observations

Today was the day for interesting observations.

Middle of the afternoon I had to run a quick errand and was walking down I street when I see this older man standing stock still in the middle of the next block...and then I see hands wrapped around him. As my light changed and I got closer, I saw this very executive looking man being hugged by a younger homeless man. By the time I was near enough to hear anything they said, the homeless man had let go and the executive was frantically trying to get to the next crosswalk. I figured he must have given him some money, but the guy still asked everyone for 37 cents (so exact).

Second, just in front of my office building, a cab hit another car while crossing the intersection. I didn't quite see it, only heard it and then saw the cab pull away a little, so I can't quite say what happened.

Oh, and the final interesting point of note, was that all of the elevators in my office building were "broken," to use the technical term of our engineer. Only in the afternoon. But when I went down to run my errand, the elevator went all the way up to the penthouse, stopping at every floor, and then back down to the lobby...again, stopping on every floor. And of course, when I went up, we first went all the way to the garage and then back up to my floor.

I always wondered what the penthouse looked like. Honestly...I kind prefer the third floor better.

there was a chill in the air

This weather is throwing me for a loop, and it's actually starting to get a little annoying. Those who actually know me, and also some may have surmised this already, but I've discovered after one winter in DC that I'm not so much of a fan of this cold weather. Therefore, my body needs time to get ready for the cold weather, sort of a...shutting down, if you will. My mind also needs to come to terms with the fact that for a few months, there will not be so much exploring the city or going out at night when the temperature drops even more.

This isn't happening. It's back up to somewhere in the 60s now. Which is great, because I can go walk around DC, but I'm a little tired of all this teasin'! I also want it to be cold (I know, contradicting myself) so that when I'm down in Texas, I will be extremely appreciative of the heat. No fun if it's the same temperature here as it is there.

Ok I'm done. The good news is that I can still walk down to the National Gallery for my postponed lecture on Picasso and won't have to take the metro. I don't like taking the metro when my destination is conceivably within walking distance. Unless it's late. Or cold.

I can't believe this is the weekend before Christmas Eve. One more week to go and then I'll be on vacation! I wasn't going to take my writing with me...but I'm starting to think that I will. I'm already imagining my favorite coffeehouses and working there to kill the afternoon hours.

National Gallery

Sort of last minute I decide I do want to attend the lecture at the National Gallery on Picasso and Matisse. The other ones I've attended have been quite interesting. So I finish getting ready and haul it down to the National Gallery (from Dupont Circle area), and make it there just in time to get in line and be sure I have a choice in seating.

I walk in the door, have my bag checked and start to head down to the auditorium. And then what do I see? A notice that the lecture is postponed until next weekend.

I guess the good thing is since I didn't want to just turn around and walk back out, I got to look through the National Gallery's East builidng for a bit, which is something I haven't done in awhile. I had no idea there were so many Picasso's here. Not sure the Matisse cut-outs interested me very much, but his paintings did.

I recommend checking out what's up currently at the Gallery. And look at the West building too. The Streets of New York exhibit is great, if it's still up. I can't remember how long that one is supposed to go for.

chill in the air

I was so incredibly cold last night it was ridiculous. My friend and I went and saw Casino Royale (second time for me) last night and then got some dinner thankfully near my apartment. It was difficult making those last two blocks home. This morning while out running an errand I saw a formation of geese overhead flying south. I guess it's truly time for me to go into my self-imposed hibernation. This Texas girl is still not ready for the cold to last more than...a week at most.

The good news is that while sequestered away in my apartment, I should have more than enough time to write, among other things. I have also played quite a bit of piano lately since I received my keyboard as an early Christmas gift the other day. I think it helps to focus creative energies on something else. After a few days of indulging my inner pianist, I wrote like a madwoman. Or...I guess I should say edited somewhat like a madwoman. I've been working on this new idea and went back and edited the little that I had.

They may raise them tough down South, but we are not brought up with defenses against the cold. Case in point: a little bit of ice, or maybe 3/4" of snow will pretty much shut down the entire city of Dallas. Here, from what I've heard, there are voluntary snow days. You're snowed in (from a Southerner's point of view) and some crazy people still decide to brave the danger for their employer. Or their paycheck.

The luck that I have of living a practically a less than 10 minute walk to work excludes me from these voluntary snow days. If I was not excluded, I would probably work from home until the groundhog sees his shadow.

metroless

There are times when I miss catching the metro. I have had some very interesting experiences and observations while sitting, or packed like one tiny little sardine, on the train. Writers observe things, and here's a prime observation opportunity that I don't partake in.

But then there are other days, that I praise my very lucky stars that I walk home from work and pour a glass of wine in the amount of time it would probably take to walk to the metro and try wait for a slightly less packed train.

I just have to pick up little gems elsewhere. Luckily this city is full of...interesting people and situations. Inspiration is everywhere.

Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A week ago it finally felt like the holidays. I was walking home from the National Gallery of Art with a coat and scarf, a Starbucks holiday cup, it was grey and freezing (my definition of freezing). And now this weekend it's back up to 60? I thought this was finished and it was officially freezing season? It almost doesn't feel like the holidays.

But I will be visiting Texas in less than 30 days so I'm not really complaining.

In honor of the holidays, I've started to think about what I'd like to accomplish in 2007 since, well...since it's almost 2007. Here's what I'm thinking (subject to change, of course).

1. Travel to Paris (or at least have strong, firm plans to do so in 2008).
2. Travel to Montana (perhaps not as enchanting, but I love it there)
3. Have plans to publish my novel.
4. Maybe sell one of my photographs? (something I'm thinking of venturing into: http://www.evade.org/images.htm).
5. Take French lessons to brush up
6. Finally take either salsa or flamenco class
7. See The Phantom of the Opera at Kennedy
8. Pay off some bills
9. Finally go see Mount Vernon
10. Weekend in Boston

That was actually a little rough. I was trying to think of 10 things I really wanted to do. I used to want to live in Boston, but after the winters here there's no way I could do that. But it would be wonderful to go back in the Spring and visit. If number 4 doesn't happen, then I'd like to finally go spend some time in New York.

National Novel Writing Month

Apparently this is National Novel Writing Month. I haven't joined in on it officially, but I have sort of set it as a deadline to use for another idea I've had floating around. I have about 15 pages written, but I also started this project about three months ago.

By the end of November, I'd like to have about 50,000 words down, hopefully a little more and then can begin the editing process. It'll be good to have a break from Paradise Without Heaven, though I will say this one is currently untitled. I have one tentative one, but not really much of a fan.

Wish me luck! I don't have any major events upcoming at the office, not like September and October, so I'm hoping that I'll have the time to get a lot of writing done, especially with next Friday off (Veteran's Day observed) and the Thanksgiving holiday.

You know, this is probably why November is National Novel Writing Month. Numerous days off to sit at home in a sweatshirt and pajama pants and just write.

Happy Halloween!

Can you believe it's already Halloween? and that tomorrow's the first day of November? Because I can't.

I haven't really been doing a lot of writing lately, which I feel guilty about, but I'll sit in front of a document and just...nothing comes. Or if it does, I'll reread it later and just want to completely rewrite it. I'm going to look into alternative means of creativity release, at least to give my mind a rest and yet still feel creatively productive.

If that makes sense.

I'm getting back into drawing. I used to draw and paint growing up, and then stopped for a number of years. I guess I didn't think the starving artist was me. The only thing is that I've discovered that I really miss it.

And then we'll see where my writing goes now that there is also this other little release. I think it'll be good.

names

I like to give my characters, my main characters, names that mean something and that are usually pretty unique. I think that when used correctly, this makes the character even more memorable. Although, when does that uniqueness and meaning pass into something that actually places more distance between the reader and the character?

For my current novel, my main character was initially named Salome Braquemond. Salome is a Hebrew name that means "peace," which was central to Salome's metamorphosis in the novel. However, the people who've had a chance to read it so far kept asking what it meant or how to pronounce, and let me know that they felt no connection. Granted, I thought this was a relatively common name seeing as how it's in the Bible. I haven't even really read the Bible and knew of the name.

Turns out it's not so common.

So I tried Zoë. It means "life." But every time I worked on editing, the name just didn't click. It didn't feel right. Perhaps knowing that I knew about five people with a dog with that name may have had something to do with it. Regardless, I've changed the name again to Sophie. Sophie means "wisdom," coming from Greek. So...we've gone from Salome, to Zoë, to Sophie. Peace to Life to Wisdom.

Sophie seems to work. I've told those people who have either read an earlier draft or more recent chapters and they're like "oh?! Sophie, I like that."

So it seems we have a name. But I think this just reiterates the importance of naming. As a writer, you want them to be really memorable (as it helps keep your book memorable) but you can't make them so 'memorable' that you distance your reader.

lack of writing

I always feel...different, or like something's not quite right, when I go through extended periods of not writing. That's sort of how much of September was. My office had a very large event that occupied almost my entire mind during September, and then I was house sitting for a week immediately after that and then was out of town for a couple of days. I was actually looking forward to coming back a day early and spent a good deal of last night writing.

I'm also very pleased to say that I got much done. I still have more to do, but I get tomorrow off so I'm hoping to do much more work tonight and tomorrow morning.

coffee

One of my favorite ways to spend Saturday morning is to wake up early (helped when, like last night, I slept with my window open and so was awoken promptly at 7:00am with the construction beginning next door) and make a large pot of coffee. The coffee will sustain me for the next couple of hours while I open up a manuscript and work on it...and do a little internet surfing.

Of course this morning I had no more creamer left so I had to make a quick trip to my local Starbucks. A very quick trip. I admit, I'm spoiled with a Starbucks only about three buildings down from my. Oh...the tough life of city living.

