Rebellion by Kid and Other Stuff

You’ve surely heard the story about the six year old suspended from school for his mohawk?  This is disturbing on many levels.  First the mother, who can read the school dress code and has been warned twice before.  Second the school – come on, I can’t believe a bunch of six year olds spend more than one second noticing anybodies hair style.  To me the real issue is the mother using her little boy to rebel against “the man” and the school determined to “get her in line”.  At six, my son didn’t even notice he had hair, much less prefer one style to another.  I feel so sorry for this little boy a human pawn in an adult game.
Julianne’s Wheels of Fire, the book I’m currently writing, is zooming right along.  15,000 words since Monday.  Granted, they aren’t all great words….but that will come later.  While the time spent just writing instead of blogging was productive.  I miss hearing what everyone’s up to.  I missed the humor, contemplation, and sometimes even righteous anger I get from reading through my blogroll.  Apparently I need to learn how to strike a balance, so I can have both things.  Just as soon as that pesky day job is out of the way.

Hmmm….What’s This Called

Whatever the opposite of writer’s block is called, I have it…back on Friday, for today Julianne’s Wheels of Fire calls like a siren….

Lost Weekend

I had an extensive project list to accomplish this past weekend and was cruising along pretty well, ticking things off like a dervish until Saturday, mid morning. Princess brought me a new book, Duma Key by Stephen King. End of progress…

My friend and fellow writer, Waldo Schmidlapt, sent me this picture.   Isn’t that the most interesting thing?   I find it so amazing that both the deer and the cat are showing nothing but curiosity.  He said the picture was taken by “a woman in Oregon”, if anyone knows the photographer, please leave me a note and I’ll credit her properly.

Professional ADD

Let’s see…three e-mails to answer, one final edit to complete, two reports to copy and mail, one agenda to create, 300 more words to write on Julianne’s Wheels, six birthday cards to buy and the bathroom needs cleaned.

Today I will…make slipcovers for the wing chairs. 

Bloggers for Charity – War Child

On a visit to Minx’s blog yesterday I learned of a writing project to benefit the War Child charity called “You’re Not The Only One” the details of which were at Peach’s blog (it’s exhausting giving credit where credit is due, isn’t it?) Peach had this to say about the project:

We would like you to submit (to us at bloggersforcharity@yahoo.co.uk) a written piece about something you’ve been through from any aspect of your life that you want to share. It can literally be about anything: your relationships, your past, a road not taken, being a parent, an illness or your regrets etc. We’ve called it “You’re Not The Only One” to reflect the camaraderie of blogging.

War Child is a UK  based charity, but they help children all around the world.  Follow the link if you’d like to learn more about the cause.

The plan is a book filled with stories as described above, either something you’ve already written in your blog, or something new.  Nothing that has been published outside of your blog however.  1,500 words or less (and they prefer less).   It will be published through lulu.com.   Cruise on over to Peach‘s place for intimate details of this project.  But do it quick, the deadline is February 29th.

I’m going to contribute to this cause, I’ve narrowed it down to three of my favorite posts (all of which need editing).  If you have some time to read today, or you remember these particular stories, which one do you suggest:

Unwelcome Guest and A Trashy Cat    An opossum invades the house and the cat puts the moves on the dog.

A Reputation Ruined  Children sell out parents propensity for swearing.

The Crappy Desk Chair Method of Advertising  Conversation with a character at the hospital.

Rejection Strategy

Have you seen that clip of the guy who proposed to his girl, mid-court during an NBA game between Houston and Sacramento?  She says no.  In front of a packed house, cameras rolling and one of those silly mascots hamming it up beside the intended groom. 

At first glance you might say “Ah, that poor guy, rejected in public, on National TV.”  I was impressed with the courage of the girl who looked like she really cared about this guy, but knew the timing just wasn’t right.  She had options, she could have taken the ring and then retract her answer off camera.  She could have decided not to make waves and been swept into a marriage that just never worked.  She could have taken advantage of this golden opportunity to really embarrass him with a diva performance ending with “talk to the hand”.  She let him down with a whisper and shake of her head. 

She left the court obviously upset and embarrassed.  He left with a beer and the comfort of the silly mascot.  Nobody ever said doing the right thing was going to be easy. 

