I don’t want to go

You could almost hear David Tennant’s Doctor saying that, tears rolling down his face when I went to collect Kanda to leave. He ran through the living room, darting behind the couch screaming ‘over my dead body I’m leaving.’ Luckily it didn’t come to that (nearly) but he did glare at me for almost three straight hours on the road.

The drive here was good. How to know you’re back in Ohio? Play count the cars on fire because there’s no inspection and really shit vehicles are in use. I got home to learn my landlords are just getting worse and worse. It was obvious the grass was just cut and hadn’t been for probably two weeks before that because you could bale it out there. There’s a boulder in the yard and you can’t even SEE it because no one is weed whacking.

BUT I think someone tried because the wires to my internet and landline have been cut again so I’ll be at the university all day every day because it could take up to a week to get someone out here. Here’s hoping it won’t but you know my luck.

I was supposed to go to cincinnati next weekend to see the terra cotta warriors with mom. I had wanted to go in July. She and Dad had been dicking around trying to decide when. I thought it was done on the 12 but she insisted it was the 21st and since I see numbers backwards a lot I listened to her. Guess what? I was right and now I can't see them. I'm sad.

Writerly ways

The drive however let me think about my writerly ways. The author’s brain is a messy crazy place. Oh we like to pretend we know what’s going on but it’s more like a three ringed circus in there. Now I had plenty of time to mull over both Hyperion’s Son and my Solarpunk story (just like I did driving back to PA a month ago). Instead it was just new stuff flashing around.

You try to concentrate on what you need to be working on and instead you get new characters dancing around half naked. Or fully naked. Yes I see your flapping wienie. Just what the hell do you expect me to do about it? Go put on clothes and sit down.

The same new characters going to PA came back on the return ship. It’s what happens when I read Ready Player One, get a hint of a Buffy spin off and have 80’s music on the radio. Two ladies urban fantasy characters, the main lead, a young science major in a rural university who is also part of a Watcher’s like organization (I KNOW! ANOTHER one!!), a Black lesbian friend and probably some unsuspecting victim. On the way back those two point out I have been considering gay vampire boys in the 80s, one of whom styles himself after Bon Jovi and the other hair band guys (i.e. with more guyliner than is reasonable). She’s like they could be our friends.

Don’t make me crash my new car.

Then there’s the other group. They popped up after reading a book by someone in my writers group who reminded me that the faeries can’t handle iron (hers was a torture scene). My three are yet again in a group that fights bad supernaturals (because all my urban fantasy forever and ever will have this group). The elf gets off on BDSM sessions with iron. Really dude? That’s what you want? Go away. But my Dom could be a sin eater who loves Catholic guilt and hangs out in church during confessionals – the elf ad nauseum as I’m driving.

Seriously, I’m going to put this SUV off a bridge if you don’t stop.

Couldn’t give me Hyperion. Couldn’t give me Solarpunk. Hell you couldn’t even give me These Haunted Hills or Xenolith (my planned nano). Noooo brain, you had to give me Bon Jovi vampires and bondage elves. Thanks. Head desk.


From Betty
Podcast
182 – Literary Devices

How Do I Avoid Endorsing My Protagonist’s Actions? i.e don't be preachy

Four Challenges of Nonlinear Narratives Maybe I need to look a this one to figure out WTF is wrong with Splinters' opening chapter.

The Right Agent for a Debut Author

masterpost for writers creating their own worlds, or even just characters

And from around the web


10 Tips To Focus On Writing

Seven research tips for informed writing

The Pros and Cons of Getting Published

Take Up Some Room, and Other Public Speaking Tips for Women Writersl

“Write a Sentence as Clean as a Bone” And Other Advice from James Baldwin

Entitlement issues... This is by Neil Gaiman (and is directed more to readers/fans)

The Midwife as Story Teller

The 10 Beliefs That Drive a Passionately Authentic Life


How An Editing App Can Increase Writing Productivity


Unknown Unknowns in Writing


10 Tips For Creating Your First Children’s Picture Book