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My entry for the Daily Writing Challenge |
My entry for "Invalid Item"  . Each piece will remain unedited til the end of the month.I think that what I'm going to do is two-fold. First I'm going to work my way through the novel that has been in my mind for the last ten years. However, I do try to keep my mind on spiritual things on Sunday, so I will be writing on "church stuff" - mostly my beliefs, I suppose - on Sundays. I will try to make the title reflect accordingly. Thanks for reading! SG The February word limit (for the curious): ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** The March word limit (level 2); ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Okay, I'm not going to do the DWC, but I would like to spend some time journaling, still. I picked up the books from the library today. There's a bunch of them. I don't know if I can journal 1100 words, probably since I've done it before. Let's see how long it takes. First, as I said "yesterday" (and I did write that yesterday), I'm not going to submit my novel musings for the DWC. But I like the journal idea. But I'm not sure I want to play with it. Anyway, I'm going to keep journaling. Got a bunch of books from the Library; I should probably use this time for research now. That would be a good use of space, too. Journal first. I went to Eckerd for some more free deodorant. I hope my husband plans to watch the kids briefly tomorrow so I can get some more. It's women's deodorant, a rare freebie. I think this is the first time since I started couponing over a year ago I got women's deodorant free at the store; I've had an occasional mail-in rebate but that's it. So I want to get all I can, which, sadly, is only twelve. And I'm ready to use it now, but I have too much still in my open one. I'm going to reorganize my rebate drawer next week, it's on my list. I need to order some stamps, too. The things I need to do. But I'm going to send off for the $5 Eckerd gift card, as well as the unilever rebate (score), and make some serious $$. LOL. My MIL is going to buy three bottles of shampoo, which I will use, as well. Just have to decide the best way to use it; probably 2 for the $5 card and then one for the Unilever. So the shampoo costs me nothing but a stamp and nets me $1.50. Double score. Today's big deal was Totinos; in fact, I need to go through my coupons and get the rest out. I wish I'd known they were free this week at Kroger. They aren't labeled on the shelf but an endcap has them "2 for $2", or $1 each. There's a .50/1 coupon out which, doubled, means free. I bought 21 boxes. The next step is to decide about telling my hubbie. If I tell him, he'll eat them out of house and home. Maybe I'll just sneak in replenishing them. But if I'd known they were free, I would have gotten lots more coupons earlier this week. I'm sort of not-happy about that. My husband adores them, and now that we have the new freezer, they would be sooo great. I also reorganized our three freezers. The one on the refridgerator has a few (two or three) boxed items, the open frozen veggies, and dinners that I have frozen to eat later. The freezer in the kitchen has the meat. The mega freezer has boxed items – namely, Eggos, Totinos, and Popsicles. Sad, isn't it? Lucky me, it's not even full yet. Lots of room for more. I also put the frozen veggies in the large freezer. It came with two hanging baskets, so I put greens (beans, broccoli, etc) in one basket and non-greens (mostly corn, but some stirfry) in another. I put shredded cheese in the extra freezer in the kitchen, at the very bottom, and butter in the door. It's a pretty good setup with room to grow. I can't wait. I did a survey yesterday, which was great. I love doing those, and it paid really well - $135 for 2.5 hours. I calculated it – I made about $54/hour. Take that! I enjoyed this one most of any, too. I also got a week's worth of diapers, which would have been worth it, and I fell in love with them! Maybe I should call Pampers and ask when they are coming out. I can't put down any details, but they are FANTASTIC! Okay, it's been twelve minutes, time to do some research. Have fun! We'll start with the skinny book. First Facts About the Ancient Romans, Fiona Macdonald, published by Peter Bedrick Books, 1997; all subsequent facts (except those in ()s; those are mine) are from this source. Thousands of Romans in slums, shaky walls & leaky roofs, despite city (set in smaller village?), money on artwork but streets full of mud and trash, traffic, muggers and thieves (add touch realism), AD 100 Rome ruled half known world, first Romans farmers in 7 neighboring hills, 753 BC founded City; soldiers began conuering after 270 BC, 30 BC ruled most of countries bordering Mediterranean, marched north in 1st Centruy to conquer Britain, Germany & France; soon after conquered most of Middle East (lot of territory), rich from taxes from conquered AND trade; essential food like corn & luxury goods shipped to Rome and sold; power collapsed 476 AD (back end); Romans believed empire brought good govt to conquered lands, appointed governors to rule, collect taxes and make reports; 4th & 5th AD RE threatened by Huns, Vandals and Goths from Central Asia; 60 million people by 100 AD, "civilization" from "civitas" = city in Roman; Romans believed cities where best-educated and most elegant lived, thought country people slow-witted (good prejudice to overcome when she shows up), conquered people resented Roman rule, British chieftan "they make a wasteland and call it peace" (how make wasteland?), page 8 and 9 has map with trade goods in dift locations Not all Romans born free – over a million in RE in 100 AD but not all free-born; foreign merchants, many slaves; Roman law allowed anyone to live in city as long as could support self but did not have full citizen's rights; Roman citizens in three classes: patricians = nobles, equites = middle-rank, plebians = plebs = ordinary people (which class join?); slaves prisoners of war, purchased from slave-dealers in other lands, children of slaves born unfree; patricians rich, owned great country estates, men appointed to all top govt jobs, patrician wife's first duty to provide son, marriages arranged to make alliances btw noble powerful families; equits ran buisnesses and owned property; slaves did jobs owner not dream of, worked as cooks, doctors and scribes, some freed by owners became rich; women from 'respectable' families did nt take part in public life (how so? Just government?), but would discuss politics at home with husbands and influence them, 150 trades in Rome fr wine merchants to goldsmiths to wagon-drivers and bakers; family-run shops and inns, poorest citizens could only find part-time work and relied on government aid to survive (how aid administered?); Roman fathers had power of life and death over children and slaves, citizens only could go to public baths, attend gladiatorial games or receive free food (this how aid administered? But only to citizens? How know if you were a citizen or not?); 212 AD Emperor Caracalla made all free-born inhabitants of Empire full citizens of Rome (how already-citizens feel?) Roman Homes Had Underfloor Heating, richest (patricians) lived in grand style, beautiful gardens hidden from city behind high walls, by 1 C AD building land scarce and expensive, Roman architects designed "insulae" = islandss – blocks of apts sometimes six stories high; ordinary families crammed in one or two rented rooms, badly built, noisy, dirty, dangerous; some fell others caught fire (is this where she lives?), insulae had flat, claytiled roofs, top-floor attic rooms cheapest (price?), shops at street level, picture pg 12, Roman drinking water pipes made of lead, slow poison caused infertility, brain damage in young children, loss of sense of taste; fire serious hazard, fire brigade staffed by slaves, issued with axes, buckets and leather hosepipes to help fight fires, after six years service rewarded by being made Roman citizens; Temple of Jupiter Capitoline -- Rome's special god – dominated surrounding streets (where located? Need map), many blocks of flats had central courtyards for light and fresh air, often communal lavatory in courtyard OR tenents used public lavatories on street corners OR kept big pottery jars in rooms; fullers – processed woolen cloth – paid to collect stale urinie from lavatories to help die cloth; only wealthy Romans afford space for courtyards and fountains in homes in middle of city; elegant furniture for patrician's home made of wood inlaid with ivory, sivler and gold, wealthy homes had underfloor heating using hot air from wood-burning furnace in cellars (what did temps get to?), floors on low raised pillars, hot air circulated beneath, warming floors; urinals made of terracotta; makers of mosaic floors used limestone for white and blue,b rick for red and purple, glass gve other colors, walls of rich homes decorated with beautiful paintings, doors made of wood with lattices to let in cooling summer breezes, lamps burned oil from olives, nuts, fish or seeds, gave golden light |
| Thursday, March 11, 2004 – 1050 As I'm sure you can tell from yesterday's entry, I've decided to no longer put my plot thoughts on-line. I will continue to journal them, probably even within the structured word limit, but if I post it on-likne then techinically the first rights, I believe, go to Writing.com, and even with the idea I don't want to risk it. So I'm going to journal some, and put some of the research. Rest assured that I am not just cutting and pasting, but actually retyping what I see, inserting questions (in my word file, they are in bold) when something comes up. So, today, we'll journal. I had a survey today. I'm zonked. What the heck am I doing? I am writing so much. My brain is damaged, and I think I'll just sort of doing stream of thought. Which means I am sitting here watching tv. I am losing my brain (did I say that already?). Watching Cocktail, and I've had a long day. I left the house today at noon and came home about seven. My husband made dinner <gasp> and then I ran to Eckerd. Free Dove deodorant. Plus a mail in rebate. They were out of the deodorant so I had to buy some shampoo for a buck and a half. But I got two rain checks for later. Not sure what I'm going to do with them. That's a total of four. I need two more for my Eckerd gift card, then I can do two more for a mail in rebate, $1.50 (pretty good). So whatever. I wish I could find some more stuff to put on my Unilever rebate. Got to deal with the quiet books, too. I have to iron mine on today, then my friend, the coordinator. Lucky me, she passed out my work so I can help with the twinging, or whatever you call it. The grommiting. I get to put grommits on all the page. I'm pretty good about that. I did it all last time. She's doing the covers and we are going to set them up so they are a uniform distance apart. I'm going to grommit all the pages. Right now I'm doing the page for Lehi. I cut out the pieces, did all the coloring, and I'm going to iron the labels on. I'm going to iron once I finish. Once again, I have lost track of what I'm saying. I wish I could come up with something. Oh I'm trying to decide, do I really want to stay with DWC? I seem to puzzle that out daily. What to do. I t hink I'm going to have to let it go, just because it's cutting into my only writing time. Sorry to do it, but I'm quitting. No, I really hate to do that, I hate to quit. So I think I'll turn this one in late tomorrow. |
