Time Keeps on Slipping Into the Future

We all want to fly like an eagle, to soar above the clouds, and achieve our dreams/goals. I know I do. When I heard this Steve Miller Band song on the radio, I thought about time, what I spend constructively and wisely versus the minutes and hours of, well, let's say they aren't exactly helping to achieve my goals, though the time is relaxing. I don't make excuses; I just can't shake the bad habit. Whether it's cruising through and lingering on social media, or binge watching multiple seasons of my favorite TV shows, or sleeping -- wait, scratch that. Gotta have sleep, or at least some semblance of rest -- the desire for downtime is greater than the need. 

It's partly because there's no clock ticking in the background. Not any more. Not those years which looked like this: get up at 5:30 am, write for 30 minutes, get dressed and ready to be at work by 7:00, grade papers in the evening because grades need to be reported by Friday, conference nights, faculty meetings, workshops, all of them with a scheduled day and time. An agenda to regiment my life. 

Now? Retirement has had its way of creeping up on me and taking over my discipline. I think it's the freedom, the pure joy of no more deadlines. I am still feeling it. Okay, so I do have things I still like to accomplish. I enjoy writing. I. Write. Books. Yes, indeedy. I do try and discipline myself, write a little each day, (at least more than I did when working full time), set a date to finish the current WIP ... well, sort of. I honestly can't compete with my good buddy and writerly friend whose initials are J.L. You know who you are. :-) She's a writing machine, cranking out the pages in such a frenzied pace, it's mind-blowing. I love her for that.

Of course I do have deadlines when I'm working with an editor because those publishing contracts require it. But when I'm in-between projects, I become a slug. Yes, a frightened slug. Starting something new is quite a different animal, a challenge with intimidation rearing its ferocious head. It's starting the race all over again, complete with all the hurdles. Take a few deep breaths, do jumping jacks, and sprint, or at least move a step or two forward! That's what I see and feel, even though my goal-oriented mind tells me to snap out of it and make that author dream deal with that dream publisher a reality! 

I will step forward, though. I will. It may be intimidating, but it's exciting, too. New worlds to explore, new adventures to create. So ... things are about to change. 1) I will set a schedule. 2) I will follow said schedule. 3) I will complete my new writing projects in a timely manner.... as soon as I finish binge-watching that show ... and maybe check up on Facebook, Twitter ... *sigh* Such is my crazy life... but I love it!

The Name Game -- Why Should I Care?

As a fiction writer you must think about character names. For me sometimes it's easy. The name just sticks, it's perfect. In other instances I change names numerous times before the final draft. Even after I see it in print, I may say to myself, "did I choose the right one?". And rarely, after constant frustration, I'll throw up my hands and shout, "who cares?". 

Well, take note. There are lots of reasons to care. Just search for the articles. Dozens and hundreds of them, studies, research, you'll find them. Names matter. Okay, so I'm probably getting carried away. Fiction is, well, fiction. Not real life, no importance to the serious issues of anyone. However, the names authors choose can influence the names parents choose. Remember the explosion of the Twilight series and movies? Isabella or Bella became a number one choice in baby names for girls after that. 

Popularity of names aside, there are other particulars to mention, which are totally irrelevant to why authors should care but none the less interesting and fitting for this post. For instance, studies have shown that names may predict a person's future profession. Yes, I know what you're thinking. How silly is that? Hey, I'm just the messenger, reporting what I've found. Take it or leave it. Now, professions. How about women with more masculine names or gender neutral ones like Cameron or Ryan become more successful lawyers than those with more feminine names? Or take a look at the study about "nominative determinism" or in Latin, "nomen est omen" where one's name matches one's profession. Ridiculous theory? Then how do you explain: singer Bill Medley or poet William Wordsworth or race driver Scott Speed? Maybe those and other examples are mere coincidence. That almost seems a more rational explanation, doesn't it? I'm not done. There are other articles which go so far as to imply that subconsciously people choose a profession that matches letters in their names. Denise, Dwayne, and Debra will become dentists and Laura, Louis, and Larry will be lawyers. Huh. Guess I should've named my lawyer in A Deadly Deed Grows Laura instead of Mira. Then there's the conclusion made that those students whose names begin with the letters C and D will achieve low grades compared to their classmates with names like Alice and Bruce. Oh, boy. My report card was full of A's and B's, but my name starts with a K. Explain that one, you theory folks!

I drive myself crazy with all this insane or maybe not so insane information. So, I'm going to stop stressing or over-thinking the subject. Instead, I'll remember the line by Shakespeare: "a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet". Maybe I'll name my next hero Romeo. It's a thought.

P.S. If you're curious. There is a link I'm posting to an excel document. It's a naming game where you type your name and get the profession that matches. Only in fun, but entertaining just the same. And hilarious. Stephen King should've been a stand-up comedian. George Washington? The village idiot. Charles Dickens? Wait for it ... a porn star! Yes, silly, entertaining fun. Hey, my name turns up big game hunter. Too bad I am not inclined to pick up a rifle and shoot. Heck, I won't even kill a bug if I can avoid it. Geesh!

Anyway, here's the link:  https://ashallann.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/yournamedictatesyourjob1.xls 

Happy reading and writing, all!

Decisions, Decisions ... Make Up Your Mind!

Well, here's a writer's quandary, you could even call it an occupational disease. The limbo state of being. Yes, it's real. It's not fun. It's sometimes painful. It's never easy. At least for me it's not. I'm referring to the time between novels. All of you writers feel this from time to time. In fact, readers may experience it. It's when I don't know what to write next. There. I've said it. I'm like a kid in the candy store, my sweet tooth is crying out to grab one of EVERYTHING! I want to write one of EVERYTHING!

Ideas keep bouncing around in my head. I'd love to write a book about pirates and sunken treasure, aye, aye, matey. Or puzzles. I love mysteries with puzzles in them. Secret codes, ciphers, oodles and oodles of conundrums. You must solve the puzzle or die!!! And then there's history. How about an archaeologist, a female Indiana Jones who's discovered the remains of an ancient civilization, or a priceless artifact that opens the portal to another world. Oh boy, here's venturing into fantasy. Or maybe I'll write a psychological thriller. Woman goes mad, can't remember who she is, and the one who helps her? Well, he's already dead, but she doesn't know. Ergh! It's insane. And of course the list keeps piling up!

But I can't stop there. Oh, no. I worry about what will work. What am I most passionate about? What will keep me up nights? Writing, thinking, plotting. I want to know! I think about what will readers enjoy reading. Yeah, yeah. I hear you. All those who say I shouldn't care so much about what readers are reading and what sells. But come on! Get real. You can't really take that detail out of the equation. Sharing the stories you write is part of the joy in writing. It is very much to me. 

So, what will I do, which will I choose? Maybe I need to think about it a bit longer. And while I'm deciding I have to pay attention to what I do have in print. Yes. A marketing I will go ... author visits, promotions, social media, on and on. So many hats, so, so many.  

Bottom line? I'll take it. The worries, the headache of indecision, the sleepless nights planning and plotting, the endless task of promoting. I'll take it all because I LOVE it. I love what I do.

Eh-hem. Speaking of promotion, if anyone reading this is interested in winning a free hardback copy of Dean Koontz' latest thriller, Ashley Bell, go visit my author website and either register or click on the guestbook page and leave a comment. I will add you to the list of entries. My way of saying thanks to all the wonderful readers out there!

Here's the link:  Kathryn Long Author 

Happy reading and writing, all!

Searching For Childhood Book on Secret Codes, i.e. Ways to Procrastinate in Writing

You know, I am the supreme master of procrastination. Ask anyone who knows me. It's no secret, and I don't claim that lightly. Add my dorky behavior and undying curiosity to the mix, and you get a typical day like this .... 

3:00 pm: I wanted to continue my work in progress this afternoon. That was the plan. It's a mystery and just so happens to involve a secret code. I LOVE secret codes. (Insert matching character detail -- quirky, dorky, or anything synonymous.) So, I was about to write when a thought came to me. I remember I had a book as a kid called Codes & Secret Writing (see photo). I bought it through our class Scholastic book program. Oh, how I loved those fliers! Full of wonderful books, I wanted to buy them all. My parents had other ideas. Anyway, I thought about that book. It was such a fun book. I'd spend hours using those codes to write secret messages. (Yes, I know. Dork.) I decided about then to go look for that book. I saved ALL my books, much to my hubby's disappointment. I even have a rather large collection of Nancy Drew Mysteries, if you ever stop by and want to take a look. 

Now, where was I? Yes, finding that code book. I searched my toy chest (kept that, too) and found lots of goodies, including a Chatty Cathy, Tiny Tears, and Barbie along with her friends and family. That took me about an hour, ooing and ahing over all of them. But no book. 

4:00 pm: I never was one to give up, however I ran out of hiding places for the moment. So,  it was on to the internet, a true cornucopia of information. Several minutes later and ta da! There it was. The cover image had been carved, burned, etched into my brain. How could I ever forget? That beautiful cover, belonging to my my childhood memory, and I found it on a vintage book website. Easy peasy!

Of course, after all that I needed to process my thoughts, and I came up with this perhaps obvious takeaway -- Childhood can be a wonderful thing, and evidently memories over a lifetime may trigger an idea or two, which may become a part of a writer's story. It has for mine. I'd like to think my stories are made of all the details of my life experience. Each and every day, from small ones to big ones, those moments are connected, linked like DNA to form my imagination. Yeah, underneath it all, sometimes in a small way or even big, it's where I believe the story starts, with my building blocks of memories.

5:00 pm: Oh, and one more thing ... after all the reminiscing and searching? I decided to write this post. Ugh. Procrastination. Now, if I can just stay away from Facebook, Twitter, and all things cyber-like, maybe I could finish that chapter ;-)

Happy writing and reading, all!

When It's Not Too Much

How many times has someone told you that you're overdoing it, you should take a break, or give it a rest? When I was very young, my mom would say, "quit running it into the ground". I often wonder if in a way, even though she'd hardly intend to do so, that common response squelched my spirit of enthusiasm. Nah, I was too stubborn, too energetic and willful to let that ever happen! 

All of this brings me to my point. Is there, are there, times when "too much" isn't part of the equation? I strongly believe so. Let's say you're a musician, you play an instrument, or at least may be learning to play. You practice, and practice, and practice until your entire family is shoving earplugs into their ears. Far be it that any loving and nurturing parent would take away that instrument and toss it in the trash! Not cool to do that. All the practicing has a point, right? It's obvious. You play to get better, to achieve the best skills. Hopefully, you enjoy doing so. Musicians, artists, athletes, and yes, writers strive to be the best. It's a process, a very, very long process, hard work, dedication, and let's throw passion in there. I mean, why would you ever spend so much time with something like this, if you aren't passionate? Otherwise, it sounds like a whole lot of misery taking up so much of your time. 

So when anybody dares to tell you you're overdoing it, you should take a break or give it a rest, don't listen. IF this is your passion ... music, art, sports, writing, keep it up! For me, writing brings me the utmost joy. I revel in the process, I rejoice in the accomplishment. As the quote says it best (paraphrased to suit me) "writing completes me". And mom, if you're listening, I can't stop running it into the ground. But I think for this you'll excuse me. After all, you were one of my biggest supporters! 