I also have a lot of revising to work on. Which of course is why I'm updating this. I'm one of those people who works best under pressure, and I've given myself a personal deadline of a week to make these changes before letting some people I know reread the opening chapters. So that means...Thursday night or so I'll be up late probably but it'll get down and (hopefully) be brilliant.

Time to get to work.

new story

Over the weekend I didn't really do any writing, and I haven't for the better part of the beginning of this week. And the reason is because I'm housesitting this week. It's a good thing, as I had this story idea that I really love.

I think it'll take place about 2040ish but it's not really a sci-fi novel...which would be interesting for me to write since I've read only about five sci-fi books. I'm still of course working out the details and the cast of characters, of course, but I'm really excited about this.

For the past few months I've been trying to work on a new idea to get my mind off of Paradise without Heaven for a time, but nothing really grabbed my attention. I'm really wanting to start work on it, but may not be able to until next week.

working days lead to working evenings

I suppose the good news about the movement from my wisdom tooth is that I'm not up to going out and so I can stay inside and work on some writing. I've started work on a new query letter for my novel since the first one seems to have lost its shimmer. I had interest within the first week of sending out the query letter (to be honest, a couple of months ago since I'm only able to send out a few at a time in between researching) and then nothing.

Not really sure I can write a good letter while I'm trying to ignore the pain in my jaw. And yes, I could get my wisdom teeth taken out but they're coming in straight and so once its in, there shouldn't be anymore pain.

Wish me luck!

quiet afternoon

Ended up having the afternoon off work. Not really because of any holiday or summer hours or anything. Came home and all I wanted to do was try to get a little sleep to get rid of this pounding headache. Anyway...it was so wonderful to have the afternoon off. It's like playing hookey from high school almost. I need to do this more often.

Anyway, yes, I did get some writing done. I've started work on a new idea I've had for some time that takes place here in DC. Good news is if I need to do any research, I can take a quick walk around the block and check out any bars or restaurants easily. I won't have to spend a hurried work-filled two weeks on the other side of the world trying to take everything in.

This one is also a lot lighter in that it's not about any newsworthy tragedies. Should be more fun to write as there are quite a few scenes in my other novel that are so emotionally draining! The first time I wrote this funeral scene took a whole Saturday, and that was one of the longest and most depressed Saturdays I've ever had.

Oh well. You gotta suffer for your art, right?

Really looking forward to working on this and of course to finish editing my other novel.

writing retreat

I took a sort of writing retreat this weekend, to make up for my lack of writing/editing the past month. I was pretty anti-social, shacked up in my apartment editing. I slashed a lot from the previous story line but also added some (though not yet anywhere near the amount I slashed). I was sad to see some of it go as there were passages that I wrote and loved but just didn't fit anymore. It's hard to have a conversation between Salome and Aaron when Aaron's now flying on a plane from Singapore to San Francisco.

Oh well. It helps the story advance more realistically.

Today was a beautiful day in Washington. I did have to force myself out a little this morning, otherwise I'd be stuck inside again (not a bad idea, but there will plenty of time to be locked inside come winter when you won't be able to force this Southerner out on the streets or for a sightseeing tour. Monuments? They'll still be here in the spring). Anyway, while out walking around DC after getting my coffee and doing some reading, I had a bit of a brainstorm for another novel idea.

This one is significantly different as it doesn't deal so much with current events. The current one I'm working on is about the Bali 2002 bombings. I'm a little excited to get started working on it but also wanting to edit the present one. I guess since the stories are so different I could work on both at once today without mixing storylines at all.

And I added another link. You may notice the similiarities in last names. Writing is in the genes. Granted, we write on very different topics, but we still write (and he published a book a few years ago! Though...this was on internet and business and I write fiction).

new...middle?

I'm changing up a central part of the story after something my colleague said almost a year ago when she first read it. It was something I had written to continue the story as I saw it in my head; she saw it and why it was necessary, but how I had gotten there didn't quite work. It had to do with getting my main character alone and getting her friends back the US.

Of course, this entails me going back and rewriting key pieces throughout the middle section, and maybe a little at the end. This is lots of work. But it's worth it as I think it will help people identify with Salome (my main character) more.

It also entails me giving up my Friday night. Which is fine as I've been wanting to work on this for the past three weeks. First I was on vacation (and opted not to take the laptop so I could actually have a vacation) and then I had a friend in town, and then work started getting really busy...again.

I have another blog elsewhere, but this is one I'd like to keep to anything pertaining to my writing. New brainstorms, hopeful progress on my novel, etc. We'll just have to see where this takes me.

By the way, just a brief explanation for links. I'll be adding a few of the writers and agents blogs that I generally every day or every other day, etc. They're great resources (particularly Kristin's who helps writers from the other side, so to speak). A friend of mine is currently traveling around Indonesia and has some terrific posts about his travels there, so I'd suggest checking that out as well.