On the Subject of Sisters and Pranks

I have an irrational fear of birds. Don't know when it started exactly or why, but it overrules sensibility when it comes to certain outdoor activities where the fowl animals like to hang out. Granted, I have many friends who acknowledge this fact about me, but none use it so well as my sister. Just this month, she sent me a lovely email with a horrifying photo of a crow or raven....just an evil, deadly, vicious, beady-eyed black bird.

You might ask, why would a sibling do this? It's what they do. I returned the favor by sending a lovely blog URL to her that was filled with mice (fabricated, artificial ones) in various poses emulating human activity. Mice reading, mice doing dishes, mice catching butterflies in nets. You guessed it. She has a mouse phobia. I was delighted and couldn't wait for her to open her email. Keep in mind that if I thought this would send her into a traumatic state, I would never do it in a million years. It was just enough to make her groan, shield her eyes, and wonder what she could find to send me in revenge.

Sisters. They know our fears, secrets, and joys. The bird email didn't say, "I want to cause you nightmares over this thing you fear so much." To me, it said, "Thought of you today and thought we could laugh together at your expense." (That is right, isn't is sis?) Pranks at a safe email distance, I can certainly handle. But don't you come near me with a real bird.

NaNoWriMo Novel: Nine

Just thought I would give an update on my writing project for November. I logged in at 13,900 words a few moments ago, so I am behind. The friendly NaNo site gives me a status update chart that shows a bar graph depicting my failure to meet word count goals. Joy, joy. My excuse? A trip to Orlando for StemTech and another to the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute at Petit Jean Mountain took me a little off-track. Oh well, that's life---trying to stay on the right tracks. I will proudly say that I am writing at a much faster speed under the pressure of NaNoWriMo. Not only am I writing faster, but I'm discovering the joy of writing online with others. I've tried writing sprints this month and am so glad I did. It's a great way to stay focused.

Here are the details of my current work in progress:

Title of my NaNoWriMo challenge novel: Nine

Summary: You might call Abby a very lucky person. Even though her heart has stopped beating two times, she's been brought back to life. First, the man in the well-tailored grey suit rescued Abby from the rubble of 9/11 and left her with a gift- a nested box. Then, JT, Abby's mysterious guardian, gave her the key to decipher her destiny from the cryptic messages printed on each the nine boxes. She's escaped death twice. Why doesn't she feel so lucky?

Déjà vu

I'm ready to outline a story for my NaNoWriMo novel. New ideas are practically bursting forth by the minute. I had lunch with my son on Saturday and thought I'd throw some out there for an honest opinion. He is the brutal critic in my life.

I began...."What about a story where the heroine keeps dreaming and having this mystery unravel. In the dreams, she meets someone that she needs and wants more than anything else in life. AND then it begins to confuse her because some items are bleeding over into her waking hours. She can choose to live in the dream world or find a way to bring him to her world. AND...." I look into my son's face as he stays silent. The déjà vu hits me. It all sounds very familiar.

I had been thinking about this storyline for a couple of days. It all seemed very original at the time. Looking into my son's eyes told me why it suddenly sounded very much like another story. He and I had seen the movie Inception together. We had both loved it and talked about it at length. If I hadn't been looking into my son's eyes, I'm not sure I would have made the connection. As a matter of fact, I'm sure that I would have just had that freaky déjà vu feeling while telling anyone else.

"It's too much like Inception, isn't it?"

"Not exactly. Well, yes a little," he says.

I frown. He smiles broadly.

"Don't feel bad," he says. "Did you know that the guy who wrote Inception originally wrote ten years ago? Then he kept fine-tuning it. He had time to watch The Matrix and a lot of other movies that I'm sure influenced him..."

Anna Quindlen said, "Every story has already been told. Once you've read Anna Karenina, Bleak House, The Sound and the Fury, To Kill a Mockingbird and A Wrinkle in Time, you understand that there is really no reason to ever write another novel. Except that each writer brings to the table, if she will let herself, something that no one else in the history of time has ever had."

Maybe I'll hang onto that that plot.

