A Fun List of Gift Ideas for The Family that Has it All

It's that time of year again, when we try to figure out what to buy our friends and family. I thought I'd share a few gift recommendations that I came up for a family that's especially hard to shop for: Mother Nature, Father Time, and their Offspring. The recommendations might come in especially handy: Mother Nature is planning her next party. You might be on the invite list.

If you do get one of her gilded invitations, and you plan on going (crazy person you), you'll want to help keep spirits bright, and tensions low (especially important when you get all six of them together in one room). You'll need gifts that will help you stay under the radar. Or pacify them. (A nugget of truth forms every myth and legend, and is why humans used to offer sacrifices of all sorts to the gods. Although, they aren't as blood thirsty as they used to be.)

Father Time: He loves single malt Scotch whisky. Get him the peatiest available, like a Laphroig or Talisker. Don’t be intimidated by the fact that the Immortal’s Edinburgh estate contains its own wing just for his favorite bottles. It’s the thought that counts. (Pun not intended.) But if you insist on trying to impress him with your knowledge of rarities, and no-limit credit card, try one of these at this site.

Mother Nature: This techno wizard, with macros for her macros in her spreadsheets, will sneak away from the party to check on her creation and climate-tracking models. The ideal Hostess Gift: a digital thermometer that sends alerts via her smartphone so she doesn’t burn dinner again.

Atoño (Autumn): What to get the bachelor with the mischievous streak? Something that can’t come back and bite you. (And that will keep him too busy to notice that you are still in that swoon over his good looks, assuming you're female. If you’re male - then to keep Atoño from paying too much attention to your date). Bring beta versions of all the video games currently in development. Here’s a starting point of the best selling games for 2013.

Nieva (Winter): Ever since she founded that tango dance school down in Buenos Aires, she is always on the look out for great tango music. Bajofundo and Otros Aires are a few of her favorites. Fly the bands in for a live performance. They love her almost as much as she loves them.

Marcela (Spring): Her siblings call her PrimaDona for good reason. (Not to her face. They may be Immortal, but they aren’t crazy.) With access to the top designers at all the major fashion houses, it’s nearly impossible to get her anything that she doesn’t already have. So, bring one of the best portrait photographers with you and give her a personal photo shoot.

For Vera (Summer): Direct and to the point, Summer is. Anything that reminds her of fun in the sun is sure to please her. And if you know anything about Summer and her pleasures, bringing an up and coming male model with a personality that can stand up to her is your best bet. Lately she’s been into a wild and scruffy look, so bring someone who looks like this model to help entertain her.

Hope you have a great time. (Me? I'll be hiding in the bunker until after the party.)

[These characters appear in Winter's Tango - my story that is waiting for me while I work on my time travel/alternate universe/witch hunt story. After writing this list, I wish I was immersed in Nieva's story again. Just more incentive to get Akeva's story finished.]

Manuscript Highlights

This past weekend, I went into my office to grab something and stumbled into a unique experience. My manuscript sat on my desk completely bathed in light. I'd left the curtain open and the morning light coming through my window lit up the document. It reminded me of those images in movies where God, or some sort of divine being, shines down blessings upon someone or something. It actually glowed.

So me, being me, I took some photos. The one I've included below is from my iPhone that captured the glow off the printed paper.

Time to get back to writing to make the story worthy of such a glow.

Lite at My Writing Existence

Posting will be lite here for the next few weeks because...

It's vacation time with the family: site seeing, eating out, hanging at the pool and seeing old friends. I've brought along some of my writing tools in the event that while my little one naps on the non-sight-seeing days so I can keep my story present in my mind. And not have to work to remember what Akeva was doing before I left her to her own devices. I did that once and it took me longer than I care to admit to get back in the writing groove.

Then no sooner do we get back home, school begins for the kids.

So, when I get a chance, I'll post something.

And here's a pic, taken on the phone and no post processing, of some of the sights.

I can imagine Akeva looking around in a forest of these things ... I think the "new" Scotch Pine will be verra similar to these behemoths in the Muir Woods.

