IWSG: July Heat

The Insecure Writers Support Group meets online every first Wednesday of the month. Founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh, IWSG was created to support and encourage all writers in every phase of their work, from writing to marketing. Click here to join, and for information, writing tips and more.
 
The awesome co-hosts for the the July 1 posting of the IWSG will be Charity Bradford, S.A. Larsen, AJ, Tamara Narayan, Allison Gammons, and Tanya Miranda!




We have already broken heat records here in Eastern Washington,

and it's only just July. It was 110 degrees the other day, and 108 today. I'm walking around our property making sure everything survives, and turning up the sprinkler system, trying to keep everything green. 

The airplane vinyl wrap project has been brought indoors. Imagine if you will, the heat buildup in a metal hangar! Even the spiders are exiting. There are a lot of small pieces that can be vinyl wrapped before the wings and body are done, so this isn't a problem. (Vinyl is an amazing alternative to spray paint, but time-consuming to put to on). 

As you may know, my husband and I have competing projects. His is to paint the plane, and mine is to get my novel published. I'm bringing up the rear at this point. We had back to back family all last month. Loving the quiet house right now and helping occasionally with the plane project when he needs a second hand. (I'll admit that some days his project is simply more interesting). 

I did devote two days this week to the book. A friend also visited early in the day and we spent the morning working on our books and social media. We've always talked about taking our computers to the library or the local coffee shop and doing this. It really was a pleasant change. Writing can be so isolating at times. Do any of you do the same? I recommend it

So.... haven't written much at all. The blog has taken a hit too. Drafts of two book reviews sit untouched in my notebook waiting to be written up. I think I'm dealing with brain drain in this heat, not to mention an awful tooth ache at the moment. Tomorrow I'm off to the dentist. 

Looking for a bit of writing humor and needing a pick me up, I found the following. I hope you enjoy too!


"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." - W. Somerset Maugham

If Moses were alive today he’d come down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments and spend the next five years trying to get them published. - Anonymous

Frankly, my dear, I should bury your script in a drawer and put a lily on top. - Noël Coward 

The Classics - Opening Lines: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood -movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids -- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. (Published 1952) 

I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: Orlando by Virginia Woolf

He—for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it—was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters. (Published 1928) 



I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really? 

The Classics - Opening Lines: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

It is truth universally  acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. (Published 1813)

I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?

The Classics - Opening Lines: Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. (Published 1951)

I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

IWSG - June: Out to Lunch

The Insecure Writers Support Group meets online every first Wednesday of the month. Founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh, IWSG was created to support and encourage all writers in every phase of their work, from writing to marketing. Click here to join, and for information, writing tips and more. 
 
The awesome co-hosts for the the June 3 posting of the IWSG will be M. Pax, Tracy Jo, Patricia Lynne, Rachna Chhabria, Feather Stone, and Randi Lee!


This has been an interesting month with family visiting and then my fiasco with Google+ when I attempted to remove all of my blog photos/images from my Android LG Smart phone. 

Please permit me to rant a bit....


First of all, I never asked Google to upload my blog photos/images to my phone to begin with, but they did, all 800 of them. This happened about the same time I signed up for Google+. When I tried to remove the images, they disappeared on my blog, so I did a redo and backed out. Meanwhile, they were starting to use up massive amounts of memory on my phone. I spent hours researching settings and fixes, and found nothing to help. (Unsynching, the logical fix for future storage, messed up Gmail and other Google services). 

I suspected Google+ was the problem. I had recently severed the computer link to my blog, because of the meandering trail it created for those trying to reach my blog (and got my Blogger profile back). But Google+ was still on my phone. I decided to uninstall it, which of course wasn't possible (Androids are a Google product). I disabled a Picasa uploader instead and tried unsynching everything again. All Picasa storage stopped (yay!), but there were consequences. My punishment (because it certainly felt like punishment) was to lose every photo and image on my blog! (Online, someone else said they lost 2000 blog photos, which ruined their blog).
 
Granted, I still had them in personal files and Picasa, but it meant having to fix blog posts that go back to 2011. This is a huge deal, because a lot of my posts are the equivalent of scrap-booking about my life. They mean a lot to me! Do I blame Google? Yes, for sending everything to my phone in the first place. Am I dumping Google? Of course not. I would not be blogging today or enjoying and benefiting from all the internet has to offer if it were not for them.....and admittedly, there is that thing called "learning curve" on my part. (see below on PDF)

I haven't fixed every post (there are over 300), but I've spent a few maniac nights redoing posts I felt were important, mainly the a-z and travel posts. So I'm fed up with it all right now......blogging, computers, writing, all of it. With more family coming in mass in a little over a week, I see no other recourse but to take a blog break for a month, probably less, once I get my barrings back. I think we need to be good to ourselves, don't you? And I've reached my limit on patience.

One bright note is I have started taking my blog more seriously. I have since learned how to convert an entire blog into a PDF document. Haven't done this yet but so far, BlogBooker looks pretty good; and there are other tools online too (some you purchase), all designed to preserve your long hard work for family and future readers. I do feel dumb I didn't pursue this sooner. I guess in some ways I was not taking my writing seriously enough, so this has been a hard learning curve. For those of you who have long since discovered this, bravo!  

I share this for those of you who are still learning :)

On another bright note.....I did take the time to organize all of my writing 'how-to' advice and instructions I've been collecting from online sites, printed material, and workshops. I had quite a stack, which is now neatly held in a binder (still doing the tabs). I know there are a lot of great books on writing out there, but this is my personal go-to manual with things I personally need to know. Books on writing often repeat what I already know and I find myself searching the index or going online in search of more specific (and current) information. 

The weather here in Desert Aire is also quite glorious and my garden has never looked better.....and with family on the way, life is precious and good, so out to lunch for awhile. Back soon! 

(I'll keep the Opening Lines series going :)

 

The Classics - Opening Lines: The Tale of the Heike

The temple bell echoes the impermanence of all things. The colors of the flowers testify to the truth that those who flourish must decay. Pride lasts but a little while, like a dream on a spring night. Before long the mighty are cast down, and they are as dust before the wind. (Published 12th century, author unknown; as translated by Fuki Wooyenaka Uramatsu in 1956). 

(This Japanese epic about warrior clans has been compared to the Iliad).


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration.
Writing styles were different then, but were they really?

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing