Merry Christmas, Everyone...especially the dingbats of the world! A.K.A. "Stranger Danger"

I'm in Paducah, KY, visiting my sister and her family for Christmas. I love her house, a 80 year-old four-square with a fan-light window over the front door, a 20-step staircase leading up to the second floor, a big, teen-friendly basement, and a finished attic. I also love the family gathering...her kids come in from their respective colleges, my Uncle Albert drives in from Lubbock, TX. She and her husband are always so hospitable.

But, I don't always like to sit around and do nothing... Sister likes to do nothing, since she's been working so hard getting prepared for everyone. Yesterday, I talked her into driving back down I-24 to "Patti's 1880's Settlement." I always see the sign on the freeway for Patti's 1880's Settlement--a brown highway sign. Brown signs always mark some sort of scenic or historical attraction. I love to stop at these types of places, but it's so close to Paducah that I never have stopped--I usually reach Paducah after dark.

Yesterday, we drove over to see what we could see.

Patti's is actually a sort of tourist trap in Grand Rivers, KY. I understand that Patti's has a good restaurant, but it was closed--December 22-25. There were some antique and specialty shops open in Grand Rivers, however, so we had a good time looking around. Then we drove around looking at the sights--Green Turtle Bay Resort, Lighthouse Landing.

As we were leaving, about to turn off the road we were on in order to drive across Kentucky Dam, we saw this woman walking down the road, wearing a thin knit poncho and carrying her purse. I realized that I had seen her earlier in one of the shops we had visited and assumed her car had broken down--why else would she be walking so far outside of town in regular shoes, carrying her purse? I convinced my sister to turn around, go back, and check on her.

This woman, who must of been in her forties or fifties, said that she'd just gone out for a walk while her friends went to Walmart. We offered to give her a ride back to her friends' house. Only she didn't know where it was...

We spent the next forty minutes looking for this house, following her cries of "oh, it must be down this road!" (Nope, dead-end.) "Oh, it's next to a campground." (Oh, not this campground, one that doesn't have trailers, more like a reserve.) "It's just up the road from the boats that are decorated." (Hello? Are we not in the "Land Between the Lakes? WHICH marina do you mean?)

It's nice to be a good Samaritan, but this mission of mercy became much more complicated than I ever imagined. And my poor neice, Emily, who got stuck sitting next to her on the back seat of the SUV, said she smelled "weird." (I think she'd been dabbling in the "Kama Sutra" oils in the shop where I had first noticed her).

I hope that, if I am ever in a similar situtation, lost in a town that I am visiting, some nice person will take mercy on me and help me find my way home. But jeez-louise! I'm not dumb enough to wander TWO MILES outside of town without a map, carrying my purse, NOT in walking shoes.

So, I hope the dingbat is okay. And I really appreciate my sister and family indulging my good Samaritan instincts.

And people wonder where writers get their ideas...All we really have to do is pay attention.

Still Trying to Get Back to Work!

So, since my last post, I spent five more days in bed sick and am STILL wrestling with gunk in my sinuses and ears.

As I splept last night, I must not have turned over. I woke in the same position as I deliberately situated myself to fall asleep--tilted to my left side. I've been trying to sleep this way because sleeping on my right side (or turning over to that side at night, or even sitting up straight) will cause the sinus congestion to flow to my right, damaged, ear and put pressure on it.

The good news is that when I woke this morning, still tilted to the left, I could hear out of my right ear!! But now that I'm sitting up, I can feel the mucus flowing and clogging up the right ear...it's like the pressure you get as a plane gains altitude, only it won't clear when I swallow or yawn. If you think I'm going to try anything more forceful than that, you are sadly mistaken...I now know what a ruptured eardrum feels like (it was actually more painful before it ruptured--but I couldn't hear afterward!!!).

I'm now in catch-up mode as an instructor at the community college, so I'm not managing to write much. I feel guilty even squeezing in this blog post. But I need to get my fingers on a keyboard with paragraphs, instead of test questions. It feels good to be doing so.