Until later ... 

Confused or Great?

Via a post at Boing Boing today, I found this site, I Write Like, where you enter some of your own text for their analysis, and voila, it will tell you who you write like.

Using some of my previous blog posts, I supposedly write like ...

• Leo Tolstoy
• Robert Louis Stevenson
• Margaret Atwood
• James Joyce

Then using some text from the first draft of my second novel ... I Write Like ... David Foster Wallace. (Need to look him up.)

So, what does this say about me ... Confused or Great? I can't be a copy cat as I've only read Tolstoy. Or maybe I'm just procrastinating?

Yeah, I know, I know. I'll go get my writing notebook now.

Who do you write like? Post your results in the comments.

A Meme

Over on Charlene Teglia's blog, she posted a Literature Meme that I thought would be fun to do. So I began a post in Blogger, but never got around to answering the questions. Then today over at GenReality, Sasha White did a post on the same meme.

So before everyone does this and I get left behind, here are my answers ... Have fun.


1) What author do you own the most books by?
I think I have a tie between Rosina Lippi/Sara Donati, Diana Gabaldon, and Lynn Viehl.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
I only own one of each hardback, but I buy the audiobooks for my favorites as well so I can "read" the story anytime.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Er, no.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Jamie Fraser

5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
The Ring by Daniel Steel - my mom own this book when I was younger and it was the only book in the house for a very long time. I loved the time period. BTW ... this story is where I got the idea for the name for our second child.

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Anything by Piers Anthony - I loved the word play.

7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Are there bad books?

9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Can't name just one ... besides, it would depend on the person.

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
 No clue.

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
None of them. Now, as a Mini-series on HBO ... Outlander Series, ITW Series. I'm looking forward to the A Song of Ice and Fire Series that is in production.


12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Any of them.

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
Weird dreams? Who has those? Like I would share that with you all.
;P

14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Are there lowbrow books?

15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. I gave up at a conversation where I had no clue who was saying what.

16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
Showing my illiteracy ... haven't seen a Shakespeare play unless you count the one I watched on a VCR in Mrs. Beehler's senior English class, and it was a modern retelling of the Taming of the Shrew.


17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Haven't read any French authors... so I'd have to go with the Russians.

18) Roth or Updike?
Who?

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
See #18

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Since I've not read two of the three ... Shakespeare.

21) Austen or Eliot?
I've only read Austen.

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Can't you already tell?


23) What is your favorite novel?
Can't have just one ... Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

24) Play?
I saw the movie for Much Ado About Nothing. But my favorite musical was Les Miserables.

25) Poem?

Don't have one.

26) Essay?
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau ... majority of one.

27) Short story?
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charolette Perkins Gilman. I also enjoyed her novella Herland.

28) Work of nonfiction?
Nonfiction? Do all my searches in Wikipedia count?

29) Who is your favorite writer?

Not just one ... Rosina Lippi/Sara Donati, Diana Gabaldon, J.K. Rowling.

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
I don't have enough time to read that many books to be able to say. 

31) What is your desert island book?

Again ... Can't have just one ... Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

32) And ... what are you reading right now?
A Clash of Kings (A Song of Fire and Ice, #2) by George R. R. Martin



PS Thanks to Charlene and Sasha for the inspiration.

Big Picture

I did it -- I printed it. You know the big picture that I said I didn't need.

Couldn't help it. The map sits above my little white board, and I can glance at it anytime I want or need to.

Just because I could.

Some Fun With My Revision

I received a Lensbaby Composer as a Mother's Day gift from my hubby and kids. I love it! And I've downloaded a free trial of Aperture 3. Love it too!

No, I haven't completely given up on writing. Honest. Yeah, I've been playing with my new photo software and new lens, but I have been getting things done on the writing front. Really! Trust me. I've completed another lesson, so now I'm on week #14 of my HTRYN course, in which I look at sequencing and timing of my scenes via my outline cards, making sure that I give my characters time to do what they need to do and don't put them in two places at one.

