cornerofmadness

Frankly not much of a writerly ways as school starts tomorrow (WTF? How is it this late in the year???) and I'm tapped out of ideas. Any writing thing you'd like me to tackle?

So instead why don't I just title this Betty's link section and here you go, enjoy the links she's sent me.

stuck on plot Honestly I'm not sure this one works for me. It suggests starting with the end and working backward. I've tried it and found it far harder and less enjoyable to be honest.

inciting incident which goes along with immediate conflict

advice for writers convention

and this is more tangential to writing - mythology

Yearly Word Count (yes I'm pathetically behind)

43502 / 115000 words. 38% done!

And Happy Birthday to

wildrider.

Day Four

Today we went out to the coast. It was a day of trauma at the beginning. I was half asleep (because I Still wasn't adjusted to the time difference and kept waking up way too early because its 8:00 AM back home. I stumbled out forgetting a) to check the COAST weather vs Portland's, b) to bring my confirmation paperwork (not that I've needed it) c) to bring my raincoat.

Apparently on Sunday the train has less trains running. Instead of running every ten minutes, I was there waiting 30 minutes, which of course meant instead of arriving 30 minutes early to get Starbucks at the pick up point, I was at risk of not making it at all. And because I forgot the confirmation paperwork I had no phone # and my tracfone only works if I can get wireless, which I couldn't standing on some street corner. I go running up the street once I got to Pioneer Courthouse Square because the pick up is about three blocks away. Half way there I have an asthma attack so I roll in wheezing unable to speak once I see the van (which I thought was pulling away but was luckily backing in). I waved him down and took my inhaler and coughed for the next twenty minutes because asthma doesn't just shut down your air ways; it fills it with mucus.

On the way out there (a two hour drive) I learned that there is a dormant volcano inside the Portland city limits named Mount Tabor and they have an amphitheater and basketball court inside the crater. Keep Portland weird indeed. I also learned that Portland has a hard city limit they can't expand over it so they have to get denser and taller. Ugh. Also that Vernonia is taking out the train lines and putting in a bike trail from there to the coast. Honestly I'm not a fan. I don't think we should have gotten rid of the damn transport trains as using 18 wheelers is far worse for the environment and our roads.

Anyhow we stopped at Cannon Beach where Haystack Rock (used heavily in the movie The Goonies which I loved) juts upward. It's volcanic and very hard so everything else eroded away leaving just that and a few others around it. It was raining and chilly (like 50 degrees so there I am the only moron in shorts and a t-shirt without a jacket. Thank god I don't really get cold but I looked stupid. I'm still mad at myself about this). It was lovely. Hundreds of birds including endangered ones use the rock as a home. The tide was out, yay! That allowed us to play in the tidal pools. I saw so many sea anemones. I loved that they actually had binoculars just hanging on a station for anyone's use. Oregon is cool that way.

From there we went to Arcadia beach which is much smaller and down this big freaking hill. I put my hand out to balance myself right into the world's largest supply of pine sap. So sticky. So freaking sticky. Moist towelettes and the soap of four different bath rooms failed to budge it (it came right off with the hotel shampoo which rather scared me).

We lunched at Manzanita at the sandpiper pub. What a cute little seaside town. I'd love it except that a shack I would have set fire to was on sale for 900,000. Me and the couple I was taking lunch with laughed ourselves sick over that but it's not really a joke. There was a huge shortage of workers here because no one making minimum wage can afford to live anywhere on the coast (or in Portland) thanks to the housing explosion and who is going to drive from 40 miles away for min? I got mom this patterned clay ball that you’re supposed to roll around in a bowl of sand to make patterns. It's so pretty.

Afterward we hit the Port of Garibaldi which is the entrance to Tillamook Bay which was lovely. We then hit Tillamook cheese factory to watch cheese being made and stand in impossibly long lines for ice cream and to get cheese. Luckily someone said go over to the gift shop and check out. I ran, arm full of cheese! No lie I had a 2lb brick of smoked cheddar and two other cheddars.

I was sad to see the coast go. Random facts for stories and look up. There is a Naked Portland Bike ride because I need a character to ride bare assed naked around town. There is a Pirate festival on the coast that I just have to investigate because that would be fun. About forty miles south of Tillamook there are sea lion caves and the coast averages 100 inches of rain a year. A few years ago they had 42 days of non stop rain.

This is from the ghost tour the basement of the Merchant Hotel's shanghai tunnel bricked up