If You See Three of These...

...then you know you've had a little too much Christmas Punch! Happy Holidays and Hope for a Great New Year!

Ice, Snow, and a bit of Sun!

After yesterday's afternoon and early evening's ice storm it began to snow in earnest about midnight. By 4:30 AM when I took this picture there was a lot more snow.

This is what it looked like at 2 PM today when I trudged out to the mail box.

About 3:30 PM the sun peeked through the clouds for about 30 minutes.

Gretchen didn't like me going outside. She stood in the window wondering what in the world had possessed me to go out and take pictures in all the snow and bitter cold temperatures.

Just before the sunset, I got another peek at the sun.

This is the end of our snowfall until Wednesday when the next system comes through...so they say.

We're Not Used To This Kind of Weather In December or in the Portland Area and Valley

It rained, or rather drizzled, from about 10 PM last night until about 3 PM this afternoon.

I went out to take a look at the ice on top of 14 inches of yesterday's snow and as I turned to come in huge flakes started falling again. We are swinging back and forth from sleet to heavy snow. I can't even make it to the dumpster to take out the garbage. All I need to do is slip once and I could wreck the progress on my shoulder...not to mention break a hip or some other bone.

So, we are cocconed in our apartment. We never lost power--yet. As long as the winds are calm we should be okay. We have pleanty to eat, and we are very warm and toasty.

The ice is beautiful on the trees as long as there isn't too much of it.

This is what the snow with a crust of ice looks like when stepped on. Like break-up on a lake.

There is a quarter inch of ice on the soft, powdery snow. And the storm is not over with yet. We are supposed to keep snowing and sleet mix all the way through Wednesday...so far. The forecast changes daily...if not minute by minute. This snow is not going to go away for a long time and they expect us to still have it on the ground on Thursday and Friday--so, White Christmas Greetings from The Great Western Northwest!

Oregon is not used to weather like this, especially lasting so long in one stretch. This is the longest running ice/snow on the ground for this area since 30 years ago. The schools have been closed for a week. Fort that reason our valley doesn't keep supplies and equipment on hand, because we never really get but one or two days of snow or ice and everyone just deals with it.

Everyone has chained up their cars to get around because out here in Newberg, the roads don't get plowed or treated. Even the Portland Metro area has a very difficult time keeping the main roads open. There has been over 6 deaths attributed to these train of storms so far. Of course, our parking lot and sidewalks are the same. There is no one around to take care of them or put ice melt down for the tenants. We are an apartment building of disabled and seniors.

We are on the valley floor and usually only the hills around us will ever get snow. Mt. Hood is rejoicing with the huge amounts of snow their getting...tourist business...the ski runs.

So we seemed to have become like the rest of the northern parts of the country. But we are not used to it here. Big difference.

More Snow

Quiet, Peaceful snow

Deadly Ice upon Powder

Cometh December

After yesterdays melt, it started snowing again early this morning and hasn't stopped all day. We are supposed to get an ice storm tomorrow on top of all this. We are prepared to be without power, but we pray it doesn't happen.


This is the most unusual weather we've had in the eleven years that I've lived here. Normally, any snowfall or ice storm would come in January. This year we are a month early.

It's pretty to some, to other's its a frustration, and still others...deadly.


I hope all that have to travel in this coast to coast snow train weather is very careful on the highways.

More Shop Talk and Today's Snow

unsual Western Oregon weather

Thomma Lyn posted another set of writing questions from her friend, Squirrel. Once again, Thomma set the challenge to the rest of us to answer these questions, too. I like doing this. It helps keep me focused on writing, even though I'm still recovering from shoulder surgery and haven't been working on my stories.

The topic this time is Genre, so here's my answers:
(Squirrels questions are in bold.)

Of all the genres out there, what is yours called and how did you gravitate to it?

First of all, I have a really hard time classifying my novels into a specific genre. I write for myself, for the ideas that pop into my head, not the publishers or a specific genre.

I am all over the place on genres because I'm still discovering myself as a writer and like to try my hand at different genres; however, the first few novels started off with children or Young Adults in mind but morphed into a greater audience before they were finished.

In my last post I stated that I started writing a children's story that migrated into a novella. The novella, Gopherwood, could probably be classed as Children 8 and up. But the readers I had critiquing it were mostly adults who loved it. I think the genre for this one is definitely children or family. There is, as far as I know, no classification for "family", but there should be. Meaning that adults and parents should be comfortable reading it to children and that every age group should be able to enjoy it.

I went from the novella to a full length novel about cats that has turned into a series. There are two completed so far in the Scrungy series. Scrungy: Abandoned and Scrungy: Rescue. Scrungy: Journey is on hold until I'm able to type longer—but it's still a work in progress. The genre for this series is definitely Young Adult to General Fiction. Again the readers of this work were all adult and left me to thinking, like myself, that adults do like to read Young Adult books.

The first Scrungy book started out as a children's book like Gopherwood, but soon turned into a novel for a more family or general audience genre. It is not really for children because it deals with some facts and events in a cat's life that would probably be unsetting to a young child.

Bubba and Bean is my favorite coming of age novel. Alas, I've been working on that one off and on for many years. I get stuck a lot of times on this story and often it just stays on the shelf until I get another epiphany. It is so close to being finished, (rough draft) that it's embarrassing. I was working steadily on it last year before the 2007 NaNo event and never got back to it, mostly because Scrungy one and two were being shopped out at the time and I felt the need to stop working on Bubba and Bean and go back to Scrungy and start the third book, just in case I'd get someone interested in the first two books, at least the third book would be underway.

Bubba and Bean could be classed as a YA novel, but yet again General fiction comes to mind because the adults that perused it enjoyed it.

The Glass Unicorn, a completed novel being shopped out, is also Youth/YA or General fiction. It has a lot of magical events that would appeal to the youth or young adult, but at the same time it is more for the general public because of its content.

For last year's 2007 NaNo event, I felt comfortable enough with my writing to branch out into a real "genre" that I could actually classify. I wrote the rough draft for a murder mystery, Mallard River Bend. I had so much fun on that one and really can't wait to get back to it. This is definitely an adult mystery novel.

The novel I started for this year's 2008 NaNo event, was another mystery. The title, The Fairy Gardens, is misleading to what the story is really about. That one will be shelved until I finish Scrungy, book three, and Bubba and Bean. I should not have started this year's NaNo novel because I was having shoulder surgery two days after I started. It was just something I had to start even though I knew I'd likely not be able to work on it for months to come.

I like the mystery genre and hope that maybe my breakout novel will be in that genre.

It is related to other genres?

My work is all over the place. Until the NaNo events I didn't work from or start my work from a standard genre. Again, I write for a general audience, number one being me. I'm still discovering exactly what certain genres really encompass. I will be doing more adult or general fiction, mystery, and hopefully romance in the future. I'm not all that interested in specific romance, chick flick, women's lit and so forth, I just write what interest me.

Is there a map of genre relationships?

I like Thomas's answer to this question. I'm still learning what my writing means and where I want to go exactly. I do find it troubling that general fiction encompasses so many types of genre, and I definitely don't consider myself being a literary genre author.

How do you find a publisher in your genre?

Humph! How do I find a publisher for my genre when I'm not at all sure what my genre is?
At least the first writings. I have the readers in mind when I'm searching for a publisher/agent, and even with a thorough search of the targeted publisher/agent as to what they are looking for, I'm as likely as not to find that what I classify my work to be is not necessarily what the publisher/agent wants, even though their bio's matches what I've written to a T. They are a real puzzle to me.

What characterizes your genre and what would push it over into another?

My writing so far is driven by its characters whims. If it migrates into something I wasn't expecting, I go with it and adjust. Or try to adjust. The whimsical and magical things in life, the imagination of a child perhaps peppers my novels, making it difficult to define into a specific genre. What would push me into another? My love for mystery books. I want to write more adult things and I love plotting and twisting and turning.

Whatever kind of author I turn out to be, I know that I can write in several styles and genre. Years ago, I couldn't do that.

Wishing the Happiest of Birthdays to my BGFWPCP & KS

Sunshine becomes you

Even on top of the world

Happy Birthday TL

Novel Writing Questions

A writing friend of Thomma Lyn's, Querulous Squirrel, put together a series of questions regarding the process of writing for her. Thomma thought it would be a good challenge or meme type challenge for all of us who write novels. Squirrel's questions and Thomma Lyn's challenge was something I'd like to participate in.

Here goes…Squirrels questions are in bold.

All of you who have written and are writing novels: what is your process (aside from putting in desk time)?

