Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 163
January 26, 2015
Feeling Fit
I'm feeling all fit and healthy right now, after starting the morning with a yoga class. I've done yoga with exercise videos or books before, but hadn't taken a real class. Unfortunately, it can be hard to make myself get around to doing the videos or workouts in a book, so since my church has a class on Monday mornings, I thought I'd give that a shot. And I really liked it. One thing the class forces me to do is slow down and remember to keep breathing. I have a bad habit of holding my breath, when yoga is supposed to be all about the breathing. I think this will be a good way to start my weeks.
And I kind of needed the stretch after my Saturday fun. I did a hike with the church's women's hiking group, and boy, this bunch was hardcore. When I go walking or hiking with friends, I'm usually the one out ahead who has to think to slow down for others. About half of this group left me in the dust. I started out keeping up with the leaders, but when I paused for a drink of water, I fell to about the middle of the group. They don't bother to pause to rest or drink water. They have those long tubes on their water bottles coming around to their backpack straps so they just lean over for a sip rather than having to get a bottle out of the side pocket of their packs. Once I fell back, I remembered that the main reason I hike is to just enjoy being outdoors, and you can't see the scenery when you're zipping past at supersonic speeds. I ended up with what was essentially a solo hike with backup. I was walking on my own so I could look around and think, but there were people nearby who'd notice if I didn't show up at the end. We ended up doing a little more than nine miles in less than four hours of walking (with a stop for lunch before we turned back).
I was very glad I decided to get new hiking boots because my old ones would have been killing me. They have rather stiff soles, and I found boots with the more flexible soles like on my walking shoes. That meant I didn't get blisters. I was really stiff, sore and tired at the end of the hike and spent the rest of the day on the sofa watching figure skating, but I was more mobile than I expected yesterday, just a little stiff. I liked the trail and will have to go back there some other time. I mentioned my experience to a couple of the women in choir, and they'd either expected or experienced the same thing, so we may start a rival hiking group for people who aren't trying to set a land speed record. The core of this group are the kind of people who consider "fitness" a hobby and who came to this hike after a bootcamp workout. They set timers and were trying to beat their last time. When I hike, I may walk briskly, but when I reach an interesting spot, I may stop for a drink or snack or to look around. If I keep track of time, it's more about "I hiked four hours" instead of "I managed to do that trail faster than the last time."
Now I have a day ahead of me without anything major on the to-do list, which means I need to get back into writing, if I can figure out what's going on in this book. It's being very elusive.
Then tonight I have a Mary Poppins rehearsal so the invisible backup chorus can practice with the actual cast. I'm bringing my knitting because I imagine there will be a lot of down time.
And I kind of needed the stretch after my Saturday fun. I did a hike with the church's women's hiking group, and boy, this bunch was hardcore. When I go walking or hiking with friends, I'm usually the one out ahead who has to think to slow down for others. About half of this group left me in the dust. I started out keeping up with the leaders, but when I paused for a drink of water, I fell to about the middle of the group. They don't bother to pause to rest or drink water. They have those long tubes on their water bottles coming around to their backpack straps so they just lean over for a sip rather than having to get a bottle out of the side pocket of their packs. Once I fell back, I remembered that the main reason I hike is to just enjoy being outdoors, and you can't see the scenery when you're zipping past at supersonic speeds. I ended up with what was essentially a solo hike with backup. I was walking on my own so I could look around and think, but there were people nearby who'd notice if I didn't show up at the end. We ended up doing a little more than nine miles in less than four hours of walking (with a stop for lunch before we turned back).
I was very glad I decided to get new hiking boots because my old ones would have been killing me. They have rather stiff soles, and I found boots with the more flexible soles like on my walking shoes. That meant I didn't get blisters. I was really stiff, sore and tired at the end of the hike and spent the rest of the day on the sofa watching figure skating, but I was more mobile than I expected yesterday, just a little stiff. I liked the trail and will have to go back there some other time. I mentioned my experience to a couple of the women in choir, and they'd either expected or experienced the same thing, so we may start a rival hiking group for people who aren't trying to set a land speed record. The core of this group are the kind of people who consider "fitness" a hobby and who came to this hike after a bootcamp workout. They set timers and were trying to beat their last time. When I hike, I may walk briskly, but when I reach an interesting spot, I may stop for a drink or snack or to look around. If I keep track of time, it's more about "I hiked four hours" instead of "I managed to do that trail faster than the last time."
Now I have a day ahead of me without anything major on the to-do list, which means I need to get back into writing, if I can figure out what's going on in this book. It's being very elusive.
Then tonight I have a Mary Poppins rehearsal so the invisible backup chorus can practice with the actual cast. I'm bringing my knitting because I imagine there will be a lot of down time.
January 23, 2015
The Lost Art of Customer Service
Perhaps I praised Home Depot too soon. I was supposed to get a call yesterday to give me my delivery window for today. When I didn't get a call, I got up early this morning to make sure I was up and dressed before anyone could show up, and then I called the delivery service number to check. They had no record of a delivery for me today anywhere in their system and said I need to call the store. Since the store is just down the street and I need to run some errands anyway, I think I may just go to the store in person with my paperwork and see what the deal is because calling a retail store seldom does much good -- you frequently end up on hold or transferred around. I'll be nice, but they may get to see the part of me that Sophie (the heroine of the Fairy Tale series) comes from. It's a little too chilly for the feminine floral dress, though.
I doubt they'll be able to reschedule the delivery for today, and they don't let you pick a window, so that means I can't do it Monday because I have a yoga class starting Monday morning. Unless maybe they let me pick a window after they messed up. There will need to be some groveling, I think.
And … I just got a call. They lost the order in their system. But now they can't deliver until Wednesday. They could have done it Saturday, but I already have Saturday plans and I refuse to rearrange my life according to their incompetence (and probably spend the whole day waiting -- I'd have to cancel my hiking trip, then they'd show up well after the trip would have been over). It's not like I haven't been hand washing dishes for years. I'm still going to give some really low marks on the inevitable "how did we do" customer service survey. See, this is part of why I procrastinated so long. Getting things delivered and installed is such a hassle. That plan I had to put the dishwasher on wheels and ride it down the hill to my house from the Home Depot is starting to sound not quite so crazy.
And here I was, all excited last night about washing my last sinkful of dishes.
Oh well. Now I guess I can go get groceries and maybe get crazy and buy some new hiking boots, since I'm not sure how well my repairs will hold, and I don't want to be four miles from the car when the sole falls off. And then I might actually get some work done.
I doubt they'll be able to reschedule the delivery for today, and they don't let you pick a window, so that means I can't do it Monday because I have a yoga class starting Monday morning. Unless maybe they let me pick a window after they messed up. There will need to be some groveling, I think.
And … I just got a call. They lost the order in their system. But now they can't deliver until Wednesday. They could have done it Saturday, but I already have Saturday plans and I refuse to rearrange my life according to their incompetence (and probably spend the whole day waiting -- I'd have to cancel my hiking trip, then they'd show up well after the trip would have been over). It's not like I haven't been hand washing dishes for years. I'm still going to give some really low marks on the inevitable "how did we do" customer service survey. See, this is part of why I procrastinated so long. Getting things delivered and installed is such a hassle. That plan I had to put the dishwasher on wheels and ride it down the hill to my house from the Home Depot is starting to sound not quite so crazy.
And here I was, all excited last night about washing my last sinkful of dishes.
Oh well. Now I guess I can go get groceries and maybe get crazy and buy some new hiking boots, since I'm not sure how well my repairs will hold, and I don't want to be four miles from the car when the sole falls off. And then I might actually get some work done.
January 22, 2015
Putting the Subconscious to Work
I ended up spending most of yesterday going through yet another round of proofreading on the steampunk book, going over the latest proofreader's questions. We've reached the point where the editors are editing each other, where the latest editor is suggesting inserting a word that the previous editor deleted. That means today I need to catch up on yesterday's to-do list, including cleaning the kitchen and living room so the new dishwasher can be easily brought into the kitchen and installed (yay!).
Tonight I'm supposed to find out what my delivery window is, so I'll then be able to plan my Friday. I'll need to make a grocery run because the church women's hiking group is doing a hike on Saturday, and that means I'll need something for lunch. I'm not a big sandwich fan, so I seldom have sandwich ingredients on hand. Thanks to my vacation preparation and a Christmas gift, I have a new backpack and two insulated bottles, one with a straw lid for cool water and one with a flip-top lid for hot tea. This is going to be a four-hour hike of about ten miles, so I'll definitely need lunch and snacks. I imagine I'll sleep well that night. And maybe not walk too easily the next day.
I really need to get back into that book I've been working on, but I don't think the subconscious is ready yet. It's stewing on something, and little things keep popping up, but they aren't quite right. I feel like I'm getting closer. I'm normally so linear and plot-driven that this is weird for me, but it just seems to be the way this particular series works. It may be a relief to go back to the steampunk series once this is done. That one's so straightforward (relatively speaking).
So maybe my brain can be doing behind-the-scenes work while I clean house and hike.
Tonight I'm supposed to find out what my delivery window is, so I'll then be able to plan my Friday. I'll need to make a grocery run because the church women's hiking group is doing a hike on Saturday, and that means I'll need something for lunch. I'm not a big sandwich fan, so I seldom have sandwich ingredients on hand. Thanks to my vacation preparation and a Christmas gift, I have a new backpack and two insulated bottles, one with a straw lid for cool water and one with a flip-top lid for hot tea. This is going to be a four-hour hike of about ten miles, so I'll definitely need lunch and snacks. I imagine I'll sleep well that night. And maybe not walk too easily the next day.
I really need to get back into that book I've been working on, but I don't think the subconscious is ready yet. It's stewing on something, and little things keep popping up, but they aren't quite right. I feel like I'm getting closer. I'm normally so linear and plot-driven that this is weird for me, but it just seems to be the way this particular series works. It may be a relief to go back to the steampunk series once this is done. That one's so straightforward (relatively speaking).
So maybe my brain can be doing behind-the-scenes work while I clean house and hike.
January 21, 2015
Rearranging Routines
I now have a dishwasher, or I will on Friday. Theoretically. I think that the configuration is set up so that they will install it, but there's little in my house that would be considered "standard," and the installation info sheet and the way the guy at the Home Depot talked made it sound like the installation guys will get the vapors and run screaming if they have to do anything that looks suspiciously like "thinking" or "work." At least this time I not only got help in the appliance department but got a full lecture on household plumbing, what to look for and what to do about it, and the guy treated me like he thought I was intelligent and competent enough to check things out for myself. And once I explained my situation about just needing a functional dishwasher so I could sell the house, he didn't try to upsell me and skipped past the extended warranty sales pitch. If I were staying in the house, I might have bought something a little nicer, but what I got should do the trick. As I told the sales guy, the kind of person who wants a dishwasher with Internet access that can control space probes probably isn't going to be buying this kind of house. Now I need to clean up my kitchen and living room (to create an easy pathway) and empty a couple of cabinets where the various connections go.
This is going to be a huge change in routine for me. For one thing, the dishwasher hasn't been entirely empty in years, since I've been using it as a large dish drain and I mostly just use the dishes straight from it instead of putting them away in the cabinet. I had to rearrange the cabinets to put things away so I could pull the dishwasher out and check the connections. Then this morning when I was making breakfast, it was weird to have to get dishes out of the cabinet instead of just grabbing them from the dishwasher. But it will be lovely to have the dishes washed with the push of a button, particularly on days when I'm busy (or sick) several days in a row and don't have time for hand washing.
Tonight I get to try some new tricks I learned last weekend on the little imps. I have one game that might just make their heads explode (it requires actually paying attention). There's one thing I want to try that I'm a little afraid of because I can see what will happen, but I may have a way around that consequence. The speaker suggested that a way to focus on the tune of a song and get kids to actually sing was to have them meow, bark or make some other noise to the tune instead of singing the words, then switch to the words once they know the melody. I'm afraid that once my kids get to meow a song, they will forever meow it and never bother with the words. I may experiment with a song we won't be singing in public so that it doesn't matter if they meow the song forever and think of it as the meow song.
Meanwhile, I have a few little things to clear up on the steampunk book, plus some other stuff I need to do to get Fairy Tale book 2 ready. Eventually I'll manage to get back to writing book 3.
This is going to be a huge change in routine for me. For one thing, the dishwasher hasn't been entirely empty in years, since I've been using it as a large dish drain and I mostly just use the dishes straight from it instead of putting them away in the cabinet. I had to rearrange the cabinets to put things away so I could pull the dishwasher out and check the connections. Then this morning when I was making breakfast, it was weird to have to get dishes out of the cabinet instead of just grabbing them from the dishwasher. But it will be lovely to have the dishes washed with the push of a button, particularly on days when I'm busy (or sick) several days in a row and don't have time for hand washing.
Tonight I get to try some new tricks I learned last weekend on the little imps. I have one game that might just make their heads explode (it requires actually paying attention). There's one thing I want to try that I'm a little afraid of because I can see what will happen, but I may have a way around that consequence. The speaker suggested that a way to focus on the tune of a song and get kids to actually sing was to have them meow, bark or make some other noise to the tune instead of singing the words, then switch to the words once they know the melody. I'm afraid that once my kids get to meow a song, they will forever meow it and never bother with the words. I may experiment with a song we won't be singing in public so that it doesn't matter if they meow the song forever and think of it as the meow song.
Meanwhile, I have a few little things to clear up on the steampunk book, plus some other stuff I need to do to get Fairy Tale book 2 ready. Eventually I'll manage to get back to writing book 3.
January 20, 2015
And a Sassy Red Hat
We had another nice day yesterday, so I took another long walk. This time, I got out the hiking boots and went off the paved trails. The church women's hiking group is doing a hike Saturday morning, so I figured I needed to get in better shape and test the repair on my hiking boots. The sole came off the last time I wore them, and I think it needs more glue. Or I could do something really crazy and buy a new pair of boots. These are nearly 15 years old and were cheap to begin with.
The other wild and crazy thing I'm going to buy this week is a new dishwasher. In fact, I'm going to make myself head out this afternoon. I don't know why I've been procrastinating so much about this. I first planned to replace it when it initially broke nearly five years ago. I was going to use my tax refund to buy it, since that was a low-income year, but then I messed up my shoulder and ended up in physical therapy, and there went that money. Then a few years ago when I started making money again I actually went to the Home Depot to buy a dishwasher but couldn't get anyone to acknowledge my existence. I came home and fired off a nastygram to their customer service e-mail address, then had a nice phone chat with the manager about how weird it was that I get so much help everywhere else in the store but not in the one area where I can't buy something without help -- if I want a $1 packet of screws, I get helped even though I can take them off the rack and to the cash register myself. When I'm going to spend hundreds of dollars on an appliance and can't do so without an associate, they have one guy in the department who didn't give me so much as an "I'll be with you in a moment" while he helped another customer and then wandered off after they were done without even acknowledging me. And I think that experience has something to do with why I keep saying I'm going to do it and then dragging my feet about it. Now watch this time go so smoothly and wonderfully that I wonder why I've been hand-washing dishes for so long (or else I'll manage to talk myself out of going and procrastinate again).
Tonight is a TV break because of politics, but otherwise, why do they put absolutely everything on Tuesday nights? I'm always out of the house because of ballet, and it takes me nearly a week to watch everything OnDemand. I usually manage to watch NCIS before I head to ballet. But then there's also Person of Interest and Forever. I used to prioritize Person of Interest to watch after choir on Wednesdays, but I find myself wanting to watch Forever first because Person of Interest gets pretty stressful and Forever is just plain fun, feel-good stuff (but I shouldn't get too attached because the ratings are terrible -- please, if you're a ratings household, watch this show!). Now they've added Parks and Recreation to Tuesdays, and then there's Agent Carter. I haven't watched any of the Marvel superhero movies or Agents of Shield, but I kind of love this, and I suspect the clothes have a lot to do with it. I want to be Agent Carter when I grow up. I love the sassy 1940s dame kind of character, and then there are the suits with the nipped-at-the-waist jackets and swingy skirts, and the shoes and the hats, and swoooooon. I think this is a limited run show, though I'm hoping that it does well enough that they decide to make it a real series. And I need a red fedora. I bet I'd get service at Home Depot if I had a sassy red hat.
And so I'm barely caught up on Tuesday night before the next Tuesday comes along. This week, I guess I'll get a break. Maybe I'll do more reading.
The other wild and crazy thing I'm going to buy this week is a new dishwasher. In fact, I'm going to make myself head out this afternoon. I don't know why I've been procrastinating so much about this. I first planned to replace it when it initially broke nearly five years ago. I was going to use my tax refund to buy it, since that was a low-income year, but then I messed up my shoulder and ended up in physical therapy, and there went that money. Then a few years ago when I started making money again I actually went to the Home Depot to buy a dishwasher but couldn't get anyone to acknowledge my existence. I came home and fired off a nastygram to their customer service e-mail address, then had a nice phone chat with the manager about how weird it was that I get so much help everywhere else in the store but not in the one area where I can't buy something without help -- if I want a $1 packet of screws, I get helped even though I can take them off the rack and to the cash register myself. When I'm going to spend hundreds of dollars on an appliance and can't do so without an associate, they have one guy in the department who didn't give me so much as an "I'll be with you in a moment" while he helped another customer and then wandered off after they were done without even acknowledging me. And I think that experience has something to do with why I keep saying I'm going to do it and then dragging my feet about it. Now watch this time go so smoothly and wonderfully that I wonder why I've been hand-washing dishes for so long (or else I'll manage to talk myself out of going and procrastinate again).
Tonight is a TV break because of politics, but otherwise, why do they put absolutely everything on Tuesday nights? I'm always out of the house because of ballet, and it takes me nearly a week to watch everything OnDemand. I usually manage to watch NCIS before I head to ballet. But then there's also Person of Interest and Forever. I used to prioritize Person of Interest to watch after choir on Wednesdays, but I find myself wanting to watch Forever first because Person of Interest gets pretty stressful and Forever is just plain fun, feel-good stuff (but I shouldn't get too attached because the ratings are terrible -- please, if you're a ratings household, watch this show!). Now they've added Parks and Recreation to Tuesdays, and then there's Agent Carter. I haven't watched any of the Marvel superhero movies or Agents of Shield, but I kind of love this, and I suspect the clothes have a lot to do with it. I want to be Agent Carter when I grow up. I love the sassy 1940s dame kind of character, and then there are the suits with the nipped-at-the-waist jackets and swingy skirts, and the shoes and the hats, and swoooooon. I think this is a limited run show, though I'm hoping that it does well enough that they decide to make it a real series. And I need a red fedora. I bet I'd get service at Home Depot if I had a sassy red hat.
And so I'm barely caught up on Tuesday night before the next Tuesday comes along. This week, I guess I'll get a break. Maybe I'll do more reading.
January 19, 2015
Art Immersion
And we have yet another weekend I need a weekend to recover from. I could claim today as a holiday, since it technically is one, but I took Thursday off already and I have a lot to catch up on.
Thursday I did actually make it to the art museum. I don't know if it was just that it was a big exhibit or if it was that it was the last two weeks of the exhibit, but the museum was really crowded. I didn't spend all that much time in the big exhibit, just enough to revel in being that close to works by Degas, Monet and Renoir. Then I scooted over to the permanent collection in the museum's original building, which was a lot more peaceful, and I got to spend a lot of time up close with the works, including a small painting that may have been Michelangelo's first painting, from when he was around 12 or 13. That was rather mindblowing to contemplate. The big exhibit was on Impressionism, and while I went for the Degas dancers (they only had one of those), I ended up spending more time contemplating the clothing in the paintings with my steampunk work in mind.
Then it was two days of workshops for church music leaders. I spent Friday in sessions aimed at working with preschoolers. We had a smallish group, so there was a lot of discussion, with ideas being exchanged. When I got to our room early for one of the afternoon sessions, I chatted some with the workshop speaker, and she said I should be doing this full-time because I clearly understood children. Just the thought of spending more than 45 minutes a week with a room full of small children gave me a panic attack -- probably because I do understand them. Saturday I went to two sessions with a children's choir director -- the more serious musical kind, not the play around with small children kind. She'd worked in schools, in churches and in an auditioned city choir. I probably learned more about singing than about directing a choir from those sessions because my kids aren't quite yet at that level, but I did get some ideas. For the last session, I went to one just for my own interest on building a choir. I got some great feedback on tone, etc. (it was a small audience, I was sitting in front, and the speaker ended up mostly directing everything at me), but also got some ideas for things I could do with the kids. Then he did this really interesting exercise on arranging singers in a choir, which I had to be one of the demonstration examples for. He had a group of us line up, then sing in groups of three, and then he'd rearrange us and try with another group of three until he had us arranged in the best way. The result was almost magical. It was eerie the difference it made, both in the sound and in the way it felt. My choir director was also in this workshop, so I have a feeling I know what's coming Wednesday night. There may be a revolt because most people sit next to their friends. I'll be curious to see how this works. I tend to try to sit next to the people who feel right when we sing, regardless of social considerations, so we'll see if I've been choosing correctly.
In between those workshop sessions, they had "reading" sessions in which they passed out packets of music chosen by the various clinicians, who then led all the attendees in singing them. I think the idea was to expose choir directors to different pieces of music that they might then purchase for their choirs (I was sitting near my choir director, and he kept marking or folding down pages -- I made sure to let him know when I liked something). I found it valuable practice in sight reading and forcing myself to be more confident. I felt a bit out of my league surrounded by people who do this for a living and who have degrees in music, when I'm a volunteer with little "formal" musical training, just school band, church choir and a few community college music classes here and there. It was also weird not sitting by section, so I wasn't necessarily bolstered by other people singing the same part. I did get to sing first soprano, for a change, since I figured that parts weren't being assigned and I wasn't obligated to sing second. I got to bust out a high B-flat at the end of the last song, and some of the people sitting in front of me turned to give me thumbs up, and a few people approached me later to comment on me being the one with the B-flat. I got to act modest and say that in my choir I'm a second soprano. I was sitting next to my choir director, but I don't know if he caught the joke and the implication of what that said about our choir.
Then Sunday was a gorgeous day, so I went for a nice, long walk in the woods.
Now I have to catch up on housework (my kitchen got very messy) and regular work and get back in the swing of things.
Thursday I did actually make it to the art museum. I don't know if it was just that it was a big exhibit or if it was that it was the last two weeks of the exhibit, but the museum was really crowded. I didn't spend all that much time in the big exhibit, just enough to revel in being that close to works by Degas, Monet and Renoir. Then I scooted over to the permanent collection in the museum's original building, which was a lot more peaceful, and I got to spend a lot of time up close with the works, including a small painting that may have been Michelangelo's first painting, from when he was around 12 or 13. That was rather mindblowing to contemplate. The big exhibit was on Impressionism, and while I went for the Degas dancers (they only had one of those), I ended up spending more time contemplating the clothing in the paintings with my steampunk work in mind.
Then it was two days of workshops for church music leaders. I spent Friday in sessions aimed at working with preschoolers. We had a smallish group, so there was a lot of discussion, with ideas being exchanged. When I got to our room early for one of the afternoon sessions, I chatted some with the workshop speaker, and she said I should be doing this full-time because I clearly understood children. Just the thought of spending more than 45 minutes a week with a room full of small children gave me a panic attack -- probably because I do understand them. Saturday I went to two sessions with a children's choir director -- the more serious musical kind, not the play around with small children kind. She'd worked in schools, in churches and in an auditioned city choir. I probably learned more about singing than about directing a choir from those sessions because my kids aren't quite yet at that level, but I did get some ideas. For the last session, I went to one just for my own interest on building a choir. I got some great feedback on tone, etc. (it was a small audience, I was sitting in front, and the speaker ended up mostly directing everything at me), but also got some ideas for things I could do with the kids. Then he did this really interesting exercise on arranging singers in a choir, which I had to be one of the demonstration examples for. He had a group of us line up, then sing in groups of three, and then he'd rearrange us and try with another group of three until he had us arranged in the best way. The result was almost magical. It was eerie the difference it made, both in the sound and in the way it felt. My choir director was also in this workshop, so I have a feeling I know what's coming Wednesday night. There may be a revolt because most people sit next to their friends. I'll be curious to see how this works. I tend to try to sit next to the people who feel right when we sing, regardless of social considerations, so we'll see if I've been choosing correctly.
In between those workshop sessions, they had "reading" sessions in which they passed out packets of music chosen by the various clinicians, who then led all the attendees in singing them. I think the idea was to expose choir directors to different pieces of music that they might then purchase for their choirs (I was sitting near my choir director, and he kept marking or folding down pages -- I made sure to let him know when I liked something). I found it valuable practice in sight reading and forcing myself to be more confident. I felt a bit out of my league surrounded by people who do this for a living and who have degrees in music, when I'm a volunteer with little "formal" musical training, just school band, church choir and a few community college music classes here and there. It was also weird not sitting by section, so I wasn't necessarily bolstered by other people singing the same part. I did get to sing first soprano, for a change, since I figured that parts weren't being assigned and I wasn't obligated to sing second. I got to bust out a high B-flat at the end of the last song, and some of the people sitting in front of me turned to give me thumbs up, and a few people approached me later to comment on me being the one with the B-flat. I got to act modest and say that in my choir I'm a second soprano. I was sitting next to my choir director, but I don't know if he caught the joke and the implication of what that said about our choir.
Then Sunday was a gorgeous day, so I went for a nice, long walk in the woods.
Now I have to catch up on housework (my kitchen got very messy) and regular work and get back in the swing of things.
January 15, 2015
Finding the Core
Yesterday I re-read the start I've made on book 3 in the Fairy Tale series, and while there's still a lot I like about it, I don't quite feel like I've got it nailed down. I need to do some thinking. Since I'll be spending Friday and Saturday at a choristers guild workshop, I think I may go to a museum today. Immersing myself in other arts might help the subconscious. Plus, there are Degas works at the exhibit I think I'll go to, and all that ballet plays into the book.
Of course, that's if I manage to get out of my pajamas (but I deliberately didn't get dressed yet because once I put on the sweats, I know I won't want to put on "going out" clothes, but I didn't want to drink my tea and catch up on e-mail, etc., in my "going out" clothes). No matter what, I will have to go out and do something eventually because it's quarterly tax payment day (whee) and I need milk.
I think the problem with the book is that I haven't yet found the core of it. I have events happening and a villain in mind, but the villain I have in mind isn't yet clicking with the events for me. I like the scenes I've written, but they feel like scenes rather than a story so far.
I've had this problem with every book in this series, where I have to write a lot of the book before I figure out what it's about, and then I have to rewrite it. There's a dreamlike quality to the writing process that I haven't had in anything else I've written.
Incidentally, A Fairy Tale is eligible for a Hugo Award, if you're into that kind of thing and able to nominate. It feels weird to do even that much campaigning, so I'll stop now.
And I suppose that if I'm going to go out, I should start getting ready to do so. I'll be offline tomorrow because I have to make it across town ridiculously early (for me). Wouldn't you know, they're closing the freeway between me and the conference site this weekend for construction. I will be making use of my knowledge of surface streets.
Of course, that's if I manage to get out of my pajamas (but I deliberately didn't get dressed yet because once I put on the sweats, I know I won't want to put on "going out" clothes, but I didn't want to drink my tea and catch up on e-mail, etc., in my "going out" clothes). No matter what, I will have to go out and do something eventually because it's quarterly tax payment day (whee) and I need milk.
I think the problem with the book is that I haven't yet found the core of it. I have events happening and a villain in mind, but the villain I have in mind isn't yet clicking with the events for me. I like the scenes I've written, but they feel like scenes rather than a story so far.
I've had this problem with every book in this series, where I have to write a lot of the book before I figure out what it's about, and then I have to rewrite it. There's a dreamlike quality to the writing process that I haven't had in anything else I've written.
Incidentally, A Fairy Tale is eligible for a Hugo Award, if you're into that kind of thing and able to nominate. It feels weird to do even that much campaigning, so I'll stop now.
And I suppose that if I'm going to go out, I should start getting ready to do so. I'll be offline tomorrow because I have to make it across town ridiculously early (for me). Wouldn't you know, they're closing the freeway between me and the conference site this weekend for construction. I will be making use of my knowledge of surface streets.
January 14, 2015
Overused Words
Having just finished a round of copyediting and proofreading, I feel like I've learned some valuable lessons that I should pass on.
One thing is that it's a really good idea to give the near-final version of your book a quick read -- reading as much as possible in as few sittings as possible. That will make overused words and phrases pop out at you. If you read a word or phrase once in a reading session, it's not so bad. If it pops up multiple times, you start to notice. If one does catch your eye, do a global search and you may be surprised how many times it comes up.
Fixing this may not just be a case of using your thesaurus. There may be another issue at work. For instance, in a recent book I was working on, the phrase "as though" and the word "seemed" jumped out at me. At first, I started changing some of the uses of "as though" to "like" or "as if," but then I noticed the "seemed" overload and realized that I was using weasel words. I was trying to avoid breaking point of view by having it "seem" to the character what was happening when the character couldn't get into the other person's head to know for sure, but I'd gone overboard. There were plenty of cases where it wasn't "as though" something was true or even that it "seemed" it was true. It was just true. Or I could find another verb. Instead of saying "It seemed as though she was tired," I could say "She looked tired." Or I could describe the way her feet were dragging, her shoulders sagging, her eyelids drooping, etc.
Another way to catch this sort of thing is to read your manuscript out loud. Your eye may skim over things like this, but when you hear it said out loud, it will be a lot more obvious. As a bonus, when you read out loud, you have to read every word, so you know what's really on the page instead of your brain filling in blanks or fixing things for you. It's also a good way to check awkward phrasing and to make sure your dialogue sounds like actual human speech.
I think a lot of this becomes more important if there's a chance that your books will become audiobooks. When you listen to a book, you hear all those words that you may skim past when you're reading. I've listened to friends discussing audiobooks and how they can't listen to the work of some authors they enjoy reading because of verbal tics that get annoying when reading out loud. For instance, the use of the word "said" for every dialogue tag. One oft-repeated bit of writing advice is that you shouldn't use fancy synonyms for "said" (uttered, shouted, declaimed, etc.) with dialogue because "said" is an invisible word. It's no longer invisible in an audiobook, and the repetition gets annoying. In some cases, such as a two-person conversation, tags aren't necessary for every line. You can use action to indicate who's talking. And those synonyms sometimes actually work.
Of course, the more engrossing your story is, the less likely it will be that someone will notice minor flaws. But you don't want to give any reason to pull readers out of the story.
One thing is that it's a really good idea to give the near-final version of your book a quick read -- reading as much as possible in as few sittings as possible. That will make overused words and phrases pop out at you. If you read a word or phrase once in a reading session, it's not so bad. If it pops up multiple times, you start to notice. If one does catch your eye, do a global search and you may be surprised how many times it comes up.
Fixing this may not just be a case of using your thesaurus. There may be another issue at work. For instance, in a recent book I was working on, the phrase "as though" and the word "seemed" jumped out at me. At first, I started changing some of the uses of "as though" to "like" or "as if," but then I noticed the "seemed" overload and realized that I was using weasel words. I was trying to avoid breaking point of view by having it "seem" to the character what was happening when the character couldn't get into the other person's head to know for sure, but I'd gone overboard. There were plenty of cases where it wasn't "as though" something was true or even that it "seemed" it was true. It was just true. Or I could find another verb. Instead of saying "It seemed as though she was tired," I could say "She looked tired." Or I could describe the way her feet were dragging, her shoulders sagging, her eyelids drooping, etc.
Another way to catch this sort of thing is to read your manuscript out loud. Your eye may skim over things like this, but when you hear it said out loud, it will be a lot more obvious. As a bonus, when you read out loud, you have to read every word, so you know what's really on the page instead of your brain filling in blanks or fixing things for you. It's also a good way to check awkward phrasing and to make sure your dialogue sounds like actual human speech.
I think a lot of this becomes more important if there's a chance that your books will become audiobooks. When you listen to a book, you hear all those words that you may skim past when you're reading. I've listened to friends discussing audiobooks and how they can't listen to the work of some authors they enjoy reading because of verbal tics that get annoying when reading out loud. For instance, the use of the word "said" for every dialogue tag. One oft-repeated bit of writing advice is that you shouldn't use fancy synonyms for "said" (uttered, shouted, declaimed, etc.) with dialogue because "said" is an invisible word. It's no longer invisible in an audiobook, and the repetition gets annoying. In some cases, such as a two-person conversation, tags aren't necessary for every line. You can use action to indicate who's talking. And those synonyms sometimes actually work.
