Life in progress


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Rock-Star Writer

I feel like a rock-star sometimes.

Look at me here, with my happy-go-lucky lifestyle

Not a care in the world but

My laptop with my novel open

To the juicy bits – the personalities with

their fabulous lives and exciting drama

their ups and downs and their

…oh their endless passions

and love.

I’m a rock star.

My characters make me so.

Do you ever live vicariously through your characters? I’m thinking about my upcoming trip to Ottawa where I will go backstage at the National Arts Centre to see the dressing rooms and the back hallways where the stars meet. I’ll go on stage and look out at all the seats and maybe I’ll do a little dance.  But it’s not just the fact that my main character happens to be a performer. There’s so much more going on in his life than that; it’s only a facet of who he is.

My fictional characters go through their own lives with the dramas and fears and loves that I only wish I could experience. Sure, sometimes they are tortured by those very same things. But their stories are interesting – worth telling. Is my own life worth a tale? Sometimes, I suppose. But not like the lives of my characters. They live out loud, doing things I can only dream of having the opportunity to do.

I suppose all writers of fiction live, at times, in the imaginary world where their characters exist. A fantasy world, if you will, where not even the sky is the limit, and where unexpected things happen.

Once in a very rare while, I feel like I’m really there. And in a way my research will take me there. I’ll have my notepad and pen and my camera on hand to record the moment, but for the most part I’ll be living it.

Has it happened to you? I’d love to know.


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Trees Don’t Chew Anyway

Last week I wrote about The Tree Formerly Known As Nosehair and his first tooth. Unfortunately things aren’t going well for the poor little guy.

The day after I published the post linked above, I took this close-up picture of his wonderful, shiny new addition.

The "Tooth"

The “Tooth”

Now, however, his tooth is shriveling up and dying.

:(

😦

But what I really find amazing is that even from this angle, you can still see his face. Now that’s a tree with personality!


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One-Liner Wednesday – What’s Holding You Back?

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Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday, if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

The rules that I’ve made for myself for “One-Liner Wednesday” are as follows:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Make it either funny or inspirational.

Have fun!


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A Whale Of A Sale But It’s All True I Swear By My Tattoo

The third installment is out (finally – I’ve been on tenterhooks for this one) of Misha Burnett’s Book of Lost Doors series, and to celebrate, there’s a sale! Click on the original post for the links to pick up these fantastic novels!

MishaBurnett's avatarmishaburnett

CatskinnerSmall Click To Buy!

CannibalSmall Click To Buy!

To celebrate my launching of The Worms Of Heaven I am putting Catskinner’s Book and Cannibal Hearts on sale for 99 cents each this week.  In addition Catskinner’s Book will be featured on EReader News Today tomorrow, Wednesday the 3rd.

So we’ll see how this works.  I don’t often ask for reblogs, but I would appreciate it if you would see fit to help me spread the news.  With my third James & Catskinner novel I feel that I have an actual body of work.

Worms of Heaven by Misha Burnett Click To Buy!

I did what I set out to do, which is to create a new mythos, new monsters, new magic, a cosmology based on some fairly outre sources and my own imagination.  It’s been hard to get any traction since the world in my books is difficult to explain–I can’t really say that it’s “just like” anything else out…

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Grin-worthy Reviews…

Here’s a post that had me grinning! If you haven’t already met Steve, you certainly should take the opportunity now.

Steve Vernon's avatarYOURS IN STORYTELLING...

All right.

First off, let me tell you that writers LOVE to read reviews. Especially good ones. You have to understand that this is a business where you spend the majority of your time whispering to yourself in front of a computer screen.

All right, so some of you DON’T whisper to yourself – but I guarantee that you do your best writing all on your lonesome – thinking – REALLY LOUDLY – to yourself.

🙂

When I read a review I can picture somebody sitting on their favorite chair or on their back deck or on the bus or in the bathtub and reading my words – whispering to themselves the whole way through – and grinning.

It’s the grinning part that I like the best.

Let’s face it.

At the end of the day the thing that people remember the most about you is how you make them…

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An Unexpected Day – Tongue Firmly Planted in Cheek

Well! I got a nice surprise yesterday when I opened up an envelope that I received in the mail in, ohh, mid-July. I knew it contained the forms I had to fill out to send with Alex to school on the first day, and being who I am, I waited until the very last minute to have a gander. As it turns out, it wasn’t the last minute after all! Guess who had a “day off” on the very first day of school?

You guessed it!

So to celebrate, we went to the mall to buy shoes. … and rubber boots … and a baseball cap – all in Alex’s favourite, Spiderman!

