Flying beneath the radar

I finally got with the program and subscribed all my favorite blogs to the RSS feature that comes with Outlook 2007. In case you don't know what that means, basically my email program searches each time it checks mail for updates to the list of internet sites I've subscribed to, and delivers the item to my inbox, to a folder with subfolders for each site.

I notice it slows my computer and Outlook down a bit while it checks--about half a second for each blog, I think. That means for about 15-30 seconds every 10 minutes or so, my computer does a little extra thinking. Doesn't seem noticeable while I'm working. I wonder if there's even an option where I can have it check RSS feeds only once or twice a day.

The point is productivity and distraction. I anticipate seeing each day who has updated their blogs, what you had to say, and so on. As a work-from-home person, it is a way to have a bit of community during the quiet days. I feel I've gotten to know many of you bloggers pretty well this way, and with the added interaction of the comments, it even seems like I have "coworkers" many days. It's not a perfect system, but it beats total isolation for this writer, who loves quiet, loves working alone, but still gets lonely sometimes.

The miracle of RSS, though, means I can let my software do the checking. I'm not wasting big chunks of time several times a day clicking through my links and favorites to see who's put in an appearance, and that translates into more time to actually ... WRITE. Can't be a bad thing, right? I can also save entries that look interesting but I don't have time to read right then for later. I can also COLLAPSE the folder and ignore the fact that there are a bunch of new postings waiting for me to read until I give myself permission.

I think this will be a good thing. Of course, maybe every time I encounter a new blog I like, I'll add it to the feed and then I'll have five hundred gazillion entries to read every single day and it'll become counterproductive. But, I choose to think it's going to be positive.

So ... if you are a psycho stats checker and like to see where your traffic's coming from (cough, cough, I never do that, cough, cough), rest assured I'm still reading your blog, I'm just not showing up on your stats. If you are in the list on the right, you have a cozy new home in my Outlook folders. And not to worry, I love to leave comments, so if something strikes my fancy, I'll mosey over to the real thing and leave a praise, suggestion, deep thought, or snide remark. :)

That said, I'm curious how many folks read my blogs through RSS. Do you? Drop me a comment or email if you do and you aren't shy.

Now, back to work. I received the gift of a promising new critique relationship last week, and I've got work to do! Oh, yeah, and there's that contract work giving me ugly, jealous looks, too. (Go 'way!! Leave me alone! ;)

The Journey
by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

---
Wow. Kerplowie. I am reduced to nonsensical words because I am so awed.

Back in the saddle

But the brain hasn't arrived yet. Still waiting on the delivery. Post-vacation brain is a nightmare sometimes!

So, just a few tidbits. I am certainly glad Kristen and I went to California last week and not this. We enjoyed days in the low 80s. My brother is now "enjoying" the heat wave in the high 90s and low 100s. This seems normal in Texas, but it would have been horrible walking around Disneyland and other places in that.

I did find out I made it through the first round of judging in a flash fiction contest I entered last month. Not sure where that puts me as far as the total numbers of entrants go, but I was nonetheless ecstatic. Crossing my fingers I'll at least be a finalist/honorable mention! The guest judge is an agent from an agency at the top of my wish list, so if I rank high, that will be a plus for querying--which I hope I'm ready for by late summer. I've set August 1st September 1 as my goal, but that might be optimistic. (Edit: I forgot August was vacation month in publishing land.)

On a funny note, we saw LeeLee Sobieski (Joan of Arc, Eyes Wide Shut, The Glass House, Never Been Kissed, 88 Minutes) while checking in at LAX last week. I'm assuming she was on her way back to Chicago where she's filming Public Enemies with Johnny Depp. (Johnny Depp!!) The guy with the big camera on the other side of the cordon didn't phase me while we were waiting to go through security. I was too busy watching this tiny dog wandering around on the conveyor belt while waiting for its owner to go through. Then I was too busy waiting for my daughter to re-emerge from a stall in the restroom to recognize the pretty girl with the huge smile and quick laugh emerge from the one next to her right before I went in. Yes, stars do pee, apparently. (And dare I say, I thought it was kind of funny the other night when I realized I went in right after her? Ok, never mind. Forget I said that.)

So, I realized who she was just after she walked out. I pointed her out to my daughter as we passed the gate for the Chicago flight and said, "That's LeeLee Sobieski, an actress," and my daughter said, "Oh, that's the lady whose dog kept wandering around under my feet while I was in the potty."

HAHAHA!!! That explains the big smile and little laugh. I just thought she was really friendly. I also wondered if she thought I was stalking her while I stood outside the stall for ten minutes waiting on Kristen. Alas, it was just a harried mom who was a little slow on the uptake. And to think of all the other times I had my camera in hand the preceding eight days. Naw, I would have left her alone in the potty.

Anyway, it was kind of interesting to see that she was acually much prettier in real life than in photos and on the screen. I think sometimes it's the opposite.

Still just working on revisions. Have passed my story to reader number 2, and hope to widen that circle soon.

Just saying

I'm still alive, I'm just in ...

Where my brother just escaped ...

Just kidding. He's really a pretty normal guy.

Spending time with him and a few more of my favorite guys ...

And one of my favorite girls ...

Not to mention the scenery.

See you when I get back.

In a word, I'm still not from around here

My friend is reading my manuscript and we talked about it for an hour or so this afternoon. She paged through and mentioned things she'd noted, such as specific words that didn't work for her.

I grew up all around the country (and no, I wasn't a military brat--it was worse, I was a "PK," or preacher's kid). I learned and relearned slang and other vocabulary each time I moved, as well as changed my wardrobe to suit the bratty kids who teased me about my clothing, too.

When I came to Texas from Colorado to go to college, I had to learn to drop the g's from -ing verbs, because people laughed hysterically at my roommate and me when we were speakin' so formally. (She was from Denver, too.)

I learned to say y'all instead of you guys (but NEVER yous guys!!) as often as I could, although you guys has come into fashion even in the South finally, and I probably say it more often than y'all these days once again. I learned to say cokes instead of pop, and I am forever fixin' to do something rather than getting ready to, of course.

When I moved from Texas to Alabama for a couple of years, I learned that the plural of y'all is all y'all. I learned that when people called my two-year-old daughter groany they were really saying growny and that she was "You know, 'grown up' actin'," and not whiny. And that when she was ill, she was whiny, not sick, and didn't need tylenol for that. I was about ready to turn a lady in to child protective services when I asked what was wrong with her daughter, who had her head down and was covering her face, and she kept telling me, "Oh, nothin', she's just ill," but didn't seem interested in doing anything about it.

Anyway(s), you get the picture.

So, today, I learned I've been saying something all these years in Texas that nobody else says, and nobody has ever bothered to let me know until today.

Gail: I don't think a child from Texas would say "tennies." I didn't really know what you meant at first.
Julie: Huh? Tennies? You've never heard that?
Gail: Well, only from you. I think that might be a Colorado thing or something.
Julie: No way. Girls?! Come here (calling to daughters). What do you and your friends call your tennis shoes?
Girls: Tennis shoes? Maybe sneakers? Gym shoes? Athletic shoes?
Julie: Am I the only one in Texas who says "tennies"?
Girls: Yes. Except us, because sometimes we say it to you.

Oh. my. goodness. I had no idea.

But look. It is right here.

More than 20 years in Texas, and nobody ever set me straight until today.

By the numbers

1: is the loneliest number. (If it ain't broke, don't fix it.)

2: Points of view in my story.

3: Number of the draft I start tonight.

4: Number of historical tie-ins to Waco I added to my manuscript this week.

1,604: The number of times the word "was" appears in my manuscript, according to Word. Do I have my work cut out for me or what? I can't get rid of every single one, but that's maybe a little over the top. (EDIT! Make that 1,382 after only a few hours of combing and replacing through about a third of the MS. Some of those was's are stubborn little suckers, though. They insist on staying. Unfortunately, there are also many instances of other "to be" verbs. Sigh.)

Still and all, it was a very good week for writing, in quality as well as quantity. I sent a new draft to my first reader, and though I know there's much to do, especially after my beta readers give me feedback, it just looked so purdy today I was all beaming and floating around.

I think if I were an already published writer, this is the point at which I'd whisk the thing off to my agent for a "Look! What do you think?" kind of read. As a "pre-published" writer, it needs to be well beyond that before I dream of sending even a query to an agent. Darn near perfect.

But, cripey, look how far my baby's come!

Quiet ...

... means I'm getting a lot done on my manuscript. It's been a good week already, and it's only Tuesday! I have to hurry--tomorrow's the last day of school. What will I do with the monkeys out?

I started gathering some history of the town where my story's set yesterday. Perhaps this seems backwards, considering the first draft is already written, but it's too late to do it any differently. It's actually working out pretty well. I used the Handbook of Texas Online for a short history of Waco, and several of the themes present were reflective in strange ways of my story, so I was pleased. I'm not sure I would have recognized them before getting the story down.

To include the most obvious modern history of the Waco area or not ... that is the question. Still contemplating that one. (Don't want to mention the actual details here--I get too many random visitors when I do silly stuff like that. If you haven't remembered already, it has to do with an odd religious sect and a lot of people dying.)

The layering and detail work is a lot more fun than I thought it would be, though.