Here is the very short story I've entered in the NYC Midnight competition, first round. Won't know until 11/23 if I made it to the second round or not. The genre was Horror, it had to include the phrase 'eating ice cream' and the word 'inherited.' Wish me luck!
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Another blogger, a more experienced and perhaps even a professional at it, has encouraged me to keep doing this ... blogging, that is. "Just write and don't worry about it." With this in mind, I've saved pointers (on the art of blogging) on Pinterest, read some until I realized most are about Blogging For Profit. Not necessarily for the fun of it. Not that I don't like profit, but I don't really care if nothing (or don't care a lot) comes from this little endeavor of mine into the interspace world of the internet. It's worth it to keep my head centered on the need to write and to keep doing it ... including the tedious editing that follows the process. The drawing by the way, was done by my son, Russell Aigner. So, first I've thought about what I like to read versus what others prefer, you perhaps (if you're reading this and you're not me). I really do like reading about dragons but more of the stories in which the dragon prevails, where the dragons are the winners, and not the people trying so hard to eliminate them. If they can also turn into humans at will, that's even better. I'm not so fond of witches and magic. Some books are so infused with magic, different types of witches and magic, and other assorted lifeforms that have powers which, duh, turn out to be magical. A little of it is fine for me, but too much and I lose the story behind the spells. I used to read a lot of paranormal books but many go overboard with sex scenes filled with unrealistic and hours of prolonged erections, dripping vaginas, and orgasms that eclipse the several that occurred just minutes or hours before. Besides not seeming at all real (although my experience is somewhat limited), it gets boring. Yawn, yawn. So, I've pretty much stuck the paranormals in with the witches, something to avoid reading. I do like romance, happy endings and all. Especially historical with an occasional modern day love thrown into the mix. But some are so predictable, so dumb, I just can't force myself to finish the book. Many authors get so carried away with the description of clothing and hairstyles, I start skimming to get to the more interesting parts. Now, of course I realize some readers love to read about the cerulean silk underskirt with the ivory lace trimming the magenta velvet overskirt below the daffodil yellow bodice with buttons made from bull horns ... but not I. Especially, when the characters change clothes two or three times a day. But I'm not everyone, if this is your forte, go for it. Again, I do like happy endings, in real life and movies too. I like to read thrillers, filled with action, and sci-fi. Not necessarily mysteries although most thrillers are mysteries, just different somehow. All that said (or written as this is a blog), should writers write what readers want to read? And how would you know? I suppose there have been surveys or studies on what readers prefer. Amazon and Barnes & Nobles, I'm sure both track what is most popular down to least selected whether online or not. So, should that be a writer's focus? My focus? Should I care? Probably to some extent but I think a writer should write what interests them. Otherwise, you'd get bored writing it and I would think, in turn, a reader would get bored reading it. Although some readers only want mysteries or romance, or maybe witches and magic, many like variety. So, I'm not worrying about writing specifically for readers or even, a single reader. There is no right or wrong to it. Someday, I may even write about a witch who has met up with a dragon ... and of course, they both lived happily ever after. I haven't written anything for ages and ages ... so why now? Well, first I'll explain why I stopped. I shared my last attempt (March of 2017!!!) with a good friend, whose expertise and wisdom I greatly respect. He told me to stop! Why? People could plagiarize your thoughts! People will steal your ideas! Do not share! Don't share your thoughts - your plans - your imaginings - your questions. Do not share! Needless to say, I followed his advice for a very long time.
So why change? Why write something now? Well, I met someone who blogs and has for a long while. Her advice was just the opposite ... ignore my friend, my wise expert in the English language, and just write. Blog if I want to, write what I want to, just do it! And then, share it. Don't worry about anyone stealing ideas or thoughts. If they do, consider it a compliment. As she spoke, I realized she was right. Her name, by the way, is Cathy Eisen, and her blog can be found at adventureasaconstant.com. I've read some of it (today) and like it. So check her out. Meanwhile, here I am, warts and all. Although not writing for the purpose of a blog lately, I have been writing, and editing, and reading, and writing, and editing, and so on. I've decided I must have ADD as I tend to flit from one project to another ... not just in writing, but in everything I do. But you know what, that's ok. It does lead to a lot of unfinished projects (or, as we call it in the quilting world, UFO's ... unfinished objects). But they're all in my head (rather jumbled) and, at least partially, on paper. The good news is that there is progress and a modicum of success, however small. I had a short story win in a sci-fi contest sponsored by Wild Photon. It was not the grand prize winner, but one of twelve accepted for an anthology called Strange Galaxies. They're a new publisher and the book is due for release soon. For my prize, I earned an eGift card and once published, a copy of the book and probably a t-shirt (prize package). At any rate, it was unexpected and a BIG thrill to have it chosen! My story is entitled, Foolish Endeavors, if you should ever get ahold of the anthology. The surprising thing to me when I signed the contract was that I keep the rights and can have the story published elsewhere. With the above in mind, I thought to write my own series/collection of short stories. For the last four or five years, I've participated in an online writing group called NaNoWriMo. Their main writing challenge is in November and the goal is to write 50K words in 30 days. I've been successful four times! In April and July, they hold what's called Camp NaNoWriMo during which you choose your own goal and strive to achieve it. My goal this month was to write 12 stories and I've written six so far, although three are missing endings. I figure I can go back and end them in May! Maybe it's related to my ability to acquire UFO's (writing or quilting) that makes it easier to start something than to actually finish it. An exception to this is the story I started last November during NaNoWriMo. Although I'd thought of my beginning, the end was in my mind from the start. All I had to do was write --- the MIDDLE! It's now in the editing stage. But what's been exciting about this particular project is that it inspired me to make an art quilt AND it was accepted into an art quilt show. The event is called, OUT OF THE BLUE, and is described as "an exhibition of contemporary fiber art at the Capital Rotunda Art Gallery" in Santa Fe, NM. It's being held April 26 - August 9, 2019. This was another unexpected honor, to be chosen for this show. Believe me when I saw I am not the most skilled quilter in the world, or anywhere. But basing it on my story was inspirational in the creation of the art quilt and vice versa, the art quilt is inspiring me to edit and finish my story so it will hopefully be published somewhere. Kind of the chicken and the egg? So, I've blogged again, and plan to continue. Thanks to Cathy for her advice to just write and not worry. Although it would be nice, I don't really care if anyone reads this and I don't really expect to obtain blogging fame & fortune. But, it does feel good to write. With lots of love and hope for our futures. Mary Last night, I kept waking up thinking about my characters and their newest dilemma ... dilemma sounds too tame, but their newest big problem to overcome. A child has been taken, kidnapped ... do I have the bad guys, who in the past badly hurt two other characters, do nothing to the boy? Beat him? Kill him? I don't really want to lose him ... he's precious to others in the story and to me and to my co-author, Barbara Sanchez (www.authorbarbarasanchez.com). She was horrified in the first book of our series when I killed off a character who was a young adult. Barb would hate me if I killed a child, especially by these violent men.
So I woke up at 3, then at 4:40, then still awake at 5, thinking and daydreaming about scenarios for my captured boy AND the responses of the other characters. I daydreamed about their attempted rescue and the reaction of the two who took him. This went on and on, as you can imagine. Then I wondered ... is it daydreaming if it's during the night? If you're not asleep, it can't be dreaming dreaming ... can it? Regardless of the answer to that conundrum, I had to force myself to stay in bed and not get up and just write what I'd decided on for the story. Now you may wonder, why not just get up and write ... who cares what time of night or day it is? Well, that's true, and I'm sure most writers do that but my dogs get up at 6ish and if I get them up at 3 or 4 or 5, then they want to go out too early when it's real dark out and we don't have a fence and I worry about them encountering wildlife (we live by mountains and a national forest so have bears {although I've yet to see one}, elk, deer, skunk, mountain lions {again, never seen one}, javelina {saw a few a couple of years ago}, coyotes, and who knows what else is out there. So I don't really like to let them loose in the dark. In the daytime, I distract them throwing balls and toys so they don't leave our big yard, but at night, you can't do that because they can't see them. So ... the dogs are my biggest excuse for not writing in the night. Next is the fact that then I'll be super tired at some point during the day and usually, there is something I have planned to do and don't want to be thinking of my bed instead when it's time to do whatever. That's when I forced myself just to turn over and try to go back to sleep. I'm sure I dozed off and on, but kept waking up, still thinking about my story and at some point, about how I wanted to blog about daydreaming at night. I don't normally get writer's block, at least not to the extent some of my friends in the writing group talk about. But I do lack inspiration at times. The draft I'm writing now, for Book Three which is at least temporarily titled "Fighting Back" has civilians and Resistance soldiers fighting a much stronger, more organized enemy. At one point and this is set in the future, I thought of having the enemy find old, long forgotten nuclear material in abandoned missile sites with the intent of using the material to make at least more dirty bombs (they'd already made some) ... well, that was until I realized (fairly quick, I might add) that I know nothing about nuclear bombs and missiles and missile silos. So, I did the normal thing and Googled some of it and then I questioned a friend who is a retired Army Full Bird C .... which for the life of me can't spell right now!!! Anyhow, he also knew nothing about missiles and nuclear warheads so I emailed a nephew who retired after twenty years or more on a nuclear sub. Well, my nephew really knows his stuff, but his answer was pretty complicated and the gist of it was that you couldn't just set one off or make it explode by dropping it, lighting it on fire etc. You had to have some other things in place first to make it all work so that it would blow up. After that, I decided to turn it around ... and simplify the plot a bit, which I think has made it better. Then somehow, my characters decided they needed a new problem ... hence, reviving the presence of the two bad characters ... as our President would say, "really bad dudes" ... and the missing child. (As you can tell, I don't outline ... the story just evolves.) Somewhere in them midst of my daydreaming in the dark, I had the sudden urge to blog. Thus, this rather rambling piece that must sound or read as if I am still lying in bed half asleep. Actually, I'm not. The sun's partially up, no wind yet today, no birds zipping around outside the window yet ... but daytime has arrived. Next, I will work on my story, my draft. It becomes Barb's story when I hand it off to her ... she does her magic ... rounding things and people out, adding or subtracting elements, putting in a new twist or two, and however else she moves the magic wand over her typewriter. The end result, we've found, is better than my draft and after the two of us do more tweaking separately and together ... we think it's pretty good and it has become OUR story. Currently, our first book, "Aftermath," is being reviewed by one editor and a few agents. Have gotten a lot of rejections but that's supposed to be par for the course. Book Two, "Flight," is almost through our joint process of editing. Our plan is to have it ready in case someone (ANYONE!!!) accepts Book One. So cross your fingers for us and ... happy daydreaming! I’ve read a lot of other blogs and need to get over the concept that a blogger has to have something so interesting, so wise, so something … in order to post it. I don’t know if what I’m about to write will be interesting or wise, but it will be something and I’m going to commit to blogging weekly … or close to that.
Lately, I’ve been having people – friends and acquaintances in my smallish community – ask how my writing is going? Have you been published yet? It kind of surprises me that anyone even knows but I’ve realized that I’ve grown more confortable sharing my secret. And that’s what it was at first … a secret. It was so intimidating to have the first person read something I’d written … ditto with the second and third. But it’s getting easier and apparently, I’m sharing more and more – at least verbally! In the past, I’ve written some formal, third person, research based articles that were published and those were relatively easy. There’s a fairly set method of organization to this type of writing and an outline is imperative. I got to be pretty good at it and helped others hone their skills too. Fiction writing, for me, is quite a different experience. I don’t always know ahead of time where my characters will decide to go … which path will they choose? What risks will they take? Can they cope with the troubles ahead? I have a general idea of what I want, but I’ve learned the final outcome is sometimes quite different. Writing with a co-author has been a terrific experience for me. I met Barbara Sanchez in a local writing group meeting at the library, and at first, we shared bits and pieces of our own work. At some point though, I asked Barbara if she would consider writing with me. Not just editing my work, but co-writing. This has evolved into a rather simple arrangement … I type up the first draft with whatever pops into my head and wherever my characters decide to go. Then Barb gets ahold of it … adds her twists and turns, clarifies, and finds new paths for our fictional people to follow. We go back and forth with the editing process, each finding ways to perfect our story. And it truly is OUR story, not just mine. Having a co-author is kind of like knowing someone has your back. We are both living with our imaginary characters, as we flesh out their lives and bring them to the page. A memorable email I received from Barb simply said, “I can’t believe you killed XX!” She was shocked, yet liked the change of direction. And I’ve found some of Barb’s additions (and subtractions) to be just what was needed in the ongoing story. One thing we recently decided on, was that if we get lucky and are actually published … would be to use pen names. Growing up, I hated my short plain name so I chose a longer one … Elizabeth Jane Hart. Always loved the name Elizabeth. Barb chose Suzanna Skye, names that have meaning for her. It’s not that we’re ashamed of our real names, but it seemed the thing to do. I’ve noticed in my own reading, that some authors have multiple pseudonyms … maybe that’s the fun of being a published author? You can have as many names as you can write books. Well, that’s enough for now. I’ve updated a couple of the pages on this site so if you’ve actually read this, you might look at Work and Contact. Have a wonderful week or two! We’re heading out next week camping so unsure if I’ll be able to write then or not … best laid plans of writing weekly, right? Ha! |
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May 2019
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