Bookstores, BookTube, and Libraries

A long time ago there used to be a bookstore in my town.  Then it closed and my days of going in and losing three to four hours standing in the stacks, looking at spines and reading book blurbs came to an end.  There is no bookstore in my town anymore.  We do have a used bookstore and a "friends of * Library" store. It's not the same.

They don't carry first run books. If you want what "might" be on the NYT bestsellers list you have to go to Target, Costco, or Walmart because they sell first run books.
It is sad.
Since bookstores in my area have gone away, which is very sad considering we live in JOHN STEINBECK'S HOMETOWN!!! There isn't a first run bookstore unless you go up to Gilroy. They have a Barnes & Noble, a place I find wanting. I am never happy with the selection they have.  But I mean if I want to go book searching, I could go there, even though it's like 30 mins away and smells like garlic.

Therefore, I was very very very happy to find Booktube!  I love Booktube. I love the people who are so passionate to step in front of a camera and espouse about a book they just read. It makes me happy. I sometimes get caught up in their excitement and want to rush out and buy that book.
And then the breaks come on because I have no job right now. No job equals no money. No money equals no new books. No hardcovers, no paperbacks, no magazines...no nuthin.

But we have a library system. In a previous post (link) I talked about how I have a person in my writer’s group who worked for the county free library system. She helped me get a card to that system and I began to check out books with them.
That rekindled my love for books and I began to read again.

So with Booktube on the computer giving me reviews and recommendations, and a library card in my wallet, I was about to find and read books.  My other favorite part of Booktube are the book hauls! Oh man, I love those. I can see the book, and put it on my To Read list. Then check the libraries catalog and place a hold on it, if they have it. I have a stack of books sitting next to me, that I should get a start on.  First up:  Scythe by Neal Shusterman.
Wish me luck!

Until next time!

Getting back on the horse

So what have I been up to?
Nothing of great importance.

How is life here in California?
Great! We got rain last winter. It is now winter 2018 and we search the skies for clouds.

New year, new me!
mehhh..

Well, we'll work on it.

Since it is 2018, and a new year, I thought I would brush off some of the story ideas and get my butt in gear.  Let's see if we can't get something written yeah?
So what to work on? What do I like? What is "talking" to me?

And when I say "talking", I mean what can I pull out of a folder, input into Scrivner, and not just stare at a blank screen for hours?

I am never too sure what to put in these blog posts. *scowls*
How familiar should I get?
Want a picture of my dog?
Surprise! I don't have a dog.

Wanna hear about my newest story idea?!
No! You'll steal it! *looks around clutching idea to her chest*

It be January, and I missed the Steinbeck Center's open house.
They had a whole week of free admission! I went last year; it was great! Oh...I've told you that right? I live in John Steinbeck's hometown.
 It's MY Hometown now, however. He's dead, and a Noble prize winner, and internationally famous, but Goals..am I right?

I will once again, attempt to post something every week.  Maybe I'll write about the valley and the area that inspires me to write. Maybe I should go for a drive and get those old juices flowing. I used to love driving down River Road; look out over all farmland. The mountains, the Valley, the arroyos, the canyons, the weird upside-down river, the ocean just 30 miles to the east, all of it has featured in some manner in many of my stories. Even if it is as set dressing for a fantasy world, or a sci-fi piece, or a paranormal fiction piece.

So, let's get back into the swing of things.

Welcome, 2018! Let's do something outrageous!

Today is Wednesday!
In addition to it being Pot Pie day at KFC, it is also Top Five Wednesday!

This week's topic is:  Top 5 fictional cities

hmmm
Okay, well I got my Top 4...the 5th one, well I'll explain it when I get there.

At Number One, we have: Tai-tastigon the Holy city from P.C. Hodgell's "God Stalk". The first book in the Chronicles of the Kencyrath series.

This is the place where we meet our main character Jame. She has amnesia and is wandering the streets on the day that the spirits are walking the town. Luckily she is brought into an inn, and our adventure begins.

