No More Birthdays!

Another birthday draws nearer sucking the life out of me. It was maybe yesterday, when I was ten, wishing I could be older to do "cooler" things. Back then, my idea of "cooler" was greatly distorted... twisted and molded forms of greatness, when really I am merely twisting and molding into old age.

It is kind of depressing, but I shouldn't really complain. I mean, I am a mother, and I should get to wear some badges. I am not, however, anyone's grandmother (that just made my stomach turn... bleah). Don't get me wrong I love my grandmother, dearly, but I am not yet ready to cross over to that side of my older age.

Grandmothers are on both sides of the personality gridlines. You have the sweet, smiling, soft cuddly ones; and then there is the lanky, bitter, grouchy ones. I have been fortunate to have the most wonderful grandmothers, but I have read about type B... and have known some people to be less fortunate than myself.

ANYway...

I didn't come here today to trash talk anyone's grandma. Basically I just don't want to look like one. I want to put my birthdays on hold and stay the age I am... I don't want wrinkles, age spots, wiry hair... a bad back, sore feet, ANY of the ailments associated with getting older.

This is the last birthday.... day after tomorrow, I will be 33, and I am done. No more birthdays! I am going to focus on staying young"er", so if that is a new years resolution to eat sea weed 4 days a week... I will do it*.

Maybe it will teach the kiddos a lesson too... don't wish your life away. Growing up hits you on the head like an acme anvil, and by the time you shake off the stars and twittering birds you have bad skin and hairy moles.
~2


*as long as I can still have ice cream and strawberry pez.... occasionally

Ambitious?

Hey Stranger!

I know I promised you some Latch Key Kids, but I got busy. I have been doing a lot of recommended reading.

I may have mentioned, I started writing a young adult novel during the month of November. It was an idea I have been throwing around for a while, and my good friend Kemari talked me into starting it early. I have about 13/14 chapters that I wrote for NaNoWriMo, and I am going back thru them and reworking them.

This is a very difficult process for me. First, it is written in first person. I find this extremely hard to write, but necessary for this story. Another problem is that each character is somewhat made of me... so it's hard to make them stand out as individuals.

Kemari found this book Writing for Children & Teenagers by Lee Wyndham at Bookman's so I am reading thru it taking notes to help me finish this project. Although its last revision was in 1988, it still has some valid point that I feel will help. Do you have any pointers?

Another problem I am having is the influx of ideas coming to me right now. I will be working on something and a new idea will form in my head, and it's so overpowering I am tempted to stop working on my original project. I am trying to push aside a small amount of time to focus on the new ideas without overpowering the old ones. Time management... a New Years Resolution?

What's new?

1. I purchased a new domain the other day (theweekendwars.com) because of an idea that has been driving me crazy. At first I wanted to write a story inspired by an MGMT song, but then I started thinking: How cool would it be to write a series of stories by several different people that mesh together but can also stand alone. Post Apocolyptic clan life... posts can be very day dealings to drawn out Sci-Fi work.

If you're interested in doing something like this - let me know tomaraa@gmail.com

2. Back in the day, when I wrote with The Green Room of Collaboration, we took our inspiration from a gallon Maraschino cherry jar (notes, clips, swatches, etc) and wrote. I did this for a while on MySpace, and you can see some of my postings if you filter through this blog. I have set up a new blog, and I will begin drawing from the jar again, as well as, doing other writing exercises. I want to encourage anyone to participate. I will post more information on that as soon as I get a few posts under my belt. I have the site but I have yet to forward the domain. You can bookmark it if you like www.InspirationUnderground.com

Let me know what you're up to
~2

Updates!

I attempted NaNoWriMo for the first time this year. I didn't win. I did write more than 15,000 words on one story, and over 7,000 words on my Latch Key Kid collection of tales.

I am pretty proud of myself. While I didn't finish 50,000 words in November, I don't think I have ever written 15,000 words on ANYTHING (maybe a college research paper). This is a HUGE accomplishment for me.

I started out with the Latch Key kids and got bored, so I started working on a novel that I have been thinking about for a few months. I have no idea what I am going to call it, and I am not even sure how much I want to share here. Give me some time though; I am bound to come around.

I am going to post the Latch Key stuff here, like I promised. I will start editing it today and hopefully I can post it in short story form here on the blog. I wrote it out in chapters... long ones, so I will probably break it down and post blog size segments hopefully starting tomorrow.

Notice anything different? I moved the blog... again.

I am tired of trying to stay on top of software updates, so I decided I would let a google app do it for me. I love google. I am forwarding the domain, but I am not going to host the site myself anymore (what a relief).

I posted a blog on the old hosting before I deleted it, so that emails would go out to my subscribers. I can't seem to find a way to add my old subscribers here, so you will have to subscribe again if you want to get updates via email or rss.

I am excited to have that all out of the way. What have you been up to? Did you take part in NaNoWriMo?
~2