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Thursday, August 21, 2014

Kharma, Thou Art Heartless

Losing a job sucks, especially contract positions that promise to end on a certain date.  You do the work plus extra that is needed, happy bosses smile, everyone loves the output, then you get shafted.  My husband was informed yesterday he has no job after this Friday, five weeks earlier than he we expected.  He had already updated his resume and put in a few applications to other companies. (fingers & toes crossed for good news soon!)

On to brighter things.  Editing is slow but steady.  I'm working on several projects, the main one being a story I finished eleven years ago and that took four years to write.  I still love this story and the SciFi/futuristic universe, and I want to continue creating stories here.


I also started another paranormal series two years ago about a fictitious town in Texas with Scottish Highlanders which I hope to get back to next year. (No, I won't reveal how the Highlanders got to Texas yet.)  I want to do NaNo this year too.  Last year I started but had to drop out due to time restraints.  I'll be better this year.

What else?  Not much accept... next week school begins!

Writing tip: play with unexpected occurrences to add spice to the plot and character development.  It can add conflict, dimension to characters, and interest to scenes.

Later,

~Raquel




Monday, August 11, 2014

So Much For the Weekend

I had good intentions last weekend.  Lots of them.  Since we usually have 'family' day on Sunday, Saturday is my family's work-around-the-house-and-yard day.  Weeding, cleaning up twigs, transferring compost to the garden, and any household stuff that got missed from the week.  So, no biggie, as things need to be done.

Wrong.  The temperature soared, and the A/C went wonky.  In short, were hot and miserable and didn't want to do anything.  This, unfortunately, included actual moving around or turning on the computer (this too generates some heat) to even sit quietly and do edits.  It took all day, but we got things straightened out, and it took all of that next day to recover from the stifling, humid heat.

I usually like summer, but this one has been tough.  It's usually okay when it gets hot and stays hot because we get used to it, however when it gets hot then cooler then hot again, it feels horrible as we don't have the normal acclimation.

I started thinking about this last year when we had a cool spell, about the acclimation process, and applied it in various ways to my WIP.  My characters were miserable, they suffered some, and generally had short tempers.  Good for me, good for story conflict, and great for my plot.  I can usually find ways to incorporate almost anything into my writing that provokes a character reaction, plus it helps the realism aspect because readers can identify.

So, Sunday was a bust.  I have laundry to do.

Later!

~R