Miss Spelling

Is it just me, or does anyone else get a kick out of beating spellcheck? I'm not the world's greatest speller (ask anyone who has had to crit my stuff) and those little red dots under so many words is always annoying. A lot of the time, rather than having the Word dictionary fix a misspelled word, I'll try out different variations until the little dots disappear. Just a smidgen of satisfaction in a busy day.

Maybe I should get a hobby.

On this date: In 1932, Radio City Music Hall opened.

Waiting for the Big Guy

As of right now, Santa is in Virginia and we're tracking him on the Internet.


Just shows that no matter how old they get or how cool the presents are...they always end up in the box.

On this date: In 1809, Kit Carson was born.

Magic

Did you ever get to a point where any morsel of good news from someone else (no matter how wonderful and deserving the person) rubs on your heart like sandpaper until you feel like there's only a raw nub left inside? Did you ever get to the point where you looked up from the computer at all of the real, actual, published books on your shelf and say to yourself "Who am I kidding?" Did you ever read someone else's amazing first line and throw yourself on your bed in a fit of despair because you'll never write anything that good?

And then, did you ever start reading the chapter that you wrote late last night and you come across a sentence is so right and true and perfect where it is that you have to smile because you absolutely don't remember writing it? And then you put your cursor to the end of the word "faster" because that is where you left off and just let your fingers start typing whatever comes next. Did you ever do that? Because it's magic.

On this date: In 1949 two of the three Bee Gees were born.

Muddling Through The Middle

I haven't been saying much about the new book lately because I'm doing what I always end up doing when I'm writing - wandering around at 33,000 words until I figure out what's going to happen next. I switched a few scenes around to make the character arc work better and as soon as I smooth out the rest, I'll be back to staring at the blinking cursor and trying to figure out what is going to happen to Lucy now. I think I know the ending, I just have to get there.

Also, my freelance work kicked back in - which is good, but I'm crazy busy right now and counting the hours until the kids are home for a full two weeks with nothing to do (it's 17 1/2 hours, but who's counting). So, in a nutshell, my 1k per day is temporarily kaput. But not for long....

Maybe next time I should try an outline.

On this date: In 1957, Elvis Presley is drafted.

True Love

Everyone should feel as much love as the Big Hairy Dog had for his bear.

Unfortunately, after this photo was taken, I threw him in the trash because really, what else are you gonna do?

On this date: In 1865, slavery is abolished in America.

Eclectic Reading

I know there are probably scores of publishing executives who sit around scratching their heads trying to figure out what kids are reading. I hope they never use my son as part of a focus group. Here is a sample of the books this ten year old checked out of the library last week:

Yes, among the choices are three books on the KKK, two on Adolph Hitler (he says he wants to know what makes people think like that), biographies of Stephen Spielberg, Magellan, Willie Mays, Ben Franklin and Wild Bill Hickock plus the 1950s series Little Pear. No wonder it is difficult to find him good Christmas presents.

On this date: In 1903, the Wright brothers made the first airplane flight.

Indoor Snow

It's been a tough couple of days, so instead of talking about writing, today we're going to talk about something that makes me happy: snowglobes.

If you know me well, you know that I have about a hundred (or two) snowglobes that I used to display until we ran out of room (ie: the kids got bigger and needed more space). Most of them are in storage until I can get that long-dreamed about office of my very own. I do keep a few out, mostly older ones like these:



and these:



But today, I found something that makes me really happy - a pop-up snowglobe. It is so cool.


On this date: In 1999 Charles M. Shultz retires.