The Undiscovered Country

Flying Freestyle

Sometimes when a person’s got nothing to say, well, then it’s time to simply let the fingers fly and see what happens.

That’s what I’m doing here, letting my fingers do the walking and the talking.

I have another favorite blogger, but not here. I subscribe to his monthly writing newsletters, and about two weeks ago he started a blog. The nice thing about it is, he asks questions of his readers about writing and reading. He also made the mistake of asking his readers to submit the first two paragraphs of their WIP (work in progress [it took me about five minutes to figure out what WIP stood for]).

He received 36, mine included. He has yet to get to mine, but I’m looking forward to it. The other short critiques have been informative, plus I realized with his suggestions, I would have done much of the same. I guess I’ve learned more than I thought.

He asked in another post if we had our own blogs so he could add them to his writer’s list. I’m considering adding mine, but I’d have to change it from Registered Users to Everyone. Two problems with that:

1. I don’t necessarily want the entire world to read what I write in here, especially friends and family. By changing it to Everyone, I may tend to watch my words whereas now I feel free to write about anything and everything that comes to mind. I don’t like to constrain myself.

2. Some publishers consider blog entries to be previously published, and I want the option of taking my better entries and rewriting them for magazines, etc.

Still, I would like the extra exposure.

What to do, what to do.

Then again, I could set my more sensitive entries to Registered Users and higher . . .

Oh, I suppose you want to know more about this author I’m talking about, eh?

His name is Randy Ingermanson (aka “The Snowflake Guy”) and you can find his blog at http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/blog/index.php

What else would my fingers like to say . . .

Last night I met again with my writer’s group. I had submitted two stories that I’m considering for the Writer’s Digest contest. I was leaning toward "Bought and Paid For" , but based on their suggestions, that one will need more work than "Invalid Item" . I know for certain I will submit "Selling Me Short" , but I don’t anticipate spending more than 15 minutes on it. I’ve edited that one so many times already, I’m sure it’s as polished as I will ever get it.

Still, I have a week, and that’s plenty of time to edit and submit both. Like with my photos in my previous entry, I have nothing to lose but some cash ($35 if I submit all three). I certainly don’t anticipate winning anything, or even making honorable mention – not when they will receive tens of thousands of submissions.

What else?

Ah –

Under what circumstances – especially for you women – would you shave your head? Don’t say never, because with enough thought, I bet you’ll come up with something.

I have two:

1. If I had to spend a long time in the desert with no way to bathe every day, I’d save my head. My scalp tends to be greasy, and within 24 hours, does my hair look and feel iky! To not have to deal with stringy, greasy hair day after day, yep, I’d rather be bald.

2. If a friend or close relative suffered from cancer and had to undergo chemo and radiation treatments, I would shave my head at the same time they had to shave theirs. My hair’s long enough, I would then donate it to Locks of Love or another organization that makes wigs for people with cancer. My coworker, Ellen, and her best friend, Kirsten, did that on this weekend. Kirsten’s mother has cancer and lost enough hair she had to shave the rest of it off also this weekend. Isn’t that sweet?

That’s all my fingers have for now. Maybe tomorrow I’ll ask my ears . . . or perhaps my feet, and see if they have anything interesting to say.

Have a wonderly Tuesday!