Back.

Been reading a lot of writing articles lately as I try to "juice up" my flagging writing muscles. I realized yesterday I didn't know who my antagonist was for my current WIP. Specifically, I lost track who (or what) s/he was. Panic-stricken, I spoke with my spouse (after explaining why we didn't discuss the issue earlier). Equilibrium restored, I returned to my latest outline not only with the answers, but a better sense of direction where my WIP is going.

The following articles have proven to be great "templates" to work with my WIP at the moment:

Notecarding: Plotting Under Pressure
© 2002, by Holly Lisle
http://www.hollylisle.com/fm/Workshops/notecard_plotting.html

Website Review:
Nine-Act Structure Home Page
By Gerri Baker
©2003, Gerri Baker
http://www.sscdc.net/hlvision/Issue%2015/websitereview.htm

I'm back.

Huh. Go away for a while, then suddenly rush back and start blogging. Human nature, eh?

Currently working a temp job. So far I like it: the duties are difficult and the position's close to home. In fact, the job's in my old stopping grounds at Huntington Beach. Within walking distance, for example, is the Sandcastle bookstore. We used to visit it infrequently; they had high (meaning on par) prices for their items. Last week I purchased a paperback, a sequel to the book, Another Day, Another Dungeon. I didn't even know there was a sequel. Coolness.

Read last month's Vision newsletter over at www.hollylisle.com. There's a cool interview with author Rosemary Edgehill at http://www.sff.net/people/eluki/index2.htp. I followed one of the links in the interview that lead to her various templates on her homepage. The Outline line rocked and I'm seriously considering giving it a go with my current work in progress (WIP).

Here's one of those outlines:
http://www.sff.net/people/eluki/write7.htm

Cool, eh?

Hmmm. How about a touch of humor?

Subject: The world is full of these....interesting people!

People IN SERVICE
This week, our phones went dead and I had to contact the
telephone repair people. They promised to be out between 8:00
a.m. and 7:00 p.m. When I asked if they could give me a smaller
time window, the pleasant gentleman asked, "Would you like us to
call you before we come?" I replied that I didn't see how he
would be able to do that since our phones weren't working. He
also requested that we report future outages by email. (Does YOUR email work without a telephone line?). Okay, some of you don't need bold a phone line for E-mail. :-)

People AT WORK:
I was signing the receipt for my credit card purchase when the
clerk noticed I had never signed my name on the back of the
credit card. She informed me that she could not complete the
transaction unless the card was signed. When I asked why, she
explained that it was necessary to compare the signature I had
just signed on the receipt. So I signed the credit card in front
of her. She carefully compared the signature to the one I had
just signed on the receipt. As luck would have it, they matched.

People IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD:
I live in a semi-rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call
the local township administrative office to request the removal
of the Deer Crossing sign on our road. The reason: too many deer
were being hit by cars and she didn't want them to cross there
anymore. I could swear I've recently been with some of these
people...

People IN FOOD SERVICE:
My daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco. She
asked the person behind the counter for "minimal lettuce." He
said he was sorry, but they only had iceberg.

People SIGHTING #1:
I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport
employee asked, "Has anyone put anything in your baggage without
your knowledge?" To which I replied, "If it was without my
knowledge, how would I know?" She smiled knowingly and nodded,
"That's why we ask."

People SIGHTING #2:
The stoplight on the corner buzzes when it's safe to cross the
street. I was crossing with a coworker of mine when she asked if
I knew what the buzzer was for. I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red. Appalled, she responded, "What on earth are blind people doing driving?"

People SIGHTING #3:
At a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear coworker who is
leaving the company due to "downsizing," our manager commented
cheerfully, "This is fun. We should do this more often." Not a
word was spoken. We all just looked at each other with that
deer-in-the-headlights stare.

People SIGHTING #4:
I work with an individual who plugged her power strip back into
itself and for the life of her couldn't understand why her system would not turn on.

People SIGHTING #5:
When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver's side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. "Hey," I announced to the technician, "it's open!" To which he replied, "I know - I already got that side."

Now don't you feel better?

"You know the world is going crazy when the best
rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy,
France is accusing the US of arrogance and Germany
does not want to go to war..."


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"Love those you love . . . now, even more than ever."
-- Charles Groden

Oh my! I just saw my blogger on Holly Lisle's website (www.hollylisle.com) for the first time on the Features Bloggers website. Yikes! Better write something. It's has been--wow!--nearly five months since I wrote anything here.