Weekend

What is a weekend?  I hear that it is this wonderful time that people take to enjoy time from work.  I don't have that.  I get home from work and I go to other work.  :P  I also hear there is this wonderful thing called sleep.  I'd like to try that sometime.

At any rate, I move on.

I am thinking of beginnings for Book of Seas.  You know something annoying about my writing?  I can always think of random scenes within the story, random parts that connect somehow, but I hate trying to come up with the filler.  I always can't help but think "Oh man.  People are going to be so frakking bored by this part and they'll put it down!"  Don't you ever wonder that?

What is it that keeps a good story going?  Is there some formula? 

I have heard multiple things about writing and techniques and not all of them ring truth to me.  So I use what I can but in the long run I don't think good writing has any one way that makes it great. 

Rewind a minute to high school English class.  I remember my literature teacher going over "How to write a fiction story."  Wow.  She was dead set on this being the way you had to do it or your story would fail.  Now don't get me wrong.  There were some good tips in there somewhere, but honestly I don't think you can't rope most imaginations and force them to follow a certain structure.  I know this is very true of mine.  My imagination doesn't even listen to me sometimes.

To illustrate.  I was creating a story in my head for my own enjoyment.  This is also known as daydreaming.  My day dream was about some romance with a television character (I think from Firefly...or Stargate. One of those.) and there was this super sweet moment where my Mary Sue and this character (I want to say it was Daniel Jackson, but this was a long time ago.) were professing their feelings but in an unspoken way.  Suddenly mercenaries attack (or was it wraith?  G'ould? The Alliance?).  What?!  I didn't put this in here!  Why are they interrupting my wonderful moment??  Seriously!  It was frustrating.  But for whatever reason my imagination took control and wanted to spice up the story.  Perhaps it had to do with the music I was listening to.

Anyway, I just think that my English teacher was wrong to make it seem like if you didn't have this structure to a fiction story you won't write a good one.  Now, if she had taken more the "These are the elements you need to consider when writing, here is one way of structuring your thoughts on the matter." approach, I would have listened.  (Maybe.)

It wasn't that great of a structure anyway.  If I remember correctly, I believe it had the characters and their backgrounds coming before the plot.  What kind of structure is that?  It took me ages to come up with actual characters and their backgrounds.  For Stolen Child, I spent hours on Snowberry's name alone.  The archivist didn't even get a name because I thought it fun to not give him one even though he's a fairly important person.

Well, at this point I look at the clock, am satisfied with the time and will now go to bed.  Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful night/day/morning/afternoon/weekend and may you actually get your weekends!

Gravy and Cheesecake

So my obsession with cooking and baking is growing.  I have now spent my entire day looking up recipes...beginning with the idea to look up a swirled cheesecake so I can use my huckleberry syrup.  I have since expanded the recipes to pumpkin things, Christmas things, Shepard's pie, cheesecakes, Italian food, Greek food, and, well, the list goes on. 

I have now decided that I am going to attempt to make and almond spice cake tonight.  I'm thinking a light butter cream frosting glaze will do nicely.  I would like to make it a pumpkin spice cake, but it isn't fall and I don't have any pumpkin.  Buzzkill.

I think that I should go to bed.  But I want to make this stuff so much!  I am inspired to cook!  (Currently I am waiting on some things to heat.)  But you know, I can't wait until fall and winter to make spiced things.  I love spiced things...and pumpkin things!  I can't wait to make pumpkin things.

As for you, what do YOU like to make?

Stolen Child

STOLEN CHILD IS FINISHED!

Wow.  That was interesting.  I finally finished something.  It's also something I am very proud of.  It still needs a lot of work, but man it feels good to have finished it.  I have placed the manuscript on Authonomy, for whoever will read and help.

I know there are loads of kinks I need to work out.  I am excited to do so, but I need to step away from this story for a while and worry about another before I can return to it. 

As for the ending, I think that is one of my biggest troubles.  There are a few parts in there I feel are necessary but rushed.  The final fight between Connor and Brychan, for instance.  I know that I like the way it isn't just an all out brawl but I feel there is something missing in the fight itself.  As for when Connor finally prevails, I absolutely love that. 