The thought or idea for a new novel has to be in my head—driving me crazy for a while. In the meantime when I realize that I want to put the time an effort into a new story I buy a two inch binder and start stuffing it with notes. I also start the research and start forming pictures in my head…I'm an artist and still think in pictures or scenes. Usually the title is always up front with the idea, so I give the novel a name and put it on the binder. The binder sits on the shelf until I'm ready to start. This usually means that the characters are now bugging me in my dreams to get started.

Through the Nation Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo, as it is affectionately called, I found out that I can write a novel in 30 days…at least a pretty good sized rough draft. That means a lot of intense planning and writing. I usually take three to six months or even a year to write a new draft. When the draft is finished it goes back on the shelf and gels…more likely collects dust.

It could take me years to actually finish a novel to where it may be marketable.

When I am seriously involved with something new I fight off all the other voices of new ideas and try to write at least a thousand words a day—which, when life doesn't get in the way and mess things up, is pretty good progress for me. Often I write way more than a thousand words at a time, but a thousand is a goal.

Researching my characters and keeping a detailed timeline is very important and often takes more time than writing.

How do you find the right voice or voices for an entire book?

This is often the same question I ask myself over and over at the beginning. Often I don't know what voice I'm going to use until my hands are actually hovering over the keyboard.

How does your idea begin?

Most often a dream plagues me. When I'm drawing or painting, the eyes of the person or animal is what I see first. In writing the eyes are the title. I can see into the depths of the characters soul through the eyes.

What I don't like is the incessant stream of ideas for other books that scream at me when I'm writing. Over the years I've practiced tuning those other voices out, but not before briefly jotting the new idea down on a scrap of paper and putting it in a file folder until I'm ready to get involved in something new. And involved is what writing is all about. A novel needs lots of time and devotion; a total commitment like any relationship. Something I've been derelict in lately, being totally committed to my current project.

Do you outline?

When I started writing I read all the articles and books…so yes, I religiously outlined. I don't always outline religiously anymore. My timeline is now very detailed, so that could be considered an outline, however, I do start a novel with a plan for at least the first three or four chapters. By then I know enough about my characters to let them start making the decisions.

Go chapter by chapter?

I do go chapter by chapter. It is very important to me that the chapters follow one another precisely. Chapters are scenes and I try to get the most that I can out of them before going on. What I don't do, and I probably should, is create a chapter by chapter synopsis or outline as I go. Often in the submission process the guidelines ask for such dreadful things. But, again, I keep a detailed timeline that lets me produce such a thing if required.

Value plot?

Humph…I start with a plot, one I've often worked out very thoroughly in my mind and sometimes outlining on paper/computer, but more often than not, once I get past the introductory chapters out of the way the characters change things on me and show me the direction they want to take. The plot is not necessarily mine anymore.

Keep track of characters?

This is a good question to ask. The characters can change things so quickly that if I didn't keep a detailed timeline I'd be totally bogged down, depressed, and ready to scrap the project.

Something I started doing on my third novel, by then, the second in a series, was to collect the images of the characters. Once again, I'm a very visual person and I soon found that if I were producing a play I'd want to have a casting call. So now, whether it is cats or people, I search for the actors of my play—novel—collecting the images of the characters. When writing a series, I found out right away that one could get very lost without pictures and character sheets. The series has to replay some of the scenes from the previous book(s) so keeping detailed character profiles and timelines are a huge time saver and eliminate a lot frustration.

Not bore yourself or the reader?

"Killing the babies," as one writing instructor I had put it, is crucial to keeping the pages of the book turning. Something I find particularly appealing or I'm very sentimental about may not necessarily be good for the flow of the story. They are hard to let go of, those sweet paragraphs, memories, or whole chapters of beautiful prose that you've worked so hard on and have an attachment to. But if they inhibit the flow, stall the reader or produce a yawn, then they got to go…close the and pull out the axe.

Okay that is good advice, but do I follow it? I'm not always sure, so that’s why I have as many people as I can twist the arms of to read my novels and be critically cruel.

Create emotional suspense?

Wow. I love tearful passages. I love placing my characters in danger; frustrating them at every turn…I love cliffhangers! All page turners. I would also like to get to point in my career that I can write so the reader has no time to take a breath. I love authors that can do that.

How do you structure?

I'm not sure how to answer that. I work hard on having a good beginning, an informative middle, and a great ending. My chapters are structured the same way…or at least I try to make them so. I'm still discovering how to create dilemmas at the right moment to keep the reader turning the page to the next chapter. I've sometimes read books straight through because each chapter begged me to go on to the next, to see what will happen next. I had blurred vision and read through tear-filled eyes from doing that, but the ending was always worth it. That's the kind of writer I want to be.

