contest results).
Now I'll have to find another way to procrastinate :(
Oh yeah! I'll keep watching Murder She Wrote :D
No coffee here; I can't sleep. And I have to get up at four o'clock tomorrow morning. I gave up on counting sheep (well, doing mental long division; I find it more effective) and decided to get out of bed to do some late-evening writing. That's normal, isn't it?
Morning...well afternoon for me and I'm sure evening for a few others...no worries, Janet, take your time. Your blog has become a regular part of our lives and, as you well know, we manage to entertain ourselves here on topic or off.
I'll have a cup of green tea.
Ooooh, yes, Amy; that late evening writing when one has to get up early the next day...!
Gotta love it :D There are just some nights when sleep won't happen. May as well be profitable, eh?
Amy,
Yep, that's often when I get some of my best writing done. The muse draws away the cares of the day and says, "Let me tell you a story." If you're very still, magic happens.
Yes, 2Ns, I'll have a cup of cappuccino. Thank you.
However...mayhaps these queries the Shark is working on for the MidWest Writers create some interesting fodder for the column. (pun intended. That's what Maximus eats, right? Or, since he's a princely horse, does he eat better schtuff?)
ok, ok, back to writing.
Watching the Open, wishing I was in Scotland.
Lisa,
I did a Facebook post about the Midwest Writers queries.
I'm pretty sure Maximus eats To Do lists for breakfast.
Good morning, all! I'm not usually here this early (6 am for me), but we finally received some much needed rain, the fire breaks are as done as they're going to be, and I'm really enjoying this cup of coffee. Of course, if I'd known someone else was buying, I'd have checked in here first!
The best of Monday to all of you, and good luck to the flash writers (well, that didn't sound quite right, but you know what I mean)
Well, I've got me proofreading all done and I'm off to bed! Enjoy the coffee, guys, and have a lovely day :) I'll be back to check out the contest winners later.
Janet: oooo, thank you. (dashes off to facebook)
I need coffee. Make it iced coffee - I tend to spill the hot stuff more often, especially when I'm tired. I'd rather spill cold stuff, but my hands don't seem to shake as much when I'm holding a cold beverage.
I have a feeling I will be drinking a lot of coffee this next week. I'll either be very talkative and weird or completely absent for the next several days. This will all depend on wifi, battery power, and the amount of coffee I'm able to drink as I wend my way from Saskatchewan to Vancouver to Kent, WA and back. It will also depend on what spare time there may be at the Cascade Writers Workshop.
Of course, I might wind up spending a LOT of time here, while in Vancouver, because I'll probably be spending a couple nights in either airport or train station.
But you've got me here for a couple more days. This could wind up being a quiet week, with Colin on jury duty, Janet at MWW, and me at Cascade. Don't worry. I'll probably be VERY talkative Wednesday night, Thursday morning, Sunday night, and all day Monday. Lack of sleep makes me yammer too much. Even more than usual.
Amy: You're a writer. It's absolutely REQUIRED that you will spend sleepless nights writing.
I didn't enter the contest AGAIN. Even though I've written a lot of drabbles. Something about the word requirements always stalls me, I get hung up on those and can't come up with a story to go with them. Maybe I'll try a different approach next time. Like... something.
Julie, CONGRATS for your subheading being chosen! I voted for it.
Me and the hub had a bet on the winning entry - although I only managed to read those posted Saturday as I'm currently in a caravan in the land of intermittent internet!
Jenz - I had total writers block the last contest, so this time I decided I'd write 10 stories, the first 5 of which were bound to be thrown away, then I'd pick the best of the rest to work on. I ended up stopping after the first one and polishing that! I also totally mis-read one of the words so had to go back and fit it in! :-/
A question for Janet: have you ever signed someone who is not ready for a career as a writer? And if so, how do you deal with that? I still have a great deal of work to do in learning the craft of writing, but I started thinking about the work that goes into the profession of writing. Is everyone who is talented enough to be engaged by an agent, ready for that career?
For those of you who are going to the Midwest Writers Conference, just know there is a person in Montana who is feeling slightly envious of your excellent Writer's opportunity to glean, bond and unite this coming weekend!
Never in my whole life did I ever think that one day I would be hosting a compelling desire to go to Muncie Indiana, but right about now... I am.
Montana = Muncie.
I need to go lay down now...
Janice - you need to come to Writers Police Academy in Wisconsin in August where there will be yet another confirmed Shark Attack. Muncie is fun, but Wisconsin is going to be off the rails.
While we're waiting I'll take a cup of tea and a croissant, please.
Terri
PL Alston, that's a GREAT question!
Terri - Thats Fantastic!! I love the information/instruction that will be provided there - In fact im a strong advocate that every citizen should go for a "ridealong" (willingly of course lol) once in their lifetime to understand the concept of Police enforcement. I really would be interested in the Forensics/lab aspect. Looks like thats going to be another conference to envy too... !
I drink black coffee two cups daily. If I need more pickup, it's grinded twice, then double brewed. And the pot is only rinsed, never cleaned. I wonder if they teach that at the Police Academy Conference too :D ?
Yes.
I am.
I am a day behind.
Again.
O Mighty Queen... I am sorry for your headache...
And yet.
And yet, I am grateful not to be the only one in the world with this:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/291115563391537014/
Headache kitty.
