Incoherent Scribblings

Pre-Birthday Silliness

Even though my birthday isn’t for 13 more days, May 9 holds a special place in my heart because according to my mother and the doctor who delivered me, that is when I was actually supposed to be born. However, in accordance with what quickly became the story of my life, I apparently overslept and as a result, didn’t make it into the world for almost two more weeks.

Of course, two weeks later when I finally did decide to make an appearance I did it in literally the most ass-backwards way. You see, I was a breech baby. My mother always jokes that I presented my best side to the world first, but I suspect I was just being cheeky.

Anyway…

This morning I received a visit from someone who, at this point, shall remain nameless. After an encounter we had last weekend, I had been waiting for (and looking forward to) this visit all week. During my discussion with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named the subject of my birthday, which this year falls the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend and on the opening day of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, came up.

When I mentioned to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named that my plans for my birthday included a long holiday weekend in which I planned drive to The Big City to see the long-awaited fourth installment of the Indiana Jones movies in a fancy cinemaplex, his response was that he would hate for me to be alone while celebrating these two important milestones. In that case, I told him, he was welcome to come with me and after he confirmed he would love to do just that, we made plans for… dare I call it a date?

I just hope he doesn’t mind too much when I drool over Harrison Ford/Indiana Jones for the entire two hours!

On Writing

Now that my novel writing class is over, I hope to have more time to write about something other than stitching here. It isn’t that I haven’t had time to write these past months, rather I felt that if I was going to write something creative it should go towards my novel rather than the senseless babbling that I do here.

So… what did I learn in my novel writing class this semester? The simple answer is a lot. However, that doesn’t make for a very interesting blog post so I will expand.

I think the most important thing I learned in my novel writing class was that I finally got over my reluctance to let other people read what I write. Now, I am sure those of you who have been reading my blog for the past 4 years (If there is actually anyone out there that has been reading that long!) are probably thinking, “What the hell is she talking about? People have been reading what she writes all along.”

Well, I suppose that is true, but I will admit that for a while I turned comments off because even though technically I knew people were reading, it wasn’t until they started leaving comments that I really knew they were reading.

But when you write fiction and people read that… well, it’s different somehow.

Granted, when I write in my blog there is a certain amount of creativity that goes into each post, but at the same time I am reporting what is going on in my life and my life is not that much different than anyone else’s. I go to work, I dabble in my hobbies, I show off pictures of my children cats, I complain about things that irritate me, etc.

But when you write fiction, it’s art.

You pour your heart and soul into this creative process. You think about the characters you create and you become emotionally attached to them. Some days when you write you go places that you would never dream and other days you can’t believe the garbage that has flowed from your fingers. You know the story you are trying to tell and you do your damnedest to set it free. Although I have never given birth, it is the only metaphor that I think can probably do justice to the creation of such a thing.

And like a child, I want to protect my creation. I don’t want other people to criticize it. I don’t want other people to make fun of it or be mean to it. And so, if I keep my creation safe and secure in my drawer or on my hard drive there is no chance to expose it to the unsavory elements.

But eventually you realize that by protecting it (and yourself) you might be doing more harm than good and so you take a chance and you let other people read what you have done.

And that is what my novel writing class did for me. We were all in the same boat. We were all telling stories that meant something to us and as a result, we were sympathetic to one another’s hopes and fears about our writing. Our criticisms were productive and the ones I received only made my subsequent drafts better.

Now, I am not naïve enough to think that everyone that reads my manuscript will be as considerate as my classmates, but I believe now I have a thick enough skin that I can take whatever criticism comes my way.

April Goals and May Rotation

It’s that time again…

For April, I planned to:

1. Continue my Sunday “Harvest Witch” SAL with Dawn. - Yep!
2. Participate in the April SAT. - Yep!
3. Work on “Fairy Flora.” - Yep!
4. Work on “Poet’s Heart.” - Yep! Finished it too!
5. Stitch (and finish) a Christmas Ornament for my 10 Ornies Challenge - Yep!
6. Order the Kreiniks and charms for “Harvest Witch” and the beads for “Spring Queen” and “In Cupid’s Garden.” - Yep!

All in all a very successful month if I do say so myself!

I think I will stick with “Fairy Flora” as my focus piece in May and go from there. So, for May I plan to:

1. Continue my Sunday SAL with Dawn. (While we wait for her Kreiniks to arrive we may go ahead and start our new SAL piece “Summer’s Magic” by Dragon Dreams.)
2. Participate in the May SAT.
3. Work for at least 10 hours on “Fairy Flora.”
4. Work on (and finish?) “The Bookshelf.”
5. Work on “Spring Queen.”
6. Stitch (and finish) one of my PIF gifts.

SBQ: Heirlooms

This week’s SBQ was suggested by Jennifer and is:

Do you have any pieces that you would liked passed on to future generations as family heirlooms?

Although I would love for any of my BAPs to become family heirlooms, I think of all the pieces that I have stitched the ones that I would most like to become heirlooms are the birth samplers that I stitched for my niece and nephew.

Booking Along

Such an appropriate post title: My weekend was all about books in one form or another!

First up, here is the progress that I made on “The Bookshelf” this weekend. I have now added the authors’ names. At first I thought it was odd that Oscar Wilde was a member of this group of female authors (well, if you know anything about Oscar Wilde, maybe not) but then I realized it was Wilder as in Laura Ingalls Wilder, not Oscar Wilde!

And because I am a stickler for accent marks over letters in words (perhaps it has something to do with the fact that my first name has one of those elusive babies) I added the umlaut symbols over Emily (or Charlotte or Anne) Brontë’s name.

I also read this weekend. I finished reading John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold for my novel writing class. I must say that out of all the books we have read this semester I was most dissatisfied with this one. Although I did find the glimpse into East Germany in the late 50s/early 60s slightly interesting from a personal point of view, overall I guess spy novels just don’t do anything for me.

Of course, considering that May is nearly here, the semester is quickly coming to an end. This means that tomorrow I have to hand in a portfolio of everything I have written this semester. This includes 45 pages written towards my novel, 16 “elements,” and any other writings that we included in our journal. Next week we hand in our final assignment which includes 15 polished, revised pages that (more or less) comprise a chapter of our novel and a reworked copy of our midterm project: A proposal to a publisher.

When we began the semester Dr. B. warned us that by the end of the term we would be sick of looking at our novel and at this stage I whole heartedly agree! Although I hope to take my novel and turn it into my Master’s project (aka “thesis”), I am also ready to take a bit of a break from it. Right now I feel that the story and the characters are a bit stagnant.

I think I need a new perspective on the manuscript. I am not sure which will help me more though: A month’s break from it or a pitcher of margaritas!