Flipping a Floppy

Thought for the day:  A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.  [Richard Back]

[morguefile]

Praise be, I have returned safely from battle.

Okay, so it wasn't actually a battle; it was more of a book club meeting, featuring yours truly as the main course.

The bottom line is, I got through last Thursday's meeting unscathed, and didn't even have to draw my sword once to defend myself from hurtful criticisms hurled by disappointed readers. Matter of fact, it was awesome. I only hope the other folks who were there enjoyed our discussions half as much as I did.

As soon as I arrived, I surreptitiously searched the premises and didn't find any buckets of rotten tomatoes hidden anywhere, so that was a reassuring sign. Then when everyone got there, I asked if any other writers had ever attended any of their meetings. When they said I was the first, I knew I had it made, because even if I did a lousy job, I would be the BEST writer who'd ever visited them. Woo HOO! So I relaxed, and just had fun. I think they did, too, because I was told the meeting usually lasts for about an hour, and we were there for two and a half. It was such a terrific group of ladies, (and obviously very bright, too, because they all liked my book. HA) I wish they held their meetings a little closer to where I live, so I could join them as a member. It was a terrific experience. The only downside? Even though the gals all said they'd post a review, none of them did. Oh well. C'est la vie.

Yep, it's that time of the month again. Time for insecure writers (i.e. ALL writers) to share the ups and downs encountered along our bumpy writing paths. Once again, thanks go to ninja writer Alex Cavanaugh for coming up with the idea of forming this group and for making it such a successful reality. If you're interested in joining, please do! You can go right here to sign up, and you'll also find a list of the other participants there, so you can check out their posts, too.

Okay, I've already told you what a positive experience the book club meeting was, so let's move on to the question of the month: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?
.
Yes.

Oh... you want details?

[morguefile]

Nowadays, in spite of society's proclivity for quick fixes, disposable everything, and instant gratification, there's also been a huge resurgence of people who are dedicated to diligently refurbishing and re-purposing, whether it be a falling-down house in dire need of TLC, or some treasure pulled from a dumpster or purchased inexpensively from a flea market, so why shouldn't  we writers do the same with our old manuscripts? (Assuming they're something you flip over, and not a dismal flop. If it sits long enough, you can tell...)

Mine sat plenty long enough.

This particular manuscript sat abandoned in the back of my closet gathering dust for years. Although it wasn't painstakingly written on a scroll with a quill, or etched in stone, it was darned near that bad, because it was saved on... (gasp!) floppy discs.

Yep, I typed the first draft of Hot Flashes and Cold Lemonade on an Apple II E computer. Luckily, in addition to storing the manuscript on floppy discs, I also had the foresight to print it out in... (gasp!) dot matrix.

Fast forward about twenty years, and I decided to read the manuscript again. (Talk about letting a story sit a while, eh?)

I decided it was worth rescuing, but in order to work on it again, I had to scan the manuscript, one page at a time, and save it in a file on my new no-more-floppies computer. Not terribly difficult, but a time-consuming pain in the patootie.

Countless rewrites and many changes later, the manuscript finally became a book. It hasn't made me a bunch of money, but that was never my goal, so yeah, I'd say it worked out. If you have a poor little orphan manuscript languishing in the back of your closet, why not pull it out and give it another look-see? It just might be something worth saving, and my guess is... it isn't saved on floppy discs.

         WAIT! STOP THE PRESSES!!! 

(Haven't you always wanted to say that...) Okay, so technically, there aren't any presses to stop, but I did want to take a quick sec to sneak in an announcement before putting this post to bed. It's about a book. (Surprise!)

For quite some time, fellow blogger and author Karen Walker had a dream about putting together a book in which a group of writers offers candid reflections about the blessings and curses of aging. I'm pleased to say her dream is about to become reality, and Still Me... After All These Years is scheduled to be released in early April.

But you can pre-order an e-version NOW. In U.S., you can order here

In this upcoming anthology, two dozen writers from ages sixty to ninety... including yours truly... tell it like it is about keeping dreams alive, putting rusty sex drives in gear, and dealing with the ups and downs of retirement and the loss of independence. Touted on the back cover as being poignant, humorous, and brutally honest, this book promises to be a collection that will hold appeal for all ages.

