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Marie at 1 Write Way

  • Sunshine Award

    April 22nd, 2013

    sunshine-award

    What’s this?  Another award for moi?  I was dumbstruck to receive two awards in as many days.  I have to give a BIG thanks to Lissa at http://thelissachronicles.wordpress.com/.  She kindly nominated me for this award, and I am truly honored.  I love Lissa’s blog and I love that she’s a Supernatural fan :)  Without further ado, let me proceed with the rules for this award:

    • Include the award’s logo in a post or on your Blog.
    • Link to the person who nominated you.
    • Answer 10 questions about yourself.
    • Nominate 10 Bloggers.
    • Link your nominees to the post and comment on their Blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.

    Since I am new to this award, I’ll answer some of the same questions that Lissa did.

    1. Favorite color:  Pink; but I wear a lot of black and gray and white … go figure.
    2. Favorite animal:  Cat (domestic)
    3. Favorite number:  3; I have 3 cats and that seems like an ideal number since I’ve cared for as few as one and as many as six at one time.
    4. Favorite non-alcoholic drink:  Earl Grey tea with a touch of milk and a packet of Equal; it’s what gets me going in the morning.
    5. Favorite alcoholic drink:  dirty gin martini; I had my first one ever two years ago in New Orleans and loved it, and so far, New Orleans is the only place where I’ve had dirty gin martinis
    6. Prefer Facebook or Twitter:  Twitter these days; I have a Facebook account but it’s not as much as fun as it used to be.
    7. My passion(s):  My husband, my cats, my writing, my friends, my knitting
    8. Prefer getting or giving presents:  I prefer giving.  I have everything I ever could need or want.
    9. Favorite city:  San Francisco; I only lived there 3 1/2 years, but it feels like home for me whenever I go back.
    10. Favorite TV show: Supernatural; the boys just get better as they get older :)

    Drum roll for my 10 nominees:

    http://shareenayoub.wordpress.com/

    http://vincentmars.com/

    http://shannonraelynn.com/

    http://thejennymacbookblog.wordpress.com/

    http://myownfantasys.wordpress.com/

    http://mrsfletcherscloset.wordpress.com/

    http://writingsofamrs.wordpress.com/

    http://iconicallyrare.com/

    http://ashleyjillian.com/

    http://bzebza.com/

    I notified every one of the nominees.  Life is good!  Thanks again, Lissa, and thanks to everyone who follows my blog ;)

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  • Versatile Blogger Award

    April 21st, 2013

    Wow, I have been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by Valeriu dg Barbu (http://valeriudgbarbu.wordpress.com/) who writes truly lovely and provocative poetry.  I am honored.  The rules for this award, as I’m sure many of you know, is to:  (1) thank the blogger who nominated me and provide a link to his blog, which I have done; (2) nominate 15 other bloggers for the award, which I will do shortly; and (3) reveal 7 things about myself.

    (1) Again, thank you to Valeriu for the kindness of nominating me.

    (2) Here are 15 bloggers that I now nominate (and I will try to inform each of them of the nomination as quickly as I can ;)):

    http://ericjohnbaker.wordpress.com

    http://lionheartwriters.com/

    http://literarylandofalysia.wordpress.com/

    http://pipnewling.com/

    http://culturemonk.com/

    http://englishmaninitaly.org/

    http://thelissachronicles.wordpress.com/

    http://10mh.net/

    http://rickmallery.wordpress.com/

    http://sarahcradit.wordpress.com/

    http://wordsforworms.com/

    http://spilledxink.wordpress.com/

    http://kmoonstone.wordpress.com/

    http://shannonathompson.com/

    http://expateyeonlatvia.wordpress.com/

    (3) Finally, seven things about myself:

    • I’m comfortable with making lists
    • I spent the first 21 years of my life in central New York state, where there are more cows than people (at least there were before the dairy farms folded)
    • I drove cross-country to Oakland, CA, in a 1966 Dodge van, in the late 70s, a truly amazing feat for a serious introvert
    • I left my heart in San Francisco and eventually moved to the South, to an undisclosed location
    • I have now lived in the South for more years than my original birthplace.  I’m sure that means something but I don’t know what (or don’t want to know)
    • I left my heart in San Francisco … oh, I said that already.  OK, I want to move back to San Francisco before I die
    • Yup, I’m old enough to be most of y’all’s grandmother, but I work hard at keeping my figure and staying sexy at 55 (whoops, TMI!!)

    Disclaimer:  At the time of this posting, I’ve managed to only notify half of my nominees because my DSL is tired and wants to go to bed … needs its beauty sleep, I guess:(  Will try again tomorrow!

