Wandering the darkness...

Mental Comfort

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:02:00 +0000

I thought I had it all in gear for getting back into this writing thing. I even had multiple blogs ready to go up here. Then my evil day job did a reorg. I can say that I have survived the cuts… at least for now. But my department is no more. Half got cut and the rest of us are being split up. Thus I have been in limbo for two weeks with the promise of another two to three weeks before things settle. Spiffy.

With the mental and emotional turmoil it’s been tough to concentrate on my stories. Thankfully Samhain is the end of this month so I’ll at least get a long weekend there. In the meantime I’ve been trying different ways of getting my creativity back up and running. Various reference books that have helped in the past just didn’t do enough. A couple of new ones I’ve purchased or received as gifts this year have started a couple things percolating in the back of my brain but nothing’s even close to done cooking yet. I moved my ‘office’ from my bedroom to my living room for a change in view. I managed a little editing on the computer files there. I’ve also been trying to read more of other’s stuff. The novel collection has expanded significantly in the past month and I’ve found a few new authors I’m intrigued by.

Today it’s all about comfort. Hot green tea, cinnamon jelly beans, two computers (one running an rpg I’ve played through dozens of times). And my ultimate in comforts when trying to write… notebook and pen. Events drive a lot in my stories but so do characters. Today has been about creating characters. Using an online random name generator I’ve been creating new friends. Lycurgus, Seosamh, Luben, Caleigh, Margarid, and Evgenia so far. Nope, I don’t do Tom/Dick/Harry type names very often. There’s far too many options in this global world we live in. With somewhere in the vicinity of 7000 living languages… plus the so-called dead languages our current ones evolved from… there’s a lot of choices out there. In exercises like today’s I go through a lot of names until one sparks in my imagination. Then the pen hits the paper and I start fleshing out what I see with that one name. I’ve discussed creating a character before the name before and I find this works much better.

SK

Organized?

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:52:00 +0000

The world takes all types. My stories tend to be about balance, tolerance, and such. However, I will be the first to admit I am a failure at organization. Stacks of papers, books, and other stuff litter both my home and office. Along with puppy fur, dust, dog toys, shoes, stray socks, more puppy fur, etc. No, gentlemen, not every female is a good housekeeper.

Thankfully, I have a friend who is good at organization. She's taken me to get a planner, set goals, track goals... heck, set more concrete goals. Like a certain writing contest with a deadline in November. I'm seriously trying to hit that one. But she's also a bad influence. *grin* I've found myself organizing my stuff lately. I've run the vacuum for more than chasing hairballs out of my shoes.

And horror of horrors... I've been making lists. The lists actually started a while ago under the influence of the Webyeti. But she's perpetuated and pushed it further. I even made a list of what tasks need done to clear mental space for writing. I need to immerse myself in the mess again... reclaim myself. *grin*

I'm Not Dead Yet

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:05:00 +0000

So, who can name that movie? Or play? It's been in both. It's also fitting as I return from a longer hiatus than I had planned on.

First, while the boys and I were evacuated our place didn't flood. Woohoo! No nasty clean up for me, at least not personally. Friends got a damp basement and we spent several days shuffling storage items between locations in an effort to keep them safe and dry. Ah the joys to trying to sell houses and move halfway across the country. Not me but my friends.

That brings me to 'second'. The Webyeti has gone off to grad school. Sad as I am to have my best friend so far away, I'm also happy and inspired. He is following a dream, moving toward the next stage of his life. Seeing his eyes light up when discussing his new subject matter is all the motivation I need to do whatever I can to help. Also, his example helps remind me to keep moving forward to my goals. Typical of him and me, he has a clearly marked path while my path meanders... a lot.

Third, the ever present evil that is my day job. A new supervisor (temporarily) is trying to take on the task of lightening my load. My response was yeah right and good luck. Who me, cynical? I prefer to think in terms of being a realist at least where the office is concerned.

The writing hasn't been on hiatus but it hasn't been where I want it either. One woman only has so much mental capacity. But life is starting to settle down again. I've given myself until the end of September to clear away some of the mental clutter and get back to work seriously.