Grammarly Deets -- An Interim Note

I apologize for making you wait, but I'm in the midst of an editing quagmire, i.e. 2nd round (reread and revise) of my WIP, Camellia's Choice. In light of that, I decided to post my checklist, a truck load of words and phrases to cull from my story. I know it will seem a tedious, overwhelming task to many, but it really does the job. The first stage of it, anyway. Ah yes, there will be more! As if that's not bad enough, I run through my manuscript one word at a time. Go ahead and count. Yep. That's ... hmm ... around sixty-some? Imagine that. Scanning through 300 or so pages sixty times? No. I confess. I don't do that many. I search each word to see how many times I've used it. If it comes in at a low number, I skip it. Otherwise, maybe one or three years from now, you'd be finding me in a padded cell, gone cuckoo with my mind stuck in editing gear, words trolling through my brain while I sputter and spout all sorts of nonsense. Talk about nonsense ... let me stop, now, and get to that list.

        felt

·        decide(d)

·        notice(d)

·        realise(d)

·        watch(ed)

·        saw

·        heard

·        thought

·        wonder(ed)

·        look(ed)

·        seem(ed)

·        knew

·        begin/began/begun to

·        start to

·        about to

         would

·        could

·        a bit,

·        a little,

·        about,

·        actually,

·        almost,

·        almost like,

·        already,

·        appears,

·        approximately,

·        basically,

·        close to,

·        even,

·        eventually,

·        exactly,

·        fairly,

·        finally, 

·        here,

·        highly,

·        instead

·        just,

·        just then,

·        kind of,

·        mostly,

·        nearly,

·        now

·        only

·        practically,

·        pretty,

·        quite,

·        rather,

·        really,  

·        simply,

·        slightly,

·        so,

·        some of

·        somehow,

·        somewhat,

·        somewhat like,

·        sort of,

·        suddenly,

·        that

·        then,

·        there,

·        truly,

·        utterly,

·        very

        *Phrases to shorten: 

·        in front of (before, ahead)

·        at the back (behind)

·        out of (from, away, beyond)

·        off of (off)

      
“Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.”
         -Raymond Chandler

          Authors on Revision

          Happy writing and editing!

Grammarly Deets #7

Back to school again with Grammar class 101. This time I'm going to focus on a few confusing words, which many misuse quite often. It happens more than you'd think and in situations from people you wouldn't expect. Of course, that only perpetuates the misuse. Gotta love the English language!

First up, and it's a biggie, is the misuse of the verbs to lie and to lay. In this case to lie is not referring to the meaning of telling a fib, but rather to recline. If you're familiar with the grammar term "direct object" this might be easier to understand. If not, please be patient. I will use examples to help clarify.

Present tense:
--to lie: I lie on the bed.
--to lay: I lay the book on the table. (notice the underlined words, the book; that's a direct object.) 

**Remember: Lay will always have a direct object when it means placing something or putting something.

Now, let's go on to create a chart (it helps me to refer to this and maybe it will for you, too):
                                     
To lie (meaning to recline)

present tense:    lie (I lie on the bed)                             
past tense:         lay (Yesterday, I lay in bed until noon.)
past participle: lain (I had lain in bed until noon three days last week.)

To lay (meaning to place something or put something)

present tense:     lay (I lay the book down on the table.)                   
past tense:          laid (I laid the book on the table yesterday.)
past participle:  laid (I suddenly remembered I had laid the books on the table.)

Don't be discouraged if you get lie and lay confused. Some of the greatest figures in society have done so, too. Remember Bob Dylan and his song "Lay Lady Lay"? It's wrong! Should be "Lie Lady Lie". Eric Clapton? "Lay Down, Sally"? Eh, eh. Nope. "Lie Down, Sally". 

You want more common grammar confusion? How about there, their, they're? It's really quite easy to remember this way: there has the word here in it. Therefore, it means location. Example: I left the book over there by the door. The word they're is a contraction. Remember that the apostrophe (') is the replacement for a letter. They're = they are. Example: They're (they are) going to the party together. Of course that leaves their. One trick to remember is to focus on the letter i in the word. I can prompt the idea of possession. Another trick is the word heir inside their. An heir inherits so things belong to him, i.e. possession. Example: They needed to bring their books to class.

A couple more? 

Accept/Except : I accept your apology. Everyone came except Tom. The first one is a verb.

Affect/Effect:  Lack of sleep affects your health. The effects of poor health may kill you. Again, the first one is a verb, second one a noun. 

Enough for now. Class is over. However, I'll be back with more word confusion next week!

Enjoy life and write well!