The rest...hmmm...getting Connor and Winter home and explaining a few things away, well that was rushed but I think it wasn't horribly so.  More should have been done with the children though.  I'm not sure if I know how to explain it though.  Oh well.  It will all help when I have this blasted thing edited.

Anyway, as for the rest of the world...I forget who told me, but they were somewhere recently where there was a "Mary Sue Cafe" and they thought of me and my incredible love for Mary Sues.  So awesome.  I need to figure this out and go there just to see.  Maybe they have a picture of Wesley Crusher on the wall somewhere.

On other notes, I need a dog.

Father Ted

You know, you watch some kind of comedy, whatever kind you fancy, and you laugh like crazy.  Sure, some of that is the script, but what about the rest of it?  A lot goes into comedy.  Sometimes the show is mildly funny and you laugh a little here and there.  But what about when she show is so side-splitting hilarious that you have tears in your eyes and anyone in the house thinks you're going mad?  It has to be more than just the writing.  The right actors, the right set, the right costume...you have to get it all just right.  I have found the comedy which is perfect for me.  FATHER TED.

This show has just the right ingredients.  The right actors, the right costumes, and the right writing.  I have tears in my eyes from this, I laugh so hard.  I have to worry about the neighbours thinking I've gone off the edge I laugh that loud.  That is a good comedy.

And from this show, I have developed a great desire for a Dougal plushie.  I suppose I could make one.  Any suggestions on this?  I heart Father Dougal McGuire so much! 

Well, enough on that...because I could go on for ages. 

I have written parts in my stories that I find comedic.  Some of them even cause me to laugh almost as loud as I do when I watch this show.  Sometimes I just chuckle.  However, it is worriesome when writing comedy.  Just because I find something hilarious doesn't mean my reader will.  So much of my consideration while writing is ensuring the reader feels what I intend them to feel. 

Now, I'm not trying to force the reader to feel something in particular, it is more the sort of thing that if I write the death of a certain character, I am intending they feel sad.  So much goes into that.  You can't force a reader into feeling anything for any one part of your book. 

This isn't the part where I am going to go on and say how it requires talent and all that sort of bollocks.  No.  I'm getting at how nerve wracking it is.  How do the professionals do it?  How do they pull it off?  For those of us struggling to be writers or whatever, how can we ever achieve that?  Surely some of it is talent, but what about practice?  Practice surely makes one better.  Criticism has to play a good role in that as well.  If our work was never criticized we'd never be able to improve.  If we don't improve, our chances of getting recognized will go down. 

Okay.  Now I am rambling.  I'm enthralled with Father McGuire again.  It's not even about his looks.  I just love Dougal.  Watch FATHER TED and you'll love him too!

The Funeral

Firefly fans anyone?  Ever listen to the soundtrack.  That's what is playing on my iPod right now...the track is called "The Funeral" and it is one of my favourite tracks ever.  Tracks like this have a million and one uses and are not limited to one particular story.

Has anyone ever thought it would be fun to make a movie and sync it completely to another movie's score just to see if it could be done?  Don't get me wrong, I do find it a bit annoying when I watch a film and hear the score from another being used.

A good example of this is when music from the 13th Warrior was randomly thrown into the Kingdom of Heaven film.  Having not yet gotten the score to Kingdom of Heaven, but being well on my way to, I suddenly felt like I should be watching Vladimir Kulich spouting a made-up viking prayer-thing and Antonio Banderas playing an Arab.  (Which, fyi, Banderas was totally sporting the eye-liner long before Jack Sparrow.)  I found myself eagerly sifting through the credits and found that sure enough, they'd used a track from the 13th Warrior.  Did I mind, in the long run?  Not really, but you wrote an entire score for the rest of the film but this one track was taken?  Am I the only one who finds this weird?

