Weekend Workshop/Discussion

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 7 Comments

This might be more of a discussion than workshop but I recently read Stephen King’s On Writing and I noted down a million and one things he said and I want to talk about them a little at a time.

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut. (145)

This makes perfect sense to me. Whether you read good prose or bad, fiction or non, you are learning the skill, the art, the process, as you read. This cannot help but transfer to the words you write. And the more you write the better you must get from sheer practice.

10, 000 hours=mastery.

You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you. (146)

I’m not sure about this one. Mainly because I think what sweeps one person away irritates another.  Just because you are swept off your feet by a sparkly day glow vampire stalker doesn’t mean I won’t drive a stake through his heart first chance I get.

If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write. Simple as that. (147)

Ok but….

The sort of strenuous reading and writing program I advocate – four to six hours a day, every day (150)

And here is where he loses me. So if I can’t find four-six hours a day to read and write I am not a writer. Or I don’t have the tools to be a writer? Isn’t that a bit rigid? Who says I have to do the 10, 000 hours in one year? If it takes me five years, am I any less a master? Or maybe this just rubs me the wrong way because it’s an impossibility for me now in this place in my life and I don’t want to give up my efforts because I can’t meet his impossible guidelines.

Thoughts on how much time one should devote to reading and writing to be a writer? Do you think reading is an key aspect of writing?

Fiendish Friday: Gibbs Rules

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 8 Comments

Did you miss this little gem on my blog during April? I kind of did. There’s something refreshing about going through your week looking for moments to make fun of yourself so you can amuse others with them. While I’m in Hawaii sunning myself, I give you Gibbs rules.

I’ve been a fan of NCIS a long time. I kind of had a crush on Mark Harmon back from the movie Presidio. “You can have her, she’s dangerous.” Said with a sexy sneer. Anyway I digress…

Frequently on NCIS they refer to Gibbs Rules. But it’s not like the spout them off routinely or often enough for you to catch it when they oops. And of course they aren’t written down on the show, that would be too easy. Clearly the writers for the show didn’t bother to write them down either because this is what I found when I did write them down. (Yes, I wrote down every Gibbs rule when it was mentioned for 12 seasons.)

1.Don’t screw over your  partner. (wise) 1b. Don’t let suspects stay together. (duh)

Yep there are two rule ones. They actually get around to making fun of that in season 12.

2. Always wear gloves at a crime scene. (reasonable)

3. Don’t believe what you are told, double check. 3b. Never be unreachable. (raises eyebrow)

Again in Season 12 they mention 3 is a double rule. Perhaps they got a continuity editor in Season 12? LOL

4. One can keep a secret. Two if absolutely necessary. (I’ve heard this only works if the second person is dead.)

5. Don’t waste good. (Fab advice.)

6. Never say you’re sorry, it’s a sign of weakness. ( a little weakness is a positive thing, keeps you human.)

7. Always be specific when you lie. (I write for a living, no problem there.)

8. Never assume. 8b. Never take anything for granted. (even Gibbs rules?)

9. Never go anywhere without your  knife. (er, airport anyone?)

10. Never get personally involved on a case. (bwahahahah.)

11. When the job is done walk away. (sound advice)

12. Never date a co worker. (but it makes work such fun)

13. Never involve a lawyer. (lol – no comment)

14. Bend the line, don’t break it. (god were the show writers giving themselves advice?)

15. We work as a team. (sure you do Gibbs)

16. If someone thinks they have the upper hand, break it. (you’d need a lawyer then)

18. Better to seek forgiveness, than ask permission. (I used to work with a guy who bought into this.)

20. Always look under. (under what?)

22. Never bother Gibbs in interrogation.

23. Never mess with a Marine’s coffee. (never mess with anyone’s coffee)

35. Always watch the watchers. (creepy but wise)

36. If you feel like you’re being played, you probably are. (spidey senses working over time)

38. Your case, your lead.

39. There’s no such thing as a coincidence. (I beg to differ)

40. If it seems like someone is after you, they are. (ditto spidey)

42. Never accept an apology from someone who just sucker punched you. (ROFL)

44. First things first, hide the women and children. (Ok so Gibbs is a bit of a chauvinist)

45. Second chances.

51. Sometimes you’re wrong.

61. Give people space when getting off the elevator. (perhaps a Gibbs headslap would help my kiddo learn this.)

69. Never trust a woman who doesn’t trust her man. (Amen.)

 

Predictive Goals Update

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

Still on vaca with the family. So here’s a little goals update (ha-ha) and some predictions regarding those goals…

Days spent in the pool: 9

Days spent in the ocean: 3

Drinks consumed per day on average: 2 (alcoholic and fruity)

Books read: 7 (including my own)

Words written: 12K

massages: 3

yoga: daily

Games of Dominion played: shoot me now levels.

Be home sooner or later. Miss you. Wish you were here. The lounger next to me is open on deck 12…just bring me a drink eh?

Book Review: Title Withheld

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

No, I didn’t read a book called Title Withheld, but I wanted to give you the set up before I named the book. So work with me here…

I take my kiddo and my friend’s three kiddos to the library where we are set to meet up with said friend and then go to the pool. Oldest kiddo has research to do so he goes over to one side of the library to get those books. Sits down at a table there. The other three flock to the library pc to play educational computer games(all three have their own kindles and PC access, so they could play the same games at home but something about the library just makes PBS kids so enticing). I find books for me, some for what I want to school the kiddo in the upcoming week, grab one for the hubby, and then take up a position near the front door with eye lines on both sets of kids and to watch for the friend. There I stand. sigh. I wait. I wait some more. I finally step two or three steps to the left and glance down at the “Reader’s Choice” shelf. There I see it. The most ridiculous book ever.

You know what’s coming right? I pick it up. I start to read. I am laughing out loud in the library. My friend arrives 18 pages later. I quickly check it out. Shove it in my bag before anyone sees me. I continue to laugh out loud every where I read the damn book for days.

The book is FUNNY. It makes fun of the actor. It makes fun of hollywood. It makes fun of the film industry. It makes fun of the awards system. Yes, he used a collaborator. But seriously, I don’t even care. It was hysterical.  And to top it all off, it’s a choose your own autobiography. Yep, he wrote multiple paths describing where you could have done things differently than he did. He dies a lot. Er, well, you die a lot?

So while I don’t like the actor any better than I did before. Not that I disliked him, he was just non existent in my world. Now I think he’s funny. And I even went to netflix and added his most recent show to my instant queue. I might even watch it some day. LOL

℘℘℘℘℘ – Five Pages. Ok I didn’t read it one sitting, but it was funny enough I got over my embarrassment and read it in public and I added the show to my netflix queue. I’ll tell you the name of the book if you promise not to tell anyone…promise? No, I mean really promise. Uncross your fingers. No take backs.

Neil Patrick Harris Choose Your Own Autobiography

PS. I’m still in Hawaii so go ahead and make fun of me…nah nah nah nah

Weekend Workshop – Nano To Publish

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

The Nano to Publish workshop happened in April even though I was busy posting for the A to Z Challenge. We talked mostly about how to find beta readers and what kind of readers we should be looking for.

First thing to consider, writers will give you write it better feedback. They might even give you feedback that focuses on how they would have written the novel. This is marginally beneficial. Another set of eyes is always good but don’t get all writer feedback on your beta, that’s what your critique partner is for.

Get readers for your beta. Ie, People who READ. In a perfect world you’d have two who read your genre and at least one who doesn’t. Readers tell you how they as a reader experienced your novel and that’s ultimately your focus.

You also need at least one eagle eyed, anal retentive line editor to catch every oops. Every double space, wrong punctuation, misspelling, incorrect word choice, etc.

I also spent a bit of time talking about your mom. Your Spouse. Your best friend.

They all love you. Ergo their feedback is less useful. Why? Because they will like your book because you wrote it. And even if they honestly think its the best thing ever, will you believe them, give the whole love thing? And if they do hate it, and they’re honest, how will that effect the relationship long term? Think carefully before using this avenue.

So where to find these bastions of honest virtue? Well if you have a blog, you can try asking for readers there. Your followers already like your style. At least a couple of them might like to read something longer from you.

How much beta do you like as a writer? Do you use the same readers every time? Where do you find them? Inquiring minds want to know.

Raw Friday

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 13 Comments

No fiendish humor today just raw honesty. I was really grateful for the A to Z Challenge in April, I had a lot going on and it was nice to have that all taken care of. Then things got real.

My hubby woke up one Monday morning having lost the ability to see out of his right eye.

I’ll give that a minute to sink in.

He called the advice nurse who told him to go to the ER. We have a smallish kiddo so I dropped the hubs at the hospital door and drove on to the coop. Gotta maintain for the kiddo. The kiddo went to classes and I taught, conversed on coop business, and arranged play dates as though all was well.

All was not well.

Saw a specialist on Tuesday and turns out he as a branch retinal artery occlusion. The vision loss is permanent and luckily not a total in his right eye, he has peripheral vision. The not well part is this is not based in the eye, it has a cause in someone as young as my hubs and the list of possibilities run the gambit from the obscure and practically impossible in my hubs: sickle cell, to the grim and deadly: leukemia, lymphoma, blood clots in his neck, heart, or lungs, lupus…the list goes on to a stack 1/4 inch thick of pages.

More tests.

More waiting.

More time.

More fear. More fear. More fear.

And then finally, it was all ok. Total random occurrence. They can’t find anything wrong with him. All the results are normal. He can resume his life.

We’re on a cruise in Hawaii right now. Amazing how much dearer these family times become when you just almost lost your family.

Wednesday No Cafe 5/4

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

ALOHA!

The family is away for vacation for the next bit. I’m taking a much needed break from the real world to relax, work on my tan, and dabble in my spy novel. I know I’m working on vacation but I have a lot going on these days and if I didn’t take advantage of 11 days of child care my son loves to work on my spy novel I would be a bad, bad author.

So while I burn lean muscle mass coming up with fun ways to get my favorite spies into deep trouble and then back out of it again, you can sit back and enjoy a variety of pre-scheduled posts. On the plus side I’m doing a bunch of reading while gone as well and you can look forward to some new books reviews and accompanying author interviews when I return.

-aloha nui

Book Review: The 5th Wave

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 5 Comments

I have to be honest, this is not my usual type of book. It’s not. It’s YA. It’s dystopian. There’s a love affair between human and non human. It’s whiny, in parts. But for all that The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey is pretty kick ass.

I started it yesterday. Finished it this afternoon and still did everything I was supposed to do, play dates, home schooling, dishes, laundry, etc. So that pins it as pretty fascinating.

I don’t want to give too much away. But in case you haven’t heard of it, seen the movie trailer, or have been living under a rock…Aliens have come to planet earth and they want the extinction of the human race, so they can have our planet to themselves. They’ve thought ahead and came up with a few different ideas on how to kill us off and been very effective so far.

The majority of this book focuses on Cassie’s promise to her brother that she would come for him, say 60%. There are also substantial chapters from the point of view a male human who is taken to a military base and trained as a solider in response to the alien invasion. Say another 30% on him. The rest…I’ll leave for you to find out.

The book is fun. The book does twist. The twists are predictable, however. But they still please like that walk through the woods I’ve taken a million times and still enjoy because the path, while totally known to me, is still enjoyable to experience.

I liked the multiple points of view. I found Cassie’s incessant poor me mental diatribe a bit wearing at times. But the other characters were intriguing. I wanted to know more about them. In fact, I already logged on to the library and got in line for the second book in the trilogy.

℘℘℘℘℘ -Solid five pages, part of me wants to say six but I did actually put the book down while reading it and I’m not on my way to the library, not that it would do me any good since the wait lists for this series are obscene. Ok let’s compromise and say five and a half. LOL.

Quick update: I got and read The Infinite Sea before this post even came out. So much better than the first one. Yes I know I have the Fifth Wave five pages, Infinite Sea gets 6. Very little Cassie, a lot more of awesome characters introduced but not focused on in the first book. In line for the third one. Cannot wait. In fact when I saw I was 251 in line, I actually said, if this doesn’t kick in before vacation, I’m buying it on Kindle for the trip.

My little man turns seven today

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 3 Comments

and in the time honored tradition of this blog (ok I did it last year so that makes this year a tradition right?) I present to you seven things that amaze me about my son.

  1. He is open about how he feels. Whether you are his best friend and he loves you sooo much or you’ve hurt his feelings and he doesn’t want to play with you right now, he’s open, honest, and vocal about it.
  2. We’re in southern California. We’ve just spent two really great days at Legoland. We have most of a third day to do whatever we like. I offer another amusement park. To which my son says “no, I need a quiet day. Can we go play mini golf?” Knowing what you need and being able to vocalize it, priceless.
  3. Despite his youth, he is already a more adept and efficient traveler than many adults we encounter who don’t understand “laptop in separate bin.” Lol. There’s the kiddo swinging his backpack into a bin, pushing it onto the conveyor, and going through the scanner without breaking stride.
  4. Compassion. He really wanted to go on this tower ride, AGAIN. I told him I didn’t want to go but he’s six and pretty bent on going with Mommy this time. So we go, it’s horrible and when we get off he tells me that I ruined it. I remind him I didn’t want to go and tell him I’m afraid of heights. He takes my hand and says “That’s OK mommy, I won’t tell any of your friends.” Compassion.
  5. Everybody loves him. Everyone. And that makes me look good. Enough said.
  6. For his birthday he asked for donations to Make a Wish and Foster Kids.
  7. If it were not for him, I would not be a writer.

Another year of great experiences to come…

Z is for Zip, Zing, Zow

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 5 Comments

Norwescon was a mixed bag, but then life is really. So a quick post for the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good: so many interesting topics I struggle to pick which panel or event to go to in a given hour, which in some ways was also the bad. There were numerous hours where I wanted four panels. Yes, some of that was due to my having a varied interest but some of the seemed like awkward scheduling. Take Friday at 11: So You’ve Finished a First Draft (how to edit), Catching Reader Hook, Line, and Sinker (how to write a great first page), Beta Better (how to give good beta), The Reader & Writer Pact (writing for your readers), and Single Combat for Writers: Creating Believable Violence. That’s five classes for writers all in the same hour.

The bad: stayed Zin the hotel. Oh dear god was it loud, ALL night long. I will stay elsewhere within walking distance next time.

The ugly: It’s never a pretty thing when a panelist introduces themselves and then immediately says I don’t know why I am on this panel.

Moving on…..

I loved meeting different authors, interacting with them, getting unique points of view. Heck, having a few things driven into my head with repetition. I found time to go to a few readings this year which enabled me to find new amazing authors to read, so woot for that. I hesitate to say I made new friends but I definitely made possibilities for new friendships. And that is what it is all about for me, the endless possibilities
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