Saturday, August 29, 2009

Short story submission

I've been thinking I'll submit the original version of The Vigil for a short story contest. I'm enroute, as it were, to converting it over to a novel, but it can't hurt to try. Thus far I've submitted two inquiry letters to literary agents for The Summer of Pomba Gira, and received rejection emails. I've considered converting that story over to novella length and submitting it for a novella contest. It's easier to write something for a particular venue than to cut parts out of it once it's been written, I"m finding. I'd submitted a 600 word short for an NPR contest but didn't win it. It was a comedy piece to be read over the air (presuming one wins!) but writing humor isn't really my thing.

It will all happen eventually, it's just a matter of trying, refining the art, becoming accustomed to the medium from the reader's perspective, I think. I'm used to writing what interests me and I understand what interests me. I think that's problematic, because it assumes that the reader also knows what I'm talking about, which isn't always the case.

A-Writing-We-Shall-Go!

I've written three new chapters now. Some I write on public transportation, others in the evenings. I've been handwriting it all and that's taken some adapting. On the one hand, I think and write quickly, but it's hard not to be able to do immediate cut and paste when an idea hits. I'm getting into it, though, and it's making my train ride go by at lightening speed! I'm contemplating this might be a book for a teen audience, although I originally began it for an adult audience. There are a number of deep themes in it, but I think that our youth are really smart and deep and would resonate with some of it.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Senses Assaulted by Sketchy Media When Home Sick

I was home sick today and casually ping-ponged between Fox News and CNN, hoping to get up to date news. I don't know why I do this to myself. I was watching the story regarding the young woman who'd converted to Christianity and run away from home out of alleged fear that her parents would kill her, because they are devout Muslim. Fox News had it running most of the day. Almost nothing on CNN. The question at hand was if she was going to be returned immediately to her family in Ohio, or be allowed to remain in Florida. Yesterday, when I first heard of the case, I emailed the Governor of Florida, requesting that she be allowed to stay in Florida until the matter is fully investigated.

I should mention, it's not like I've got any personal connection to the Governor of Florida, I just found his email and wrote. This morning, I received an email back from his representatives stating that the matter had been brought to court, and that the ruling was in favor of allowing the girl to remain in Florida DCFS custody for awhile. I leave my home computer and that's when the surreal time warp occurs, between my computer and watching Fox News on TV. Apparently, they didn't get or ignored the email, so busy were they reporting that they were tracking it closely, hoping the girl would be allowed to remain in Florida, etc. They continued to report for four hours after the email that they were awaiting word from the trial.

They're certainly not alone in the time warp problem. CNN had a report today about an alligator found in the Chicago River. As I live in the area, it's always of interest to me what might be lurking in the river, even out of morbid curiosity. So I googled it and discovered it was yesterdays news.

So how did this Middle Eastern girl's story not rank sufficient airtime on CNN? I wondered about if they have some kind of quota or formula for percentage of stories in a period of time that focus on Muslims? I know they had the special on Generation Islam and another very recently related to Muslims. Naw, they probably were probably doing their civic duty, warning the unsuspecting public of the dangers of an alligator who was removed yesterday.

I should have gone to my doctor and gotten some meds, because the time warp converted to a fantastical color discrepancy on my very TV. Fox News then showed the protesters of the Bush era, to contrast it to the protesters of the Obama era, and in the images they selected, all of the protesters against Bush that they selected appeared to be black, and all of the protesters against Obama appeared to be white. Now, I could be wrong, but it seems to me that there are many different people in America to film protesting something one or the other did, so why select images from the archives that way? It's very misleading to the viewing public and likely to ignite some very strong feelings of racial division across political lines. Do they do this to try to incite the people?

I would have thought I was imagining things, until they were showing film from Obama's candidacy, speaking to all black audiences, as if the only people who supported him were black. That was ridiculous. I recall learning that to make some of his initial public speaking engagements seemingly more diverse for the cameras, his people set the front row people up at times in order to ensure that diversity was demonstrated in the supporters. So why is the media doing this, unless it's to create a division among people in order to generate news later? You know its bad when you walk away from the TV feeling sympathy for the presidents facing the media as it is today.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Diversity Czar?

I've just discovered we've got Diversity Czar in the White House now. He thinks that cable channels and private radio stations ought to pay a penalty fee to be given to public channels and public radio stations if they don't meet his diversity criteria. If anyone knows what his diversity criteria is, can you let me know? Does it include religious, political, disability, ethnic, gender, or are we talking race?

I'm reminded lately of Ayn Rand's book "Atlas Shrugged." While not a big fan of her philosphy, she wrote many years ago, and the nonsense that is gong on in this country today almost parallels what she described in he novel.

Everyone is up in arms to blame someone lately. I was reading that the Obama-Joker picture that recently became famous generated a lot of controversy. People were saying it was "racist" and that someone "racist" must have done it. Interestingly, it was done by a Palestinian American young man in Chicago. He came out and said he did the art, but not the label "Socialism" under it. It takes courage to admit you did something like that, and I was really glad he did. It's also interesting to note that the media has latched onto that he is not white to dispel the idea that a "racist" did it.

In another media posting, closer to my heart, they talked about global warming. A professor came out with the idea that ancient man caused it, started it. That's well and good to blame people from thousands of years ago, except there were not a sufficient number of people on the planet to make as big an impact as we do now.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Working on the story and more on the world

So I've got the chapter outlines and character development, it's now just a matter of writing the actual story. I'm going to be deep into the writing of it for 2-4 months. I've never written a story using an outline or knowing where it's going to go, so this ought to be interesting. I usually write in a stream of consciousness way. So when I need to cut loose and go there, I'll come here and post.

We seem to be in quite a state these days in America. A lot of energy around national healthcare issues. I was reading about the Canadian healthcare situation, and they were talking about how they want to fix their system to make it more efficient, and get doctors to communicate better and in a more centralized way. They also want it to go all electronic. I was reading this thinking, isn't this what we want, and we're looking to their system to obtain it? But they don't have it, either. Of course, it's never that simple.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Create your own short story and post it here!


Take this image and create a short story, poem, whatever around it, blog it to me, could be fun! Be inspired! I hate those contests where they give you a title to work with - why not an image? So here it is. Go for it!

State of the world we are in

I was reading that the American Psychological Association's division on global warming discovered that the people who do not believe it is happening have several characteristics. They have a certain level of denial, a lack of information, and a sense of powerlessness over the outcome. I am hoping that The Vigil will begin to address these in a positive and helpful way. I've written the outline of the story, now it's just a matter of writing the novel.

I get the sense that it's less of powerlessness and more of being tired and uninspired. Frustrated. When we get that way, it's really easy to feel disempowered. One challenge I'd put out for any reader is the political science idea that no one can have power over you unless you give them the authority to do so. While there are flaws in that statement, I'd suggest thinking about who authority was given to in your mind in an aspect of your life in which you feel disempowered. Just a thought.

It's August now and I'm giving myself a deadline to get the novel written by Fall Equinox. I'm great with making deadlines, and expect that this will be no exception. If we had deadlines related to when we would find answers for and address global warming, not just nationally, but across all humans, I think we'd be much further along than we are.

On a side note, I've been invited to submit writings for two upcoming compilations which will be published later this year. Very exciting! I intend to burn the midnight oil on these and the novel. In my case, it will be lime scented candles. I've got a thing for limes.