I have a newly discovered blog on my "to be followed" list: Genreality. Check out the December 7, 2009 post by Carrie Vaughn regarding "filtering words." It's an excellent suggestion for cutting too-long manuscripts.

I'm back...I think

I've finished my capstone!!! I am still wrestling with the page numbering, but my fellow author, Elaine, tells me that putting in section breaks IS difficult, and that I'm not a nutter for not being able to figure out how to do this. I'm going to my friend Cindy's tonight to get her to help me...and tomorrow I have to teach fellow capstone writer Jessica how to page number with both Roman and Arabic numerals.

Now it is time to get back to work on my "Sherry" novel. Hey, if I've ever met you, there's a chance I will borrow your name for a character...but I won't borrow you. The character in the young adult novel-in-progress that I call "My Sherry Novel" and my college friend Sherry could not be more different. But I find it fun to pay homage to old friends this way. (I think Sherry works for Google now. I worked with her at the UCLA bowling alley. She kept trying to teach me how to bowl, but I was hopeless. Shout out to ya!)

But it is so hard to write if I'm sick. And I've been really sick lately. Eight days ago, I thought I had a cold. It got bad fast. Cough & chest congestion. Then head and sinus congestion. Pardon the gross details--I couldn't sleep on my stomach because my sinuses would pour snot out. I could feel the congestion build up in my ears. I touched my ear and nearly cried in pain. I knew that this wasn't gonna be good--but I was taking the maximum dosage of the over the counter cough syrup and decongestant that I had on hand (and pain reliever too). I should have risked my liver! The congestion in my sinuses and ears built up so much that my eardrum ruptured when I coughed--sometime between midnight and two in the morning. The pain in the ear, believe it or not, actually lessened. But my hearing is gone in my right ear. And it's ringing continually. I had not wanted to go to the doctor--I don't believe in going for every last cold, and flu is viral, which means that antibiotics don't work on flu...but sinus infections....I should have gone sooner. I finally went to the doctor and now am on a kick-butt antibiotic pill and also have antibiotic drops for my ears. I'm praying that as the hole in my head heals, I'll get my hearing back.

And now I can sit up again and write. And I'm getting really good about getting up early in the morning to have time to do it!

Nearly finished

Well, folks, I'm in the homestretch. My capstone for my MAPW degree from KSU is nearly finished. I need to thank my project advisors, Dr. Laura Dabundo and Dr. Anne Richards for giving me confidence in my own voice--for encouraging me in my writing.

I wish I could have developed this confidence earlier in my life...but it's never too late, unless the coffin is closed, I suppose.

Big Dreams, Tiny Budget

How do other people make money? I was brought up in a home where the dad did the dad thing, working for a giant corporation and the mom stayed home and did the mom thing, hauling the kids to school in the morning and afterschool activities in the afternoon. Even after the parents divorced, the mom went to work teaching--a safe and secure job.

I teach too, and I really like doing it. (I don't like to grade however...I like to give feedback, but not set a points value on errors. I think grades can be tremendously discouraging.) I, however, am teaching in a non-remunerative environment. I'm an adjunct.

Over the course of my life, I didn't really have role models of entrepreneurship, so I am left floundering, trying to figure out how to make money out of my creative endeavors. Maybe I just don't spend the hours in the day that it takes to market myself and my products...

The Writing Life

Do I have a writing life? I certainly don't write on a full-time basis. And I have decided I'm not sure that I want to.

First of all, I like the teaching I do. In fact, in addition to working as a developmental English adjunct at my local community college, I want to add teaching on the continuing education level. I am thinking about working with older people to help them write their memoirs. I am crafting lessons plans right now.

Second of all, I know a lot of people who do write on a full-time basis. Most of the ones I know have these contracts that demand that they write multiple books to be published one per month for 3 or 4 months in a row. The first two books will be fabulous. The 3rd and 4th will be derivative, repetitious, and formulaic. I hate that. I know these people are good writers, but having to crank it out as they are forced to do, with no time to recharge their batteries in between books leads to books I don't like to read.