Tai-tastigon was a very interesting city, an inspiration for my own city/series which I am still working on. The Cloudies who live above everything and laugh at the the landed's efforts. The Temple district, full of temples to all sorts of gods. And the Thieves Guild.
I loved this place. I loved all the trouble and adventures Jame got into here. I would love to be able to enter into the book, into that world, and go to the market places. Wander around the streets, and hopefully not get robbed blind.

Number Two: Rhiminee the capital city from Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series

This is the base of operations for Seregil a man of many talents, most of those best performed in the dark with dark clothes on. In other words he's a thief. And a bard, and related the the royal family. Seregil's companion in his adventures is a young man named Alec. It is through Alec's eyes that we see Rhiminee and explore the different sections for the first time. In one rather nice chapter, Mrs. Flewelling  has Alec ride around the city through the different gates/sections. We, as readers, get to be educated on the different sections. It is actually quite a clever way of showing us where we will be conducting our adventures.

Rhiminee is also another city that I would love to be a citizen of. To join the salons, and be at the markets, and worship at the temples. To see or have my future read by an oracle. To visit the Oreska- the citadel of the wizards.  Maybe to be taken on as an apprentice? :D

Number Three:  Constantinople from Judith Tarr's "The Golden Horn" part two of the Hound and the Falcon series.

I know that Constantinople is a real place, but it carries a aura of mystery and mysticism. Hence it has a special place in fantasy fiction writing and as a setting in romance novels, and historical fiction. Since the current writers (at least the ones I read) have never been there in the time periods of which they write it, I consider it a fictional city. hee hee hee.

The Constantinople of Judith Tarr's world may be in a sense the most realistic, since she is a student of history. Set in A.D. 1203 at the onset of the conquest of the city there is a cloud that hangs over the city, and the unfolding action involving our main character of Alfred and his companion Thea. However Constantinople is a very rich city, and even as it sits at the edge of being plundered and pillaged, it is the Golden City of legend.  Judith Tarr brings such life and vibrancy to the city that it makes for an exceptional setting for something fantastical.

Number Four:  Actually this is kind of two in one. First is Ruatha Hold and Second is Benden Weyr of Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonflight" novel.

What a cool concept! A dragon rider...and IT MADE SENSE! Telepathic dragons which helped their chosen riders fight "Thread" from the alien red star. Upon reading this book for the first time as a teenager, it was so cool and fulfilled so many dreams of mine. I wanted to be chosen as a dragon rider, although I am deathly afraid of heights and would probably never be able to ride on one for fear of falling off. *laughs*

Still this world was very rich and teeming with life. The histories, the songs, the medieval-ness of the world and yet, always a secret somewhere in the depths of their history that they had lost eons ago.
Ruatha Hold, when we first go there is cold and overrun; a shell of what it used to be.  However as Pern turns, it slowly begins to regain the beauty and respect it used to have 400 years ago. It is a vivacious medieval hold and doesn't seem like a bad place to visit...AFTER the Lord Fax has been dispatched.

Benden Weyr is where most of our action takes place. Where our Weyr leader resides and of course the dragons. We live in the rocky, mountainous, bowl that is the Weyr. With it's ledges for the sunning dragons, the "pastures" for the cattle, and it's pond/lake for the dragons to bathe in. It was such a different, yet interesting place. A hard life for a woman who wasn't a dragon rider, but probably more interesting than one in a hold.

Number Five: Now, most of my books are held in grey containers outside. Many of the fantasy and science fiction ones are out there, and I couldn't remember titles, lands, or planets. So suffice it to say, this one goes to those futuristic cities with their computers who talk to you. Where you can just plug yourself into the system and be apart of all that knowledge and technology.

