Jeffrey Beesler's World of the Scribe

Too Much Time on My Hands

2012-03-08T20:55:00.000-08:00

It very well could be that youth is wasted on the young. I find myself at this moment struggling to meet deadlines as different worlds collide. This is part of why I'm having shorter posts this week here at World of the Scribe. But you know something? A few years ago, I had the exact opposite problem. Too much time on my hands and nothing to write about. So here's to the me of yesteryear, the me who hadn't yet figured out that all of that excess time should've been spent on writing. Here's Styx with Too Much Time on My Hands!

Hungry Like the Wolf

2012-03-06T03:29:00.000-08:00

As I gear up for my first ever blog tour featuring my debut fantasy novel, Spell of Entrapment, I'm actually going to ease up a little on meaty subjects on the blog this week. I'm not going strict vegetarian here, but I do need to get a little bit of rest before the grand adventure begins.

Still in the mood for a little meat, are you? I can see in your eyes that you're ravenous, not unlike a furry predator of the forest. So sit back, relax, and enjoy a little Duran Duran. Pay no attention to all of this anti-wolf security system I've got set up. It's strictly for bunny rabbits.

Engage the Senses

2012-03-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the loudest way to share your voice with the world is with a gentle whisper. It may seem like a bit of a paradox, but it’s true. Right now, I’m trying to type as quietly as possible as I do not wish to disturb the rest of the household. Usually, I’m pounding really hard on the keyboard. Every sound I make is magnified a hundred times, or so it seems.

This kind of magnification is what you want to do for your readers. They won’t be able to experience the story without the five senses engaged. Use the power of your words to make your stories come to life through sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. Even peeling a banana can sound like shucking corn if you hone your ears. Or you could make a paper towel sound like sandpaper against your skin if you try really hard.

One of my favorite senses to try this trick on is with smell, especially when I’m immersed in writing. I can be typing away, crafting new worlds, oblivious to all around me (for the most part). But when someone is cooking up something, like a chicken dinner, my nose goes to work and notifies my stomach that something is up. Then I can't think of anything else.

Sensory immersion is a great tool to keep the reader engaged in what's going on in the world of your characters. By letting them experience things through the senses, you make things more realistic, a necessity in the fiction world. Let your senses guide your instincts, and you'll have prose that readers will want to devour.

Cold-Hearted

2012-03-01T12:57:00.000-08:00

I miss my winter jacket in the summer!

In case readingthe latest novel releases by awesome people like Alex J. Cavanaugh (and perhapsmyself, if I should qualify as awesome) has kept you busy, the days of winter are waning. Flowersand trees are threatening to bloom, the scourge of pollen readies to bombardus, and those who require sixteen hours of sleep can’t do so because of allthat near-incessant daylight pestering us with additional minutes and hours. It’senough to make a person cling desperately to their wintry jackets and sweaters.

I'm the original cold-hearted snake, baby!

Indeed. It won’tbe long now until the last snowflake falls for the next several months. Forthose who desire a rigid regiment of frigidity, the choices available mightleave them out in the cold. What’s a cold-hearted snake to do?

Fortunately, notall is lost. One need only turn to the fine art of emotions to find somethingchillingly worth preserving. Whether it’s hate, jealousy, cruel indifference,or the overwhelming urge toward revenge, dark emotions can quickly put a damperon someone’s bright and sunny day. Bury a protagonist under an avalanche ofapathy, and see how they rise above the challenge to survive. Be warned,however. By undertaking this mission to put your characters through absolutezero temperatures in terms of circumstances, you might inadvertently create anenjoyable experience for the reader.

Don’t let thewarmer weather discourage you from finding ways to enjoy icy conditions. Bytorturing your darling characters with an onslaught of near-insurmountableodds, you’ll bask in the frostiness of your own machinations. You may even findyourself wanting to give them a glimmer of hope, a silver lining in those dark,sleet-ridden clouds you’ve cast over the denizens of your imagination. Do this.Just make sure to yank the hope away as to keep them on their toes.

I can almost taste that carrot!

Dark emotions can send temperatures plummeting despite what thethermostat says. Who hasn’t gotten goose bumps over watching Kathy Bates inMisery, or reading the R section of the telephone directory? Harness the powerof thse emotions to further the power of your writing, and you may just findyourself being called a Cold-Hearted Snake. To demonstrate just how cold-heartedI can be, I shall now share a video with you from one Paula Abdul. (Does thisput me in the running for becoming the next super villain?)

Light My CassaFire!

2012-02-28T07:34:00.000-08:00

Today is the Catch Fire Blog Party, celebrating the release of CassaFire by Alex J. Cavanaugh! The goal is to help CassaFire “catch fire” on the best seller charts and achieve the success of the first book, CassaStar. There’s also a special package of prizes being given away at the author’s blog (copies of CassaFire, CassaStar, tote bag, mug, and bookmarks) as well as book giveaways during his two-week blog tour. See Alex’s site for details: http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/

CassaFire

by Alex J. Cavanaugh

CassaStar was just the beginning…

The Vindicarn War is a distant memory and Byron’s days of piloting Cosbolt fighters are over. He has kept the promise he made to his fallen mentor and friend - to probe space on an exploration vessel. Shuttle work is dull, but it’s a free and solitary existence. The senior officer is content with his life aboard the Rennather.

The detection of alien ruins sends the exploration ship to the distant planet of Tgren. If their scientists can decipher the language, they can unlock the secrets of this device. Is it a key to the Tgren’s civilization or a weapon of unimaginable power? Tensions mount as their new allies are suspicious of the Cassan’s technology and strange mental abilities.

To complicate matters, the Tgrens are showing signs of mental powers themselves; the strongest of which belongs to a pilot named Athee, a woman whose skills rival Byron’s unique abilities. Forced to train her mind and further develop her flying aptitude, he finds his patience strained. Add a reluctant friendship with a young scientist, and he feels invaded on every level. All Byron wanted was his privacy…

Available today!

Science fiction - space opera/adventure

Print ISBN 978-0-9827139-4-5, $15.95, 6x9 Trade paperback, 240 pages

EBook ISBN 978-0-9827139-6-9, $4.99, available in all formats

CassaFire is the sequel to Cavanaugh’s first book, CassaStar, an Amazon Top Ten Best Seller:

“…calls to mind the youthful focus of Robert Heinlein’s early military sf, as well as the excitement of space opera epitomized by the many Star Wars novels. Fast-paced military action and a youthful protagonist make this a good choice for both young adult and adult fans of space wars.” - Library Journal

You can visit the author’s site at http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/

Book trailer available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa6VINRGtyE.

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

Amazon Kindle

Oh, and as a World of the Scribe salute of the day for my dear friend Alex, once you're done checking out and snagging yourself a copy of CassaFire, go ahead and watch the video to Light My Fire. Go Alex! Woohoo!

Don't Come Around Here No More

2012-02-25T02:56:00.000-08:00

It’s been a wild week here at theWorld of the Scribe, that’s for sure. With my fantasy novel having debuted, I’mdefinitely seeing things through the looking glass. Up until this point, I’donly had the one short story published. This week has been a world of firstsfor me. My first novel published, my first sale, planning my first blog tour,and now, my first review; you can find that last one right here.

It’s amazing the journey I’ve takento get here. Who’d have thought that five years after starting the writingcorrespondence course, I’d be marketing novels. I sure as heck didn’t. It’samazing the journey I’ve travelled.

And yet I can never go back to whereI was even a week ago. I’ll never be an unpublished novelist again. My work isout there for the entire world to see, to evaluate, to judge. I’ve essentiallyput myself on the line creatively speaking.

For some, this might be troubling.To realize that they can never jump down the rabbit hole again and hide fromthe world is a fear that may keep some people from ever pursuing their dreams.Sometimes, however, the dream transcends that fear, as it has in my case. Theland of being a novelist is filled with such wonders, and horrors, for me toexplore. It’s definitely going to be interesting.

I just wanted to say a big thank youto everyone who’s encouraged me to chase after my writing dream over the years.It took me a while, but now I’m doing what I was always meant to do. Every oncein a while, I may look back on where I used to be. It’s perfectly natural to dothis. But I’ll never go back to that place. I’m too far in now. Only one way togo, and that’s forward. You have no idea how much I appreciate you giving me thenudge I needed to pursue my dream, and for telling me, “Don’t Come around HereNo More.” This one is for you.

Hitting the Road

2012-02-23T09:38:00.000-08:00

Once again, gas prices are on the rise. It’s a rather shame. I’m someone who, in the past at least, gets akick just takingoff for the day, going for a drive, winding up somewhere unfamiliar, yetstrangely exciting. I’ve driven to places to visit with family, but it’s beenfar too long since I took a road trip just for the sake of driving: June 15^th,2008, to be sure.

You might ask, “Jeff,what did you ever get out of driving around aimlessly for more than 24 hours?”Well, getting out of my regular routine for even just a day can have a profoundeffect on me. I remember the number of story ideas that cropped up as Inavigated the highways of Washington, Idaho, and Oregon, at the start of thatweekend. One of them happens to be my debut novel, which I’ve just releasedthis week.

How did Spell ofEntrapment grow from an idea to what it is today? Well, I just picked the idea thatmost captivated me during my drive and went with it. Being able to incorporatemy own experiences of solitude and veering away from society helped me to buildon the premise of being trapped in a house. The next thing I required was anelement of sorts. Being a speculative fiction writer, I had three options: sciencefiction, fantasy, and horror. For some reason, the fantasy stood out in my mindmore than the others, though I did tiptoe towards horror just a little in somescenes.

Once the rough draft was done, I went on to other projects, not even bothering to touch Spell formany months, if not a year. I came back to Spell with full revision vigor,sending it off to beta readers after each run-through. I also began to sendthis out as a query for literary agents again, until my good writer friend,Sean Sweeney, talked me into self-pub. (By the way, you should drop on over athis blog and say hello.)

Now, Spell ofEntrapment is available for sale. You can get it at Amazon.com and Smashwords.Nook fans, I haven’t forgotten about you. I’m just waiting for the Smashwordsto approve it so that I can opt in to Nook distribution on Smashwords.

As long as thegas prices keep rising, I may find myself travelling to places only in myimagination. I guess this’ll have to do for now, since I have quite thewandering mind. In the meantime, I can create keep on creating worlds that youmay find yourself enjoying to read. It’s my pleasure, privilege, and duty tocontinue doing so.

By the way, there’s still time to sign up for the Spell of EntrapmentBlog Tour, running March 13^th-26^th. Some slots have alreadybeen filled, but you can check out my Tuesday post for the slots still open.Any help you provide me with is greatly appreciated!

Announcing the Spell of Entrapment Blog Tour Schedule!

2012-02-21T12:16:00.000-08:00

There comes a time in an author’slife when they must throw convention out the window and strike out against theodds despite it all. For me, that time is now. I have spent this morninguploading my debut fantasy novel, Spell of Entrapment, to the Kindle Store. As of this writing, it's not yet available. (Don’tworry, Smashwords and Nook fans. Your turn is coming later this week!)

With the novel officially beingreleased, it’s time for me to step up my A-game on the blog tour. BeginningTuesday, March 13^th, and running through Monday, March 26^th,I’ll be hosting my blog tour. This includes weekend editions as well for theSaturdays and Sundays involved. If you would like to host me during this time,by all means drop me an email at jeffreybeesler (at) gmail (dot) com, subjectline Spell of Entrapment Blog Tour.

Here are the topics available duringthis time. First come, first served, as to whom lays claim on them. A name in bold italic at the end of the article title means that slot has been filled. Bold articles are presented for weekend dates, so be aware. They are asfollows:

March 13^th-AuthorInterview with Jeffrey Beesler-Anastasia V. Pergakis

March 14^th-CharacterInterview #1: Embekah Mare

March 15^th-Fantasy: ANew Reality-Stephen Tremp

March 16^th-Sorsophobia:The Fear of Magic-Lincoln Crisler

March 17^th-Sins of thePast: A Discussion on Back Story-Donna Hole

March 18^th-CharacterInterview #2: Sir Patrew, Knight of the Travan Army

March 19^th-Truth: SetsYou Free, or Destroys You?

March 20^th-One is Nota Lonely Number-Ellie Garratt

March 21^st-Change ofPlans-Bryan Russell

March 22^nd-Envisionthe Revision-Benjamin X. Wretlind

March 23^rd-CharacterInterview #3: Tarbra Relsh

March 24^th-Music WhileWriting-Melissa Bradley

March 25^th-EveryDetail, a Nuance

March 26^th-Dealer’sChoice: Whatever Alex J. Cavanaugh wants me to talk about!-Alex J. Cavanaugh

As topics fill, I will updatethis page regularly and let people know when the guest post slots are filled. Ihave to admit that this is truly an exciting time for me.

One final thing. No matter whathappens from this point on, I’ll always be a published novelist. Whether thattranslates into success remains to be seen, but right now I’m feeling prettydarned accomplished.

Running Down a Dream

2012-02-18T02:57:00.000-08:00

I’ve been doing some soul-searchinglately. It’s been no secret in the last few weeks that I’ve been sending outquery letters left and right. After all, I am living the writer’s dream, am Inot?

Well, something has happened tochange the way things happen in publishing. The query phase has always been asource of dread for the writer. Submitting a proposal or a project to apublisher or an agent comes wrought with anxiety, antacids, and an uncertaintythat their work may never get published. The writer could spend an eternitychasing after the dream without ever catching it. Even if everything is ironed-outperfect in the manuscript, a matter of personal taste can still eclipse thegoal of making it through the gateway.

The change I speak of?Self-publishing. Somewhere along the line, the playing field has been leveled.Writers who never would've had a chance to publish before are doing so now,bypassing those who may or may not have ever taken them under their wing.

I’d like to bring your attention tothe matter of the Vampire Diaries. A recent account has come to my attention ofhow the author has systematically been fired from writing about the charactersshe’s created. This horrifies me, and should horrify you as well. What good isbeing able to write if you can’t write about your own creations, to have aghost writer pen material in place of you? No one has as much power in voice asthe original author.

I’m still going to pursuetraditional publishing, but as of this writing I’ve got to stand up and do what’sbest for me. I’ve written over 410 posts to this blog, yet I have not yetreleased something into the world, some tangible proof that I’m not just a hackwithout a story to tell. I can only hold a person’s interest for so long beforethey tire of me.

Unless I canprovide them with the goods. Well, that time is now. My fantasy novel, Spell ofEntrapment, is going into self-publication. The last thing that held me back,the cover art, has been taken down. All the barriers are down now. I’ve beenthe only person to ever truly stand in the way of my own dreams, and it’s hightime I stop.

Which is why on Tuesday, I’ll officiallyannounce my line-up of posts for my first-ever blog tour. The Spell ofEntrapment tour will start on March 13^th and run until the 26th,though if enough parties are interested I’ll extend my tour to the 31^st.On Tuesday, I’ll have a list of the topics available for this milestone event.

In the meantime, enjoy one of thesongs I think speaks volumes about the past few years of my life. Here’s TomPetty’s “Running Down a Dream”.

Urgent Priorities

2012-02-16T05:50:00.000-08:00

Ooh...games!

With everything that life has tothrow at us, writing can easily get brushed to the side, swept up in a sea ofpriorities over things which may not even need top priority. I’m not talkingabout the more obvious things like taking care of your family or going to workjust so you can support your writing habit. I’m talking about stuff likechecking email, hanging out on social media, playing online games.

I have this tendency where I can gomonths without gaming, and then something sucks me right back in. This isespecially true when I’m between projects, or when I’m focused more onsubmitting, rather than creating, such is the case now. I never wake up withthe intent to lose my day to these games.

I don't hear you, la la la la la!

Unfortunately, I let myself getdistracted to the point where I almost get nothing done.

So how can I do better about makingsure I stay productive? First, I can get right straight to the writing, firstand foremost. All of those popup messages that scream at me to look at them canwait, pure and simple. I’ve got to get out of the mentality that everything inmy inbox is urgent.

Second, I can always walk away fromthe games. The thing about them is that they require participation. If I’m notparticipating, they can’t take away from my writing time.

Third, let people know, in a politeand gentle way, that I’ve got to get things done, and that I can play the gameonce I’ve gotten my work done. Mostpeople understand about this sort of thing. The main thing is that I understandwhere my writing lies. It has to be important to me or else it’ll never getdone.

As I grow older, I’ll have less timeto write. That’s why it’s becoming increasingly “Urgent” for me to write. I’vegot to get cracking on it if I ever want to see my books published someday.Well, maybe I’ll get cracking, after I watch this Foreigner video. (Or betteryet, get cracking on it after work.)

Eminent Souls by Sean Sweeney (A Guest Post)

2012-02-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

(Editor's note: Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. As a special treat for one of my writer pals, I've decided to hand over the reins of my Tuesday post to author Sean Sweeney. Right now, I'm reading the first in his Jaclyn Johnson thriller series, Model Agent. It being a day of love, however, I asked Sean to discuss his newly released book, Eminent Souls, a historical romance. Make sure to stop by his site and say hello when you're done checking out his books. Without further ado, here's Sean!)

When you see this cover, it's incredibly obvious that it's not a cover that reflects romance in any way:

That's the new cover of my new novel, EMINENT SOULS, which is a romance -- of sorts. It's not your usual, every day, run-of-the-mill romance novel. There is love, yes: there is the love of two young people from different styles of living. But there's a different kind of love in this book: the love that two young people share of a piece of property -- not just any piece of property; it's where they met and fell in love.

In truth, it was more than just a piece of property: Scollay Square was a lifestyle.

For yours truly, Scollay Square became a love affair -- even if I didn't know exactly what was in it until a couple of years ago.

Back in 1991, I was 14 years old, and during the summer, I was about to enter my freshman year at Fitchburg High School. In late July, my folks, myself and my sister all went to Boston one Saturday. I didn't know why. It was just a day trip. We had walked through the Government Center area first, even though I really didn't know it at the time. We walked up to the State House and down Beacon Street. We approached the Cheers bar -- remember, it was 1991 and they were between seasons nine and ten -- and Jen and I were excited about that. But I more excited for seeing the Citgo sign in Kenmore Square: we were going to the Red Sox game! I think we were seeing the Twins that day. Or the Mariners. Who knows, really. We saw the game, then joined the throngs of people on the Green Line.

Dad had said something about seeing a free concert that night, but truthfully, I wasn't in the mood. I had seen enough (*gulp* and that is nothing I would say today) of Boston for one day, and just wanted to get home. Hell, I had seen the Red Sox game. That was enough for me.

I still had to go to the concert. Reluctantly, I went.

As we stepped off the subway at Government Center and walked up the steps to City Hall Plaza, I was amazed by what I saw. The monstrous City Hall off to my right, the towers of the JFK Federal Building straight ahead and off to the left a bit. People filled in the amphitheater around the north stage. It seemed like a great place.

That's when dad said, "We're in Scollay Square, the old happening place in Boston."

Those words set off a love affair with the Square. I knew about it -- but I truly didn't know about it. It wasn't until a couple of years ago, when I was in the process of brainstorming MODEL AGENT, that I decided to look into Scollay Square's history a little more.

Suffice it to say, I was astonished -- and sickened -- by what I saw and read. Gorgeous architecture, gone. Twenty-two streets, altered or wiped out completely. Over 200 years of history, wiped out with a wrecking ball. But more importantly than that, I learned that what my father had said was true: Scollay Square was a happening place. It had spirit. It had life. It was the heart of Boston, the entertainment district that preceded the Combat Zone. And I decided that I would have been quite comfortable living in and around Scollay Square.

It is also why I had Jaclyn Johnson thinking, "They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot," as she gets out of Hanson's car on Congress Street in MA.

EMINENT SOULS deals with more than just love. It deals with the fear Bostonians dealt with in the late 1950's and early 1960's. It deals with prejudices the poor endured from the snobbish Boston Brahmins. And it also deals with the fight Bostonians entered with the city against urban renewal -- one gentleman I spoke with said that his brother in law was a state representative at the time the West End, near Scollay Square, was revitalized a few years before the Square went through the same eminent domain process, and he said that he still hasn't forgiven his brother in law for how the city and state never helped those people. It's absolutely shameful.

But more importantly, EMINENT SOULS is a love letter from me to Scollay Square. I was born too late to fully enjoy the Square in its heyday, to take in a burlesque show at the Old Howard (that's the Old Howard on fire on my cover, 25 years to the day before the Celtics were honored by the city at City Hall Plaza, the same day Jerry Williams said, "I am not broadcasting from Government Center; I am broadcasting from Scollay Square. Let's bring back Scollay Square!") and have a Joe and Nemo hot dog all around (with horse radish, too), but I know in my heart of hearts that I would have loved it all.

Dad was right. Scollay Square was happening. It was the scene, the place to be.

So you see, it's more than just about romance. It's more about remembering what was once good and great about Boston, and what can happen when fear sets in. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you, too, can fall in love with a neighborhood that now only exists in our elders' minds.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Eminent Souls on Kindle (US)
Eminent Souls on Kindle (UK)
Eminent Souls on Nook
Eminent Souls on Smashwords

Chump Change, or I Don't Give a Dime

2012-02-11T15:38:00.000-08:00

Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?

Whether you’re a plotter or apantser (one who just writes whatever springs to mind) kind of writer, you maynot realize that you’re inadvertently a coin collector. It’s true. Mostly ifyou’re into the writing thing, either for personal pleasure or for professionalpublication, you’re gathering dimes. A lot of times, ideas are a dime a dozen.Or you could be writing, and the story turns on a dime without you realizingit.

Of course, you might also use a dimeto make a decision on how to progress a story. Every time you flip a coin, youmight be leaving a pile of dimes lying around on your desk. (This happens tome.) Or perhaps you have a tendency to misspeak at times, and you tell peopleyou don’t give a dime. (Why not? You seem to be coming out of the woodwork withthese tiny coins.) Then again, maybe you accidently poke someone’s eye out withall of your dime-flipping ways.

I saw it first! No, it's mine. I got dibs on it!

Despite all of these possible usesfor dimes in writing, one fact remains. With all of our hard work that we putinto our craft, often times it feels like all we get for our efforts is chumpchange. We toil for hours, days, weeks, months, and even years on end, and forwhat? Less than minimum wage? You’d be far more successful in your monetarypursuits if you went to college to learn how to become an ambulance chaser, especially if you're flinging dimes at people.

So if money seems to be a stretch ofan excuse for us to write, what’s the real reason why we do it? Love of thecraft. We’re so passionate about what we do that we couldn’t stop even if wewanted to. (Which we don’t.) So we plug along, writing about these fictional orreal accounts of people, hoping that someone out there will listen to us,whether it be a reader, a literary agent, or a publisher. If we get paid forour work (and we should), then great. But most importantly, we write because it’sour passion, our creative outlet.

Man, if I had a dime for every timeI used a set of parentheses today, I’d have…not even enough to put in a jukeboxthese days. But maybe it’s better that I don't put another dime in the "Jukebox”. Yup, dimes have even shown up in cheesy 80's music videos! See you on Valentine’s Day!

Day Off

2012-02-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

Greetings and salutations, my fellow World of the Scribe denizens. I'm taking the day off from World of the Scribe for the celebration of my wife's birthday (Happy Birthday, Jenny!). But I am over at Unicorn Bell, getting settled in for my monthly weekly gig over there (no, you didn't misread that). And also Matthew MacNish is critiquing the revised version of the query letter I showed you last week. How did it fare? You'll have to visit the QQQE for details.

Now, in honor of my day off from World of the Scribe, here's a video featuring a song from the classic movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. "Oh, Yeah" is just the thing I hope to be hearing with regards to that query of mine. Have a good one, and back with a regular post on Saturday!

Rest in Peace, Sharon Hays

2012-02-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

The following is taken from Sharon Hays's Facebook Page. I'll have something else to add on in a second, but first things first:

In Loving Memory

Sharon passed away on Monday, Feb. 6th, 2012 after suffering a stroke.

She lived a full and happy life as a mother and entrepreneur. Later in life she pursued her passion for painting and writing, then fulfilled her dream of becoming a published author.

To keep her spirit alive, Sharon would want to be remembered through her books. In leau of flowers, please visit her website atwww.sharonhays.com/publishedworks.htm for a complete list of her works.

Portions of all proceeds benefit the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America. For more information visitwww.wishyouwellfoundation.org.

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers.

Sharon's passing coincided with a piece of advice I had given another writer. "Write today as if it were your last chance to write." Strange how the universe sometimes works to help illustrate a point. I'm sitting here thinking, why didn't I at least engage Sharon in at least one Thanks for the Add on Facebook (since she was the one who friend-requested me).

And yet maybe the brevity of our fledgling friendship may be the most profound thing about it. Perhaps her departure can impact me in such a way that I will take greater care, grander strides, in being there for those who care about me, and who I care about.

Thank you, Sharon Hays, for helping me to give sound advice. May the literary world never forget you.

Dreams

2012-02-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

Your brain likes sensory information, indeed!

Inspiration can strike a writer atany given time. The colors of a sunrise (or sunset, if you’re more the nightowl type), the sweet sound of a robin serenading the neighborhood with a songof fancy, the smell of crisp bacon rising into the air from the frying pan,beckoning you to breakfast. The sights, sounds, and even smells of the worldcan all add a nice layer of sensory information to your writing.

And of course, there is the externalinteraction between folks. A quiet chitchat, a disruptive argument, or alusting between two lovers not having seen each other in ages; these too canprovide great fodder for the manuscripts you create. Just add a dash ofconflict, some water, and stir thoroughly, and bam! You’ve got yourself arecipe for something you might serve to a salivating reader.

Feed me...

But not everything that inspiresneeds to come from an outside source. Sometimes the best ideas befall us whenwe least expect them. At night (or during the day, if again your feathers arethose of a nocturnal bird), we shut our eyes as our heads drift wearily uponthe pillow, ready to embark on roughly eight hours of rest. It is while we arein this state of repose that inspiration can advance on us from a more inwardlydirection. I’m talking about those patches of mental fragments knitted into thefabric of a dreamscape.

Dreams can provide writers withideas they may’ve long buried in the back of their mind, laying in wait untilthe scribe is no longer distracted. Once the writer is in the dream mode, allsorts of images can spring to mind. They could be scary, heavenly, or what not.They offer yet another glimpse into the imagination, into the realm ofpossibility.

The other night, I rested, and woundup dreaming up a scenario where mental asylum zombies went on a bloody rampageon Election Day. At once I wrote this down. Not necessarily because I fearedthat the zombies would vote for incumbents, but rather because I saw the sparkin this potential story idea.

If you ever happen to run out ofmaterial to write about (heaven forbid), then start jotting down the dreams youhave, if you can remember them. The ideas that may emerge from them could bethe next major story you write. But be warned. Turn your back on these dreams,and they could persist. As the Cranberries say about “Dreams”, they’re “impossibleto ignore”. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Hold the Homophone!

2012-02-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

Synapses and synopsis look so muchalike to me. Isn’t it strange? Right now, to the detriment of my synapses, I’min the midst of perfecting the synopsis for my novel, Spell of Entrapment, which I’ll be submitting to agents andpublisher shortly. I’ve finished revisions and am looking forward to this nextstep. But trying to pick the perfect word can be downright tricky. Just look atmy opening sentence here. Those two words could easily be confused with theother.

It’s not just these words, however.You’re and your; they’re, their, and there; two, too, and to; these are but afew of the examples of words we find too often misused. I’d like to say thatthis is just a phenomenon limited to writers. Unfortunately, it’s spilled outinto other institutions of the language, as EJ Wesley at The Open Vein so eloquentlyinvestigates in his most recent blog post.

Back to the lookalike words. I’vespoken about them before on the blog, back in June if I’m not mistaken. Thesehomophones are certainly difficult for even the most experienced author tonavigate past. And it doesn’t help that our word processor’s spell check/grammarcheck programs don’t usually catch these critters.

So what can we do to better prepare ourselvesfor these lookalike words? First, be vigilant. Give the story a glance over ahundred times if you have to. Second, get a beta reader involved. They oftencan catch things you’ll miss because of emotional distance. Third, familiarizeyourself with the list of homophones. This is a link to a bunch of homophones,including U.K. occurrences, but definitely a great list to have on hand just incase.

Words can be pretty powerful if handled correctly, and used properly.Unfortunately, inserting the wrong homophone can make the word, and your work,essentially useless. Then you’ll find yourself asking, “What are words for?”Kind of like that 80’s rock group, Missing Persons.

Spell of Entrapment, a Query Letter

2012-01-31T08:53:00.000-08:00

Today’spresentation of World of the Scribe may leave some of you wondering where myregular posts have gone. They’re taking the day off, because there is adifferent matter I’d like to discuss with you. You see, some of you may knowthat I’m a writer, that I tell stories. Usually, I write these in solitudewhile discussing the writing craft here on my blog.

But you knowwhat? Eventually the story must go out into the world. Outside of a synopsis Istill need to draft as of this writing, I’ve reached the apex of submissiononce more. It’s a familiar looking space, overlooking the valley of where allstory ideas begin, and seeing the winding trail of writing, rewriting,revising, and editing the story that has led me to where I stand today. I’vecertainly had a fun run with this book, but now it’s time for me to let go.

And I shall startby sharing with you the query letter, sans salutation, I’ve drafted for myfantasy novel, Spell of Entrapment.What comes next is the actual query itself. Comments and feedback are of coursewelcome.

Even though sorceress Embekah Mare hasn’t aligned herself with thievesin twenty years, the Royal Army of Trava still wants to arrest her for grandtreason. As a result, she’s lived in exile, preparing her manor’s defenses for whenthe kingdom’s soldiers, led by Sir Patrew, kick down her door. Patrew lusts afterthe glory of her capture and will stop at nothing to bring her in. She can’t evenprocure information on magical toadstools from her former guild sister, Tarbra Relsh,without risking her freedom.

