I wore out my welcome over the long Christmas weekend at my friend Brien's house with his lady friend and a couple other friends. People bitch and moan and carry on about how the snow inconveniences their lives but we built a igloo.

Hope you had a great Christmas spent with the ones you love and love you and....

have a great NEW MOTHERFUCKIN' YEAR !!!

Gave myself a B-. Thanks, Janus!

Hard to believe that we are only days away from ringing in 2011. Thanks to learning about Janus in adult Sunday school almost two decades ago, the two-headed god for whom January is named, I now can't look ahead to the New Year without reflecting on the past year.

I began this blog in October by introducing a framework for setting and realizing writing goals introduced by Lori A. May. I thought it was fitting to revisit my goals--which should be done four times a year.

GOALS FOR 2010-11:

1. Revise SHAKER mss and resubmit to [certain publisher]
2. Complete three of five WIPs novels
3. Have 4 quality journal credits to add to my clips
4. Make some money from my writing
5. Meet new writers, editors, agents
6. Be a better Literary citizen
7. Improve my visibility as an author
8. Further my craft and push myself as a writer
9. Have a fiction manuscript accepted for publication
10. Cultivate and deepen opera network in preparation for book tour

 Based on a framework, I devised those goals in mid-July. So, six months later, how much have I accomplished?

• I added 6,300+ words to one WIP.  (Goal #2)
• Finished the first draft (except last chapter) to another WIP--adding 20,000 words. (Goal #2)
• Added 40 posts to this blog since October and as many followers. (Goal #7)
•  (Goal #8).  
• Following and seeking out new writers, editors, and agents on Twitter daily, to build my online network (Goal #5)
• I completed and requested new interviews with opera companies, directors, and composers. (Goal #10)
• I did one reading since revisiting my goals in October. (Goal #7)
• Completed TWIt Write-a-thon on October 30 to benefit my local library and participated in NaNoWriMo(Goals #6 and #8)
• Read two e-books on craft and writing to publish (Goal #8)
• Pitched new WIP (nearly complete) to agent who passed on other manuscript. (Goal #9)
• Revised and submitted a short story for publication. (Goal #4)

So what grade have I earned for the fourth quarter of 2010? I give myself:

I didn't revise that all important manuscript that one publishing house offered to revisit. I didn't revise any other short stories to submit to journals. The most significant accomplishment was the work on two WIPs--which is good work. I made no money as a writer--though I did submit a resume to our continuing studies department so that I could be considered for teaching writing classes to adults.

How about you? What grade would you give yourself for your literary/writing/publishing endeavors in 2010?

Long on words? Short on words? A Twitter/Blogger mashup challenge.

Have you ever known someone who's too long on words? I'm thinking of a professional writer who's too long-winded. Once I sent this person a story. Imagine my surprise when said editor didn't reduce my word count--they added words. Filler words and phrases. Here's an example:

If my caption says something like, "George Washington (left) joins Benedict Arnold at the nation's first Fourth of July party," invariably, after this person is finished with it, it says something like, "George Washington (at left) is seated with Benedict Arnold (at right) in observance of the nation's first ever Fourth of July holiday get-together."

Precise or fussy?

Now, precision is critical with this person--in all their endeavors. So what if more words were added, trying to be precise? No BFD, right? In my view, it's easy to streamline professional writing and important to do. Usually, this kind of writing doesn't sizzle. Why add filler words? Like medicine, professional writing should go down easily. It behooves all of us who write professionally to be as clear and concise as we can.

By contrast, another professional writer I know tries not to be long on words. It goes against her writing training. She even credits Twitter for forcing her to say things concisely. For those who don't use Twitter, each Tweet needs to be 140 characters or less--that includes spaces between words and punctuation.

At first, Tweeting takes getting used to. But like anything, you learn by doing. Plus, there's plenty of models of clever writers whose Tweets have substance or wit or irony to inspire new Twitter users.

A Twitter/Blogger mashup challenge.

Today, to celebrate saying more with less, let's practice brevity. What was the best novel you read in 2010 and why? Write your answer in the comments but limit yourself to 140 characters or less. (You have to include the why.) I'll start.

Favorite novel was The Ginseng Hunter (Jeff Talarigo). Not only moving, it taught me how the North Korean regime uses and hurts its people. (139 characters)

Your turn:

Diggy Simmons "Past, Presents, Future"

EVERY HIP-HOP FAN HAS NO CHOICE BUT TO RESPECT THIS TAPE!

