In Celebration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzL4L_FpLvE&feature=player_embedded

50,000 Words!!

5/31/2010

9:00 AM EDT

Memorial Day

Thanks,

For all those actions taken for the sake of freedom.

It is time to come home

To safe harbor.
Landing gear down,

On short final,

Mere hundreds of words to go...

Happy Memorial Day!

May 30

Every day's a holiday!

Always a good time for celebration.

Two days left for 3,000 more words.

Woo Woo!

May 29

Ever so slowly a picture comes into focus.

Like a mist over water,

Once the sun rises,

The wind springs up and the mist moves off,

Leaving what you were looking at all along.

A Barn??

Couldn't it be a serrated knife instead?

Why does this novel have a barn in it?

May 28

Only four more days remain for writing, counting today!

This month the story is better,

the words more practiced,

the characters loveable,

but still no plot!

No Plot? No Problem!

Four more days to fix it...

Here is where the deus ex machina saves the day.

FULL FLOWER MOON

MAY 27, 2010

Last night, thinking we were alone watching the moon rise,

the woods came to life in celebration.

Ooooh!

COYOTES!

May 26

Greetings on this happy couple's 60th Wedding Anniversary!

May 25

The characters have reached a standoff.

It is the fourth week.

It's only 500 words short and I'll

likely catch up today.

But what to do about this denoument?

May 24

Orange azalea outside the house


A new perspective in orange

The environment is of utmost importance in the development of a cell. And since we are made of cells, the environment has a great impact on us too. We live in an environment that is the place behind and below the heart, where cells do a happy dance. Try it, you'll like it.

May 23

There's something about a stairway leading into a dark place.

It usually doesn't say,

Home again, home again,

Jiggity jig.

May 22

The firetower on Harney Peak

My back hurts from all the self congratulations for:

1.) Successfully reaching the summit

2.) Posting daily on this blog

3.) Driving almost 1,000 miles in a week

4.) Almost keeping up with the writing having no internet

5.) Caulking the gutter where patched and leaking

Libraries are great.

WIFI at McDonalds is handy.

Jet Blue is the best.

May 21

Hiking Harney Peak.

Lots of Mojo, if you follow that sort of thing.

Foggy, like a brain at high altitude.

Sunbursts, like an optic disk on hallucinogens.

Cooler than seasonal temperatures.

Perfect.

May 20

It was not a dark and stormy night.

It was windy, what a surprise!

The bluffs are "lovely, dark and deep

And I have promises to keep".

May 19

Sometimes it's easier to be a witness to the action.
Sometimes it's more fun to be the action itself.

May 18

Making a souffle is not so different from writing a novel.
The requirements include good ingredients,

the proper mixing, basic chemistry,

and the ability to resist looking into the oven until the time is right.

May 17

For a yoga student with an admitted 2 inch vertical leap,
And upper body strength of a sardine,
The aerial yoga teacher has her work cut out for her.

May 16

A pilot learns never to fly under a cloud like this that greeted me from Denver.

And then there was hail.

And then there were cars off the road.

What a surprising welcome to the west.

The writing may suffer, but maybe not.

May 15

Looking for the picture of the stained glass in Notre Dame,

I came across these irises with the boathouse in the background.

Now where is Notre Dame hiding?

And should it matter that all my digital pictures are disappearing?

May 14

Reading list for fiction I've read more than once:

Colette, Cheri and The Last of Cheri

Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities

Laurell K. Hamilton, Narcissus in Chains

Pamela Kaufman, Shield of Three Lions

Ken Kesey, Sometimes a Great Notion
Fritz Leiber, Swords in the Mist

Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

William Shakespeare, The Tempest

What is on the current book stand:

May 13

For some reason the topic of revulsion has come up. Now why couldn't it be bliss or delight or any of the wonderful topics? Mystery? Adventure? Grandeur? Everyone knows revulsion. It's not necessary to experience it again. So, go away, revulsion, repugnance, disgust.

Vitarka bhadane pratipaksha bhavanam.

"When disturbed by negative thoughts, opposite (positive) ones should be thought of."

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Translation by Sri Swami Satchidananda

Perhaps a ditty to occupy the mind:

Allons enfants...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqZ4GQ5ZPME

May 12

Windy again. It's odd that the second week of writing in a new venture is the most difficult. Same as last month. The characters mill about. I want to slap them, throw them over a short cliff, but, stopping short of electrodes and torture, attribute the feeling to the incessant wind.

May 11

Yesterday one of the characters went for a hike on Pleasant Mountain. It was a beautiful day, windy, cool for the season at 45 degrees, no black flies, no mosquitoes. At the summit, the view of distant Mt. Washington showed more snow at the top than the week before. Keeping the faith that the blueberry blossoms will not freeze, and will produce a bountiful crop, our heroine was satisfied to drink her Blueberry Pomegranate Gatoraide while hiding behind the wind screen of her backpack.

May 10

My favorite part of writing occurs at the end of the day when the chart gets completed. Colored pencils, and a tally of the words is always satisfying.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

Took a walk at dawn, heard a wood thrush.

It was perfect day for the first perfume of a lilac.

I've always loved corsages, and was tempted by the neighbor's.

Last night was prom night.

Another neighbor had a pre-dance photography party at their dock.

It was cold, rainy and the girls in their formals looked chilly but beautiful.

This is how I'd have looked if I had gone to the dance.

Plus a corsage.

If wishes were fishes, the sea would be full.

May 8

The wind has blown for two days now. Unlike Nebraska or Wyoming where it has been blowing for two months. But still. It drives me crazy. This morning I took pictures of blooming trees in the back tree nursery before all their blossoms blow away. Didn't write until this evening and was surprised there was no mention of trees in the novel.

May 7

- -A leafy fern shadow-

The novel has something to do with shadows,

Red shoes,

Bee stings,

Chemists concocting portals to find the King in Hiding,

Trustworthiness, kindness and strength.

May 6

When I get around to it, I will;

make plane reservations to go west,

climb Harney Peak,

get conditioned to climb to 14,000 feet,

balance the checkbook,

clean the basement,

stay flexible with yoga practice,

learn chapter three of the Yoga Sutras,

rewrite the Trust,

review the biochemistry, physiology and anatomy of the brain,

perform a fire ceremony.

Uh, oh...

Now it's in writing. It must be true. Dang!

Cinco de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Doesn't Dos Equis sound good today?
Or Margueritas?

Or even a mariachi band?

May 4

Kishong Village, Cameroon, Africa,

Playing in orange dirt,

Future novelist.

May 3

If you didn't get it the first time,

Follow me.

No, follow me!

May 2

The idea is to get to the heart of the matter,

Laughing all the way.

Rabbit Rabbit! Happy May Day!

Here we go again.

That was so much fun in April, all the characters wanted another try in May; Frankie the Fish, Bhairavi the Betrayer, Chauncey the Orphanator, and Henry the Ever Clever.

So there's a few changes to the layout, but the writing rules remain the same. As a reminder, they are as follows (from No Plot? No Problem!, by Chris Baty) :
1) No can'ts.
2) It doesn't have to be good.
3) Delete nothing.
4) Rewards and treats are mandatory
5) It is a completely new venture
6) Word padding is encouraged
7) Borrow liberally from the lives of surrounding people
8) No exerpt sharing
9) No sharing of writing duties
10)The writer does no dishwashing or floor mopping during the month of May

Since there are 31 days to the month, the goal is 1613 words a day. The anticipated May Word Count is included. The intention for me this month is to finish with a plot worth rereading. Bon voyage! And goob luck with those May baskets.