But Embekah’s not ready to go down without a fight, especially when Patrewinvades her abode. Fury consumes her in a display of sorcery, an act which rendersher unconscious. Upon recovery, she awakens to find Patrew meandering about inhis long underwear, rather than carting her off to the castle dungeon. Shequickly realizes why after discovering a spell of entrapment binding theminside the manor’s walls. Now forced to live together, Embekah must navigateher way through alternating feelings of trust and suspicion, contending withthe man’s stubborn belief of her guilt all the while.

And just when Embekah thinks she can fully trust Patrew, a shape-shiftingspirit arrives inside the magical barrier’s walls to threaten her life. Unlessshe diffuses this new threat and collapses the barrier, or alert Tarbra somehow, she may never escapethese four walls, or her would-be captor.

Spell of Entrapment is a fantasy novel of approximately 72,000words. Sample pages and chapters are available upon request.

Letting Go

2012-01-28T02:43:00.000-08:00

February 1^st marks themoment that I’ve imposed a deadline for myself to start submitting my novel,Spell of Entrapment, to literary agents and publishers. I’m pleased to informyou that I do believe this moment will be met. Hard work and persistence havecarried me through from the inception of the novel, to the six drafts it’s gonethrough, to now. Things are looking up for my fantasy novel, yessiree.

It’s amazing how many opportunitiesthere are for writers these days. You’ve got your traditional publishing andliterary agents, though this route can be so hard at times to attempt as thereare thousands of manuscripts sent this way. Then you have your smaller presses,publishers who probably don’t pay out advances but who may be able to get youpublished a lot quicker than if you vie for the bigger presses. And of course,there’s always the go-it-alone method of self-publishing. Never has it been a bettertime to be an author, I think with these various venues in which to pursuepublishing.

Yet in spite of it all, sometimesthere is a struggle within us. We keep working on the manuscript. Okay, yes,the rough draft never really comes out as the diamond we want it to be, butrather a lump of coal. And of course, we might not catch everything in thefirst couple of revisions. Spell of Entrapment, for example, is presently on itssixth revision, titled #F. (I useletters to number my manuscripts and not numbers to keep myself from holdingonto a manuscript for too terribly long.)

There are manuscripts that probablyshould be put out to pasture. Maybe you’ve never written a single thing in yourlife, and are now starting with your first novel. Yeah, you can probably shelfthat one. Yet sometimes there’s nothing wrong with the manuscript, and you tryto fix it time and again, never really happy with the results but too afraid tosend it off to share with the world at large. Fear of rejection is a hugedetriment to the submission process. So is perfectionism.

At some point, you’re just going tohave to let go of your manuscript. Whether you scrap it, or send it off tosomeone to get it published, you can’t hold onto it. How else do you expect togrow as a writer if you do not attempt your hands at something else?

But don’t worry. You’re not the only one who struggles to let go ofthings. Case in point: Third Eye Blind, with their song, “Never Let You Go”.Have a good weekend, everyone.

Talk to Me

2012-01-26T07:41:00.000-08:00

This was as close of a photo I could find to a part 2 icon...

Previously on World of the Scribe,our hero contemplated the strangeness that was dashboard page view counts withhis loyal audience. Others chimed in with their comments to reveal that they,too, had recently experienced glitches galore on their blog dashboards. Havingdecided that the page count fluke was indeed that, our hero mused over the twotypes of visitors to his web site. The first was the casual visitor, whom henamed near the end of our last episode. But who was the second type of visitor?

And now, World of the Scribecontinues!

I’m really glad I have this blog.Some days it seems like I dread coming here to it, because in some ways I’vealmost deemed it more like a chore and less like something to embrace, towholeheartedly enjoy. I guess the same can be said of any pursuit of passion.Sometimes, the line between love and hate truly thins.

Part of this might be blogfatigue. Blogging five days a week for fourteen months straight, with only twoor three weeks off for good behavior, may have added to this. And as I ascendhigher into the 400’s as far as the number of posts go, I can’t help but wonderif and when I’ll run out of things to talk about with you.

But therein lays the reason why Icontinue coming to the blog. I want to talk to all of you, my loyal blogfollowers who always come back for more. Yeah, sometimes I may not respondright away to comments. And there may betimes when I just can’t get around to the blogs as much as I’d like. But I’malways on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ if you ever do want to chat, if onlyto say, yo Jeff, talk to me, fool! It’s been a long time! I assure you, I won’tmind. You can even drop me a comment via email if you’re so inclined. jeffreybeesler(at) gmail (dot) com.

Many people do want you to talk tothem. It’s perfectly all right to do so. Heck, right now there’s this 80’ssinger, Stevie Nicks, who says you can “Talk to Me”. Although in her case, Ithink it may be a little difficult, but you can still enjoy her music video allthe same!

The Day My Page Views Didn't Stand Still

2012-01-24T11:35:00.000-08:00

Something odd happened to me theother day. I actually wrote my 400^th post for World of the Scribe.That’s not the weird thing though, since lots of people get around to writingtheir 400^th blog post at some point in their lives, right? I figuredI’d focus on writer’s block, a subject that for 399 posts had gone untested inmy blog’s waters. Again, the lack of writing on that topic for so long wasn’tthe weird part.

So I posted and went about my day. Icame back a few days later for post #401 on Saturday. As I opened up mydashboard, I finally found the strangeness of what had happened. BetweenThursday and Saturday, that one little post garnered close to 300 views. Itquickly shot up to my second most popular post ever, seconded only by my postlast February of A-Z Challenge Blogfest preparations.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeinghere. Surely, there had to be some sort of dashboard error. My blog doesn’tnormally score that high of a view count in such a short time. And yet thenumber was there, plain as day.

As of now, post #401 has only had 14views, which is back to the general area of which I am accustomed. I don’tthink what happened with my 400^th post was a fluke by any means.Most likely, it had to do with the way I tagged the post that somehow got moretraffic to it. It makes sense. New Kids on the Block, Writer's Block, Writing, You Got It (The RightStuff); these are the tags I used.

To this day, people arestill trying to figure out the magical formula on how to get more views totheir sites. For me, sure, numbers are great and all, but I’m just going tokeep doing the things I’ve been doing that got me to over 400 posts. I’m justgoing to be myself. It’s the most engaging thing I can do on social media thatwill push me forward. After all, the numbers aren’t just numbers. They’repeople, too. Some of them stop by for a quick visit and continue on, and that’sfine.

The orange reads as "Fun Activity Break".

There is another type ofperson who comes to my blog besides the casual visitor. I’ll speak more aboutthis type on Thursday. For now, since I’ve dedicated today to page views, Imight as well showcase a song that has to do with "A View to a Kill”. Hope you’rein the mood for some Duran Duran!

A Point of Exclamation

2012-01-21T08:53:00.000-08:00

If you’ve known me for a while, bynow you’ve come to realize that I’m here to make my mark upon the world. There’sa point to what I do, and I don’t need to make a stinkin’ exclamation about itin order to get my views across to you. That said, today I shall punctuate thispost with a brief discussion on our overused and truly abused friend, theexclamation point.

Stephen King is known for sayingthat you are allowed only two exclamation points per story. I get the feelingfrom this comment that he may’ve felt even two exclamation points may’ve pushedthe limits, too. The exclamation mark is a chief indication of strong emotionand/or an intense level in the vocal regions. Often, this little piece ofpunctuation can be used to emphasize whatever’s going on in the work.Sometimes, people use it to add an extra oomph of emphasis, even though it’swidely frowned upon in circles.

So how can you make sure you’reusing the exclamation mark to your advantage? First, make sure that youabsolutely have a need for it. Internal thoughts and pieces of dialogue are great for it, but sometimesyou can convey the emotion through what the characters are doing. Show, don’ttell, will help keep your exclamation points down to a minimum.

Second, avoid using them in excessaltogether. Don’t you hate it when you’re online and you read a comment,article, or blog post in which a gazillion of those !’s are used on end.Imagine how your reader feels.

Like any other tool in the language,exclamations can spice up your manuscript. Just make sure that you don’t makeit too spicy by shouting everything, because then you might give your readersheartburn.

Now, in honor of the exclamationpoint, I think it’s time to turn it over to some more 80’s music. Here’s Tearsfor Fears, with their exclamatory song, “Shout”. Enjoy!

On the Block (A World of the Scribe 400th Post Extravaganza!)

2012-01-19T05:40:00.000-08:00

The other day I had a conversationwith a writer who was looking to find a way to push past his writer’s block(yes, it’s about time I tackle that subject, and I couldn’t have picked abetter one for today’s post). I took amoment to reflect on this matter. And when I say reflect, I mean I was alreadyposting a response to him. I told him that some of the things that get memotivated to write are my emotions. Sadness, anger, fear, annoyance,excitement, love, hate; the starting tools of our craft.

He said he’d take my advice underconsideration the next time he made time to write. Also, he admitted there weresome real life experiences he could draw upon to help him on his merry way. I wasn't sure what of my advice he'd take, but it still made me smile knowing I'd help him out.

Writer’s block is such a strangephenomenon. Some people believe it is a real condition, brought on by stress orself-doubt. Other people think it’s just an excuse for writers not to write.(Boy can we ever come up with a laundry list of excuses!) I could see howsomeone would not want to write if they were suffering from a physical illness,or suffering the loss of a loved one. Conversely, I couldn’t fathom how they would not write if theyunderstood how therapeutic the process can be.

Really, though, there are no excusesfor not writing. If you want to write, write. If you don’t, then don’t, but don’tblame it on writer’s block. You’re making the choice, conscious or otherwise,to not dedicate a moment or two of your time to putting words on paper or onthe blank screen.

Don’t believe me? Well, let me tellyou something. I didn’t want to write this blog post. I wanted to do anythingother than write this post. But I’ve fought past my lazy temptations and donethe work I needed to do anyhow. That’s the kind of fight it takes for awriter/blogger to reach 400 posts, which is precisely why thistopic is an awesome one for today’s installment. You can write. You just needto choose to do so.

Now, just in case my words haven’tgotten you off the writer’s block, I think I’m going to have to put some NewKids on the Block. Oh, yes. I’ve got the right stuff, baby! Maybe you’llremember this video the next time you want to hide behind writer’s block.

7 Somethings About Me

2012-01-17T07:28:00.000-08:00

Some awesome things have beenhappening to me as of late. Recently, I’ve been asked to become a contributorto not one, but two blogs. The first one I’m about to mention, and the second I’llsave for another time. Apparently, there’s something about me that is makingpeople take notice. This is a good thing, I assure you. I’m looking forward tocollaborating with the good folks at Unicorn Bell. I sincerely hope that Ibring the fresh male perspective that these wonderful ladies have been lookingfor, just to add more variety to things around there. Thank you, ladies! Besure to check out their (our) blog.

And once again the Versatile Bloggeraward has found its way to my domain. This is either the third or fourth time I’vereceived it, this time the giver of the award one of my newest Twitter writerbuddies, Jase. Be sure to follow him on Twitter and to follow his blog, too, atResurrected Writer. He’ll thank you for it, and I’ll thank you for it, too.

Since I’ve already received theVersatile Award numerous times, I’ll let anyone who has never received it lay claim to it. However, in the spirit of theaward’s listing seven things about me, I’ll still go ahead and do that part.

1. I had my first and only brush with alcohol atthe age of three. Yes, I was a notorious toddler, always trying to cross overinto the wrong side of the toy train tracks.

2. I respect the food of chili from a greatdistance.

3. I’ll break into any song at random. Lately, the Little House on the Prairie theme has been showing up.

4. From second grade to sixth grade, I attendedYoung Author Conferences at my elementary school. Quite an awesome program. Ihope they still have it. I also won a writing award in the 4^thgrade, and in 11^th grade my English teacher told me I achieved a100% on a paper, something very hard to do in her class.

5.One of my favorite cartoons to watch growing upwas My Little Pony. I’m not afraid to say it. Do you realize how much of theelement of fantasy turned up in that show? We had ponies being turned to stone,turned to glass, being kidnapped by ruthless goat tyrants, and so forth. Don’tjudge me, guys.

6. I didn’t realize the value of the word trompuntil 2011.

7. I’ve recently come across evidence that Jack maynot have fallen down the hill on his own, and that he broke his crown as aresult of being pushed. So far, the Court of Mother Goose has not been willingto hear my claim.

So there you have it. Sevensomethings about me. Now it’s your turn. Have you got something about you thatyou’d like to share? No? Well then, just listen to Level 42 here, and see youback here on Thursday!

'Til Tuesday

2012-01-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry to disappoint you this week, but because of time constraints I'll have to make do without a Saturday post. I should be back up and running next Saturday, and of course Tuesday and Thursday I'll have more posts for you.

In the meantime, 'Til Tuesday, I hope you remember that "Voices Carry". And if not, enjoy yet another classic 80's tune, from the rock group 'Til Tuesday. Have a great weekend, everyone!

When Pronouns Collide

2012-01-12T05:43:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, I introduced you to alist of pronouns outside of the personal (the I, you, we, they, he, she, itvariety). In the comments section I got a request to point out when not to usepronouns. Well, far be it from me to deny a blog reader of a request, so herewe go.

First off, a pronoun refers back tosomeone or something that has appeared earlier in the text. An example of thiswould be something like: The book’sreliance on vulgarity bought it no favors with the publisher. In thisinstance, the pronoun it refers back to the book, although with this example,one might think that it actually replaces reliance, rather than the bookitself. This is one instance where a pronoun might not be necessary, and whereyou might revise the sentence to read: Thepublisher couldn’t get past the book’s vulgarity. Still a bit choppy, Ithink, but it serves the purpose of no pronoun.

Another instance in which you wantto watch out for pronouns is the sheer number of people, places, or things (inother words, nouns) that you have going on in a sentence. If the only personyou have in a paragraph is Mary, then you could probably get away with usingthe pronoun she for the remainder of that section, at least until you introducea second lady, Nancy. Then you’ve got yourself a heck of a problem if you don’trefer to them specifically by name. The slightest lapse in clarity can throwyour reader right out of the story. You do not want or need this.

And then you’ve got to watch out forsomething like this: They say it might rain tomorrow. Now, chances are peoplemight believe you’re talking about the local weather report. But what if youmeant to say that the group of seniors who always hang out at the duck pondwere the ones who said it could rain? See what happens there? It falls back onthat being clear with your pronouns.

One last thing. Make sure your pronounsdon’t cause any riff in terms of gender. If you were to say, A teacher mustinstruct his students properly to ensure a good education, what do you supposewould happen? It wouldn’t be pretty. It might be okay to say, A teacher must instruct his or her studentsproperly, or you might even say, Ateacher must instruct their students properly, to circumnavigate the wholematter of gender. The best fix, however, might be: Teachers must instruct their students properly. (Edit: It's been brought to my attention that saying, A teacher must instruct her students, is actually now considered gender neutral. Ah, the evolution of the English language!)

I know this pronoun stuff can beconfusing. In fact, it’s probably so much so that you might wind up looking atevery pronoun and thinking to yourself, “Who Can it be Now?” Well, don’t youworry! The 80’s music group, Men at Work, can help us out here, if only by wayof inspiration. Enjoy!