| Rome 122 AD Romans begin building Hadrans wall From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/activities/index.shtml Roman soldiers: the armor and helmat were made of metal (what kind of metal? What did it look like?), tunics were red, wool in winter, linen in summer; Shield was plywood or metal, curved around body, painted (how?) red, brown and beige; sandals worn all year, made of leather, soles with iron hobnails (what?) to make stronger History: Rome capital of Italy, started building in 753 BC, Romulas & Remus (twins) left by river Tiber to starve, found by mother wolf who raised them, years later Mars told boys to build city where found, ended up at battle, Romulas won battle; people in Rome before time of Romulas & Remus but people still believe legend Julius Caeser tried to invade Britan twice (55 & 54 BC) in relatiation for Brits helping Gauls; both attempts failed. In 43 AD Emperor Claudis invaded Britain successfully. Client kings: kings who made peace with Romans in order to keep kingdoms; once king died kingdom went to Romans 61 AD Celts rebel when Prasutagus, king of Iceni (who?) died, P. friendly to Romans but wife (Boudicca) did not agree, Romans demanded to be paid taxes, demanded she give up throne, other armies joined hers and marched to Colchester (capital of Roman Britain), Boud's army burnt down temple where elderly soldiers and their families taken, marched to London, burned down city and killed hundreds Part of Roman army was in Exeter (where?), Roman general too frightened to move; rest was in north Wales trying to conquer, with Roman Governor (Roman Governor - The ruler of Roman Britain, who worked for the Roman Emperor.), took long time for him to march south, Boud had ten times more soldiers but Romans better trained, Boud defeated, rather than be captured Boud drank poison and died; after rebellion Britain mostly peaceful, spoke latin and wore Roman shoes; Tacitus (Roman writer) worried luxuries making people of Britain weak Leisure: board games with counters and dice; no one knows rules of games! :D hunting for fun as well as food (Romans introduced fallow deer to Britain to make hunting better), animals and people killed for fun in ampitheater; gladiators fought each other, or wild animals. When gladiator lost crowd decided whether he should live or die; theater where actors wore masks, baths = leisure center, first change out of clothes and do exercises, then swim in pool, then series of room that were hotter and hotter to help sweat of dirt; often stop and talk to each other; dirt and sweat scraped off with strigel (Strigil - A metal object used in Baths to scrape sweat, dirt and excess oil off. ), swim in cold pool Family life: when new baby born, laid at father's feet; if he picked it up it would live, if he ignored it then it was taken away to die, from 1st C BC women had more rights, could divorce husband, but never seen as equal; parents had to pay for children to go to school so only boys; schools scarce and built in towns. Girls and poorer children (rarely) taught to read and write at home, usually help parents, wealthy romans employed pedagogue to teach sons (Pedagogue - A Roman slave who was trained as a teacher.) would take boy school, carried stick to beat him if he was naughty or lazy, WRITING: short messages and at school use wax tablets and stylus (Stylus - A metal pen for scratching words into wax on wooden tablets.) mistakes smoothed over by wax at opposite end (picture?) ; important letters write on thin pieces of wood or specially prepared animal skins (how prepared?), books written on scrolls (made from animal skins written and rolled up)., Roman women wrote (some letters survived). Technology: good at building and engineering, not so good with machines, always slaves to do nasty jobs so no one bothered to think up inventions (hmmm…), public baths and rich people's houses all had central heating (lots of effort from Roman slaves); hot air moved through spaces under floors and through walls, space made by building floor on top of piles of stone or tile and walls really 2 walls with gap btw (hypocost: Hypocaust - Roman central heating - It works by hot air flowing through gaps between walls and flooring), did not invent arch but first to use them to construct bigger/larger buildings without lots of rows of pillars to hold up roof; used cranes (powered by people with ropes) to lift heavy blocks to top of buildings under construction; aquaducts made from lines of arches joined together with channel on top to carry water; used to supply towns with H2O. arches higher or lower depending on land but always had slight slope toward town so water ran downhill; sewers: Romans invented drains, towns & forts had underground drains to take away water and sewage, important because w/o fresh water and sewers people often catch diseases (when?); Romans invented concrete (when?) Religion: many gods and goddesses, Saturn – one of oldest gods, place taken by Son Jupiter, Jupiter – god of sky, most important, Juno – Jupiters wife, looked after women, Neptune – Jupiters brother, looked after sea, Minerva – goddess of wisdom and women's work, Mars – god of war, Venus – goddess of love, lover of Mars; lots of gods (Romans discovered new ones all the time [as conquered new lands]), worshiped gods in temples, made sacrifices of animal and precious things (how sacrifices made?), believed Emperors became Gods so had to make sacrifices to Emperor; Christians refused to and got in trouble, had to worship in secret, by 4th Century AD Christianity became offical religion of Roman Empire (Constantine); Romans put coin in dead person's mouth so wouldn't lose it on way to underworld, Ruling: at first ruled by kings, Tarquin the Cruel (last king) overthrown (when?), Rome became republic (Republic - A country without a king, queen or emperor. The people who rule it are elected. France, Italy and Germany are countries today which are republics.) for 400 years, republic ruled by Senate, Senatros elected to do different jobs (what sort of jobs?) not everyone allowed to vote, women, slaves and poor people not allowed, Romans who were not slaves = citizens, at first Rome ruled by generals but caused problems, first Emperor Augustus 27 BC, Praetorian Guard – special soldiers to protect Emperor (how chosen?), some killed their Emperors (who were so bad) |
| Quite honestly, I can't think of anything that I feel a burning to write about today, so I am just going to journal and pray you aren't disappointed. Today was a very busy day, calling-wise. My calling is with the Enrichment committee, which I think I've detailed earlier. Enrichment is next week; not this upcoming Tuesday (thank goodness) but the next. I am so glad Michelle is back in town, but I still have a rather full plate (my fault). I prepared a signup sheet and was pleasently surprised. The sheet didn't even make it all the way around the room before it filled up. And to think I was nervous about not having enough volunteers! Fie, fie! Anyway, now I have to match up volunteers with Relief Society presidents of old, and pull together a bit more information. I know, I should have done that last week but sadly, for whatever reason, I did not. Anyway, I came home from church today and scouted out a bit more information, put together an email list of the women who volunteered, and emailed each of them with said information. I spoke to Michelle, and she is going to assign someone to call a few women about costumes, and (hopefully) someone else to do reminder calls. So basically, my part in the organization is complete, *except* for my fifteen minute spiritual thought. Oh dear, I suppose I'd better take care of that. I forgot the topic for this month, relationships, I believe? Perhaps a spiritual thought on our relationship with God. Or I can do one on visiting teaching, that would be subtle, eh? I can pray about it and see. Right now I'm not sure which way to go. I also spoke with Michelle and let her know that I was going to try to lay low for awhile. That is, not volunteer so much. As I put it, I want to "give everyone else a chance to get the blessings." It is, of course, partially my fault because I get overenthusiastic, and I told Michelle she could always count on me in a pinch – I don't want her stuck doing everything either – but that I would be less vociferous during our meetings. She said that was fine, she had been thinking about talking to me anyway, because she didn't feel like it was fair that so much was on my shoulders this past month. I told her, no problem, that was an emergency situation. I want her to know I'm more than happy to help out when needed, but I don't want to be doing everything. After all, I believe that was my main complaint in the past, that one person was doing everything and deciding everything. Oh, what a hypocrite I am! It's Fast Sunday, which means it's the first Sunday of the month. That means that most of the people in the church are fasting today, missing two meals. Not the kids, or the ill, or pregnant, and of course not anyone who chooses not to (like someone whose name I won't mention). We have a fast and testimony meeting, where members of the ward get up and bear their testimonies. Very spiritual, if you don't have two small children. I remember feeling the spirit before…<sigh>. Anyway, it's a great meeting, but what I'm trying to get to is that this is the first time I've fasted in some time. I just stopped nursing my son about two months ago (you aren't supposed to fast while you are nursing), and I nursed my daughter until she was a year old, at which point I was pregnant with my son. All in all, it's been over three years since I fasted. I haven't done it in the past two months because, quite honestly, I forgot. Fast Sunday just sort of sneaks up on you, especially if you aren't in the habit of fasting monthly. Anyway, when I first joined the church, I had a really hard time with this. It is a great time for the spiritual side of you to battle the carnal or physical side. That is, I am staaaaaaarving! But I want to grow spiritually, so I don't eat. It takes some time – and a lot of prayer – to be able to overcome it. It's strange, I've missed two meals in a row many times, but doing it intentionally is different. I really think Satan does his best to tempt you then. On the other side, I am fasting for a change in myself. I made a goal today that I would NOT yell at or spank my children, that I would speak calmly and peacefully with them. So far, so good. I can't say the same for my husband, but I'm trying. And he started it. :P Just kidding. But if I can do one day, then stretch it into two, then a week, and so on, with my children, then that will bleed over with my husband. Soon our home will be more harmonious. That's my goal, anyway. After all, how can the children feel at peace when their mommy keeps screaming like a banshee, or whaling them on the backside? I don't do it often, but I do it too much. My novel is buzzing around in my head, it is hard not to think about it. I am looking forward to writing it, though not for the research. I'm not much good with research, and I don't know how someone can spend so much time doing it, then remember enough details to incorporate. I have to pick ten or twenty points in time, randomly, then research them and make them believable. Poor me. But first, I have to prepare my lesson for tomorrow. We are having FHE – Family Home Evening – and it is my turn for the lesson. I wonder if I can make it something fun. I need a game or something the kids, or at least my 2 ½ year old, will enjoy. My son (1) won't pay much attention no matter what. Or will he? Hmmmm. |
| Surprise, Surprise. My husband took me out last night after I burst into tears after the freezer didn't close all the way AGAIN and defrosted part of our food, and we bought a lay-down freezer. My only regret is that we didn't buy it two days ago; I would have gotten SOOO many Eggos. But such is life. Speaking of deals, they are doing superdoubles at a store approximately two hours away. I just didn't see anything that made it worth the trip BUT I think they did them last week, too, so maybe there will be something good next week. I can call and preorder. I also made a trade for 20 .50/1 cottonelle coupons that start with 5. Hopefully THEY will be here before my rainchecks expire. Fingers crossed. My research is netting me aggrivation. I keep finding magazines that it would be nice to subscribe to. The latest is a mom's magzine for intellecutals. I think it looks intriguing. However, I can't make myself pay so much money for so few issues. Heck, I had a hard time paying $30 for twelve issues of Sky & Telescope, and I worked for them! Go figure. On the other side, I think I have found a few issues that would be good for submitting my last story, as well as this current one. They don't allow simaltaneous submissions, but if I get rejected, that's okay. And I'm glad I thought of that; I just remembered that the email I sent my submission from electronically is different from the email I check daily. I just checked; no response yet. Can't they tell I'm bursting with nervousness? Back to the submission issue. I am marking the ones that look good for "Finding Hope", as well as the ones for "Birth Day". I am beginning to think I just need to do a total rewrite of BD, but I'm not necessarily sure that would work, either. I don't do well with massive edits. I stuttered when I had to turn a dialogue-only story into a full-fledged one (though I think taking the full to dialogue-only would be easier). I'm not sure this is going to make it, either. There is just so much description omitted, it's ridiculous. I sat around thinking, what could I describe more fully? I mean, I'm not even sure you can evision the room – or the equipment – because the description is so lax. So do I keep working on my story, or do I keep researching markets? I probably should finish the story before I look for places to submit, don't you think? But at the same time, there are so many markets to look at, and I am kind of doing double duty. In fact, why am I listing all these markets? I'm putting them in a spreadsheet but I'm not notating what they're looking for. This sheet will be fairly useless the next time around. Of course, I can use it to flip to certain pages in the book, I suppose. I don't know. Maybe I'll spend today ironing out some kinks and getting down to buisness. I have to confess, I'm also sort of rethinking this daily writing challenge buisness. The gps are nice (and maybe I'll be even happier once I get the next batch), but this is all I do on Writing.com now. I do need to peruse the contest ideas. I was thinking of writing from one of each of the prompts, I think the Muse's Alley has some great ones really often. I can develop those into short stories. Of course, I could also be working on a short story for the Writer's Prompt; then I'd do double duty. Except I just remembered that I can't submit this anywhere else, kind of annoying. After all, as long as I'm writing….Anyway, this is eating up a great deal of time. On the other hand, I am at least journaling every day, something I'm supposed to be doing anyway. So what does it matter that it is mostly about writing? I could – probably should – be putting in other stuff, too. Or do I save that for my "real" journal? Anyway, I only get maybe two hours, if I'm obscenely lucky, and I have so much to cram in there. Do I want to spend it doing the DWC, or spend more time on the other stuff? As the time goes on and the word count increases….then I go back to "I need to be writing". Even if it's nonfiction, journaling, I need to keep the flow going. What happens if I spend 3 weeks a month prepping a manuscript to mail and stop writing? I think I should write every day, no matter what I'm writing about. Well, I taped a bunch of shows from BYU television. I'm very excited, since it and tivo were the two big reasons I got satellite. Actually, they were talks from women's conference. I listened to a great one about mothers and priorities, and it had a quote from I believe it was Thomas S. Monson. He said (and I'm paraphrasing) that we should look at where we spend our time, and there is our treasure. Where do I spend most of my time? I spend an hour, hour and a half, writing each day. Maybe another hour couponing, and we won't mention shopping. I admit, I obsess about my couponing. On the other hand, it's not a bad habit to have. Still, you don't want it to be the main priority. Am I spending enough time daily with my kids? I mean, I'm with them, but a lot of the time I'm reading, or now I'm watching television. Yesterday we went out and did yardwork. I raked leaves. I think the area I raked is all covered again, but I won't even go there. We found a snake. Dawn thought it was great, just laying there, until it suddenly (and quickly) started to slither away. Then she freaked out. I don't blame her, I jumped too. Anyway, I spend time with them, but I don't really sit down and play or read EVERY day. I probably do it twice every three days or something, maybe every other day. I don't really give them one-on-one time. We need to start having "dates" with Michael spending time with just Dawn and me with Mook, and vice versa. Dawn was really excited that we would be going on a date. I'll have to keep working on that. |
| What a stressful day. How can it only be 12:30 and be stressful? I have no idea. It probably has something to do with my trip to the grocery store. Why do I take two kids to the grocery store with me? I don't know. But I did, and things got mixed up (as usual) and I forgot to give them the coupons for the popsicles. I bought ten boxes, and was supposed to use a .75/1 coupon for each of them; hence I overpaid the store $7.50. Lucky me the front end lady knows me. I'm sure she'll be overjoyed to give me back my money, poor thing. The managers all know me too. I'm not even sure why I bought ten boxes, since they were .24 each (not free), except that they are something I really enjoy, and so does Michael (so do the kids, but we have "other" popsicles for them). But we have no space in the freezer; it's crammed full. I had to pull some things out today. Especially since I went and bought seven Banquet dinners for the kids. Lucky me, I saw a sign that said you get free corn when you buy any five Banquet products, so I got some free corn with my free Banquet. Oddly enough, the register didn't take the free corn off; lucky I was paying attention on THAT one. That's only a .99 slip. More things for the freezer. I made the kids eat them for lunch today. Two down, five more to go (plus the two that were already in there). I also bought two packs of seeds today, morning glories, thinking they would brighten up our yard. My two year old promptly ripped the package open and spilled seeds all over the store. I saved what I could, but it looks like we'll have mostly pink morning glories, not so many blue. I am thinking when the kids get up I'll start harassing the back yard into shape and prepare it for planting. Even if just slip the flowers in a few spots without pulling up the bushes (my ultimate goal, and maybe possible on my own), it will look nice again. I hope. I'd really like to terrace it but we are broke right now, and trying to get the bathroom in shape, and the closet in shape (my husband is building two closets in the "bonus" room, which makes our house a four bedroom home, thus increasing the value; he lay down some linolieum in the guest bath last night to make it pretty. I wish he'd do one project at a time; I think the walls should have been painted first, in case any paint spilled, but who listens to me? No one). Oh, yeah, and that freezer. I bought fifty boxes of Eggos last night (it was the last day of the sale). The manager wasn't happy, but good grief, the store closed in an hour and a half, get over it. I am renting room in my in-laws freezer with half of them; that means my in-laws get 25 boxes and we get 25. Hopefully my sister-in-law (age 13) won't eat mine. I won't hold my breath on that one, given she's a proven thief. I can see her switching one of her plain ones for one of my chocolate chip or something. The DirecTv is up and running, and we seem to have the BYU channel. We're at 75% with all our channels, so I'm afraid of how things will go after the leaves come in. The installer left his cell phone with me in case there were problems later; he said he'd come out and fix it for us. We'll see if he follows through, but he seemed to be a pretty nice guy (his name was David), and I left thumbs up when I called D*. If I *can't* get BYU TV then I'm going to have to call D* with issues, since that is the primary reason we got satellite. I really wanted to be able to watch (and Tivo) General Conference in April. I finished revising the story yesterday; today is market search time. I should probably print it out and go over it again, but I think I'll let it slide. Maybe Palindrome will take a look for me. It's a tough story to do because it is so close to home. Next time I think I'll shoot for something a bit farther afield. I need to start scanning the prompts from the other story contests, but if I force myself to "work" for an hour a day, I'm sure I'll come up with something. Even if it's nothing. Ha ha. Anyway, I always get distracted when I do the market research because part of it involves reading the sample issues – fun, but distracting. Maybe I really should devote an hour a day to my short stories, and another hour to Natasha. I'm not sure where that second hour will come from, though. Maybe I can work something in at night, somehow, after the kids go to bed. But when, when? I did the diaper study last night. It took me about three minutes to do the form, and they are a good company; they got me started when I came in. It made me wish I spent less time at my in-laws chatting! I would have been out so much sooner. |
