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With coffee and writing implements at hand, I can determine the shape of today. |
| I tend to write in the morning. After morning coffee and writing comes whatever the day holds...work, more writing, family time, reading, maybe even some gaming. It just depends...but writing first, always. And once I start writing, I get an idea not only of what I'm writing about, but how the rest of my day will go. Hence, the shape of today. |
| Reading another WDC member's writing blog has gotten my pumped up to get to my own material again. I have this week's guild announcement to write (not a "real" writing gig, but one I enjoy and use to sharpen my skills), an idea for a submission for a contest here, a smattering of stories, the crown jewel, and an article or two. I grumble extensively about life getting in the way but truth be told, I need to discipline myself more. I can't do anything about life getting in the way, but when I'm sitting here and not else-wise occupied I can focus harder on what needs to be done. Reading the thoughts of that other writer (who seems to be a college student), I can see where I can make improvements to my own approach. None of these things, not even the guild announcement, are going to get written unless I bear down harder on myself. And a workday is headed down the pike toward me, so I'd better put a few minutes in on something this lovely morning... |
| I am blogging rather later in the day than is usual for me, but I'm waiting for some wild rice to finish cooking and don't want to get involved in anything too intense or distracting until it's done. So here are Friday afternoon developments: After more than a decade, I have removed the monitor stand/keyboard drawer combo from the desk. I got a new keyboard from Amazon this week (my old one was getting faded and grungy-looking) and took the opportunity to remove some clutter. The metal shelf/drawer dates from a time when monitors were much more cumbersome than they are now; even this twelve-year-old Dell monitor is not as clunky as the monitors the shelf was designed for. It sits a little lower since it's now just sitting on the desk surface, but that's not a problem. And the keyboard, though quite basic, feels wonderful. No more rattling! The aforementioned wild rice is to be part of a broccoli casserole recipe I haven't tried before; I wanted to try something different today. I'm going to try some modifications (why use an abomination like "Cheez Wiz" when you can use actual shredded cheese?) and I'm looking forward to the results. Rice is nearly done...time to head back to the kitchen! |
| Yesterday I began reading M. John Harrison's The Pastel City, which I recall Neil Gaiman recommending in The View from the Cheap Seats. This slim novel was written in 1971 and looks every bit of it, from the figure of a knight on the cover to the title's font that screams '70's. The protagonist, Lord tegus-Cromis, is already known to me from a short story by the author called "The Lamia and Lord Cromis" which I read many years ago. Harrison's hero is moody and his world bizarre...a fantasy civilization that has grown over the rubble of a prior technologically advanced one. And the writing is beautiful, which brings this world up nearly to Lovecraftian fever dream levels. It is a delight. Among my irons in the writing fire is one that I've been mulling over for a few days; an article on Weird Tales which seems to be dead again. Others have already written about the Unique Magazine's last incarnation and how it went sideways, but I fear it will get lost if someone doesn't try to resurrect it one more time. I don't entirely understand what happened there (someone of Marvin Kaye's caliber certainly should have been able to make the magazine thrive), but it would be a pity for it to slip into obscurity so close to its centennial. So I may dig into that. In the meantime, the workday beckons... |
| Little by little, I'm taking the steps in the right direction! When my tax refund (such as it is) finally cleared this week, I kept a promise to myself and took out a subscription to Asimov's. I had one many years ago but was forced to let it lapse for the usual financial reasons. However, I want to get an idea of what they're buying story-wise and there's really only one way to do that. I have been over their guidelines and I believe that I can produce something they'd like with my "Lab" series. I've already started writing one of these, deciding it's more important to get the story rolling and then shape it with the proper research and characters later on. It's a world that will need a bit of developing. I've been watching a lot of Neil Gaiman videos on writing; these seem to feed my desire to write even more strongly than Stephen King's writings on the subject. It's strange since I've been following King a lot longer, but I won't question it...I'll just run with it! Now, to the day's business. The kitchen is in severe need of a deep cleaning... |
| A peaceful Sunday morning; some showers passed through in the night and cooler weather will be around for a couple of days. The laundry has been started, and I'm contemplating today's project...which is actually a work project. I have been wanting to use Publisher to create a three-panel handout for some time, specifically exhorting patrons to make use of the "list" feature. Much about the catalog software is clunky and exasperating, but the "list" feature is great, especially if one is a fan of series like "A Song of Ice and Fire". One searches the catalog and finds books like A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings and so on, then places them in a list created for them. So when the time comes to read the next book in that favorite series, it's a cinch to put them on hold or find them in the local library. Someone went to the trouble and expense to include this in the catalog's software package, so the feature should certainly be utilized. There's more to this than simply sharing a great feature. The library's management is aware of my interest in creating this handout and have encouraged me to work on it. Also, I'm hoping that by doing so I can showcase my enthusiasm for creating library material in this fashion, and maybe one day become the "go-to" person for such projects. It's a feather I can put in my librarian hat that can serve me well in the future. Plus, it's fun. The one caveat is that I'm not supposed to be doing this on my own time, officially, since it's library "work". The only problem with that is that my "off the desk" time at work usually means shelving, shelf-reading, or some other project that is often interrupted by the ebb and flow of library peak times. So the plan is to get a portion of the handout created, then send it to my work email and pretend I've been working on it all along. Sssshhh, Writing.com. This is our little secret. |
| Though I didn't realize it yesterday, a significant anniversary was observed. A quarter of a century ago a swarm of tornadoes tore through my little corner of Georgia, leaving a lot of death and destruction in their wake. It later came to be known as the Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak, and it stands out in my mind to this day because I distinctly remember an Atlanta meteorologist pointing directly at the system on a map the night before the storms. At that time they were still in Alabama and still terrifying-looking on radar. Forecasting tech was nothing like it is today, but you could still see how dangerous those storms looked; a massive clump of orange, red, and fuchsia. I recall the following morning, March 27, as being hot and still. Dad told me, "We have bad weather on the way, let's stay close to home." And by lunchtime, there was no longer any doubt. The weather radio was howling and we could hear cries of alarm on the police scanner as the sheriff's department tried to get tourists on the town square to safety. My strongest memory is that of standing and looking out the office window at the backyard just as the first of the storms struck. It had grown as dark as twilight and the tree branches were whipping in the wind, but there was no sound. Even the thunder we'd been hearing earlier had died away. When the tornado hit, it did so to our north which was fortunate; this little wooden house would not have survived a direct hit. Wind slammed the kitchen door open and shut and Dad sent me to close the inner door--we'd just recently tiled the kitchen and he didn't want rainwater seeping between the tiles and loosening the adhesive. Just as I got to the door, however, I glimpsed the funnel cloud in the distance and an even stronger gust of wind rocked the house. I completely lost it, spinning around, fleeing through the house, and shouting "TO HELL WITH THE FLOOR!!!" It wasn't long after this that much of the county lost power and phone service, and it was days before we knew more than rumors regarding the damage and fatalities. Just here, on the western edge of the county, damage wasn't too bad. To the north and east was another story...my hairdresser and her family had kept horses and lost all of them along with their home. That part of the county literally looked like a war zone, with snapped-off trees scattered like dropped toothpicks. Wires draped over the highway made it impossible for Dad to drive his truck up to his brother's house (their home was also damaged but luckily no one was hurt). This experience left me shaken and easily spooked by thunderstorms for a long, long time. Eventually, I got over this fear. Eventually, after mourning the lost (5, in our county, there were 40 overall), people healed and rebuilt. Eventually, the savaged trees grew back. Because this after all is part of the rhythm of life. It grows, flourishes, gets cut down by some calamity or other, and grows anew. For my part, I'm thankful I was out of the scythe's path and am able to sit here today and remember. |
| For the first time in far too long, I'm seeing things clearly. I finally made my long-delayed trip to the eye doctor a week or two back, and yesterday I was able to trade in my poor, battered, rimless glasses for a nice new pair of metal-framed ones, with an updated prescription. The improvement was instantly apparent, as I left the eye doc's office and noticed how terribly my car needs to be washed. Since then I've noticed how many other things need doing...all kinds of cleaning around the house, the yard's a mess, and this desk is a whole other story. I suppose there's some deep, philosophical insight that can be drawn from being blind to one's own laziness and then suddenly having one's eyes "opened". Though to be fair, it is sometimes physical pain in addition to life's other demands that prevent me from doing all that needs doing. In any event, with a five-day break coming up, it's time I made a start. And try not to muss or break my nice new glasses in the process. |
| So, yes, starting the week off with a bang. Literally. At some point during the night I had a particularly vivid dream of an earthquake...don't remember many details other than another person was with me, and we threw ourselves down on the ground. I'm not sure who I was with, but we were out in the open and this seemed like the thing to do. And the rumbling/roaring went on and on. I recall feeling very odd about it, but sleep (already screwed up because of DST) took precedence and I turned over and dozed off. Then came this morning, and me sipping coffee and browsing my social media feed. And on a local FB page, the news that much of the county had been awakened in the wee hours by a very loud explosion of some sort. We had no thunderstorms last night and I don't even think an exploding meth lab could account for the wide range this was heard over. Possibly it was a sonic boom or something caused by the Rangers doing their training. Or perhaps...it was something unexpected. When I tried to go to the Walmart shopping center to pay the phone bill this morning, I found the entrance blocked by the sheriff's department. Now granted...granted...the parking lot is being re-paved and I saw some construction barrels and equipment before turning away. So that's probably why the parking lot was blocked. Probably. But because it's Monday and I'm feeling silly, I jumped on the FB thread and started a rumor that a UFO crashed in the parking lot. Because somebody's going to be silly enough to run with that. Yes, indeed, this week is going to be productive!!! Now excuse me while I go mail my phone bill...  |
| I don't think I've mentioned my alarm clock yet. It's someone who either lives on this highway or else makes it a part of his daily commute. And I commit the dreadful politically incorrect impiety of assuming his gender because his vehicle sounds like someone's hot rod. It might just be a dying or dead muffler, but either way we can hear that thing approaching a good ten seconds before it actually passes the house. Which it does. Every weekday morning at 6 AM. Dad thinks he might have a job in a chickenhouse, but he could also be in one of the remaining factories in the area. Whatever it is, he clearly punches a clock and does so consistently, so he's got reliability going for him. Because of the situation here at home I'm usually awake by 6 anyway...it's gotten programmed into me. But if I'm snoozing longer than usual, I can rely on my alarm clock to go blatting past at sixish and rouse me. I choose to view this with amusement rather than exasperation, because it's a funny detail I might be able to use one day in a tale. |
| Made it to Thursday! Of course, the week is far from over...I have my "late" shift today, off tomorrow but with a plethora of errands to attend to, then work Saturday. It seems another round of rain is moving our way, which does not bode well for the literary festival tomorrow and Saturday. However, one of the local churches is hosting all the events so perhaps festival-goers will not be deterred much. The real star of the week for me is...a squirrel. The little fellow was hanging outside the library Tuesday, and found a large chunk of sub roll that someone had left out for the birds. He proceeded to bring it up the tree right outside the office window, and made quite an amusing picture snacking on a treat that was larger than himself. We all stopped working long enough to take pics with our phones, though my own picture was not as good as the one my co-worker took. I thought of my Peekaboo and her endless quest to catch a squirrel...she might have had some luck if she'd seen this guy; he must have been waddling by the time he finished. He finally took the remainder back down the tree and bounced off...not sure if he buried it or not. We didn't see him yesterday...he must have been sleeping it off. The only squirreliness was on the part of the patrons, who were much more random and needy than usual. Must be the weather. |
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