On the other hand...wouldn't it be great to be in the position to write on a full-time basis. If you can set it up that you aren't forced to "crank it out," if you can enjoy the experience, leaving time to actually live your life...have dinner with family and friends, take long-weekends.... That would be fabulous.

Genres and the Writing Process

When I decided to go back to school for a Masters in Professional Writing, I really wanted to do it because, although I had always wanted to be a writer, I didn't know I could do it. Oh, I knew that I had good grammar. (Thank you, Dr. Paul Stockhammer.) But writing is so much more than good grammar. And there are so many different types of writing...fiction/creative nonfiction, business writing, feature writing. I really didn't know what kind of writing I wanted to do.

I enrolled as an "applied writing" major. In a way, it was a mistake.

My path through the program at KSU has been twisty; there's not much cohesiveness to be seen in the classes I took. BUT! That is not all a bad thing. I've been able to explore a lot of different areas, and I have definitely determined what I'm NOT good at. (Being the modern writer that I am, I'm okay with the preposition at the end of the sentence. But, being the old-fashioned grammar geek that I am, I certainly notice that it's there.) And I've been able to explore fields that I never thought I would, such as memoir and personal essay writing.

Growing up, I couldn't be torn away from mysteries and thrillers. I still reread Dick Francis, Dorothy Gilman, and Helen McInnis on a regular basis. I NEVER read essays or memoirs or biographies. But through my classes at KSU, I was exposed to this writing, and now I love it. I love Roy Blount, Jr. and Calvin Trillin, and Rosemary Mahoney.

Have you pushed your boundaries lately? Are you wed to only one genre, or are you willing to go outside of your comfort zone? I recommend it.

Posting Duties and Writing Triumphs

I promised myself that I would begin posting every Monday on my blog. I skipped yesterday due to my Internet connection being lost among the stars, in the ether, whatever you want to call it. Luckily, my friend Kim fixed it for me. She's the one who had originally fixed up my wireless connection in the first place. What am I going to do when she graduates from college and moves God-only-knows-where? She will definitely be leaving Atlanta, because she is going to get married next June, to my old roommate, Jeff. Because his job possibilities are narrower--he's pretty darn specialized, so she will be following his career path...at least physically. Right now, he's at the Open University in Great Britain, on a post-doctorate research fellowship. The fellowship finishes up next fall. His future after that is kind of up in the air. But both Jeff and Kim are smart cookies and I'm sure they will be fine. I just hope they end up some place fun to visit.

My writing is going slowly, but well. I've been wrestling with how to write about Tunisia. Originally, my entire capstone project was supposed to be travel writing essays, but I don't feel like I've traveled quite enough to do what I originally intended. It's turned into more personal essays...although most of them include some sort of movement from place to place. That's travel (loosely).

About Tunisia..I decided to turn the piece into a reflection on the fact that I'm not as brave as I always wanted to be, a piece on how discombobulated I felt while I was there, but also on how I felt so well loved and taken care of while I lived with the Ben Saids. Although it is progressing slowly, more slowly than I wanted it to be, it's also going well. I'm happy.

Oh my lord! How often do I say I'm happy with how my writing is going? Not often enough. It's good that I've decided to celebrate my triumphs as well as whine about my pitfalls. That's kind of a breakthrough for me.

Women's Wildfire Rally 09

I'm a big consumer of self-help books. This week, I've been indulging in listening to a free teleseminar, the Women's Wildfire Rally 09. I was turned onto this possibility by an e-mail newsletter written by Valerie Young, of ChangingCourse.com. Valerie Young provides coaching services to people who are attempting to change careers to work at work they love. The Women's Wildfire Rally teleseminar is organized and hosted by Carrie Wilkerson, The Barefoot Executive. I've really enjoyed listening to these teleseminars and learned a lot of good information to help monetize my creative efforts. You might want to see if you can sign up for the last two days of these seminars.

