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This blog keeps me in touch with WDC. Jamesdillingham.com keeps me in touch elsewhere. |
| I like to stay in touch with WDC, even when I'm not contributing on a daily basis. My main blog is at jamesdillingham.blogspot.com |
| Well, for those of you that know me, you know I have entered a short story in the SFWC writing contest. I had a lot of help from members of WDC and because of that, the story is way better than I could have done on my own. Anyway, I just received notification that my short story is one of the finalists for the competition. I am very excited. Thanks again to everyone for their help and support. Jim |
| I am really getting frustrated with the Republican party. I was a member up until about a month ago although I have behaved like a Democrat for years. After Obama's speech, I listened the the GOP response and it was just blather. Here is a typical example of how the GOP is the same person as Rush Limbaugh. According to CNN, $56 million of Recovery Act money is being spend on the Wine Train in Napa Valley California. The GOP, after exhaustive research, placed this in spot #11 on the most wasteful projects. The name alone suggests that the money is being spent to fund a Wine Valley train excursion. When CNN investigated, they found none of the money is being spent to help the train. The money is being used to create flood controls for the Napa Valley. Every few years this place floods and causes hundred of millions of dollars in damage. This work will prevent that while creating 200 new jobs in the process. part of the project required that the train tracks for the Wine Train be raised in one certain location so they can do their flood damage work. Because of this, the GOP grabbed this project, knowingly withheld information about the project's actual purpose and presented it to you to make the case that the Democrats are doing a bad job. My problems with this? First, they are lying to us which puts them in my trash can right off the top. Secondly, they are trying to do something we teach out kids not to do. They are trying to make themselves appear better, not by doing a better job, but by trying to lower your perception of the job being done by their competition. If they are willing to do this once, they are willing to do it over and over and over. Jim |
| I am thinking of changing my Blog title to "Notes from an airport". Today I am in Atlanta waiting for a connection to Memphis. I really like Memphis. They have a festival called Memphis in May. They have the Civil Rights Museum (a must see) and they have a Popeyes Chicken conveniently located just off of the freeway near the airport. I am not political...or at least there was a time when I wasn't. I heard Castro and Chavez (Cuba and Venezuela) complaining about the American Occupation of Haiti. They question why we sent soldiers. I think the answer is obvious ... we want to take over the vast riches of the people while they are dealing with some trivial travesty. At first I couldn't believe someone would try to put such a negative spin on such a positive intent - then I remembered...us. Obama goes to Europe to mend fences and the Republicans call it an Apology Tour. Obama asks students to give him ways to help and the Republicans say he is trying to brainwash our youth. Obama want's better medical care and the Republicans call him a socialist. Let's face it, as soon as taxpayer money is used to fill a pothole...we are all socialists if you lower the bar enough. I am now officially an Ex-Republican. Not that I am a big fan of Nancy Pelosi ... I mean the Democrats. Nor am I a fan of pushing through a health care plan by completely ignoring the minority voice (GOP in this case). In the end, Chavez, Castro and all of our elected officials have the same priorities. (1) stay in power (2) get rid of the competition and (3 if they get around to it) govern fairly. Alas... There was time when the best and brightest of our youth aspired to be president. Now, if my son became a politician, I would wonder where I went wrong. In the end, I am an Obama fan. I am simply because he seems to want to do the right thing and I have yet to catch him with any "low blows" like those from the Limboughs and Becks of the world. When he does that, I will rechoose. |
| I recently wrote a short story entitled Trail of Smiles. I know, kind of corny, but it came to me so I wrote it. In the end, it is probably one of my favorite stories. Not because I am such a great writer. It is one of my favorites because it has bits and pieces of some of my favorite people on WDC. You see, I wrote this story for a contest in the upcoming San Francisco Writer's Conference next month. I am attending the conference in hopes of landing an agent for my book (best outcome) or at least making some contacts. Winning this contest would essentially create a short cut to an agent. So it is important to me. I wrote the story and then sent out several requests to my friends on WDC. They are (in no particular order) NickiD89  Annie  Annette  LJPC - the tortoise anastasia beyverhausen  They are not the only ones that read and reviewed my story. They however, were the ones that answered my call for help. Each of them took time from their busy schedules to help out a guy they only know through words. They not only read my story, but provided line by line help. Here is some of their types of comments: Over use of a certain word Be careful of adverbs That word is too strong - find another I want to know what the girl looks like What does the workplace look like There are a couple of logic flaws Be very careful of tenses Grammar and more grammar. I look back at my first draft and can only shake my head. What an amateur I am. Now, I read the final version and I love it. It is not my story any more. It is our story Thanks to all of them and all of the others not mentioned here. Cheers, Jim |
| I have written a story, Trail of Smiles, for a writing contest at the San Francisco's Writers Conference which meets this February. The winner in each category is recognized in front of the entire convention which includes agents and such. Winning this can be a very big deal. So, I sent out special requests for help to several different WDC members. All have either already responded with a review or indicated they would soon. Each review I have received so reflects the unique specialty or preference of each reviewer. They all have given me very different takes on what would make the story better. In every case, I take what I like and leave the rest. The exception is grammar. I always take advice on grammar. The resulting story is one of the best that I/we have written. It is WAY better than my first draft and all of that is due to the input of my fellow writers. I will mention them by name soon. Jim |
| I have decided to enter the writing conference's writing contest. I am taking 8 hours today to write my story. We'll see what I come up with. J |
| I am in Budapest visiting my wife for the holidays. Since I only see her about 2 weeks out of every 8, she gets most of my attention. This puts writing on the back burning. I sneak away and write something every now and then. She likes me to write but not at her expense. I made two Kindle books (electronic) and posted them on Amazon. I tried to give them away but Amazon makes me charge. I sell them for the minimum of 2.99, of which, I get 1.05. I typically make about $10 a month. Not worth writing home about - I was just testing the market. Anyway, I have made $3.15 in two days. I guess this means lot of people got new Kindles for Christmas. Happy holidays to everyone! Jim |
| I fly off to Budapest today to see my wife. I will be there for 2 weeks. Hopefully there will be time to do some writing. |
| Someone suggested I write a blog entry about the photo of my dog and me. His name is Bozley. He is a Bouvier des Flandras or Belgium Cattle Dog. In this photo, he is probably 4 years old (six now). He is the third dog of this breed that I have owned. My grandfather had one about 35 years ago. He followed that up with another of the same breed. I got my first one 20 years ago. His name was Bear and lived to be nearly 13 which is old for such big dogs (125 lbs). I had a female Bovier named Sadie. Boz is number three. All of them have the same personality. The are large, calm, smart and very strong. I was laying on top of one once when the doorbell rang. He tossed me off like I was a rag doll. These dogs would rather sleep than fight so long as you socialize them early. Bear got in a dog fight when he was about a year old. He spent the rest of his life looking at other dogs with a "You talkin to me" attitude. Boz, my current dog, is like Gandhi. He has been attacked several times, usually by little scared dogs. He simply sits down and waits it out. It's like "If you need to feel big and strong, go ahead. I can wait until you are done." At the same time, he does draw the line when he needs to. One time, a stranger came to the house while my wife was visiting from Hungary. Boz has this spooky deep growl and bark that freezes you when you hear it. He used that on this stranger and then moved to sit in front of my wife, clearly saying, "I will not allow you to get closer to my mom than this." Boz has a great sense of humor. He loves to hike and run but can just as easily sleep all day. Like all Bouviers, his idea of a perfect day is laying on the floor in the same room as me. If I move to another room, a couple of minutes later he will stroll in and flop down somewhere near. In the photo of us in my port, Boz and I, along with my 16 year old son, are geocaching. If you have never heard of this, go to www.geocaching.com. It is a lot of fun. Today I am sitting in the Denver airport. I have just gotten off of my 110th plane of the year and miles to go before I sleep. jim |
| Today I woke up in Wyoming, Michigan. This is a real place. I am here all week except for Wednesday when I make a 2 hour drive down to Oregon, Ohio and back. Yep, that is a real place as well. I am starting a new real-life-work project today. Time to meet a lot of new people. It's fun but a little stressful. The hardest part is I don't wear blue jeans on my first day. I have started entering the Daily Flash Fiction again. I was not boycotting it. I was just trying to focus on my novel. However, I found that the more immediate gratification I get from finishing a short story keeps me in the writing mood. So, the DFF challenge helps me with my novel. The San Francisco Writers Conference is in February. I am already registered. I hope to meet some potential agents during a 1-hour speed dating thing with agents. I get three minutes per agent. Any ideas on how to sell myself? Do agents know about WDC? They need to be convinced that what I write is something people will read. In 18 months on WDC, my stories have been viewed 16,600 times. That seems like a lot but maybe that is actually below normal. I have no way of knowing. Off to work. Jim |
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