Okay, I’m a writer not a plumber. But writing paying what it does, I’ve learned to do a lot of things. This week I learned to change the guts of a toilet.
Now it shouldn’t be that hard. There are directions right on the box of replacement parts. Only....only the directions assume a certain amount of knowledge—like how to get off a stubborn plastic nut.
I mean, I know how to deal with a stubborn metal one. I know the stuff you squirt on to loosen things up. But this blasted thing was plastic!
I ended up going out and getting a new and better wrench. Came back and pretty much demolished the plastic sucker. Good thing a new one was included with the new parts. And I listened to the directions that said to hand tighten only! It’s a good bet whoever worked on this toilet last used a wrench to tighten the nut instead.
It was annoying and ended up costing much more than I wanted but at least it’s fixed. Just in time for my daughter to visit for a week. Plus, if I’m going to hold more classes here, I sure as heck need to have a working guest toilet! (This one broke during the break at my last workshop here.)
Anyway, now I have another new skill. And maybe even some ideas for a scene in a story—if I turn my hand to a contemporary romance!
Hope all of you are having a great week and luck with any challenges coming up in your lives right now!
April
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Intuition
Now let me say first that I grew up in a family that valued science and rational thinking. So did my ex-husband and most of the people I’ve known over the years. A few years ago, though, I started listening to that inner voice that is generally called intuition. Maybe it’s the subconscious synthesizing information I didn’t know I had. Maybe it’s something more profound than that. I’m not sure if the explanation matters. I only know that it’s been an interesting experience.
I began with little things. Things that didn’t seem to matter much. And I’d let my intuition guide me. Interesting things started happening. It got even more interesting when I was going across country not sure where I’d end up. Intuition led me to an apartment with a landlady whose daughter had taken a workshop from me at an RWA conference a couple of years earlier. When I was house hunting in Texas, intuition guided me to the house I ended up buying.
I’ve come to trust that intuition though I’ll admit there are times I’m reluctant to tell people that’s how I’m doing things. Maybe it’s that my subconscious filters information more efficiently than my conscious mind. As I said, I doubt it matters what the explanation is—experiment has shown me it works.
So I’m curious. How many of you out there also listen to your intuition? Do you have any stories about it that you’d like to share?
Hoping your intuition is guiding you as usefully as mine is guiding me.
April
I began with little things. Things that didn’t seem to matter much. And I’d let my intuition guide me. Interesting things started happening. It got even more interesting when I was going across country not sure where I’d end up. Intuition led me to an apartment with a landlady whose daughter had taken a workshop from me at an RWA conference a couple of years earlier. When I was house hunting in Texas, intuition guided me to the house I ended up buying.
I’ve come to trust that intuition though I’ll admit there are times I’m reluctant to tell people that’s how I’m doing things. Maybe it’s that my subconscious filters information more efficiently than my conscious mind. As I said, I doubt it matters what the explanation is—experiment has shown me it works.
So I’m curious. How many of you out there also listen to your intuition? Do you have any stories about it that you’d like to share?
Hoping your intuition is guiding you as usefully as mine is guiding me.
April
Intuition
Now let me say first that I grew up in a family that valued science and rational thinking. So did my ex-husband and most of the people I’ve known over the years. A few years ago, though, I started listening to that inner voice that is generally called intuition. Maybe it’s the subconscious synthesizing information I didn’t know I had. Maybe it’s something more profound than that. I’m not sure if the explanation matters. I only know that it’s been an interesting experience.
I began with little things. Things that didn’t seem to matter much. And I’d let my intuition guide me. Interesting things started happening. It got even more interesting when I was going across country not sure where I’d end up. Intuition led me to an apartment with a landlady whose daughter had taken a workshop from me at an RWA conference a couple of years earlier. When I was house hunting in Texas, intuition guided me to the house I ended up buying.
I’ve come to trust that intuition though I’ll admit there are times I’m reluctant to tell people that’s how I’m doing things. Maybe it’s that my subconscious filters information more efficiently than my conscious mind. As I said, I doubt it matters what the explanation is—experiment has shown me it works.
So I’m curious. How many of you out there also listen to your intuition? Do you have any stories about it that you’d like to share?
Hoping your intuition is guiding you as usefully as mine is guiding me.
April
I began with little things. Things that didn’t seem to matter much. And I’d let my intuition guide me. Interesting things started happening. It got even more interesting when I was going across country not sure where I’d end up. Intuition led me to an apartment with a landlady whose daughter had taken a workshop from me at an RWA conference a couple of years earlier. When I was house hunting in Texas, intuition guided me to the house I ended up buying.
I’ve come to trust that intuition though I’ll admit there are times I’m reluctant to tell people that’s how I’m doing things. Maybe it’s that my subconscious filters information more efficiently than my conscious mind. As I said, I doubt it matters what the explanation is—experiment has shown me it works.
So I’m curious. How many of you out there also listen to your intuition? Do you have any stories about it that you’d like to share?
Hoping your intuition is guiding you as usefully as mine is guiding me.
