S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 64

Color Me Evil

This delightful animated short film demonstrates the evil that is pink (with music and narration, for those of you at work):

Just Write

Today I'm off to write something new and post it online before midnight. Everyone inclined to do the same is invited to join me.

My link: More on Club Denizen , with new material beginning on page 40.

For more details on Just Write Thursdays, click here to go to the original post.

Image credit: windujedi

In Internet Years

Can someone tell how old you are by how you use the internet? Take this online quiz to make BuzzFeed guess.

My results:



Twelve years off, I'm afraid (you did not realize I was all of 29, yes? Ha.) So how old are you as an internet user? Let us know in comments.

(Quiz link swiped from Gerard at The Presurfer.)

WFH No-Nos

Ten Things You Should Probably Avoid Putting in Your Ad for a Ghost Writer
(all quotations found in actual Craigslist writing job ads)

"I will pay you in money and other valuable considerations."

Just to be upfront about it, I'm not taking any more chickens in trade.

"Most writers can average $30-45 per hour."

What if I'm above average? Will you pay me $100?

"This is a pay per job position and you can do it from home or you can come sit on my coiuch with your laptop, doesn't matter to me, as long as the work gets done and done right."

Right as in . . . spelling the word couch, for example?

"You really have to get it done pretty quickly, because otherwise it's too expensive."

You really have to wait until you can actually afford to hire me.

"Have a passion for booze in all forms?"

No, but I think I'm developing a migraine. Got an aspirin?

"If you are interested and you think you can write good enough books to hang with the big boys you can email me or text me."

Good enough books, okay. Um, give me a minute to stop laughing and then I'll text. I promise, big boy.

"The more views your articles get, the more you get paid."

Let me reinterpret this one: The more views your articles get, the more we get paid -- not that we'll ever tell you how much that is, btw. You, we might toss a couple extra pennies. Maybe. If we're feeling generous that day.

"While the pay for each task may vary, the goal is to pay approximately $12 per hour for work completed."

And if you don't, can I have David Beckham kick a soccer ball into your groin?

"We're looking for ambassadors . . . "

Try the U.N., pal.

"Please do not send a resume, I would rather see an image of you."

Make that two aspirin.

So Noted

Here's a contradiction: I rarely write in books, but I love to find writing in books. I think the former is because I read mostly library books when I was a kid, and I didn't want to get in trouble with the library ladies. The latter is like spying a bit on the book's former owner and finding out something about them.

Sometimes I find notes in books that really intrigue me, such as those I discovered when I purchased a 1958 edition of Edmund Spenser's poetry. Inside the front cover some reader before me wrote this:



The notations on the inside of the cover are lists of the seven deadly sins and the seven cardinal virtues, along with the phrase "Fatal to spiritual progress" next to the sins list. In case you're wondering, I pulled this book to get the list of the seven deadly sins for a scene in Club Denizen.

On the opposite/title page are some fainter, different notes in pencil (some of which I've typed out beneath them):



I didn't recognize any of the words except the Pershing, which I thought used to be an old gangster hotel in Chicago back during the Capone/Prohibition era. I never bothered pursuing the meaning of the words, but after author Kris Reisz made a very interesting discovery about one of his old books I decided to research the notation and see what I could find out. Which lead me to this recording over on YouTube and this article over at The Wall Street Journal.

I didn't recognize the notation because I'm definitely no music expert; the jazz in my own collection is primarily limited to sax wizards like John Coltrane and Charlie Parker. Still, it was very cool to discover Ahmad Jamal, listen to his music, and find out how he and his trio changed so much with their live album.

Have you ever tracked down something you found written in a book? Let us know in comments.

County Quilt Show

Here's a slideshow of all the amazing quilts we saw at the county show this year:

Off to See My Other People

I'm unplugging today to go hang with my quilter pals. So that your stop here was not a complete waste, here's an open call for a LGBTQ+ spectrum themed e-zine startup I spotted over in the Paying Markets forum at AbsoluteWrite.com:

"McKay & Gray is looking for submissions for our monthly zine, “The Running Bunny”. We’re looking for comic writers and artists, spot illustrations, and previously unpublished short stories and comics. Our zine “The Running Bunny” is focused on queer content. All stories must contain at least one character on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. We’re looking for strong characters going through all sorts of struggles, from fighting dragons to finishing their math homework. Characters should be more than just their queer identities. All genres are welcome to apply. Do not submit if you are under 18 years old. This is paid work, however our rates are currently: $10 per spot illustration; $15 per comic page; $30 per short story. We hope our rates will raise as our readership grows. We want to pay you decently, we promise! Everything is out of our own pocket for now. Intellectual properties remain the creator’s. Digital rights are exclusive to McKay & Gray for one year then revert back to the creator. Digital copies will remain in the zine’s archive however."

