Sign on the wall

A sign on the wall behind a co-worker's desk read: Plan your work. Work your plan.


For my novel I had written out a plan for finding it a home. Instead of putting it in the bottom drawer, I'll continue to follow the plan. That means it'll be submitted to more agents.

Like looking for a job, the right fit is more important than a rapid placement.

Agent Responded

The agent responded. I am impressed with the agent's response and disappointed in not capturing her interest. She responded that she was not enthusiastic enough about the work to represent it. I think that is a wonderful response. So often rejections make me feel the problem is innate to the work. She avoids that.

Even so I think this work goes into the drawer. Perhaps I am not yet good enough. It is my first novel. Now is the time for me to focus on becoming a better writer.

Query Sent

The search for a home for my novel continues. Following the agent's guidelines, I sent off a query  with synopsis and the first fifty pages in the body of the email.

Revision completed.

I enjoyed re-reading my action packed adventure of the sea, but revised only minor problems. The agent said too much sea and too little conversation. I failed to see those areas and feel like a beginning author without perspective on his own work, unable to see the most glaring errors even when highlighted.

All input is valuable. For each comment, I try to make changes that solve that problem the best way possible. After a rest, I make the choice between the original and the revision.

Sometimes negative comments point out the different, the new, or the unusual. The best parts receive the most comments, both good and bad. In this case, I think the agent looked for the literary and found an adventure which disappointed her.

Sunshine

Another bright cold February day in Wisconsin. To me this feels like one of the brightest winters I can remember. Somehow  I missed the long, dreary, overcast days that seem to run on forever. We've had cold and snow. And wind. Lots of slicing, cutting, dangerously cold wind.

Writing is just maintaining itself. Although lots of projects have formed in my mind, nothing creative has made the paper or computer screen. I just do not want to go back and look at the weak points of my novel. Revision is needed. Then it should be in the mail to see if I can find it a home.

Sports Guru

I guess my career as sports guru won't go far. My prediction missed wide of the mark for the Super Bowl.

My writing doesn't seem to be going anywhere either. But can't see myself stopping from wild guesses at football games or at giving up writing; I simply enjoy them both.

Superbowl Prediction

My prediction for the Superbowl: A close game going into overtime with a 21-21 tie. Finally the Seahawks will win 24-21.

Covert

More and more I notice interesting words. Covert is one of those. Every time I read or hear that word, covert operations come to mind. Somehow I never think of it as a noun. In an adventure story, the escaping hero found a covert.

Sayings

Looking at a list of some sayings in Spanish and their English translations, I see a couple that struggling writers might enjoy:

1. Where there is desire there is ability.

2. Who runs for pleasure, never tires.

3. From word to deed is a great distance.

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

Wishing you all the very best in 2015.

Resolutions?  There are many I should make.  I have this habit of looking back each year to see if I kept them. Usually I don't keep them. The main reason isn't that they are too optimistic or unreachable. Changing priorities turn me off one road onto another.

What Resolutions for the New Year?

Starting to review the year for myself. Looking back before deciding  goals always adds a bit of reality.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Writing

My writing has taken a back seat for awhile, but still doing freewrites daily to keep the practice and habit. Five hundred words is my target. Some days it is very difficult to even write five hundred words -- even nonsense. I like to think that those days are the most helpful with keeping the ease of a daily write.

One Great Way to Write Short Stories

ONE GREAT WAY TO WRITE SHORT STORIES by Ben Nyberg shows a way to write a short story.

What interested me is his view on writers. Are writers made or are they born?  Perhaps a little of both. Here are a couple of quotes from that book:

• "...writing a story requires knowing technique. If you don't have that, no amount of heart or mind will make your stories work. If you do, you can write effective, even publishable stories, even if your creative gift isn't huge."
• "...what you are learning is the technical skill to make the most of whatever storytelling gift you have, to write the best stories you can."

Chromebook

I feel I have joined the computer age. Even though I have been using personal computers since my first Apple in 1979, the feeling that the computer age had left me behind overcame me with the purchase of a Chromebook.

Chromebooks are inexpensive laptops that run Chrome OS. They update automatically and are considered virus safe. They run almost everything through the cloud. I'm not really sure what the cloud is but it seems to me to be a virtual server. It is a place where documents and programs can be stored and used.

The Chromebook works well surfing the net. My problem arose when I wanted to print out a page. I couldn't do it. It prints only from the cloud. I may have been able to save the page to a memory chip and physically take it to another computer with a printer attached, but I didn't try that.

Today I started the set up of a home wireless network through a personal hotspot. After several hours yesterday with tech support, I managed to get the hotspot up and some data paid for. Today I connected another computer to it. It was a breeze to do.

Enjoying a post Thanksgiving mellow. The crazy shopping on Red/Green Friday is not for me.

With the last few warm days of the year catching up on the ends of the Fall projects. Writing continues but with less focus and more for fun and for myself. Is that another way of saying that I have realized that being a published author may be beyond my limit? Perhaps it is.

Thanksgiving

As a kid I didn't like turkey, stuffing, cranberry anything, pumpkin pie, mincemeat pie, squash, or sweet potatoes. Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday. For me it meant getting together with the cousins. The weather was warm enough to play outside -- sometimes with snow, often not.

Finished the moving

Finally emptied the storage garage, swept it out, and handed in the keys.

Monday most of my old computers go to the recycle. No longer any room for them and there doesn't seem to any good home for them. Some of them were clunkers that just got the job done. They lacked style, innovation, or mystique. Others like the Bondwell B310 portable from 1990  thrilled with  their design, capacity, blazing speed, portability, and tons of software.

My hoard goes back to my first typewriter, a graduation present from high school. I branched out into computers with the 1979 Apple II plus.

Cold

Not so cold but this year it really feels cold to me. We're somewhere around thirty degrees. Almost done with moving out of the storage garage. I can see all four walls now and have moved everything I'm keeping. Still have to move a couple of cubic yards of trash to the dump, take four or five old computers to the recycle, and donate a large piece of old furniture that had been quite good in its time (1920's or 30's?). Before that I need to take apart the last platform. I'm hoping that today it will be get warm enough for me. But whether it warms or not, after the laundry, I'm taking apart the platform.