Month: November 2017
NaNoWriMo update and migraine
I took a higher dosage of my prescribed medication so I could attempt to get back on track. Thankfully, I accomplished 29,702 words written with 20,298 to go. I have
59.4 % completed according to Writing.com’s calculator.
I saw Lisa made progress today. I’m happy for Carly she finished. We can do this Lisa.
I got an interesting message from my writing class instructor this afternoon that helped validate my insanity. “BTW I’ve just finished reading your chapters. Excellent!” He gave me an exclamation point, the man never does that. Raz always says save the exclamation point for the best possible moment and only use one in a book to make it damn good.
I’m off to bed, tomorrow I go to Philadelphia to get my Botox injections and to discuss with the doctor about changing my medicines so I have relief longer than a week. This is the third month in a row where the nerve block hasn’t lasted longer than a few days. There has got to be something different to try.
“Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.” ~ Bob Marley
Saturday update
NaNoWriMo day 18 , I should be at 30,006 but I’m at 26,661. Today, I just couldn’t get the words. I deleted more than I kept. Grrrr.
A serious lack of sleep didn’t help. Our Airbnb guests went out and returned at 3:30am. They woke me up and I couldn’t get back to sleep. Then trying to get all my errands done before hubby leaves for Virginia Beach tomorrow added to the frustration. He works away during the week and won’t be home until Wednesday and then there’s Thanksgiving stuff needed. Never enough hours in a day. And if running around isn’t enough I have a migraine from hell going. My shots are on Monday I can’t wait. Life has a way of complicating the best intentions.
Purryl has wanted Mommy time so we’re writing this blog on the iPad together. Macavity isn’t happy she is taking so much of my time. Yup, we have jealousy going on between the two.
this is Purryl, she’s our 15 year gray tabby. She weighs 25 lbs. When she’s in your lap you know it.
Good night everyone, here’s to a new day and hopefully a huge writing day. 🤔
In a Chaotic Moment
In a Chaotic Moment ©
Leaves flutter wildly in the wind
The colors burst upon my soul
scattered thoughts defiantly pinned
Leaves flutter wildly in the wind
The colors burst upon my soul
scattered thoughts defiantly pinned
The Soledad is an ancient Spanish stanza consisting of three eight-syllable lines with the first and third lines rhyming, as described and demonstrated in the following link: http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?/topic/1023-soledad/
More examples can be found here: http://www.rainbowcommunications.org/wordplay/forms/Soledad.pdf .
NaNoWriMo update
“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” ― Terry Pratchett
Making progress… Death and I by Lyn Crain
21,203 Words
28,797 To Go
42.4 % accomplished
I don’t know how people do it, my fingers ache at night, one wrist is screaming at me. I’m crazy and I’m loving every moment. I see my first draft as an elaborate outline, The editing process will be so much fun because I’m taking it from 3rd person to 1st person. My character is too strong to let someone else tell her story.
“Writing is a struggle against silence.” ― Carlos Fuentes
Mairin chose today to be silent. I was frustrated and ready to jump off a cliff when I decided to reach out and ask for help. Marcus answered the call and guided me away from the cliff. His advice was to get inside her head, make her angry to talk and she will. You’re good at pushing buttons … do it.
I wrote the doctors conversation with him being condescending bordering on bullying. I used a doctor from my previous life as my role model and how he treated me. I remembered the rage I felt and it helped because Mairin responded. She surprised me with the anger that came out on the page.
I’m lucky in some ways that other writers aren’t I have an awesome writing family. We bounce ideas and give each other honest feedback. Marcus, Victor, Sara, Debbie, Raz, Jeffrey and my hubby are awesome. If you’re struggling with your writing, I suggest joining a writing group or get involved in one online. Ask questions, and keep asking questions until you get what you need.
“You don’t know you exist until you see your name chiseled in stone or on the cover of your book. That’s when you become immortalized.”~Lyn Crain
Laws, Economics and Violence
Burying one’s head in the sand doesn’t help either. People have to want change for it to happen which means getting involved, voting and taking responsibility for one’s actions.
Nothing in life is simple. Humans have been craving simplicity for longer than recorded 
history exists. Thunder is a god going bowling? Nope. A god created the world in six days? Nope. Thor makes lightning with his hammer? Nope.
A deity doesn’t want people to eat pork? Nope. It’s trichinosis.
Humans crave simplicity because anything else takes work? That’s a possibility. Intense thinking is work.
Simplicity is a mirage.
Let’s take a policy example. The theory is that if everyone has guns, there will be fewer shootings because bad people will be afraid of getting shot. Nope, it doesn’t work that way.
St. Louis has lax gun laws and is the murder capital of the US. Civilians can carry a gun in a car in St. Louis without a permit. That’s illegal in Chicago, Detroit, New York and Baltimore — and St. Louis has a much higher murder rate than…
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Quote and NaNoWriMo update
“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”~ Edgar Allen Poe
19,148 words thus far in Death and I, the story of Mairin, Bruce, and Death.
This weekend I wrote three found poems with snippets of the NY Times again. I had a great helper too. Macavity laid on the snippets and moved several which ended up being just what I needed. I used pieces of the different poems in my story with Mairin, too, so my cutting the newspaper became an exercise in creative thinking.
Phantom Threat
A family portrait for all humanity
blood, sweat, toil, and tears
unraveling racial hatred
prompts crisis
in the darkest hours
of rivers and rituals
Happiness is for other people
those who stay
the once mediocre
seek some calm
apologize again
for them, it’s not discrimination
but
A war of words underway
The screaming just won’t stop
until
we seek our way to death.
*************************************************************************************
An enlightened friendship
when coffee brews a different spirit
in all its realness
speaks
Sweetness with a side of sarcasm.
*********************************************************
The metamorphosis
is an unwanted
brutal final indignity.
It penalizes what we had
in the
years of relying on what
no one knows.
The dots to greatness
remain unknown.
Yup, he had a good idea. The coffee poem and the metamorphosis both improved with his help.
Motivational Quote and Me
“Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.”
― Yoko Ono
A lady I knew in Maine, my rival when it came to Halloween decorations passed away unexpectedly yesterday. We’re the same age, and our children are the same ages. I was reminded how short our lives truly are.
I want to take a moment for the families in Texas whose world was turned upside down in a moment of violence. They are in our prayers. I don’t understand why anyone would do that to another human being.
I’ve written 8650 words, monumental for me in 5 days. I was feeling overwhelmed with my character so I decided to take a mental health break. I made a Thanksgiving centerpiece wreath for our table. It went to together easy enough considering this is my very first attempt at making a wreath. (Yup, I followed a youtube video.) The glitter all over the floor was messy and everywhere with help from Macavity. Overall the project took just over two hours from start to finish and the result was very eye appealing.
The Mistletoe Murder
of
Philosophers and
Other Lovers
in what once
was a nation
now
A Gambler’s Anatomy
In this
City of Dreams
Where America Begins
of
Philosophers and
Other Lovers
in what once
was a nation
now
A Gambler’s Anatomy
In this
City of Dreams
Where America Begins
Judge Not
The Whistler
The Man Who Chose
To Exile
Rogue Heroes
In the
March of the Lexicon
Surprise
Words on the Move
Cruel Beautiful World
It’s no longer
Seriously Sweet
When Music Was Life and Death
no
Escape Clause
to
The Wrong Side of Goodbye
in a Sleeping World
oh
The Mortifications
Bless Me
for I Will Sin©
Enjoy your Monday. I need to go Mairin, Bruce and Death are calling.
A quote and scraps of today
“The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has been before.” —Albert Einstein
I wrote 3295 words this morning. I got up at 6am and sat writing until noon. I didn’t move except to refill my coffee and to use the bathroom. I decided that I better move around some I worked on taking down Halloween and putting up Thanksgiving. It’s disappointing to me how few decorations there are.
Outside the house, all signs of Halloween have disappeared for another year. Hopefully, we will be living somewhere new by the time Halloween rolls around again. I’m looking forward to next the adventure. I put the scarecrows and the turkey by the front door. I hung a turkey on the storm door. The living room is packed up but that’s as far as I went today.
I decided to have raw veggies, some pepperoni and a cup of tea for dinner and work on the edits Raz sent back. I finished that and decided to work on some more writing. I lost all track of time, missed Grey’s Anatomy again. 😦 but I did churn out 3000 more words.
I haven’t re-read what I wrote yet. I’m happy with calling it a night. I’ll edit tomorrow. I just want to be ahead so I can some quality time with my husband.
I even started a crazy poem today that I’m going to use in my story Death and I
I toss another swig back
feel my lips pucker and eyes bulge.
I know there’s mascara streaks
running down my face.
It hardly matters now.
I wish I’d known love
was cruel before
It played me like a fool.
I’m always wiser
when it’s too late.
So liquor is my new love of choice
I drink your memory away
My friends warn me
drinking is a problem
that it will be the death of me.
Will that even matter?
who knew salvation’s possible
a sip at a time
til bottle’s empty.©
lyncrain 