It's Been A While...

"And everything I can't remember

As fucked up as it all may seem

The consequences that I've rendered

I've stretched myself beyond my means"

-from the song "It's Been A While" by Staind

February 13th.  Really?  Man, do I suck!

Okay, so here's an update that I've been thinking about for a while though I haven't gotten to since... well... now.

February was an odd month for me, and even though it's usually short a few days than a regular month, my mind immediately thought "oh crap... I have less time than I did in January".

The goal for updating all my story blogs (and non-story ones) on a more regular basis started off beautifully... though honestly the short story killed me a little bit.  I had to go through each story blog and reacquaint myself with what the kids had been up to.  I made notes and now hopefully moving forward it will take less time.

But damn those Wheels-O-Wonder short stories.  They get me every time.

So... I have amended my "update" goal since my brain is about to explode.

Originally I didn't think I'd be able to update everything every single month, but when I pulled it off for January, I had hopes.  Then February hit (not going to get into it, but some of it had to do with health issues, a failed attempt at trying to donate platelets, and an out of town family visit).  Already somewhat of a short month (not really), I tried working on the short story first since it usually took the longest, but then I found myself stuck - constantly starting and stopping.  I tried to tell myself just to keep writing, but things weren't working out.  Nevertheless, I have an idea for the story - it's just taking longer than usual.

In the meantime I worked on other stuff and pretty much updated most of everything by the end of the month (some posted in the first three days of March), but the short story was still an issue.

I even added three new story blogs (yeah, what was I thinking, right?), and updated those.

Hey look at me.  I'm babbling.  (What a shocker.)

Anyway, the new goal is this: I will try and update the story blogs as best I can on a monthly basis.  The short story blog I will do my best to update on a bi-monthly basis.

Ta-da!  Brilliant!... until it is not.

I need to work through my road block when it comes to the short stories.  Ugh.  I took up the challenge since the randomness of the prompt generator was a challenge in itself spewing out weird shit with every spin.  (One of these days I'll post a picture of the damn thing so y'all can see what I'm talking about.)  When I wrote Antonina, I thought I started off strong, but it didn't end well.  I think I did the violence okay, but overall, I didn't think it gelled with the first half and strayed from the premise/prompt altogether.  But it was my first shot, so I thought it was okay for a first shot.  Right?

And then I wrote Jacob which I thought was better.  It stayed with the premise/prompt for the most part (at least that's how I feel), but it took even longer than the Antonina story. 

The next one I'm currently working on is quite interesting although is proving just as difficult.  If I could just get "Pol" to gel at the beginning a little more (it's currently in blurbs), then maybe I can get it to flow a little better.

Or maybe I'm just not good with short stories?

All righty, I haven't decided if I want to continue updating my social network (Facebook, LJ, Google+ and Twitter) with every story I write or just post them on this blog and hope that everyone reads it and goes to the links.

Nevertheless, the update (in no particular order)...

• Nedea is now up to part ten
• Stoically Challenged was updated twice with drabbles and Charlie & Daphne
• Della is now at part four
• The Strange Adventures of Princess Blue is up to part twenty (which makes me smile as well as amazes me a little since it just started off as a little story to cheer up a friend)
• The Curly Muse got a poem
• a boy, a girl, and a line... got the Charlie & Daphne story (Killed two story birds with one... story.  I took Chris M's boy/girl/line and incorporated it into one of Alithea S's homework assignments.  Ta-da!)
• Real Life I (just) Made Up got an Impromptu Sleepover - which makes it up to part ten, I think.  (I'm seriously thinking of changing the title, etc, of this story blog since it's changed considerably from its original intent.)
• Tales of the Unemployed and Unloved is now up to part six
• Enyo is now up to part eleven
• Sanya is up to part eleven 
• Everything At Least Once talks about bacon soda 

And then the three new ones that I added to start work on last month...

• Lost and Found (aka Kai's story) is now at part ten
• Penelope is up to part eight with Deja Vu, Reja Vu
• Kearie is up to part eight with Truth Be Told

So yeah, that may look like a lot of writing... but... yeah, okay, it is. 

Now a friend of mine (Chris M.) asked me to write him a three page story that he could make a short film out of.  (Yeah, no pressure.)  So I have an idea for it, but I need to sit down and really flesh it out.  From our conversation about it, it's pretty simple for the most part.  Hopefully I can get it to him some time this month.  That'd be swell.

In novel news, yeah... I've been thinking about Chloe and Abby a lot lately and have sort of rewritten a scene for Abby (in my mind) as well as plotted out a few scenes for Chloe (in my mind), but with all the work on the other stuff, I haven't written much for my girls.

What kind of mother am I?  (Don't answer that.  I'm fabulous.  End of story.)

I also haven't read much lately which saddens me since I love books, but I've been writing so much, I don't have time to invest in a book or two or several... like I want.

Why does the time-turner from Harry Potter that Hermione used not exist?  Or perhaps I need a Tardis.  Or just more time in the day.  Or more than one of me.

No.  Not more than one of me.  I don't think the world can handle it.  I can barely handle myself... and I am me.

Wow.  Getting weird again.

So many things to write.  So little time... or at least it feels like that.

And there's that story I was working on with Jim G. that sort of took a backseat to life and other things.

(stream of obscenities that would make sailors blush)

So yeah.  That happened.

All right.  So that's all my writing news as of late.  Right now I'm getting ready to hit the library and a couple other places for some quick errands before I meet up with some friends for some hot toddies and a movie.

That's a lot of "some" going on in that last bit.

I need food... or a smoothie... or a giant bowl of mochi... or a steak...

(Can you tell I'm PMS'ing?)

Later my lovelies!

Have Goodness!
Rae

Feeling Defeated and Done In

"Keith... you're losing it. And when it's lost, all you are is a loser."

-Watts from the movie "Some Kind Of Wonderful"

So with the highs of keeping up with my goals last month, I feel like I'm falling behind this month.

Oh yeah.  Big time.

I have ideas for a few stories.  Right now I'm trying to work on a beginning for another one of my Wheels-O-Wonder stories, but it's just not gelling.  I think I can make it work.  I just need to get back in the zone as well as get out of the house and some place quiet to do some work.

On top of that, I decided to add three of the six stories I had started in Stoically Challenged for fear of them not getting lost in some void.  I mentioned them in my last post , and I think created story blogs for them shortly after (if not the day after) of that post.

So we have Kearie, Kai and Penelope.  (Hello kiddies.  Mommy has missed you.)

The original plan was to do the stories in order like I did last month - oldest to most recent, but I think I'm going to save the three new girls for last this time around.  I need to refresh my memory of where I last left off with them.  Then maybe over time, if I write more for the other girls (Ashlock, Abernathy and Piper), they, too, will get their own story blogs.  We'll see.

As it is, I haven't even thought of a name for the dude I'm writing about now which is odd, but hopefully I'll come up with something tomorrow.  The plan is to hit a cafe or coffee place and just get out for a while.  I've been feeling a little out of it at home and aside from my "powerloss" beating several kinds of poo out of me as it always seems to do when it comes around every month, I haven't been very productive with anything for most of the day.  Thank goodness it's almost over so hopefully that'll work out in my favor and who knows??? - maybe I can crack out fourteen stories and one review by the 29th.

That's right, my lovelies, this year is a LEAP YEAR!

Then again, I've already written one story... well... ten little stories for one of Alithea S's assignments.  I wrote ten drabbles in the Montana-movie-fandom which were loosely based off of the movie-verse and my birthday gift to Alithea S. fanfic-verse (minus the Percy Jackson-Artemis part).

So that's one story down, thirteen and a review to go.

Oh yeah!  I can just taste the failure.  It's just sad with a hint of despair.

A "plus" to my glorious blogging/writing ways, a friend of mine and fellow writer - Kevin Z. - featured me recently in one of his blog posts.  The post itself tickles me beyond belief.  Looking over the post as well as listening to my recording of the post (I come out loudest because 1. my phone was closest to me, and 2. I'm Filipino.) is just delightful!  LOL!

I feel I need to explain the post (and maybe a little bit of the recording, too).

A while ago, Kevin Z. and I chatted about writing, and how his writing sort of fell to the wayside and now he simply blogs.  He had said he never had the time or energy due to working long days, etc, and I said something positive and encouraging like, "If you really want to write, you make the time."  Then I decided to challenge him by giving him a prompt from the Wheels-O-Wonder.

His prompt?

A: an alcoholic
B: that hates kids
C: hunts for lost treasureD: to find a mythical animal

My Facebook messages tell me I gave him this prompt October 9, 2011.

His reply?

That sounds like it will really put me out of my element. Challenge accepted.

After poking him periodically with "How's the writing going?" check-ups, I decided to give him until the end of the year to finish the story.  That would be a few months.  PLENTY of time, right?

About a week ago at a game night at his and his girlfriend Diana M's place, I jokingly checked on him and the story again.  (Diana M. wanted me to give him way more shit than I had been, but she seemed to do that better than I ever could, so I merely just once in a while would ask once and leave it at that.)  He'd occasionally tell me what he'd plotted out in his head but so far nothing had been written/typed out.

At one point during the night, he was sitting at his computer, and I was sitting on the floor with some other friends chatting.  He nudges me to look at his computer, and what do I see?  A word document open with the following...

And the smartass award goes to...

I took a pic of the screen with my phone cuz I thought it was funny and posted it to my Facebook with the message:

Dear Kevin:

I love you. LOL!!!

Have Goodness!
(your Asian Sista from another Mista...)
Rae

He saw that later on which I guess prompted him to blog about it.  Some time later he nudges me again to look at his computer, and that's when I saw him playing around with the pic for the post.

And then The Beast (Rachel's Hair) attacked
Kevin and he was never heard from again. -JF

Originally the pic (taken by Jessie F.) was just of him and me at an outing with friends to the meadery back in April 2011 (which reminds me I haven't been in a while and really should fix that).  I believe I had my hair pulled back earlier in the day but had let it loose later.  There was a comment about The Beast (a loving nickname for my hair) being loose, and Kevin Z. made like he was scared of it (like B-movie horror scared). 

So... I attacked him with it.

The thing I like about this pic is that you can see my ass which, in recent years, I have come to embrace and not think to be this hideous mass behind me.

The thing I do NOT like about this pic is, even though I love that shirt (hella comfy yo'!), in the pic it balloons forth as The Beast goes after its latest victim, leaving me to look large... like an expanding marshmallow in a microwave.

After seeing the pic - resized to fit his blog - I had suggested in jest that since you can't see my face that he should do a little bubble to the side showing what I actually look like.

Hence the second photo.

True friends hold your head up when you
no longer can. -JF

The other pic cropped and used in his blog shot (also taken by Jessie F.) was taken at a recent Girl's Night (January 2012) whilst playing a game of Trivial Pursuit.  (We were drinking so we used to the kids cards.)  In the original pic was me and my friend Dawn S. 

From my vantage point, her head was tilted at an awkward angle and looked like it hurt and could potentially cause damage... so I thought I'd help her out.

Now if you listen to the audioboo clip (yeah, ya heard me right... audioboo!), you'll hear me gripe about how he covered up my booty with... well... my face, but left the big parachutey shirt billowing before me as if to hide my cow stomachs.

Moo, mother fuckers!  Moo!

But the two Photoshop gurus ignored me and continued on talking shop about the photo.

Cutest anime eyes EVAAAAR! -JF

(Note: Disregard the comment in the recording about "Carlanka" unless Kevin Z. wants to explain it.  Besides it's about a friend of his that I don't know, so he knows the story better than I do.)

Since they were playing around with the picture, I had suggested (again as a joke) if they could give me "anime" eyes.  In a picture from Dawn's birthday back in 2010, there's a pic of me and Wes M. that Jessie F. took, and I have no idea what happened - if it was the flash or the angle or what - but I ended up having adorable anime eyes... and being Asian, I found that quite amusing.

Since I more often than not DO NOT like the way I look in pics, I kept making jokes about myself, and Jessie F. offered to fix the picture

Last year in May was Makers Faire, and she and Wes M. showed up a little later and met up with me and the rest of the people I arrived with.  Later when I saw the pics Jessie F. posted of the event, I actually liked how I looked in some of them... and of course had to joke about it even then.

Whud up. -JF

One pic she took of me (as shown here to the right) was a pic that didn't make my stomach turn.  My comment on her Facebook?  

Like this pic. I don't look fat in it. Wait... did you Photoshop this?I think I had made that comment a couple times before on other pictures, and of course like with all my friends... you make a joke like that, there's a good chance someone is going to take it and run with it.

So guess what happened?

You caught me, Rach. I've been photoshopping pictures of you
to make you cuter for daaaaaaaaaays. Here is a completely
un-photoshopped picture of you. *eyeroll* ♥ -JF

Jessie F. Photoshop'd me up REAL good.

When I saw the new pic, I think I laughed so hard, I almost pissed myself.

Me: Lol! It's like a Willy Wonka acid trip!
Jessie F: Enjoy your Justin Bieber hairs!

Man, I love my friends.

So yeah, Jessie F. offered to doctor up the pic to make me look amazing, but then Kevin Z. said he wouldn't use it sooooo...

In the end, I shut up and told him it was his blog, and he could do whatever he wanted.  And like I said, I was going to mention his post/blog in my next post proud that I got an "honorable mention".

Hey, it's the little things, ya know?

In the end, as far as pics go, like with my writing, I don't think all of them are that bad and will share them with the world.  Only the truly hideous ones (again, decided by ME) will never see the light of day... and I think those are few and far between.

And would you look at that.  I have managed to bring it back around to writing.  I had veered off track somewhat and am now back to me and my stories.  (Ugh!) 

Oh!!!  I almost forgot!  I recently hung out with a couple friends of mine (Chris M. and Renee M.) who I hadn't seen in FOREVER, and Chris M. asked me to write him a three page story that he could make into a short film.  So that story is running through my head as well as the Wheels-O-Wonder one.  I have an idea for it, but I have no idea how to go about it.  Okay, that's a lie.  I do... but I have to think it through some more.  I think I can make it work.  The idea I have is based, as is all of my writing, my life and experiences.  I just hope I can make it good enough for him.

All right.  I think I should try and get some sleep.  As it is, I'm amazed I've blogged so much.  Well, you could have spent all that writing time actually working on a story.  Yeah yeah yeah... leave me alone annoying inner-voice. 

I'm planning to leave this Thursday for a family visit (fiending for some niece time) as well as maybe... if I can... donate platelets this Tuesday.  I kind of want to do it this week... but we'll see how it goes.

And who knows?  I might actually get some writing done at my mother's house.  It's been known to happen.  Not a great amount, but some?

And donating platelets... perhaps after a giant steak, I'll feel awesome!  We shall see.

Ack!  It's 5:30am.  Frak!  Maybe I'll just stay up until tonight to try and get my sleep schedule back to normal.  Then again, I tried that the other night and look how well it's been working out for me.  (sigh)

Later my lovelies!

Have Goodness!
Rae

Dear Insomnia: I Hate You! No Love, Me.

"Normal is not something to aspire to.  It's something to get away from."

-Jodie Foster

I've been suffering with a sinus headache for the past couple of days.  Thankfully the discomfort hasn't been consistent, but it's hindered any writing progress I may have made in that time.  I was playing clean-up with some blog tags, etc.  I tried working through the pain, and I succeeded for a while, but then eventually I couldn't keep my head up (even with meds), so I put the minibook away and laid down.

Part of my clean up was re-posting some old stories from one site to my new one.

So long before I started heavily posting my stories and poems here, I posted them elsewhere.  Not to the extent I have on these pages, but I shared them just the same.  I started posting to the other site back in 2005 and created this story blog and started posting on it around 2007.  At the time I posted more on the other page than this one so I made the effort to post on both whenever I wrote something.  Over time, things flipped where I was posting more here and neglecting the other site.

Recently I decided to update the older site with things that I've created on my pages here, but then I started looking through my old work and realized there were some poems and stories that I didn't post here.  Waxing nostalgic on the old site, I went ahead and added them to The Curly Muse page. 

I also wrote a couple new things for Everything At Least Once.  Even though I said I'd hold off until the new month kicked in, I couldn't help it.

And now on to my dilemma. 

See, I remember having this conversation with someone have it be my brother or a friend who read my writing, etc.  It was in regards to how many blogger pages I actually had.  Also there was the comment "You don't have to make a blogger page for everything you write," and I don't, but I always said that if I ended up writing more and more of a story, that I would create a new page just for that story.

I recently went through all my story blogs and made notes in one of my blank journals to try and keep up with what I was doing.  It was when I went through the story blog Stoically Challenged that I noticed I had a few story lines that had a number of posts for them.  They had started off being stories for assignments given by Alithea S., but then there were some story bits I wrote without a homework assignment but posted in the story blog since they started with a homework assignment from that story blog.

Now I'm thinking of giving them their own pages.  What do you think?

From the various stories posted on Stoically Challenged, here are my "repeat offenders" (aka stories/characters I kept going back to):

• "Kearie": currently at seven story postings (two of which were homework assignments)
• "Penelope": currently at seven story postings (three of which were homework assignments)
• "Kai": currently at nine story postings (one of which was a homework assignment)
• "Abernathy": currently at two story postings (both of which were homework assignments)
• "Ashlock": currently at two story postings (both of which were homework assignments)
• "Piper": currently at two story postings (both of which were homework assignments)

Now the only ones I'm really looking at (for now anyway) are "Kearie", "Penelope" and "Kai" since they have the most written for each other whereas the other three storylines only have a couple installments.

If I made three more story blog pages, then that would just be more story blogs for me to update on (at least) a monthly basis.  I did it in January.  I'm hopeful that I can do it for February.  I'm just afraid that since they're hidden within the other stories on that story blog, they'll just go ignored and eventually forgotten.

That's just sad, right?

I think what I'll do for now is take notes on the three storylines I mentioned and work on them in addition to the story blogs I already have on my docket.  It wasn't until today that I realized it was already a new month and that I needed to start updating/writing again.

I tried my hand at writing in a coffee shop (like ya do!), and I found it difficult to write in a place that was solely a coffee shop due to the noise.

If I'm in the zone, no noise can stop me, but it's getting there that's the challenge.

I was at a Barnes and Noble cafe with a friend seated at the brink of the cafe near the fiction/genre fiction section where there's a considerable amount of traffic.  Hell, there were even a group of older gentlemen playing backgammon a couple tables away, and I STILL wrote better there than I did at the coffee place I was at recently.  I sat a table by myself, and the chatter around me was mind boggling.  I could even hear it over my earbuds when I tried to lose myself into my music.

Maybe it was just that day or something.  I don't know.  I just find it odd that one place was noisier than the other... and I used to work at a bookstore and know how frakkin noisy and distracting it can get.

Maybe I'll just back to that Barnes and Noble.  One of these days...

Okay, I think I'll call it a night now... even though it's after 5am.  LOL!

Later my lovelies!

Have Goodness!
Rae

Lick Me! I Taste Of Awesomesauce!!!

Oh my God! Oh my God! What the fuck just happened? 

-Wesley [after being scooped into Fox's car] from the movie "Wanted"

I'll tell you what just happened.  I actually reached a goal.  THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED!!!

Booya!  Raise the roof!  Check out my happy dance!  Awww yeah!!!

Granted this is just the first month, but holy oh my good gravy with a side order of amazing awesomeness!  I did it!  I didn't think I'd be able to, but I did.

My goal was to update all my story blogs as of 2011 and then start keeping them relatively current after that.  I was having problems with the last story blog for 2011 and finished the story for it earlier this month, but after that, I had no idea how to go about updating stuff or what order to do it in.

Then the process just sort of came to me... and I started writing.

Each story blog was its own monster, and since it'd been a while, I had to go back and take notes on what happened and who people were and what everything looked like.  Each story blog was like that.  I had previously blogged that I didn't think I'd be able to update all the story blogs each month, and I totally expected to maybe do half or less.  (Aside from this main blog, there are twelve blogs to update - eleven story, one not-so-story.)

And then I posted the last one a little while ago, and I realized...

HOLY SHIT!  I DID IT!

I'm trying not to get too excited, but woo hoo!  I feel mighty proud of myself.

So starting where I left off from the last post in regards to what I've written...

Two days ago, I posted the next segment to Real Life I (just) Made Up titled An Unexpected Visitor (which was last updated October 6th last year).

The day after that, I wrote Part Nine for Nedea (which was last updated October 8th of last year) as well as a blog description (which I don't think is very good) and toyed around with the blog layout.  Still think it needs something.

I also wrote Part Ten of Enyo (which was last updated October 9th of last year).

And then just a little while ago, I posted another review on Everything At Least Once for Rockstar Coconut Water (which was last updated December 7th of last year).

After I realized I had updated them all, I immediately thought I need to do it all over again, but a part of me decided not to.  That instead I would just keep it as a monthly thing (this blog being the only one that I could update as often as I wanted), and in the meantime work on other things.

Like my novels.

So far "Chloe" has been on my mind though I keep wondering what "Abby" and "Luke" are up to.  Most of my stories usually have a female as the main character... like with "Chloe" and the rest of the characters in the story, although important, are more supporting than in the "Abby/Luke" story.  The two of them share the spotlight in a sense, but in reality, "Luke" is essentially the main character. 

I find it interesting.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some novel writing done before I go back to updating the story blogs.  I've been writing a lot lately, and I'm hoping that the creative flow continues at this pace.  It's nice going to bed and your last thoughts before falling into the black are of your stories and where you can take them.

Still, with the story blogs, I have already gone and made an updated list of all the blogs and the dates they were last updated and then, like before, put them in number order.  I will be updating them the same way, oldest to most recent, but I won't start until (at least) February 1st.

Oh yeah.  This year is Leap Year.  Neat!

Per my revised list, the first story blog I will be starting with is Results of the Writers' Wheels-O-Wonder which ALWAYS proves to be the most difficult since it's from my brother's manual spinner prompt generator.  After my last update, I consulted the spinners and got my new prompt so I can already have it in the back of my head for next month.  As it is, I kind of have an idea of what to do, but I'm trying to keep it simmering on the back burner of my noggin until I'm ready for it.

I'm honestly expecting some lag in my writing stamina in the coming months, and who knows?  It might start next month.  And it is a shorter month even with the extra day this time around.  I'll keep whatever I can crossed in order to keep this up.  I'm taking it as a sign that things will turn around for me, and this year will be better than times before.

Anyway... here's hopin'!

Later my lovelies!

Have Goodness!
Rae

Insomnia's A Bitch, But At Least It's Raining

I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest.  Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round. 

-Muhammad Ali

Sitting in my room (chillin' like a villain) and drinking a couple beers while I listen to the rain.

Ahhh yes, the rain.  It makes me happy. 

You know what also makes me happy?  Writing!  (And I've been doing a lot of that lately.)

So when I finished my Jacob story about a week ago, I immediately thought It's time to start on my other writing.  Trouble was... I couldn't decide on where to start (and I REALLY wanted to).

My solution?  I made a list of all my story blogs and the date of the last post.  Since then, I've been working my way from oldest to most recent.

First up was Stoically Challenged, the last post being June 28th of last year.  Alithea S. had started posting homework assignments again and told Kathy W. to tell me that I was slacking.  (I was, but it's good to get a little friendly poke every now and then.

Yeah, I know how that sounds.  Anyway, moving on...

I'm behind on a lot of her other homework assignments, but I got into the habit of not doing hers in order so even though I got the new assignment, I ended up doing an older one and four days after "Jacob", I wrote "Rest Stop" which is a continuation of "Out For A Drive" which I thought just going to be some random one-shot kind of thing, but nope.  I wrote more... and even gave the chic a name.  (Go ahead and applaud if for nothing else than to make my ego feel loved.)

Also on the same day, I posted another segment for Sanya (last updated on June 29, 2011) called "A Story To Tell".  I had to go back, as with other story blogs, and take some quick notes to remind myself what people looked like and their names and all that.

I'm pretty fly for a slant-eye!  (LOL!  It just popped into my head and made me laugh so I wrote it.  And if you don't like it?  Tough!  I'm Asian.  Get over it!)

The next story blog I tackled was a boy, a girl, and a line... (which was last updated on July 13, 2011).  This story blog is similar to Stoically Challenged except for some reason, I feel the need to do the assignments in order (all of which I got back in the Spring of 2010).

See?  Slacker!  *grin*

The next prompt up on the writing block came from my friend Chris C. who gave me the very first prompt that started this story blog in the first place - "The Assignment".  The rule was if you already gave me a prompt, and I wrote a story for it, you could give me another one (if you wanted to). 

And so he did.

The prompt alone sounded rather science fiction B-movie, and I had originally meant to make it as campy and cheesy as possible... but then things took a turn (not sure for the better or worse), and a day later, I ended up with "Not In the Moo'd". 

If your brain melts out of your ear and your eyeball slide out... blame him.

