Linda Maye Adams's Blog, page 93

Back from Reunion Cruise

Just playing catchup after my Desert Storm Reunion cruise.  I’ll post some more details and pictures.  Meanwhile, here’s a picture of the ship.

Filed under: Photos

There are priorities in writing

After my post on Writing as a Woman War Veteran was published, I got an invitation to write for a story call for veterans. For about a day, I was flattered and thinking it over.

But there was one sticking point.

They didn’t pay.

There are a lot of magazines and anthologies that don’t pay, except maybe copies. It’s actually hard to find ones that do pay professional rates.   I used to write for many of the non-paying ones because I believed in the myth that you should build up your writing credits.

I also remember thumbing through the paper version of the Novel and Short Story Writers Market. They have statistics on how hard it is to get into each magazine, and obviously the pro-rate ones were harder. So I’d look at those statistics and pass on the pro-rate as being too hard.

It means I set the bar too low for myself and wrote accordingly. I stopped writing for anything calls that weren’t pro-rate several years ago for that reason and realized how much of a disservice I did to myself by not aspiring higher.

But then there’s the problem with all the veteran’s calls. First, I know that I am probably the only woman soldier writing anything. Sure, there are other women, but they’re usually spouses or relatives.

And not one of them has paid. They all expect the veteran to write for free. I’ve even seen calls where it’s obvious, the editors think they’re doing the veteran a favor because they’re letting them do writing as therapy.

The decision turned out to be both easy and hard. If I start my own business and the IRS audits me, they will see the writing for free submission. It’ll make them think I’m a hobbyist.

Veterans calls need to pay though. Seriously.

Filed under: Military, Writing Tagged: Anthology Calls, Women Veterans, writing for free

Tangling with the Obstacle Course

This is a rare photo of a woman soldier in an action shot.  The original photo is on the DOD Website.

U.S. Army Spc. Julie Neff participates in the “team reaction lane” during the 2015 European Best Warrior Competition at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany, Sept. 14, 2015. Neff is assigned to the 5th Battalion, 148th Aviation Regiment. U.S. Army photo by Gertrud Zach

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The “obstacle course” is what everyone outside the military calls this course, because it has obstacles that a soldier has to get through.  It’s actually called a Confidence Course.  This is a video of the Army showing male and female soldiers going through a course. Watch at about the 3 minute watch during a balance test at what the soldiers use to aid in their balance.

Part of the teamwork aspect is everyone cheering you on to get over one of the obstacles.

As you can see, a lot of this really pushes the soldier’s skills. Everything about military training is preparation for war, since you will never know what you need.

Filed under: Military, Photos, Videos Tagged: Army, Confidence Course, Women Soldiers

On the exercise front

Let’s start with the fact that I’m still doing the exercises, which has kind of amazed me. I really haven’t stayed on anything for that long.

I’m also continuing to enjoy it, which is very surprising. I’ve always associated anything exercise related as “not fun.” It’s kind of hard to find something fun when the elementary school team captains saved me for last selection and then argued over who got me, because neither one wanted me.

I did have to go off the videos online because Me.TV stopped at 20. I thought I would get bored repeating the same ones over and over, so I got two books by Jack La Lanne. Then I promptly did bad things to my feet, legs, and back, all parts of my body that I’ve injured over the years, probably due to my flat feet. I want those to improve, if possible, but it’s been hard figuring out how not to overdo it!

So getting the videos will help me better with the progression.  Until I get them, I’ve been sort of rotating between the exercises—not counting sets, but listening to when I feel the muscles starting to fatigue and then doing two reps past that.

Meanwhile, the Washington, DC weather is starting to shift into fall. It’s actually been doing that since August (so my sinuses have told me), but we’ve had largely good weather. It was gorgeous for the Pope’s arrival, and after he left, then it got colder. Coincidence?

The leaves are starting to change. However, we didn’t get any rain for almost a month, so we might not have good colors this year. A lot of the leaves seem to be going right to brown and dried and dropping off.  Hopefully that doesn’t bode for heavy snow this year.

Filed under: Lifestyle, Personal Tagged: Exercise, Fall, Jack La Lanne, Washington DC

Military Women Doing Casualty Evacuation Training

The Maryland National Guard conducted a training exercise for casualty evacuation.  I remember us doing something like this years ago.  We’d get this box of injuries (no that isn’t one of my typos) from the training equipment organization.  The box contained Hollywood-style applications of injuries that could be applied to casualties.  Kind of cool and gross at the same time.

Check through the slide show for more images, but here’s one for you:

Guardsmen conduct casualty evacuation training with a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter on Warfield Air National Guard Base in Middle River, Md., July 29, 2015.

Filed under: Military, Photos Tagged: Black Hawk, Maryland National Guard, Women Soldiers

Research when something doesn’t exist

This was an interesting question that came over one of the writing lists I’m on. I write fantasy and science, so some of the elements don’t actually exist, or isn’t possible for me to see it. How to do research then?

What I do is take other similar things and make the connection from that.

For a fantasy that was set in an abandoned town, I used the ghost town of Bodie as a basis. I’d never been there, but I had grown up in California, so I was already familiar with the landscape. I looked at photos of Bodie, which are eerie and scary.

Then, for the place the character lived, I went to Fort Ward. That’s a local historical site. It’s an intact Civil War fort. There’s also a mock up of an officer’s hut. I saw things like how the officers strung rope across corners and then hung clothes from them. I also stood next to a barrel and compared my height to it.

For a science fiction story with a UFO, the problem, of course, is that I’ve never seen a UFO, except in the movies. I don’t want to use movies as a basis for any kind of research, because this is my story, not someone else’s movie.

The connection became jets.

A few weeks ago, the Blue Angels were doing a photo shoot, so we had several flyovers. The first time they flew over, I heard the sounds of the jets roaring in my direction. By the time I realized what it was and got to the window, the sound was moving away. No sign of them!

The second time I heard it, I got to the window just in time to see them flying off. That’s how fast they were, so a UFO would be that fast.

Then there’s Theodore Roosevelt Island. That’s a park in a tributary of the Potomac River. A lot of joggers like to go there because it has a lot of paths, trees, water. Really pretty.

The green stuff on the water looked like it was some kind of algae. We don’t usually get that growing unless there’s been no rain for a while, which has been the case.

It’s also on the flight path at Reagan Airport, about 7 miles away. That’s spitting distance for a plane. So when the planes are overhead, they are low.

So that experience becomes the UFO.

And think about writers like Robert Heinlein, who wrote about space travel before we had actually traveled in space.

Filed under: Writing Tagged: Fiction Writing, Fort Ward, Potomac River, research, Theodore Roosevelt Island, UFO, Washington DC

Writing as a Woman Veteran

I have a post up over at Books By Women today on the above topic.  Please drop on by and check it out!

For those who are writers and women, the site also has a well-moderated private group for women writers.

Filed under: Military Tagged: Military Women

Habits of the Military

Wander on over and have a look at 10 Military Habits that Make Soldiers Stand Out.  Check out the comments, too, to see additional habits that turn up.

I picked out a few of them here:

Walking too fast.  Yup.  Walking in the military was “walk with a purpose,” which meant walk faster.  I’m in a mall and find that I’m walking much faster than the rest of the crowd.  I’m trying to slow it down because it will probably be better for my feet.

Eating too fast.  Yup.  In basic training, you stood in line, got food, sat down, started eating, and then the drill sergeants were screaming for us to move.  So we were gulping stuff down in line.  We didn’t have drill sergeants screaming at us later, but it was always, “Rush, rush, rush!”  This particular one is one of my goals as part of my exercise I talked about.  It’s easy to out-eat feeling full.

What I’m doing: I check what time it is, with a goal of twenty minutes for a meal (I’m hoping to get to a little longer, like thirty minutes, but twenty is a good start).  I make an effort to put down the food or the fork between bites, and I’m trying to sip a drink in between.  It’s still hard, because I’ll go on autopilot and completely forget.

Absurdly polite.  Nope, not at all.  I think this one is a difference between men and women.  Girls are raised to be polite and nice, but boys aren’t, so it’s more of a cultural change for them.

Sleeping anywhere.  Heck, I couldn’t even do that when I was in the military.  I’d see some soldiers go out like a light at the blink of an eye.  I’d be tired and try to go to asleep in the back of a truck and be acutely aware of everyone bounce and bump.  I still don’t know how they did it.

Some of the comments also mention carrying things in the left hand, so that the right was ready to salute if needed.  I do carry everything in my left hand, though I could never figure out why!

I also still hang my clothes to face the left, too.  If I hang it the opposite way, I have to stop to fix it.

Filed under: Food, Military Tagged: Habits, Military Culture, Sleep

New TV Season–Good, Bad, or Meh?

The new TV season is about to start in the next few weeks. I remember how I used to grab the next copy of the TV Guide when it arrived in the mail on Thursday and rush through to my favorite shows to see what the episode was about.

Now I don’t even subscribe to TV Guide.

And I find I watch fewer shows every year. Partially because the networks are so eager for instant hits (like book publishers) that they cancel a lot of them if they aren’t successful within 2-3 episodes. It’s not worth even getting interested if the show’s not going to survive.

The result has been that I usually discover a show once it’s been on the air for about 3 years, and sometimes when it’s about to get cancelled (Person of Interest).

Anyway, here’s some comments on a couple of shows:

Bones

This is one that I got the first season for and just about inhaled it. Loved the characters, loved the stories, and loved the combination of forensics and anthropology.

It’s also one that I stopped watching. I think it really lost something when they recast the boss of the Jeffersonian to Cam, and also when they had Zack go to a mental institution. I get why they probably had to have Zack leave the show in the long run. They’d gone about as far as they could with the character.