How do you know an idea is a whole novel, that you'll have enough and not run out?

Most of my younger days I wrote and produced plays for various age groups. The last play I wrote I knew the night it ended that the story was supposed to be a novel. Where is that novel now? Still on the dusty shelf. Oh, I had/have enough material to keep it going but life got in the way and for long time I didn't write. When I started writing again I had so many stories to tell that I chose the loudest voice and haven't gotten back to it. But I will, just as soon as…yadda, yadda, yadda…

What keeps you going that long, long distance?

The ending.

Is there a maximum age to write your first novel as in "Well, she hasn't written one by eighty. She's not likely to write one now."

I would have to say one is never too old to start writing—or return to writing.
When my children were small I'd take them to the library once a week. We got a good sized cardboard box and used a rope for a handle. Each week we'd drag that huge box into the children's section where we'd sit in those low benches for what seemed like hours. We'd read and handle all the books. Each of the children, including me, filled that box as full as we could, often carrying out an additional stack in our arms. The whole week we sat together in the afternoons, the evenings, and read books. Actually, I was doing most of the reading.

What I wanted was to be a serious illustrator of children books. I was already doing freelance illustration and add copy for small, local businesses. The illustrations to a children's book is what drew me in. After hundreds of picture books or illustrated books, as the children could barely read words back then, I was sure my talent was good enough to produce such artwork, if not better than what had already been published.

So I set out to do just that. I had not gotten one page written of my new project when I discovered I couldn't stop writing. I was only going to do small books, with lots of brightly colored pictures and very little words. Well, there is something very magical about writing that I didn't know existed back then. I was so in love with the telling of the story and it turned out to be a novella. Illustrated, of course, but I hadn't started on the illustrations, because by the time I finished that first novella my head was so full of endless ideas that I just went on to the next one. One that I'm now working on the third book in the series. In the meantime, I wrote more and more. Illustrating was always in the back of my mind, but now, what the heck…I was enjoying myself. My fingers were creating magic and I was hooked on novels.

Only in the past two years have I felt confident enough to write short stories, and had it not have been for the cat blogosphere I would not have started and found them just as enjoyable to create as a full length novel.

I have four complete novels that I shop out once in a while, collect the rejection letters as though they were mere stamps for a stamp collection. I have four drafts sitting on the shelves, too. Very dusty, of course, but still bugging the heck out me to get to them. But, oh wait…a new idea has popped into my head…

How old should one be? We'll I'm now 64. I started writing when I was 43. My children were all out of the nest by then and I had time to think. To explore the world of writing novels. I imagine myself 70 something by the time I'm published. Or maybe 80 something…I'm in no hurry.

The only other thing I can say about age is that the older you are the more fodder for fiction you've accumulated and the more wisdom you have to off your characters and the world.

****

Thanks Squirrel, for this fun exercise. Thank you, too, Thomma, for challenging the rest of us. Now I have something to really post about. It's been months since I could write and post something worthwhile.

Tagged for a Christmas Meme

I was tagged by Paula for this Christmas meme:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both, and lots of tissue paper

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial—no fuss nor muss

3. When do you put up the tree? The first week in Dec, usually

4. When do you take the tree down? New Year's Day

5. Do you like eggnog? You betcha!

6. Favorite gift received as a child. Trains

7. Hardest people to buy for? My family, now that everyone is older

8. Easiest person to buy for? No one is easy to buy for

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Not since the kids were home

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Snail Mail, of course…gotta give my dues to the postal service

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Underpants when I was a teenager

12. Favorite Christmas Movies? Christmas Carol with George C. Scott and A Christmas Story

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? A month or two before Christmas if there's a budget for buying gifts by then

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Everything: ham, eggnog, cookies, hot chocolate with marshmallows

16. Lights on the tree? Most definitely…the smaller and twinklier the better

17. Favorite Christmas song? Carol of the Bells!

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Close by—to mom's for a few hours

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? No

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Eve

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Businesses that lay off employees at Christmas time, all the economic doom and gloom on TV

23. Favorite ornament? Colored glass balls and various shapes

24. Favorite holiday theme or color? Red and Green

25. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Ham, sweet potatoes, Pecan pie, Coconut cake


I'm still typing left-handed so I'm leaving this as an open tag for anyone who'd like to play.