....on a somewhat regular basis.
Please take you time. You are much more than extremely considerate of us. In fact some flash fiction contests take months to get their results out. So take some time to smell the roses. Unless you are allergic.
Now that I have sucked up nicely I have a hypothetical question.
If I drop everything, fly to Muncie, and figure out who you are is there a chance I can find a way to see your tattoos? I'll bring a wild query with me. One that starts with something like:
Come Monday Amanda Frost might be the most famous scientist in the world.
Like bmuntain, I prefer my coffee iced! I ran out of my usual creamer yesterday and mixed vanilla ice cream with my espresso. It didn't change my life, but it was pretty tasty. Of course, I used the last of the espresso yesterday, so today it's going to be dark roast (maybe it's French?) with the ice cream.
But. There were storms in Central New York last night, and I guess part of my street had a power outage. I did not. Or at least, not before the electric company people showed up. They turned off the rest of the street on purpose (that we could figure) to chainsaw a bunch of trees. It was about 1 a.m., only a big deal because we were watching an episode of Knights of Sidonia on Netflix and it cut out. I'd already broken 35k on my WIP and was ready to unwind a bit before bed. Oh yeah, and they didn't say anything to residents, perhaps assuming we were all college rentals.
But the thing is, this house used to be a college rental. An illegal one (i.e. not registered as such), but still following one of my town's basic apartment rental rules, wherein at least one smoke detector in the house must be hardwired to the electricity, not just battery operated. We have three.
We don't think much about them most of the time. Occasionally one chirps and we replace the D cell, because it still needs those. It needs both. And if one of the ones in the chain is "out", they all go off. Because that's what they did at 3 a.m. And the only thing that would fix it was pulling the batteries out of all of them, because we had fresh D cells and replacing them didn't make the alarms stop. That was amusing for the humans here, and the darling dog. She and I took a drive to Wal Mart for more batteries, in case, in case that would magically fix it, because what else do we mere mortals do with smoke detectors? We change batteries or we take them out.
So good morning. Afternoon now. My head is splitting still and I'm gonna try my ice cream coffee. At least Elka seems okay now.
Good morning all!
I finally got a chance to sit down and read yesterday's WIR and comments. You guys, we crack me up! What a great, info-packed week.
I was glad to see Julie's quote up on the header! Although I loved Janet's quote too - hopefully that will end up at the top of the page soon as well.
Yesterday and today I am smoking all of the salmon we brought back from the river. Everything smells like smoked salmon. Steak and corn on the cob last night tasted like smoked salmon. My hair smells like smoked salmon. I dreamed last night about smoked salmon. I love smoked salmon, but I can't eat it. I'm allergic. Tomorrow, I will pack it all up in jars and can it to go in the pantry. I have some wild rose and fireweed and dandelion jelly that needs making as well. And the whole time I am working, I want to be at my computer writing and working on my pitch for the Writers Digest Conference in NYC next week. I am so excited! Is anyone else going? Gawd, I hope I don't still smell like salmon by then. Do New Yorkers mind smoked salmon?
BTW the QOTKU is doing a workshop on query letters at NYC too! I wouldn't miss that for a truckload of chocolate. I am jealous, though, of all those lucky MidWest-y writers who get their query actually critiqued, in person, by Her Sharkness.
Christina - when I took a query workshop from Ms Shark, we got our query letters critiqued, too (just in front of the whole workshop, not one-on-one). Maybe you'll have that chance, too.
I'm so jealous of everyone in Indiana, Wisconsin and NY. Why can't Mme Shark come to Paris? (Whaa!) Anyway, forget about the coffee and tea. It's almost 21h and I'm ready for a glass of wine with dinner.
Paris?? *PERK*
What is the Guinness Record for the longest group drum roll?
Oh Lynn, I would *definitely* come to Paris to attend a workshop by Mme Shark. I mean, all in the name of sacrificing for my art, y'know.
bjmuntain, you mean she (GULP) critiqued them ... out loud ... in front of GOD and everybody???
*faints*
*gets up*
Are participants allowed to wear a paper bag over their head, perhaps? I *might* could do it then.
She even had the submitted queries up on an overhead, so everyone could read. Mine was the first up, so it was on the overhead as everyone walked in.
Thankfully, she's wonderful at pointing out the good parts, too, and what needed to be fixed. She's a great teacher, and the exercise she gave us helped me polish my query nicely.
But if you haven't submitted a query, I don't know if she's going to run your workshop the same way.
By the way, I met one of my most loyal critique partners in that session. It's one of the best workshops I've been to. Only Don Maass's workshops can hold a candle to hers.
BJ, ouch. You were first. I think I'd have a coronary. I guess I'll read the winners over coffee tomorrow morning.
Julie, congrats on earning the blog subtitle. I could wallpaper a room with your stories.
Here is the link to the longest group drum roll. I don't know why the link didn't work. http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-group-drum-roll
We've got a few days to wait.
Angie: But I have a darn good query now. It was well worth sitting through. And my secret woodland creature sense decided that freezing was better than fighting or fleeing, so I sat and learned.
I highly recommend her workshops (in case you didn't get that from my previous messages).
Let me try:
Longest group drumroll - Guinness World Records website
Christina, I feel a conference brewing in Paris in the future.
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