Anyway, back to the matter at hand.  I write my stories while listening to music (90% of which are scores) and I can play some scenes perfectly in my head to said score.  I just wonder if you took...oh, say...the Pirates of the Caribbean score (first film) and wrote a movie that took place in space.  Completely different plot and all...so no space-pirates or anything.  (Although space pirates are frakking awesome.)  Take the score and listen to the track "Skull and Crossbones".  I can totally see a big battle going on between two kick-ass space ships.  The good-guys' ship is a cross between Serenity (Firefly) and the Daedalus(Stargate).  The bad guys...meh, throw a Klingon ship in with something similar to the Necromongers from Riddick, and call it a day.  Now imagine that fight and the dialog between the crew as you will.  The hero/heroine on the good ship uses some super-cool technology to jump them into hyperspace at the last minute so they escape and they end up in a very strange and unknown part of the universe but safe and sound.

Okay, so that is one scene but you get what I am saying.  Seriously, try it!  If you don't have the score, just YouTube it.  It'll be there.  Imagine it how you will and you'll see what I am getting at.  You can take the scores and do anything with them.  So I think it would be interesting (ONE TIME AROUND) to see a movie completely coreographed to another film's score.  The only bad thing is, that if some blundering yahoo figures out that recycling scores was cheaper or something, there would be no new scores and movies would go downhill fast. 

Well, I think that is all for now.  Just musing, late at night, not wanting to go to bed.  On one last "score" note:  I purchased the score to Snow White and the Huntsman recently.  I might be a fan of Kristen Stewart (using that term loosely) if she learned the meaning of the word EXPRESS.  Her facial features never change.  I wonder if that is from plastic surgery?  Maybe too much?  No.  I am being mean and I digress.  Haven't seen the movie and I don't really mind if I ever do.  (I'll probably rent it someday or watch it on Netflix.)  Anyway, I just wanted to say that despite what anyone feels about the movie, they need to give that score a chance (if you love movie scores).  James Newton Howard is probably my favourite composer for scores and has yet to disappoint me.  The man is brilliant when it comes to scores but only seems to get movies that don't do very well.  Something is wrong with this.

Well, thanks and goodnight all!  Happy Space-Pirating!!

Bookshelf

I am very excited!  Today I am putting together a new bookshelf that we bought.  A much and long needed one!  I will say, however, BOO TARGET!  We'd been planning to get this bookshelf for a while and yesterday I saw that it was on sale on the website.  I swear I saw something that said this sale was also going on in stores.  Not so.  I got to the store and it was not on sale.  Boo Target! 

Now, since we were going to buy it at full price anyway, this isn't much of a loss but it annoys me.  If you're having a sale on your website, you need to have it in store if the item is available in stores.  That's just rude!  Also, you don't price match your own website?  I'm so confused at this point.  Why not?  It is the same company with the same item.  Businesses today do things so very bass-ackwards that they screw over customers and make people angry. 

Hasn't a business ever thought "Hey, maybe if I don't do things that will make customers angry (things that don't make sense anyway) like suddenly change prices (Netflix) or not match our own website, we might make more money?"  or  "Hey, if I went for quality, perhaps I could make quantity and build good, long-term relationships with customers?"  It is all about profit now.  God, forbid a business try to do something that will make them long-term profit and allow them to expand themselves.

Then there is the other hand.  The "lets-bend-over-and-let-the-customer-put-their-boot-so-far-up-our-tush-it-becomes-our-brain" hand.  Listen, businesses, there is a time and a place for pleasing customers.  Whoever said "the customer is always right" needs to be shot, or if said person is dead already, resurrected as a zombie and bludgeoned to death once more. 

Having worked in retail, I have seen my share of customers with legitimate problems that have either been our fault, or out of our control.  I have also seen more than my share of "free-food" customers.  These second kind are the really annoying ones.  One of the stores I work for sells basic t-shirts in multiple colours and continues to make them every year. 

This particular day, a lady brought some of these t-shirts in and wanted to exchange them, saying she had just bought them.  Well, this was untrue.  First sign this was a false statement: she had no receipt.  Well, that usually isn't too much of a problem as people lose receipts all the time.  The second sign she was lying was that upon examining the shirts she'd supposedly bought the day before, I noted the multiple wear-and-tear holes in the front of the shirt.  They types of holes that only come from ages of wearing and years of tearing.  I pointed them out and she says they came that way.  The final sign she was lying: I checked the tags on the inside of the shirt.  You see, on the inside of your shirt, there are little tags that list the style number and other information.  Within that information is when this particular item was sold made.  These were made for the fall season of 2005.  (This was at least in 2007 or later.)  I pointed this out to her as well but she was persistent and rude.  I told her that I could not exchange something without a receipt that was in this poor condition.

At this point, my manger came over to help.  Thank God for people like him.  He gave them the same look-over I had and came to the same conclusion.  Persistent bitch.  Then my pansy manager comes over.  Okay, that was harsh.  I apologize.  However, though this guy is nice, he is a pushover and will do exactly the sort of boot-brain things I mentioned above.  My other manager and I walked away and washed our hands of it but not before stating to him that we were not going to return something in that condition without a receipt.  My other manager gave her what she wanted.  It made the rest of us very angry.

You see, here is what people do.  This is not exclusive to any one store.  People buy something, get their use out of it and then exchange it for the newer model years later or they buy the new model and return the old in the box the new one came in.  Most good employees will be able to catch this.  I know a guy who worked as a manager at a store and caught this sort of thing all of the time.  I applaud him for not tolerating it.  It is one thing to get what you are due by a company.  It is completely another to screw the company over.

So how do we win?  How do we find balance in this giant mess of muck?  We get back to work as my Totino's Pizza rolls are all consumed and the bookshelf isn't finishing itself.  :)

Supernatural

Somehow, my ability to not be phased by scary movies (or in this case TV show...) has diminished.  I blame my sister and all of the time I have spent watching non-scary things with her.  Still, I spend my time until 2 AM watching scary things like Supernatural.  Why?  Because the plot is highly interesting to me and I am very entertained by this show. 

Still.  I am scared to go to bed.  Last night I slept like hell.  One of the episodes was not supernatural at all, just crazy people.  I'm not sure which is scarier...the unknown and (by some beliefs) unreal things like demons, or real live people who do horrible things because they're either crazy or evil.

I certainly believe in evil.  I do not think the reason for all horrible things is that all those people are "crazy".  At the same time, they are.  One of my favourite thoughts came from my all-time-favourite movie, DOOM.  Yes, that is right!  Karl Urban and the Rock in DOOM!  I love that movie to no end and can watch it all of the time, any time.  (I have actually gotten to the point where it doesn't scare me anymore as I have seen it almost enough times to act it out as a one-man show!)  The musing was, that part of the human DNA that was not explained (at least according to the science in the movie.  I know very little of DNA.), that was "unmapped" as they called it, was the blueprint for the soul.  It was an interesting thought for me.  God is smart.  God is omnipotent.  God would have known to make DNA as the building blocks of our bodies.  What if a part of our soul was encoded in that?  It has to be somewhere right?  I know at this point I sound utterly crazy, but its something worth musing, I believe. 

Why is science an enemy of God?  I was babysitting this young boy once, and was asked what I believed about science.  I told him two things.  I told him that while these are questions he should be taking up with his parents, I would give him something to consider.  First, there are so many beliefs out there, it is hard to KNOW what is true.  That is why we have faith.  Faith is not knowing.  With faith you do not need to know.  Faith is trusting even though there is no proof.  Second, I told him that just because you believe in science does not mean you cannot believe in God.  I told him to look more at science as how God does things.  Perhaps we get some things wrong in science, but we are not God.  We were not meant to know everything he does. 

Does that make the pursuit for knowledge a bad thing? No.  If in your pursuits you are trying to disprove God, you are not pursuing knowledge.  If you seek answers about God, well...make sure you start with the Bible.  Work your way from there. 

On a much lighter note, I love that moment I hit where I am still scared but I am to frakking tired to notice.

Love to you all!!