FLYBY'S AND SHOUT OUTS

Thursday, February 10, 2011

An update:  Sorry DL, I forgot about your Whodunnit Mystery Celebration.  My bad.  Looks like a lot of fun to search out the clues on 37 different blogs . .  

First:  Me, me, me (Matrix 3, Agent Smith fight scene).  I gots lots a awards over the last couple months, and being ME, relished and enjoyed them in the privacy of my own blogverse.  Guess its time to share them.  'Cept; I'm seriously late and probably everyone I know has already these.  No matter.  Let me admit some awesome peoples gave me blogger love and I accepted that love and hoarded it and now I'm gonna announce to the 'Verse I got them and . . not pass them on.

I may decide to resurect them at some point for the new peeps that are cropping up in my followers (no don't look; I'm not holding a celebration til I hit 250).

L'Aussie Denise passed me the Christmas Blog Award.  Not sure why, as I'm one of the most BAHHUMBUG people for Christmas.  I think she felt I needed some incentive for seasonal love.  Well, I sure appreciate the thought, depressive that I am.  I did not get the opportunity at that time to post my joy at receiving such sentiment, but I'd like to thank Denise for the glowing thoughts.  I look at this award sometimes and wonder how I was so lucky to get it.

 Madeleine (Scribble and Edit) graced me with the Stylish Blogger award, and Anne R Allen sent me the Smiley Award.  I don't remember what was to happen to accept or send them along to other worthy bloggers. 

So if someone could create an award for me that says "All Apologies" I'd gladly post it for all the kindnesses my friends lavish me with that I consistently keep for my own amusement.

Alrighty then; enough flagellation.  On to the people who this post is really about . .

NEW PEOPLE:  And of course this list is incomplete. 

Demetria Lunetta is a published YA novelist, "represented by Katherine Boyle of Veritas Literary. I love writing, Scotland, and chocolate; three things that may seem unrelated, but are all wonderful."

Nanho McLein  has one of the best looking blog sites I’ve seen.  "I started working on my first book when I was 14. The idea popped into my head when I was being driven through Berlin in a convertible. Four years later, the first part was finished, but I wasn't particularly happy with it. So now I am studying creative writing and film studies at University. Here you can follow my way towards being a professional writer with short stories, poems and other interesting experiences."  A versatile talent with interesting insights and (though FireFox is preventing me from linking at this moment) has a well traveled outlook on life and writing lessons.  Not sure, but I think he hails from Germany.

Charlie Mac, aka Aj and Charlie.  I met Charlie during the You've Come A Long Way blogfest hosted by Christine H, but I really got hooked on (them) with Charlie's Rules For Breaking Rules post.

You've met the fantastic looking Lisa M Potts of course.   YA and women's fiction writer; member of YALitchat.org, TeenFire and She Writes; and promoter of Rachel Harrie's Platform Building Crusade.  Gotta love a blogger this involved . .

And I found this “boy” to follow, Jonathan Arntson. He states:  "I'm a boy. I'm 25. I write books. I'm gay. I work at a dollar store. I'm ambitions. I'm diverse. I'm worth getting to know. Oh and I'm a slacker. Us slackers could unite and take over the world, if we had the motivation." Seriously, you gotta experience Jon to understand the immediate attraction. .

Becky Wallace (Whats Your Thoughts On That):  "I used to get paid to write. But that wasn't fun. Now I write for fun, but don't make any money (not yet anyway).  I'm a mother, a pet owner, a wife, and volunteer. I gorge myself on chocolate and YA novels.  I love to read WIPs, correct grammar (it's a sick addiction) and talk shop. If you need a reader - and let's be honest, we all need a few - send me an email at becky underscore vallett at hotmail dot com.  Visit often! I love guests."  I can't think of ONE single thing that made me want to follow her.  But the longer I stayed, the longer I wanted to stay.  You ever been somewhere like that?  

Becky is holding a BURN OUT WRITERS CONTEST effective through 2/16.  I'll post the criteria, but you have to visit the blog to enter and see the awesome prizes:
1. Spend one-hour doing something not writing oriented, that isn't a task, job or chore. My suggestions: Watch something on your DVR, read a book for sheer pleasure, go out to dinner, take a bubble bath. (+1pt)
2. Eat something that makes you happy. I'm not talking about busting a New Year's Resolution. It can be healthy (eww), but it has to taste good. (+1pt)
3. Take a walk. You can determine the length. (+1pt)
4. Follow my blog. Writing is a solitary pursuit. Make it social by finding blogs you like...I just hope mine is among those. (+3pts)
5. Share this contest with others. I don't care how you do it. Post it on your blog, tweet about my idiocy, tell your neighbor. (+3pts)
6. Report on what you did in the comments of this post and tally your scores. I'm a writer, my math skills are not so good. If you don't give me your score, I'm not positive I'll be able to add it up by myself.

I've missed A LOT of people, I know.  But moving on . .

Lets talk social networking events:

Arlee Bird (Tossing it Out) is joint hosting the A to Z blog event April 1 to April 30 with Alex J Cavanauth, Jen Daiker, and Talli Roland.  There is a tab on Arlee's blog to link to the other participants, as well as links to the other hosts - and I'm sure they also have sign up methods and encouragements.  I saw this event on several blogs I visited last year, and was so impressed I decided that when it came around again I'd join.  The challenge is to publish a blog post every day (except Sunday?) starting with the letter A on 4/1 and continuing on through the alphabet and the month. 

An Awesome concept.  Unfortunately for me, a whole lot of committment.  I'm lucky to think of two to three inconsistent blog posts a week.  (Notice there is no blog schedule in a prominent locale on this site?)   I'm afraid I'd post a whole lot of  blah blah trash. Well, the event is over a month and a half away, who knows.

