Wandering the darkness...

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Name: Signy
Location: Midwest, United States

A long time writer with dreams of being an author.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

So Many Ideas...

With a change in plans by friends of mine, I came to the realization a few days ago that I was going to have an entire weekend (Friday evening through Sunday evening) confined to just the hounds and myself. Being Signy, of course I decide I will immerse myself in writing for the full 48 hours. Now it is late Sunday afternoon, sun is going down, snow melt is beginning to refreeze, and what have I accomplished?

Book reading. Friday afternoon I decided to go out and have fun as I was cut loose from work for the afternoon. Why? Because I had to be up at 5am both Saturday and Sunday for work. Anyway, when I want to have some fun on my own I head to the bookstore. This time I managed to walk out with only two books. However, when I got home and realized only one of the tv shows I watch Fridays was even on those books enticed. I managed to read one in it's entirety curled up first on my couch with one hound on my legs then in my bed with both hounds trying to lay on top of me. Went to sleep at 1am; alarm went off at 4:30am.

Magazine reading. It is a rare occasion to even see me with a magazine, let alone spend time reading it. My only saving grace here is that it is a writing related magazine.

Internet research. Rather than chemistry, my searches this time were around publishers and agents. Have you Googled either of those recently? I'm a computer geek but oh my goodness! Hours later, I have 25 new bookmarks of articles to go back and read later.

Writing. Yes, I did finally do some writing. Unfortunately it wasn't on anything I already had started. The tv show I did watch on Friday was an episode of a show from 1996 about vampires and based on a role playing game and novels. Any guesses on what it is? Anyway, I got an idea in my head for an orphanage run by vampires feeling the need to raise and nurture children but unable to have their own because they are now vampires. That blossomed to coincide with a dream I had a couple months ago and wrote down about an evil guy, his extremely subservient but basically good wife, and the baby girl she had smuggled out of his control. Where did she end up? This orphanage, of course. Last night, while watching Pitch Black on tv I wrote all this down and started outlining the particulars of those two scenes as well as what might happen from there. 7 characters and 4 pages of notes later I went to sleep. Today, between internet searches, I've been transferring those notes to my computer. After another early morning conference call, of course. And no, at this moment the only character even remotely resembling Vin Diesel is the vamp who runs the orphanage and his only connection is that he's bald. Maybe I'll find a need for a brother vamp who can kick some serious ass.

Last but not least, I must add to this weekends list of activities the return of sunshine and my enjoyment of it. I've mentioned once or twice that where I am it's been absolutely frigid. This weekend the sun finally returned and temps got above freezing. *insert happy dance here* The hounds and I made it out for a nice long walk today for the first time in months. Given that they go to the vet in another week, I'm preparing to get criticized for letting the Dozer put on far too much weight this winter. Oh well, bound to happen. But add to that the bird song I heard today (didn't see any robins, though) and perhaps old man winter is losing his grip on the upper midwest for another season. Wait, on second thought, more snow is predicted for tomorrow. *sigh* And Iowa still hasn't finished their high school basketball tournaments. I grew up in Iowa and every year we got smacked with at least snowfall if not full blown blizzard during the girls' state basketball tournament. Okay, two more weeks then. I can deal with two more weeks.

Keep reading; funny pages if necessary.

SK

Monday, February 18, 2008

Bad Employee

Today I fell into bad employee mode. For the first time in weeks I only had one meeting without fifteen documents to write and review. I'm a BA by day so this is a very rare situation. So how did I spend my day? Working on my latest story and reading articles & blogs by other writers online, of course.



One author I really like is Laurell K. Hamilton. I have read all of her Anita Blake books and most of her Meredith Gentry books to date and frequent her blog as well. On her website, she has a set of links just for aspiring writers such as myself. That's where I spent my afternoon. Lately, while the Webyeti and myself have been working on the rest of my website I've been getting down on myself about the writing. It just seems like I never have time and when I do find time I don't have the inspiration or all I really want to do is sleep. That's my reaction to prolonged stress... sleep. But today I spent most of the afternoon writing and reading writing related things so I am actually feeling a bit in the groove tonight. With a few hours to spare until I need to be in bed, I'm off to type.




Since I posted a picture of the Dozer last time, here's one of the Moof. Currently, they are sound asleep on my bed in a post-food coma. Oh, wait, that's how they spend most of their days. :) Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Giving Up

Okay, I give up. Weekday evenings just are not working for the writing thing. After 8+ hours at the office, I am wiped out. A successful writer's blog that I like to read says she wrote for an hour each morning before work. I suppose I can give that a shot... unfortunately I already get up at 5am to walk dogs and various things so I can be to work at 7. Either I get up at 4am or I go to work later. We'll see what works out better.


Meanwhile, enjoy the shot I just turned around to see from one of the hounds...
SK