SK

Delays

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:08:00 +0000

Hey folks. I wanted to apologize for not writing lately. Mother Nature seems to have it out for my part of the world right now which is incredibly distracting. My home is located in a certain downtown area between two rivers that have gone beyond their banks before. City officials are calling this a '100 year flood' even though we had one similar 15 years ago. So, I am going to back to watching water levels and making plans to keep my hounds and computers safe. Everyone else out there stay safe and I'll be back in touch with you once it's over and I can think again.

SK

Too Much Caffeine = Dead Characters

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:23:00 +0000

Too much caffeine and sugar is a bad thing for me when trying to sort through the next steps of a plot... I start killing off the good guys. That's what happened yesterday. With half my department gone at work I was bored to tears which led to copious amounts of soda and chocolate. Then I tried to distract myself by working on my latest story. What I come up with is:

1. The death of the bad guy is not the final climax. Oh no, he's just a puppet for a bigger bad guy.
2. In the fight against the bigger bad guy, he doesn't die but one of the good guys does. I'm talking something along the lines of a nuclear explosion and mental breakdown for more than one character.
3. What started as a total red herring has turned into the addition of another god in my little fantasy world. Perhaps not such a bad thing since I've also been killing off the existing gods. They keep insisting on being noble, even if they aren't good.
4. In relation to #3, the prospect of a whole new generation of gods is being proposed. My characters aren't sure they like this idea so much. They're arguing.
5. How big of a piece of precious gem stone would be needed to create a dagger blade and how much would said blade be worth on the black market?

Rereading those notes today, all I can say is wow. My plan for this weekend was to add a couple more chapters to this particular story but I really need to rethink all of this. I'm off to the bookstore and coffee shop. Heh.

SK

Remember

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:08:00 +0000

I just have to get this out… I HATE BEING SICK! For most of the past week I have been reduced to watching movies and blowing my vacation time from work. I tried writing pages… I really did… but it’s hard to lose yourself in another world when you can’t breathe or swallow properly in this one. Thank you and back to your regularly scheduled program.

This weekend gave me another reminder that I’m getting older and need to move it on following my dreams. There are many of them but of course this blog is about one in particular. What happened? Another of my nieces graduated from high school. That’s four out of the six who are supposedly all grown up (yep, I have my doubts on that score occasionally), and number five will be next year. Also next year number two will be getting married. While their parents are a good bit older than me, it still reminds me that the years are passing. I am very proud of the girls, though, and do everything I can to encourage them to follow their dreams and not regret their choices. At their age, I was terrified to do so and now regret failing to make choices. I was one of those shy young women who just let life happen. That’s my regret and it’s one I will be bluntly honest with the girls about, whether my siblings want me to or not.

This being Memorial Day, I have two more statements to make.

First, thank you to all the soldiers out there doing their jobs for the rest of us. Some are putting their lives on the line, facing deadly situations daily. Others may not be physically threatened but no less sacrificing and important. You won’t find me talking politics much here just because I don’t like it. I’ve formally studied history and political science so I’ve researched many situations where politics has been disastrous to those not making the decisions. Regardless how we got where we are today, we are here and we need to deal with it. I may not always agree with the decision makers but that doesn’t mean I don’t support those making things happen. Thank you.

Second, my thoughts go to those close to us that we have lost. In a few months, it will be ten years since we lost my mother to cancer. I don’t deny that we had our disagreements but I still miss her. There have been others I personally have lost of course but losing Mom seems to be the worst. I suppose it’s the little girl in me.

Remember those who have gone before us and those still here but losing their loved ones. Just last night more storms came through the Midwest and killed people not far from where I have family and friends. The pictures on TV this morning are devastating. Light a candle, say a prayer, whatever works for you. Just remember.
SK

Werehorse

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Sat, 17 May 2008 20:32:00 +0000

I'm still on my military special ops kick for heroes but it's starting to morph into the fantasy realm. I always intended for this to happen but was afraid I'd have to force it. Nope. These guys are morphing quite nicely on their own.

The current troupe are taking on werewolf and other predatory type animals which got me to thinking of other possibilities. Someone related my boys to horses today... and not for the first time. So what would a werehorse be like? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one.

I'm also thinking squirrels. I don't know if this is a unique phenomenon to the Midwest, but we have ninja squirrels around here. High flying, wall walking ninja squirrels.