I mentioned in passing Rachel Harrie's Blog Crusade but I'll give it another shout-out cuz I think it an excellent writer/blogger event.  I ~tentatively~ joined while making this post.  (I'm a committment phobic!)  Here's the overall intent as Rachel writes it:  Basically, the Crusade is a way to link those within the writing community together with the aim of helping to build our online platforms. The Crusaders are all bloggers in a similar position, who genuinely want to pay it forward, make connections and friends within the writing community, and help build each others' online platforms while at the same time building theirs.

LATE BREAKING NEWS:  Roland Yoemans has e-published his Native American novel BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS.  Do stop by and show him your support.

Some older stuff - its been a while since I posted like this . .

Mara Nash on drafting and revision:  "What I was thinking about this morning (as I wasted time dilly-dallying instead of doing my day job) was how writers write."  She poses some interesting questions on how an author writes their first draft; fat with details and story that may need cut down, or lean and quick so it needs filling in during the revision process.  One of the concepts she has a hard time fathoming is the art of pen and paper; the ancient technique of writing longhand.  I laughed at this; some people have never envisioned tapping out their novels on an acutal typewriter either.  I liked Mara's questions on formulating a first draft because they show just how advanced the world of writing has become.  Especially if you read the wide range of comments.

Speaking of revisions; check out what Book Ends Agent Jessica Faust has to say on the subject of returning requested revisions to your agent.

Looking for something different?  Try C.N Nevets EMS 201 for Crime Writers post.  In the contemporary world, how often do you have a situation where you need emergency services?  What Nevets' post emphasizes is little known proceedures.  He doesn't tell you what to write in  your novel, he informs you or what happens in the real world.  This is useful info to a writer - well, I believe so anyway.  Not all the info on a writer's blog deals with writing techniques.  Writers have a wide range of real world experience/knowledge to impart.  In later postings, Nevets encourages authors to seek out a wide range of blog content, even if it means perusing blogs that are not writing related.  He gives a short list of writing blogs that do not strictly involve writing advice, but hints of more links in the future from his own blog wanderings.

If you are an author of mythological characters, you might want to check out Christopher Ledbetter's resources.  I don't write in this genre, but sometimes my themes overlap.  I like to write faerie tale/mythological characters in a sci-fi setting (for short stories) and the resources Chris has compiled can be used in a variety of different contexts.  Who says THOR or LOKI or VENUS has to be called by those names in a futuristic society?  As long as the basic themes are adhered to, who knows what creatures your concepts can spawn . .

Got a futuristic world in need of a unique vocabulary, check out the League of Extraoradinary Writers post on the subject.  Unique worlds require a language of their own.  Nah, you don't have to come up with a whole new lexicon for your alternative fiction, but perhaps you don't want to use common slang/curse words that may not stand the test of time.  If you've ever read authentic Shakespear, you'll understand that some terms are better left in ages past.  The only good example I can link you to is Demolition Man.  Oh wait, you would have needed to watch the scene about the three sea shells to totally get the last scene.

 Les Edgerton totally hit the proverbial nail on the head when it came to why I'm stumped on my two WiP's.  Its called talk writing.  No really, click on the link, cuz I can't explain it any better.  Writers have a need to "talk" about their novel to anyone who will listen.  We love a captive audience.  That word vomit has a way of making us feel heard.  My son said it also in the Significant Others blogfest:  So I have come to realize that unless you have a lot of time on your hands, asking a writer "so hows such and such story coming" is a lot like asking a senior citizen "So how are you feeling today?" Just don't do it, because you will be given an answer and it is impolite to simply walk away from someone when they are speaking to you."

It makes total sense to me (both my son's insight and Les' post) that talking out your novel or specific scene issues also contributes to the phenomenom of writers block.  Once I work it out verbally, I've finished writing the scene.  I just haven't put it on paper (screen in whatever word format an author uses to word process).  What do you think; ever feel like you've written all day when you've talked it out?

Elizabeth Spann-Craig  Two posts because they link together. As you know, Elizabeth is all about writers resources, and she hosts a weekly Tweets blog  post. Now, she and partner in crime Mike Fleming  have developed a WRITERS KNOWLEDGE BASE search engine  to consolidate all her efforts into one location for her writer friends. Pretty cool, huh?

Oh, OH!!  I nearly forgot.  Come In Character.  CIC is a site where your "characters" can explore themselves and their world.  Nah, its not a role playing game/scenario.  (Although the author may mascarade as a character-  or two or three - in their novel.)   This site is hard to explain unless you go there and participate.   Or at least lurk.  There is some "author" participation.  But mostly, they do scenarios like this week's:  You ( a specific character from your novels) finds a diamond ring lying in the street.  I chose my character Robert Crane to respond to the prompt. I could have had the other two MC respond and interact to his post, or allow "Robert" to respond to other "character's" posts.  But I felt the context of the scenario fit Roberts character traits.

So his character responded to the prompt.  I have a few other WiP characters that may have worked for the prompt.  I chose not to use them.  But in the past I've used characters that have only one or two lines in my projects.  CIC isn't predjucidial to main characters (MC).  The site likes characters. If all the character says in a nove is "Hi"; he/se/it is a character.  Some prompts allow authors to post, but it is a character site.
The emphasis of the site is to allow characters - main, protag, antag, secondary, bit or walktrough - to be explored in a safe, hypothetical environment.

No pressure to show up consistently, or as only one character each time.  Up to you.
Have fun checking out all the links . . .