Things That Make Ya Go – Ugh

How irritating is it that somebody is profiting (and it isn’t me or you!) from an assignment given out by High School teachers and college professors for more than thirty years?  I’m talking about The Bucket List.  Oh we all call it different things…mine is Try Before I Die and has been a page on my blog since I started a blog.  Mines been around since High School when it was a class assignment.  I see these lists all the time on other people’s blogs…and yet, none of us (and we claim to be writers!) thought to write a screenplay around these  stupid lists of things we want to do before we croak.  In my defense, I write for children and they don’t worry about time running out before they do everything they want to do.  Ugh!  I’m not going to see this movie. 

Do you ever do that?  See something and think “why didn’t I think of that?”

Stop Reading!

Well, don’t stop reading, this, just reading in general if you happen to be writing a book.  This advice from an article in The Writer.  Before I go any farther, know that I don’t get paid to promote anything.  There will be no kickbacks for Kat mentioning any book, magazine, movie, shampoo or lint remover in my blog.  Anyway…

The author alleges that reading a published piece while trying to write one interferes with a writer’s voice, can lead to writer’s block and at the very least, inhibit their style.  I chair a large writers group and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve admonished them that “writer’s read”.  I still believe the best writers are readers, but this article made a lot of sense.  How many times have you been half way through a best seller and thought “man, I wish I would have written that”?  Worse, how many times have you been curled up with a book and thought “what’s the use,  I can never top this”?  Have you ever blown out a weekend reading someone else’s book when you should have been writing yours? 

Personally, I’ve done all of these things at one time or another, but I also find spending a few hours with a really good book inspiring and motivational.  Perhaps the difference for me is that I don’t read in the genre I write for.  The article went on to allege that if a writer’s supply of reading material disappears, they will create the stories they seek themselves. 

Interesting theory, what do you think?

Jaded Beyond Redemption – Not

Just when I think I’m totally beat down and jaded by life, something sneaks up to renew my faith in men and the power of love. 

 A fella, we’ll call him Charming, was desperate to express his devotion to the new love of his life, we’ll call her Princess (’cause that’s what I’ve always called her).  Valentine’s Day was looming and Charming had not given Princess any indication of whether he knew the tradition of gift giving for this Hallmark holiday or not.  She was growing frantic worrying that she’d be the only one of her gaggle of friends whose boyfriend failed to deliver the requisite flowers, candy and/or dinner. 

Charming is a quiet guy by nature, protective of his thoughts and feelings most of the time.  With a past cloaked in tragedy and loneliness, real happiness is a new frontier for him and expressing himself is a challenge at all times.  Cliche or not, still waters run deep. 

His gift  was a bouquet of multi-colored roses because he remembered she really prefers wildflowers and they’re out of season.  A copy of the movie they saw on their first date (Halloween), with the ticket stubs taped to the front.  A poem he wrote himself that was phenomenal and makes everyone who reads it cry.  I don’t have permission to share the whole thing, but the last line was “its been Valentines for me since Halloween.”

Lucky girl. 

The Inner You

Remember when we used to say there was a skinny person inside us crying to get out when we were dieting?  Luckily, diets are out of vogue having been replaced with “healthy eating”.  So what happened to all those skinny internal people? 

I never had a skinny person trying to get out of me.  My internal nag was more the Martha Stewart type.  Inside me lives an immaculate housekeeper.  Most of the time I can  keep her trapped under piles and piles of clutter.  She’s easily distracted by new and more germ ridden messes, so it wasn’t that tough a job.  But occasionally she breaks free and tears me away from all the things I want to do.  I can’t concentrate to write with the pile of mail tumbling over into my workspace and the collection of shoes blocking the rollers on my chair.  That’s where it starts…then I notice the fingerprints on the glass doors, the brown leaves on the houseplants, the pile of laundry in the bathroom.  The layer of dust thick enough to plant potatos everywhere….and realize she’s broken through and the only way to beat the old hag back into the darkness is to clean house.  What lives in you?

Hey, look at this, I won an award from my dear friend Absolute Vanilla.  Thank you, AV, someday I will pass it forward when I’m not chasing my own tail (and they aren’t expecting it!) 

On another note:  All you techy programmers out there…isn’t there someway to get a drop down menu of one’s blogroll attached to the link thing?  It would save so much time when posting.  Just askin.