Dirty Life and Times

Out the other side and still here

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 8 Jan 2006 12:05:00 -0800

Morning all. Happy New Year
Well I guess it is afternoon by a couple of minutes if my laptop is correct.

Hope all had a great holiday season.

Been an interesting couple of weeks and my sincerest apologies for not posting more. It has been trying.

Some of it is normal stuff. The holidays and the changes in routine. No writers group at Panera for example since my last entry. Seems that is the only time I think to post an entry here. Since I am posting, you can assume correctly we are meeting.

I've always been healthy but I had some kind of issue the past week or two. It's gone now. Had some tests done and still need some followup. TMI I know, but it contributed heavily to the overall issues.

Add to all this losing EVERYTHING off my computer. The current stuff has backups but not everything, by far. Realized this morning, all my financial information as well is poof.

So I have had some fun. Add to it that I've seen enough winter (knowing there is still 3-4 months to go).

This is just more depressing, so I will stop.

I am trying to restart my latest idea here today so I will get back to work.

Later. I have survived and have come out the other side.

Peter

Holiday madness?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 12:27:00 -0800

It is the Sunday before Christmas, exactly a week. I put the "?" on the title to this entry for sarcasm. I am not pressured. I am not crazy. I will be ready for next Sunday, not that it's hard, but I refuse to get sucked in. I wanted to make most of my gifts this year but that's not going to happen unfortunately.

Sorry it's been a week, but I seem to be getting in this habit of writing at Panera more than anywhere else. I will try to do better. Honest.

I finished the first draft of the novel yesterday. I had this really cool feeling when I typed "The End." Tam wants to read it but I said no. For a couple of reasons. 1. It's not done. I might have finished a draft but it really isn't finished. I wrote it without dialogue. I need to put all the dialogue in. There might be one sentence in the story, that when the water of dialogue is added, will become two pages on it's own. 2. The other is that it is too personal still to let someone else in. Obviously this needs to change if I want to succeed at this and I am sure it will. When I am ready, I am sure I will be more than willing to open the door to someone else. Right now I can't.

I borrowed Stephen King's "On Writing" from the Windham library. I had read it before but this time it meant more. I covered it in like 2 days. I am also still reading "Stiff" about what happens to dead bodies, and as soon as I was finished with "Pet Sematary" I picked up his "Bag of Bones."

2006 has to be the year I take this seriously. I am not getting any younger. It is time to kick some ass and take names. King is very inspriring to me. Not the horror stuff necessarily, but his approach, his beginnings. I like his simple mechanics. I agree with just about all of his advice in "On Writing." Few if no adverbs. The fewer words the better. etc. Now I need to put it in action.

So the novel is "written." What next? I will put that away for a little while (SK offers 6 weeks) but that is before the all-important second draft. I am not there yet. Let's say 3/4 of the way through the first one. So I might put it aside for a week, then go to work on the dialogue. Then park it. In the meantime, based on his suggestions, I will work on some shorts. Something I can work to get published so I have some credits. I have a few in the can but I think I am going to take the hard road. I have one that I liked and lost. Hard drive crash or something probably. So I am going to recreate it. Maybe, if I am lucky, it will end up being better than before.

His number one piece of advice above ALL others? Practice.... a lot. Read and write as much as you can.

Later.

I hate it when a plan doesn't come together

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 14:15:00 -0800

Hey all
Anyone paying attention?

I am in Panera Bread in Westbrook, Maine with the writing group I found through Nano. There are six of us here today. We have vowed to keep meeting even tho Nano is over. I am glad. I wasn't supposed to be here today. Tam and I were supposed to be in Greenville, up on Moosehead Lake getting away from it all. But the couple that own the camp and invited us had to beg off. Dean is a furnace guru and he had too much work to do to go away. So hence, the title of this entry.

It's all good, but I was looking forward to getting away. Drink, laugh (we did this anyway at their house in Gray last night), bring back a tree, go looking for Moose, etc. I was quite disappointed when I found out Thursday night we weren't going.

So I did close to 2 hours at the gym yesterday before heading over there. Today Tam and I walked a 6-mile loop before heading into Panera.

We did get a foot of snow Friday and that would have made the 2 hour drive to Greenville all the more interesting, but it wouldn't have stopped us.

This was the second time in the past 2-3 months an opportunity to esacpe was yanked out from under me. For Halloween weekend, a colleague and I were going to camp on the shore of Flagstaf Lake in northern Maine. Maybe do some hiking, maybe do some canoeing, maybe read, maybe write, maybe just sit there and burn a cord of wood to keep warm. I didn't care. I was simply looking forward to getting away from it all. I could just picture waking up in the wilderness and looking out over the lake. What would I see? Moose? Deer? Bear? Nothing? An early snowstorm squashed those plans and we didn't go.

The story I started for Nano is closing in on the end and I am trying to brainstorm some new ideas. I am toying with the idea of joining Nanowriye for 2006. I seem to function better with deadlines and a little bit of pressure. I really have to keep this going. I have always wanted to. Tam wanted a christmas list so I put down the new Novel Market book as well as Writers Digest magazine. I will never succeed if I don't make the effort to try. There is no reason, other than myself, I can't be a successful writer.

I finished Pet Sematary and immediately picked up Bag of Bones. I might have to put that aside for a little while as Jancy gave me "Stiffs" to read last night. It is a book about dead bodies. What happens to them. What they are used for, etc. Might come in handy in a story.

Well, I should put the words into my story, plus I think I am running out of things to say here. So I will take a break, hit the head, refill my coffee, and possibly order a bowl of soup. Been debating that last one for a while now. Every time I think about going up, the line is out the door.

See ya.

Checking in

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 7 Dec 2005 10:00:00 -0800

Morning all.
Sorry, been a couple of days. Haven't been on the computer much at home. Trying to be more of a family citizen instead of sitting in front of the CRT. Been reading Pet Sematary as well so I just sit in the quiet and read. Can use the decompressing with the holidays approaching.

I wrote 3000 words on Sunday and will be meeting a couple of people at the Big Sky Cafe in Portland this afternoon after work. That will work well as I have the car (truck's in the shop) and I have to pick Tam up in that area at 6 p.m. So I will get out of work when I can, go write, then pick her up. Hopefully the truck will be ready this afternoon so I can pick it up and give her her car back.

Looking forward to this weekend. Heading to Greenville, Maine to our friends camp. A weekend of laughter, comsuming alcohol and no television. Not sure what we will do. Probably not enough snow for snomobiling yet. There is talk of cutting a christmas tree to bring back. I need to get away so bring it on. Doing that though means no Panera Bread to write this Sunday. I will take the laptop though in case I can get some in up there.

Mt story is coming along nicely. I am in my really only weak area as far as authencity goes. I am moving my MC from radio to TV and I hope it could really happen the way I have written it. It is almost done. Maybe another 5000 words.

Also started something interesting this week. I am a hiker and backpacker and for the next month or more I am the transcriber for a woman that is hiking the Florida Trail. She sends me her journal entry from the trail. Pocket PC, Cell Phone, etc via email. I take it and edit it and clean it up and post it to www.trailjournals.com. Did the first one last night. I offered last year to do it for anyone hiking the AT but had no takers. That would be a six-month committment if they finish. Yikes.

Well, I oughta get back to work. Later. I will try not to stay gone so long.

Do you care? JK

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 4 Dec 2005 12:44:00 -0800

Well, I hadn't written anything since crossing the Nano finish line and that isn't good cause the story isn't done. So as I write this I am sitting in Panera Bread in Westbrook, Maine with a couple of other writers. I don't think I was worried but I have gotten back into it here. Some of us are going to keep the Sunday get togethers going and I will come in when I can. Good for the soul.

The story is almost done. I have passed the 3/4 pole and am entering the home stretch as they say in horse racing, even though I don't care much for the sport. Soon it will be time to put this one into editing mode and start another project.

I picked up Stephen King's Pet Semetary and started reading it yesterday. I love King. Got to meet him once. But never read that one. Tam was surprised, questioning how I could call myself a King fan yet not have read that one. I shrugged. I mention it because he has always inspired me. Not that I want to write horror, but in how he writes. His mechanics. I always come away feeling like I could write just as good as that. I have read "On Writing" before but don't own it. Will need to hit the library for a copy to read it again. Unless Santa brings me one that is. Hint. Hint.

So this is the third time I have met with some of the writers now. First was last Sunday here. Then Wednesday evening at the Great Lost Bear in Portland for the final countdown to the end of Nano. Some people were still cramming words in the brewpub but I didn't need to. Then Friday we had a TGIO (Thank God It's Over dinner at The Village in Portland. We had almost 20 show up for that. Looks like Maine had a 35% winner percentage when the national average is about 16%. Maine had over 200 people signed up to write. Cool.

Well it has been snowing lightly most of the morning but looks like it has stopped. We had 4 inches or a little more over Thanksgiving but it was all gone with recent rain. They are talking about plowable snow tomorrow night and into Tuesday.

Tam is making the wreaths to put on the house when I get home. Hopefully time for a 4-5 mile walk as well. Then the Patriots at 4.

Got to get back to my imaginary world. See ya.

Nano is over. What's next? :-(

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 1 Dec 2005 14:50:00 -0800

Hey all.

Last night at The Great Lost Bear in Portland we had a writer get togther as the final hours counted down. Only a couple were writing though and since their wi-fi wasn't working, some had to leave and work from home. It was a nice time for a couple of beers, some appetizers, and sharing stories. I met Richard, who like me has a journalism background.

Work is interesting. I have a lot of space in what used to be a classroom cause part of the year I need it for computer work. Well, the local Head Start needs a new home in like an emergency, so guess what, I have to move. To set the stage, I am already in the worst building we have. Old. Smelly. Moldy. They want me to move to a room where the roof has leaked extensively. In fact there was a flood in there yesterday!! Anyway, if I try to get permission to spend $200 on something I usually get shot down. They want to spend $3k just to add more power to the room so I can work out of it. Oh well.

First Day, part two

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 16:59:00 -0800

I am back!! It's amazing what a couple of Black Velvets and diet sodas will do. Along with a salad.

More about me? Glad you asked. I am 47. Live in southern Maine. Work in education. I am a certified K-8 teacher and did have a classroom spot until two years ago. Now I work for the technology department in the same district. In short, I am on the geek squad (preference Apple) and work to keep all the technology working in the right direction.

I am divorced. I have two children, son (Chris) almost 20 and a daughter (Elizabeth) 17. They live in New Hampshire and they are both pissed at me for screwing up their lives. I have been with Tammy for 4 1/2 years (she was not the reason for my marriage breaking up) and we have a small ranch style house on some land in rural Maine (which is most of it). Tammy had three children, one left here at the house, Dylan, who is almost 17. We live on a semi-back road and have deer in the yard and can hear coyotes howling in the not so distance when the windows are open.

I had never given blogs more than a passing thought until the writing challenge. There I found a blog for Maine writers like me taking the plunge. So I decided to start my own.

That's enough for now. It will get more boring tomorrow. Promise.

Welcome to my Dirty Life and Times

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 14:19:00 -0800

Hi there. If you are reading this, you must really not have anything better to do. lol. Welcome to my blog. This is an attempt to write and write often. I have just completed the NaNoWriMo challenge, (www.nanowrimo.org) of writing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. It isn't done but I like what I have. I will finish it. I hope this blog will keep me going, help me with ideas, and to just have a merry old time. I live a pretty boring life. The title comes from a Warren Zevon song on his last CD before he died. Seemed appropriate.

Well, anyway, I am going to go do some housekeeping around here. You know, arrange the virtual furniture and all that. I will be back later. Promise.