All proceeds from the sales of this book will be donated to Alzheimer's research.

Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

In Support of Rules

Thought for the day:  Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself, and celebrate writing. [Melinda Haynes]

HAPPY NEW YEAR, y'all!!!

It's hard to believe, but here we are, dipping our toes into yet another brand new year. YOWZA! As we embark on this journey of new beginnings, let's hope we're all wise enough and fortunate enough to make the best of the year ahead of us. Cheers!

Today, like the first Wednesday of every month, is IWSG Day, when writers all over the world share their problems, air concerns, and celebrate successes. As always, thanks go to ninja writer Alex Cavanaugh for coming up with this nifty idea. To join the group and see links to other IWSG posts, please go here

Woo HOO! I don't have a single thing to complain about this month. Slowly but surely, we're crawling back from the flu, and my brain is starting to hum like a well-oiled rusty machine again. That means the words are finally starting to flow again, and I hope to get back into the groove again very soon. Every word I scribble in my notebook and type on the computer may not be keepers, but like Jodi Picault said, You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page. 

I do have a couple of other things to share, though. This first thing is painfully obvious to me now, so I'm probably the last writer on earth to figure it out, but just in case I'm not, here goes. When you sit down to write each day, don't complete the scene. That's right. Stop writing when you've still got a good head of steam and know exactly where you want to go next. That way, when you pick it up again the next day, you're revved up and ready to go. I've discovered that if I complete a scene, it's much more difficult to get going again. It's not quite as bad as coming up with the perfect opening sentence and paragraph for chapter one, but it's certainly in the same ballpark.

The other thing? It's a book by Don McNair: Editor-Proof Your Writing. Good stuff! (And I'm not just saying that because I already ascribed to most of his guidelines about writing clear prose, either.) Seriously. No matter where you are in your writing journey, there's a lot of helpful stuff in this book.

One last thing before going on to this month's question. Next month, I'll be (gulp) attending a book club for the first time... to talk about my book! That's kinda exciting, and kinda scary. It's being held in a private residence, and I have no idea how many members will be there. I've given speeches in front of hundreds of people before with no problems, but I must confess, I'm a tad nervous about how to proceed with this intimate gathering. Any suggestions???

Okay, now on to the question of the month: What writing rule do you wish you'd never heard?

Um... rules? There are... rules?

Seriously, it's not like the writing police are gonna swoop down out of the sky and slap a fine on us or throw us in the pokey if we break any of the traditional rules of writing, but I don't regret knowing the rules... even if I don't always choose to follow them.

In some cases, a strict adherence to rules results in prose that may be technically correct, but also stilted and unnatural-sounding. For example, we all learned it's improper to end a sentence with a preposition, but contorting a sentence with the explicit purpose of avoiding that dangling preposition can result in proper, but barely readable prose.

I think we should all know the rules, because grammar does matter. But I also think we should allow ourselves the freedom to create, and to bend the rules as we see fit. Or as Picasso put it, Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist. 

How about you? Has your creativity ever been stifled by adherence to the rules... or have you always been an artistic rebel?



Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Thought for the day:  Charlton Heston admitted he had a drinking problem, and I said to myself, "Thank God this guy doesn't own any guns!"  [David Letterman]  For those who don't know, in addition to being an actor, Heston was also a very outspoken gun enthusiast and president of the National Rifle Association.

In March, I told y'all about a feisty group of Georgia ladies whose weekly evening out means blasting targets at an indoor shooting range, followed by a book club meeting. (If you missed it, you can find it here )

Now I have a NEW endeavor to tell you about. How about a planned gun club in my fair state that just got a license to serve...  alcohol? Woo HOO, huh? I mean, what could go wrong?




                                                After all, what's a more natural go-together than

BOOZE

                                                                               and

BULLETS

Right? Besides, I'm sure this new $3.5 million-dollar establishment will hang a sign similar to this one to remind members of the importance of clear thinking, and in engaging one's brain when handling a firearm of any kind.

So, what, I ask you, could go wrong? We all know most adults are mature responsible drinkers, and as such, are quite capable of intelligent and proper (Yee-HA!)  behavior after inhaling certain beverages.

                                                               Both men... and women.

The NRA says, "Guns don't kill people. People do." But I think the gun helps.  [Eddie Izzard]

Okay, you can relax now. The only thing that's actually gonna be loaded on this range are the weapons. There aren't going to be any poop-faced shooters waving a gun in one hand and a glass of bourbon in the other. In spite of some of the inflammatory remarks I've heard about this being a wild west concept,  according to the owners, the Governors Gun Club will be run like a members-only country club, only instead of playing golf or tennis, members of this club will shoot bullets or arrows. And the lounge isn't going to be a common barroom, either. No, sirree. It'll be a lounge. You know, a dignified place where Full Metal Jacket members (those with lounge privileges) can partake of food and adult libations.

In Georgia, where it's already legal to tote a firearm into restaurants and bars, is this concept that much different? In fact, the club is supposed to institute stringent rules. (Which may not be the case at the corner restaurant or watering hole.)  Here's the plan:

• No boozing on the range. 
• No going on the range after boozing, either. 
• And weapons will be secured by a valet before going into the lounge.

Sounds sensible enough, right? Besides, what's wrong with the wild west? Think how boring the old oaters would be without shoot-outs, player pianos, and dance instructors ... you know, the helpful fellas in the saloon who used a six-shooter to teach other fellas how to dance.

                           Around these parts, gun control refers to a person's shooting skills, pardner.

                                       And so I ask you again ... what could possibly go wrong?


Let's see, we've talked about books & guns, and booze & guns... if you were to propose a fun combo of a couple of your hobbies, how would you do it? Let's see... I could combine amateur radio with folk music and guitar-playing, and call it ... (ta-DA!) Hamstrings.  Or how about a merger of gardening and poker? (Ants and antes, of course.) Or, maybe...

                                       Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Books and Bullets

Thought for the day: For many people, gun control means being able to hit the target.

Confession: I love target shooting. I'm pretty good, too, or at least, I used to be. It's been quite a while. But my favorite .22 Ruger pistol, with my initials engraved on a brass plate on the handle, is still in our gun safe. Ya never can tell when we might decide to hit the range again. (I'd still like to pull off that nifty Mel Gibson smiley face stunt ...)

And I also suffer from a life-long addiction to the written word.







So, naturally, an article in the Atlanta newspaper about a club called Girls, Guns, and Good Books kinda grabbed my interest by the collar and gave it a good shaking. Yup, sure enough, once a month, after this group of gals puts a hurting on some targets at the SharpShooters USA shooting range, they adjourn to the Peerless Book Store, where they discuss books over wine and cheese.

I mean, WOW! Talk about a ladies night out, huh?

WHAT? You don't think it's lady-like for women to shoot guns? You think it's a sign of today's rough and tumble world?

Tell it to this group of ladies from the 1920s.

Or this gal circa WWII.

Or these Southern belles featured in a documentary.

I'd say there's always been a certain number of women who've liked to shoot. Today's no different. Now that book club of lady shooters is certainly different. Might even be one of a kind. According to the newspaper article, these ladies especially enjoy reading a good mystery with a kick-butt heroine. No surprise there. But what songs do you think they like? May I suggest these:

• Janie's Got a Gun  [Aerosmith]
• Happiness is a Warm Gun  [Beatles]
• Pistol Packin' Mama  [Bing Crosby]
• I Didn't Know My Gun Was Loaded  [Andrews Sisters]
• Time to Get a Gun  [Fred Eagelsmith]
• Machine Gun  [Jimi Hendrix]

Can you think of any other songs that'd fill the bill? How about books? Maybe The Guns of Navarone? I'll betcha you guys and gals can load me up with some great suggestions. So shoot 'em at me. I can take it. And tell me, have you ever gone target shooting? (It's a gr-r-reat way to kill time.)

                                       Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.