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  • 30K+ and still writing

    April 20th, 2013

    20130420-231246.jpg

    This is my cat Junior. He looks very innocent, doesn’t he? Very sweet, very “who me?” But right now he’s ramping up his piercingly plaintive cry for food (what else) and the other two (Maxine and Luisa) are pacing and chirping (yes, cats can make little noises that sound like chirps) because they also want … wait for it … food.

    And why are they so restless? Gee, it’s been a whole five hours since they were last fed. And why is that?

    Because I’ve typing my bleeding fingers off! Yep, in the past five hours, I’ve managed to type roughly 5,600 words. And my projected finish date has greatly improved to May 2. Of course, I had to write so much today because I had little time to write this week. I actually had writer’s block for a few days until I was inspired by Spilled Ink to take the time to finish a novel I had started in November, a novel which includes many of the same characters in the one I’m writing for Camp NaNoWriMo. I suppose it might make sense to write about what I’m writing about but not right now. I’m nearly brain-dead, my fingers are going spastic and the cats are circling. Hey, all three of them had been feral before we took them in so I wouldn’t put it past them to starting thinking of ways to take me down. Except I think that they much prefer Fancy Feast.

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  • Twenty Thousand Words and Beyond

    April 14th, 2013

    2013-Participant-Facebook-Cover

    I am so happy to say that I’ve written over 20,000 words as of this posting.  I’m still behind, but the goal of making 50,000 by end of this April seems a bit more feasible.  I’m looking forward to returning to writing, that is, really writing, for my blog when Camp is over.  This time around I seem to be struggling more with the idea of myself as a novelist.  I’m not really plot-driven in my own writing, although I do love to read plot-driven novels.  It’s the characters I fall for when I’m writing.  I just want them to take over and they don’t even have to do anything.  They can just sit at a kitchen table with a cup of tea and think out loud, and I’m happy with that.  I just don’t know that readers would be happy with that.  This would be only the third novel I’ve written in my life (and I’ve had a fairly long life now), and the first two still beg to be reread and revised.

    If anyone wants to (has time to) share their own novel writing experience, I’d be very interested to know, at least, how you sustain your own interest in what you are writing.  The beauty of a short story is that you can finish it before you start getting bored with the story line.  With a novel, I have to at least keep myself interested in the story.  At this point, I’m not even worried about readers.  Sigh.  That will probably be painfully obvious once I’ve met my goal :)

    Namaste.

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  • Paddling Away

    April 13th, 2013

    Paddling Away

    I’m paddling away on my novel for Camp NaNoWriMo!

    Current word count is 16,239!  At this rate, I’ll make 50,000 by May 11.   So, I have a hell of a lot more paddling to do :(

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  • The 10,000 Word Mark

    April 12th, 2013

    20130412-134650.jpg

    (photo from omtimes.com; Sphinx pose)

    “Take a deep breath, stretch, and sigh it all out!” I love hearing these words from my yoga teacher near the end of our yoga practice. My body by then–after a series of vinyasas, sun salutations, and (failed) attempts at crow pose, to name a few–is warm, loose, and calm. Much like my head feels now after reaching 10,000 words in my novel for Camp NaNoWriMo ;)

    Of course, I’ve lost some ground and my new expected end date at this pace is May 30. But tomorrow (Saturday) is the Camp NaNoWriMo marathon and I plan to participate. In fact, I’ll be writing tonight since my husband will be out so maybe I can bump up my projections and get myself a better footing for finishing on time.

    In the meantime, I’m counting my blessings for slow-running SQL queries. As millions of data records are being recoded, categorized, and/or linked, I can take the dead time to write a chapter or two on my iPad. Life is good.

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  • 8538 (and counting)

    April 8th, 2013

    I didn’t think I would have it in me to write today.  Last night (or rather this morning) I was up until 1 AM.  Fortunately I had the day off work, but I kept napping and we had “stuff” to do so I didn’t get to writing again until late.  I thought for sure I would blow it off and lose ground.  Many thanks to my fellow bloggers who have been encouraging me: I thought about them as I sat down to give it another go.  Now I am up to 8,538 words with an expected finish date of May 18 if I keep at this rate.  Oh, but I won’t.  I WILL finish my 50k at the end of April.  I’ll make it happen, even if it means the kitties have to wait a bit longer for their meals :)

    HPIM0033

    (She looks like she can afford to wait, doesn’t she?)

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  • Stasis

    April 8th, 2013

    The road trip is over. I’m home and, although exhausted from all the driving, was willing to suffer more fanny fatigue for the sake of Camp NaNoWriMo. I’ve now completed 6,080 words, almost 3,000 more since my last post. At this rate, I will make my 50k mark by May 28. However, if I write 1,830 words a day, I’ll finish end of this month.

    Some might say that should be easy. Just write, even if it’s garbage, it’s the number of words that count. We write during NaNoWriMo; we edit later. But I’m thinking (and not terribly clearly at the moment), that the more my novel makes sense now, the less editing (or interpreting) I’ll need to do later. Of course, I have yet to edit the novel I wrote in November. Truth be told, I didn’t even finish it. I wrote over 50,000 words, and then abruptly stopped. What I thought was a few days’ break has now been a few months’ break.

    But, gee, I’ve never had two novels in the cooker before. I’ve always been a short-story writer. While I love to read novels, I’ve always distrusted my ability to sustain an interest in writing novel-length stories. I find that very interesting: I love the slower pace of novels (at least the ones I read) where settings and characters come alive, where the novelist takes the time to describe the smell of snow or the main character’s fondness for cream sherry. But when I try to write like that, the voice at the back of head is practically screaming “Boring!” But that’s the beauty of NaNoWriMo (Camp or otherwise): The deadline helps me ignore that annoying voice.

    So, I’ll try to persevere. Maybe I’ll even finish this novel.

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  • Writing in Motion

    April 5th, 2013

    I’ve learned today that while it is possible to type on my iPad while a passenger in a speeding Infinity, it is not necessarily productive or advisable. It took a few minutes before my desire to hurl finally abated, and I think my husband was disappointed that I would be unavailable to carry on a conversation with him, or at least verbally sympathized while he negotiated rush-hour traffic.

    Also, while I appreciate the ability of the iPad’s keyboard to anticipate and correct my typos, it isn’t perfect. To make any sense of what I was trying to write, I had to keep backspacing and correcting the garbage provided by Apple’s brain. Yes, I have a portable keyboard but my lap isn’t big enough to support both the iPad and the keyboard (thankfully).

    So to date, my word count for Camp NaNoWriMo is abysmal: 3,267 out of 50,000. At this rate, I will finish in mid-June.

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  • Spam-a-lot

    April 3rd, 2013

    I’m procrastinating at the moment.  Past time to go to bed but just a few more minutes on the computer … so I go ahead and check my stats on my blog and I have 12 spam messages.  Usually I just delete them, but some of them are quite funny so I decided to share the content of the messages.  For obvious reasons, I won’t share the links.

    Spam

    Spam #1:  “This original content is out of the ordinary. I appreciate that you’ve gone off the beaten path with your points and I agree with most.”

    I wish I could say my content was out of the ordinary, but I believe I’m beating the same path that many of my fellow bloggers are.

    Spam #2:  “Can I just say what a relief to find an individual who actually knows what theyre talking about online. You certainly know the right way to bring an problem to light and make it valuable. Extra people must read this and fully grasp this side of the story. I cant think youre not more well-known considering that you certainly have the gift.”

    Now, why couldn’t a real person leave such a comment on my blog!  I definitely need “extra” readers who also believe I “have the gift.”

    Spam #3:  “Terrific work! This is the type of info that are meant to be shared across the net. Shame on Google for no longer positioning this submit higher! Come on over and seek advice from my site . Thanks =)”

    Yes, shame on Google, but thanks but no thanks on advice from this site.

    Spam #4, 5, & 6:  “You need targeted traffic to your website so why not try some for free? There is a VERY POWERFUL and POPULAR company out there who now lets you try their traffic for 7 days free of charge. I am so glad they opened their traffic system back up to the public! Check it out here [spam link]”

    Three spams all saying the same thing.  How boring.  Do people really fall for this?

    Spam #7:  “Performing Respiration ExercisesWhen you actual observation force, your material substance reacts physically. Some nation actual observation an increased organ of circulation fixed measure, sweat, headaches, or shallow, quickened breathing. Respiration exercises can take the severity out of a stressful location to help you think more calmly and clearly. A simple breathing use includes inhaling slowly for five seconds through the nose and exhaling slowly for five seconds through the chaps. Point of concentration your breathing on seeing your packing-box rise and drop down versus seeing your stomach go in and out. It should not be used as a exchange for professional of medicine recommendation, diagnosis or usage. LIVESTRONG is a registered trademark of the LIVESTRONG Base. Moreover, we do not prefer every advertiser or information|proclamation|trumpeting|advertisement} that appears on the web website-many of the advertisements are served by third coterie advertising companies.”

    Spam #7 is my favorite because it is so lengthy.  I’m sure it’s just an algorithm (I have not studied spam so I don’t know how it’s developed and spewed across the interest universe), but it’s a long one … and almost coherent.

    Enough procrastination.  I’m participating in Camp NaNoWriMo and way behind in my word count.  My goal is 50,000 words and at the rate I’m going, I’ll be done in June :( Still, it’s late, my cats are demanding to be fed, and I still have to take my clothes out of the dryer.

    Pleasant dreams my fellow bloggers.

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