But they could have had him hired by someone, and then come back periodically. Instead, they crossed a line I’ve sometimes seen in series books where the author is pushing for the next big thing and changes the series in a very fundamental way.

The casting of Cam also changed the series, too, because it made the series entirely about crime. It might just be my personal preference, but the story was originally about scientists (“Squints”) and law enforcement clashing over how different they were, which was always a fun conflict. Sure, series do change, but this change took it away from the cool stuff of science and just made it forensics.

I stayed watching this one for a while, but I got to the point where everything now feels tired and old.

NCIS

This is the original one. I didn’t watch it originally because I thought it was going to be another JAG. TV is hugely imitative, especially when anything is successful. I started watching it the year after Tony’s undercover operation to get the drug dealer.

The characters really make the show. It’s even survived numerous cast changes, because they make the effort to develop a new character as a unique person. That’s pretty satisfying for the actors. Criminal Minds, on the other hand, has had problems keeping women because they obviously cast two of the roles as simply “the blond and the brunette,” and still think like that. The result is that the brunette character tends not to feel like a part of the series, but just a placeholder.

NCIS is either in Year 14 or 15, which is astounding that it’s managed to stay fresh. Series usually starting running out of stories about Year 7.

NCIS relies both on story arcs over the season, but also use solo episodes. One of the things I really like that isn’t always present in TV series is that the series refers back to old episodes. One of my early favorite series was Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. But one of the big problems was that each episode hit a reset button. So when the aliens came to take over the ship, it always felt like they were treating it as the first time.

This is such a big thing in NCIS that if a guest star’s character is still alive, they may resurface at a later date. Even some of the dead ones have come back! It makes for a wonderful continuity, and keeps the show same and changes it, because those characters change.

Curiously, the network honchos can’t figure out why the show is so successful. Go figure.

What are you looking forward to this TV season?

Filed under: Entertainment Tagged: Bones, Character Arcs, characterization, Criminal Minds, JAG, NCIS, Person of Interest, Story Arcs, TV, TV Season, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

I’m a size 12 or large or a medium or a small or an extra small

I’ve been trying to buy a few clothes for the cruise coming up, and also because the weather is starting to change. I don’t think tank tops will work really well when the temperature starts to drop.

Anyway, one of the things I’ve been looking for is cocktail pants (which I kept typing as cocktail paints.  Hmm.  Maybe a title for a story?).  There are are two formal events on the cruise, and I really don’t do dresses.  Pants would be something I could use elsewhere, but a dress would likely stay in the closet.

Plus, with my flat feet, I can’t wear certain types of shoes—which is pretty much all women’s shoes.

Well, I still could, but I would be hobbling around within about five minutes of putting them on. I hated the Army pumps we had to wear with the class A’s—I was in so much pain that an officer growled at me that I was a disgrace to the uniform (well, yeah, you try jamming the widest part of your foot into a point).

So I’m hoping the pants will hide the shoes, and the cruise staff won’t turn me away for footwear. It’d be one of these:

My “formal wear” shoes. These both are made by the same company, for flat feet. The shoe salesman (a retired podiatrist) said that there’s very little for flat feet that looks good.

Anyway, Macy’s had three different cocktail pants on their website, but no one in the store knew what I was talking about. I did find four shirts, all in medium, that will be good for the fall. I can use two of them for the evening dining.

The one on the left is an orangish-pink. I kept looking at it and saying, “No, I don’t look good in orange” (like pumpkin orange). But I was drawn to the color, so I tried it on and was happy with how it looked. The purple and black would be for the cruise.

I also found a sleeveless sweater I liked. Tried on the medium. Too big. Tried on the small. Too big. Tried on the extra small. Just right.

I’m guessing I’m going to order the pants online from the store, but as you can see, I have reasons to be wary.

Store #2 was one of those ones that gets brands after they’re out of season, so really cheap. They had Calvin Klein evening wear that was dressy pants. However, it was part of what was a maxi dress style, so one piece, and it was clearly designed for a woman who was five inches taller than me. The crotch of the pants was down around my knees, and the hems still pooled around my ankles. I wasn’t even sure I could get it altered in a way where I could wear it.

So I looked at some cocktail dresses. I picked black, tried those on. None of them fit well—they all seemed to be designed for someone who is shaped like a stick, and I’m definitely not stick-shaped!

That’s one of the things I don’t like about buying clothes. There’s no standard for women’s sizes, so the companies all go for vanity sizes. That means it varies from brand to brand, with everyone competing for increasingly smaller numbers that make people feel good but don’t mean anything.

I just want clothes that fit with guessing at the sizes!  Is that too hard to ask for?

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And done: I bought the pants online. They were on sale, and a really good deal on the sale, so I pulled the plug on them. Keeping my fingers crossed. Wearing white’s kind of scary, too.

Filed under: Fashion, Lifestyle Tagged: Cocktail dress, cocktail pants, formal wear, Karen Scott, Vanity sizing, Women's clothing, Women's Sizes