Of course, the more engrossing your story is, the less likely it will be that someone will notice minor flaws. But you don't want to give any reason to pull readers out of the story.
January 13, 2015
Pretending to be Famous
I think the January hibernation impulse is starting to kick in. I barely dragged myself out of bed, and I could easily go right back and take a nap now. I'm in trouble for Friday and Saturday (particularly Friday, when I'll have to face rush hour) when I have to be across town and in a workshop session at about the same time that I usually get out of bed. This will all be a good reminder of why I need to keep the writing thing working for me because I never again want to go back to doing the get up, drive across town, spend a day on someone else's schedule, then drive back across town thing on a daily basis. At least this one will be fun and involve lots of singing.
I'm not going to talk about a specific book with identifying details this week because I can't really recommend the book I read last week. It did bring up something interesting that made me think, though. It was a case of either the title/description being misleading or me misinterpreting the description so I thought it was something else, but it turned out to fit the "New Adult" formula -- damaged female college student/grad student with a bookish/literary bent gets all her material needs suddenly taken care of and meets a wealthy, powerful, older (but still young) guy. I guess that makes sense as a fantasy. When you're in school, I'd imagine that the heavens opening up and showering you with grants, a cute apartment you'd never be able to afford, a computer and a bonus hot guy who can afford to take you to all the fanciest restaurants in town sounds like a wonderful thing. Maybe I just have jealousy issues, but the fact that I had a more normal college existence of living in the dorm and feeling like Olive Garden was a fancy dining-out splurge makes me resent the fictional characters rather than living vicariously through them.
In this book, the way we managed to have a wealthy man who was still young enough to be hot to a grad student was that he was a successful novelist, and that really was a through the rabbit hole/looking glass experience for me to read. Granted, I'm not as mega-successful as he was supposed to be, since his books were being made into movies. That automatically ups the income and the name recognition. But it was funny to read about someone with my job being a kind of fantasy figure. To me, it's just normal life, and I'm just me, the same person I've always been. I suppose to some people I might count as a celebrity, which always feels weird. I have had a few minor freakouts from people who learned who I was after talking to me for a while. I guess you don't expect the person sitting next to you at a city-wide choir rehearsal to be an author whose books you've read. And I have had a few people who were visibly shaking when they approached me at booksignings (it's funny, I do that when I meet favorite authors, but I don't expect people to do it for me).
However, I can't get an impossible restaurant reservation on the strength of my name. I'm actually a little creeped out by people who develop crushes on me because of my books and think that means they really know me. I would be extremely cautious about getting into a relationship with someone who started as a fan (I do have fans who have become friends, but that was more from hanging out together at conventions. I'm probably not going to start dating someone I meet because he shows up at my booksigning). On the other hand, I don't think it's a wild and crazy, subversive prank to sign the copies of my books that are on the shelf in a bookstore (when I read that scene, I immediately flipped to the author bio to verify my assumption that this was the author's first book. Yep. Once you've had one published, you know that this isn't that wild and crazy but rather something you're expected to do).
I suppose much of the world has a view of writing as a rather glamorous career, and it does have its moments. I do get to meet interesting people and be in the public eye at times. I spend way more time wearing sweatpants and refusing to leave the house. I sometimes say that I have two modes in my career. When I'm being an "author," I dress up, put on makeup and go pretend to be famous. When I'm being a "writer," I'm a slob at home churning out the words. The writer part is about 90 percent or more, depending on my publication and event schedule. You have to do the hard part before you get to do the glamorous part.
I'm not going to talk about a specific book with identifying details this week because I can't really recommend the book I read last week. It did bring up something interesting that made me think, though. It was a case of either the title/description being misleading or me misinterpreting the description so I thought it was something else, but it turned out to fit the "New Adult" formula -- damaged female college student/grad student with a bookish/literary bent gets all her material needs suddenly taken care of and meets a wealthy, powerful, older (but still young) guy. I guess that makes sense as a fantasy. When you're in school, I'd imagine that the heavens opening up and showering you with grants, a cute apartment you'd never be able to afford, a computer and a bonus hot guy who can afford to take you to all the fanciest restaurants in town sounds like a wonderful thing. Maybe I just have jealousy issues, but the fact that I had a more normal college existence of living in the dorm and feeling like Olive Garden was a fancy dining-out splurge makes me resent the fictional characters rather than living vicariously through them.
In this book, the way we managed to have a wealthy man who was still young enough to be hot to a grad student was that he was a successful novelist, and that really was a through the rabbit hole/looking glass experience for me to read. Granted, I'm not as mega-successful as he was supposed to be, since his books were being made into movies. That automatically ups the income and the name recognition. But it was funny to read about someone with my job being a kind of fantasy figure. To me, it's just normal life, and I'm just me, the same person I've always been. I suppose to some people I might count as a celebrity, which always feels weird. I have had a few minor freakouts from people who learned who I was after talking to me for a while. I guess you don't expect the person sitting next to you at a city-wide choir rehearsal to be an author whose books you've read. And I have had a few people who were visibly shaking when they approached me at booksignings (it's funny, I do that when I meet favorite authors, but I don't expect people to do it for me).
However, I can't get an impossible restaurant reservation on the strength of my name. I'm actually a little creeped out by people who develop crushes on me because of my books and think that means they really know me. I would be extremely cautious about getting into a relationship with someone who started as a fan (I do have fans who have become friends, but that was more from hanging out together at conventions. I'm probably not going to start dating someone I meet because he shows up at my booksigning). On the other hand, I don't think it's a wild and crazy, subversive prank to sign the copies of my books that are on the shelf in a bookstore (when I read that scene, I immediately flipped to the author bio to verify my assumption that this was the author's first book. Yep. Once you've had one published, you know that this isn't that wild and crazy but rather something you're expected to do).