-Tokyo Jai

d-_-b


Download Mixtape Free | LiveMixtapes.com Mixtape Player

THE DIGITAL STORY OF THE NATIVITY 2.0

This is the way how social media, web and mobile tell the story of the Nativity.Christmas story told through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Wikipedia, Google Maps, GMail, Foursquare, Amazon... Warch the video.

Video of Digital Nativity 2.0.:

Meeting writing triumphs and disasters just the same

"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same . . . "

--an excerpt from "If" by Rudyard Kipling



The writing life has many ups and downs.



 

The writing life is often a string of contradictions: positives/negatives, acceptances/rejections, "I like your work"/"I hate your work." You get a story published or win honorable mention in a contest. The same week another piece gets roundly rejected or formulaically dismissed.

At present the only entity with more ups and downs than a writer's career is the stock market.

What was that lyric Mary Chapin Carpenter used to sing: "Sometimes you're the windshield. Sometimes you're the bug."

Writing is subjective (though it is curious to me how many people think something is good only when others like it, too--but then the same claim has been made about opera singers. People only recognize the quality of the performance when they recognize the name).

For all their expertise, ribbon dancers are
judged subjectively, too.

Writing to publish is a lot like many other art forms from the visual arts to dog shows to rhythmic gymnastics (those ribbon dancers in the Summer Olympics?) and is unlike racing and lots of other sports contests. Writers' work is subject to expert assessment, including mechanical standards that must be met. Assuming you've demonstrated a modicum of competency, your work will advance or fail based on someone's subjective opinion.

When writers are rejected, because writing is such an extension of oneself, often we take it hard--too hard. I know I have. But I keep trying, keep getting back on that horse. Because there's no way I can get a book published if I don't get back on that horse--no matter how many saddle sores I've accumulated.

It really distresses me when writer friends/acquaintances have taken rejections overly hard, threatening to  tear up a manuscript, tell a gatekeeper like an editor or agent something that might compromise any future acceptances, or give up writing all together. I can see it so clearly that they are over-reacting to one person's subjective opinion (much less clearly when it's me.)

If writing means that much to them, I've often asked myself, how can they consider giving it up so easily? Or perhaps writing doesn't mean that much. Is getting published more meaningful? Should getting published always be the overarching goal to any writing?

I believe the desire to have your work published needs to be commensurate with your desire to write. Writers who say they are only interested in writing for themselves have always struck me as disingenuous.

So, if you're like me, you want to be a published novelist, and sometimes you fall into a black hole--like if someone else gets published before you but you've been at it longer? When mired in self-destructive cycles, writers should stay far away from their work. Let the bad feelings sink in. Feel the pain, so you can let it go, but don't go after your manuscript. Give it a day, a week, a month or six months. I promise you, you'll feel differently. I've given myself a restraining order from my latest manuscript. Otherwise, I'm sure I'd kill it because it hasn't gotten picked up yet, and I can't yet revise it objectively. 

Just so you know, I'm not suggesting you stuff your feelings. We're allowed to get down on ourselves--it's only natural. Most of us do at some point.

But give yourself permission to get back up. And fix your eyes on the prize, and keep your head out of the clouds. Believe in yourself but don't get carried away with yourself.

On fewer occasions, I suppose because many of my writing friends aren't published, they are tempted to let themselves become complacent with that occasional endorsement.

Writers striving to be published have to learn to weather the bad and the good. Some of you might be thinking, did you just say, "Weather the good"? What's to weather when things are good, you may be thinking. However, if old Rudyard Kipling has any cred, he contends that triumph and disaster are both impostors.

So, what happens to the person who "meets with triumph and disaster just the same"?

A product of his day, Rudyard Kipling says, "You'll be a man, my son." With apologies to Mr. Kipling, we can consider that his use of the word "man" applies to "women," too, that he was merely using a gender convention of his time.

I'll go a step further in suggesting Kipling's couplet applies to all the writers among us--if we "have ears to hear."

Happy Birthday to Stephanie and I. It was an amazing night thanks to the beautiful people I call my friends.I love you all very much...real talk.

My mom got this gem of a birthday cake.

Crush'uh'da'week...Rihanna:Interview Magazine

Wither your male or female I'm pretty sure you remember when this young lady came on the scene and you thought to yourself  "Damn,where da' faux fur she come from?" or at least I did.
These are shots from Interview Magazine with her being interviewed by Kayne West.

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/rihanna/

  

You can be too close to what you write

I won’t argue with the guideline that you should write what you know. However, writers need to consider that sometimes they can be too close to a personal experience to write about it well.

Lack of distance can be a trap that snags up storytelling, pace, plot, and character development. In other words, it can sabotage the book in your head you’re dying to and trying to write. It can and often is the dealbreaker.

Writers feel an unnatural and ultimately limiting responsibility to faithfully represent the fictionalized account of something that really happened. They provide too many insignificant details–many more than the reader needs. They fail to use the old flash forward–jumping the time frame of the story–because flashing forward is not true to one's precious memory.

Sorry to be the bearer of painful caveats, but slavish attention to memory isn’t always a writer's friend.

I learned this lesson firsthand in writing my first book–a fictional account of a midlife reckoning. It was gratifying for me to recount every detail of the viewpoint character’s meltdown for the reader. It was my life, I felt violated, and I was writing this book to eke out some poetic justice for myself–my motives were pure. It was a formula for an unsuccessful novel that would have held little interest for most readers.

In my valiant effort to recreate the characters in this autobiographical tale faithfully, I limited my storytelling ability
.
Did I learn I from my mistake? Absolutely. In fact, I approached the same theme again in a short story a few months later, this time taking quite a bit of poetic license with the protagonist and antagonist. The protagonist even became a ghost, coming back to haunt the man that drove her to self-destruction. I changed up lots of small details. And it was very freeing. I felt unshackled from my own history and finally able to tell a story, and I did much better job of it. It won a short story contest, and I made my first ever money from writing creatively–at 3 cents a word, that story earned me $90-some bucks.

Now that I’ve committed the I-was-too-close-to-the-story-I-was-writing offense, I recognize it in others. When I point it out, however, people most often balk at the observation.

“Well, I have to say what really happened,” one writer said, when I told him he really didn’t need to share every single detail of his motorcycle ride across New England. He disagreed with me. He won a battle--he stuck to his guns and didn't change a word of his text--but lost the war because he lost a reader.

This topic segues nicely into control, discretion, and writing about something very painful with a healthy amount of emotional distance, which is necessary for exquisite memoir or autobiographical fiction. Some writers can only learn this lesson the hard way. At the time I wrote my first book, I didn’t have a circle of writing friends as resources. I had a burning passion to pour out my story, my keyboard, and my unflinching memory. In the instance of autobiographical fiction, I should have flinched a little.

If you're writing autobiographical fiction, take more license than you think you should with the story. Be brave enough to elllipse details that don't advance character or story. Chances are, you're way too close to it to write about it well.

A page turner, please, and a viewpoint character with quirks

I like quirks in characters. In my favorite cozy mystery series created by the late Lawrence Sanders, private investigator Archie McNally has many of them–from unusual clothes items such as colorful berets to telling you what he eats at every meal to pet sayings such as, “One never knows, do one?”

I think quirks can elevate characters above stereotypes, too. Though I’ve met some unusual people, I can’t say most of the people I know are quirky. (But then I wouldn’t want to read about them either.) Whenever I’ve met someone in real life with a quirk, it’s always stuck with me, and some of my family members and friends have found themselves in my stories. For instance, my older brother is very anal retentive about his pepper. He has seven kinds of pepper, each in its own mill, clearly labeled, and arranged on his stove top from mild to hot. Well, I couldn’t let that juicy little item go by. Of course I gave one of my characters, an FBI agent, some anal retentive qualities and used those pepper mills in his kitchen, causing the protagonist to say, “Seven mills? Sounds like a tax rate.”

Anyhoo,  if you don’t know particularly quirky folks whose habits you can infuse into your characters or if you suffering from brain drain and can’t think of any qualities particular different or downright strange with which to imbue your characters, then you need to  hit some sites that role players use. Role players have identified tons of quirks on their websites and forums, more than you could ever think of if you sat down to come up with quirks and had an endless supply of paper, two free hours, and a Red Bull.

For example, I spent less than a minute on a Dungeons & Dragons  forum called 1001 Character Quirks and found lists of tasty quirks such as:

• keeps a bag filled with little jars of dirt from each nation he’s been to;
• insomniac;
• contradicts everyone about absolutely anything even the pointless things;
• constantly catches bugs and keeps them as pets in containers, isn’t aware of their need for sustenance and is deeply upset when they die;
• always steals people’s stories and doesn’t keep track of which story came from who hence occasionally tells a stolen story to the person he stole it from; and
• has an obsession with people's ears or other body part.

Then of course there’s a blog post called 100 Character Quirks You Can Steal From Me. And many, many other rich sources you can find within minutes on the Web.

Now, of course, you can’t stuff all these quirks into your book characters. But if you carefully choose one or two, you may end up with a more novel novel than you envisioned.

MERRY MONDAY

I know it's only Monday but this is hands down my favorite time of year.Plus my birthday is the 23rd.