Fun with Pronouns!

2012-01-10T10:24:00.000-08:00

You and I have got something to talkabout. It’s not going to be pretty, no matter how much they might try to tellyou otherwise. We must not listen to that one guy on the corner who doesn’tknow what he’s talking about. It’s up tous to pay attention to each and every word from the get-go. I’ll tell you whyin a moment.

First, however, welcome to Fun withPronouns Day here at World of the Scribe. Recently I’ve come to discover thatthere are far more pronouns than the usual I, you, we, us, they, he, and it variety. Let me share these with you.

ReflexivePronouns. These pronouns deal with nouns located elsewhere in the same sentence.What might clue you in that you’re dealing with a reflexive pronoun? The suffixof –self. Yourself, himself, themselves, myself, and itself are all included inthis mix.

Possessive Pronouns. Used heavily in the adjective sense,these pronouns show possession. My, your, his, its, their, and our are part ofthis cluster.

Absolute Possessive Pronouns. This set of pronouns demonstrates anair of possession, too. However, unlike regular possessive, these pronouns arefit to sit on their own. Yours, ours, his, theirs, and mine are good examplesof this.

Interrogative Pronouns. These pronouns are tricky, becauseon the surface they may not seem like pronouns. Mostly, you’ll find them inquestions like, who wrote the awesomebook, CassaStar? What, how, which, when, and where also star in this ensemble.

Demonstrative Pronouns. These pronouns serve as an indicatoror demonstrator of the word they are replacing. This, these, that, and thoseare your all-stars in this category. You’ll likely see them in sentences suchas this is where she got lost, where the present location has been replacedby this.

Indefinite Pronouns. By the same token, there arepronouns which cater more to obscurity. Anybody, nobody, everybody, some, many,few, all, most, none, each, and several are included on this roster. Yes, thiswould be the largest group of pronouns that we have. We sure like ourvagueness, don’t we?

Relative Pronouns. These pronouns supply furtherinformation in a sentence. That, which, who, whom, whose, and where functionunder this category. (Anyone else notice that some words have shown up morethan once here?)

Reciprocal Pronouns. As the title implies, this set ofpronouns has to do with actions and feelings that come off as beingreciprocated. Each other and one another both serve as the most common in thissection.

So there you have it. A whole breakdown of pronouns for you. Now did youpay attention to every word? Because I’ve purposely omitted one type ofpronoun: the feminine pronoun. I supplied you with the masculine and neutralpronouns of he and it respectively, but I left one out on purpose. Why? BecauseCyndi Lauper seems a better authority on this last pronoun than I. Here’s themissing pronoun and Cyndi Lauper’s song from the 80’s. “She Bop”. Enjoy!

Sentimental Street

2012-01-07T02:50:00.000-08:00

For some people, it may be hard tofathom how I of all people could be an avid soap fan. Well, it started outinnocently enough in 1996, when my grandmother was still alive and I wound upworking a shift that allowed me time to sit down and watch half of one withher. This I found was quality time well spent as she had by this time suffereda series of strokes and her health was in swift decline. It brought me closerto her, helped me to retain a connection with her through the final years ofher life.

Connection is a very important thingfor me. We all have our reasons for reading and writing. It’s a way for me toconnect with characters, other people’s thoughts and ideas, both author andcharacter. I like to be emotionally invested in someone’s journey, being heldcaptive to a breath while I flip through the pages to see if the protagonist I’mreading survives (or in the special case of Twilight,the antagonist.)

There are two main driving forces toevery story in fiction. Characters and plot. Neither way is any stronger thanthe other. Sometimes a plot-driven storyline can be just the thing a readerneeds if what that reader requires is something they don’t need a lot of emotionalstake in. Character-driven stories, meanwhile, are usually the tear-jerkers,the evocative ones that will mess with your mind if you let it.

I’ll always be a sucker for thecharacter-driven pieces. Call me a sentimental fool if you want, but I justreally enjoy that type of story. It’s precisely why come Friday the 13^th,I’ll be pulling at tissues from a box, and not in a good way. The soap I watchedwith my grandmother, One Life to Live, ends then, sad but true. But I’m sure I’llfind something else worth my time.

In the meantime, thanks to mysentimentality, you get to enjoy “Sentimental Street” by Night Ranger. And don’tmind me. I just have something in my eye.

A Close Shave with Irony

2012-01-05T09:12:00.000-08:00

Every time I get a string of daysoff together, I tend to neglect a little thing called shaving. So the facialhair grows out a bit as a result. Of course, by the time I have to return towork, trimming my excess growth becomes quite a painful process. In fact, thislast instance became downright bloody for me, so much that this time I had toswallow my pride and go into work looking like I’d gotten into a fist fight orsomething.

And of course, wouldn’t you know it.Someone decided that on the same day that my mug gets the scruffy patchworkgoing on, they would take a picture of people at random, myself included. HereI am, shaking my head at this, knowing that once again I could squeeze myselfinto an unsung line from Alanis Morrisette’s "Ironic".

I have to say, if anyone knows howto get the best laugh on someone, it’s definitely irony. Whether it’s someonemaking an ironic statement toward me, or an ironic situation, irony tends tohave its way with me before chewing me up and spitting me out. I’ve neverreally believed myself to be that delicious, but irony must think I’m juicyenough for it to sink its teeth into me.

Irony also plays a role in ourliterature, too. For example, Oedipus Rex learns who has slain the king of Thebes,for instance, or in the Rime of theAncient Mariner by Coleridge, with the line, Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink. The first instancedisplays dramatic irony; the latter, situational. There’s also the verbal form,which can sometimes be accompanied with sarcasm to emphasize the irony.

Used correctly, irony can be apowerful tool in writing. It can add yet another nuance to your story, just bydoing something as simple as someone making an offhand comment. Just make surethat you employ irony to the best of your ability.

Meanwhile, I have to go battle therazor again. Hopefully this time, I won’t nick myself. Enjoy "Ironic" and your Thursday!

Holiday Lessons Via the Five Senses

2012-01-03T07:59:00.000-08:00

Did you have a good holiday season?I did. Aside from outlining a few notes here and there and working on myhandwritten project on breaks at work, the past week was an experiment inlesser writing for me. Of course, this came after my mammoth run to the finishline for my manuscript that I am one draft away from sending off to the finishline. I have my work cut out for me still, but I intend to start submittingthis story by February 1^st.

In the meantime, I have learned afew things these last two weeks. Via the five senses, allow me to share theselessons with you.

LosingSight of Things. I’ve become a bit of a renegade blog commenter as of late.I’ve neglected the blogs of most of my writer friends, even though I have beengiving them shout-outs, and even though I have been reading the blogs. Have Ibecome so disconnected from the blogosphere that I don’t even have time to justsay hi on a blog anymore? This is something for me to work on.

Listeningto Others. On the surface, this sounds like a good idea, to give attentionto the wants, needs, and viewpoints of other people. I do try my hardest tolisten to others, and will even go so far as to neglect myself in the process.But there comes a time when it’s important to listen to what’s in your ownheart. Sometimes, your instincts are spot on.

Taste is Subjective. One ofthe first, and most important lessons, I’ve had to incorporate as a writerstriving for publication is that not everyone will like my work. That’s fine. Iunderstand that. But will I let this fact cripple me from doing what I love todo? Not on your life. Taste may be subjective, but it’s my job as the writer toremain objective about where I go with my writing.

C’mon,Feel the Noize. Pardonthe intentional misspelling of the word noise here, folks, as this is the waythe rock group Quiet Riot spells their track. However, I feel it is a greatline to discuss the touchy subject of, well, touch/feeling. You’ll want yourreaders to feel things as they read your stories. It’s the whole reason why you’reengaging them, right? To inform or entertain them, or both, right?

ResearchSmells. Okay, I admit I’ve been hard-pressed to find a lesson for the senseof smell during this holiday week. But then I came across learning howsometimes when you think you smell something but aren’t sure, your nose mightbe spot on actually. I don’t have time in this post to elaborate, so let’s justsay it has something to do with butter.

And there you have it. My five lessons from the holiday season. I’ll tryto do a better job in the commenting department, my friends. With the revisionwork, however, and just trying to get a manuscript out the door, it’s stillgoing to be rough. I hope you’ll understand.

Cleanse Fire Tour Guest Post with Anastasia V. Pergakis!

2011-12-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

(Editor's note: Before I went on Blogcation December 20th, Anastasia V. Pergakis emailed me asking if I'd be happy to help host her blog tour for Cleanse Fire.Being the friend to the writerly bloggers of the Blogosphere, I could not in good conscience deny her a stop here at World of the Scribe. So while I technically am still out on Blogcation until Tuesday, the 3rd, I invite you to enjoy the following post. Rumor has it there's even a giveaway contest for sometime around January 31st, 2012, when Anastasia's tour ends. And now here she is. Please give a warm World of the Scribe welcome to Anastasia!)

Cleanse Fire is a fantasy adventure novel, withedge-of-your-seat action. Epic battles, suspense, and a bit of romance too! Followthe Kinir Elite as they track down a traitor and find more than they bargainedfor.

Complete the mission, no matter what…

Captain Derac Vidor has served Kinir for nearly twentyyears. It’s his life, his blood soul. And then his Commander betrays everythingDerac holds dear. Now he has to focus on his own life and his team instead ofsaving the citizens of Kinir.

Treason is only the beginning…

Fueled by rage, the team chases the source to theirCommander’s betrayal – a powerful wizard bent on revenge. The wizard seeks todestroy the Kinir Elite, in both mind and body. No place is safe, even amongtheir allies.

The past holds the key…

Derac’s tragic past may be the key to saving the team. Butcan he face the gruesome nightmare in time?

~ * ~ * ~

Some of thefollowing information will never come out in the series, so I thought to shareit with you all as a little "behind the scenes" info about the KinirElite and the type of elf it takes to be a part of their team.

The KinirElite are a special forces, "black ops", team with mostly top secretmissions. They are still a very "public" group, unlike most black opsteams which are kept in secret, away from public knowledge. They are seen asthe "super heroes" to young elves and are often the source of manybedtime stories. The majority of their missions are secret but when it's ahostage rescue situation, the news is spread around. Their country is rathersmall and limited in technology (compared to ours), so they don't have thingslike helicopters, cars, guns, etc. They use bladed weapons and bows, making fora more personal style battle/fight scenes. They use covered wagons, carriages,horses, and even dragons as their "vehicles".

They do work closely with their southern neighbours, The Tinally Elite, who arefaeries. The faeries use magic and spells, unlike the physical weapons of the elves. But the inally are limited in what they cando depending on location (can't use magic or survive long without sunlight ormoonlight) and strength (if they use too much of their magic, it can drain themand they will need to rest to rebuild their power again). This why the twogroups work closely together. When there is a situation underground, the KinirElite will step in to help as the Tinally faeries cannot operate, evenminimally, in such conditions. It is the same when the Kinir elves have asituation that requires flight and/or magic of some sort.

Female elves (elfas) only recently were allowed to join the Kinir Elite, while theTinally Elite allow only male faeries. The members of both teams (6 on each)are chosen by the Captains and Commanders of the teams; members can not applyor request to join. In order to be "in the running", an elf or faeriemust serve at least ten years in the Army and five years in the KinirRangers/Tinally Airborne. If they are chosen - and accept the invite - theypledge to serve another twenty five years. (They live for a very long time,being elves and faeries...)

Given the strong military theme inmy book, I want to honor real life soldiers with my writing. Portions of myroyalties from this book, and the upcoming books in the series, will go to theWounded Warrior Project. This organization helps wounded soldiers and theirfamilies heal when they return home. You can learn more about them and readtrue accounts of soldiers they've helped at their website, www.WoundedWarriorProject.org.

~ * ~ * ~

Purchase Cleanse Fire

Join the Kinir Brigade by signing up for our newsletter! Getexclusive deals, access to special giveaways, and inside information about theseries!Join the Kinir Brigade now and receive the first five chapters in youremail! And don't forget to visit our Facebook Page and Website too!

~ * ~ * ~

I’m giving away an e-copy of Cleanse Fire! Leave a comment on this post to enter into the randomdrawing. I'll draw the names at the end of my tour, January 31, 2012. If you want morechances to win a copy, visit our website to follow our tour! The more commentsyou leave, the more chances you have to win!

All commenters will also be added to the drawing for achance to win a signed hard cover. Drawing for the hardcover will be on January 31, 2012, the endof my tour.

You can also get more chances to win by tweeting or postingon facebook! Just leave a link to the tweet or post in a comment below!

**All Winners will be announced on the Kinir EliteWebsite on February 1st**

(Thank you, Anastasia! And if memory serves, I think I may have won a copy of Cleanse Fire myself not so long ago. I think I might have to get cracking and read this one before the blog tour ends!)

Season's Greetings!

2011-12-20T18:06:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays, everyone. As it's getting close to crunch time for my revision, I'll be taking the next two weeks off from blogging to pull in the reins on this one revision project. My next post will be Tuesday, January 3rd when everyone else returns from their own winter breaks. (Of course, I'm not taking a break per se, but now's as good time as any to channel some focus into the writing!) And of course, I'll still be around on the social networks and checking my email throughout these last weeks of 2011.

See you in two weeks!

Out of the Loop

2011-12-17T02:40:00.000-08:00

Circles have played a huge role inthe history of humankind. It started out with the invention of the wheel, thenmoved on to alien crop circles, and most recently was implemented in a majorway by one Google+. These shapes havemade a huge presence for themselves in our lives. . What would we do withoutthem?

Well, sometimes circles don’t alwaysfeel inclusive. I’ve noticed this a bit recently with some awesome blogfeststhat have come and gone over the past several weeks. And yet, at times it seemsI’m a little out of the loop about some of them. Not that I’m blaming anyoneelse for this mind you. It’s just I haven’t been paying as close attention tothe blogosphere in recent weeks, which I’ve recently pointed out in a postabout how I haven’t been coming around lately.

And it’s not just blogging where I’vefailed to pay attention as of late. Other aspects of life seem to havecontinued on without my notice. It may be that I’m so wrapped up right now inmy revision work that I don’t see these things going on.

I really wish I knew what to do. Ifeel so guilty for trying to make the revision a priority. I really want to getmy writing out there, but at times it feels, I don’t know, a little tooindulgent. Where does one draw the line between working on a project and makingtime for other things? Is it in the time management itself? There’s only somany hours in a day, and only so much a person can do.

Is it possible to be too fullyimmersed in something, like a dream? How do you handle it when it feels likeyou need to wake up from it, and reenter the circle of life? I’d love your thoughts.

Watching Paint Dry

2011-12-15T12:28:00.000-08:00

Recently, I discussed the matter ofdryer lint. Well, it was such a huge hit (as in, it made people want to hitthemselves repeatedly with huge foam bats), that I’ve decided to exploreanother element in writing. So pull up a chair, lean back, tape your eyelidsopen, and embrace yourself. We’re going to be watching paint dry.