On the same day, I posted "Romantically Hopeless" on The Curly Muse (which I hadn't posted to since September 22, 2011).  I had actually written a good chunk of the poem the night before in a stream of consciousness kind of thing.  I figured since I hadn't written a poem in a while, why not post that?  It felt like something was missing, but I tweaked it in the end.  I'm not all that sure it's any good, but I like it.

Number Five on this countdown goes to Della.  The last post was from October 2, 2011, and a day later after my poem and "I blame Chris C. if this sucks" story, I posted Part Three of this story.

The following day I posted Part Nineteen to The Strange Adventures of Princess Blue (which I last posted on October 3, 2011). 

I'm hoping it makes my "Girlfriend" Kathy W. happy.  (Perhaps I'll make it into a children's book someday... maybe... perhaps... I have no idea.)

The day after I posted more "strange adventures" for Princess Blue, I posted Part Five of Tales of the Unemployed and Unloved.  (In case you can't tell, I started writing this story whilst depressed.  Ain't life grand?  It hands you shitty lemons, and you make stories out of them.)

Where's my beer?

Found it.

(gulp, gulp...)  Ahhhh, refreshing.

Where was I?  Ah yes, I was where I was now... which is working on something for Real-Life I (just) Made Up.  This story blog had originally started out to be something completely different and is now kind of like "Tales..." but not.  As it is, I'm trying not to have anything weird happen in that story since everything else seems to have some odd angle or twist in it (for those familiar with my writing know what I'm talking about), but it's really hard.  For some reason, my brain wants to take reality and shake it up a bit.  Right now, when I think of that story, it makes me think of Lemony Snicket's "Series of Unfortunate Events". 

I keep thinking of the first chapter of the first book "Bad Beginnings":

If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle. This is because not very many happy things happened in the lives of the three Baudelaire youngsters. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire were intelligent children, and they were charming, and resourceful, and had pleasant facial features, but they were extremely unlucky, and most everything that happened to them was rife with misfortune, misery, and despair. I'm sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes.

Granted my story is about a girl named Arwyn and not the three Baudelaire orphans, but I get an "unhappy ending" feeling about Arwyn and her story just the same.  For some reason when my brain entertains the notion of making the story weird and fantasy horror.  It's like she can't be happy or happy things can't happen to her if I keep it in reality.  There has to be some strange otherworldly reason she's suffering and once she slays the dragon or finds the magical tome or save some kingdom from an age old curse... then, and only then, will she find true happiness and happiness will be thrust upon her.

Did anyone else read the subtext of that bit as "the writer's got issues and needs serious help"?  Or was that just me?

Anyway...

I have three more story blogs (one not so story blog) to write something for, and everything will be all caught up as of this month.

Wow!  I'm kind of excited. 

Hello sense of accomplishment.  Wanna buy me a drink?

I know I've babbled about this before, but it'd be nice if I had followers/subscribers/whatever.  There are days when I post something, and I feel a little lonely and sad since I know only a few people read the stuff I write and they leave comments on Facebook or Google+ or Twitter where I post notices saying "Hey!  Come read this thing I wrote!"

Oh to have followers.

Oh to have a writing job.

Oh to have a job.

Anyway, enough daydreaming. 

I've taken my notes on the next story blog and have a few ideas, but I have some plans this weekend so I might not get to it until a few days from now.

Or if my insomnia takes hold again (as it has been A LOT lately), maybe sooner than that.

All righty.  Time to plot... and (maybe) sleep.

Later my lovelies!

Have Goodness!
Rae

Story Done. Sore Thumb. Now What?

There is something beautiful about all scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, done with.
-Harry Crews, novelist and playwright (b. 1935) 

Well hello and happy new year to one and all my lovelies out there!

I thought that was quote was appropriate seeing as this story pained me to write it.  Pained me in the sense that every time I tried to work at it, it just sat there and laughed at me like some childhood bully that just spilled my chocolate milk all over my dress.

Or something like that.

Okay, perhaps that's just a skosh of an exaggeration, but you get my meaning.

Also (most likely from working on this story so much) yesterday my right hand started aching - specifically the joint area below my thumb up to the knuckle and also the meaty part of my palm.  I'm pretty sure it's from typing as well as moving the minibook around (lifting it out of the way of the cat and all).  I finished editing and posting yesterday as well as blogging all this with an achey thumb.  You never realize how much you need your thumb until it's taken away from you... well kinda taken away.

Oh the suffering I do for my art. ;-P
Moving on...

My brother's random "Wheel" prompts kill me.  I had an interesting idea with "Antonina", but what started out as a cool idea turned into "Holy crap!  What am I going to do with this?  How am I going to end it?"  With that story, I felt that I started off strong (I liked the violence I wrote in the beginning and the "fight scenes" thereafter), but I didn't feel it was really any good... at least the latter half (especially the ending).

Now with "Jacob"... my original goal was to finish it before the end of last year, but due to frustrations and creativity blockage mixed in with the holidays, insomnia and catching the plague... I ended up postponing my original goal to January 2012.  It would have been nicer if I finished it within a few days of the new year, but damn that plague.  Hacking and wheezing and sniffling and body aching... kind of makes it a little difficult to function.

I most likely got this from my family when I went to Fresno to visit for the holidays.  My brother and his family seemed to be passing it around to each other.  My mother had visited them and got it, too, though hers turned into pneumonia before I left.

During my drive home, I felt a little tickle in my throat.  The next day I visited ye ole drugstore and loaded up on meds.  (That's my way!  I'm a big medicator.)  I don't get terribly sick all that often, but when I do, I want it to last as short as possible.

In any case, I'm feeling better now.  I killed the sickness after a few days, but I still have a lingering sniffle and cough.  (The body ache is now from my upcoming bout with powerloss.)

Meaning... sometimes I hate being a girl.  Once a month I wish I could just scoop out my cervix with a melon baller and put it in a mason jar for five days until it's over.

Anyway, back to what I was talking about before.

It took me a while to get the "Jacob" story going.  No beginning felt right.  Then I found one that wasn't terribly formed well, but I felt I could work with it so then I just continued on my merry little way, making notes as I went, and then like fertile bunnies the pages kept multiplying. 

On the day before Christmas Eve (the day I was to venture to the land of Fresno), I posted on my Facebook my progress with a mild question of curiosity:

16 pgs & a possible ending. Huzzah? O_o How many pgs is the longest short story? #amwriting  

For some reason when I think "short story", I think "short".  Granted I've read from short stories that seemed to never end, but I guess when you love an author and a story so much, you don't want it to, and you get so lost up in it that you forget you're reading a short story and not a novel.

In response to my question, my friend Jonathan S. (aka Jaquas) posted this:

From the internets, so take with a grain of salt:
# Novel: a work of 40,000 words or more
# Novella: a work of at least 17,500 words but under 40,000 words
# Novelette: a work of at least 7,500 words but under 17,500 words
# Short story: a work of under 7,500 words

My other friend June B. had commented that the longest short story she had seen was 30 pages.  The longest she'd written was 24.


I was at 16 with a possible ending in my mind.  I just had to knit the words from page 16 to the end... wherever that would be.


And just so you know, I don't knit well.


Out of mild curiosity from what Jaquas posted, I did a word/character count, and proceeded to have this little chat with him via the post.


Me: Jaquas: I just counted 8300+ words/44+k characters... and I'm still not done. (I just feel like I'm rambling at this point.) #sigh
Jaquas: So you're at Novelette status :)
Me: Oh dude, am I? Or maybe I'm just at bullshit status? LOL!
Jaquas: Well, yeah, you're always at bullshit status though. :P
Me: Someone's gotta keep up with you. ;-P

And there you have an example of me and my friends.  (Cue Randy Newman's "You Got A Friend In Me")

I purposely did not bring the minibook with me over the holidays since I didn't think I would get much work done.  Also, I had some cuteness I needed to play with.

my adorable niece Bella in a new Christmas dress

Like I always do, I brought a notebook with me and ended up filling my moments of insomnia with some writing.  I worked on Jacob and amazingly enough one of my novels (Chloe).


My Facebook comment to the short story thread on December 29th:


I handwrote some stuff at my mom (thanks Insomnia... you bitch). Now I need to add it to the monster of whatever this story has become. Oh dear! O_o

January 3rd:

Finished typing up what I wrote while in Fresno. At 23 pages and at 11k+ words. *headdesk*

This short story was going to kill me.  Plus it was getting more difficult to get it done and out of my head since my other children were wanting Mommy to play with them.  I had made a goal that Monday would be the day that I would finish my story, Tuesday would be editing, and Wednesday would be posting.  Now if you follow the rule "It's not tomorrow until the sun comes up" then I did post it yesterday.  When I posted it on my various social networking places (Facebook, Twitter, Google+), I added an author's note (like I do) as well as this comment:

17,480 words and 33 pages, I give you... crap!

Looking at the word count now, per Jaquas's internet findings, I was 20 words away from a novella.  

So I wrote a novelette.

...

...

...

Fascinating.  

The author's note explains my feelings toward the piece.  Granted I wrote it late... hella late.  I refused to go to bed until I finished.  (Oh dear gawd.  Writing's hard!  But I love it so.  LOL!)

My friend Jery T. commented on my Facebook posting "Oh, I bet it's not as bad as you think."  My reply back?  "You obviously haven't read it. ;-P"

So now to continue on with my goal of upkeeping the various story blogs I have.  Most likely I will not be able to write something for every story blog every month (sorry kids and readers), but I will try my hardest.

I still entertain the notion of vlogging one of these days.  I had thought "I'll do it at the beginning of the new year."  But then the plague said, "I don't think so," and took not only beautiful and enchanting stage presence (NO ONE looks good when they're sick) as well as my voice (there were times I sounded more like a dude than I usually think I do giving Barry White a run for his money, and then there were times where I thought I could have subbed for the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin.)


Oh well... maybe some day... when I grow the babbalones to do it.  (That was a reference my Seester would get.)


Anyway, I posted the story yesterday.  I don't think anyone has read it yet.  Oh well.  I'm not sure anyone even reads these posts or any of my stories.  Well, I know some of my friends do, but my secret desire is to have subscribers and a readership, but that'll take some time, I guess.  Or maybe it'll never happen.


But there I go.  Being shiny happy positive again.  Why?  Because that's how I roll.


All right.  I reached my other goal of blogging about this before I head out for the night.  My friends have moved into a new place, and we're going to listen to our SoCal friends' internet radio show Dusty's World at the Hall of Justice (aka their new abode).  I need to run some personal errands, grab some grub for myself as well as some apple juice for the Jager tonight, and I'm good to go.


Later my lovelies!


Have Goodness!
Rae

A Possible Ending In Sight... Maybe...

My stories run up and bite me in the leg -- I respond by writing them down -- everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.

-Ray Bradbury, science-fiction writer (b. 1920)

Not usually what happens to me.

For me, I usually get a nibble that lasts for a little while.  Then it runs away.

A few days later another nibble.  It runs away again.

It goes on like this for a while.

Reminds me of grade school when a boy would like you, and he'd come up and slug you.  The action is repetitive, somewhat painful, but the end result can be something awesome.

Right now, the nibbles are few and far between.  As it stands, I have about a week and a half to finish my "serial killer" story, and then it's a new year.

And hopefully that new year will bring me something great... something much better than what I've been dealing with so far.  And I'm not talking about my loving family and friends and the little things here and there.  I'm talking about the aggravating bits, the enduring of crap, the waiting for the "you'll get something soon, honey" moments that never seem to happen.

It's difficult to stay positive, but I try.

And here we pause for a comic strip break.

Penny Arcade (http://penny-arcade.com/) "Usurpers, Plural" strip dated 12/12/11

To fill the void of not-writing, I had turned to the one thing to comfort me in my time of need: the internet.  (Mainly cuz I'm out of booze.)

If a writer stops writing, and no one's around to hear it, can you still hear them cry? 

I checked my email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and caught up on several of my comics - Penny Arcade being one of my faves.  I read this and immediately shared it with Maggie C., who later told me that I was an artist.

She always says the sweetest things.

And back to serial killing.

While drinking and gaming at a friend's house, I took a pee break (I had fueled up on a lot of beer.  Don't look at me like that.  I was helping.  Just ask Kathy.), and while in the ladies room, I had an epiphany.

Why are most epiphanies found in the bathroom?  (No, that wasn't the epiphany.)

I was trying to figure out how to have a mundane figure out who the killer was, and then it struck me.  (No I'm not sharing it with you now.  You'll just have to wait.)

I'm not really sure how I'm going to write it, but I've started to.  It's sort of coming together... sort of.

Another comic break!

Wondermark (http://wondermark.com/) strip dated 12/16/11

You can thank Jaquas for this one.  He posted it to my Facebook just for me.  And you know why it's funny?  Cuz it's true.

My cat is currently reminding me that her ass is toxic.  Why can she never make her catbox smell of roses and cinnamon? 

Pardon me while I deal with her foulness.

(time lapse)

All right, I'm back.  Now she's just being anal (no pun intended) cleaning up litter and whatnot.  I hear her in there scratching/pawing all over thinking "Did you explode in there?  What the hell are you doing?"  One of these days I'm going to find markings on the wall like akin to things you'd find carved into trees or park benches or whatever.

It would be cool if that were true I found Portal "the cake is a lie" sketches.

Yeah.  I'm a nerd, and it made me laugh, so deal!

Back to the killing...

So yeah.  I need to go back and do some editing for fluidity sake.  I also need to add things to make transitions a little better.  I just took the time to write here since I wanted to write here more often than I have been.  The plan is to head out of town to see my family for the holidays by the end of the week so if that's the case, you won't be hearing from me for a few days since my mom's place has no real internet access.  Also I'll be spending most of my time with my family and hopefully getting to see Margrit (aka SEESTER) so I don't think I'll have any real time to write.  Maybe during my insomnia moments I'll be able to finish or work on my story (which at worst case scenario will be posted when I get back), but yeah.

Maybe I'll just leave the minibook at home when I leave and just bring a notebook and a pen.  (Ohhhh, kickin' it old school.  WHADDUP?!?!?)

All righty.  I should really hit the sack.  I'm going to the movies with Leah G. since her husband Jim G. does not want to go see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  (I am her date.)  I had hoped to read the book before watching the movie, but I do want to see the movie.  She listened to the audiobook and LOVED IT!  A chic I temped with at the beginning of the year watched the foreign version first after reading the book and thought it was crap.  Everything I've been hearing, the US version is WAY more spot on.

I can always read the book next year.  *grin*

All right.  I'm going to go now, but before I do, I'll leave you with one more comic (which I found today).  I like nerdy humor, and since I'm passionate about writing, writing is one of the things I'm nerdy about.  With that said, I share with you and then hit the sack.

I Love Charts (http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/) strip dated 12/20/11

Time for bed.

Later my lovelies.

Have Goodness!
Rae




PS... In case it needs to be said, NONE of the comics are MINE.  (Websites noted below each comic.) Kthnxbye.