On short story submissions: "We’re looking for short stories between 500-7,000 words. All genres are welcome, as long as one character identifies on the LGBTQ+ spectrum.

On one shot comic submissions: "We’re looking for 1-5 page comics. All genres are welcome, as long as one character identifies on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. Specifications: 2000x3000 pixels; 300+ dpi; B/W or Colour accepted.

On comic series submissions: Comic artists without a writer, send your portfolio with subject line COMIC SERIES ARTIST SUBMISSION. Writers / Artist teams, send your portfolio with a pitch. We prefer to work with people who have done one-shots in the past. Comic writers are welcome to send a pitch. Please have a completed script prepared before submitting without an artist.

For more information hop (or run) over to MacKay & Gray's Tumblr blog and read the submission guidelines here.

Uh-oh

To revise or not to revise, to serve the story or the powers that be, to write your vision, or what everyone else wants you to write -- this adorably scary short film from Robert Rugan just might decide all those questions for you (with music and dialogue, for those of you at work):

DANNY AND THE WILD BUNCH - Short Film from robert rugan on Vimeo.

Just Write

Today I'm off to write something new and post it online before midnight. Everyone inclined to do the same is invited to join me.

My link: More on Club Denizen , with new material beginning on page 36.

For more details on Just Write Thursdays, click here to go to the original post.

Image credit: windujedi

Falling Up

My first major art project this year is this lap quilt I put together from some random red and gold fabrics in my scrapbag. I also used some black broadcloth leftover from the MegaCon booth drapes last year as the backing and sashing, and simply strip-pieced the patchwork to create long straight lines for me to hand quilt.

I haven't made a quilt since my eye surgery, and I've missed sewing. I'm also seeing some of my quilter pals this month for our annual in-person get together, and I didn't want to say I'm still on hiatus while they talk about all the projects they've finished (we're not really competitive, but I wanted to have one good story.) After struggling with beading and sewing on some tote projects this winter I knew in advance my needlework would probably suck, though. With my flip-flopped vision I can pick out a stray thread hanging from across the room, but it now takes me about ten tries to thread the eye of a quilting needle.

I still felt pretty optimistic when I pieced the top, even when I saw that I had mixed up the order of the strips, and the two dark wide black floral print strips I had ended up practically side by side instead of opposite sides of the quilt. It irked me a bit, but it was a practice piece, so I kept going.

And the going? Was very slow. My stitching did suck, quite a bit; I couldn't seem to quilt one straight row. What should have looked like ----- was more like /~\\~/. My thread kept popping and knotting and raveling. All that color in my face didn't help; I forgot that anything red tends to work like a matador's cape on me when I'm frustrated. The only good thing about the red is that it nicely disguised the fact that I kept stabbing myself with the quilting needle and bleeding on the fabric.

I refused to give up or start over. I can be mule-headed that way. I didn't care what the damn thing looked like; I just wanted to finish what I started. I felt like if I could just get this piece done I'd finally have my quilter self back. I miss her. She's fun.

I think my final straw snapped after I'd quilted my way to the center strips and found two small rips and a hole in two of the fabrics that I hadn't before noticed. That's the quilter's equivalent of completely falling down on the job. All that work I'd done was instantly reduced to a complete waste of time. What was I going to tell my pals now, that I was an idiot? I felt like ripping it to shreds.

But I didn't. I believe in falling up, not down. As in, if you can't learn from your mistakes you'll never improve.

Finishing the ripped-up holey quilt took me two months. I spent a couple of hours almost every night stitching up and down. I quilted over the hole and the rips and tried some different threads to see if anything would be a little easier for stitch practice (and weirdly enough, rayon thread turned out to better than glace or waxed for me.) Once I finished the piece I looked at the damaged spots in the fabric and decided to cover them both with with the strategic placement of two heart appliques. Sappy, I know, but by then I had worked through my frustration and come out the other side with my love of quilting intact -- and maybe more balanced.

I'm going to keep practicing, because that's what you do to get better. I may never again be able to quilt the way I did before my vision failed, but it doesn't matter. This piece taught me that the love of quilting isn't about perfection or doing everything right or even what others think of the final product. Quilting actually doesn't care when I mess up. It's always there, waiting for me to make it into something that I see inside, where no one can see. That I can take that and make something out of nothing, something that will comfort and keep someone warm on a cold night, is never a waste of time. And that's the story I'm going to tell my sewing sisters when I see them.

Now apply this to writing.