So, I wasn't able to go to a movie by myself this weekend... not because I was scared, you shush your mouth, it was because I had no money. Even though I'm juggling three jobs, rent and things (like toilet paper and food... for the cat) just add up. And I forgot to budget in a movie this month. So... I'm postponing this HTDA post until I have money to go to a movie or until the library has another free movie (But I think the free movie at the library is a cop out for the HTDA post).
I am, however, posting a question to which I'd like to get some feedback. I've been writing a lot (as well as reading...) and have some stories I'd like to share with the Spatula, but I'm not sure how I feel about posting stories on the internet.
Based on your experience, how do you feel about posting original, unpublished stories online? Do you feel like someone will steal your idea and then make a million bucks for stealing your idea? Do you like posting your fiction online? Do you even post stories on to the internet? Are these feelings the same if you post art/photos/drawings?
I've been reading a lot lately. I've also been finding that I circulate to only a few places to sit and read. There is a nice wooden chair in my bed room, my bed, and a shaded quiet place outside next to a "crik". Anyway, I wanted to share some of the books I've been reading.
A few of the books I've read have been young adult literature (The City of Dreaming Books [which is just charming and clever] and The Dragonriders of Pern Series) and I'm reminded of when I used to read as a child in grade school. We got "Book IT!" points based on the number or difficulty (or something) of the books we read. Those points got us pizza tickets. We would to Pizza Hut to cash in our cheesy prizes after having read whatever it was we read. Personal pan pizza's for reading a book? Yes. Please.
Another book I've read (Middlesex) has made me crave Greek food (food... go figure... I really like food). I actually had wanted to read this for a while and a book club I'm in happened to pick this book recently. The author, Jeffery Eugenide, has written several other books (The Virgin Suicides, The Marriage Plot). In Middlesex, Eugenide puts a tiny rogue gene in the center of a greek tragedy. The hero/heroine is beautifully written. He tells the tale of how "Cal" came into being from three different time periods: Cal's present, his parents, and his grandparents. History, places, people, and genetics are all woven together. But it's not convoluted or confusing.
Fall On Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald. I... I'm haunted by this book. It cast a poetic spell over me each time I picked it up to read. Sisters and secrets. Characters you hate and then find yourself loving. How many ways can one person be seen? How many sisters can one sister's heart have room for? I just... I can't stop thinking about this book.
Summer. Those golden months of hot farmer’s market vegetables, popsicles melting down your chin, camping trips, road trips, innertubing, sprinker jumping, family vacations, and longer days in which to cram more things.
PB&J with summer strawberries
When I was young(er) my mom would drive me and my brother, (my sister wasn't born yet) in her dark blue VW bug to her parent’s house in Columbia, SC. Chuck Berry and an opera I loved but now can’t remember the title played from the tape deck. Our dad met us there, after he was done with work. Once we were there, the sprinkler was stationed at the top of the hill in the back yard where we would jump and roll in the wet grass. My father taught us how to pluck the center stem from honeysuckle that hung heavy on the back porch and lick a tiny drop of nectar. Outside it smelled like hot cement, clay soil, damp moss, and honeysuckle. Inside smelled like tomatoes, corn on the cob, old ink written in old books, and roses.
Cousins eating Bar-B-Que at the family farm
Trips to my dad’s parents during the summer when I was young smelled like cut hay, freshwater ponds, and musty leaves. Inside smelled like lavender, clean linen, old books, and fried catfish. I remember jumping from the tops of a tractor into one of the catfish ponds, making bowls from clay we found, and lying on my back in the waist high grass watching giant multi-colored grasshoppers twitch their legs on the biggest grass stalks.
David and the Picnic Strawberry
Now, the best part about summer is the food. (OK… and the camping trips and the family-beach-reunions and the long days in which to do nothing but read). When I was younger it was my parents and grandparents who made the summer food and certain foods take me back to those days: sweet iced tea, in a sweating glass, with mint leaves; fresh ripe tomatoes gushing seeds and tart-but-sweet juice; deep colored beets, baked in the oven or boiled and seasoned with only butter; golden crispy fried okra; strawberries still warm from the sun; basil leaves that leave their smell on my hands; the salty sweet meat of steamed clams and blue crabs.
I have a thing for summer foods. I love how saturated they are, with color, with smell. I love that I can walk all grow-up like around the local farmers markets, pick out beautiful summer vegetables, and take them home to cook, creating new recipes and smells that will be the basis for new summer memories.
What are your favorite summer foods, drinks, memories?
How did it get to be Thursday already? I was just whinging to Clara five minutes ago about how it was Monday again! Oh well, at least I can't say things have been slow! Tempus Fugit & such! :)
This week I've decided to write out a list of things I'm grateful for. TiLT, or Things i Love Thursday is something I've posted here before, and felt compelled to compile a new list of things that have made me smile or otherwise cheered me up this week. I hope you enjoy & share something that has uplifted your spirits as well!
♥ Movie outings with Clara! ♥ Sharing meals with the parental units. ♥ Playing Quake during breaks. Even if it means cheating a little bit to get more points. ♥ Cranking up Grace Potter & The Nocturnals in the studio while I work. ♥ Having a place to go and art whenever I want.♥ Old jeans covered in splatters and torn in odd places. ♥ Having an older/wiser person tell you that you're "cool". ♥ Plotting out ways to fulfill my Summer Adventures! ♥ New stories brewing in the back of my mind. (You'll love them! Just you wait!) ♥ Getting things straightened out with my insurance! (Adult things! *gasp!*) ♥ Helena Bonham Carter Hair Days. ♥ The very fact that tomorrow is Friday! (Weeee!) ♥ Recurring dreams of punching annoying & aggravating persons in the forehead. Strangely cathartic.♥ Gummi worms. ♥ Accidental Gardening! ♥ Fresh yellow peppers as a result of said Accidental Gardening. ♥ Videos of Native American pow wow dancing! ♥All things Neil Gaiman. ♥ Abusing my library card. ♥ Being able to rent movies for free from the art guild. ♥ Inside jokes! (Always!) ♥ Fun ideas for future projects (Stay Tuned!) ♥ Chocolate. ♥ Chocolate. ♥ Chocolate... & Coffee. ♥ Swimming pools that stay open late in the evening. ♥ People who absolutely refuse to give up on you. ♥ People who have the unique ability to make you smile, give you butterflies, & calm you down all at once.♥
Right, now were are back to the main story. I'm not letting François get in the way anymore, and he might be sulking because of it. But don't mind him, the plot, as they say, thickens!
What has the goblins so worked up? Read on!
Charlotte stifled a yawn. Securing the restless goblins hadn’t been easy; until she received her orders as to how to dispose of them, she had to keep them from escaping the netting. It had been years since she attempted a restraining sigil so large and complex, but she finally had them fettered and quiet in an unused storage shed.
"A good vacation is over when you begin to yearn for your work."
~Morris Fishbein
All photos by Adam Austin
Recently, I took a family vacation to Holden Beach, and I didn't do a lick of work. Sure, I thought about my WIPs while I lay on blankets watching the opaline waters, but I didn't do anything I'd really call work. I pulled out the laptop one night, but I only typed a few words before conversation with my mom, TheGolden Girls, and a National Geographic special on LSD research in the '50s and '60s finally convinced me to power down and enjoy the delightful battiness of Rose Nylund, psychedelics, and the woman who gave me life.
And it was okay.
I focused on family, the power of nature, and the magic of relaxation for a week, and I think I came back a better writer because of it.
Author L. K. Madigan wrote the following about the writing life, and the more time I think about her quote, the more I appreciate her approach to the writing life:
"The main thing is to WRITE. Some days it might be 2000 words. Some days you might tinker with two sentences until you get them just right. Both days belong in the writing life. Some days you may watch a ‘Doctor Who’ marathon or become immersed in a book that is so good you can’t stop reading. Some days you may be in love or in mourning. Those days belong in the writing life, too. Live them without guilt." — L.K. Madigan
Live them without guilt--I should chant it under my breath as I go through the day. Too often I berate myself for less-than-ideal word counts or the elusive story thread that leads me on a scavenger hunt of memories, but every bunny trail belongs in the creative life. It's good to push away from work on occasion, to open the heart, and let the experiences that enrich us, and our work, flood in.
So, Spatulans, it seems that I'll be going to see a movie by myself. If you've been keeping score (what? why would you be keeping score?), Spatulans were to pick the next HTDA outing, which I was to do alone, document, and write about.
Out of three choices, going to see a movie by myself was top scorer. A close second was going to see a band. Which, I suppose, will be my HTDA post after the movie.
To get myself pumped up, I'm posting this question:
Howdy folks! Seamus and Merle are taking the night off, no doubt to go out and celebrate Seamus' return from the Other Side of the Door. We'll let those party animals have their fun. Meanwhile, I wanted to share something else with you...
Back in May I began renting studio space at the local art guild. I've written before about the office I set up in my apartment, and for a time it suited my needs. Eventually I grew to need a bigger space where I could paint with abandon and not have to worry about getting paint on the floor/walls/ceiling. (As I am fairly certain my landlords would not be particularly pleased by that.)
As it so happened, I had come to the guild to hear the poet laureate, Kelly Cherry, speak about her experiences and to read some of her new works, when I found out that spaces were available for rent. Needless to say I jumped at the chance!
One of the (many) places I work is a costume and vintage clothing store called Carlo's One Night Stand. That's right. Leaving messages cracks me up. "Hi, this message is for Sam. This is Shannon from Carlo's One Night Stand reminding you the props you rented from us are passed due and need to be returned..." Also, imagine going to the doctor because you got yourself a kidney infection or a good old fashioned UTI and when the nurse filling out your paper work asks where you work and, doubled over in pain, you say, "Carlo's One Night Stand." Hilarity ensues.
But, aside from the cheap thrills of message leaving and the thought of making nurses uncomfortable I love picking the soundtrack for the day. Some days I'm in a weepy mood and the music playing has just a hint of melancholy (Not too much, though. We don't want the customers feeling slitty.). Other days, I'm really excited about movie and television soundtracks (Sherlock Holmes, How To Train Your Dragon, Battlestar Galactica, The Neverending Story, Harry Potter, Star Wars and Jaws, Oh Yeah!). Pandora(dot)com is a great place to get music for the store because I may want to kind of listen to this band, but not really. But I kind of do... but not really. Grooveshark(dot)com is really great when I want to hear a specific band or artist and want to overdose on their entire discography.
I also like to make soundtracks. My favorite type of soundtrack to make is full of happy-fly-day-pump-you-up music. Lately I've been really excited about Tiesto's song "I Feel It In My Bones" featuring Tegan and Sara, the song "Kill Everybody" by Skrillex, "Solid Ground" by Maps and Atlases, "Not About Love" by Fiona Apple, and pretty much any song by Harry and the Potters. Also, close to closing time I love to blare Bruce Springstein, Led Zepplin and Fleetwood Mac. My happy-fly-day-pump-you-up songs change weekly and are as varied as ... well as music in general.
My favorite part about making the soundtrack for Carlo's ONS is getting a reaction from a customer. "Oh, who is this? I'm loving this song!" or "OHMAGOD! this is so totally Harry and the Potters!" or "Yes! Great song choice." When I hear something like that I just get all squeaky inside. Maybe that's what makes these songs happy-fly-day-pump-you-up songs? Maybe It's my ego.
For this post I asked a handful of my favorite people (Sorry, I couldn't get to all my favorites) what their happy song is. That song that, every time they hear it, they can not resist the urge to dance, or bounce, or sing, or it gets them riled up and ready to do anything.
Hayden: "We're At the Top Of The World" by The Juliana Theory
Cassie: "Summertime" by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (or the Janis Joplin cover)
David: "Towering Flesh" by Pig Destroyer
Mom: "Sitting on the Dock Of The Bay," "American Pie," anything by Carol King, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor and "Round About" by Yes!
Max (The owner of Carlo's): is really digging Arcade Fire and always loves the Mac
You can see the songs are as different as the people and makes me want to ask you, Fantastic Spatulans, What is your favorite "I feel like I can do anything" song?
What can I say? François is very needy, apparently, and he thinks I haven't been paying enough attention to him. Give him an inch and he thinks he's a ruler.
Gee whiz... and here I was thinking that just because I'm the author that I was in control. I've got to stop letting my characters walk all over me. Oh well, have a look at François' thoughts on the goblin behind the cut. More gobliny goodness next week!
So, I wasn't able to go to a movie by myself this weekend... not because I was scared, you shush your mouth, it was because I had no money. Even though I'm juggling three jobs, rent and things (like toilet paper and food... for the cat) just add up. And I forgot to budget in a movie this month. So... I'm postponing this HTDA post until I have money to go to a movie or until the library has another free movie (But I think the free movie at the library is a cop out for the HTDA post). 