Few other activities can live up tothe standards of watching paint dry. You just sit back after applying a coat ofpaint to whatever material you’ve just used a brush on, and wait. Prettyexciting, right? Why go bungee jumping when you can have the thrill of sittingin front of the house, waiting for every last dab of coating to lose itsmoisture.

I really wish I didn’t have to tryto make watching paint dry sound so exciting. Because in all reality, it isn’t.I’m sorry, my friends, but even my attention span cannot endure such a longdrought of activity.

The only reason I even brought upthe matter is because watching paint dry happens all the time in our manuscripts.We as writers might not actually embrace the art, such as it is, of thisactivity, but we pepper our stories with prose that can bog it down.

For example, let’s say you have twostories, one about Betty Sue, and the other about Susie Lou. Both woman are beingchased by, oh, let’s just say a door-to-door salesperson hoping to earn hiscommission. (What were you expecting, a wolf in Grandma’s clothing?) The scribeof Betty Sue’s story writes a line like, “Betty Sue dashed across the parkinglot, zigzagging past other pedestrians just to escape the demon with abriefcase and a glint of profit in his eye.” This line might be a bit longitself, but it keeps the action going with words like dashed and zigzagging. Inother words, with verbs.

Now let’s check in on Susie Lou. Herscribe came up with this passage: “Wearing her perfectly creased blue Sundaydress with the matching pumps and the fedora her grandmother had bought for herfrom the dollar store last weekend, Susie Lou rushed past scores of people—students,shoppers, people heading to work, street cleaners, even a street mime—while runningaway from the man in the golden toupee, brown suit, and matching slacks, as hegave her pursuit down the cement-gray sidewalk on an equally gray and drizzlyday.”

Now, I dare ask you, which character’sstory would you be more likely to follow? If you said Susie Lou, well then, Itip my paint can to you, and invite you to find a location where the artisticmaterial has not yet dehydrated.

But if you said Betty Sue, then morepower to you. You’ve mastered the art of adding in description without boggingdown your reader. And if you lose your reader to the excitement of paint, thenyou might want to start all over on another canvas.

Opportunities Abound

2011-12-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

Life surely is a strange adventure, if nothing else. Fromthe jobs we pursue to the people that come into our lives, and even down to thetypes of food that we eat. There are successes and failures abound. Even if youdo absolutely nothing whatsoever, you enter into a set of circumstances thatwill follow you everywhere the rest of your life.

A catalyst for this phenomenon is the opportunity. Now,depending on what you want to do with your life, the opportunity can help youachieve what you want. Whether you want to pen the next best-seller or learnhow to craft animal shapes out of dryer lint, it’s wholly up to you to be onthe lookout for opportunities.

One of the best ways to seek out these chances, which may ormay not be utterly random,, is to pay attentionto what’s going on with your friends. Although it may at times be a socialstigma, who you know could very well help you advance along the lines of whereyou need to be. It could be as simple as one of your writer friends introducingyou to her editor, or perhaps getting a referral for a literary agent. Ofcourse, you don’t want to exploit your friends just for the purposes of gettingahead in the game, but it doesn’t hurt to keep in mind of these things, either.And just so that it doesn’t come across as one-sided, you can always offersomething to help your friends out, too.

Opportunities are everywhere in life. Take advantage ofthem, and you’ll soar with the eagles.

Time After Time

2011-12-10T02:47:00.001-08:00

It has recently come to my attentionthrough my own awareness that my blogging has fallen a little bit on hardtimes, and that I haven’t been around as much as I used to be. My visits toother blogs have especially taken a hit. I used to fit blog visits in on aregular basis. These days, I’m lucky if I can make time to get to one.

It’s hard to make time sometimes,however. Why, as we speak, I’m fighting against time to get a post up before Ihave to go to work. I know I won’t have time this afternoon after work, withnew elements in my personal life having come into play. And I’ve been down toblogging three days a week, though even that may become a bit much for me.

So my question to you is how do youmanage time? Do you live by a set schedule, planning out every instance inwhich you can find time for projects? Or do you just go with the flow, lettinglife direct you in ways you never thought possible?

And if you’ve been missing me in theblogosphere, I’m on Facebook, I’m on Twitter, and I’m on Google+. And you canalways reach me at my e-mail: jeffreybeesler (at) gmail (dot) com.I will do my best to get back to you in as timely a manner as possible.

Now, in honor of the very concept oftime, here’s Cyndi Lauper’s "Time After Time". Enjoy!

S.U.B.M.I.T. Thy Story

2011-12-08T10:34:00.001-08:00

The other day I introduced you to myfirst acronym to help with the revision process. At the end of the piece, I didwarn of excessive editing and constant rewrites. After all, you can only chewgum so many times before it loses its flavor. Therefore, I submit to you mynext acronym, Story Units Being Moved Into Transition, or S.U.B.M.I.T. Let’s run down what this acronym means.

StoryUnits. Basically, you’ve got ideas, you’ve got pen and paper (or akeyboard), and you’ve got this urge to put something down. The very moment youput something down on paper, electronic or otherwise, it becomes a story unit.No matter what happens from this point forward, it’ll always be something youwrote, or at least thought about telling.

BeingMoved. It’s one thing to hold onto a project for a while, letting yourselfgain literary distance from the story before you press on with it. It’s a wholeother story to keep it in your files or underneath the bed indefinitely. If you’vegotten all of the kinks worked out, and your beta readers say it’s good to go,then you might want to think about sending it off into submission land.

IntoTransition. So you’ve finally realized that you can send your story outinto the world. There are a number of options out there. You can pursuetraditional publishing, a large or small press, a literary agent, or dare to goit alone with self-publishing. Although each route has its ups and downs, thefact is that you can and should do everything in your power to make thetransition to publication. It is why you’re reading this right now, right?

The submission process can be downrightscary. This is why it’s important to build bonds with fellow writers whogenuinely care to see you succeed. They’re all too eager to help you keep yourhead in the game and make sure that you do the absolute best you can with thematerial you’ve got. And who knows, maybe if you remember to keep these thingsin mind, you’ll be able to dance when you finally score an acceptance letter ora five star review of your novel.

And in honor of working out thekinks and submitting your work, here’s The Kinks with their song, “Don’t Forgetto Dance”. Enjoy!

An Acronym Called R.E.V.I.S.E.

2011-12-06T08:39:00.001-08:00

I’ve recently come to learn thatsomeone declared November 15^th as National Acronym Day.Unfortunately, my timing is off in getting this information to you, partlybecause I’ve only found one site and no others that confirm this date as a dayfor acronyms. With that said, I shall now celebrate this rare day in my ownway. And I have just the perfect acronym for you. R.E.V.I.S.E. What doesR.E.V.I.S.E. stand for? Reading Everything, Visualizing Important Story Edits.I shall now break this down in six different components for your benefit.

Reading. A key step in the processof R.E.V.I.S.E., reading helps the editing author go through a manuscript,seeking out macro and micro problems with the work in progress. At this level,several trips to the manuscript, back and forth, front to back, or evenstarting in the middle, can take place. You will go through your rewrites andrevisions more than once with each story. Trust me on this.

Everything. Okay, so you’ve finallyaccepted that you’re going to have to read your manuscript. What exactly willyou look at? Everything. Did you capitalize a word where you shouldn’t? Doesyour plot make sense? Did you do enough research so that your story about thespace ballerina who carries an AK47 as part of her arsenal knows how toproperly hold her weapon? Again, it’s all about the macro and the micro. You’llwant to focus on the macro of course, before you can even think of tackling themicro.

Visualizing. This stage does show upin the rough draft and, if you’re an author who outlines, the planning stages.What are you trying to say here? You may believe that you’ve visualized yourstory perfectly. But this is where you might need to get a beta readerinvolved. Just make sure you’ve at least done one or two edit run-throughsbefore you hand off your manuscript to the beta. They exist to find things thatyou didn’t catch the first, second, or hundredth times you went back through.

Important. Every last word, image,character, setting, and object that you put into a story must serve a purpose.If your story is about kangaroos trying to avoid capture in the Australianoutback, you definitely do not want your story to go off on a tangent aboutwhether or not the poacher forgot to put her clothes in the dryer. Unless, ofcourse, you can somehow tie your character’s motivation of kangaroo poachingback to the fact that she’s negligent of her laundry duties. But it had best beconvincing!

Story. Whether your story isfictional, or based in the reality of non-fiction, you’re still telling astory. (If you’re writing a cookbook, you’re telling the story of how a poundcake comes into being through listing ingredients and providing detailedinstruction.) This is where the revisions and rewrites truly matter. Becauseyou want to tell a story, right? And there are readers who want to absorb astory. However, there are good stories, and then there are the let-downs. Bymaking sure your story is the absolute best it can be, you’ll minimize thedisappointment readers will have with it. You can’t please everyone, obviously,but you’ll retain more readers if you treat your story with the utmost care andrespect it deserves.

Edits. No story is ever writtenperfectly. In fact, the closest I’ve ever heard of someone being close tohaving right on the first try is something like 17 words off. Even then, thisisn’t guaranteed. See, we writers and authors have tunnel vision when it comesto our writing. This is why we often need to distance ourselves from ourstories before we go to edit them. I took a whole month off from revising mycurrent work in progress to work on NaNoWriMo. Now that I’m back, that distanceis making me see my revisions in a whole other light.

With R.E.V.I.S.E., any author shouldbe able to overcome the pratfalls of the rough draft. We just need to take theextra time and effort to make our work shine. Of course, there comes a pointwhere excessive revision might actually harm the piece. For Thursday, I’llintroduce you to my other acronym. In the meantime, in honor of breaking everything down, here's some music to accompany your revision process. Enjoy Tears for Fears, Break it Down Again! (And I have no idea what the lines at the beginning and the end of the video translate to, but the rest of the video works well with my presentation today!)

Burger Haikus

2011-12-03T02:52:00.001-08:00

For today's installment of the blog, I decided to go with a little Condiment Haiku. Sorry, relish fans, I kind of ran out of time with this one. Enjoy!

Mayonnaise jar’s stuck

My psyche is quite a muck

I’m so out of luck.

Mustard can’t be cut

Life is in a great big rut

Dry sandwich off-puts.

Ketchup has sugar

Rarely ever fills hunger

Provokes my anger.

Onions not cool.

They don’t feed this picky fool.

Stench makes my eyes drool.

I’m in a pickle.

How can I be so fickle?

Condiments tickle.

This cheese stands alone.

Even though I am really grown.

Fast food truly owns.

Tomato juicy

Like gossip in the city

Rotted by pity.

Lettuce shred or leaf

Goes against my last belief

Where is my relief?

His Story

2011-12-01T10:39:00.001-08:00

(Editor's note: I had planned on doing a reflections post of the past thirty days with regards to NaNoWriMo. What I got instead when I went to sit down for today's entry was this. I hope you like!)

Once upon a time, in the merry ol’land of Fantasy, there lived a man by the name of Jeffrey. He was aquiet sort of man, quiet that is with one notable exception. As a lad, Jeffrey had a lot of energy andplenty of ideas. Sometimes these ideas would get him in trouble with others,who couldn’t quite grasp why he would spread what they perceived to be lies andexaggerations. Early on, young Jeffrey had no idea of what he was really doing:telling stories.

"Goodness? Whatever shall we do with this little one? He cannot stop telling these stories, my love!"

As Jeffrey grew older, he happenedto come into an abundance of wealth. Not in gold or silver, mind you, but inpaper, pen, and of course, words. It wasn’t long before literary wizards in amagical realm known as grammar school sought to encourage this budding lad byinviting him to an event known as Young Author’s Conferences.

In his adolescent years, Jeffreyfilled up many scrolls of parchment, better known to the rest of the world asspiral notebooks, in his quest to chase the elusive word. He’d fill out onaverage a notebook a month. This carried forward until graduation removed himfrom the hallowed halls and walls where he so loved to hone his craft.

And the dragon said, "I will return your princess to you, provided that you acknowledge that she is no mere domestic engineer!"

Then a gateway of unparalleled wondersopened up to him. A digital portal into the land some might call the Internet. Here,Jeffrey quickly learned how to harness his word power in episodic installments;leading to a series he dubbed the Zaveland Chronicles. The series went on for450 of these stories before dark temptation bucked him right off of his steed,the gentle, magnificent stallion he had named “To Write”.

Alas, poor Jeffrey, thy equestrian tastes leave much to be desired, truly.

But as ever the case with any truescribe, Jeffrey fought his way past temptation and despair, hearing the call hedeep down had known he must always follow, no matter what. A deep enchantmentovercame him, taking on the guise of a test of sorts. During this exercise,Jeffrey found himself at the mercy of aptitude, to see whether or not he hadthe basic concepts of what it took to be a writer. Rising to the challenge,Jeffrey overcame the odds, and at that moment made a conscious decision.

I will honor my craft, the work I wasalways meant to do.

"Yeah, so my pen ran out of ink. For some reason, though, it still seems capable of making magic."

Our tale of Jeffrey’s rise to theliterary challenges lying ahead of him ends with this final truth. As he toiledday and night to make words come to him, that he might mold into art for theworld to enjoy, one last challenge came to him. A strange wholly covered in adark cloak asked him, “Dost thou have what it takes to write fifty thousandwords?”

As Jeffrey pondered the man’s oddquestion, he noticed a series of letters etched across the stranger’s chest. N.A. N. O. W. R. I. M. O. Jeffrey didn’t understand what these letters meant, butto the stranger he said, “I have slain many a dragon, many a demon, withnothing but my pen and parchment. I dare say I can slaughter these 50 thousandwords and then some.”

"No dragon can escape the wrath of my imagination!"

And so he did. Not once, buttwice. Truly, Jeffrey was a scribe. Andhe would have lived happily ever after, except that he was a scribe, and thatto be happy was to ignore the great calling he was always meant to do.

In which case, Jeffrey lived everafter, but without the happily. Instead, he crafted happily ever after, alwayschasing a scribe's greatest treasure, that of words.

For Purposes of NaNoWriMo...

2011-11-29T09:35:00.001-08:00

I'm taking today off from blogging so I can finish the last 5K run to my goal of 70K. Two years in a row of hitting that magic number! It's almost like I'm in love with writing or something.

You know what else is a magic number? 9. You know what else pertains to the number nine? A love potion. So here you go, a little post-Thanksgiving tidbit to keep you filled until Thursday, when I recap everything I learned about doing NaNo a second time around.

Food for Thought

2011-11-26T02:43:00.001-08:00

Well, I hope you all have had afantastic holiday weekend. It’s back to work for me today, quite the joy forme. Go me! Don’t worry. I’ve had my share of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes,the basics. Keep me away from the cranberries though. They and I are on anagree-to-disagree basis.

In the meantime, yesterday I’vecrossed the 58K mark out of my 70K goal for NaNo. I’m hoping to at least tie myscore of 70K from last year. Anything else would be like gravy on the mashedpotatoes. Yum!

Also yesterday, I lost a majorbattle against an unopened jar of mayo. The top just wouldn’t come off after Ipulled off the little extra plastic thing surrounding the bottom of the lid.The mayo won the first round, and I got the second round once I finally got thelid off. But by that time, the toast I had made for use with the mayo had allbut developed a thin layer of frost on it. The war is far from over, mayonnaise!You hear me?