SK

Talking to Myself

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:19:00 +0000

I was on my way to get coffee today and evidently my department head was watching out his window as I headed down the skywalk. Later he asked me if I was singing or having a conversation with myself. It took me a minute to realize I had been talking through some dialogue for the story I'm currently working on at the time he saw me. Thinking back, I now realize I do this a lot. The stories are a constant in my brain that I have to consciously block out when I need to do something else. One might say my imaginary friends are with me always. So nice not to be alone, isn't it?

Do any of you walk around talking to your characters?

SK

Stagnant

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:54:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered about where the world is heading? Perhaps it's my degree in history, but as I watch the news and History Channel I keep thinking about how things repeat. If I think about it enough, seems like the world has gone stagnant. We're stuck in a rut and repeating ourselves. At least that's what I think especially during political commercials. I'm all about democracy but I hate election years just because of the commercials.

But all this got me going on a plot line to stretch between several books percolating in my brain. I've had many of the main characters for these books for a while as well as the relationships between them. I knew they all were the same world and connected but I didn't know what would be the plot that tied them together. Now I do.

The powers that created this world (insert religious warfare here) come back around to find their creation stuck. Who better to give the world a swift kick in the rear? Here comes the gibbering prophecy and weird powers to wake everyone up to the next stage of evolution. We have drugs amped with supernatural blood and a vampire terrorist torturing an unassuming computer security specialist for the information crossing his desk. Bring in the military special ops boys to save the day and get their brains twisted too.

Thank one of my coworkers for the military angle. He's ex-Navy and lets me pick his brain for information. Over the years I've known the occasional college ROTC or former something or other who tried it, put in minimum time, and got out. He's the only one I know who spent any length of time in armed services and he has some of the best stories. Drunk Marines backing down from a SEAL no bigger than me. Red kangaroos showing up on a missile launcher. Fabulous stories that make the rest of our coworkers leave us alone. Huh. Wonder why that would be. :)

So I put a scenario in front of him. Take this big bad military dude, put him in a desert, have a spell caster drop an ice storm on him. What would he do? The response was find shelter, take inventory of what he has, get the hell out. Once out, find a beer and a steak then figure out how to find the SOB who did it and mess him up. I would so love to actually meet such a guy just to see how he would act and react. Have I ever mentioned all those lovely psychology classes I took way back when?

Keep reading and let me know what you're thinking about.

SK

Productive Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

This past weekend was a productive one for me on the writing front. Saturday morning, after an early wake up from the hounds, I was doing some file clean up on my computer and got to digging around in my old hard drive. Like an archaeologist sifting through the debris of decades past, I found a treasure trove. 9 stories I had begun some time ago but had no hard copies of. Woohoo! I knew they were around somewhere but was having trouble piecing them back together just from memory. Given that a couple are nearly complete, I was exceptionally happy.

The dogs thought I was a bit weird for my little happy dance. Oh well. They're silly pups anyway. So I got started editing one complete story. Too bad I soon realize I hate editing. To me, the story's done... finished... out to the unsuspecting masses with it. But alas it is not ready for the world yet. That's when I started the rotation. Edit for a while. Write new stuff for a while. Transcribe long hand notes into the computer for a while. Rinse and repeat. And somehow it worked.

How well, you might ask... Well... 110 pages worth. Plus some long hand notes after I went to bed last night. Now that's call for a major happy dance. I celebrated by baking cookies.

That was enough that I wasn't even in a bad mood when I went to work this morning. All day, only a couple emails annoyed me and I didn't threaten to boot anyone. Major accomplishments for me... I have a love/hate thing with people. But I did set a few goals for my writing.

First, I will write something every day. This doesn't necessarily mean writing any of my fiction every day. It could be documentation for work. But I must write.

Second, I will spend at least two hours per week editing. I have to or I will never get anything into a good, consumable format. And the per week is because of my work schedule. If I can't make my brain work on editing during the week then the weekend it is.

Third, I will write at least 40 pages per week. Again the per week because of work. And I am not limiting myself to 40 pages of completely new off the top of my head material. I have stacks of notebooks with ideas and pieces of various stories in them. This includes stories already in my computer but I had ideas for when not at home. These need worked on just as much as new material... perhaps even more.