Concert Adventures

Two years ago, I asked my husband to attend an event in New Orleans called Jazzfest. My favorite band was slated to play on a Saturday night. If you've ever been to or heard about Jazzfest, you know there are many bands playing for several days on end. I was only interested in one band, Kings of Leon (KOL). Before making the decision to drive for an entire day just to attend a concert, my husband made quite a few jokes about us being too old to attend concerts. Phooey, I said. I'm going...get your walker ready.

When we arrived at Jazzfest, we were expecting a younger crowd. To our surprise, there were quite a few attendees who may have actually needed a walker. At Jazzfest, there are stages set up around a huge fairground and you can enter with your ticket and then choose your stage. We arrived early to get a good spot in the stage area for KOL. In walking to the appropriate stage area, we noticed a HUGE crowd at the stage waiting for Bon Jovi's performance. The crowd consisted of a lot of women my age. I love Bon Jovi, but I was not to be sidetracked.

This was an outdoor concert with standing room on the grass. I was smashed between about 5,000 teenagers, but I had vowed to ignore them. I had a right to be there. And I wasn't about to give my husband the pleasure of an "I told you so". I held onto this thought while the young man next to me urinated into a soda bottle to avoid losing his spot in the crowd.

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that KOL would be doing a concert in St. Louis. That's a 6 hour drive for us. AND there were seats available. So, I bought tickets for seats in Row N at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. I didn't take my purse with a camera or my iphone with me to the concert. I figured I'd be lucky to see them, much less take pictures. We had seats at ROW N, lower center. The seats were great. I was kicking my camera-less self the entire time. AND people my age were there. The teenagers were also well represented.

Upon arriving home, I noticed that my back was hurting. Heck. My entire body hurt. The following day, I visited the chiropractor. And again on Wednesday. And another visit planned for Friday. The dentist visit this week revealed a need for a root canal (had that on Wed) and a new crown on that same tooth. My memories of the fun concert are a blur. I may need a walker for that next concert.

Glutton for Punishment

I wonder sometimes if I've gone mental. I just joined the NaNoWriMo challenge (National Novel Writing Month). I would hear writer friends talk about this activity, and I was curious enough to check out the website a few months ago. Basically, a person accepts the challenge to write a complete novel in one month. So, this November, I will be holed up in my dining room typing as fast as possible during the wee hours of the night. And weekends. And mornings.

The novel must be at least 50,000 words long to be considered, well, a novel. Let's do the math. That means it will be necessary to log 1,666 words a day. **whistle** I normally do most of my writing on the weekends, but I can see that two days a week won't cut it.

You might think, hmmm... what about the quality of this piece of work? Here's the amazing thing. Some writers have published some pretty good works from engaging in this challenge. Sara Gruen wrote Water for Elephants during NaNoWriMo. That alone is enough to inspire me since I loved that book.

The rules say that you cannot begin writing before November 1, but you can have your plot ideas ready. The website says that you get support from other participants in your area. For the piece de resistence, you get a web badge when you finish. We all love to get a memento that says, "Yes, I did it!" Let's also not forget that you end with A COMPLETED NOVEL. I'm ready.

Reuniting with My Husband

It's official. We're getting back together for the fall season of television. After a couple of months of HBO and reruns for me and golf and fishing for him, we will be reuniting for television. Well, we weren't really separated. It's just that the summer takes us in different directions. But this is a sport pasttime we can share. I'm happy to say that we'll be watching Survivor tonight. I may need to cheat and bring my laptop along. Are there any shows that you are excited about seeing when September rolls around?

(Writing update: still making edits to the manuscript and sent out three queries this month. Received two rejections so far... more queries planned.)

Trailer Time

Last month, I was able to take an online course on making book trailers. The course was great for the beginner. I'm not a newbie when it comes to Movie Maker, and I'm excited about working on a book trailer for The Waiting Booth. One class participant asked if an author should develop a trailer for an unpublished manuscript. The response was that it might be better to focus on other activities to get that book deal before spending time on a trailer. Oh well. I did get a swift rejection this week from the query I sent out. I guess I don't need to start a trailer yet. In the meantime, here is a trailer for one of my favorite reads from this summer. Beautiful Creatures is from the YA genre. I think they did a great job!