I’m blogging – when I should be writing my story

I admire the writer who can wake in the morning primed and ready to write. I admire the writer who can balance home and family with quiet, private writing time. I admire the writer who can deal with real-life drama while creating some drama of her own.

I used to be that writer. Years ago. Of course, that writing wasn’t something I’d share with the world - though at the time I thought it was better than anything out there.

I’ve become more critical of my writing over the years. If a word doesn’t fit the rhythm of the prose, I’ll obsess until I’ve replaced that word with just the right one. If a tiny plot point seems out of sync with the rest of the story, it will haunt me as I make dinner, fill the car with gas, help Daughter style her hair.

So, I’m always thinking about my writing – always thinking about what comes next in the story and just how I want to say it. But I’m not always getting it down on the page. Indeed, there have been times when doing the dishes, the bills or even the yard work is more attractive to me than writing.

What’s up with that???

Methinks it’s simply part of my process.

I wrote an article not long ago titled, “Thinking IS Work”. For writers, writing is easy. It’s the planning, the precise wording, the puzzle pieces neatly fitting – the missing puzzle pieces - and the thinking that put the ‘work’ in our creative day. I tend to spend a lot of time thinking and looking for those missing puzzle pieces. Once I finally sit, the words do flow but getting from here to there… well… utter torture.

Obviously, getting the words on the page is the ultimate high for a writer – myself included. Then why do writers like myself do so much to avoid it? Maybe because of the required investment of time, energy and emotion? Writing fiction is definitely a commitment of heart and head. When I sit to write, I need to know I will not be interrupted. Only then can I immerse myself in the story and FEEL the anguish or delight my characters feel. Only then will those characters ’speak’ to me. Only then will that depth be transferred to the page. No half-way investments. It’s all or nothing – and that can be absolutely draining.

Starting a scene or chapter is the hardest part of all for me. POV switches, change of emotion or action… all work as the proverbial brick wall in my path. However, once I’ve forced myself to just have at it and have written my way into the story – with the knowledge that I have X amount of time to myself - the words add up, the emotion roils and the scene is there in all it’s glory. At least in my completely biased opinion. It’s a wonderfully productive time that makes me wonder why I put such effort into avoiding it in the first place.

What about you? Are you a rise and shine kind of writer, primed and ready to go? Or are you a tantrum thrower who has to drag your muse, kicking and screaming as they say, to the page? What is the easiest part of writing for you? The hardest? And how to you overcome that which keeps you from plopping your butt in the seat and keeping it there until a solid day’s work is done?

 

Improv Everywhere

I’m not big on practical jokes, but when a group of people can draw the attention - NOT ire – of even the busiest New Yorker, I’m intrigued.

Improv Everywhere , a group dedicated to “causing scenes”, caused a definite scene in New York’s Grand Central Station back in January of this year. Their mission? To freeze in place for five full minutes while NY and New Yorkers buzzed on around them. The mission was aptly titled, Frozen Grand Central.

The reactions are fun, the result amazing. What a cool – harmless – project. And how nice that New Yorkers stopped to take note. See? We’re not all about getting from here to there and nothing more. If you stop dead in our path… we do notice.

 

 

 

History underfoot – the Vanderbilt Motorway

There are bits of history everywhere. Too bad we’re often too busy to notice it, or too uninformed to be aware of it – even if it’s right under our feet.

There’s a bike path in Queens near Cunningham Park – the NYC Greenway. It’s a hidden gem not just for biking but for walking, if you’re so inclined. It’s approximately 3 miles and walking/biking from one end to the other will certainly give you a workout. I know because we walked this path yesterday morning – from one end to the other and back. So peaceful there in the woods… actually, there are no woods. Just clumps of trees on either side of the path, with homes beyond them. Continue along and beyond the trees there is the highway – Northern Parkway to be precise. So here you are strolling in what feels like a surround of nature when in reality you’re smack in the heart of the city. Ah, but the woodsy scent, bird songs and rustle of leaves as chipmunks and squirrels dart here and there make you forget about what’s going on beyond the trail.

  

The trail was not always so quiet. In fact, it was not always a trail but a high-speed motorway designed, financed and built in 1908 by and for one of the Vanderbilts. William K., to be exact.  

William K. Vanderbilt was a car racing enthusiast who built this highway with the intention of using it to hold the Vanderbilt Cup. The road was graded just so for racing, the curves meant to challenge. This private motorway was the first in the nation to use bridges and overpasses to avoid intersections.   

(photo courtesy of R. Berliner, III)

Two years of racing on this road, however, proved disappointing. Some spectators were injured and others killed during a race in 1910, and New York decided to disallow racing on anything but raceways – and that included private roads. No longer able to hold the Vanderbilt Cup, and with a need for help to pay back taxes, William K opened the road to the public - amazing that a Vanderbilt would need help paying for anything, yes? Twelve toll ‘lodges’ were built to collect a total of $2.00 in tolls. I guess you could say the road was opened to the privileged, not necessarily the public at large. These socialites traveled the road at high speed – 60mph! – in order to reach the gold-coast party circuit, then travel it back after the parties wound down. Clear sailing from Queens to Suffolk County, New York. Forty-five miles of scenic road.

 

Toll collectors lived in the toll lodges. Reminds me of the guards on the Great Wall of China who lived right there on the wall – their lives spent patrolling and nothing more. 

 (photo courtesy of H. Kroplick/R. Berliner, III)

With the birth of Prohibition in the 1920’s, the road had new purpose. Rum-running. As a private road, there were no obstacles to this process, and rum-runners certainly had the funds for tolls. Ah, but William K. didn’t approve and so brought in state police to… well… police the road and run the rum-runners out.

Eventually, the road became obsolete. The need for high speed ways to get from here to there was met by the city and state. Northern Parkway was built – a FREE highway with bends and curves more conducive to leisurely driving than racing.  Motor Parkway was eventually given to New York in exchange for back taxes still owed. Fourteen miles of the original road have been modified for today’s use, but  sadly, other areas of it have become obscured by time, weeds, neglect and ignorance.

The three mile stretch that still exists in Queens contains some of the original cement guardrails – 100 years old.

 

(Old and new together – Early 1900’s cement guard rails in foreground, with early 2000’s metal guard in back.)

They show age, they show neglect. They don’t come close to showing us the grandeur they once proudly guarded. And yet, they remind us to ask questions and seek answers of a past long forgotten, and truthfully, can we ask more than that?

 

The Incomparable George Carlin, R.I.P

He will be missed.

 

SPIDER!

Anyone who knows me, knows I am not a creepy-crawler fan. In fact, anyone who knows me, knows I reach for my inhaler when one of those creepy-crawlies starts creeping and crawling.

This will be a short and to the point post because the creepy-factor is off the scale. WAY off the scale.

Daughter is cleaning her room today – that fact alone deserves its own post.

Problem is, that room so rarely gets deep cleaned because of all the ’stuff’ in there, that today we’ve found a very strange and scary-looking spider.

Okay… to me, they’re all scary looking, but… well… if you’re game, have a gander at these pictures and tell me if they don’t send shivers of disgust scurrying down your spine…

Oh… and if you happen to know what kind of spider this is – and whether it’s one to fear – give me a shout-out, ‘kay?   

Ready?

    

    

Yes, that’s the same spider. I can’t believe I did this, but I actually put the camera on macro then used hubby’s photographer’s loop to get an even closer closeup shot. I really need my inhaler now…

 

<<<EDIT>>>

UPDATE: We didn’t find other spiders in the room, fortunately, and this one’s photo will travel to exterminaters for examination. But, meanwhile, to put fears to rest and to help y’all identify an actual brown recluse spider – from which you want to stay far, far away – here’s a photo of one I found at this website:

Notice the top portion of the body – I know, I know, you don’t want to look that close. I don’t blame you, but do it here with a picture so the next time you see a brown spider, you’ll know exactly what to look for.

On the top portion of the body, where the legs come from, there is a darker marking. Look closely at it. The dark part is shaped like a violin with the neck of the violin pointing to the spider’s lower body. It’s almost like s/he’s got it slung over his shoulder to be carried on his back.

Cool once you know what to look for. Cool because it means chances are, that’s not what you have. Releif… it’s not what we had.

PC vs. Mac

We are at war in this house – the rebel MAC user vs. the stable PC user. Daughter is like a scout – a double agent – working both sides. Well, that’s how she started. Now, however, after being shown the evidence, she is wearing PC colors and fighting on the RIGHT side – the PC user’s side. 

And guess who uses the PC in this house.

Yes. That would be me.

Hubby, however, believes everyone should use a mac. I believe if everyone uses a mac, soon no one will use their brains because they’ll all turn to mush since using a MAC can drive you mad with very little effort. I know this because I’ve spent the past week trying to balance my NEED to use a MAC with my ease of using a PC, and ‘mad’ isn’t a strong enough word to describe its affect on me.

Daughter performed in a play last Friday at our end-of-year picnic with the homeschoolers. Hubby filmed the play and we promised to deliver copies of the film in a couple of days. Hubby had no idea I wanted to edit said video but thought we’d just copy the tape as is and send it on. Not a problem, really. He’s a professional photographer, so the unedited tape was good. My thought was to put titles and music on it just to make it fun, ya know?

Fun?

I have Microsoft Movie Maker in my PC. I used it for the first time a couple of weeks ago when I made a book trailer for my WIP. Do I need a book trailer? Certainly not, my book isn’t even close to completion let alone publication. But I had a blast making the trailer. It was amazingly easy and made me feel creative. Fun stuff.

I figured if I can do that, I can edit a simple play. Not so, said the Sony Video Cam that didn’t come with the proper cord to transfer video tape to my computer. So… we transferred the film onto hubby’s MAC - and that, like Fort Sumter, started the war.

After days and hours – in fact, nearly a week – of trying to work with MAC’s iMovie, I can honestly say I question the sanity of those who use it regularly. The ease of use with Microsoft Movie Maker is only enhanced by the options and quality of the final product.

After using a PC for more than a decade, switching to MAC is like moving to some distant galaxy. Yeah, life form there has to eat and breathe, but nothing else there is the same. So it is with MAC. I kept closing the program when I wanted to enlarge it – yes the buttons are in reverse. There is no desktop view – all the open ‘windows’ disappear until you run the mouse close to the bottom of the screen, then they pop up and wave around – it’s a visual display that’ll seer spin your eyes.  The program it’s self needs time to acknowledge each and every change you make – and you must manually make every change. In PC’s Movie Maker, you can drop an image into the area you want then stretch it to fit just so. Done. Transitions can be added the very same way – drag and drop. With iMovie, each action must be ‘rendered’ before another action can be performed. And if you want to add a transition, then you must first adjust the images before and after – and each step requires rendering. If you’ve made a mistake, you must redo the entire adjust, wait, snore, and test process before going on.

The video is done and it’s nice. BUT for all the hours spent and f-bombs dropped, the end does not justify the means. I will never yell at my PC again – not for freezing up. Not for flashing ‘not responding’ when I’m trying to save an hour’s worth of typing. Not for shutting down unexpectedly. Now that I realize how hard I work my machine and just how much I demand of it, I will appreciate what it does for me and snicker inside when someone else says they own a MAC. See… from personal experience, I know that Apple Mac is really Bill Gates’ creation. It’s his way of eliminating the traitors – those who will not use a PC because they want balance in the market. It’s a brilliant idea, actually, but I do believe PC users should be handed this warning with every new upgrade they download so they never venture into forbidden and dangerous territory.

So… if you are a MAC user, take heed. Though you might believe it is an easier machine to use, beware the evil within.

<sigh>

And because you’ve stuck with me this far, reading all these words, I’m attaching a link to the book trailer I made on my PC, as some visual relief.

Just click on the photo below.

 

Chocolate Decadence

Though the title of this post is deliciously tempting, be assured, if you or someone you love is allergic to chocolate, you can substitute CAROB powder for the cocoa powder and have the same scrumptious and devilish treat. I know because I’m allergic to chocolate and make this with carob all the time. Daughter and hubby actually prefer the carob, so I’m certainly a happy camper.

(btw – carob powder can be purchased in most health food stores. Use it the same as cocoa powder. In everything and in the same amounts)

I do wish I had a photo of this yummy cake. Alas, this cake is devoured so quickly there isn’t time for me to take its portrait. 

Ready?

Fudgy 2-Layer Chocolate (or CAROB) Cake

45 minutes preparation ~ 25-30 minutes baking

Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa (or CAROB) powder
1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups buttermilk
chocolate frosting (or… completely combine vanilla frosting with 2-3 tablespoons of carob powder)
optional – sweetened chocolate (or carob) bar for garnish

1. Preheat over to 350*

2. Line bottoms of two 9-inch round cake pans with waxed paper. Grease paper and sides of pans. Dust with cocoa (or carob) powder.

3. Mix flour, cocoa (or carob), baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla.

4. At low speed, alternately beat flour mixture and buttermilk into butter mixture just until blended. Divide batter equally between prepared pans.

5. Bake cakes 25 – 30 minutes, test for doneness. Transfer pans to wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. Turn out onto racks. Remove paper. Turn layers top-side up and cool completely.

6. Place 1 cake layer on serving plate and spread with frosting. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread frosting on top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with sweetened cocoa (or carob) shavings.

ENJOY!!!! And please – let me know what you think.

Made in…

With our country in a recession, with soaring health costs, gas and food prices, and lagging wages, we all need to be extremely careful with extraneous expenses. Well, with Father’s Day here, I found it difficult to locate reasonably priced gifts and impossible to locate gifts NOT made in China.

Yes. I suppose this is a rant.

On CNN not too long ago, Lou Dobbs read an email that was sent to him about this very topic. In the email, a woman complained that she’d had to buy school supplies for her son and that when they left the store loaded with items, the only things NOT made in China were herself and her boy. Something is wrong with this, don’t you think?

China is not a country whose politics or treatment of the public we support. And yet, we cannot go anywhere without the bulk of items for sale being made in China. I’m floored as to why there is not a booming business proudly displaying products as, “Made in America”. And it’s not that I only want American-made products. I’d love to purchase products from France, Sweden… everywhere. Except China. They’ve saturated the market with cheap products – DANGEROUS products, indeed FATAL products. And yet imports from China continue to arrive in this country and around the world.

If the death of thousands of our pets from tainted food made in China isn’t enough to put a stop to this madness, what is? The death of thousands of children from dangerous toys?

What will it take for the people of this country – and others – to demand a choice? I’ve searched online and elsewhere for products not made in China and have found it nearly impossible to locate any.

With the economy the way it is, we need to save our hard-earned cash. Wouldn’t now be a great time to stop buying products made in China and voice our opposition to the imports of those products? I’ve sent emails to each of the online companies I buy from, and I’ve asked them specifically where their products are made. So far, I have received only one automated reply. As more come in, I will let you know which companies sell products solely made in China and which offer products from around the world… including the good ole’ US of A.

What is your take on this? Do you mind buying products Made in China? Are you concerned with the way China has taken over the world’s markets? Are you okay with YOUR cash going to this communist country? What will you  do – or have you done - about it, if anything. Please tell me, because I’d like to know what some of my options are.

And the winner is…

Well… you’ll just have to wait on that while I tell you about my day today.

Today was a brilliant day. We had our homeschooling “moving-up day” picnic. It was wonderful. The weather was glorious and the park we went to was just stunning. It’s called Belmont Lake State Park. The lake is so wide and still. So still, it looked glossy.

 

Considering that all week we had a heat wave here – into triple digits for several days – having this day was a gift. We arrived at the park at 10 this morning, and the children – about 40 or so of them – had time for free play while us parents chatted about the accomplishments we all witnessed this school year. At noon, we had lunch, and then we really started cooking! The drama club – of which Daughter is a part – put on a play. Two plays, actually. The younger crew performed Hansel and Gretel while the older crew, the one Daughter is in, performed Perseus and Medusa. What fun this was.

The stress of the last few rehearsals was a little overwhelming. And last night, we were up until midnight in my house, running lines. BUT… all was worth it because it went off without a hitch. Well… maybe one or two but no one noticed and it was a blast. When an audience laughs where you want them to laugh, you know you’ve done it right.

I’m thrilled that the school year is over but, in a way, I’m also a little disappointed. The homeschooling group we belong to is like an extended family for us. Great families, great activities, great fun. I’ll see them all in September and we’ll have more adventures together. But this was such a great year for us that I am indeed a little sad to see it end. At least I can say in all sincerity, it ended on a super, super high.

And back to our winner… drum roll please…

The winner of this lovely little item -

… as mentioned in my previous post… was chosen by Daughter. The names of everyone who commented were written on individual pieces of paper and tossed into her Bronx Zoo cap. She closed her eyes, reached in and plucked out the one with Kathleen’s name on it!

KATHLEEN?! Come on down!!

Kathleen, just go to my website  and fill in your info. Go to the Contact page. In the ‘comments’ section, fill in your mailing address, then click ’send’, and I will send this necklace right to you!

I hope you’ll enjoy it and wear it with pride.

Thanks everyone!

Ding-dong, Avon Foundation calling…

We all know an Avon Lady. I’ll bet we all know several Avon Ladies. But do you know about the Avon Foundation? The Avon Foundation has been around for more than 50 years and it’s dedicated to “improving the lives of women and their families”. Their attention is mainly on breast cancer awareness and treatments, and domestic violence issues.

Until this morning, I was unaware of the extent of their work. Through sales of Avon’s Pink Ribbon products, funds have gone to breast cancer research, patient care and support and even food delivery services for those at home too ill to care for themselves. I was so impressed with the list of programs Avon has been involved with that I felt I had to share the information here.

Today, I will be ordering this -

 

It’s a breast cancer crusade memo pad – it’s inexpensive, goes for a great cause and what writer doesn’t need another jotter?

I will also be ordering this -

 

Actress, Reese Witherspoon is the spokesperson for Avon’s Women’s Empowerment Fund and she had this to say about this bracelet -

“As honorary chair of the Avon Foundation, I’m very excited to introduce Avon’s first global charity product designed to save and improve women’s lives worldwide.

Purchase the Women’s Empowerment Bracelet for yourself and your friends. It’s a symbol of unity that represents a future without limitations for all women. It represents everything I love about this company.”

I hope you will consider ordering one of Avon’s fundraising products for yourself and for your friends. To show you how much I hope you will do this, I’m giving away one item to a lucky someone who comments on this post. I’ll pick a random commenter by Friday and as soon as I recieve your contact information, I will send this item directly to you -

We must stand together in the fight against disease and domestic violence. This is one simple way to start the process, is it not?