Think I can do it? I'd love to know what your goals are, writing or otherwise. This whole set goals thing is rather new to me. I'm more of a thrive on chaos kind of girl.

Keep reading.
SK

What Do You Know

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:28:00 +0000

Write what you know. How many times have you heard this one? And how many times have you actually followed it?

For me, this has often been an excuse to research something new. Last weekend, it was military special ops teams. I honestly don't know why that one suddenly popped into my head but it did. I've always found the big tough semi-bad boys very appealing. Too bad you don't get a lot of them where I'm from or I might not be approaching yet another birthday as a single lady. *sigh* Oh well, such are the trials and tribulations of life.

So why am I on this topic today? Because it suddenly dawned on me that one thing I know is the industry I work in. It's not unusual for me to get story ideas at work but usually it's me daydreaming about being somewhere else. Today I passed a guy in another department I work with and the expression on his face was one of secrets. Again, not unusual as we have access to a lot of information (we are an information technology services area) which we have to keep until tight security. But that expression just triggered something in me. He'd probably find this funny, but I started thinking what if he was an undercover agent of some sort? What if he'd taken that job to get in a position to investigate some nefarious doing of our executives? Or anyone in our company for that matter. Our area would be perfect for that. Of course, we have training classes on spotting and reporting such bad deeds which may have also prompted the thoughts. I'm behind on updating my certification in those classes.

So, I found myself actually writing about something I know and didn't have to go research. The only time I spent on the Internet today at work was over lunch coming up with names for the six characters I've already sketched out. No surprise, 3 of those 6 are based off actual co-workers and what they do. But the guy who set all this off is not in the story. Perhaps I should give him a cameo as a thank you.

Keep reading.
SK

Where's Signy?

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:20:00 +0000

As the Webyeti has been reminding me lately, I haven't posted in a while. I can turn this comment back on him but...

So what have I been doing? First, working the day job for far too many hours a week. One of these days I'm going to save up enough money and work up the guts to quit. A few weeks ago I had a melt down and told one of the team leads, who had just pissed me off to the point of tears, that if I didn't need the money I'd quit on the spot. Meanwhile, my supervisor has taken to referring to my writing as my 'exit strategy'. We're in the midst of working up personal performance goals for 2008 so it's been a common discussion.

Second, I've been working on editing my story. The word count is already twice what it was when I first wrote the tale long hand but it doesn't have a title yet. Sebastian, my male lead, is being difficult and refusing to speak to me at the moment. I've noticed that tends to happen after I make the mistake of going out with coworkers as I did Friday night. The voices stop talking to me for the next few days.

Third, I've been working on ideas for new stories. No new dreams to turn into stories but ideas I've come up with while watching tv, listening to music, etc. I don't know that any of them will pan out but they're simmering. I've been exploring the idea of returning to my small town, Midwest redneck roots for a story. After 10+ years I think I'm coming to terms with how I grew up. Then again, I've said that before and promptly rebelled again. How redneck, you ask? After my mother's funeral, my family bought out half the shops in town of Budweiser and Bud Light. Ick. I prefer martinis or wine, thank you very much. For that, I get made fun of by my family.

Fourth, the hounds. Ever present, always needy (especially the Moof). We've had a return of cold weather on top of the usual Spring wet so they've been cooped up and going stir crazy. We've also had multiple visits from the Webyeti's dog, aka Fluffy Butt. I'm posting a picture of her with this blog. Our walk time doubles any day she's with us. Also, Dozer and Moof enjoying playing keep away with the toys when she's around. How many toys do you think two greyhounds and an Australian shepherd can hoard?

Now I am off to fix myself dinner and contemplate trimming hound claws before starting another work week. Everyone out there, keep warm and keep reading. Also, thank you to Vicki for her response last time I posted. I hope everything is well in South Africa.

One down... 99M to go

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:51:00 +0000

At last! I have accomplished a long awaited milestone. I have finally finished a story.

Yes, it is only draft one but this is something I've never done before. Even short stories I've written have just been pieces of a larger whole. And I'm even looking forward to the editing process... for the moment. Of course, I literally just finished moments ago so I'm floating on that high. I feel like doing as a friend of mine did when he got his 3rd degree black belt in taekwondo. He jumped around doing a little dance and chanting, "I'm done. I'm done. I'm done." Just picture a guy who's over six feet tall, knows multiple martial arts, owns multiple weapons both bladed and projectile, and wearing a TKD uniform and you'll get the humor.