| Okay, I pulled out said story and typed it up. It was nine pages, I think about 3000 words. WHAT was I thinking?! It needs revision for sure. It's interesting to note how far I've come. Some things I remember struggling with the first time around. For instance, I'm telling the story from Carrie's point of view (the sister), so how do I refer to their mom? I didn't give her a name, but now I'm wondering if I should. I constantly struggle with how to refer to her. This is made worse by the fact that I have three primary characters and one secondary, and all four are women. There's a lot of "she" going on in the story, and it's hard to make sure I am consistent. I don't want to lose the reader. The other problem I struggle with is the point of view. For some reason, though it is primarily told from Carrie's PoV, I occasionally switch to someone else's impressions. I only caught one that stuck out majorly (and should be easy to revise), but I'm sure that a careful read will help. But the worst thing is that I do a lot of telling and not so much showing. There are passages that just skip along, when I think a little more detail is necessary. I have no idea what the hospital room looked like, or the nurses, either. There are a couple of confusing skips, as well. I tried to clear up the basest part but there is still some elaboration necessary, I think. After I finished typing, I had twenty minutes, so I looked at a couple markets. I found one that said author retains all rights. I wonder if that means I could use something from Writing.com? I am not even sure of how to put that into the introduction letter. A cursory line about posting on line and how many individual views were received? They will probably toss it, but I guess it's worth the stamp, eh? Anyway, I need to keep looking for more markets to work toward. I'm kind of glad that this story needs to be reworked more. I felt kind of like I was cheating by ditching the "writing" part for this month. Now I have to do some writing, too, even if it's mostly revision. Creativity rules! I just have to make sure the printer works out fine. Yesterday was exhausting, and today doesn't look much better. Today is the last day of the Eggo sale, and I would really like to get some more waffles. I got 15 boxes yesterday (better than free, score!) and I have no more room in the freezer, but the kids seem to love them. They go great with all the free syrup I've been getting, too. So what do I do? I was also thinking about grabbing a few boxes (I can't turn down something for free) and giving them to the missionaries, or the mission office. I wanted to give them to the women's shelter but I can't find that number. Maybe I can look quickly. I think I found it once before. I also have a survey that I am taking today. It's at 6:30, and I have to take the kids to my in-laws house. If you've ever been in Atlanta during rush hour, you can tell how much I am *not* anticipating the trip. If I leave here at about 5:15ish, I should get to my in-laws around 5:30, 5:45. Then I need to take the backroads to get to the place. Usually they want you there 15 minutes early, so hopefully I can make it. I need to grab some dinner, too, I'll probably get a smoothie to eat. Great food. After that, I'll head over to get some coupons, then maybe stop by the store and grab a last few boxes of Eggos, and some Cottonelle toilet paper (60 cents for a 4 pack). Last time I bought 27 packs and they lasted about a year. My daughter is being potty trained so we will probably actually need more, but that's okay. I'll buy 20 more total and then we'll have lots of toilet paper. It's all about buying it when it's cheap so you never have to pay full price for anything. That's the way to go. I wish my husband would pick up the kids from his parents but he probably won't. I really love my "unwinding" time to myself but I haven't gotten much of that lately. I know it's selfish, but it is important to have some "me" time, not even time with friends but time to have peace and quiet and no one clinging to me. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, but sometimes I just need to breathe. How much is too much? I wish I had another freezer to put all my upcoming Eggos in. I would go ahead and get 30+ boxes. They are great snacks for the kids, a good change from cereal, and nice and warm (the kids won't eat oatmeal anymore, kind of annoying). Maybe if I go through the freezer I can straighten the last shelf and make a bit more room. Probably not. I took the last packs out of the boxes so I could fit more inside the freezer. |
| There are some things I want to get done for today. I just put the kids down for a nap, so hopefully I'll have at least two hours to do it all. If I spend about thirty minutes on the DWC, then I should be able to spend another hour finding and typing my story of old. Then I have some coupons I want to cut, and I need to clean out the freezer. I think I'm all messed up, but the coupons are for free Eggo waffles, and I have no space. I was thinking that maybe our "family" Christmas present this year should be a lay-down freezer for the meat. We already have a separate standup freezer, and it is full. I think if we have two separate freezers, in addition to the one attached to the fridge, we will be considered loony. But that's okay. I hope the kids like Eggos. We also did some quick shopping today. The cashier looked at me like I was nuts for grabbing 16 packs of toilet paper. The first 6 (mine) were .35 each; the other ten (for my in-laws) were .60 each. That's for a four-pack, double roll, Cottonelle (which means "the good stuff"). I need to find my Publix Upromise card, too, because I want to go back and have that transaction scanned. I'll probably do that tomorrow. Talk about loopy. I think I know where my short story is. It will probably only take me about 30 minutes to type it. The rest of the time, I can start researching markets for it. I don't want to send to the same places I sent to before. I also want to find a couple new places. I have decided to go ahead and start with the literary magazines that pay with sample copies or subscriptions (rather than cold, hard cash) because then my query letters can cite published references. At present, I can only refer to some news blips in Sky & Telescope (with no byline, though I didn't mention that part) and a weekly column in The Garner News. I did not mention that these happened four and seven years ago, respectively. I still have the same ability to write, right? If anything, I would think it was improved. Of course, if more details are requested, I will provide them, but whatever. In the meantime, I'll start the smaller magazine queries. I need to think about what my "goal" is. Is it to be published? Yes, I would like to see my name in print. Is it to make money? Okay, I confess, I have always wanted to be paid for my writing. If nothing else, it gives me validation. Pretty much anyone can write something – that's a hobby. Once you get paid, it becomes a career. The other problem I have is impatience. I know that the first few times I submit, I have about a 95% chance of being rejected. That's fine. What I would like is to save myself some pain and submit to several places at the same time (called simultaneous submitting). Some places allow that, others don't. Right now, I have one story simultaneously submitted to two markets. I would like to find a third, but I'll have to be happy with two, I suppose. If I get rejected (and there's always a chance that I'll be snapped up the first time around, don't you think?), then I will begin submitting to some other places that do NOT allow simultaneous submissions. I'll just keep it in the mail constantly until something gets grabbed up. In the mean time, if I prepare one story a month (that's one hour a day of work * 5 days a week * 4 weeks a month = 20 hours of work per story, is that it?) and keep submitting it, then I'll eventually have several items out there. So am I going to write short stories the rest of my published life? Will I ever move to a novel? I would like to see that happen, but quite frankly I'm not sure I have the creativity (or the motivation) to move through an entire novel. I can't think of a story that would sustain it. "Natasha" (name needs work, I know) is the closest I can come, and I still cast strange eyes at it. First, there's that whole climax-drop-continue that bugs me. Second, even if I can make it work, I'm not sure that it pulls together, or is interesting enough for someone to read. Honestly, I'm not even sure which genre I'm in. I would like to do more science fiction (read: some sci-fi) because that is a medium in which I have a lot of external knowledge (I have a degree in astrophysics), as well as one I enjoy. I'm a Criton/Koontz sci-fi person, not a Trekkie or anything). But I can't seem to come up with good, viable ideas in regards to that. I hope that this brainstorming session will help me out, will make a difference. |
| I have a few lingering questions that I need to solve before I can start. For instance, I am trying to figure out this trip. Were they traveling? Were they injured at home? I have also decided not to post my novel on-line, for a whole slew of reasons. The primary one is that I am seeking publication – or will be, eventually – and that posting on-line decreases those chances. When I post on-line, I am giving away the electronic rights, which means if a publisher wants to buy "all" rights, they can't, even if I have set it up so that only Wannabe can view it. In fact, I have been leaning away from Writing.com since I made this discovery, which is sort of sad (especially since I paid for a one year upgraded membership). The down side is that I have not been replacing my "writing.com" writing time with "real" writing time, which I need to do. Part of that is because I am seeking to fulfill this challenege, which takes about 20 minutes a day (and will soon become thirty minutes). I am a stay at home mom with a two and a half year old and a one year old, so I get nap time only to do my writing. The rest of the time, the kids are hounding me constantly. Don't get me wrong, I love being a SAHM, it just means I only get a few minutes for myself. I am thinking about dropping this challenge as a whole, which makes me sad, because at least I am writing. On the other hand, I am thinking about using this as a journal. I have heard a lot of writers (okay, read a lot of writers) that say you should do a stream of conscious "journal" to get your juices flowing. Well, perhaps I can do that with the DWC and then move over to the short story or novel that I am working on (or will be working on). I won't do that tonight, however. I'm afraid I have used up all my writing time today. They had a Quantum Leap session on yesterday and I Tivoed it (Tivo is my new toy, by the way, very excited about it), so I watched three different episodes today to clear off my hard drive. Messed up, I know. But I'm glad I went there. I just remembered that I Tivoed "The Ring" and wanted to videotape it. That was a good movie, but VERY scary. I rented it awhile ago. I was hoping that it wouldn't be so creepy the second time around, but my husband and I started watching it on Friday night at 10 and it creeped me out in the first three minutes that I knew I wouldn't get to sleep if I watched the whole thing, so I made him stop it. Five minutes of it, and two nights later (Sunday) I was so creeped out I wanted to cover the television in the bedroom. <shudder> Anyway, I am taping it now, while we sleep. I can't watch it this late. Maybe next week, when the kids are gone and we can start at 8 or something. Anyway, I now have a plan. I have two stories that I am going to work on. The first one is already written. I need to re-read it, revise it, then type it. I wrote it for Creative Writing in college and the professor – a man not liberal with praise, a man who told two students in front of the class two weeks in "I don't know why you are still here when you are definitely getting an 'F' " (not the best teaching approach, but he is NOT liberal with praise – told me I should look to get it published. Perhaps I will take my one hour a day and spend it on the upgrade. Once that is finished and submitted, I will begin a second story. This one also draws somewhat from life – somehow, all my non-prompt stories seem to – and an episode from high school. Once I have devloped a market for the first story and began submitting it, I will start working on the second one. What I really need is to take one prompt a day and write it off-line. Maybe the Writer's Cramp, maybe elsewhere. I have several stories that I wrote for contests that I thought were pretty good. I would love to try to show them around but the whole "electronic rights" thing worries me. Perhaps I can pull a few other ideas out. The biggest problem I'm faced with is reasearch, in my opinion (well, that and inspiration, LOL). My local library has about three magazines. How can that be, in Atlanta, you ask? Beats me. I just don't have the dough to shell out to Borders and such to buy these magazines (or pay for sample copies, shudder), and I hate to submit sight unseen. It's bad form, for one thing. I would love to haul my hinney to the bookstore and read (maybe have a cup of cocoa, LOL) but the kids make that somewhat tough. Perhaps I can work out a solution of sorts. |
| Would you believe I almost neglected the last day of the challenge? I just forgot, things have been so busy around here. Today I'd like to chat a bit about the clergy in the church. Do you realize that almost the entire LDS clergy is unpaid? Almost everyone, from the bishop to the maintenance workers, has an outside job or source of income. Virtually no one gets paid for their positions or their work in the church (I say 'virtually' because it is my understanding that the Prophet and others in the very-high-up positions who are performing their work 24/7 *do* receive a paycheck; however, that is maybe 100 people out of the 5 million or so members of the church, those with the heaviest responsibilities). I find it amazing as I receive different callings in the church that this is so. I have never had some of the higher-pressure positions, such as relief society president (head of the women's organization) or bishop, but the callings I have had require time and effort. I think the most demanding was that of a Primary teacher. I taught the 10 and 11 year old girls their Sunday school lesson each week. If you have ever been around kids, you know how demanding that can be. I recently "subbed" for someone in the Relief Society presidency who had to be out of town due to a death in the family, taking over a portion of her responsibilities as they related to my current calling, and let me tell you, if that is only a small part, I cannot imagine the rest! Even more interesting are those positions of bishop or stake president, those who must oversee the needs and cares of an entire ward or stake. I cannot imagine juggling those responsibilities along with a family and a full-time job. So you ask, why do Mormons do such a silly thing? Why not just have paid clergy and part-time Sunday school teachers and be done with it? I suppose the simplest reason is found in what we call our "Articles of Faith", penned by Joseph Smith: "We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof." In plain English, we do not believe that a man (or woman) has the authority to call themselves as bishop or teacher. This is the Lord's church, and things are done in an orderly manner. The person in the position above – in the case of the ward, the Bishop and his councilors; when a new Bishop is to be called, the Stake Presidency is involved, etc – pray about a calling and are inspired to fill it. They then come to the person (or people, if needed) and ask them if they will accept the calling to serve as xyz. No person can stand and say "I feel like I should be Sunday school teacher" or "I think I am ready to be bishop". If such were the case, each Bishop would go off and start his or her own church. Confusion would ensue as each person taught doctrine that they believe to be correct. We believe that each person, again, from Prophet to maintenance worker, has the opportunity to be inspired in their calling. Teachers have the right to seek help from above. We should turn to and rely on God in all things. Please do not think that I am naysaying members of other religions, people who have gone to school for years to study to become a minister. In many ways, these people are more prepared, I am sure, for the pressures that ensure. On the other hand, I sort of see the Lord encouraging us all – after all, He may call one of us to be in an "important" position, and we should all be spiritually ready. Why *should* the person leading the church be more knowledgeable than we are about the scriptures? Shouldn't each of us be studying and familiar with God's laws and commands, His mercy and love? Each calling, too, has many blessings that come with it. As a teacher, I learned far more about the scriptures and interacted with people that I probably wouldn't have. I had to prepare myself [word count: 725] for the questions of pre-teen girls, and those can be fairly random. My studying became even more in-depth as I tried to prepare for my class, and though I felt somewhat pressured (i.e., a sense of responsibility, I had obligations and couldn't do "whatever I wanted"), I also grew a lot. The Lord doesn't just help those who stand up and say "I am ready, Lord!" to grow. He knows better than we do when we need to be doing something, and quite often, He will find the calling that best helps us, along with helping others. Let's not forget, either, Christ's mandate to serve. Each calling is an opportunity to serve the Lord and our fellow man. One of the most important callings is shared by everyone who attends church; that of home or visiting teacher (home if you are a man, visiting if you are a woman, please don't ask me why!). Each member receives a list of people (from two to ten, depending on the ward size) to visit with monthly. It is our responsibility to share a spiritual lesson with them, to see if they need any help, and basically to visit and befriend them. Earlier I said that Primary teacher was my most demanding calling, but I think it really has been my visiting teaching. I have met some wonderful women that I don't think I would have known otherwise, and developed some great friendships as a result of it. I hope that I have touched their lives, as well, and made it better; I think I have. At best, I try to be someone who listens to their problems and helps when possible. The Lord knows where He needs us, and quite often He uses our callings to get us there. Some callings have more responsibility, more stress, than others; some are "higher profile" than others. All are important, just as, to our Heavenly Father, each person here on Earth is important. |
