I have busily been adding the blogs I want to keep up with to Google Reader, which I just thought of today. For someone who enjoys the Net so much, I am woefully ignorant about some of its features. Anyhoo, this new (for me) tool means I will now actually be current with what's going on at all of these pages! Hooray!

FINALLY getting around to completing the meme that Sphinx Ink included me in. Here's the SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT ME meme:

The Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

My six random things:
1. I have an anxiety disorder. This makes life a thrill-every-minute rollercoaster, only without the fun bits.

2. When I was a preteen I would roller disco through my grandmother's house. Got pretty good at it, too; but to be fair, a 5'5" beanpole probably doesn't need to be rollerskating through narrow labyrinthine hallways.

3. My love of small furry creatures began with a stray kitten that used to wait for me to pet him every morning before nursery school. My mom would scoop me up and rush back inside to wash my hands. While she was unlocking the car, I would, of course, pet the kitten again.

4. Small, benign acts of silliness make me very happy :)

5. My first pet was a goldfish that kept jumping out of its tank. I never figured out why. We treated the water very carefully as instructed by the pet store owner. I have been scarred for life by the experience of trying to catch a wriggly fish and put it back and have not wanted a pet fish since.

6. A few Christmases ago, my Mom and I broke into a spontaneous dance routine during a Muzak rendition of Jingle Bell Rock in the TJ Maxx department store. No one noticed.

I'll have to break the rules here, because everyone I know well enough to tag for this meme has already been tagged. But if you're reading this and feel the urge to continue the meme, let me know when you've done so!

I'm trying to be creative, I really am. But I'm also being bombarded with other people's worries about the economy and admonitions that we should be spending as little and saving as much as possible. I'm getting married during the worst financial period in recent history, listening to Oprah recordings where people are talking about how much they have to give up and their struggles to save money. The dissonance here is eating away at me, and my wedding-anxiety dreams are getting worse. I don't have any credit card debt--I pay the balance at the end of every month and often use online checking instead--but I'm reexamining every little happiness I allow myself, every book I consider buying, every edible treat, trying to see where I can cut things down without making life seem like it's not worth living and still be able to afford the big event next year.

It feels like I'm the only one in my household that's aware of this on a personal level, the only one who's carrying this anxiety. If I mention it, it gets dismissed. But I can't help feeling that the roof is about to fall in and I'm directly beneath it.

I've decided to recapture my creativity. To that end, I've started working with the 3D artwork software I bought some time ago and have not used since I got frustrated with the somewhat steep learning curve. I've also gone back to my most recent manuscript--not an easy task since, in my zeal to use the online word processor I found, I erased about 65% of the chapter I was working on. And then found that I had somehow removed that part from the original I've got on my desktop as well. Note to self: Don't get rid of ANYTHING until you're successfully working with a publisher on the finished manuscript! :(

I've also been invited to participate in a meme, which I shall do as soon as I think of some things people don't know about me. I'm a pitifully open book.

Feel free to feed the turtles in my sidebar. It's soothing :)

Go ahead. Poke the penguin >:)

I finally decided to start keeping a journal. After researching journal keeping a bit, I also decided that I would do well with a visual technique rather than sticking to words alone. I got some lovely digital collage sheets from Etsy.com and started looking into books about art journal techniques.

Unfortunately, I found a number of good books. And then I realized that I have no supplies. And THEN , Shauna Roberts interviewed Jade Lee on her website, and I ended up wanting all of one of Jade's series as well. AND I'm SUPPOSED to be saving to pay for a wedding! And when will I do all of this, even though I want to, very badly, and I think it would be good for my thinking processes? I think a LOT of things would be good for me that I turn out not to follow up on. But I really, really like this idea. Can someone please arrange it to rain money and time? Thursdays are a good day for me, and I always have an umbrella handy....

I've found a new writing tool! Zoho has a suite of Office applications plus more, all online, all secure (hopefully), all can be kept private unless you want to share bits. For me, this means I can keep my outline, chapters, and info online as well as on hard drive. That means no more wishing I had my notebook or folder or memory stick. I don't even need to be on my own computer! Today I tried to start writing with the Zoho Writer application but ended up revamping the most recent storyline I started, tweaking it as an outline so that I have a better idea of where I'm going (and am not so intimidated by that big blank white space).

A co-worker introduced me to wordle, which has become one of my favorite toys. It makes a word cloud that visualizes the word frequency in a passage you copy to the wordle site. You can experiment with different layouts, colors, and fonts until you find the image that makes you most content. This seems like a good tool to use in writing; it could allow you to see what the dominant words (and the ideas linked to them) are in a chapter or scene.

Usually when I'm looking for a character's face to inspire me, I go to the Casablanca modeling sites. This can leave something to be desired, as all of the faces there tend toward the idealized end of modern beauty standards. This morning, however, I ran across a site called Ugly Models. Very good for everyday people and if you need to visualize tough guys, unusual looks, or warrior-types. Don't be put off by the name.

I just started PLEASURE UNBOUND by Larissa Ione. Even though the story idea is a new one for me, it felt oddly familiar for some reason. Then I realized why--there's a pattern common to the supernatural romance series that are so popular right now. They all have this list of necessary heroes:
1. The reluctant ruler/leader
2. The peacemaker
3. The techie/intellectual
4. The lover
5. The tortured (literally) outsider
6. The tough female loner
7. The cynic

Have I forgotten anyone?

How do folks keep up with all of the blogs and digests they're interested in AND write AND live a real external life as well? I've got hobbies I'm not attending to, writing I'm supposed to be working on, and I've gotten behind in reading several blogs. So behind that I didn't notice the Left Behind and Loving It series of writer's workshops until two days ago. And I'm already feeling overwhelmed by the amount of material it offers.

I'm one of those people who need time to decompress every so often. I need a quiet space where I can passively let my brain relax and unravel all of the experiences that get tangled within it as the week goes by. I think my decompression-debt is rising these days; when I get home from work, I don't have the energy or the focus to be able to study and absorb new writing techniques or tackle the 3DCG art hobby I was so excited about when I started it several months ago. I just want to sit and do something I don't have to think too much about, like a computer puzzle. Of course, working on a wedding isn't helping.

Where did I fall off the motivation and drive boat? How do y'all manage it?

Check out this post on Worldbuilding with a Wiki. I never thought of using a wiki for anything but an informal info source. Boy, I've really got to start thinking outside of my teeny little box.

Stuck for character backstory development? Might I suggest scrolling through the pictures at It's Lovely! I'll Take It! and imagining which ones your character might have lived in/decorated/cringed away from? Talk about a picture being worth a thousand words....

I have hatchlings!

HAPPY CHOCOLATE DAY, EVERYONE!

I've already eaten some, now you GO FORTH and CONSUME GOOD CHOCOLATE!

On a lower note, looks like my eggs aren't gonna make it. I think I looked at them too often from the same computer before I realized it was NOT a good idea to do so. Dragons on my mind these days, so I've got regretful pangs about losing this batch. