Month: January 2005

bookmark_borderHappy Birthday to Lorna!

Posted on by PaulaO

Happy Birthday to Lorna indeed!

I won’t tell you her age, although I will say she is older than 52 and younger than 54. A cake was brought in for her at work (they all take turns making the cakes for whoever has the birthday) but of course I didn’t get any. Again. As usual.

We will be going out to veggie and drinkie on Saturday, not Friday but she doesn’t mind. I will take her out to dinner somewhere special tomorrow. Have no clue where though. Hmm. Reckon I ought to get to thinking about that.

I got very little new words although I am preparing Butch Girls for editing. I am using Inspiration to organize what has already been written and how I want scenes to happen now (many of them are changing order).

I am going to order some books in a few minutes. I’ve decided to go ahead and get Self Editing for Fiction Writers and Beginnings, Middles and Ends. I have How to Write and Sell Your First Novel checked out from the library. Figure I need to gird my loins with other people’s opinions. heh.

STILL looking for Beta Readers.

bookmark_borderStill writing away

Posted on by PaulaO

Still at it. I’m about to head to bed though. I was up all night last night then caught a few hours sleep this morning and have been going ever since. I did, however, get a lot of writing done. I have started editing/rewrite Butch Girls (the NaNo project). I need to finish talking Lorna into that printer.

Speaking of Lorna, tomorrow (or today, depending on how you look at it) is her birthday. It is also my step-dad’s. Friday I’m supposed to take her out to some vegan restaurant then to the pub downstairs from it. As the designated driver for all my friends, I am used to getting my tea and dinners paid for. This will be a switch, although I am sure I will have to pour her into the truck at the end of the night. 😉

bookmark_borderWanted: Beta Readers

Posted on by PaulaO

I am looking for Beta Readers. I need someone(s) to read over my work, second draft and/or rewrite, and give me feedback. I don’t necessarily need someone to do an edit, just to give feedback on if it is any good, if it is understandable, etc. I write lesbian fiction, currently I have several lesbian romances and a fantasy. The sex issue is minimal, not a complete fade-to-black (they lay down and then its the next morning) but then, it’s not erotica either.

If anyone is interested, please let me know. I will send you several pages at a time (Word, Real Text Format, or OpenOffice.org format) for you to read over. You then read it over and let me know what you think. ‘This is crap.’ ‘This is good but this paragraph is going where?’ ‘I followed it up to here, then it wandered off into space I think.’ If you want, you can even throw in a ‘by the way, it should be ‘two’ not ‘too.’

If you are interested in a sample page or if you are willing to give it a whirl, email me.

bookmark_borderWriting

Posted on by PaulaO

Kicked verbal butt this evening and spit out over 2300 words, all on The Graced. It is coming along nicely, although I am not sure what I will do with it, once it is rewritten.

Played with Inspiration again today, setting up the outline for Butch Girls.

Lorna and I went to Radio Shack where I got an adapter. I needed a BNC to UHF adapter for the Icom HT. Afterwards we went to play at Home Depot, winding up spending far too much money on not much. After that we went to the best hog trough ever – Ryan’s Buffet. I totally pigged out.

We finally got back home and I was able to start writing a few hours later.

bookmark_borderNew Toy

Posted on by PaulaO

I just got a new software program, Inspiration 7.5. It’s an excellent brainstorm program and outline program and thought process program and and and.

I put up a page of screenshots. You can also download the demo from their website.

What else did I do today? I slept late. Um, I worked on some organization of files on the ‘puter. I, um, lessee…. not much else.

I have no life.

bookmark_borderReverse Outlining

Posted on by PaulaO

It is something I decided to give a try yesterday – and it works!

I took Butch Girls, the NaNo project, and started at the beginning, making an outline of every scene. It’s not divided into chapters yet, just has # marks between scenes. Already I could tell what needed work and what was just plain nannering nonsense.

I also worked some on The Graced, getting a couple of good scenes in.

A local college, Asheville-Buncombe Technical College (aka ABTech) has some new writing classes. One is an online course and the other is a classroom. Lorna and I talked about it and I’m going to take the ‘live’ class first, then do the online class afterwards. At the same time as the ‘live’ one, there is a yoga class that Lorna will go to.

bookmark_borderFreewriting:

Posted on by PaulaO

The ringing of bells, high pitched dings telling us someone had dealt a decent hand on the machine, could be heard over the whirs and thumps of the washing machines. The dryers were quiet enough, that is until the time ran out and they sang out an off key note. What words would you use to describe the sound of quarters being inserted into the machines? A click? A thunk? Both? It did have that two-part rhythm to it.

The crane machine, silent in sounds but loud with lights, had the usual ‘out of order’ sign. Rubber ducks, beanie bears, and pokemon would just have to wait a while longer. The other games were silent as well, in pause mode while they waited for the next player to sit down and feed it quarters.

The p***r machines were different of course. They were never idle. Never silent. Never allowed the respite that the others got. Were they jealous or proud? Were the others jealous or relieved?

There is a rhythm to this place, none of it really matches in beat but actually, it does. Perhaps it is influenced by Spike Jones or P.D.Q. Bach. The machines whir in a definite 4/4 beat. The beat of the larger washers though were off. They were their own band.

Ah, the race game was being played with! The pedals pounded and the wheel jerked as the kid pretended to be playing it. He won’t put in quarters, his mother won’t let him. He’s fine with it though, he was more disappointed he couldn’t get a rubber ducky from the glass crane box.

The smells were calmer here. The room is big enough that it is not overbearing, at least here by the door. Perhaps up further, in the canyons formed by the top loading washers, the perfume smells were stronger.

My comforters spin, trying to tumble but too tangled to do much good. I’ve pulled them out twice now; they’re on their third quarter. I wonder, not for the first time, if it is sunny enough to drape them outside, letting Mama Nature do the drying for me. She doesn’t charge quarters.

Unedited freewriting whilst at the laundromat yesterday.

bookmark_borderWriting

Posted on by PaulaO

Wrote a non-fiction article last night on my research into alternative keyboards. Actually I did two of them, each for a different audience.

I am thinking of submitting it to Vision. The other I will send to EDSToday, the quarterly I send my service dog articles to.

Which reminds me to do my service dog article.

I am working on this website so a lot of links and images aren’t working. Just be patient with me. Oh, and keep an eye on the siteupdate and sitemap if you want to know the changes.

bookmark_borderHappy New Year!

Posted on by PaulaO

Hey! It’s 2005 already! It is so hard to believe ’04 is over. When I was a kid, the concept of seeing a new century was fascinating. Now it’s four years later and I still find it fascinating.

2005 is the Year of the Edit for me. I am determined to rewrite, edit, and submit at least one book this year. I am aiming for June, hopefully sooner. Today I am looking at which one to do. Butch Girls has the best flow of all of them. Long Lea and Simple Sarah (now under a new title) have great potential as either a trilogy or as one mega book. I also have several short stories and non-fiction I am working on to submit to magazines. And of course I have several new ideas for new novels. 😀

Lorna and I watched the ball drop in NYC (on TV of course) then happened to catch the Ellen show on the Oxygen channel. Her guest was ROBIN WILLIAMS!!!! O-M-G!! I am one that sees actors and the like to be human like the rest of us, just their job is more in your face so we all know them. But, Robin Williams is my hero. He had rough times and he survived. He faces adversity (such as the injury and later death of Christopher Reeves) and laughs. I think, no, I know that if I ever met him that I would become a bumbling idiot. I’d stare and stutter, maybe even start drooling. His humor is like mine, except he does it much better. He once was on the show, ‘Inside the Artist’s Studio’. His half hour program lasted over 2 hours. One member of the audience was taken to the hospital for a ruptured (?) hernia. It was an absolute hoot! I would love to meet him. I would go nuts, but I would love it. Ellen DeGeneres is another one I would like to meet but I think I would act semi-normal. Whoopi Goldberg is another person I’d like to meet and I would act almost as much an idiot as with Robin W.

So, anyway, we watched the Ellen show and Lorna went to bed. I stayed up an hour or so later (the night owl in me).

Here’s hoping everyone has a safe and happy new year.