April
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Ice Storms
I’m sitting here on the third day of ice storms in Austin, TX. Now ice storms are no fun anywhere. One of the worst winters in New Jersey was the year we had ice storms every week for a month. Our poor collie didn’t want to go outside because the backyard sloped downhill and once down to where he could do what he needed to do, it was very hard for him to get back up the ice to come inside.
In Austin, however, the situation is worse. Houses aren’t designed the same way as in the northeast and many of the highways have overpasses that freeze over quickly in cold weather. Nor do cities here stockpile the quantities of salt that northern cities do.
I’m impressed with how few accidents there have been given the conditions and pleased that people are sensibly staying home. I’m not even walking to the end of the block to where the mailboxes are to check my mail until the ice melts off the sidewalks and streets so I can get there and back without falling!
The good thing is that there’s lots of time to write since I have no where to go and nothing else that must be done. I stocked up at the grocery store in advance and even got fresh batteries for the flashlight—which so far I haven’t needed.
I find myself spinning stories in my head about how different people might handle situations like this. As I say in my workshops, it isn’t the circumstances of a person’s life that matters nearly so much as what they do with those circumstances. And how a person (or character in a novel) acts and reacts tells a great deal about their personality.
This has been a strange winter all across the country. I hope everyone everywhere is keeping safe and warm and that all you writers are finding time and ways to write.
April
In Austin, however, the situation is worse. Houses aren’t designed the same way as in the northeast and many of the highways have overpasses that freeze over quickly in cold weather. Nor do cities here stockpile the quantities of salt that northern cities do.
I’m impressed with how few accidents there have been given the conditions and pleased that people are sensibly staying home. I’m not even walking to the end of the block to where the mailboxes are to check my mail until the ice melts off the sidewalks and streets so I can get there and back without falling!
The good thing is that there’s lots of time to write since I have no where to go and nothing else that must be done. I stocked up at the grocery store in advance and even got fresh batteries for the flashlight—which so far I haven’t needed.
I find myself spinning stories in my head about how different people might handle situations like this. As I say in my workshops, it isn’t the circumstances of a person’s life that matters nearly so much as what they do with those circumstances. And how a person (or character in a novel) acts and reacts tells a great deal about their personality.
This has been a strange winter all across the country. I hope everyone everywhere is keeping safe and warm and that all you writers are finding time and ways to write.
April
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Lost in the Story
I just realized that I’m a few days overdue to post. That’s what happens when a writer gets caught up in the words—either reading or writing them. I was doing both. I was reading a manuscript and marveling at all the ways words can come together to create a story—the ways that work and the ones that don’t and why.
I was also working on notes for my next project—a sequel to the one that one the Paranormal category of the PASIC contest. I want to send that first manuscript out, you see, and can’t unless I have the bones of the next story worked out so that I can properly set things up in this one. So many possibilities! So many wonderful, fun possibilities!
Shall I focus on an older sister and her unrequited passion for a “normal” human when she knows what life has been like for her mother? Or should I write the story of the eldest brother—the one who has heretofore shouldered all the responsibility in the family protecting his siblings? Or should I choose one of the younger ones, off to London for the very first time? Decisions, decisions, decisions....
What a joy it is to be able to go into the worlds of my characters! What fun to be able to set them at odds with one another and see the ways they change and grow as they figure their way out of one challenge after another. What satisfaction to know that in the worlds I create things always work out in the end and men and women come together in ways that empower BOTH of them and diminish neither.
So if I’m late occasionally with my blog posts, you’ll know that odds are it’s because I’ve once again gotten lost in the world of my stories!
Have a great week everyone,
April
I was also working on notes for my next project—a sequel to the one that one the Paranormal category of the PASIC contest. I want to send that first manuscript out, you see, and can’t unless I have the bones of the next story worked out so that I can properly set things up in this one. So many possibilities! So many wonderful, fun possibilities!
Shall I focus on an older sister and her unrequited passion for a “normal” human when she knows what life has been like for her mother? Or should I write the story of the eldest brother—the one who has heretofore shouldered all the responsibility in the family protecting his siblings? Or should I choose one of the younger ones, off to London for the very first time? Decisions, decisions, decisions....
What a joy it is to be able to go into the worlds of my characters! What fun to be able to set them at odds with one another and see the ways they change and grow as they figure their way out of one challenge after another. What satisfaction to know that in the worlds I create things always work out in the end and men and women come together in ways that empower BOTH of them and diminish neither.
So if I’m late occasionally with my blog posts, you’ll know that odds are it’s because I’ve once again gotten lost in the world of my stories!
Have a great week everyone,
April
Saturday, December 30, 2006
New Year's Resolutions for Writers
I thought I’d post some resolutions particularly appropriate to writers so here they are:
1) I WILL finish the damn book.
2) I WILL send out the book or story or article or poem or.....
3) I will find ways to make writing fun.
4) I will find ways that work for me as a writer and not worry whether other writers do things this way, too.
5) I will care about what I write.
6) I will do research necessary to my writing but I will not get lost in research in the place of writing.
7) I will put my beloved characters in jeopardy when that will make it a better book.