So what is this story? Last Monday I woke up with this idea clearly in my head. A woman, early thirties, and head of her family by default due to having very selfish older sisters. The dream was the wedding of her now deceased brother's youngest daughter. I took that as the beginning of the story and built it out from there. I suppose, at the moment, this one would be classified as a supernatural romance since that's the primary focus of what I have. As I edit, I'd like to flesh out the mystery a bit more. It's all tied into the death of said brother and the killer now, 20 years later, coming after her and her nieces. Why 20 years later? Prison, of course. The guy may not have been implicated in the death of her brother but he had enough other crimes to his name.

Since I wrote the whole thing long hand (in part because a good bit of it was done at work), I'm off to type it up and start editing.

SK

So Many Ideas...

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 23:25:00 +0000

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

Bad Employee

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:13:00 +0000

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!

Giving Up

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:42:00 +0000

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...

Imaginary Friends

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 18:24:00 +0000

I've been reading another writer's blog lately... an author with two major series and I own almost all of them in paperback though I do prefer one series over the other. For some reason it didn't occur to me until recently to go looking for her website but I'm glad I did. She's been doing the blog thing about five years now and talks a lot about writing the books I've read and it helps me in putting pieces together.

The postings I've been reading today are from 2005 and she's talking about her imaginary friends. They are the characters in her books. One of the two series is past book 15 now... I wasn't sure a single author could do that until I saw hers and started looking around more. There are just far too many books out there that I like so I don't actually stick with a series for long. She's only the second author I've done that with.

Imaginary friends caught my train of thought on my own writing. I said once before that the writing started as something of a solace for me... I was making up the friends I was too shy to make in real life when I was a child. These hundreds (yes that's accurate) of people I've thought up have been fleshing themselves out for a long time. Then I realize it's not actually hundreds... many are the same person under a different name with a different piece of their personality. Take, for example, the Ben character I'm trying to rename. He has actually shown up before. Once he was a playboy werewolf named Patrick... still one of my favorites. He was also Julien, the Regency era lord with a mysterious past. I never did get around to figuring out that past. He was also Lucas, son of a war god and human priestess who came up against one of my more argumentative heroines. The Lucas story got further than most others but I ran into problems with my villain. He just wouldn't come out of the shadows and show me his flaw. The story stalled out there. Patrick never finished because I couldn't figure out how to get him past his prejudice against witches. Central to the plot and needs to be revisited.

So, four heroes who are essentially the same man. Different time periods and settings. What would happen if I merged them all into one place? Hmm...

Keep reading. Let me know if you have an author like my inspiration above.

SK

Names

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:49:00 +0000

I'm having issues with a name for a main character. Currently, he is Ben but it just doesn't seem to fit. He is a scary dude. He is tall, dark, brooding, and the ultimate in alpha male. He is the head of a politically powerful family and he wears that power well. Oh, he is one of the good guys for all his scariness. Ben just doesn't seem to be a strong enough name.

As I'm running through the mental catalog of names I've used I realize I have never used a name of someone in my immediate family. None of us have unusual names... rather common in fact. Several of my stories have settings that would be perfect for such names. It just doesn't feel right to use their names... almost taboo. Hmm.

Ben is one of several characters in my current mental obsession. As I said, he has political power and is extremely loyal to the powers that be. There has been a war, someone trying to overthrow those powers in the name of religion. Oh so many wars have been fought in our own history in the name of religion. During that war, Ben leads a contingent of his fellows in the clandestine side of any war. Their goal is to find any advantage for their own side.

They don't just appear out of thin air when this war breaks out. They leave others behind them as they go off to become heroes. When the war begins, Ben's father is head of the family. He dies shortly before the beginning of the current story. Like many of his compatriots, Ben also leaves behind a new bride. It's an arranged marriage and she is petrified of him though she doesn't want to show it. She is another character I'm fleshing out. So what happens when they see each other again after years apart? Ah, now that's just a little piece of this story.

For some reason, I keep picturing a dragon as I think about this story. Could Ben be a dragon?