Do you know how a teleseminar works? All you have to do is dial in to a conference call and listen. I dial a long-distance number...but I have unlimited long-distance. I listen for an hour, but after 7 p.m., I am not burning minutes (I don't think, maybe I should double check that). Carrie Wilkerson has been speaking to 4 women entrepreneurs every evening, for only 15 minutes each. I've learned a lot from them. Some I liked better than others, but I think all of them were worth listening to for the 15 minute chat.

If , like I am, you are interested in teaching any sort of class in a continuing ed sort of context, teleseminars might be the way to go. I think it might be worthwhile exploring this concept and offering a class teaching creative non-fiction.

Broken promises to myself

I barely wrote creatively this week, so I am disappointed in myself. I've been writing in my head, but it doesn't count unless it makes it into black and white, does it?

I did fill out a job application for a communications position that I would be perfect for. Although I like the job I have now, as an adjunct professor at Chattahoochee Tech, adjuncts just don't get paid enough. I would seriously like to have more money. I am in no way a spendthrift, but there is just so much a girl can economize. In addition to having big travel cravings right now, my house is seriously in need of some repairs. I've been saving up for them, but saving to replace the broken air conditioner during 90+ degree heat has sucked! I want to replace it NOW!

So, creative efforts are going more toward dreaming up ways to add income, rather than to writing. My capstone MUST get finished this semester, however, so it is very high on my list of things to do.

Plus, I really want to start getting some of my writing published. I do believe that it is publish-worthy, if I can take the time to do the research to submit it in the right places.

In addition, I want to add "big-time travel writer" to my resume'. I have an idea for travel to Scotland that is a bit unusual. I'm hoping to go next summer...

A New Week, A New Writing Goal

I had a great weekend. My sister and niece came to visit me, which is a rare occurance. I loved spending time with them, shopping for back to school clothes for Emily. She's a good little shopper. She had a budget and stuck to it. She looked only at the sale racks when the store we were in was among the more expensive. She's also very stylish. She really knows what is cute and fits her body well. Of course, every thing fits her body well. She's only 5'2", but she's got one of those small frames, the kind they actually make all the cute clothes for. Her only problem is finding pants SMALL enough. My sister was rejoicing because now Em is in a size 1, instead of a double zero, which they could never find.

After we spent the day shopping, I dropped into my neighbor's party. I like to go over right at the beginning, before all his guests get drunk, which they tend to do at his parties. After a brief stop, since my sister didn't want to attend the party with me, since she is quite shy, I came on home and then we went up to the square in Smyrna--Beth, Emily, myself and my friend Cindy--where Smyrna was having its annual birthday party. I love fireworks! And Smyrna has a fireworks show twice a year--at New Year's and at the birthday party. Although it took some work to talk my tired sister into going, I think she was happy that she went.

Unfortunately, Emily was exceedingly tired, and she hadn't eaten much. She also had a bad allergic reaction to my kitty cat. When we got home, we ordered pizza from Dominos. Warning: if you order online from Domino's, the online pizza tracker is a COMPLETE FRAUD. In fact, I will never order from Domino's again. The online tracker said that our pizza was put in a warming bag at 10:42. When I called to check on when it would arrive at my house, which was at 11:20, the cook told me that they had just put it in the oven. I went down there to pick it up, rather than wait for delivery. Of course, by the time I got it home, it was cold. Cold, crappy pizza. What a waste of money. And, they just pissed me off, with that on-line tracker thing being a complete lie.

We all slept in on Sunday morning, although my sleep-in was interrupted by taking Patches for a short walk (just around the block, rather than the 2 mile route that I try to walk most days). I came back home and actually went back to bed. Slept until 11:00. That might be the latest I've ever slept in in my entire life. I may be an afternoon napper, but I don't sleep late very often. Even in college, when my roommates could sleep until noon or one o'clock, I couldn't.

