Screaming Sunday + ROW 80 Update

Keeping to the theme, and in honor of the previous posts, I am dubbing this Screaming Sunday (being the Sunday before Halloween).   And like screams, I'll try to keep it short and...well, just short.

I'm just going to dedicate this post to all the different kinds of screams.

At the fair, I scream in delight with my kids as we twirl in circles and get pushed by the gravitation within the Tilt-A-Whirl ride against our seats.

In my books, my characters scream in the throes of passion.

My grandmother screams in fear when she sees a spider.  My girls scream at the cats when trying to get into their room and at bugs in general.  I scream at scorpions and I'm glad Michigan doesn't have them.

I also have been known to scream in frustration when something is getting out of hand at home.  Well, it's more like a growl, really, but I think it could apply.

Now for the reader's turn:  What makes you scream?  Is it a positive or negative event that causes it?  Or both?  I want to know. 

Now for my ROW 80 Update:

Reading:  Finished Sookie #7 and #8, as well as Lord of Rage by Jill Monroe;
WIP:  Added 1,741 new words to my novel;
Exercise:  None :(
Halloween preparations with kids:  Finished carving pumpkins and got the "Ruby Slippers" for my little Dorothy.  Too bad my little Minnie Mouse is too sick to go Trick-or-Treating tomorrow.  Rotten stomach virus.

Happy Reading!

Slasher Saturday

I think I already mentioned this, but I don't really care for Slasher movies.  However, I'm dubbing the Saturday before Halloween, Slasher Saturday.  I'm on a roll and going to have fun with it.

Wikipedia defines "slasher movie" as "A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe."  No wonder I don't like them!  What the definition doesn't add is that a good portion of slasher movies, especially in modern times, also includes some voluptuous dingbat that is required, and shortly killed, to add titillation.  Something like this:

 That doesn't leave much for the imagination.  Copy and past the heavy sarcasm here.

The earliest slasher was called Thirteen Women which was released in 1932, according to my Wikipedia source (and how reliable is that?).  That was a long time ago!  Since slashers didn't seem to really take rise until the 1960's, this is probably a little known fact.

I'm sure some of you remember the classic Psycho or even its remake with Anne Heche in 1998.  For me Hitchcock's thriller/slasher movie is preferred because it left the viewer to try to come up with his/her own theories of what is happening until the very end of the film.   It was this mental titillation that I rate a movie on over the erotic titillation in modern slashers.  Keep me interested and on the edge of my seat and I'll enjoy the movie a little bit more despite all the blood and guts.

My sister and I tend to agree that the Scream movies are a little more along our preferences as well.  It has some campy, fun parts to keep you from getting too drawn into the drama and intensity of a scene.  How can you not laugh at Jamie Kennedy yelling at the TV for the girl to look behind her when he should be doing the same thing?  

So, how about my readers?  Are there any slasher movies you would sit down to watch in the bright lights of your living room in broad daylight or in the darkest of nights?  Any of you prefer to watch the classics or modern slashers?  Anyone like to have bouts of fright, then bouts of laughter?  Let me know!

Happy Reading!

Frankenstein Friday

Another author in Twitter inspired me for today's random blog when they mentioned today as Frankenstein Friday.  I started doing some research online about Frankenstein and discovered something new about Mary Shelley, the author who created the Frankenstein monster.  Apparently there is such a thing as a "Frankenstein Moon". 

As the story goes, Lord Byron issued a challenge to those visiting him at Lake Geneva to write their own Ghost Story.  Apparently, Mary Shelley was having issues finding her muse until one night she had a vision or dream that inspired her story and opened her eyes to see the moonlight streaming in through the windows. 

I'm not entirely sure why physicists would be so interested in recreating that event or why it was controversial in any way at all.  Why would she lie about the moon coming in through her window?  And who cares if she were?  She's an author and has the right to embellish anything she writes.  It's how we are. We create and embellish to draw in our readers.  Sometimes we do so to draw ourselves into our writing too.

I'm curious about my readers and ask for you to participate.  Does any of you watch the classic horror movies like Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wolfman?  And, if so, do you like the originals or remakes?  Personally, I think Boris Karloff was an awesome make-up artist for his time and really enjoy the black and white classics (but I also am a huge fan of Young Frankenstein).

I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Reading!

ROW 80 Updated for 10/23/11

I actually accomplished a goal that I didn't put on my list.  I took the girls outside - it was a beautiful day of sixty odd degrees and sunny - and had them help me dump some pots that were on the front deck.  I had one little girl go gun-ho and tried to rake a little, although the wind helped a great deal with that last week.  I even moved my raised bed box to the back of the house.  I feel so accomplished today.

Now for the ROW 80 Update.  Below are a list of accomplishments:




Reading:  Finished Sookie Stackhouse book #6; Finished Heart of Darkness anthology;
WIP:  Made some necessary cuts during editing and added 1,828 words;

On a side note, the book is really coming along now.  I have my villain's plot planned out.  I was making it way too complicated at first, hence the need to edit and hack out unnecessary parts to make the motive more simple.  Now I am developing minor characters and their roles in the villain's plan.  There is another villain - a minor one - that will be necessary for a change of location for another set of characters, but right now, I'm working with the villain who first challenges the heroine.  This first villain is less complicated as he tends to work in political and religious circles.  The minor villain will be a bigger challenge for me as he will be more barbaric.  It's a big strange even to me how I just classified them and their difficulty rating.  I would have suspected the one manipulating things behind the scenes would be harder to write, but he isn't.  It's the one where I need to create battle scenes for that will be more difficult.  

Happy Reading!

My First Award!

I have just received my first blogging award!  I'm so excited.  Thanks, Angela!  Please do me a fave and check out Angela Wallace's blog: Angela Wallace ~Believe, Dream, Awaken.  She has been a regular follower of my blog and I really love stopping by her blog. 

This is all new to me, so I'll just follow the spirit of the acceptance of this award from the last two recipients. 

And since Halloween is almost upon us, I’m going to stick with the same theme as Angela and share 7 Halloween facts about me:

a

1. I love Halloween so much it's my number one holiday, making Christmas my number two holiday;

2. I hate horror movies, but I like paranormal ones - just not Paranormal Activity;

3. I love the candy called bottle caps which was good for me because my brother and sister hated them, so would give them all my Tootsie rolls and they would give me all their bottle caps;

4. I always laughed in the haunted houses - I never screamed once;

5. I find that graveyards are full of history and enjoy looking through them.  The older the better.  I once visited one that was actually segregated into sections by nationality, including Jewish (I know, not technically nationality, but you know what I mean), Dutch, and African American.

6. After watching Grudge, I couldn't look into dark doorways for a month, afraid the white face and black hair of that woman would be peering back at me;

7. My kids and I love singing a Nick Jr. song called I Don't Like Candy Corn which isn't true, because we love eating it.

Now it's my turn to pass this blog award on to other very deserving bloggers.  So here are my choices:

1.  Karen Mahoney ~Urban Fantasy Writer

2.  Author in Progress

3.  Paperback Writer

Happy Reading!

ROW 80 - Update on 10/19/11

List of accomplishments this week so far:

Finished Sookie Stackhouse book #5;
On Monday, added 397 new words to WIP;
On Wednesday (today), added 899 new words to WIP;
Read with my girls;
Put the girls to bed early (on-time, really);
Got the girls to school on time every day so far this week.

List of things still behind:
Exercise;
Housework

Overall, I'm not entirely disappointed.  Life just has to be more adjustable.  I appreciate my readers for checking in on me even though it has to be boring reading blogs that just talk about one thing anymore.  I wish I had the time to devote to having other blog posts, but just getting my WIP done in a day is a working miracle. 

In the mean time....Happy Reading!

ROW 80 - Update on 10/17/11 for 10/16/11

Ok, here I am again, late for my update.  I hope this doesn't become a constant.  Wait until you hear the worse news:  I didn't make my goals for this past week.  Instead of 1000 words, I only got in 564 words and not even a half hour of editing.  Looks like its time to re-evaluate my goals.

Using my Daily Planner Pad, I have filled out my weekly goals, then tried to put them into the days I intend to fulfill those goals, so it looks a bit like this:

Girls
Bath
School
Reading
Wed (Bring "P" item)
Tues Pink/Purple Day
Donut money

WIP
1000 words
1 hour edit
1 hour edit
1 hour edit

Household
Dinner/Dishes
Kitchen
Bathrooms
Laundry
Garbage
Vaccuming/Dusting
Girls Room (org.)
Shopping

Exercise
30 minutes (3x)

Reading
Sookie #5

Then for each day:

Monday
Update ROW 80
WIP
Dishes/dinner
Laundry (towels)

Tuesday
Girls Pink/Purple Day
WIP
Girls Room (org.)
Read w/Girls
Donut Monday due
Laundry (whites)

Wednesday
Girl's "P" Item Day
King's Kids

Thursday
Read w/girls

Friday
Girls Room (org.)
30 minutes exercise
Read w/girls
WIP

Saturday
30 minutes exercise
Gull Meadow Farms
Read w/girls

Sunday
30 minutes exercise
Shopping
WIP

There's a lot to squeeze into your schedule when you already are working for 8-10 hours each day from Monday through Friday.  Some nights I come home and barely have any time to read with the girls and get to know how their day was before its time to get them into bed.  Often I am going to bed at midnight and waking up at 5:30am through the week as well.

I get gun-ho about my intentions with this project, but I am glad that I have the flexibility depending on how much I can put in or want to put in.  I have a Meijer recycle bag full of books to be read, hence the addition of reading the Sookie Stackhouse series in my weekly goals.  I get little else done when I get too involved in a book and this is an amazing series.

And, I have to admit, I was invited to a friend's house where there was a small group of people gathering for a Hunter's Party, which I wasn't figuring into my plans and goals.  Essentially, this is when Native American's get together to cook up stores packed away from last year (from the freezer) and have friends and family consume it so there is room in the freezer again for this year's kill.  This reminded me of all my stuff left in the freezer being forgotten and passed over again and again, so I did a lot more cooking this weekend that I originally intended.

Now, excuse me while I try to add more scenes and words to my WIP.  Thanks for stopping by and....

Happy Reading!

ROW80 - Wednesday 10/12/11 Update

I found out that when given an hour of uninterrupted time to myself, I can easily get 1000 words into my novel.  While motherhood makes that nearly impossible, I am going to attempt some writing tonight - just not what I was hoping for.

While my goals aren't getting as far with the WIP, I have been getting other personal goals met.  I have been exercising more, keeping up on the household chores (instead of being buried in them) and having time with my twin daughters who are now in preschool and need the extra attention.  It's not easy for kids to have to wait so long for their turn to be the "special kid" for the day.  There are fifteen children in their class total, so they have to wait fourteen turns before they have a special day.  The Day Planner is really paying off.  Even my kids get excited when I pull it out and start telling them the list for the day.  Sometimes they even help out.

So, there is my Wednesday update.  Happy Reading!

ROW 80 Update - 10/9/11

It's that time of year again.  Fall.  And with the fall, or other seasonal changes that can't remain consistent from day to day, I have my semi-annual headache.  You know the one.  Sinuses feel like they are ready to explode from the pressure; you are vampirically allergic to the light, especially sunlight; and standing up makes you motion sick.  The headache could last a day or a week.  It's throwing all my goals out the door so I can focus on not vomiting every time I move. 

I have put in a single hour of edits a couple of days ago; however, it took me three hours to get to that point.  My laptop is an old refurbished Compaq Evo N620c and it has a tendency to go through bouts of overheating.  I have to constantly unfreeze things by removing the overheated battery and let it cool enough to get things working again.  And, thanks to my cats bad chewing habits, the cord to the cooling pad was chewed through and I'm having a heck of a time replacing it.  If I'm lucky, Black Friday sales will have a reasonably priced laptop I can buy to replace this old one.

I'm going to try to get more edits in today, but it all depends on the headache and laptop.  Wish me luck!

Happy Reading!

ROW 80 Update for 10/05/11

Ok, update for my goals for ROW80.  I've completed my first goal.  Yay!  I just gave myself way too much time to complete it.  Makes me feel wonderful.  All my typed text in Microsoft Word has been transferred over to yWriter5.  Now I need to decide on a project to devote my attention to for the next goal.

Since I am ten chapters and 35,000 + words into Before Atlantis, I am going to work on that one first.  As I have been reading through sections to title them, I realized my deep connection to the story and characters and really want to begin the edits and fill in more of the gaps left in the story.  So, instead of adding so many words for each project, I'm going to try to add 1000 new words to this project each week and spend at least 3 hours a week on edits.

This is really getting me excited.  I'm even able to keep up on basic housework, my children's schedule, and ROW 80.  Now to see if I can get my 30 minutes of exercise in tomorrow.  Maybe since I'm getting a load of laundry done tonight, I can get a little ahead since I didn't schedule laundry until tomorrow. 

If I get time this weekend, I'm hoping to post some book reviews I have drafted and saved.

Almost done reading How to Date a Werewolf by Rose Pressey.

Happy Reading!

First Official ROW 80 Round 4 of 2011 Post

Ok, I'm going to do it.  Here is my first set of goals:


Put the following three projects in my yWriter5 program to assist in outlining and editing:


Project 1:  Paranormal Investigator novel (Liz Lochran, main character)
Project 2:  From Night Into Dawn (working title of historical, Christian romance)
Project 3:  Before Atlantis (working title of Atlantean series, Book 1)


I'm giving myself two weeks to have this done.  Then I will focus on my next set of goals:


Project 1:  Add 1000 new words a week
Project 2:  Add 1000 new words a week
Project 3:  Add 500 new words a week


When I feel like I have finally finished a project, then I will change the goals to reflect edits and rewrites.  Since Project 3 is mainly a rewrite, that is why I decided on a smaller amount of words and this will be harder to track since I will be using previously written text along with new phrasing and scenes - or throwing out entire scenes to be replaced with others.


Maybe the goal seems unrealistic, but considering my need to work on multiple projects at once to keep my brain from getting bored, I thought this would be a good start.  I could always change these goals if I suddenly feel like it is too much.


We shall see.


On top of that, I always am setting some reading goals, just nothing too specific.  I want to finish at least one book a week, but I may have to make it one book every two weeks or more to have the time to blog, read, write, and take care of the multiple projects waiting for me at home (e.g. laundry, dishes, taking the kids to school to name a few).


If anyone has any suggestions for me, I am very willing to listen and eager to learn what has worked for him/her.  


Happy Reading!