Stay warm, everyone.

SK

Habits

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 02:47:00 +0000

Ah, the joys of nervous habits. I've always enjoyed rubbing it in to my sister that I never chewed on my fingernails like she did. My vanity says that's why she finally kicked that habit to the curb but I did it more as the little sister tormenting the elder. Then there's two friends of mine who don't chew their fingernails... they chew their fingers. That has got to be far worse.

What about my nervous habits? I bite my lip. Perhaps it started from the day I decided to try not to hassle my sister. I have no idea but I do it and don't think about it until the pain reminds me. Yet, even as I'm typing about it here I find I am still doing it. Can't stop. So very odd.

Now why an I on about nervous habits when I should be on about writing? Another writer's blog I was reading this evening made me think about the habits and rituals every writer I've read about or spoken with have. When I force myself to think about writing, I bite my lip. When it's flowing nicely I don't. Since I decided to take this writing thing seriously, I've chewed my lower lip until I've drawn blood nearly daily. I am completely wigging myself out here and it shouldn't be that way.

So, as I end this blog I'm trying something I haven't done before... at least not for writing. I do meditate with the candles and instrumental music and all that. That's when a lot of my story ideas come to me. The music is on right now... a classical satellite station to start with but I think I'm going to switch to big band jazz. Louis Armstrong over Mozart at the moment. We'll see if starting this new habit works.

Off to the dark side for me. Keep up the reading, folks.

SK

Curses

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:33:00 +0000

The curse of my dream... my day job. I do like my day job but it's rather demanding. How does anyone expect me to spend 3 to 6 hours in meetings yet still work as well? Somehow, they do. One of my coworkers spends 2 or 3 hours every night online working from home. I refuse. I want my evenings for my dogs and my writing. But I'm so bloody tired it's hard to focus. Only getting to sit with my writing for a couple hours a night makes it really hard to keep an idea going.

So, I make notes tonight. History Channel has a show on about Vlad the Impaler. Interesting to me. I do feature vampires in some of my stories... heroes and villains. At the moment, I'm pondering what the result would be if someone were able to boil the blood within a vampire. For purposes of stories, magic could be made to do it but I wonder about a natural compound of some sort. My days of chemisty class are far behind so I'm having trouble with the memory. But I do cook fish with citric acid so I think it's possible. Research time, I believe.

And this is how story ideas hit me. Is it twisted that I watch such a show and ponder boiling the blood within the vampire? Some would say so, I'm certain, but I don't believe it. Seems a perfectly logical question to me.

No, I don't really write horror stories. When I was young, my father was watching the first two Friday the Thirteenth movies and didn't know I was curled up on the floor next to the couch where he couldn't see me. For two solid weeks I didn't sleep more than an hour at a shot after that. Horror movies and I don't get along. Horror books and I really don't get along... my imagination is far to active and graphic for that. Yet I have never seen vampires as terrifying. Just interesting to think about the possibilities.

I'm off to do that little bit of research while this tv show finishes. Then it's cuddle time with the hound dogs though they're already asleep on my bed. I'll have to bribe them off it to find room for myself. No protein bars for them, though.

SK

Beginnings

noreply@blogger.com (Signy) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:40:00 +0000

Everything has a beginning... right? Tonight I begin throwing my thoughts out to the world. Why? Heck, I ask myself that one. The only answer I can come up with is taking another step at trying to further my dream. Since I was a child (suffice it to say I am now an adult and have been for some time) I have been writing stories for myself. Usually it's just a scene or two... occasionally multiple chapters. For me it started as cathartic... a way to create friends I was too shy to go find in real life. Then it was because I ran out of interesting things to read. Now here I am with a book collection numbering in the hundreds and notebooks full of ideas numbering in the dozens. After several stuttering steps, I'm putting those ideas out for the world's acceptance or rejection.

Have I said yet that I don't like rejection? Might have something to do with why it has taken me so long.

So I am beginning here. I will be documenting my journey from random writer to published author (with any luck). My hope is that you'll enjoy the story snippets and character sketches I'll be posting out here. I would love to have some feedback... perhaps some inspiration... and to know others might want to read what I write.

Keep reading and if you see the webyeti, toss him a protein bar. He rarely attacks if fed.

SK