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I drew the line at the Spiderman socks.


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He Said, She Said: Bloggers Edition #2.

An excellent idea for a blog post. Click on the original for some great quotes from other bloggers.

dynasticqueen's avatarManuscript. Head. Drawer.

HeSaidSheSaidST

“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”

— blogger Hart Helps, in blog post, Our Greatest Source of Unhappiness

“Oh wait, you asked me for the aspect [of writing] that interests me the most, right? That one is easy – I hang out with a really awesome bunch of imaginary friends almost all the time.”

— guest author Krishna Udayshankar, on Damyanti’s Daily (w)rite blog post, Have you read the Indian Game of Thrones?

“When we throw out or otherwise get rid of things we don’t need in our lives, it not only creates physical space for us to live, but it relieves the untidiness it occupies in our minds.”

— blogger Linda G. Hill, in her…

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Labour Day Indeed

It’s been a crazy day. I decided, finally, to do a garage sale. Unfortunately I didn’t get everything outside until 10:00am so I missed what might have been the morning rush. Final tally:

4 hours

8 dollars

1 crying kid (Alex wasn’t happy when we gave up waiting for the hoards of people he was expecting.)

I may try again next weekend, if I can get some help with the kids.

In other news, I’ve decided to re-release my “Second Seat on the Right” series on my fiction blog. It’s a series of scenes which take place in the second seat on the right side of a city bus. Written independently of each other, they often include repeat characters, each with their own ongoing story. The first one is published and an announcement will be made at the end of each when the next is scheduled.

Here’s a link to the first – hope you enjoy! http://lindaghillfiction.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/1-scenes-from-the-second-seat-on-the-right/


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Technology Sucks!

Incoming rant: be prepared to duck.

Why can’t they make computers that will last? Okay, fine, my desktop is four years old, and my son Chris is on it all the time. Almost. Today it started acting up. It has some sort of bug going on – whether it’s a virus or the hard drive is failing (which I think is the case) I’m not sure. But for an Autistic kid to deal with it’s the end of the world. I’ve spent most of this morning trying to fix the computer while Chris sits beside me beating his head with his fists and yelling.

All this after Alex came home yesterday to an infected laptop. Thank goodness I have Kaspersky on his machine – it cleaned it up quite well, though it took almost two hours to do it. It would work even better if it didn’t give him the choice when it detected an attack to go ahead and trust the virus or get out while the getting is good. He’s a very trusting little guy.

But it’s not only that the technology we use is so delicate which has me upset. Alex’s school has a great new program in which they’re using iPads to carry around in the community so they can communicate with hearing people. Wonderful, right? It would be if the school didn’t expect me to buy him an iPad. And I thought the expense of indoor shoes was bad enough!

And now Chris is asking me for a new computer. What I need is a car. A real one – not the 1993 puddle-jumping Tempo I inherited from my mother when the doctor took her license away in February. Wait, did I say technology? I suppose even the Flintstones thought their “cars” were technology. Anyway, the Tempo has taken to stalling every time I stop now… which I suppose is better than when it was zooming through stop signs no matter how hard I pressed on the brake.

Ugh!

End rant.

Seriously, I detest whining. I just had to get that off my chest. Thanks for reading.


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Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Ages (Can’t Keep ’em Separated)

Today is one of those rare days when I have no idea what I’m going to type. So I’ve decided to type into my thoughts rather than type what I’m already thinking.

The coffee is hot, the morning is pleasant as I sit at my kitchen table, watching the squirrels in my back yard search for places to hide their nuts. One, I see, has been in my flower pot. Ah well, the flower’s already dead.

I’m supposed to me talking about age. I remember a time when there was no way I’d have been content to just sit at the table and watch the squirrels. But we go through phases, don’t we? So energetic when we’re young. I consider myself lucky to still have energy – to be able to move with close to the ease I was able ten years ago, though the aches and pains seem to linger longer… linger longer. That’s just weird. Anyway, where was I?

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Fred, as crazy old Maurice from Beauty and the Beast

In four short days I’ll no longer have three teenagers – my eldest, Fred, turns twenty years old on the 2nd of September. That tiny little baby I used to hold and rock to sleep to the beat of heavy metal (he LOVED The Offspring’s Keep ‘Em Separated. With Chris it was anything Metallica, and Alex, well, he’s Deaf. As long as it had a beat…) now drags himself through the door at all hours of the morning after partying with his friends. Has much changed? Nah.

 

This was posted as part of SoCS. Find the rules at the click of the link and join in! https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-3014/

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions