First Post of 2013!

Hello Blogger, my old friend,
I've come to write with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of BLOGGING.

Apologies to Simon & Garfunkel for butchering their lyrics for my own amusement, but HELLO LOYAL FOLLOWERS!!! In my efforts to put the fun back into my writing (Le gasp!) I've decided to cast Resurrection on my blog here and pull out ALL THE STOPS. Well, almost all of the stops. As many stops as I can pull out while keeping this a family-friendly blog!

Where did that saying come from, anyway? If you know, leave its secret origin in the comments below! (At least, I'm assuming the comments are still below. Have I mentioned that I don't like what Google did to change the Blogger interface?)

In any case, I'm going to be much less proper about how my blog writings will be presented here, because I think that was part of what kept me away from writing. I felt like I was censoring myself too much, analzying every line of every post I'd write, and crippling myself with more self-doubt than I want in my life. Well, NO MORE. It's a new year, and I'm going to write to you, my loyal followers, the way I'd talk to you if we met in person and I didn't have a world-class case of The Shy. Expect the same kind of stuff I'd been writing before, but with more freedom of word choice.

Of course, the downside is that I'm not going to go over every paragraph with a fine tooth comb to edit myself ad nauseum. You are warned.

So, 2013. I hear this year's theme for me is Let It Be Written, Let It Be Done. To that, all I have to say is...

Quotables

"That’s where my motivation comes from, as a writer: curiosity. I want to know why my character said that. I want to know what they are about to do. I want to know where they are going, how the hell they are going to deal with what’s in front of them and why they can’t just walk away. No matter what complexities I weave over my creative impulses, or what poetry I try to attach to my explanation as to why I write, the simple fact of the matter is that I just love to play. Play my damn heart out."
— Eric Collin Campbell, Screenwriter, Connect To

Quotables

"But writing does, at least for me, require quite a lot of concentration and to concentrate, you must be prepared to face the terrifying spectre of boredom without fear."
— John Green, Author, The Fault in Our Stars

Quotables

"As a writer I live, not from logic, but from imagination. From a profound belief in the power of the impossible."
— J.M. DeMatteis, Writer, Brooklyn Dreams

Quotables

"Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers."
— TS Eliot, American poet, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Quotables

"Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy."
— Stephen King, Author, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Paradigm Shift

"Seize the moment. 'Cause tommorow you might be dead."
—Buffy Summers, S1Ep1 Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy had amazing insight into how to live life for a teenage girl. And while this is wisdom from a fictional character, the quote stands as a very good way to live one's life.

A couple of days ago, I was in a car accident. Nothing too serious, I assure you. I'm fine, though my car is currently at the body shop having the damage assessed. The other guy was not nearly so lucky. For a motorcyclist, he was not practicing safe driving by hurling down a street in front of a school well in excess of the speed limit, and paid the price for his lapse in judgment. That didn't stop him from getting back on his bike, despite suffering heavy injury to the leg that got trapped under the motorcycle, and speeding off to put more lives in danger. Blood loss + reckless driving = another accident waiting to happen.

In the aftermath of the accident, I've been reflecting on how it could have been much, much worse for both me and the guy who hit me. Thankfully, none of the kids getting out of school at that time were injured. My car was damaged, but not nearly as much as it could have been. And, of course, my lack of physical injury could just as easily have gone the other way if the motorcycle's trajectory had been different, or if I'd been moving instead of stopped at a red light.

We go through life never really understanding that it can all change in one catastrophic moment, and not even through any consequence of our actions beyond being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I used to envision certain dangerous events that could happen in the course of stepping outside my front door for use in my writing, but it's something else entirely when one of those scenarios comes true. This is not the product of my overactive imagination. This is real catastrophe, with real consequences and a very real impact on my life.

I haven't really been in my right mind since that day, and I'm fortunate to be surrounded by wonderful people who love and care about me enough to look out for me and help me through this ordeal. I think part of that altered mindset is that I'm going through a paradigm shift, for lack of better phrasing, a change in my way of thinking in the face of a dramatic and life-changing moment. Old assumptions are being cast aside as a new reality asserts itself in my way of thinking, a reality that I'm still trying to come to terms with.

I'm not sure where my writing fits into this reality, but I know that I've come too far to simply declare it insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I want to revisit parts of my trilogy and write all new stories, now that I have a different vantage point on potentially life-threatening moments that might occur within the course of the narrative, but I don't know if I'm ready to tackle it so soon after the accident. Naturally, I'll keep you all posted here once things settle down and my life isn't in upheaval.

Have you had a brush with fate that changed your way of living, or been close to someone who has? Share your stories in the comments below.

Judging A Book By Its Page Count

I'm always highly resistant to starting a book that has more than 400 pages to it. I like to take my time with reading, so when I see a book with 900 pages between its covers, I automatically think "This book is a massive project that will keep me from enjoying other books for MONTHS." You see, I'm not one to jump between different books while reading. I commit myself to one and see it through to the end before starting up a new one. (If it's good, that is. If the writing doesn't grab me after the first couple chapters - or scares the crap out of me, like Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves did - I don't care if it has a great ending, I'm going to put it down and move on.) A long book, to me, is worse than a long movie. I can sit still for a long movie if it's good. I don't know if I can say the same for a long book.

