Merry Christmas!

May you have a peaceful and prosperous 2010!

If it's Sunday...

Well, normally that would be true but the Saints played last night and unfortunately, the winning streak is no longer alive.. We lost to the better team, well, last night at least. Whose name I will not mention because they are the number one foe of my hometown team, the Redskins. So sad but maybe they needed to lose to get their a$$e$ straightened out. Too many late starts.

If you're listening Saints, put a fleur de lis on your little pinkies to remind you that you are going for the first down EVERY Play and the length of a digit will get you there! Every play. Every down. Every opportunity to get in the end zone. Start each game like you're already losing because that's when you are the best. We'll do better next week.


Here's a little something for your viewing pleasure. If you've read or seen Twilight or New Moon, you'll get it. If not, well, where have you been living lately anyway?



So was this from the Breaking Dawn casting?

Hunks of the year

Okay, it's my turn to put a hunk on the blog. Leah posted last week when the new Toronto Firefighters Calendar became available. They've raised some serious cash for one of North America's largest cancer hospitals. This link will take you to full size pictures of each month's contribution.

January Jason is on the cover for a reason! If you need something to shoot for at the gym, this is the shot - or maybe July. Wherever you live, the firefighter calendars in your local communities make wonderful Christmas presents for the ladies in your life. But, er, do the lady a favor and glue October to the back of September. He needs another year of pumping up before being included in the calendar, IMHO...

What firefighter calendars are there in your area? country?

Blogging today at Delilah's

I'm guest blogging today on Delilah Devlin's blog while she's on vacation - an overview of the software I reviewed a few weeks ago with links to those posts. She's got two weeks of guest bloggers filling in. Check it out.






Last month, we blogged about music for the muse. So for you musical edification I've included a lovely favorite for evoking emotion (and one I love to perform) by the late Eva Cassidy. Songbird. Sit back and create.

Diamonds or Stone

I used to sing a song called, 'Some Days are Diamonds, Some Days are Stone.' Well, yesterday was a Boulder!

When a story is flowing, 900-1000 words per 45 minute sprint are pretty easy to get. So 1500 for eight hours of wandering around in a half dozen different directions had me just about ready to give up on this scene and these new characters.

Then inspiration struck and an idea I almost ditched before writing it, turned into a key scene. It ups the stakes, makes the community and characters more interesting, and pulled many critical threads together. I wound up with 2300 and I can't wait to return to these characters and the new direction they are taking.

Note to self: Remember! Even though it's really really really hard and doesn't seem like it's meant to be, keep diggin, keep clearing out the debris, keep mining. Because if you quit, you may miss a raw diamond.

Getting Out of the Way

Sitting here with my polar fleece gloves with the fingertips removed typing. It's 35 outside and feels like 45 inside though the temperature gauge, the lying (*&@$&! is saying 65! It's not.

Trying to get back into the wip. After several days of taking notes and analyzing it - I know I shouldn't have been analyzing when all I was supposed to be doing to reminding myself of what characters knew what, who told who what, and which paranornal being can do what. But we just can't help it, can we?

I asked Michael Malone what he did to keep track of the detail. He said written notes. CL Wilson said she keeps extensive notes. MY problem is I'll write it on this little piece of paper going down the road, record it into my recorder on the route, jot major notes onto my 'current writing spiral notebook' but it's all so disorganized.

So I'm trying to use Scrivener's keywords to track clues, threads, missing folks, crimes, appearances by characters. Now that I have it setup I can read through what I've written the morning after - writing that is - and easily apply the keywords AND refresh my memory. Hopefully, now I can move through to the end and allow the characters to do their thing cause I'M getting in their way!

A Christmas Story

If you want to read a hilarious and heartwarming, well, hilarious anyway, story about two twins and a wee lad in search of a new Christmas tree, see Michael Malone's post at May Contain Nuts.

You might even want to read it at a Christmas party or reader's club. The Queen of Chaos rocks!