So how's my Y/A novel going? Not so well, maybe. The title of this blog is "Semi-Professional Muse for Hire" because I'm very good at encouraging and inspiring creativity in others. I'm not as good at motivating my own self to sit down and do the work. I read Chuck Wendig's "25 ways to defeat the dreaded writer's block" several times this week.
However, I've roused as much of the crew as possible (especially Yarnberd and Metahari ) to join me in a Fear of Writing 10K Day tomorrow. Eep. Should be ... fun?
Stay tuned.
Labels: friends, NanoTime Photography, puddletography, reflection, writing
¶ 7:41 AM 2 Comments
Another from the Ann Arbor set. (You can see all I have so far here.)
I'm still working my way through my many, many photos from the past couple of months. This one strikes me, though. It's a rather emphatic example, for me, of the creative life.
People say it over and over again, in books like "Do the Work" by Stephen Pressfield or "Mugging the Muse" by Holly Lisle, and in countless blogs, but the idea is: you don't wait for the Muse, you get to work, and she meets you there.
She usually meets me in the shower or while I'm driving, but those are brief visits: if I go down to the diner and get to work, she usually will hang around.
I'm struggling to work, but I'm working. She'll find me with a damn fine cup of coffee and a pencil, or camera, in hand.
You may have seen it, but I'm sharing it again - a most excellent graphic representation of some wise words from Ira Glass of This American Life:
Labels: Ann Arbor, creativity, ira glass, May Lee, meeting the muse, NanoTime Photography, work, writing
¶ 11:40 AM 2 Comments
A cool, grey, and rainy day at Chez Nick & Heather WV. So I thought the photo above was appropriate. That's the shut-down post office at Thurmond, WV. If you're waiting for the mail, you'll be waiting a long time. I have that same kind of feeling of waiting for something today.
Dr. Nick is pulling up the nasty carpet in the bedroom, revealing the hard wood below. It needs some sanding and refinishing, to be sure, but it's still perfectly lovely hardwood. We are starting to think that the closets are not original; and then when someone did a shoddy job with the closets they also put down the horrible carpet, which somewhat covered that up. Anyway, Nick's doing the hard work - pulling up the staples and tacks & so forth that held the mat down - and I'm helping by moving things around and sweeping and rolling the carpet back a little at a time. Oh, we are making a grand chaos in the bedroom.
We've had a quiet weekend. I went downtown yesterday morning to the Library Book Sale (I only spent $5!) and the Capitol St. Art Fair. I ran into some artists I know, and had a few pleasant conversations.
I've still got hundreds of photos that are unprocessed, all the way back to May. I'm not sure why I'm dragging my heels, probably because I'm feeling a bit insecure. Surprise.
My novel-in-progress is going rather slowly, too. I have about 5,000 words on paper, but many more thoughts in my head. I am not out of the game yet, and this is no NanoWriMo. I consider any progress by the end of August to be success.
Still there are things to look forward to: we're going to Ann Arbor next weekend - and friends are visiting - and the upstate New York trek happens at the end of July/early August too. I'm not really in hiking shape, but there's still time to improve that.
For my friends who like 80's music, which is most of you, you might enjoy this John Maus album that you can stream at NPR First listen. It's called 'We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves'. Love it!
Labels: books, Charleston, dr. nick, NanoTime Photography, photography, Thurmond, travelling, writing, WV
¶ 2:01 PM 0 Comments
This is one from the archives, from our trip to Bemidji, MN last summer. It's appropriate.
1. It's pretty much summer here in tha WV, and hot enough that we've had to use the air conditioning already.
2. We had our Third Annual Memorial Day party on Sunday; it was a great day for it. Good company and food was had.
3. We reprised our party for an audience of two on Monday; Mohnacky, the guitarist from our wedding and much-missed Charleston friend, is visiting from NYC with his girlfriend Megan. So we grilled with them again on Monday. Also, we're taking a long weekend away with them starting Friday. We're heading to the wilds of West Virginia! We'll be bunking in a cabin in the Greenbrier State Forest and doing some day trips for activities and sight-seeing. For sure, we won't have internet for four days. I expect that to be lovely.
4. My physical copy of Kate Bush's new album came today (Thanks, Amazon Prime!). The photography in the liner notes is pretty great, and I recommend fans pick up a hard copy.
5. I won't have internet this weekend, but I will have my laptop along, so I can upload the (hopefully) many photos I'll be shooting, and so I can work on my summer project.
6. Which brings me the Summer Project; I feel I should come clean about it so people can help keep me honest. I'm writing a Young Adult novel in three months this summer, starting today, as per this blog post by excellent writer Theodora Goss . I've gathered a small but mighty crew, I'm aiming for 1,000 words per day and a goal of 75,000 - 90,000 words total. So that's happening.
7. Dr. Nick and I have been married now for three years. Yay!
8. Dr. Nick is making me his Caesar salad; and then we're going to watch more Farscape. I have no complaints.
Labels: dr. nick, food, friends, NanoTime Photography, summer, west virginia, writing
¶ 4:34 PM 0 Comments
My contributor's copy arrived today! The Small Beer Press Working Writer's Day Planner is an awesome resource for writers, including information about grants, submission deadlines, markets, writing prompts, and interviews. That's my photo "Bug Season" in the middle left of the cover pictured above; this photo, and two others of mine, are included inside the planner.
My first photographic work in print! I'm proud that any work of mine has been published by Small Beer Press; that's the dream, kids, that's the dream. At the moment I don't have any writing that's worthy of submitting to them; maybe someday. In the meantime, this.
Labels: publication, Small Beer Press, writing
¶ 8:09 PM 2 Comments