| Forgive me, but today I'm going to go on a journalistic rant. Getting fairly common, isn't it? The problem is, I have been drafted into composing a script by Sunday, and I have a fairly limited time to do so. I have to do a lot of research (of course I lack a printer) and I was thinking I would use the 30 mts a day I usually take for my writing to do the research, at least, and then possibly to write the script. This is what happened. In my church, each member has a calling because we have no lay clergy. Each member has a church responsibility. Sometimes they are large, sometimes smaller, but each one is important. My calling is in the Enrichment Committee. Once a month, the Relief Society (women's organization) has an activity that is basically for women only. It's a class, or maybe a dinner, etc. So of course there is a committee to come up with ideas for Enrichment night, and to plan out the activities. I'm not in charge of the committee (thank goodness) but the woman who is has been out of town for about a month due to a death in the family. Many of the other (not all, mind you, but several) members are very non-volunteering. I tend to overcompensate. For instance, if fliers need to be made. When Michelle (the head) is here, she asks, "Will someone volunteer to make fliers?" Loooooong silence. "Anyone?" So I wait a few more minutes, then volunteer. Next month, we came up with an awesome idea (I thought). March is the Relief Society's birthday, and rather than celebrate with someone standing up in the front of the room reciting facts (boring) I thought we could find some creative members of the ward to pretend to be women at different points in time. They could act in character, and it would be fun. "Well, we need a script," was determined. "Who wants to do the script? Anyone?" Long silence. "I guess I'll do it." I think I'm going to start remaining silent. I'm going to talk to Michelle, too, and see if she will be okay if I *stop* volunteering. I'll do a couple of things – I have the spiritual thought, which means I give a 15 minute lesson every month, I do the announcement fliers (which, I confess, is kind of fun; I use Powerpoint to do it). I think that's a pretty steady commitment from me and I won't be lazy if I stop. As for the script, I think would I would rather do is give each woman a list of information from the internet and let them put together their own skit. It's more of a "stay-in-character" deal. Plus I think they'll be more comfortable that way. I need to send out an email request for anyone who would be willing to volunteer to do such a thing. Hopefully we'll get some folks who don't mind. I could maybe highlight a few main points. Heck, I'll probably wind up writing a script or a monologue. If I do, I'll post each one here. That'll make up my DWC this week. On the other side, I had a long hard day yesterday and was looking forward to putting the children to bed and taking a bubble bath. The kids were down when I get a phone call from my mom, looking for the genealogy her grandmother paid to have done. Did I know where it is? It turned out that my brother (13) has a family tree project due today that he hadn't started. He needed names and dates all the way back to his great-great grandparents. Well, lucky for him I've been bitten by the genealogy bug and have all branches of my family back that far and beyond. The down side is that he is (technically) my half-brother, [650 words] so I haven't done any research AT ALL on his dad. I didn't even know what year his father was born in (luckily my mom did). Anyway, I had my brother's paternal grandparents names and the birthdate of his grandfather. From that, in 45 minutes, I was able to find what was most likely my brother's great-grandparents and great-great grandparents. I couldn't get any birth marriage or death dates, but at least he had names. I also had no information on the women; that takes time. He's known about this for weeks, and if he'd asked I'd have at least pointed him in the right direction but he didn't even tell my mom about it until last night. Oh, and then he was like "I need more info than this!"!! It was 11 at night! What is up with being lazy, anyway? And now that I've been lazy on my DWC I've got to get some research done. Sorry for being so slack! |
| Let's discuss Joseph, Natasha's father, today. He is Harriet's twin. Did we pick a birthday for the two of them? April, I believe, but we never gave them a date. How about the 12th? Okay, no joke, I already gave them the 12th as their birthday. I guess that was just supposed to be "it". Kinda funny, in a strange way. We decided that one parent died of disease, let's call it cancer. Something that is quick and sudden. This happened when the kids were twelve. Then the other – maybe the dad, a tragic irony – "loved too much" and just sort of gave up hope. I need a reasonable death here, maybe a traffic accident. Ah, the tragic irony. He just didn't "care" enough any more, and while it wasn't suicide he just wasn't as alert as he should have/could have been. So his death is similar to Joseph's, yet different. So would that be reasonable? Joseph lost his father and was orphaned because of this 'giving up'; would he do the same thing to Natasha? Shoot, maybe we should be more simplistic; their mom died at birth, their dad of a heart attack. That sounds more reasonable and more realistic, but where did Joseph and Harriet get their 'love too much'-ism from? Their deceased mom? And their father would shake his head, smile sadly and say "you kids are so passionate, just like your mother." Well of course they want some connection with her so they developed that "passion", and they were bound even closer when they were orphaned. Joseph isn't a thoughtless person, quite the contrary. He is a hard worker, very determined. When he sets a goal or a priority, he follows through. But he is also very passionate, very emotionally attached. So how does he get attached to Cynthia? Cynthia grew up in the orphanage. Joseph and Harriet arrived at age twelve. Both were emotionally drained, having sobbed passionately for days on end. The counselors don't seem to be able to help, they cling to each other all the time and never leave each other's sight except when pretty much forced to. And Harriet is Cynthia's roommate. There's the connection. Joseph gets up in the morning and comes in search of his sister. The girls have left their room (no boys allowed, after all) and Cynthia practically forced Harriet down to the cafeteria for breakfast, assuring her that's where she'll find her brother. Joseph, of course, sneaks up to the bedroom anyway but doesn't find Harriet; then comes down to the cafeteria and there she is. Of course Cynthia is immediately taken by him ("Your brother is cute!" she whispers to Harriet while Joseph got his food) but he isn't really interested in her – at first. However, the three start spending more and more time together. First, Cynthia is being a good friend to Harriet and trying to help her adjust, etc. Then, as time goes on – we're talking a year or two, call it 16 – Joseph starts to notice the blond girl and then the two of them spend more time together, always inviting Harriet. As the chemistry changes, Harriet grows more uncomfortable and starts avoiding the two (tough, since one is her roommate and maybe? even confides in her?). This is where Chuck comes in. When Chuck turns 18 and Harriet is only a month away, they bolt. How does this make Joseph feel? First, Joseph is angry. He figures that she'll come back, but apparently she is the stronger one here (plus events turn her around and get her caught). He comes to accept it, but always with remorse, and her name is still mentioned, even to Natasha, who never gets the full details of why they don't [word count: 625] see Harriet. Joseph leaves first, then Cynthia maybe six months later (so her birthday would be Octoberish?). Once she is out, he proposes. He goes to college on a scholarship (though he has some money from his parent's estate) and becomes – what? An accountant? A passionate accountant? Why not. Cynthia, on the other hand, is obsessed with making sure they make enough money, to cover up the fact that her whole life was spent dirt poor. Maybe she's a doctor. Wouldn't that be ironic. Particularly if they went to the hospital where she worked. What kind of a doctor? Let's make her a pediatrician, she likes to make kids happy after having been so miserable. |
| I really enjoyed writing about Chuck, the guy who never even shows up for the novel yet has a huge impact. I'm going to do it again for Hank, Eric's father. I would say he is definitely an important non-character (though he's more likely to make a brief appearance than Chuck) just because he shapes Eric so much. As said, Eric's mother (another important non-character) runs off. Are his parents even married? Well, Josh's aren't (though I guess Harriet could always take back her name after the divorce) so I guess for the sake of variety I'll make Eric's be married (though it may be easier if they are not). Why did they get married? Because they were pregnant? I just hate to make the quintessential "bad" stereotype. Maybe they were "in love". But Hank drinks a lot, and the more he drank the angrier he got. In fact, we could make him a nice-guy-turned-jerk; that is, he was okay and there were "happy times" until he was injured at work (he works in the factory) and the "fancy schmancy" lawyers got out of paying him big time ("we coulda been rich!"), so he just gets a small disability check. Did he hurt his leg or his arm? Let's call it his leg because that way he can still swing his arm freely. We don't want to stop the abuse. First he started beating his wife, Margaret. Margaret and Hank (I keep calling him Chuck), doesn't that just ring? But he's very proud of his boy, so he never hits him. Margaret tries to leave several times and Hank catches her, brings her home and beats the crap out of her. His main reason? "You can't take my boy!" He starts following Eric everywhere, picking him up from school, figuring Margaret won't leave without him. And finally, figuring that with such a devoted father (and deciding "the heck with it, I've got to get out of here before he kills me") Eric will be fine, safe, and unbeaten, she leaves. Immediately Hank blames it on Eric. "You little brat! Your mother was always talking about how she couldn’t stand you! That's why she left!" And since Eric is barely 5, he believes that. This rejection becomes a total issue for Eric. So basically, Hank was once a decent guy. Not great, maybe he had a little bit of a temper, but not terrible. Then comes his accident, no money, and his wife (Margaret) works as a waitress and is making crummy tips (all her fault, of course). His bad temper gets worse and leads to blows. Does he have something to redeem him? Does he really love his son? Or did he just want a son? I think he really does love him, just like he loved his wife, his temper is just out of control. Maybe he's not bone-breaking abusive, maybe just heavy on the spankings when he loses his temper – and he loses it often. He worries about having no money, no house, he worries about losing his son. The worse Eric does, the angrier Hank gets and the more he ends up driving him away. And I could see Eric beating his father up as a step towards violence. Wouldn't it be a kicker if he beat up his dad and then moved in with Josh? Poor Natasha. But that would be sort of helpful, too, as everything draws to a head. [word count: 575] |
| If you have ever had a Mormon friend get married, or driven past a beautiful building, you may be wondering about Mormon temples. The temple is different from our regular Sunday meetinghouse in a variety of different ways, not the least of which is appearance. While the meetinghouses are fairly functional and even utilitarian in design, the temples are some of the most beautiful buildings that I have ever seen. What is the purpose of the temples? The simple, one-lined answer is that the temples are built to bind families together for eternity. Inside these buildings, sacred ordinances are performed, most specifically marriage. In conventional wedding ceremonies, husband and wife are joined "until death do you part." The marriage contract ends when one partner or the other passes on. Inside the temples, the Lord's servants have the power that "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" (Matthew 18:18); that is, the marriage will last for time and all eternity, assuming both partners keep the covenants and promises they have made. Because of the solemnity of the marriage covenant, Mormons are urged to be very serious about taking their vows, and divorce from a temple marriage is very rare (generally in cases of abuse, neglect, or adultery). Imagine how the divorce rate would decline in America if each man and woman had to stand in the Lord's presence both during their wedding and during their divorce! Once a man and woman are sealed in the temple, any children they have within that marriage are automatically sealed to them, as part of the covenant. The church has a large number of converts, people who were not born Mormon. Many of them are already married to one another "until death" but long to be together with their families forever. Thus temples are not just places for marriage but for sealings; those who are already married to one another can be sealed as husband and wife, and parents to their children. Any children born after the sealing are automatically bound to the family for eternity; the family does not need to return to the temple for each child. One of the things that first drew me to the church was the fact that people are judged only on what they know. The general Christian concept that those who have not been taught about Christ while alive on the earth are automatically damned has always bothered me, especially since that encompasses about 99.9% of the people who have ever lived. How, I wondered, could a just and loving God do that to the majority of His children? After all, according to contemporary Christian teachings, that means all of the great heroes of the Old Testament are damned (though Mormons believe that the prophets knew and taught of Christ; see Isaiah). The LDS Church teaches that you are judged based on what you know. If you grew up in the darkest African jungles and never learned about Jesus but you lived a good life based on what you were taught, we believe you will be judged accordingly. Once you die, you will have the opportunity to be taught about Christ. At that point, if you choose to accept His teachings, then you will be, for all intents and purposes, "saved". Please [word count: 550] note, this is not a case of doing whatever you want and then claiming Christ but of complete ignorance. Christ taught that certain ordinances, such as baptism, must be performed in order to enter heaven. Yet those who were untaught obviously never performed such ordinances. In the temples, members do work by proxy for those who have passed on. Thus, members do "baptisms for the dead" (see 1 Corinthians 15:29) and sealing work for their ancestors in the temples. It should be noted that, except in special circumstances, the members do work for their ancestors only. It should also be noted that we never act counter to free will; I can do the work for my great-great grandmother but it is up to her whether or not she accepts the teachings. Basically, the purpose of the temples is to knit families together for all eternity. God gave us a wonderful source of love in our own homes, whether through parents, children, or both. Why would he want us to spend all of eternity without those we cherish most? He wouldn't. A kind and loving father would keep us together as a family forever. |
| I'll detail the two minor, nonexistant characters next. First Chuck, Josh's father. Chuck isn't a bad guy, but he's not a great character, either. He met Harriet when and where? Was it before or after she left the orphanage? Shoot, I don't even know where the orphanage *was*!! Somewhere in California. There's a question to be answered. I love Outlook; I've been posting my questions as I come across them, since I don't want to leave the subject like I am doing now. Anyway, Chuck. Heck, why not stick him in the orphanage, too? Not a bad plan. Joseph finds Harriet, and in despair/trauma/wackoness she turns to Chuck. That kind of makes sense; she leaps into the first relationship she can find. So now I have to develop this whole persona around a guy who has lost his parents young. Shoot, we could have him kill his parents; is that a possibility? He would wind up in a totally different place for that. Maybe he does so inadvertantly; he's playing with fire and burns the house down. Make him about five or six. He knocks over a candle, sets the curtains on fire, and doesn't tell anyone because he doesn't want to get in trouble. He goes outside to get away from the "bad" fire but his parents are searching for him and wind up dying of smoke inhilation. Boom, no more parents and a severe guilt complex. As a reaction, he refuses responsibility for that and then casts off responsibility for anything. Thus he's a bad student (not responsible for his grades, it's his teachers' fault) and then later he's not good with the whole job thing (his bosses' fault for firing him). Harriet starts hanging out with poor Chuck when Joseph begins following Cynthia everywhere. Once the first two start actually doing things together – studying, going to the movies, etc – they invite Harriet but she says "no thanks, I have plans with Chuck" and flounces off. In fact, that's how they hook up. It's mostly a revenge relationship, sort of a rebound deal. Can you rebound from your brother? Well, something like that. When Joseph proposes to Cynthia (wow, there's something to work out), Harriet runs off with Chuck. She pretty much drags him off again, but that's really her fault. How in the world does she convince Chuck? He would fall for a "let's blow this joint" type excuse. They're a few months away from their 18th birthday anyway, so no one really looks around for them. When is Harriet and Joseph's birthday? Perhaps in April, they seem like spring chickens. How about April 12th.? In my calender now. They run away in March; I don't know when Chuck's birthday is. Maybe they leave on his birthday. Do they get married? No because Harriet has her last name. They move to wherever this story takes place (still don't know that, I guess I should come up with it soon; small town?) and get a job. They seem like the pick-a-dot-on-the-map people so maybe they choose at random. How do they get an apartment or a house? Oh, he turned 18 and he [word count: 525] had whatever money he had; when she turns 18 she gets her share, too. She puts her money down – he has an excuse for not using his, don't know why, maybe he puts it on the car? – and boom, they have a house. Then she gets pregnant, he gets scared and runs off. |
| It has been a long day, and I am tired, so I am going to basically do a stream of conscious entry and hope you will understand and forgive me. I will try to go for my story but right now my husband is watching "Pelican Brief" and my daughter is throwing pizza on the floor and my son is wandering around with buffalo wings in his mouth. Natasha is going to move in and do a slow adjustment. She's going from a loving family home with two parents where she is slightly spoiled. Not spoiled rotten, just slightly spoiled by two parents who were orphaned and so tried to make things up to her both materially and with love. They didn't try to buy her off, they just tried to provide everything they possibly could. Natasha grew up in a nice environment, middle class, maybe upper-middle. Harriet is more of the lower class, on a tighter budget. What happens to Natasha's money? Of course it goes into a trust but wouldn't Harriet have access to it? Why wouldn't she use it? Okay, no will means the money goes into a trust until she turns 18 – that's that. The social security checks go to Harriet (from both parents) but that's it. So that will help a little with the finances. How does Harriet take that? On the one hand she's glad because now there is less stress, less financial tension. On the other hand, she feels guilt for being glad, because that's "blood" money, money she gets because her brother is dead. In the third place, she feels resentful that she needs/welcomes money from anyone to get by. She's grown independent and somewhat prideful since she stopped depending 100% on her brother. Once she felt an emotional dependency but that was severed when he left with Cynthia. She does a total about-face. Let's describe Harriet's home. After all, this is where Natasha is going to be spending about half her time. I have problems here. Natasha needs her own bedroom, otherwise there's no way she could escape from Eric. Yet why would Harriet buy a three bedroom house? Could Harriet and Natasha share a bedroom? That also seems awkward. I just can't tell myself why she bought a three bedroom. Unless…. Let's say that Harriet and Josh's father were still together when the house was bought. Let's say Harriet was hoping for another child – a daughter, specifically, would bring more intrigue to the story. Promises of a bright and happy tomorrow. Then he leaves her – did we come up with a name? I don't think we did for Josh's dad. Let's call him Chuck. And Hank was Eric's dad. Hank and Chuck. Great set of names. So why does Chuck leave? Shoot, do I have to do a character sketch of a guy who never shows up? I do, because he affects Harriet and Josh both. The long story short is that he is the exact opposite of Joseph, pretty [word count:500] much a ne'er-do-well. Irresponsible where Josh was responsible, that's the primary one. Heck, let's make him blond, though Josh inherited Harriet's darkeness. |
| Harriet needs more development. I was laying in bed, trying to think of what her purpose is in the novel. In the beginning (read: first twelve drafts) she was mostly just the "adult" that would keep Natasha out of the orphanage. She had about two key actions: she picked Natasha up from the hospital and she died. Poor woman, she just gets so neglected! The more I thought about this, however, the more I realized how totally unrealistic that is. There are several things I am left wondering about, the most important is how she feels about Natasha. Sure, Joseph's death would lead her somewhat toward a reconciliation but not all the way. After all, her reasons for running were fairly juvenile – she didn't like her brother's new wife, she felt abandoned, etc. The more I thought about this, however, the more I realized that this is probably her "tragic flaw". That is, she loves too much and expects the same devotion in return. Not only that, but perhaps it is a family trait. In one early draft I had Joseph kill himself because his wife was dead, but that doesn't sit well with me now. After all, he has a daughter, a "continuation." But perhaps I can develop Harriet's feelings toward Natasha by that post-trauma reaction. For instance, Cynthia dies immediately. Natasha is briefly comatose – perhaps he thinks she is dead? Perhaps not. Harriet rushes to the hospital to console her brother, and patch things up. However, when she lets it slip that Cynthia is dead, Joseph gives up. He doesn't actively pursue suicide, he just feels he has no reason for living anymore. Now Harriet has been rejected twice by the twin brother she loves the most, and once depended upon for everything. In the orphanage, it was just the two of them, toughing it out and getting through it. Joseph was her "strength". Then Cynthia came along, and the devotion he had toward his sister waned as he fell in love. Harriet feels utterly rejected, although both try to include her. She wants things to go back to "the way they used to be". (The only question is, isn't it girls who usually develop faster emotionally? Why is she stunted? Did she see her parents die? Something traumatic that would have stunted her?) So twice-rejected Harriet takes Natasha in and feels ambivalent. On the one hand, this is the daughter of her dearly-loved brother. On the other, it is the daughter of the woman she most despises. How does that play out, especially since I don't want to paint Harriet as awful, just confused? Well, Harriet is rarely around, anyway, but when she is, she has a love/hate relationship with Natasha. Even in the same moment, she can go from being horrible to being apologetic (I'm sorry! You're Joseph's daughter and look[word count: 475] how I'm treating you!) and crying. Perhaps sometimes she ignores Natasha completely. I can't wait 'til we have a longer word count. I could keep going but, I don't know. I'm having more fun developing than writing – I haven't even started writing yet! Soon, soon. |
| I posted in the novel forum and the general feel was that it's not the cliché, it's what you do with it. I think as long as I develop Eric sufficiently I should be okay. What I'd like to do now is go over the temporal aspects of the story. I was thinking of setting up a calender in MS Office. I can set appointments for key events – when Natasha goes home from the hospital, when she meets Jared, etc. – so that I don't have only three days pass or I can correctly "remember". One of my original worries was that if I save it with my current calender (because I use MS Office), someone might call the cops when they see I've scheduled "rob convenience store; kill Danny" or "burn Harriet's house down". Do you think the cops would believe me if I told them it was for a novel? My luck says that a woman named Harriet will have her house burned down that same day. To solve this "problem" I decided to plan the novel in 2010, a nice easy number to remember. I'd better have this novel finished by then or I'll be really upset. For now, I'd like to figure out birthdays and ages of my key characters. The novel starts Memorial Day of 2010. At that point, Natasha is 15 years old (I decided to have that "sweet 16" birthday after the fact, something that I think I actually did originally). Leisha and Jared will be holding her birthday party, so I want her birthday a few months after they meet. Enough time has to pass that they become close friends. On the other hand, she could have a miserable 16th birthday not long after her parents die, which would sharply contrast with the next year. I almost like that better, and then her age is quickly established. Plus then we don't have a 15 year old protagonist, which is almost too young. Okay, so Natasha's birthday is going to be a few weeks after she gets out of the hospital. How long is she in the hospital for? She doesn't have severe injuries, so maybe a week? The wreck was Sunday night (29th of August); that's her parent's death date and one she will remember for a long time. I don't know, I want her to have some medical problems but I don't know enough about them to be accurate. Would a head injury keep her there for awhile but still allow her to be healthy? Perhaps if they did a "just in case" check. Could she have a head injury but no broken bones? I don't want her to be in a [word count: 450] cast, she'd never get away from Eric. I think if she's wearing her seatbelt that would be plausible, though I'm not completely sure *how* she'd get the injury. Anyway, let's keep her, say, two weeks to be sure. She could even be slightly comatose. So she's released – and moves in with Harriet – on the 9th, a Thursday, but she won't start school until Monday. That gives her some time to settle in. Do I really need the numbers? Probably not. |
| Let's talk a little more about Eric, especially his family. Abusive father, and his mother ran off. That's a nice little twist and provides some variety, eh? Perhaps he is "stealing under pressure" – his father tells him "I don't care how you get money, just get it!" How old was he when his mother left? Maybe five – old enough to remember her but young enough to still think she was "perfect". Of course, if I do that, he could have "rejection issues" – Natasha reminding him of his mother, etc. Especially if she ran off with someone, but we won't be that point blank. I can understand her leaving – the abusive husband beats her – but why doesn't she take her son? Perhaps at that point the father (need a name – George? No, that sounds too much like all the J names we've got going [I picked the J names waaaay before J-Lo, FYI!]. How about Henry? Or Hank? I like Henry and would like to save that for a "nice" character), anyway, Hank was beating his son. Maybe he even "loved and respected" him. Could he be a good ball-playing dad up to that point? Except of course for the alcoholic and abusive parts. Then, once the mom (Laura?) leaves, he blames Eric ("Your mom couldn't stand you, ya little brat!") and begins beating him. Thus, Eric is twice rejected and totally messed up. Would it be logical then to pursue Natasha just because she rejected him? I'm not much of a shrink but it seems that it would be. Would it be too obvious or too "trite"? Maybe I'll ask on the novel chop shop forum. I don't want to be cliché, I just want to be logical. Of course, his obsession grows and grows. On the other hand, we could nix the obsession part and just have him pursue her totally for revenge, once he is arrested. But I think that would take a lot of tension from the novel. But hasn't Eric ever been rejected before? Surely he couldn't have made it all the way to age 21 sans rejection. Perhaps he has, and has always issued "payback". Not often, of course; he's handsome, and has cultivated the whole James Dean "bad boy" image. But a few times would make sense. Perhaps I should build a case history on him, a history of rejection. Start with the first grade with some hair-cutting or paint-dumping, and go from there. Of course, he dropped out of school – how old was he then? Maybe fifteen? Does [word count: 425] he have a part-time job? He's got to be doing something. There aren't so many "gas-pumping" jobs any more, and a mechanic is something of a cliché. Does he even have a car? |
| Gripe, gripe, another publishing gripe. What do you do when you can't find a market for your short story? I found one but I thought I'd try simaltaneously submitting it to five places. At present, I've only found a second. I guess I need to actually write a short story, eh? Still, I've read some pretty good ones while doing my market research. I just need to do a bit more writing. At present, it seems like the DWC is all I'm doing, but of course I've been chopping my "story" from almost 7000 words down to 5K. Of course my second market would have taken the 7K but I didn't save it unchopped – why not? I don't know. And of course I already tossed my printed version. Hmmm…I emailed it to my husband; I wonder if he still has it in his files? Well, I just emailed him, so keep your fingers crossed. Who do we talk about today? Let's talk about Eric; he's pretty important to this story. I guess you could say he's the "bad guy". He's a friend of Josh's, not a nice guy, who takes a liking towards Natasha. Why? Well, first because she's pretty. Second, because she rejects him; I guess he doesn't take rejection well. He's not exactly sane, but is this whole obsession thing really evolve because of that? I think if I legitimize it, then it would make sense. For instance: first he makes some "nice" comments to Natasha when they meet. She responds by putting him off – after all, her parents just died and she's fairly traumatized (he'd make a smart/insensitive comment about how she was "lucky"). He keeps pushing for a date? Is a date what he wants? I suppose it's a good start, but he can make his little veiled comments, too. He thinks he's superman or something, so Natasha's rejection doesn't make sense. Plus he humiliates him in front of his friends – they can laugh at him, that would fuel his rage. (Where's Danny during all this? Not laughing, maybe trying to cool him down?) So did Eric grow up like Josh, single working mom? Was he orphaned? Does he ever mention his family? He surely doesn't care about them. Abusive father, maybe? He dropped out of school. He steals to "make" money but doesn't usually kill for it, just with Danny. Did he kill the clerk [word count: 400] too, then Danny to cover it up? In fact, maybe instead of a date, the whole thing goes wrong, Eric shoots the clerk, then Danny tries to stop him and gets shot. |
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