If it wasn't for the fact that I HAVE to go outside, I think I would love to be plugged into my computer 24/7. Might be a strange way to live, and my mind might deteriorate faster and I may die, but what a way to go. So to futuristic cities on far flung planets with space ships, space docks, and space pirates I want to go there and live in your cities. :D

Those are my Top 5 Fictional Cities, what are yours?

Hello fellow writerly peoples!

I have been very bad. At the start of the year, I came to the conclusion that I wasn't reading enough. You know the old adage that:  to be a good writer you must read. Well, I was reading, just not published material. I was reading lots and lots and LOTS of scanlated manga and fanfiction.  I save the fanfiction offline, and put it on my Kindle. 

While I do enjoy fanfiction, and some fanfic authors are exceptional, I had the suspicion that this was NOT what they meant when they said you should read. IN MY DEFENSE, they also say: read within the genre that you will write in. Read everything! 
I was reading in my genre.  I consider it research and analyzing the market.
That is my story, and I am sticking to it.
But I digress. 

In January I set up a To Be Read Jar. I was pretty good at pulling out paper tags and searching for the books, and reading them, and then review them.  I was reading up to two books a month.
One of the books I pulled out of the jar was:  Mr. Penumbra's 24-hr Bookstore by Robin Sloan. That was a good book. It is set in San Francisco (a city I ALWAYS wanted to live in - I went to college up there so I can check that off my list of things to do) and it is in a BOOKSTORE! What is not to love about that?! I really liked that book. So mysterious.

That book was (luckily for me) available through the local county free library system. One of the members of my writing group just happens to work at the library and brought me the book. The only "bad" part was that I had to fill out a library card.
And anyone who is a bibliophile understands that you give a book lover a library card, it is like giving them a free sample of a hard drug. Book lovers are already addicts, give us a place where we can get our fix for free?
Yeah...

I was good! The nice lady actually brought the book to the writing group. I didn't have to even GO to the library.  But sooner or later I was going to have to return it. That is when I got into B.I.G T.R.O.U.B.L.E. I had to go inside the building.

Now you must understand, it had been FIVE YEARS since the last time I actually stepped inside of a library. It was like the books sang a chorus of welcome home! Their voices tempted me inside, and into the stacks.
The only reason I left was because my arms were so full I was having trouble seeing around the books I was holding.

I was very very bad.

I would say, it's better now. But it is not.
I renewed the library card for my city's library, and traveled to a second county free library. I currently have 11 items in that system on hold. I have to return three books to the city library, but I renewed 4 in my possession. They aren't getting them back! NEVER!!!!  Okay, I'll give them back, but they will be remembered and placed on my Amazon wish list just in case I have money again and I can buy them.

Oh I love books, and I am thankful for the treasure that is the free library loaning system.
So happy.

Suffice it to say, I haven't pulled another paper from the TBR jar. So I missed April, May, June, and July. However I was reading! Just not from those books in the jar. I'll have to continue that. Maybe next month I'll continue.

Tomorrow is Wednesday! I have started watching BookTube videos, and have decided to jump into the Top Five Wednesday group. I joined the group on Goodreads, and will post my responses here. I am all ready for tomorrow too. I have covers and everything.
So, that is something to look forward to.

See you manana! 

Where do your ideas come from?

New Blog Post!

Most of my ideas come from “What if” moments.  Say I am reading a book, and thought that the hero did a spectacularly stupid thing.  What if he did something else instead.
Like Romeo and Juliet.
What if:
— the letter got to Romeo in time?
— He didn’t take the poison when he was in the crypt?
— Juliet decided to run away with him when he left Verona?
You know stuff like that.

My best ideas come when I am doing something else. Like sweeping, or washing dishes, or taking a sit down bath. When my body is on auto pilot, my mind can gnaw away on ideas.
Little things come together.

I was startled by my neighbor today because I was working on the dialog of a scene of my NaNo project. . .OUT LOUD. His wife had been a writer, so I am hoping that he is used to that sort of thing. Or else he may be moving soon. Or think I am crazy. He hasn’t SEEN crazy!!
Yes, I am a self talker.