Don't believe that I've been working on writing? Here's proof.

Exhibit #1: Stacks of my outline cards in chronological order. (Sweet spot focus ala my Lensbaby Composer.)

Exhibit #2: Another shot of same cards, but you can see the colors I've added via highlighters and sticky notes. (The cool color effect via Curves manipulation in Aperture 3.)

I admit taking and processing photos yields results faster than revising, but I am working on my writing. Don't you doubt it.

Attack Plan & Wish List

Remember when I said that I'd do something writing related everyday this month, despite all the hustle and bustle? Well, I've logged 4 days of not doing any revising, but I am caught up on one of my courses.

Today I turn it around: red pen and course worksheets are out; I'll chip away those scales while I wait for the bread dough to rise.

On a lighter note ... Saw this on Writer Unboxed this morning. Made me smile. I think I'll print multiple copies of the graphic and stick it around the house. If not a reminder to the rest of the family, then to myself.

Plan of Attack for December

So I lived through November with NaNoWriMo, my own birthday and Thanksgiving dinner for 20 at our house. And now we are in the midst of December and all the activities of this glorious month: homemade cookies, new recipes, buying and wrapping presents, family visits, birthdays, parties, Christmas and New Year's Eve...

And two stories to revise/edit. Yes, revisions, with an S. I now have two beasts to slay. And, fortunately for me, I received an early Christmas present in the form of a new writing course to help with my first story.

But how am I going to keep on top of everything and maintain forward motion on my stories? I've got a plan...

1. Courses - Each manuscript corresponds to a writing course, so I'll be able to use the tools from my coursework to assess and modify each story. The weekly assignments will help me keep a schedule of sorts, if not a strict schedule. Fortunately each course is self-paced.

2. Hard copies - I'll be keeping actual paper copies of my manuscripts nearby with notebooks and a red pen to mark down notes. Yep, I'm using old school technology. Besides, it's safer to keep paper than my precious in a kitchen dusty with flour. (Don't worry, I'll still be using electrons and the "intertubes" to do research and coursework.)

3. Time - Schedule some time just for my writing/revising each day, even if it's just a few minutes here and there. I commit to performing at least one writing activity each day. Even if it's in between batches of cookies and wrapping presents, I'll find time to work on my revision.

4. Flexibility - This will be the hardest for me, but I'll just keep reminding myself that having fun and enjoying this holiday season will only help my writing, even if it gets pushed to the side from time to time. Besides, there is always January.

So, that in a nutshell, is how I plan to keep slaying those beasts I've created.

I'm off to imbibe a cup of eggnog and toast this plan of mine. I'll need those extra calories to keep the my sword at the ready.

Battling the Beast

My army of 78 march along side me. The staccatto of the march drives me forward.

Progress has been slow but methodical. The yields of my efforts  barely discernable; leaving only small knicks on the beast's hide. I am wary and unsure, but determined to continue.

My army and I slash at everything in our path, searching for my elusive prey. Each stroke reshapes the landscape as we dodge and cut, cut and dodge. The fallout flies to the ground, cast aside by my savage hands, landing somewhere beyond my vision. The irregular rhythm pulses through my blood.

Turning the corner I spy the beast. Its horrendous face looms over me as it stalks me. The knowledge that I created this monster tears at my heart. Must I destroy it to redeem myself?

Before I can continue my charge and summon mercy it races away. And bound as I am, I follow. Thus the chase continue.

Slashing away, I move forward slowly. No matter my efforts, the beast is always a step ahead, always beyond my reach.

As I pursue my terrible creation, I am confronted by altogether different foes who steal me from my path, forcing me to wage a separate battle. Engaged in this other struggle, I am diverted from my purpose.

No matter; I clench my dire hope to my breast. The hope that I will continue my pursuit of the beast and I will be triumphant.

Yes, one day I will conquer this beast. The beast I call Revision of the First Novel.


Thanks to Tamlyn Leigh for the inspiration that led to this post.