Caroline Gerardo's Blog, page 34

Star Gazing

Wanderlust star gazing thoughI'm no astronomer.Eyes are meteor tired this morning Sticking to my goals, worked late at the office,ate healthy, edited twenty pages, hiked to thecanyon to see the Perseids shower alone.How can I say alone when a crowd reached to see?Strangers whispering and waiting for the sky to open,sharing a moment with the ancients who sought answers.Did the Greeks see the same gods as the Shosone?Firmament reflecting earth, she delivered a few omens for us. A child spotted the most.I'm sending you stars to light your way.You know what bad habit to drop, execute the difficult chore first, don't waste morning on emails.Get close to your dream right now.I hand you the wishing star my friend.

Perseids Meteor Shower

Piero di Cosimo "Perseus"




















Perseids Meteor Shower tonight-
Find a refuge away from city lights.
I'll be in Modjeska Canyon
facing due north.
Aries sits on the right of Perseus.
Perseus runs across in the sky.
Catch flaming comets falling -
sparklers from past 4th of July.
Did it burn your bare feet?
I wish upon the stars that
you won't have clouds and
the super moon don't meet.

Caroline Gerardo


My diagram to see the Meteor shower tonight at midnight for my children

Ending In Sight

End in sight on second revision.
This weekend:
worked Saturday with my friend Hillary
it wasn't a paycheck or productive, but we
enjoyed each other's company.


gardened, wrote, hiked, wrote, cleaned, wrote,
wanted to paint the sun shades but it sprinkled
enough to make the cars a mess
they say El Nino is coming,
go figure

edited forty pages but can't decide on the ending
realize I keep using certain words that when
I start the next novel I swear I will delete
here are my sinner darlings:
I think
and
that
sound
***
specific to this novel the repeater / recycled are:
dark
dust
devil

I'm using symbols andimages in the narrative to clarifythe voice that changes.¥ § ҈ ‡ ∞

When I began this river, this rail
I thought the road was straight
I killed off a character who is sweet
let one get away with murder, again.
Does an ending have to be just?
It's 102322 words, I need to cut
more then send off to Dave Malone
for editing
Then another process of slashing
excess adjectives and adverbs
Sorry no punctation in this one,
just a long rain run on of what I think

© 2014 caroline gerardo

Read Haiku

bookcase and chair

Abandoned House

We were superb.
Memory makes things grander.
Pain of stiches after croquet mallet to the head.
Tulle scratches under a First Communion dress.
Under the fruit trees sisters gorged on peaches.

We were together.
Recollect bits of time, if you can.
All the children stayed outside when Dad was manic.
Ride a bike to work, deposit the cash before you return.
How many stray dogs did we have? four five or six?

We had joy.
Go back with yellow tinted lenses.
Put iodine in the baby oil, spit at the sun.
Catch fireflies in Kerr jars, to light the graveyard.
Pray my children adventure to remember childhood.

Caroline Gerardo
copyright  ©  2014

This morning

I wake early.A walk in the house in the dark:the floors creek, the smell of coffee steams the air, and I'm alive to facea new day with joy.
May you jump up and yell, "Yeah."

Book Covers

My recent favorite book cover art.The first few are in blues.I would love to paint an image thatworks in blue tones fro my next cover.Intuitively I feel it is going to be sepia or black.The landscape is black dust storms. I have numerous photographs I tookof tornadoes, dust devils, abandoned barns on my last trip to Wyomingbut I can't settle my heart on the right one.Perhaps you will give me some input?
I amwriting

http://www.amazon.com/Toxic-Assets-Bank-Caroline-Gerardo-ebook/dp/B004RCLZXI/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1405021460

Chores On The List

Life is busy.My daughter is away. She can be acyclone with her ADHD. Dust keeps piling. Chores remain. I was up this morning at five. Early summer fog disappeared. Sunlight starts around 5:47 AM.

"Stick to the list." I tell myself.Time robs in bits and pieces.
I'm halfway through the revision on paper.I read aloud at the kitchen table in the early hours,and again at night after my work.Doubting every adjective...
A break in the garden to water stealsan hour, just a second to pull some weeds.The washing machine waits for me to figure outhow to repair the dogs (the little clips that spin thebig drum). Intuitively I know how to fix it. The centeragitator is pulled off. It waits for me to allocate a couple hours to the fix. Perhaps hand washing and visits toa Laundromat are more foolish than penning it into a schedule.Wish I had the excess cash I once had to hire a guy.On the weekend I rented the commercial carpet steaming machine."You have four hours to return it perfectly clean." The kid said."No problem I have only three hours to get 3400 feet of whitecarpet sanitized."He looked at me funny. A teenager at Home Depot . Probablynever lugged a fifty pound machine upstairs, certainly neverworried about getting things done efficiently, maybe neverfussed over word choice and never thought about a sentencewhile the smell of bleach and carpet shampoo wafts about.
The dogs are going to stay outside more this summer. "You can be so happy napping in the gazebo." I told our GoldenRetriever. Her eyes understood. Her feelings bruised."I'm one of the children. You can keep the other dog terror inthe gazebo." I swear she was speaking in my dream last night.
This morning my son said, "Leave a list for me Mom."I nearly cried.I am so blessed.  

Porthole in the Lighthouse

Saint Nicholas patron saint of Sailors. His head fell off. Notice the wire structure... http://www.amazon.com/The-Lucky-Boy-Caroline-Gerardo-ebook/dp/B0064FOCZO 

My Writing Process

Carla Stockton asked me to participate in this chain gang blog hop. http://carlastockton.me/2014/06/23/my-writing-process-blog-tour/
1)What am I working on?
Novel in progress working title: Eco TerroristNatalie Clark retires from MI5 during the Great Drought. Seeking a life far away from her job as an Analytic Soothsayer she buys a  ranch in rural Wyoming. Two men will pull her back to her old life. One wants to poison the Ogallaha Aquifer (all the remaining water in the West and Midwest). The other desires to control it all. Can she stop them?
Currently the book is 188998 words. I’m revising. Preparations are underway to send to my editor. Revision for me is on a paper printed copy. I read each word aloud. My goal is to edit ten pages a day.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I’m a member of International Thriller Writers. The underlying structure of my novels are “thriller”; however they are literary. I ghostwrote a few thrillers for someone else first.I’m not following they typical format. My hero is heartbroken. There are two villains. Readers may relate to the bad guys. Both are fathers, both have built lives for their families. However the process in which they achieved their goals is dead wrong. The setting is the Midwest /West after climate change has left most with no resources for water. My work has been called “transgressional, dark, poetic, and gothic.” This story is written in four different voices. Each has their own version of the story within the tale. Mise en abyne in which the French would look for clues in each voice.Thriller genre seems at odds with literary fiction and poetic structure. In this novel there are secrets, song bird calls and bits of tornadoes. Someone else may categorize the book as apocalyptic.
3) Why do I write what I do?
I have a million stories to share. I hope to make a reader think. I’m writing about this time from my spot on the planet. My poetry, short stories and novels aren’t easy reads but they are true.I write or I must surrender to the ashes.
4) How does your writing process work?
To write a novel:I start with drawings, photographs and my moleskin notepad. This year I used instagram as a journal to keep ideas flowing.First I use a white board. It is four feet by six feet. The story is mapped on the board as a graph.Next, I write every day. The Chapters are not numbered. They may be shuffled around like cards later. Sometimes I begin with the middle of the narrative. I have a full time job and am a single Mom besides writing. I am disciplined. Every morning at 5:25 A. M. I’m working on our kitchen table. Weekday evenings I will put in two more hours. I set word count goals. Each day that I achieve the goal I reward myself by going for a hike or working in the garden for an hour.Once the first draft is completed I print the novel. At this point I will write a short story or poetry to give the draft a rest for a couple weeks.I am creative in my daily life. Come over for dinner. You will be entertained.

Revisions begin: this part is slow. When I wrote I often will put two or three words to express an idea in a sentence. I’m not doing spell check or grammar check. I read aloud. Muddling over the exact word choice, uncovering the tool that clearly expresses not just the meaning of the sentence but the sound and rhythm I find my way.
Second edit is to take all the handwritten notes on the hard copy and put them back into the computer.Total process takes a year or more.I purchased a couple writing programs (Final Draft, Story lit, White smoke, Story book) none make it easy. This is a long process. My editor uses one then I will finish with whatever he is using.Word does some tricks with auto saving the wrong copy. In long form at this point you better be labeling each copy and dating it. Otherwise you may have to go back and rework. Ugh.
After editor makes his notes I will share with a couple beta readers.I lost both mine. My mom had a stroke, then open heart surgery. She’s no longer up for the task, but I will give her a printed copy this summer to attempt the red pen. Any volunteers? Prizes, vacations and wine promised for certain.
Next up:Judy Serrano graduated from Texas A&M University, Commerce with a BA in English. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and Dallas Area Romance Authors. She spends her days writing on her laptop and living in her imagination, when she can steal a private moment. She is the author of "Easter's Lilly," "Brother Number Three," "Relatively Close" and "Memoirs of a Mobster."Judy currently resides in Texas with her husband, four boys and five dogs. She is also a singer/songwriter in her spare time.
Blog:  http://www.Judyserrano.com
Ewa Zwonarz is a Polish-American writer, author of the soon to be released paranormal young adult novel “Moonchild.” She is a recipient of several awards in journalism and film production, a published poet and an author of a blog. She graduated Valedictorian with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communications and works as a Strategic Analyst for a Silicon Valley start up. When she is not working, Ewa is traveling the world collecting morsels of inspiration for her future projects.


Link :  www.dare2begin.com



I will be adding two other authors later today.
Caroline Gerardohttp://www.amazon.com/Toxic-Assets-Bank-Caroline-Gerardo-ebook/dp/B004RCLZXI/ref=la_B004PHVP1C_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404078286&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Lucky-Boy-Caroline-Gerardo-ebook/dp/B0064FOCZO/ref=la_B004PHVP1C_1_2_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404078325&sr=1-2
My Daily journal here: http://instagram.com/carolinegerardo/