I need to attach headphones to my cellphone so it looks like I am taking a call.  Instead I am talking to my voice recorder app. (Which I haven’t downloaded yet)

My BEST ideas come to me in dreams. Those are the ideas (if I can remember them) which I just know in my gut are good. There is no real second guessing a dream story idea.
I can rewind my dreams and rearrange them to my satisfaction.  A nice little talent, if I do say so myself.

Sometimes I rewind and re-dream things over and over again until I am sure I’ll remember it when I wake up.

I don’t think I dream Works in Progress.  At least if I do, I don’t remember it.

I find ideas everywhere. I keep them in my head.  I tinker with them and gnaw on them.  See if they won’t fall apart under pressure. If I am satisfied, I write them down on paper.  Which in my mind is like setting them in stone.  They are real. Unchangeable.

But we all know how NaNoWriMo chips away at “unchangeable”.

Pardon the interruption

No blog post today, my word processor ate it. I'll try to think up something while I am offline, and type it up for tomorrow. Sorry about that.

Is it considered writing if you don’t put it down on paper?

Apologies to anyone still hanging about watching this space.

So what have I been up to? I would say “nothing”, but that is the lazy answer.

I stopped the other day, and tried to pin point when I started to write.

My earliest stories were formed in my head.I have “written” stories in my head for years; since I was a young kid. However mine weren’t grand epics of originality. I would play the “What If” game. After reading a story or watching a television show, I would think to myself: What if this happened instead of that? What I didn’t know was what I was doing was fan fiction. I never wrote these stories down on paper, so most of them are lost. When I did write stories down, they were “original” things written out in long hand with pencil. We didn’t have a computer. I still have those stories but I have never transcribed them and put them into the computer.

In the late 90’s, the Internet exploded. Our family purchased a computer with Internet capabilities.

This changed my life.

I found fan communities, and fan art, and fan fiction. I had always been a thinker of stories, but I had never written them down. I finally found a community which was begging for continuations of the television show we were all watching. I really liked the show, liked the fandom, and decided to write a story. It was eagerly consumed. So I wrote four more with plans to write more (which never came to fruition) before I burned out. I stayed with the fandom until it shrank, and then like many people I moved on to the next thing. I didn’t write any more fan fiction though. I found I enjoyed reading other people’s fan fiction than writing my own. Some of the writers were really good.

I flitted from fandom to fandom until I stopped and thought to myself: “What am I doing? Why am I wasting my time reading other people’s stuff when I could be writing my own?”

Going off to college really changed my mindset when it came to my writing. Before I left, it was about what was quick and easy. The plots were simplistic and shallow. Going to school, and meeting other writers changed how complex my stories were. My characters gained depth. The plots were mired in not only “get the girl” or whatnot, but also political, social-economical, and racial tensions. I didn’t realize that those influences were creeping in until I was trying to think of a conclusion to a story, and realized that there was no way to tie it up in a neat little bow. There is no fixing deeply seated racism and religious tensions. If there was there would be world peace.

My stories have changed, but my habits haven’t. I still write stories in my head, and am reluctant to commit them to paper. I do have some in the computer, but they are just floating around in little think tanks. I think it is time I take them out of the tanks and put them on paper. See how it goes. They deserve to be shared I think. Once it is on paper, printed out, edited, recompiled, and held in my hands then I can say: “Look, I wrote this.”

Float like a butterfly! Sting like a bee!

I feel like a boxer getting ready to step into the ring.  Bouncing around on the balls of my feet, my hands all taped up, shadow boxing.  Trying to keep all loose, rolling my head on my shoulders. Listening to my entourage telling me that I am great, I am a champion, that I can knock this punk out.  First round KO!

What they don't know is that I am going to have to go the distance a full 10 rounds and if I get a unanimous decision all the better.

Rocky! Rocky! rocky!


Okay honestly I am not exactly sure where I am going with this whole boxing thing, so I think I’ll drop it.  


