Stop Obsessing

I've been so caught up in what's going on in the world, I haven't had time to blog. With the state of the country, the Congress running amok on health care, our economy being flushed, and our troops being all but ignored, I haven't been able to concentrate on my writing. Every time I plan to sit down and work on my novel, I can't resist the impulse to go out and see what's going on in the world. I'm obsessed. It happens to me every now and again. No, that's not true, it's a state of mind for me.

But, I swear, tomorrow I'll work on my book for, at least, two hours first thing. The world can just fall apart, I'll be working on my writing. Really.

Please consider sighing petition

petition @whitehouse to support the Seniors' Health Care Bill of Rights #SeniorBOR (plz RT to sign)

Different approach to speed reading

Boy, I'll tell you what, this is going to take some time to learn, but I'm a slow reader who has to read every single word on a page. I'm going to give this a try, but since my attention span is kind of short, I foresee a lot of work ahead for me. Hopefully, I'll remember to spend five or ten minutes a day using this method. My old brain doesn't want to learn new things.

More DIY videos at 5min.com

How does it sound?

I've compiles a list of words describing the voice. I was looking for one that would fit one of my character and got carried away. Thought I'd share my findings with you.


Anger - loud, rough
Nice - smooth, sweet
Type – Rich, sophisticated, snobbish, nose in air
Uneducated – gruff, slang, improper use of language


Other -


Booming,
adult with a childish voice
A voice that reminded me of my friend from the past
Rich southern drawl
Unearthly quality
Dreamlike, ghostly, grave, serious
Warm, soft
Grating, gravely,
Makes your teeth tingle, hurt, headsplitting
Dark
Mellow and light
Voice chimed
Voice pierced my eardrums and made my gums bleed
Jovial
Deep, captivating
Intriguing
Edge to his voice
Harshness
Arrogant
Smooth baritone
Resounding alto
Lilting
Soprano
Vibrating, gravely voice that vibrated deep in his throat
Echoing
Sting to his voice that made me think I’d just bitten into a lemon
Voice folded in a rattle like eggs frying
Creeky
Tembre
Spongy voice, as if mucas were wrapped around her vocal cords
The pitch and energy of his voice
Nasal
Rhythm and rate
Breathy
Creaky, like two hard surfaces rubbing against one another, enough to make your teeth rattle.
Bleat like a lamb’s cry
Hoarse, harsh, grating
Honky, nasal
Resonant, sound carries well

My Progress

A short note to say, yay. I'm progressing well. Though my word count seems to be decreasing the story line is much improved. I've added what I hope will be a fun character. Jack now has, not only a domineering paternal grandmother, he also has an eccentric maternal aunt. Aunt Elvira travels the world chasing messages from her secret service husband who uses alias names. When she arrives as his prearranged rendezvous, there is always a mysterious messenger to deliver the message in a, ahem, meaningful way. She shows up at Jack's house after hearing about Jack being shot, and dismisses grandma who, of course skulks away, humiliated.

Hopefully, I'll be able to bring some humor into the story with a couple colorful characters that will bring out my main characters' personalities.

I believe the secret in lightening a heavy story is to add humor and the best way to do that is to include some quirky characters. It won't take away from the gravity of the situation, but will, hopefully, unwittingly or maybe even, oddly, knowingly, add an epiphany that will help unravel the mystery.

How's that for a paragraph?

Well, gotta go to work now. So to all my followers, God bless and keep you.

Still here

I see no one has given up on me, yet. You'd all be proud to know, I've been writing and making wonderful progress. I decided to limit my distractions and blogging was becoming number one. I loved setting up the site and love tweaking it, so, clearly, I had no time to sit and write. But I've fixed some much needed plotting problems and want to stay with it. I'll be back to report on my progress and check ya'll out.

Airport Blues

I'm back. Spent three days in Los Vegas with the grandkids and their parents. It was above 100 degrees. We stayed at Mandalay Bay and spent the morning on the beach. At that temp, we were in the water a lot. It was fun, we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Then we came home. Flying is such a joy. I know this happens to everyone and everyone has a story. I have several, actually. You can't fly multiple times without encountering some kind of airport trauma. I'm not going to go into it all except to say we made it back on time, but that was a fluke. They changed our original flight due to mechanical problems. We wouldn't be able catch our connecting flight. They gave us a voucher for a motel and sent us on a later flight.

The later flight arrived twenty minutes early--about the same time our connecting flight was loading. Yay. But there was no one to operate the airway, so we sat and watched our homeward flight loading.

Finally we were allowed to deplane, and with just a sliver of hope, we made our way to the next gate where our connecting flight sat. We got on. Even got to sit next to each other. It felt so good to get home, one because it was midnight, and two, we didn't have to spend another night in a hotel room. Of course, we're still waiting for our luggage. I think it's still in Denver. Oh, and we won $100.00. We don't gamble but wanted to lose $20 just because we were in Vegas. So all was not lost.

Well, I mock those who carry their luggage on the plane. Having lost my luggage a number of times, I'm beginning to think . . . but I hate carrying crap, so I'll probably always check the bags even with the charge and the overwhelming possibility of luggage misplacement.