Beth and Emily left at about 2:30 yesterday afternoon. I was supposed to grade and/or write at that point. What did I really do, though? I napped. And then my friend Lori stopped by as she drove back to the Knoxville area after a surprise early-birthday visit to her mom. That was a good time too.

But my writing output for the weekend: nil. Blah.

Why am I blocked?

I've been reading Dr. Wayne Dyer's Excuses Begone!, How to Change Lifelong Self-Defeating Thinking Habits, which I believe is doing me some good. I haven't applied it, yet, to my writing; although, for the last three days, the advice from the book has been helping me stick to a low-cal eating plan. Now, I need to apply it to my daily writing habit...or, non-habit, as the case has been lately. I have no idea why I am so blocked right now. Is it hard? Not so much...turn on the computer, sit, type. Is it scary? Well, physically, I am in no danger. Mentally, they are just words on the page at this point, right? Will writing/publishing these words create family drama? I don't think so, because I sincerely doubt any of my family will read them. So, why the block? I don't know. I haven't finished reading the Excuses Begone! book. Maybe, by the end, I'll have figured it out.

Writing a resume is hard!

I have the worst time writing my resume', but I think I've come up with something suitable. I've sent it out to several friends for review. Hopefully, they will have some good feedback soon.

I've been attempting to change fields for the last several years, and that is harder to do than you might imagine. Especially in this economy.

And how does a simple two-page document appropriately sum up or give an overview of complicated me? Everyone is complicated, but I perhaps more so than others, due to the fact that I have worked freelance in creative fields for so long. Creative people don't have steady career trajectories.

And to top it all off, Microsoft Word is always trying to get me to correct the sentence fragments. Well, it's a resume', for goodness sake. You are supposed to write in sentence fragments!

Conquering the summit

I have been watching Clean House and Clean Sweep and Mission Organization for several years now. For those of you who don’t know, they are all television shows about how to organize your possessions. They really have been inspiring.

Last year, I had a yard sale to get rid of un-used or under-used possessions. I made over three hundred dollars in one day, selling nothing for over forty dollars (and that was only one item). I wasn’t there to maximize the cash. I was there to minimize the mess. And it worked. I’ve got fewer possessions that I have to deal with. The ones I kept have a purpose, and I know where they are.

Believe it or not, I work as a professional organizer in addition to being a writer and a teacher of writing. Other people’s stuff? I can sort, keep, recycle, containerize, with no problem. Same thing for my possessions. But…

My bug-a-boo is paper.

Several decades ago, I developed a phobia about opening my mail. I don’t know why. Perhaps it is because the only mail I ever seem to receive is bills or junk mail. I’ve never had a snake show up in the mail box; no one has ever put an envelope full of dog waste in my mail either. (I once had an unpleasant roommate who sent dog poo to our frat-boy neighbors, but she did not send it to me). I really am perplexed about this mail-opening phobia. In addition, I have always been scared that if I throw something away, that I will need it later. So I keep things—receipts, instructions, interesting news articles, old magazines. Rather than filing these things, I stack them. And the stacks have gotten out of hand.

Recently, I decided that my life will be better if I follow through on all my efforts to get my office neat, so I have begun dealing with all the paper. I set the timer for an hour, and work to sort, file, and purge my papers. After an hour, I stop. It doesn’t matter if there is more to be done tomorrow. There will always be paper to deal with tomorrow. And the day after that, too.
I am actually managing to dig to the bottom of piles. I find that I keep far too much—stuff I really don’t need. If I haven’t referred to it in months, I probably will never need to.
I am also finding that I am glad that I have kept some stuff—not kidding, the notes from the “how to open a business” seminar I took ten years ago—yes, ten years ago—are worth reviewing and working on again. Luckily, I have those notes, and they are in good shape. I actually filed them away in a three-ring binder, so that they will look good on a shelf, not filling up a pile.
And when I am done with the paper purge, I will really be confident in my organizing ability and more confident about hiring myself out as a pro-organizer. Paper is the summit of the profession.