I’m not the only one who experiencesproblems with food. Sometimes people carry an emotional tie to food, and findit hard to escape it. The sweet temptations are always there around every turn.Sometimes, people use food to fill the void that they’re feeling, regardless ofwhat the void represents.

Of course, dieting is not the onlyproblem we might face when dealing with food. Sometimes you struggle, as I didyesterday, to get the lid off, the matter of your ego/pride at stake. If youdon’t get that lid off, you just might never be able to live it down.

But for the writer, food also canserve a purpose. Now, you don’t want food to be in any scene where nothing ishappening. It’s a good exercise in a rough draft to describe all of the foodhowever which way you want. But remember. When you get to the final draft, thatfood had better play an important role in your story. If a character is tryingto poison someone by severely undercooking a sirloin steak, or adding an extraingredient in the form of a liquid cleaner, this works for the story. If, onthe other hand, you’re describing a whole banquet of food, and it doesn’tpertain to the story, or there isn’t even a story at all, then it’s just emptycalories.

It’ll be a while before I recover infull from the mayonnaise incident. In the meantime, I just might have to writea story of how a man loses to a jar of mayonnaise. The key ingredient indifference? I’ll have to add another character, someone who doesn’t really haveany confidence in the poor guy, just to make this character’s life bittererthan cranberries.

Now there’s food for thought.

On Friendship Revisited

2011-11-24T08:03:00.001-08:00

Editor's note: Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. The post I'm about to share was originally published here at World of the Scribe on March 3rd, 2011. But it still has meaning to me on this day, and I'm truly thankful for all of the friendships I've built along the way. Remember, gratitude really is an awesome attitude! See you Saturday!

Facebook is such an unusual phenomenon. I’m not even sure I fully understand its application, (read: not apps as in all those games and other stuff that’s on there, because I understand those to be time-consuming.) People connecting and reconnecting through this particular social network; it’s definitely redefined networking in the 21^st century.

And then there’s the downside. The other day, one of the people I’ve befriended on Facebook posts about how someone else, an author, befriends them, and upon doing so posts a link on the poster’s wall for their book. Well right away the person whose wall is affected by this isn’t too keen on this notion. The offending author does come around to realizing his faux pas, but just the same the thought is already in my head.

What does friendship mean to me?

See, social media is pretty much the way many authors are expected to go for the sake of promotion. Well that’s all fine and dandy, but I’m not in the game just to spread word about my books or anything. This is a secondary effect that comes with involving oneself in social media, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I’d like for people to know about my books.

But here’s the thing about me. I’m a nice guy. What I mean by this, I have the nice guy personality type, where I have to befriend anyone and everyone I meet. Naturally, this is off-putting for some, But I still pursue friendship anyhow, even if it doesn’t pan out with some people. Why? Because I see the value in friendship. Because I really can’t navigate this world alone, much as I, also the loner type ironically enough, would sometimes prefer.

Friends help you through thick and thin. They come and go throughout life as you navigate the path you’re living on. But social media has changed all that. Now I can stay connected with high school friends I might otherwise have never heard from again. And I’m making a lot of friends in the field of writing, friends who understand the trials I go through to get my writing out into the world.

This is why social media, I believe, is a good thing. And things like the A-Z challenge are bound to bring a person more friends, as I’ve so recently stated over at Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to find some new friends to go meet.

There's Strength in Numbers

2011-11-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is thisweek. I’d ask the customary question of where the time has gone, but by now it’sreally a moot point, I think. Just another reminder of how fast this thing canlife can slip away, I suppose.

Part of where my time has gone hasbeen the dedication I’ve put in to building up relationships via social media.I’ve got my Facebook, my Twitter, my Google+, my blog of course, my LinkedIn,and my GoodReads. (That last one probably requires some cultivating since I’vebeen away from it a spell now.) There are a lot of places where an author/writer’svoice can be heard. In fact, it can eat away the entire day if you’re notcareful.

It's flying right out the window!

Social media can also be a powerfulelement in a marketer’s employ, provided that said marketer uses the power ofsocial media for good, not evil. (Ahem, spam.) Through this phenomenon, amessage could conceivably reach hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of people.Effectively, this could make it a numbers game all right.

Now here’s where some people mightsay people are in it just for the numbers. I won’t contest that. Truly, somepeople on the social media circuit do not give a flying whip about the audienceon the other side of the modem. (Again, spammers!) To each his or her own,right?

I could be scammed out of all of my money? Sign me up!

Here’s the thing about numbers. I’mabout to go all cliché here, but for once, conventional wisdom dictates the necessityof this evil. There is strength in numbers. You see, throughout the past fewdays, I’ve been astonished to find just how much death has been going on inother people’s lives, both online and off. It’s downright frightening, and thelaws of probability will spin the specter of death back my way at some point.

This is why, when I go to look atthe numbers for my own statistics, for my own social media, I take a moment toappreciate the new follow, to respond to the new comment, or to befriend theperson who just friend requested me. Do I succeed every time? No, because there’sanother phenomenon at work here too, that a person can only sustain so manyrelationships. I think the cap is like 150 or something. This makes sense, forevery time #WriterWednesday or #FollowFriday comes up, I can only score like50-60 names out of sheer remembrance. It’s not that I don’t think others aren’tworth following. The 50-60 are just people I’ve spent time developing aconnection with.

I want to high-five as many of you as possible!

Social media isn’t going away anytime soon. I’d be surprised if it were. The reason why it won’t go away isbecause people are always looking to connect. Sometimes friendships are lostalong the way if for no other reason that temporal erosion. Other bonds areforged with steel. For everyone I have successfully connected with, Iappreciate you so much. For those whose bonds with me aren’t quite so strong, Iappreciate your patience with me, and hope you’ll hang in there.

And finally, for those of you who I’veyet to be introduced, I look forward to connecting with you. Because truly,there is a great strength in numbers. And every new circle I’m placed intomakes me that much stronger.

Stick to It

2011-11-19T06:21:00.001-08:00

On the surface, writing looks rathercomplicated, and downright scary. I’mnot really talking about the hobbyist who writes for sheer sport and cangenerally keep the writing a secret if such is the preference. I speak of thetype of writer who has always dreamed of writing the Great World Novel (notjust American, because people all across the globe carry this strange desire topen something). Although to be fair,sometimes even the hobbyist writer can get stage fright.

Uh, hi, I'm a writer, and...uh...I have something...to..er...say.

But if you suffer such terror on thelevel of being a casual writer, imagine being one who has thrown all caution tothe wind (not advisable, as the wind can sometimes slap it right back in yourface). These are the scribes who, for better or for worse, just have to gettheir writing published. Either they want fame or fortune, or perhaps they havean important message to convey.

And yet they’re stuck on word one.They don’t know how best to even start at times.

This is where my brain gets stuck sometimes.

This brings me to National NovelWriting Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. The whole purpose of this month has beento get writers to sit down and write. The doubts that writers suffer from canmake this a daunting task. If you’re finding yourself full of doubt and fear,then most likely you are a writer, and are doomed for life. Don’t worry,though, you’re in perfect company.

So what is the challenge ofNaNoWriMo? To get writers to pen 50K words, a novel that’s almost really morethe size of a novella, really. Forget about all those doubts, what your innereditor or critic is saying, and just go for it. This is my second year of doingNaNo. I’m not sure where I was on November 18^th of last year, but Iwas probably hovering around the 50K mark. I had missed a day, November 9^thor 12^th, one of the two or both.

Heh heh...this is what he gets for asking me to write for him instead!

This year, however? I didn’t miss asingle day of writing in the first 18 days of the month. My highest word countday? November 3^rd with a score of 4388. My lowest day? Day 5, with ascore of 1,136. Almost back to back days, really. This brought my average forthe month to 2,777 words per day.

It wasn’t always easy, let me tellyou. And it’s not because of time constraints, which oddly enough didn’tsurface in this time frame as I thought they might. It’s because I made thechoice of letting myself get distracted.

By the way, I'd handle the most important matter of checking my messages first, before I drove.

Anyone can write 50K in their first18 days if he or she put their mind to it. Heck, they could probably writemore. If I had stuck to 4400 words on each of those 18 days, I would havegotten to 79,200. Quite a sprint, but not impossible for one who can write 1800words an hour just by sticking to it.

I still have 10 days left to go,maybe 11 if I squeeze some writing time in later. But today, I feel like Ideserve a rest, so I think I’ll go do that.

But Mom, I already wrote 50K this month! Leave me alone!

500 Miles

2011-11-17T10:20:00.001-08:00

Indianapolis is such a mysteriousplace to me. Part of the reason for this is that I’ve never been there. I mean,granted, it is a city, much like Seattle is a city. But there’s something aboutIndianapolis that just carries a certain level of mystique for me. Maybe it hasto do with the Colts. Or perhaps it has to do with their minor league baseballteam, the Indianapolis Indians. But I bet you anything it has to do withsomething called the Indianapolis 500.

Now, to be fair, I’ve never seen arace myself. But I at least know of itsexistence. And I imagine that it must be something else, to be able toparticipate in such a race. To speed down 500 miles worth of track, that has toput quite a jump in your heart.

It’s got to be just as breath-takingto measure the distance travelled. To know that you’ve gone 500 hundred miles andhave become the better person just because you summoned the courage to travelthat far! Yeah, there’s nothing quite as exhilarating as this, right?

The way I see it, each mile of those500 miles is like a new friend you meet along the way, someone who helps boostyou forth on your path, someone who becomes very much a part of your momentum.And you know what? I like making new friends. Sometimes the friendships arejust mere pleasantries, like waving hello in a coffee shop, and maybe having aquick chat.

But sometimes those friendshipscarry with you for the rest of your life. There are those people who celebrateevery milestone with you. Whether it’s your first blog follower, or yourhundredth, or in my case today, your 500^th.

And that’s where I’m at right now. I’vehit 500 awesome “miles” on my blogging journey. If it’s true that your mileagemay vary, then let it be known that my miles are most certainly variable. Iwouldn’t have them any other way.

Now unfortunately right now, I’m notable to do a contest to celebrate my 500. I really wish I could. It does seemalmost obligatory in a way. This is my one regret in reaching this megamilestone. But something tells me that 2012 is going to be a bigger year, and I’msure I’ll be able to do a contest next year. I hope you’ll understand andappreciate why, given my present lack of resources.

That said, I do hope you’ll stickwith me on the next leg of 500 miles. Because I’m well on my way to 1,000followers now. And who knows? Maybesomeday I might travel to Indianapolis. You never know.

For now, enjoy "I'm Gonna Be (500 miles)" by the Proclaimers. And once again, thank you all for dropping by here. I appreciate you more than you can ever possibly know.

2011, The Year of Luck

2011-11-15T08:42:00.001-08:00

2011 is shaping up to be the Year ofLuck for me. It’s really weird, too, that in the past five or six months, oddthings, good things, have happened, almost without explanation. Oh, there is anexplanation, which I’ll get to in just a moment.

Hold on, I'll get to my point in a second!

First though, I know it’s a bitpremature to do a year in review when we haven’t crossed the line past turkeytrimmings and spreading some Joy to the World. But for better or worse, my luckhas been pretty darn amazing the past few months. Sure, I’ve had my share of badluck days, too, but mostly my luck has been fairly good.

On the surface, it may seem that I’vescored free stuff without reason as of late. This is actually helpful becausethis is, after all, a tough economy we’re living in these days. But I don’tbelieve that this free stuff is actually free, at least not in one aspect. Ibelieve that this is the universe’s way of taking care of me. I’m a firmbeliever in the laws of attraction, and in maintaining a positive attitude,among other beliefs. If I create a positive thought, the universe responds. IfI create a negative thought, likewise.

I think that I shall have some thoughts today.

Essentially, what this all boilsdown to is the explanation for why I’ve gotten free stuff. There’s this sayingthat “Nice guys finish last.” I used to believe this, but not anymore. See, onereason why I’ve scored stuff like t-shirts, books, and even two sets of Marinerstickets (with a V.I.P. tour no less the second time I attended), is this. I’mjust being me.

I can see you need a moment tocollect yourself off of the floor. Fine, I can wait. Recovered? Good. I can’tstop being myself no matter how hard I try. And though there are people outthere whose personalities don’t mesh well with my own, there are others whohave taken notice of what I’ve done, and what I can do for them. Despite my tendencyto be a loner, I nevertheless like making friends (especially if those friendsare writers!) It’s an oxymoron, sure, to be a friendly loner. But I am.

Yeah, I like to keep to myself. But I still got your back, man!

This brings me to my other reasonwhy I’ve scored stuff. Lately, I’ve just been finding opportunities and takingthem before the moment passes. In the past month alone, I’ve scored two freee-books and a paperback. The universe continues to take care of me, but that’sbecause I jump at the chance to let it.

Finally! I've jumped at the chance to defy gravity!

How has luck impacted your lifelately? How have you been impacting luck?

"Doctor, Doctor!"

2011-11-12T13:12:00.001-08:00

With the exception of my voice, (notmy authorial voice mind you, but rather my verbal one) and an occasional cough,the cold that has plagued me all week has finally started to head on out forthe time being. My lungs are quite thankful of that. As for the raspy speech I’vedelivered, I figure that’ll go away on its own soon.

I’m not the only one who’s beensuffering as of late. A writer buddy of mine who I chat with on FB (feel freeto add me if you haven’t already) has informed me of his sudden swooning afterchasing after a killer word count score of 10K in the past 48 hours. And as we have entered the flu and coldseason, it may be time for writers to take a look at something we oftentimesforget about: our health.

It’s so easy for us to take ourhealth for granted. When we’re healthy, we probably pay our bodies not theslightest heed, focusing instead on trying to pull an all-nighter while enroute to the mighty 50K of National Novel Writing Month. Or we might be downingshot after shot of vodka in the hopes that the next words to pass through ourfingertips will be the most brilliant thing we should ever hope to write.

But sooner or later, something’s gotto give. That’s when our bodies scream at us to stop, to give them a respite,to let them mend and repair themselves from the damage we’ve inflicted uponthem, just to reach a deadline in time. We have got to take better care ofourselves. Our words will live on well beyond our physical bodies. But we canprolong the separation of the two for a while if we just take care ofourselves.

Are there other ways we writers abuse our health? Anyone? Very well. I guess there’sonly one surefire cure for what ails you. For this, I shall have to call on theThompson Twins, and have them take you to the “Doctor, Doctor!” Now watch themusic video and get a good night’s rest already!

A World of the Scribe Review: 33 A.D, by David McAfee

2011-11-10T14:51:00.001-08:00

Historical fiction is something of amystery to me. I get the premise, making fictional accounts of things thatreally happened back in the day. But for once, I’m not coming to this post as awriter, but as a reader. This is why I’m not too familiar with the genre, becauseI usually don’t read anything that falls under the category.

I do however read horror, one of thethree genres that make up my triangle of storytelling super-genres. It is forthis very reason, then, that I have been able to read something of a historicalfictive nature. Today, I review 33 A.D,by David McAfee.

Just to let you know, I'm doing this review not for any sort of compensation aside from having enjoyed the book. And now, I present you withthe synopsis.

Jerusalem, 33 A.D. Thevampires of the era have long sought to gain a foothold into Israel, but thefaith of the local Jewish population has held them in check for centuries.

Whenone of their own betrays them to follow a strange young rabbi from Galilee, theelders of the vampire race dispatch Theron, a nine hundred year old assassin,to kill them both.

Therabbi’s name is Jesus. Killing him should be easy.

And now for my review. Because thisparticular tale encompasses both horror and historical in its fiction, I findmy score should be divided accordingly. First, Mr. McAfee hits all of the rightnotes with the horror aspect. There’s no shortage of bloodshed or decapitationsto be found in the novel, so be warned now if that sort of thing empties yourstomach so readily. But each slaughter is relative to the story being told, sono ground is lost here. In fact, I’ve found that as far as the horror goes, theauthor has earned a perfect score from me. Considering there are two elementsto my review, this means that Mr. McAfee is at least walking away with aminimum of 5 points.

This leaves the historical fiction elementleft for me to review. I find myself grappling with a devil in not having reada lot of HF before this. It makes sense, then, that this particular devil liesin the detail of what I normally read versus what I don’t read. But therein isthe solution to my problem: the details themselves. The references, the people,the characterization of life back then in Jerusalem.

It’s quite apparent, upon readingthis book that McAfee has gone to great lengths to ensure the authenticity ofhis literary world. I found myself at great ease reading what he put on thepage in terms of the setting, the timeline, and the rich histories of peopleand places. For doing an awesome job of keeping me from pulling out a book offacts or something on this matter, I have to reward him with another perfect 5.

Before I conclude my review andaward the final score, there was a matter of occasional typos scatteredintermittently throughout the story. Although these do not fully detract from theother story, it would not be fair of me to not follow through on my policy ofat least docking a point on the review for this matter. The only reason fordoing so is to remain fair to everyone, to authors whose books I’ve alreadyreviewed, and to the reader who more than likely will return to the story, butwho has been momentarily thrown out of the experience nonetheless.

Thus, with a score of 9.0, I highlyrecommend this story for any horror or historical fiction reader. There areplenty of surprises to go around, and I am going to have to get my hands on thenext book in Author McAfee’s Bachiyr series, 61 A.D. You can find out more about 33 A.D. by going here to the Amazon site, where I hear there might still be a deal on the Kindle version of this story, or by visiting David McAfee's website.

Author David McAfee

The Remedy

2011-11-08T05:40:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Tuesday, and the cold is still kicking my butt. The good news is that after a slight slump in the writing over the weekend, I've reached the 25K mark on day 8 of NaNoWriMo. For you math-types, that's an average of over 3K a day since the start of the month! Woohoo!

But back to this cold thing. Anyone know of a remedy for this? Well, not just any remedy. THE Remedy? No? Well, then, I guess you'll have to suffer another music video courtesy of Youtube, because it seems that Jason Mraz is the only person who may have this Remedy thing figured out. Enjoy!

Fighting Back Against a Cold Bug

2011-11-05T16:31:00.000-07:00

It stinks that for the first Saturday posting on my newly revised schedule, I should happen to be sick. But through sick and thin, I will provide something of content for you to revel in.

There's only one thing I can do to combat this cold, and that's to fight to stay alive. So yup, you've guessed it. I'm gonna share with you a little something in the disco fever Youtube vault. Maybe this will help for what ails me. Take it away, BeeGees!

Keep Olivia Newton-John Away From My Muse!

2011-11-03T08:25:00.000-07:00

November is National Novel WritingMonth. For the second time in a year, I have taken it upon myself to go afterthe coveted 50K word score. In the first two days of the month, I have scored7,623 days, or an average of 3811.5 words. I haven’t yet begun work on thestory today, but that will change soon enough.

Part of my success for this story isthat I outlined well ahead of time. The other part of it is that I’ve chosen apowerhouse idea, and if my speed on the first two chapters is any indication, I’mtotally loving this story thus far. I still have a long ways to go to reach myown goal of 70K, not just the 50K allotted by NaNoWriMo, but for what I want tomatch with last year’s NaNo. If you’reover at www.nanowrimo.org, feel free toadd me on as a buddy. I wouldn’t mind seeing how you’re doing on your stories,either!

So what keeps me motivated to write?Well, the writing itself for one. I cannot ever stop writing. I’ll write untilthe day I day. And knowing me, I’ll leave behind plenty of unpublishedmanuscripts that future generations might think of as a treasure and find a wayto get those published, too. Yeah, that’d be sweet.

For another, music keeps my musepumped up throughout the day, though heaven help the fine china if she catcheswind of Olivia Newton John’s “Physical”. Hmm. Should I tempt fate? I think Ishall.

Very well! Because my muse demandsit, allow me to share with you the music video to “Physical”. So long, finechina! (Oh, who am I kidding? It’s plastic and paper plates all the wayaround.)

Changes

2011-11-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

Philosopher of “Modern Love” DavidBowie could be considered “The Jean Genie” of our time. Even if you were to askany “China Girl” “Under Pressure” if she knows any “Blue Jean” or “ZiggyStardust”, she will likely tell you that “This is Not America”, and may thinkof you as some sort of “Space Oddity”. This is probably why you’re better offnot asking anyone the question of, “Let’s Dance?” Just remember that “Dancing in the Streets”will never go out of “Fashion”.

Then again...

But of all of these songs I’vecreatively weaved into my opening paragraph, one David Bowie song remains. Infact, it is very appropriate to bring this particular song up right now. Youprobably know by now that there are “Changes” in the air. Indeed there are.See, my schedule is about to go all wonky-funk on me as children are about toenter my life. Unpredictable forces of nature these beings be, they will takeup a lot of my time. I’m just putting that out there. Plus, there’s NaNo. And#WriterWednesday and #FollowFriday on Twitter. And all of those writingprojects I need to send out into the world.

After twenty years, it's about darn time I submitted something!

So how will the coming changesaffect World of the Scribe? Oh, I’ll still be posting. I’m just going to haveto be a bit more random than theme weeks these days. Don’t get me wrong. I’llreturn to theme weeks in twenty to thirty years from now when time opens itselfback up a little. Or if I should happen to win the lottery, pay off all of mydebts, and be able to live like a king. Then I could go back to theme weeks.

One day they'll bow down to me...

So I’m going to turn to posting onTuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays for a while. That way, I’ll keep on postingon a regular basis, while not neglecting any of my other obligations. I’m notgoing anywhere, people. I’m just going to be working on finding a properbalance between all things. If I do happen to get a chance to post on a Monday,Wednesday, or Friday, I’ll take it, but I’m not guaranteeing anything. Andthere’s a very good chance this blog may just stick with one particularlysuccessful theme: Rock’N’Write. We’ll see how it goes.

For now, enjoy David Bowie’s “Changes”,and I’ll see you on Thursday!

One Last Treat, No Tricks!

2011-10-31T07:44:00.000-07:00

We come now to the final entry in myWorld of the Scribe October adventure. I did speak of having a surprise for youtoday, and it is true. I do have one. And if you were reading my posts lastweek, you will know that my Halloween surprise pertains to a monster I did notshowcase in candy form.

Now, some of you have already seenmy Halloween surprise, which is fine. I’m really happy you’ve seen it. For therest of you, here’s the thing. This past Thursday, as the thought of what Iwould do for today swam about in my head, I got an urgent message on Twitterfrom Draven Ames. He apparently had great need of a last minute story from me.At once I went into it, going solely pantser on this project. Between the roughdraft and the two revisions it went through, I spent no more than two hoursaltogether on the short story.

Now, with Halloween upon us, Iencourage you, if you’re seeking a holiday chill that has nothing to do withthe cooling weather in the northern half of the world, to go to Draven’s site.There you will find my story of 750 words. Thanks again to Draven for hostingmy Halloween story this year! Trick-or-Treat, everyone!

Tomorrow: Changes

I Want Candy

2011-10-28T14:29:00.000-07:00

Today brings an end to an unconventional Trick or Treat Week that I've spent celebrating candy. I know, it's really hard to ponder how I could let myself get carried away with the matter of sweet confection. Chalk it up to 'tis the season?

Anyhow, I'm not the only one who wants candy. And to prove it, allow me to share with you the following music video. Here's I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you on Monday!

Candy Girl

2011-10-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

Since my posts this week saluteHalloween candy, you may notice that my word counts are shorter, but sweeter!Today and tomorrow both are going to be light on verbose sugar, and aimed morefor candy pleasing to the eyes and ears.

The only true candy revealed while looking up "eye candy" online.

Today, I’m sharing with you themusic video to New Edition’s “Candy Girl”. Tomorrow, I’ll select another confection-related songfor your enjoyment. It doesn’t always have to be about the passing on ofinformation, after all. Sometimes it’s just fun to kick back and relax withyour friends.

What any blogging author needs after every blogfest!

And don’t forget. Monday I have asurprise in store for you. You’ll have to wait until then to see what I havecoming up for you.

Enjoy the video!

Halloween Candy Pictures, Part 2

2011-10-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

It’s another day of treating you tosome pictures of wonderful candy. Now pay attention, because the thing I haveplanned for Monday ties directly into something I will NOT be showcasing ineither set of pictures from today or yesterday. Can you guess what Halloweenelement I’m purposely setting aside for Monday?

That said, let’s get on with thepictures!

These candy vampire lips come complete with fangs.

This werewolf cupcake makes me howl at the moon!

I guess you can't spell mummy without an m & m!

Goblin spiders can double as cupcakes, too!

Apparently, bats are now disguising themselves as dots.

What happens when a black cat candy apple crosses your path?

So, have you guessed which Halloween element is conspicuously missing from my Halloween candy pictures? Tune in Monday, when I unveil my Halloween plan this year, as well as the answer to which element I have purposely neglected. (Edited: Just for clarification, I'm looking for Halloween monster as the missing element.)

Tomorrow and Friday: Two Music Video Tributes to Candy

I've Tricked Myself

2011-10-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

Well, if you were wondering whathappened to my Monday post for this week, I admit that I have performed a nastytrick on myself and so left you without a treat. What trick did I play? I didn’tget enough word out in time for what I had planned to do for this week leadingup to Halloween. So my original plans for this week are out.

But you are still deserving of atreat regardless. There’s not really too much more I have left to share withyou pertaining to Halloween. Between costumes and theme songs, I’ve pretty muchcovered the bases.

Except that I haven’t. There’s stillone more element left to Halloween that I’ve simply neglected. So for thisremainder of this week, all of which MUST fall under the category of treat, I’mjust going to share some candy with you.

Enjoy the following pictures, and I’llhave more pertaining to candy throughout the rest of this week. And don’t you fret. My plans fornext Monday are still very much on! Believe you me.

He looks happy now, but I dare you to take his candy corn!

Yes, I prefer fat-free candy myself.

The best way to get to the treats is to dress the part.

The trick's on them. This is candy from 2004.

Tomorrow: More Treats!

Thriller

2011-10-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

In autumn’s air a chill lingers.This coldness robs us of summer’s heat, forces us indoors almost against ourwill, taking us hostage. It coats the ground with frost, killing plants withoutrelent. It seeps into our houses through any orifice it can find, grazing ourskin until goose bumps emerge and our hair stands on end. This air doeseverything in its power to reach our inner core. It will undoubtedly fail.

The reason why this failure comes atall is because while this draft can at times affect our psyche, it does not reach our heart. For the human spirit to truly be defeated, to be conquered, ashiver must go far beyond the skin and the brain. It must capture our veryessence.

For this final Rock’N’Fright event,one thought creeps throughout my mind more than anything else. What drives usto read? Some may attest to knowledge, others entertainment. These are available answers, but they are by no means the only one.

Consider this for a moment. Why dosome books fail, while others succeed? Is it the fault of the author? Is it thestory itself? Has the reader’s interest been so depleted that he or she wouldrather slaughter brain cells absorbing the horrendous television shores of Jersey than devour somethingintellectually stimulating?

I believe it is something darker. Something so twisted in its simplicity an abyss plagues my innards at theprospect that we may never discover what truly drives us, what keeps us hangingon the edge of our seat until the very end.

Perhaps the best genre to describethe phenomenon of which I am about to share with you is the thriller.Psychological, political, the sub-genre matters not in this. People want athrill. They lust for the cliffhanger. They want their very core stroked by theone thing that will seduce their emotions, play on their deepest fears, crushtheir ability to sleep at night with both eyes shut. They hunger for somethingthey have known since well near birth.

What lone entity carries suchcontrol over our souls? What occurrence, crafted solely by man no less,conquers us with such ease, makes us zombies to its every whim?

It is the word. Language, the veryforce inside us that forces us to communicate with one another, has turned usinto puppets. We cannot fight its thrall over us. Why would we? The specters ofcommunication and the essence of the word crawl through our minds, our hearts,our very being. And we let them. Because we don’t know better. We probablynever will.

In the event that the words I haveselected for your reading do not invite you to lock your doors ten days out from October 31st, then byall means consider viewing this week's final music video. If you are not faint ofheart, I dare you to watch this alone, in the dark save the light from yourcomputer monitor. It ought to be an experience fraught with thrillsand chills.

Enjoy your weekend…if you can.

Dead Man's Party

2011-10-20T05:39:00.000-07:00

Unless you’ve taken residence in acave recently, which wouldn’t be a smart thing to do considering bears are onstandby hibernation alert now for winter, you’ve probably grown accustomed tothe fact that Halloween is but a mere eleven days away. I know I’ve certainlymade plenty of references to the day myself, given the rather festive nature ofmy blog this month. Who can blame me? Halloween is one of those instances whereI can enjoy a good party.

Of course the liveliest parties areby far the ones easiest to enjoy the most. However, when it comes down to thehorror genre, not everyone can be full of life. Given that they may have oncebeen the life of the party, these unfortunate souls wander the earth, usuallyin search of either blood or brains, depending on what type of undead theseunfortunate souls become.

Both vampires and zombies carry arich history with me, but not in the place you’d most likely suspect first. Yousee, I used to be a kid. Yes, it’s true. (And to some, it may be argued that I’mstill one at heart. I’ll let the jury decide on that one.) As a child, I spenttime watching cartoons. Quite a shocker, huh? These cartoons ranged from superheroes to little blue people living in mushroom houses.

Now, if you’ve been reading my blogfor over a year, you may recall my tribute posting to horror, citing what(eventually) steered me towards the horror genre. Yes, it was the episode ofSmurfs in which they turned purple. The first time I saw this episode, itscared me out of my wits. I’d say it did its job, right?

So I liken the Purple Smurfs tozombies. I’ve also seen cartoons where superheroes fall under Dracula’sinfluence, and where a techno-organic leech transforms robots into energyvampires.

What does this mean for me as a writer?Well, I’ve already written a zombie piece, and I do a lot of beta reading withstories pertaining to zombies. As for vampires, I’ve decided to hold off onwriting a tale involving those. It’s not that I don’t want to write a vampirestory; I do. It’s just that I feel the world needs to sufficiently recover fromthe onslaught of the Twilight movies, as well as the general oversaturation ofthe vampire sub-genre altogether.

I’ll still arrive at that Dead Man’sParty at some point. The thing about parties is that it can be fashionable tobe late to one. Until then, I’ll let others have their take on vampires andzombies, and focus more on what I want to do: keeping my readers hanging on myevery word. I’ll have more on that tomorrow, when I wrap up Rock’N’Fright Week.

In the meantime, enjoy Oingo Boingo’s“Dead Man’s Party”!

Tomorrow: You’ll just have to waitand see.

Weird Science

2011-10-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

As my post on Mary Shelley fromyesterday has proven, it’s scary to think how much science has played a role inour story-telling lives. From the comments I received yesterday, I’m now moreconvinced than ever that science can be and often is a component of the horrorgenre, as well as science fiction.

This sets the stage then for today’stopic. Weird Science. Yes, we have ourscience that is trying to cure cancer. We have technological advances comingevery which way. We’re even delving into the realm of cloning, opening up aPandora’s box of scientific discoveries. The fact that we’ve gotten a Halloweencostume out of Mary Shelley’s writing should not discount the fact that scienceis in a state of both excitement and concern.

Why has science gotten to thispoint? Why would we even consider cloning ourselves, or genetically modifyingour food? The answer is a surprisingly simple one. We as a species areexplorers. We’re almost always learning more. Now, some people might use theirknowledge for good, like ridding the world of disease. Others use science for ill intent instead of good, such as spreading gossip, insidertrading, or sabotaging a rival baker’s cookie recipe with a simple mathematicalexchange.

Thus, it is really intent that determinesthe direction in which we’re heading with regards to science. Unfortunately,some things just keep getting weirder by the day. Not so many decades ago,there was a government study on the flow of ketchup. Weird, huh? But just asweird is that ketchup can be used to clean copper, or help your hair out ifyour hair has turned green from chlorine. (This is why I love research, by theway folks. You never know what you might learn.)

As we march toward the future,science will continue to make advances. I for one wouldn’t mind seeing spacecolonies before long. Then again, by the same token, I don’t want science toget to the point where it could reanimate my corpse. Because then there’s onlyone kind of party I’d be able to attend. And if you want to know what kind thatis, you’ll have to come back tomorrow.

In the meantime, enjoy Oingo Boingo’s "Weird Science"!

Tomorrow: Dead Man’s Party

She Blinded Me With Science

2011-10-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

Dreams are curious things. We haveour aspirations, our goals we set forth to accomplish and make some aspect, orall aspects, of our lives better. We have the full-on R.E.M. dreams, where ourbrains process information that they’ve accumulated over the course of the day,usually in fragments that may not make much sense to us logically as opposed towhen we’re awake.

And then there are the wakingdreams, the images that are with us right when we come out of sleep. Some ofthese mental pictures escape our memory within a matter of seconds. Other timesthey stick with a person. However, I’m fairly certain that author Mary Shelleymust have written down perhaps her most famous waking dream. If she hadn’t, wewouldn’t have one of the most famous monsters around, and I’d be short a Rock’N’FrightTuesday post.

What Mary Shelley did for literature,particularly horror and science fiction, is something not many others cancompare to. The birth of her monster, Frankenstein, is pretty much pinned underthe label of pop culture phenomenon. Countless scores of people have gone backto interpret the Frankenstein Monster legend, including author Dean Koontz. Butyou know what? Nobody can hold a candle, or perhaps a mob’s torchlight, to MaryShelley.

The dream came to her in the year1816. In her words, she says, “Isaw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had puttogether. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on theworking of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy,half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be theeffect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creatorof the world.”This is a quote from Spark, 157, in Mary Shelley’s introduction to the 1831edition of Frankenstein, and the source has been noted by Wikipedia, where Ifound the quote. (I think I’ve sufficiently cited my sources here.)

Study that quote for a moment. Go ahead andabsorb it. I’ll wait for you. Done yet? Okay, let’s continue.

Shelley must have understood the importance ofthis particular dream. It’s my guess that it might have at first startled her,but then she quickly must have understood the importance of the informationpresented to her. Why else would she have bothered to remember as much of thedream as she possibly could? Quite the argument for dream journals, wouldn’tyou say?

Now Mary Shelley’s famed monstrosity is aHalloween staple. But the bigger thing we have to keep in mind, beyond the mererepresentation of a child’s costume, is that she dared to dream and askquestions others wouldn’t have ventured. And like I said earlier, she did so by aptly turning science into a grim facet of horror.

For that reason, I dedicate my post to such anincredible author, as well as the following song. Enjoy “She Blinded Me WithScience” by Thomas Dolby. And don’t ever stop dreaming. Without dreams, we arenothing.

Tomorrow: Weird Science

Rock'N'Fright Week: Monster Mash

2011-10-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

Lately there has been a lot of trashtalk about the year 1962, at least in the realm of my imagination. I’m not surewhy my characters are up in arms over that particular year. Maybe they don’t like the Space Needle, aconstruct from the World’s Fair in Seattle of ’62. Maybe the way the CubanMissile Crisis came to be has spooked them to no end. Or perhaps it could bethat a particular song was released into the airwaves during that time, amelody that might get stuck in even the most resilient of minds.

Thus begins Rock’N’Write Week, avery special Rock’N’Fright Halloween Edition. For the next five days, the musicand writing that I shall discuss with you shall take a decidedly spooky turn.

We begin with the “Monster Mash”. Apparentlysomething of a graveyard smash, this kooky little tune carries with it acertain Halloween flavor. It is probably not a coincidence that this song toppedthe charts on October 20^th of 1962, eleven days before Halloween.

Now the actual dance performed inconjunction with this song is similar in style to the Mashed Potato, notsurprising since this is the 1960’s we’re talking about here. However, the arm rhythmsinvolved in this dance have changed to account for the movement of the monsterspoken of in this song. (More on this particular character tomorrow.) Thechoreography involved to make this song even more enjoyable has probably takena little bit of practice to get it to where it needed to be.

This brings me to the matter ofhand. When we writers pen a story, we are putting down words of all sorts inour rough drafts. It’s important to just get those words down. But when we goto revise, we come to find that some of these words don’t make sense. If youfollow the choreography of your story from one line to the next, you will seewhere you went wrong with your nuances. Maybe you have your charactersscratching their heads every other paragraph. Unless they have excessivedandruff or lice, or have been exposed to itching powder or poison ivy, thiscan get tedious.

It’s not incidental, then, thatwriting and dancing are both art forms. Both involve movement, action, andespecially precision. When you get either one of these things down to nearperfection, you have found your art, and can retain your audience.

And if you’re a horror writer, maybethen you’ll be a graveyard smash yourself. Speaking of which, let me end today with a presentation of the Monster Mash. You know, just so I can get a song stuck in your head. Enjoy!

Tomorrow: She Blinded Me WithScience

Walk Like An Egyptian

2011-10-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

Before I get to the matter ofbusiness, closing out Costumes Week with my Friday send-off, I understand there’ssomething of a blogfest going on. Paying it Forward. Time restraints being whatthey are, I’m afraid I won’t be able to get to all the wonderful blogs outthere at this time. That said, there are some blogs I will pay it forward toanyhow in the hopes that you will visit these wonderful authors.

Draven Ames right now is looking forsubmissions for Halloween Week over at Another Slightly Scary Story. (I am alsointerested in hosting my own Halloween-themed week here, too, so if Dravendoesn’t have room for your story, try me. But please go with Draven first andforemost!)

Second, these next two blogs worth following I’ve chosen becausetheir owners are great in the inspirational department. Aspire No More is thebrainchild of Tymothy Longoria, while Iwouldcouch.com is that of Dan Gheesling.Both of these gents have lit the fire under my foot and have kept me goingwhenever the motivation has proven lacking.

And now to end Costumes Week. I’vespent the week discussing how costumes have functioned in ways from brilliantdisguises to super hero threads to masks and even on down to ordinary uniforms.I figure we’ve got the dressing for the part aspect down fairly good. There’sjust one thing left, and this is where the title of my post finally comes intoplay.

See, you can play dress up all you want,as can your characters. But there comes a time when throwing on whateverclothes you want has its limits. Just because Charlie Character throws on abaker’s hat does not make him so. Knowledge, experience, and research all playa pivotal role in whether Charlie can actually bake the most delicious sweetsknown to the world, or if he just lumps the cake batter together in the bowland hopes that some schmoe of a neighbor will come along to rescue him.

What this essentially boils down to,then, is one simple question. Do your characters talk the talk, but not walkthe walk? If all they’re doing is talking, and nothing’s getting accomplishedwith what they’re saying, by all means make them walk. They’ve thrown on thecostumes and uniforms. It’s time for them to represent.

On that note, if for some reasonyour character has decided to dress like an Egyptian, the following video mayhelp them learn how to, yep you guessed it, Walk Like an Egyptian.

Have a good weekend everyone, andcome back on Monday. Why? I’m starting another Rock’N’Write theme week. Onlythis time since it’s October, Rock’N’Write becomes Rock’N’Fright! Muahahaha!See you then!

A Universe of Uniforms

2011-10-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

So far this week, I’ve explored thematter of costumes in aspects ranging from disguise for personal safety andidentification, to simply having a grand all time in a festivity kind ofcapacity. Today, we tone it down a bit and look at costumes in another form:the uniform.

Many jobs carry a uniform standard.I understand this may be difficult to grasp for the full-time writer who alwaysshow up to work in pajamas and fuzzy bunny slippers, but it’s true. Police,firefighters, soldiers, doctors, fast food workers, circus performers,construction workers, and so many occupations have a uniform code thatemployees must follow.

At times uniforms play a pivotalrole in stories. Don’t believe me? Well, then, you’ve never seen a guypractically drooling over a French maid’s outfit, the skin of her legs exposedfor all the world to see. Such an outfit could elicit the right response from,say, a guy who got fired from his last job for sexual harassment. The fact thatthe maid dresses in her standard fare only entices this pig to where not even acold shower could keep him at bay.

You might be disgusted with such acharacter, and you’d be right to be. But! Before you hang up on what I have tosay, consider this. Let’s say his wife has seen his perverted behavior, andknows he never looks at the maid north of the chest. The wife will probablydivorce him at some point, but why deprive her of a little fun? Let the wifedress up in the outfit too, and use the maid’s outfit to call the slob out onhis slovenly ways before she kicks his butt to the curb. This could prove detrimentalto the wife’s character, though, as this brings the whole matter of herself-respect onto the table. It is up to the writer to decide how best toproceed.

On the surface, uniforms are justclothes. But to the writer, they can open up a whole world of possibility forconflict. It’s good to know what clothes your characters wear, for you neverknow when a situation might arise where uniforms and clothes play a pivotalrole in the story.

Tomorrow: Walk Like an Egyptian

Mask Factor

2011-10-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe it’s already October12^th. I really can’t. It seems like only yesterday I was trying tofigure out my New Year’s Resolutions for 2011. Now I have but a couple ofmonths left to decide upon the ones for 2012. Where is the time going, people?Anyone know?

Yes, in a few weeks Halloween willbe upon us. But if you think people are waiting until then to showcase theirdisguises, well, you’re mistaken. People disguise themselves all of the time,whether it’s to a celebration, or because they don’t want the world to see thereal them. Façade is a facet of everyday life for most of us.

Sometimes, people change theirclothing to make for a better masquerade. Today’s costume topic, however, is abit more in your face. Today, we shall discuss the matter of masks.

I have to admit that while at worklast night, I wasn’t prepared to see a couple of people wearing costume make-upin the drive-thru. I should have complimented them on their choice of masks.Only I didn’t. Why? Because I’d forgotten what holiday season was upon us. Ithappens.

There are a few reasons why peoplewould wear masks. If you’re a crime fighter or a super villain, you could wearthe mask for protection. If theater is your motivation, however, you might begoing for the excuse of performance or entertainment. And if you have toperform a job like surgeon or exterminator, you’d have to wear a mask forhealth reasons.

Our characters in writing wear masksas well. They may say one thing, dialogue, but mean another thing altogether,internal narrative. Like us, our characters don’t like letting people see thereal them. However, unlike us, our characters are exposed for who they are, atleast to the reader. You just can’t hide things from your readers. It’simpossible.

How many times has someone tried tounmask Spiderman? Or one of those meddling kids has had to prove that ghostsaren’t real, simply by unmasking the perpetrator? Masks serve an integral partto the storytelling process.

Dress up your characters. Give themsomething to protect their faces, and then rip those masks clear off of theirfaces, revealing who they really are.

And if your characters get mad atyou for doing so, you can always wear this sort of mask.

Tomorrow: A Universe of Uniforms

Super Threads for Super People

2011-10-11T09:20:00.000-07:00

I just don’t know what it is aboutsuper heroes and villains that gets me so worked up. Could it be that I admiretheir talents, even if the villains usually apply said talents to evil? Am Iperhaps envious a little of their physique, as most of them have ripplingbiceps and six-pack abs that just won’t quit? Or could it be that I have poortaste in fashion and therefore find myself drooling over their wardrobe.

If this were any week other thanCostumes Week here at World of the Scribe, I would have answered that it’s allabout the super powers and awesome gadgets the heroes and villains possess.Since this IS Costumes Week, however, I have to defer my answer to that of thewardrobe.

Costumes have played a pivotal rolein superhero fiction since Superman first debuted on the scene back in 1938.Now in real life, clothes don’t always make the man, but such threads arepretty much a mandate for any player seeking to either save the world ordestroy it, depending on how screwed up their back story is. Sometimes the heroor villain dons a uniformed costume, in that their teammates wear similar attire.Other times, the individual dresses of his or her own volition.

I think for superheroes andvillains, costumes play dual roles. One, they generally help to conceal theidentity of the participant in his or her world. Second, some characters pulloff such badass displays of prowess while in their uniforms that a person wouldhave to be born brainless to mess with them. And if you’ve ever familiarizedyourself with the story of Spiderman’s Black Costume, you know that sometimes thevery clothes themselves take center stage in the storyline. (Okay, so the “costume”is really a symbiotic creature, but I digress.)

Costumes are going to remain astaple in the superhero worlds for until the end of fiction writing. So long asa hero needs to conceal her identity or just wants to stretch his vanitymuscles, such outfits shall keep polyester and spandex makers in these imaginedrealms quite wealthy.

After all, as the title of aDarkwing Duck episode once implied, “Disguise the Limit”.

Tomorrow: Mask Factor

Brilliant Disguise

2011-10-10T07:05:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the start of Costumes Week here at World of the Scribe. Costumes have been with us for quite some time now. Almost since the invention of clothing, we have been dressing up, taking on new guises through the make-up, masks, and decorative attire that we choose to wear. This week, in preparation for the Halloween festivities creeping upon us, I shall salute the art of disguise and masquerade.

So today I shall begin by offering you the music video sampling of Bruce Springsteen's hit song, Brilliant Disguise, in honor of the week ahead. Enjoy!