So here I am now at the car wash!  Listening to videos of 49er highlights and just chillin.  
I really do like the car wash.  This is a "full service" hand wash car wash. Where you hand them over the keys and they vacuum it out and you're left sitting around for...30 to 40 mins.  So if you have time you just hang out at the car wash!  Its a rather nice day. Should I add a scene in my nano effort set at a car wash?  

You know that's an idea.

I am a paper carrier and I stop by a grocery store almost everyday.  Sometimes when I go by around 4 am in the morning, when it's dark and cold and wet, the store manager and I guess guys who deliver the potato chips and who knows who else, I see them sitting outside on those electronic scooters.  Just outside the main door, feet propped up chewing the fat.  

Okay for me this is funny because one, it's COLD!  We are like five miles as the crow flies away from the ocean.  So you're getting that off the ocean breeze and it's cold foggy and/or the marine layer rolls in.  It's damp.  
What in the hell do they talk about at 4 am in the morning?  How long do the hang out?  its very strange and since I don't hang around long, I am just there to
drop off a bundle of 4 New York Times papers, it's not like I am privy to their
conversations.

I just find it very odd, humorous but I've been accused of being odd before. *shrug*

I think I am prepared for my Camp Nano.


I have my snacks. I have my idea and my outline. I have to stay loose and relaxed or else this isn't going to work.  I also have to stay open to new plot ideas as they come barreling into me like rude teenagers who are running around without looking where they are going.
the one thing I do not have is a library of music to listen to, to inspire me.  I should probably get some but it's kinda late.

Oh well!  Nano for me starts in…six and a half hours.  I’ll be asleep for the official start!

Although that's not my name! I've got the eye of a tiger! I am "gonna fly now!  Mama told me to knock

You know that's an idea.

I am a paper carrier and I stop by a grocery store almost everyday.  Sometimes when I go by around 4 am in the morning, when it's dark and cold and wet, the store manager and I guess guys who deliver the potato chips and who knows who else, I see them sitting outside on those electronic scooters.  Just outside the main door, feet propped up chewing the fat.  

And yet there are these guys sitting outside on these scooters, feet propped up.  In their "dress" shirts, aprons, and khakis.

I just find it very odd, humorous but I've been accused of being odd before. *shrug*

Oh well!  Nano for me starts in…six and a half hours.  I’ll be asleep for the official start!

But once I am done with work, I’ll swing by the Starbucks and sit around for a little bit and see if I can’t hit the day’s word count. 

Wish me luck!

The calm before the storm

I went shopping on Monday and got snacks for the grand adventure.  If I do this right thought I’ll be spending at least two hours a day at the local star bucks early in the mornings, after I get off work.  Which means buying at least one cup of coffee and maybe a tasty and typing for two hours.  I am kind of excited and kind of not.  Typing up 50k words a huge undertaking, especially when you’re nervous.  

I’ve worked on the outline, but some “touchstones” up but it’s not a step by step follow this or die outline.  I just put up ideas of where I want it to go.  If I meander to point to point all the better.  I liked to have loose outlines like that.  Gives me room to wiggle and walk around in circles if I need to.

To get my mind off the project, I went to a baseball game on Monday;. That was wicked fun!  Thanks Arra for taking me.
I am keeping a close eye on my football team, Go 9ers!  I am hoping that we can go to a Training camp, but I dunno if they’ll be open to the public this year. They are doing a lot of construction on the new stadium.  I am hopeful though, it would be a lot of fun.

I got my nails filed down, so I am now able to type like a fiend again. I love my little notebook it’s so small and the keyboard action is so nice and springy. The board is also just the right size. Not too small and not too large my hands fit it very nicely too.

I wonder if the local NaNo group is going to be doing Camp Nano?  I should post something on the boards, although seriously don’t think they are doing anything.  I hate to say it, but I really don’t like out local mod or his co moderator.  They are the two biggest reasons why I don’t go to the write ins.  The woman wants to “help” but she more interferes than helps...and He is, I hate to say it, stuffy and a bit of a stick in the mud. I really don’t care how successful he has been he’s got the energy level of a turtle.

I would like to hang out with other ppl and write a bit, but if I have to do this solo I will cause I am really not alone.  I dunno how many other people are doing Camp Nano but I think it’s a grand idea.

I am hoping that the online community wakes up I know Twitterverse is buzzing. I am hoping that there are word wars. I do well with those.

So to calm down my nerves, since I am prone to anxiety attacks I’ll probably go off to the ocean for a little bit. May take this notebook or something and wander around and just enjoy myself.  I really don’t want to get to be feeling overwhelmed. That doesn’t do anybody any good.

Here’s to a successful Camp!

Lets break out the Smores!

What to do when waiting for edits

I would say it's a great day but...

Have you ever had the feeling that you have bitten off more than you can chew?  Or, you come out of a planning session feeling pretty good about the progress you've made, only to sit back and realize maybe you haven't made as much progress as you think you have?

I've been working on a book!  Well I kind of finished a book and sent it off to my Auntie because she insisted.  So she is currently doing...I am not exactly sure what she's doing. Holding me up I suppose. So to fill up time, and because I have an overactive idea generating mind, I started a NEW story. 

The original idea was of a "spoiled" entitled girl. A lead cheerleader, the popular girl who is now the popular senior who thinks she deserves the world! Well she has it...the world in her little town in Wyoming but what she really wants is the attention of the popular jock in school.  

Unfortunately for her, he's not interested.

Enter our Main female character. An outsider to this little town. She's from the big city and immediately attracts popular boy's attention.

I thought it was a good concept, so I ran with it. I decided to make it about werewolves...well I called them Wolven and scattered them about. Made a pack, a ranch, and a commune out in Wyoming.

I started to work and tinker and named characters and start to develop them. Who is this person? Who are their parents?  Where did they meet? When did they marry? How did they get here? That sort of stuff.

I tinkered some more and realized....

There wasn't a strong enough conflict.

*bummer*

Back to the drawing board.

Rule number one in creating a story:  Think of an original idea.

Rule number two:  Conflict conflict conflict!

And then I thought...this is too much work. 

So I decided to cheat a little bit.  When in doubt, copy.

Conflict and a ready made template.  So instead of a rather boring, stuck in Wyoming werewolf story with no conflict, I've moved my story to San Francisco.

Now it's a San Francisco Wolven versus vampires, Romeo and Juliet type story.  Two clans alike in dignity in foggy San Fran where we lay our scene.

uhm...kind of.

Since I don't want to recreate my wolven pack, I am shifting them into SF. Getting rid of that Main female character (goodbye Celena!) and creating a new Female Protagonist (hello and welcome aboard Vivian).

Creating a strong antagonist (so far he's unnamed. I was going to name him Seth but it doesn't fit the time and place where he was born)

I am recycling most of the wolven pack. Keeping the young male alpha (our Main male protag) but making him 19 instead of 17 in the original draft. His father Erol has been murdered instead of wandering around the country as a loner.  Killed on orders of our lovely and "sympathetic" antagonist.

Today I spent the day in the coffee shop reworking this Wolvenheart story idea. Making it Romeo (wolven) and Juliet (vampires).  

I had to look for a name for my antagonist the uber evil villain (the Capulet) and if homeland protection is monitoring internet searches they're probably watching my IP address thinking: "What in the world is this person working on?"

I just hope I am  not alone when it comes to being a complete spaz in doing research for a story.

My wolven and newly created vampires are settling in nicely to San Fran,  and I am enjoying writing about a place I loved to live and places I know.  

I just hope Aunt Fran doesn't totally disrupt my flow when she sends back my novel.  That one needs another 30,000 words added to it and I am eager to fill in the blanks.

It's a writer's life for me!