Elves sing along

Oh yes its frozen

December 2013

It is the month of brrrrrrrr. So far no snow, but it’s due to arrive this weekend. The garden is in hibernation mode and the fountain is shivering with a cascade of ice.

On the other hand the pugs offer a wonderfully silly rendition of Santa’s elves. They also sing in dog harmony…somehow they have picked up the wild coyotes traveling chorus and love to belt it out whenever the mailman drives by.

My computer was down for the month of November and its back in function mode. I have been writing scenes long hand on real paper. I recommend this process to all writers once in a while. Connection between hand, eye, and brain is different with a pen at the end of your fingertips. Lovely ramblings and squiggles to draw and connect. Almost as fun as singing in Pug harmony ;D

Stay warm, bundle up, and keep the scenes forming in your creative mind.

Happy Holidays and lots of Cheer.

Puggies in a pile ;p

October 2013

Fall in the Pacific Northwest crashes in with a whopping wind and rain storm! Records set for amounts of the wet stuff and puggies have to wear their rain jackets outside not to mention the temperature drop and they snuggle inside piled on top of each other to keep warm!

It’s also time to warm up the plot in my new storyline. Time to stoke the fire under my protagonist, make the catalyst (the event) have more of an edge to it. Something which jolts him out of “Stasis= Death” pattern of his life. Time for him to take a risk and leave behind his ordinary world and enter the world of risk and adventure. But first I have to work on his flaws. He must have flaws else he can’t change through the journey he is about to make.

One of my resources for good structure in storytelling is from Blake Snyder’s wonderful screenplay books. I highly recommend his work. Save the Cat, The Cat strikes Back, and Save the Cat goes to The Movies.

Stay warm and dry and write, write, write.

Pugs love the summer

Daisy, Diva, Dino, Divot, Dukie

(lol it's the 5 D's)

Fall is almost ready to take wing. Already this year’s young geese are flying in formations testing their aerobatics and skills. Hundreds of them in the traditional V formations are a magnificent sight when they come directly over the garden. I can almost feel their determination in the feathered whoosh of powerful wings and disturbed air currents.

We’ve had a wonderful summer and in a couple of weeks the leaves will start to turn, the rains will be back and the sun will rise later. A quick break at sunrise to sit under the wisteria hanging from the pergola and contemplate the awesome snow covered dormant volcano in the far distance. The panorama is almost eerily like a primordial dreamscape.

A writer’s words conjure up an image of the past, or maybe it is for a future world of fantasy. I have been busy creating a “pitch line” which condenses the essence of the new manuscript into a few words powerful enough to distill the crux of the story and hopefully includes part of the title. It is like a magical puzzle and a fun exercise. It also is crucial both for the potential reader, and for the writer to clearly focus on the core of the story.

It feels awesome to harvest the essence of summer into words and good memories.

Sunflower sentinels

Lavender shades

August is the month of sunflowers and lavender. Orange and blue are complementary colors balancing each other, a pleasure to the eye. They thrive in my garden and each offer up distinct personalities evoking different emotions within myself when I see them.

The sunflowers grow behind and below the arborvitae on the third terrace of my garden. I don’t notice them until I walk the path and turn the corner. They are intended as a surprise tucked away in a spot which gets sun most of the day. Sunflowers are at their best when surprising a visitor. They generate smiles from humans, small birds love the seeds, and bees hug the blossoms. They are the sentinels of the sun.

Lavender occupies the western curving berm and show up as a blue crescent against the green English Laurel hedge. Walking past this scented display I can hear the constant hum of bees gathering pollen like miniature winged harvesters. The tiny blossoms are filled with perfume and when cut are perfect as dried arrangements. First tied in small bundles and hung upside down to dry.  

These flowers so different yet they complement each other in the landscape.

Characters in stories often complement each other in similar ways. I have a tall sturdy character with red hair who loves nature and would rather be outside working on a golfing green than work under a roof.

My other character has mellowed with age and prefers the comfort of scented interiors with her environment safe from the unexpected elements of nature.

The plot of the story is like the garden path where these two people will stumble across each other and their lives will change.

***

Potato blossoms

Bird of Paradise

The unassuming potato blossoms look quiet and humble; a far cry from the showy Bird of Paradise blossom which explodes in display in the front entry way.

It never ceases to fascinate me how many different types of flowers the natural world of plants offers up. The diversity of size, form, color, scents and textural qualities are never ending.

The same abundance of selections are offered up in the creative process of developing a new character in fiction writing. I have a secondary character I am struggling to keep under control. I intended him to be quiet and passive. Lol. And the more I try to find reasons to contain his behavior, personality, and his motives, the more push back I get from him. He's definitely full of intense determination and champions the underdog. 

It’s time to let this character blossom and lead the way.

July is full of fireworks!

  

A pink blanket of clematis

Iris 

Pink tongue and a quick peek

I have favorites, both in my garden and in my stories. The interesting part of this is when it’s unexpected –a surprise.

A scrawny clematis has climbed the fence for several years not doing much. This year it looks as if nature threw a shawl or blanket of exquisite pink frothy flowers across the top of the fence. Absolutely glorious.

A secondary character, mentioned in passing by another secondary character, has stepped forward to take center stage as a funny complicated guy with a story to tell.

I am fascinated with the unexpected whims of nature and the twists of creativity. Here’s a toast to the journey of writing and gardening. Not to mention sunshine has seriously begun to appear in the Pacific Northwest !!

Cherry tree lights up the back half

Blooms everywhere

Cuddle time

May 

Record breaking temperatures for this time of year! Everything in the garden is on a fast track and needing attention all at the same time –at least it seems this way. Weeds (especially dandelions) are thick and the silly pugs love to eat the first buds and tender stalks. A good spring tonic. Not to mention dragging the half dried up roots into the house to chew up.

I must say the garden looks wonderful. The wisteria is starting to bloom and clematis and hops are covering the south side of the barn. Vegetable garden is in. Let’s see what it does in this heat. Need to monitor watering carefully.

Monitoring my writing in a different mode for now. Taking 15 minute breaks and dedicating it to focusing on a scene and writing for this small block of time. It seems to work much better than feeling guilty I’m outside and not spending hours on the computer. Fifteen minutes is free of guilt. And the surprising result is more gets done.

Spring is jumping up and down !!! And midnight songs from thousands of frogs make sleeping a challenge . . . time for earplugs :D

Barefoot horse trimmer. Why barefeet? It's healthier! 

Crocus

Papillon and Pug  love the sunshine!

Spring solstice mixes gardening, research, and imagination.

When creating this new secondary character I love to mix scientific research concerning recreating extinct species, interviews with an equine expert in barefoot horse trimming, and my obsessive love of fantasy.

In the quiet of my garden pulling weeds, digging up raised beds for planting and watching the silly pugs, my imagination spirals outward to nurture and shape this character.

Sometimes a personality emerges with one essential element. Usually it’s a name; other times an essential trait emerges first. A personality quirk which suggests or clamors for my attention, insisting I find and create a history for this character and this leads to what motivates this fictional persona.

April is about transition….rain to earth, where seeds await the warmth of the sun to sprout and grow to maturity. 

Crocus

Spring Sunshine 

March is the month of transition; a time of awakenings (frogs singing); a time of migrations (birds of all sorts have returned); and the garden is blooming (bulbs up and smiling).

March is a hopeful time. As a writer 12K into a new manuscript the possibilities are exciting because a secondary character I thought was going to be an antagonist has refused that particular role and stepped forward as a protagonist with an interesting story of his own.

Yes indeed, spring has ushered in awakenings and new directions!

Happy Spring :D

Primroses

Hearts promise of spring

Ah February! My best ever month for everything chocolate :D  The shortest month of the year and the yummiest. It pays to know a professional candy-maker who hand- dips every piece of Belgian chocolate. Sweet!

This is also the month I am polishing off my agent query letters in preparation for a serious adventure to get my dystopian sci-fi fantasy manuscript published.

And this is also the month I am already 5K words into the sequel to the first manuscript, and loving the story unfolding before me.

Of course the pugs stay indoors because it’s still only in the low 40’s. They make great cuddlers and keep me entertained.

Happy Valentines!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

The fireworks are over, the pugs are absolutely exhausted from all the ruckus, and I stepped outside at five am to listen to the silence.  Each year I make a point of listening to this wonderful absence of manmade sound.

After the night’s earsplitting  bombardments hurled towards the sky at midnight,  humans take a moment to be still, stop agitating, clanging, yelling, banging and stomping around. More like collapsing from too much exuberance.

I suspect those who made the most noise have never noticed the results of their actions. Some of us like to fill time and space with agitation demanding attention, and some of us like the empty quiet which is full of new hope and possibilities to come.

A new year awaits, begun with loud celebration, immediately followed with a deep quiet.  As a writer this silence is like a fresh opportunity to be still and allow new ideas to emerge, new characters to step forward and whisper their stories to me.

*I am grateful to have a new manuscript to work on.

**I am ever grateful for family and friends who journey into the new year with me :D