Frazzled

So this is Monday Me … yeehaw! I haven’t been doing much, bugging folks on Twitter while I tried to take my mind off of Irene. I have friends who have been affected by this storm; one in SC that I still haven’t heard from. I worry, and when I worry I don’t focus very well. Even with the medication it’s hard to keep the bipolar under control when I’m like this. So I flit from thing to thing like a hummingbird, except I’m bigger. But I have discovered a couple of things:

1. There is no great site on the internet to watch streams of storm coverage except the Weather Channel, and that has lousy audio. No, really. Tried to watch it at work on Saturday and could barely hear it even with the volume at max. Slightly better at home with my exterior speakers, but still not fantastic. They need to fix that.

2. And I forget what number two was ….


I blame that entirely on the heat. 106 today (at DFW airport, 107 according to weatherbug), I think I saw Brendan Frasier and a camel walk by …. The weatherornotguys keep saying it’ll be better in September. Well let me tell you … Thursday is September and it’ll still be triple digits. I’m not impressed ….

Oh wait, I remember what number 2 was .. oh wait, no, that wasn’t it.

And then, my chapter newsletter was eaten by my computer. Had everything but 2 pages done, just cut and paste stuff. Went to open it tonight to slip it in and … it wasn’t there. Not even in my recent documents. *knocks head on desk*

Full circle now, I’m thankful that my friends are safe (I just now heard from the one in SC), that even though there are 20 dead – I’m thankful it wasn’t more, it had that potential. Property can be replaced. I’m thankful that shelters learned a lesson from Katrina and allowed pets. That’s why a lot of people died back then; they wouldn’t leave their pets behind. I wouldn’t have. With every tragedy there are lessons learned. I’ve already heard people complaining about the “hype” when the storm fizzled out at NYC – and your point is? At the time there wasn’t anything else they could do. Should they have waited until it hit land, went through NC then hit Virginia before deciding whether or not people should evacuate? Doesn’t work that way. Sorry. One little turn, a few more mph on the gusts and things would have been different. I’m glad that NYC and others landed on the side of caution, it was the prudent thing to do. These same gripers would have been screaming their heads off if this stuff hadn’t been done and the storm hit as predicted. You can never please everyone.

Have a great week everyone! Hug your loved ones, shoot – hug your enemies, it’ll piss them off.

What Do You Mean You Don't Know Haminglay?

For those who don’t know it, I work in a bookstore. Its hard work, shelving, alphabetizing, up and down on step-ladders, etc. But every once in a while, okay almost every day, someone on the other side of the counter/phone will make it both worthwhile and frustrating. Hence, things my customers tell me.

Up and coming authors (if you can’t figure out who they are, check the bottom of the post – and yes, some are repeats, I’m not digging out old posts to see what I’ve done already):

Irish Johnson
Janet Plum
Linda Lying Miller
Charles Dickerson
Judy Pickle
Ernest Haminglay
Sofclees


New Releases:

The Murdering Doves
The Angry Grapes
The Little ‘Ol Men See
The Stookie Stackedhouse books

Words we don’t want to hear again:

Triology (trilogy)
Arthur (author)


And now, the customers:


“Paperbacks Plus in Mesquite, may I help you?”
“Is this Paperbacks Plus?”
(Is there an echo?)
“Yes, may I help you?
“Do you have the phone number for Half Price?”
(Do you have a short pier you can walk off of?)


“I’m looking for a book”
(been there, done that, have the straight jacket to prove it)
“And the book is?”
“I don’t remember the name of the book, but the author is that lady who wrote that other book that was made into a movie …”
(Oh her, we don’t carry her books, she’s a snob)

“Can we rent the magazines”
(Yes, for a $40 deposit)

“Paperbacks Plus in Mesquite, may I help you?”
“Do you carry that paper for the computer that has the border on it?”
“No, we’re a used bookstore.”
“What’s the plus for?”
“DVD’s, hardbacks, magazines, CD’s”
“Well that’s a stupid name”
(and your mom dresses you funny)

“I’m looking for a book …”
(OMG not you again!!)

Authors:
Iris Johansen
Janet Evanovich
Linda Lael Miller
Charles Dickens
Judy Picoult
Ernest Hemingway
Sophocles

Books:
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Grapes of Wrath
The Old Man and the Sea
Sookie Stackhouse

An old man walks into a bar ...

Did you know that 3 billion devices run Java*? Yeah, didn’t think so .. I’m just a load of information. Trouble is none of it applies to blog posts. And least of all this blog post. I have blog block.. from now on referred to as BB. There’s really no cure for BB except to type. Does it have to make sense? Only if you want anyone to read beyond the Java line. (psssst, am I still making sense?) Wednesday’s post is supposed to be about the craft of writing. I did do some writing on Monday – almost 2k worth. But it was a struggle. This is one area that I didn’t think about cigarettes and their role in my life. I’ve come up with some of my most creative pieces of writing while puffing on a cig. Whenever I can’t think of what comes next, I’d pull one out of a pack, take a few puffs & think. Couldn’t do that on Monday. I had nothing to use as my creative, well “crutch” for lack of a better word. Tried M&M’s, but, while satisfying in many ways, it’s hard to put a piece of candy in my mouth and contemplate while it slowly melts, the way I could while watching a stream of smoke whiff through the air. Ohh, maybe I should try Skittles and watch the rainbow? On second thought, that would distract me too much. Hey look! A blog post!!!

My question to you writers out there … when you need to stop and think, what do you do while thinking?

*actual words that popped up while loading update of Java ... Bailey's mind isn't that sharp ....

Where the Hell Have You Been Bails?

Who me? Um, around. Okay, I’ve been on Facebook. Sue me. For the last couple of years I’ve been hiding in Yoville, Farmtown, Farmville, Petville, Mallworld and whatever other app I could get into. Hiding. Instead of writing about a better world, I’ve been living in la la land on Facebook. Much easier that way. No really. The last couple of years I’ve been decorating homes when I can’t afford to in real life. I’ve been buying mansions too. I even own a cave somewhere. Oh, and not just me either. My other me. And my cats. Yes, my cats are on Facebook, they have more friends than I do and their friends talk to them.. a lot. How’s that for pathetic? My cats are more popular than I am. You may have seen some of their friends; they show up in my comments from time to time. Not to talk to me of course, they’re looking for my cats. And no, you can’t be their friends .. you’ll be talking to them more than me.

This week begins the second stage of the comeback of Bailey Stewart. I start writing. Why now? I belong to this loop – the Write-Now loop – and it’s starting up again on Monday. We get a certain number of words to meet or pages to revise – a day. So, I go back to writing. I think it’ll be revising on Monday though because I have to go back over the ol’ WIP – Casey at Bat. I don’t remember a lot about it. Probably need to do some sort of outline too. But anyway, this isn’t the writing post, so enough of that.

And lastly, I’ve been quitting smoking. This Thursday will be 4 weeks since I took a drag off of the e-cigarette, almost 6 weeks since my last cancer stick. It’s been so easy that it’s almost scary. Sort of waiting for that shoe to drop. When I got lost on my last drive to writers group, I didn’t take a drag off of the e-cig at all .. and it was right there in front of me.

So that’s where I’ve been since this blog was active. No where interesting .. now, where have you been??

And the Walls Close In

Why are they pink?

What?

The walls.

Look kinda grey to me.

Not the walls of her brain, the walls of this blog.

Oh, well, um, she likes pepto bismal?

We have to do something about this.

We? As in you and me?

No, me and Eleanor Roosevelt …

You know Eleanor?

No I don’t …

Then why did you say that?

I was kidding, you know, like making a joke.

I didn’t get it.

You rarely do.

Oh yes I do Ernie!

When?

When what?

When do you get a joke?

When someone tells me a good one.

When someone … ? Oh nice Bud.

That was a good one wasn’t it?

Yeah, that was a good one.

Do I get 2 points?

2 points? K, what are you going to do with these points?

I’m going to trade them in for stamps.

Stamps?

Yeah, to buy things with.

They don’t do that anymore.

They do in my world.

That’s right, you do live in your own little world, don’t you.

Yep, my friends are here.

That’s nice Bud. So what are you going to buy with these stamps.

New walls for this blog.

That would work. Say goodbye to the nice folks Bud.

Goodbye to the nice folks Bud.

Some things never change.

The Voice

Like many, I am of the opinion that you can’t teach “voice”. You either have it or you don’t. What I do believe, however, is that you can teach a person how to 1) find their voice; and 2) how to enhance it.

Voice, as I’ve said before, is that part of your writing that separates you from other writers. The turn of a phrase, choice of words or witty schizophrenic story twists that are uniquely your own. It’s the part of your writing that identifies you to the reader. I struggled for the longest time with my voice. First, I wanted to write John Jakes/Roberta Gellis multigenerational family sagas. Yeah, I wanted Betsy Sue to marry the grandson of Bobby Joe, you know, the hero from the first book? But alas, that wasn’t me. So who was I? What voice was mine? I love action adventure type books and movies. I’d pick “Transformers” over “While You Were Sleeping” just about any day. So of course – I’ll write romantic suspense. Simple really, don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. Ergo, I launched my second career as the author of romantic suspense novels … NOT! Put on the brakes, hold back those horses, we ain’t going no where on this one. I’m not a romantic suspense writer. But I have stories to tell! The voices in my head tell me this nearly every day. But what? I have a voice (yes, other than the ones in my head), but I didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t have a clue as to how to find it. So I wrote blogs. I commented on blogs. And slowly, something began to emerge, something that was quite unexpected to me. No, not that … but rather that I’m a comedian. I write romantic comedies. I have a voice and it’s funny, just ask me. Writing this blog helped me discover what my voice is, and your feedback through these years, dear readers, has helped it to evolve. Whenever I couldn’t think of a topic to blog about, when I would just go off on some weird tangent, you were there with me. And you laughed.

So it’s simple. To discover what your voice is, write. Even if it’s little doodle type writing, or mindless scribbling. You’ll discover as time goes on that a certain style will begin to emerge …. that is your voice. Not the one in your head .. which we’ll discuss at some other time.

Speaking of that .. Friday is humor day so you get to pick. Bud and Ernie (for new comers, they are the voices in my head); things my customers say or Spam. Top vote gets it.

Connections

I've come to the decision that everything in my life is connected in one way or another. Now don't just sit there and say .. "well duh". Let me explain. But then again, short of leaving this page how can you stop me from explaining ..?? When mom died a lot of things inside me began to shut down. It wasn't an immediate reaction, but more like the beginning of a dam with the water slowly trickling to nothing. A couple of years later, I'd virtually stopped reading. Writing was sporadic but I still kept up appearances. Bailey Stewart was everywhere ... but inside, Bailey Stewart was running. Then I cut off the last of the .. connections. What am I talking about? The things that keep a writer going, the stuff that feeds the imagination. Reading, writing, blogging, talking to other authors. Those were the things that fed me ... and they were the things I had stopped doing.

So what to do about it? I'm slowly mending those connections. I'm reading again. I'm talking/participating/networking or whatever term you want to give it. And I'm here, talking to you. It's all about connections, keeping those intact so that the muses can play.

You are a fundamental connection .. and I've missed you.