I suppose much of the world has a view of writing as a rather glamorous career, and it does have its moments. I do get to meet interesting people and be in the public eye at times. I spend way more time wearing sweatpants and refusing to leave the house. I sometimes say that I have two modes in my career. When I'm being an "author," I dress up, put on makeup and go pretend to be famous. When I'm being a "writer," I'm a slob at home churning out the words. The writer part is about 90 percent or more, depending on my publication and event schedule. You have to do the hard part before you get to do the glamorous part.
January 12, 2015
Smash, Thud, Clang, Grunt
I had the kind of weekend that requires a weekend for recovery. Saturday, I got together with a group of friends to see the third Hobbit movie, then we had a gathering afterward. I then had two hours at home before I had a choir party. Sunday, I sang in both services. And meanwhile I was doing one final pass on my book over the weekend, squeezing in proofreading time among all these other activities. I got most of the work done by bringing my laptop to church, and after I sang in the first service when others in the ensemble were heading out, I hung out in the choir room during the rest of the service and between services and did my editing. It was a pretty good working environment because it was quiet, no one else was in there, and there weren't a lot of distractions because the church WiFi doesn't work well in the choir room. However, when the organ kicked in at the end of the first service while I was deeply absorbed in my work, I was somewhat startled. And then the sermon (that I heard in the second service) turned out to be about honoring the Sabbath. Oops. But I usually avoid working on Sundays unless I have a deadline, and I'd told my agent I'd have this book to her on Monday morning.
It was a good thing I did one more pass because I caught a few errors and did some general improving work. I now have a longer list of things to look for.
I have to admit to being rather disappointed in the Hobbit trilogy. The casting was perfect, the performances were wonderful, and there was a lot to like about it, but the good stuff was buried in a lot of bloat. It's a little book that didn't need to be overly expanded into an epic. I never got around to seeing the second movie in the theater and finally saw it on HBO last week. I got a lot of knitting done during it because while all I heard was "smash, thud, clang, grunt" I didn't have to look at the screen, since I wasn't missing anything. I could pause my work and look up when characters were actually interacting. For the third one, I wish I'd had my knitting with me because there was a lot of "smash, thud, clang, grunt." I kept checking my watch during the endless battle scenes (when I wasn't providing mental commentary). The parts where the characters actually talked to each other were so good, but I think we could have figured out that there were epic battles raging without having to see every little detail.
Also in the fantasy realm, I'm rather amused by Galavant, that sort of fantasy comedy musical TV series (though they haven't introduced magic yet, so I guess it's technically not fantasy). It's not the best show ever, but there's usually at least one bit that has me in hysterics. Last week, it was the super-slow joust and the "Maybe You're Not the Worst Thing Ever" romantic ballad. This week, it was the inept water-adjacent pirates who'd taken up sustainable agriculture (made even funnier by the fact that Hugh Bonneville was playing the pirate king, and it was in the time slot right before Downton Abbey came on another channel). Oh, and there was also the band put together from the executioners, since the king had executed all the musicians, and the executioners were the next best thing, since they had a drum. I end up having to rewatch OnDemand to catch all the jokes.
This week's fun: I need to write cover copy, take care of some business/promo stuff and maybe get back into writing book 3, but it's a short week because I have a Choristers Guild workshop Friday and Saturday and there are some other things I need/want to do this week, so maybe it will be a thinking/reviewing week before I dive in.
It was a good thing I did one more pass because I caught a few errors and did some general improving work. I now have a longer list of things to look for.
I have to admit to being rather disappointed in the Hobbit trilogy. The casting was perfect, the performances were wonderful, and there was a lot to like about it, but the good stuff was buried in a lot of bloat. It's a little book that didn't need to be overly expanded into an epic. I never got around to seeing the second movie in the theater and finally saw it on HBO last week. I got a lot of knitting done during it because while all I heard was "smash, thud, clang, grunt" I didn't have to look at the screen, since I wasn't missing anything. I could pause my work and look up when characters were actually interacting. For the third one, I wish I'd had my knitting with me because there was a lot of "smash, thud, clang, grunt." I kept checking my watch during the endless battle scenes (when I wasn't providing mental commentary). The parts where the characters actually talked to each other were so good, but I think we could have figured out that there were epic battles raging without having to see every little detail.
Also in the fantasy realm, I'm rather amused by Galavant, that sort of fantasy comedy musical TV series (though they haven't introduced magic yet, so I guess it's technically not fantasy). It's not the best show ever, but there's usually at least one bit that has me in hysterics. Last week, it was the super-slow joust and the "Maybe You're Not the Worst Thing Ever" romantic ballad. This week, it was the inept water-adjacent pirates who'd taken up sustainable agriculture (made even funnier by the fact that Hugh Bonneville was playing the pirate king, and it was in the time slot right before Downton Abbey came on another channel). Oh, and there was also the band put together from the executioners, since the king had executed all the musicians, and the executioners were the next best thing, since they had a drum. I end up having to rewatch OnDemand to catch all the jokes.
This week's fun: I need to write cover copy, take care of some business/promo stuff and maybe get back into writing book 3, but it's a short week because I have a Choristers Guild workshop Friday and Saturday and there are some other things I need/want to do this week, so maybe it will be a thinking/reviewing week before I dive in.
