Weight Off, week 2

So, how are we doing? Honestly, I'm still getting rid of all the leftover crap from the holidays that I'm too cheap too just toss. Also I need to see if the school's nursing dept has a good spring scale like in a doctor's office since mine is rather cracktastic.

Anyhow, 2 lbs off if it's to be believed (and I'm not sure it is)

So anyone else have any recipes/tips/exercises they care to share. Let's see them. this is the time and place to help your friends out.

From me another recipe. We all know cauliflower is good for us, full of folate and lutein. Most of us don't want to eat it or will only touch it fried or in a heavy cream sauce (already done for us in the frozen food section) so here is a healthier version that's supposed to be under 100 calories per serving (which I note in the original recipe isn't put into clear amounts)

( roasted cauliflower )

writerly ways

Reading a book recently (City of Dragons) got me thinking about two different writing issues and thought, all right, these could be interesting to talk about so I will (this week and next unless I forget). The two topics were ‘broken’ characters and the issues of historical writing.

In honesty, the abovementioned book impressed me with the wrong way to go about doing these things. I’ll talk about the broken characters since I have a strong interest in them. Obviously, there is a lot of mileage one can get out of writing a character that holds deep hurts in their heart. The heroine of City of Dragons had lost the love of her life and it sent her on such a tailspin that she went from nurse to escort and is now onto being a p.i. She sank low. She doesn’t have a high opinion of men. It’s 1940 so she has a hard row to hoe being a female PI. This could be so very interesting.

In the end, Miranda becomes a miserable character who is so loving her hair shirt that its very difficult (at least for me and from the reviews, many others on Goodreads) to like. That’s what got me thinking, how do you have a character who is broken, who isn’t the happiest camper and get people interested in them without turning them off. Let’s face it. There is enough misery in the world that a lot of people aren’t going to want to feast on it in the pages of their escapism of choice.

Usually, I try to give that character something to cling to, some small joy, some ray of hope. One of the biggest things I think I do is to not make the character treat everyone like garbage (one of my number one complaints of my example heroine). It gets very hard to like someone like that. Not every story needs a happy ending but in my experience a lot of people prefer them so long as they’re believable. Maybe the broken character isn’t completely healed by the end. Maybe they’re just taking baby steps toward it.

On the other hand, maybe they’re completely lost by the end. So what have you given them that will make the reader weep for them? How have you forged the bonds between broken character and reader? I think this scenario would be far tougher.

So how do you all do it? Have you even tried? Inquiring minds want to know (and inquiring minds are so senile they have forgotten what commercial that came from)

A week in writing

Yearly original fiction word count -

4756 / 125000 words. 4% done!

FMA Big Bang -

19154 / 21000 words. 91% done!

Saiyuki Big Bang -

9145 / 15000 words. 61% done!
Edited – nothing. Go me.

I'll take any pain killer you care to give me right now

Quick anatomy lesson. My swollen AC joint (where the collarbone meets the shoulderblade) is pressing on the supraspinatus, a muscle that lies over the shoulder blade. It's knotted into something that feels like I have a softball sewn under my skin when I press back against a chair. In turn, it's yanking on the collarbone pulling it off kilter. This is making the sternocleidomastoid spasm. This is the main muscle that moves your head around like a swivel. As this spasms it pulls the neck and head out of alignment which is making the masseter, the muscle that open and closes your jaw, spasm as well. The whole upper left side of my body is one giant ass knot of pain.

Why so hurty? I decided to weather proof this place. I pretty much HAVE to. It leaks hot air like a sieve. I got plastic on 3 of the 6 windows before the pain was too much. A friend asked SHOULD I be doing this? Well no but who is going to? Not my landlord that's for sure. I'll have to finish tomorrow.

Kanda seems to be feeling a little better. he's not up to snuff but he's at least moving. I thought I was going to have to call the vet tomorrow since I wasn't seeing much in the way of litter box use and knew he was dehydrating. I gave Roy and Soul some of the dope cat nip and recorded them then everyone got some treats.

this came to me after the writing post but I thought I'd share it. this link proves one thing ALWAYS read the fine print. Okay money should always flow to the author not from. Some contests do have entrance fees and are legit but they're mostly under 30$. If that price tag wasn't warning enough scroll down the article to see the fine print...

( Day 97 snow )