8) I will listen carefully to feedback AND I will trust my deepest instincts.
9) I will protect the manuscript/idea/writing until I am ready for that feedback.
10) I will write through the fear—knowing that EVERY writer is afraid at some point that this time this project won’t work out.
11) I will celebrate every success—even if no one else does.
12) I will nourish the spark of faith in myself and the joy of writing that was there when I first began.
13) I will write. I will write first for myself and then for the world. No matter what, I will write.
14) I will remember there is life outside the writing, too, and I will not let my sense of self-worth be tied entirely to the writing.
15) I will celebrate all the successes and all the strengths in my life.
16) EVERY DAY I will find reasons to smile and laugh.
17) I will occasionally clear off my desk.
18) I will ways to promote my work that energize and don’t drain me.
19) I will not read negative reviews if they upset me.
20) I will celebrate and remind myself of the readers who do love my work.
21) I will celebrate the success of my fellow writers and commiserate with them when they have a setback.
22) I will never let myself forget why I write and what it means to me and to those who read my work.
23) I will remember to sometimes get up from my chair and move around.
24) I will realize that maybe taking the time to do something that truly makes me laugh might be better than playing that 300th game of computer solitaire.
May 2007 bring all of us health, happiness, and much success!
April
1) I WILL finish the damn book.
2) I WILL send out the book or story or article or poem or.....
3) I will find ways to make writing fun.
4) I will find ways that work for me as a writer and not worry whether other writers do things this way, too.
5) I will care about what I write.
6) I will do research necessary to my writing but I will not get lost in research in the place of writing.
7) I will put my beloved characters in jeopardy when that will make it a better book.
8) I will listen carefully to feedback AND I will trust my deepest instincts.
9) I will protect the manuscript/idea/writing until I am ready for that feedback.
10) I will write through the fear—knowing that EVERY writer is afraid at some point that this time this project won’t work out.
11) I will celebrate every success—even if no one else does.
12) I will nourish the spark of faith in myself and the joy of writing that was there when I first began.
13) I will write. I will write first for myself and then for the world. No matter what, I will write.
14) I will remember there is life outside the writing, too, and I will not let my sense of self-worth be tied entirely to the writing.
15) I will celebrate all the successes and all the strengths in my life.
16) EVERY DAY I will find reasons to smile and laugh.
17) I will occasionally clear off my desk.
18) I will ways to promote my work that energize and don’t drain me.
19) I will not read negative reviews if they upset me.
20) I will celebrate and remind myself of the readers who do love my work.
21) I will celebrate the success of my fellow writers and commiserate with them when they have a setback.
22) I will never let myself forget why I write and what it means to me and to those who read my work.
23) I will remember to sometimes get up from my chair and move around.
24) I will realize that maybe taking the time to do something that truly makes me laugh might be better than playing that 300th game of computer solitaire.
May 2007 bring all of us health, happiness, and much success!
April
Monday, December 25, 2006
Christmas Day
I sit here looking at my tree and smiling, enjoying the peace of nowhere I have to be, nothing I have to do except what I want to do. My daughter and I opened presents this morning. Last night we went to a candle lighting service.
Some thoughts about the past few days...
My daughter got in late Friday and Saturday we went into Austin. A good bookstore, a coffee shop with live music, another place with live music. Moments of laughter and of contemplation.
This morning laughter as she opened a present I bought 2 weeks ago not knowing why. Pierced earrings--but I didn't know until she stepped off the plane that she had gotten her ears pierced.
Fresh baked Finnish coffee bread. Music playing.
Deeply needed rain the past two days has changed over to a gloriously blue sky and sunshine.
I wish for all of you today peace and joy and a passion for life and writing. I hope that this Season has brought you joy and closeness with friends and/or family. I hope that the New Year will bring health and happiness and much success.
I believe that we are all connected--no matter what our superficial differences may be. The success of any one of us is a triumph for all, the joy something to share, the frustrations something we all know as well. May 2007 be a year in which we can see the best in each other, listen—truly listen—to each other ESPECIALLY when we disagree, and together begin to create a better world, each in our own way.
Blessings to all,
April
Some thoughts about the past few days...
My daughter got in late Friday and Saturday we went into Austin. A good bookstore, a coffee shop with live music, another place with live music. Moments of laughter and of contemplation.
This morning laughter as she opened a present I bought 2 weeks ago not knowing why. Pierced earrings--but I didn't know until she stepped off the plane that she had gotten her ears pierced.
Fresh baked Finnish coffee bread. Music playing.
Deeply needed rain the past two days has changed over to a gloriously blue sky and sunshine.
I wish for all of you today peace and joy and a passion for life and writing. I hope that this Season has brought you joy and closeness with friends and/or family. I hope that the New Year will bring health and happiness and much success.
I believe that we are all connected--no matter what our superficial differences may be. The success of any one of us is a triumph for all, the joy something to share, the frustrations something we all know as well. May 2007 be a year in which we can see the best in each other, listen—truly listen—to each other ESPECIALLY when we disagree, and together begin to create a better world, each in our own way.
Blessings to all,
April
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