My beloved, however, gave me this piece of literary wisdom: "Large books aren't a big deal. There's just that much more to read!" I had to sleep on that to wrap my brain around it, but she has a point. There are some books I've read that I wanted to be longer. Much longer. The last Harry Potter book, which is sizable already, could have been longer and I would have been perfectly fine with that. Same for most of my favorite writers. And the large book I'm presently faced with, Anathem, is written by one of those favorite writers of mine, Neal Stephenson. So why am I having such a hard time starting this up?

I could give a list of reasons, all of which would be a smokescreen for the fact that simply looking at the book makes me want to pick up my Highlander prop replica katana and cut it in half. That would not be nice to do to a borrowed book, though, especially since my beloved's father loaned it to me and I'd like to stay on her family's good side. The thing is, if my imagination is so vivid that I can imagine cutting that page count by half, why can't I simply alter my mode of thinking and pretend that each page is a unit of measurement that represents my enjoyment of the book?

So I did. And let me tell you, I have no problem picking up that weighty tome now.

What's your take on the page count issue? Is it something that you take into account when choosing a book to read, or is it a non-issue to you? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!

Quotables

"Formal education in writing isn't necessary. Professionalism is."
—Molly O'Neill, Children's & YA book editor, HarperCollins (pulled from her WriteOnCon chat)

Quick Take on HBO's Game of Thrones

Seriously? I've only posted once this whole month? There goes my theory that more time = more blog posts. Just so I don't end the month with only one post to show for it, I'm going to share my latest discovery.

HBO's new Game of Thrones series has me completely hooked from the first episode. In fact, I was so impressed with it, I watched the first episode three times and the second episode twice (so far). I've been trying to steer clear of any book series that's not finished (I didn't read the Harry Potter books until the 7th was released), but I may have to make an exception for Mr. George R. R. Martin and his A Song of Ice and Fire series.

The second episode also gave me my new favorite quote, as delivered by Tyrion Lannister: "A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone..."

Quotables

"Don't annoy the writer. They may put you in a book and kill you."
—Anonymous (pulled from Quotes4Writers on Twitter)

Quotables

"There's no 'magic secret'; writing is like everything else; ten percent inspiration or talent, and ninety percent hard work. Persistence; keeping at it till you get there. As Agnes de Mille said, it means working every day — bored, tired, weary, or with a fever of a hundred and two."
—Marion Zimmer Bradley, author, The Mists of Avalon

Quotables

"It took me a long, hard five years to complete The Philosopher's Stone. The reason so much time slipped by was because, from that very first idea, I envisaged a series of seven books - each one charting a year of Harry's life whilst he is a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And I wanted to fully sketch the plots of all the stories and get the essential characteristics of my principal characters before I actually started writing the books in detail."
— J.K. Rowling, Author, Harry Potter series

Quotables

"Here's the secret of how to get published: keep going. There is an enormous weedout factor for wannabe writers. The good news is that you aren't competing with every published schmoe out there. You're only up against the rest of the wannabes, and it's like the old axiom about being chased by a grizzly bear. You don't have to run faster than the bear to get away. You just have to run faster than the guy next to you. Keep trying when the guy next to you quits in disgust. Keep writing when the girl next to you sobs and throws her manuscripts into the fire. Keep conducting yourself like a professional, and you'll get someone to believe that you are one. If you're lucky, maybe even yourself."
— Jim Butcher, Author, The Dresden Files

Quotables

"Read, read, read. Everything. I don't mean just comics or graphic novels. Read about the world, about things that don't interest you, about people and places you are unfamiliar with. Broaden your horizon. You will discover worlds you never knew existed."
— Chris Claremont, Writer, X-Men: Days of Future Past

Quotables

"Invest in a comfortable pad for the chair in which you work. Because - as I always tell anyone who says they want to be a writer - so much of becoming a writer is simply applying butt to seat of chair and staying there, no matter what. You simply have to put in your time, no matter how frustrating it sometimes gets or how long it takes to make progress."
— Peter S. Beagle, Author, The Last Unicorn

Quotables

"I like Joseph Campbell's advice to 'follow your own bliss.' Only you can figure out what that actually means in your life. Follow that sense of joy to the place it takes you that is all your own. That's when and where you find your voice. And once found, say what you have to say loudly and clearly. Speak from the heart concisely and persistently even when it seems like the world is ignoring you. If you really have something worth paying attention to, someone will eventually hear you. And when they do, they will have reason to listen to your unique voice. That's what worked for me anyway."
— Larry Marder, Writer/artist, Beanworld

Quotables

"Stop thinking about writing and write."
— Geoff Johns, Writer, Blackest Night

Quotables

"For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die."
— Anne Lamott, Author, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life