I know that a lot of writers have a problem with too much paper. Hey, we are writers aren't we? Isn't paper a large part of our lives? Just make sure that you don't let it take over yours.

Procrastination

Well, I've finally read Eat That Frog, a book that has been recommended to me by many friends, due to my unfortunate tendency to procrastinate. I found it a quick read, and, if I actually follow the advice the author gives, I will probably procrastinate less. But I'm afraid that I feel like a little kid, just itching to be bad. No! I don't wanna be good! I don't wanna change! I don't care if I'm not happy like this! It's scary to change! I wanna go back to bed rather than accomplish my goals!

Boohoo.

Wish me luck.

Creativity v. conditionals

I teach developmental English at a community college. Since I started the gig, I have become very attuned to grammatical errors in published works. Currently I'm re-reading the Harry Potter series and I am extremely annoyed with J.K. Rowling's misuse of "was" in conditional sentences: "If I was a better magician..." (No, that is not a direct quote...I don't have the books with me write now.) The correct form is "If I were...." Of course, when reading the books the first several times, I was so thrilled with the plotting and characterization that I skimmed right past any errors. Now, this one jars me every time that it recurs. Where was her editor?

As I try to teach my students to develop their thoughts and get those thoughts pinned down on paper, I worry that by teaching them about sentence errors, I will be also inhibiting their creativity. But after the creative part--boy, do I hope they learn to fix mistakes like this one.

(No, I don't worry about grammatical errors in blogs...well, not so much, anyway.)

Wish me luck!

A full time English teaching position has opened up at my college. I will be applying for it, so please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I really need a full-time position because of all those added benefits--like a living wage, health insurance, etc.

I haven't made a whole lot of progress working on finding a new job, handicapped by the fact that I really like what I do, tutoring and teaching (Developmental English and speech). I'm presently working as an adjunct. All those horror stories you have heard about the poor pay for adjuncts? They are true. Particularly if you factor in planning and grading hours, which adjuncts are not officially paid to do.

I'm not complaining. I took the job fully aware of the requirements. But I never realized I would like it so much, which means I haven't been motivated to look for more remunerative work. But it's certainly time that I consider the fact that one day, before I know it, I will have to retire. And that takes cash.

Teaching English and speech at my local technical/community college is the most rewarding work I've ever done. I find the people I teach to be fascinating. For instance, I have immigrant students that have bachelor's and even master's degrees from their home countries, but in order to get a good job here in the U.S., they are starting again. In the Learning Center a few moments ago, I worked with an African student who has a bachelor's degree in philosophy and wanted to review the meanings of "character" and "symbolism" in literature. (He's got a test tonight. Good luck to him.)

And wish me luck too.

Woe is I.

It's happened. What I have been dreading. What I KNEW I was unprepared for.

My computer has crashed, and it's time for a new one.

Wish me luck that MicroCenter can recover my data for me.

Writing Stress

I wish that I could say that I've decided to add a post to my blog for any reason other than I am delaying finishing an essay that I'm writing for my capstone project (think creative thesis). The drawback to writing personal essays is that you have to examine all your "stuff." Was it Emerson or Thoreau who wrote "an unexamined life is not worth living"?

Liar. An examined life is scary. The essay I'm working on is about what makes a house a home. And I started bawling about a very trying time in my life. I picked up the phone to thank two people who really helped me through that awful time in my life and I ended up bawling on the phone to them. And then laughing because I was acting like such an idiot. Neither emotion reassured them that I was okay, although I tried to let them know that I really was. I just wanted to thank them again.

At the moment I have gotten to a point where I am about to write about the most trying time in my life, and, as you can see, I'm avoiding it. I've written four paragraphs in the last 24 hours. Not making much progress am I?

On top of this, I suspect that this essay is going to take a massive re-write. I'm not sure that the structure I've chosen is really good, or if it's going to feel long and boring to a reader. I think I have to finish the whole damn thing, though, before I'll really know.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAgggggggghhhh.