Category: writing

Bloggers helping bloggers

Such a simple idea, but such a good thing.

December 3 (that’s tomorrow, people) is Blog Comment Day, 2008.

“Though there may be 100 reasons why people blog, I’ve yet to meet a blogger who doesn’t appreciate comments.” So says John Smulo about the idea.

The very easy rules:

On December 3, 2008 you will leave one comment on at least 5 different blogs.

Out of the 5 blogs you comment on, at least 2 of them will be blogs you haven’t commented on previously.

And there you have it. As a former musician friend of mine used to say, “Applause is a musician’s meal.” For a blogger, comments are your applause.

Not a huge time commit, but a good thing all around.

Who’s in? Go to John’s page and leave a comment to sign up!

Thanks to Jamie Dedes for emailing me the link!

I’m doin’ it!

Clearly I’ve lost my mind. But that’s ok, I never really had it gripped all that tight to begin with.

And that’s oooookay.

In the midst of traveling and changing jobs and the upcoming holiday season, I have decided, once more this year, to participate in National Novel Writing Month, or as we in the know call it, NaNoWriMo or just NaNo.

This will be my fourth year to attempt the death defying feat of writing 50,000 words in thirty calendar days.

I have tried and succeeded each time. Each year has been its own odyssey into learning about myself, about how I write and about scooting that internal editor over to the side and just putting down the words.

This year is looking a little…shaky.

I wasn’t as fired up about my story idea as I’ve been in past years. And I’ve learned when you are lost in the abyss at about 25,000 words, a really good, fun, story idea helps you climb through.

So that’s worrisome.

Last year I got a late start but ended up finishing in fifteen stupid whirlwind days. Who does that? 50,000 words in fifteen days?

Ah, the occasional benefits of being rampantly OCD!

This year, I got a late start, and despite having a killer six thousand word day yesterday, the fire just isn’t in my belly.

And that worries me.

Ah well, too soon to get really concerned. There are still 19ish days left in this race. A marathon, not a sprint.

If you want to follow my progress, I’ve put a handy dandy little widget over on the left sidebar so you can follow me along. Today I’m at about 12k words. Still many, many left to go.

All good thoughts and voices of support are welcome!

A sad loss.

Tony Hillerman passed on Sunday.

A good man, a good New Mexican and a terrific crafter of stories leaves behind a profound body of work.

He will be missed.

Photo and story source.

Now would be a good time…

You would think that after hitting an all time low point yesterday here at my own little blog (*grin*), that now would be a GREAT time to follow on with something witty, wise or profound to redeem my reputation.

Yeah, it *would* be a great idea, but I guess I don’t have it in me today.

See, someone out in the world was really, really mean to me today. So much so that later, away from that person, in the dressing room of a local discount department store I broke down and cried.

Add to this that I’ve had some good successes lately, but don’t feel able to share them and celebrate them with others because it isn’t appropriate.

On Monday I have a second round job interview with a company I *really* want to work for. But I can’t really jump up and down and talk about this because due to this crappy economy, several of my friends and family are without work (for various reason) and having a devil of a time finding a new spot. Me waxing rhapsodic about the potential to work for a well-known company AND get a promotion out of the deal goes over about as well as a cockroach in the ceviche.

So I keep it to myself.

I’ve also just had a small success related to my writing. It’s the first time I’ve had any sort of recognition at all for my creative work (outside of the kind words from friends and family). My work was judged in competition with other people and ranked well. I am beside myself, I’m so pleased.

But I can’t jump for joy because there are people in my life who are having a really, really hard time of it lately (health, finances, marriage troubles, etc), and to express my glee seems rude.

So I keep it to myself.

And while I’m so busy thinking about other’s feelings and being considerate, I’m out in the world minding my own business when this (oh I’d love to drop an insulting adjective here) woman has the audacity to vent her insecurities on me. It hurt deeply. It hurt because her highly vocal prejudice about my physical appearance struck a deep, dark chord within me that I won’t recover from soon…

And so right now, I’m mostly mad. And when the being mad is done, I might have some crying left to do.

Thank goodness it’s the weekend.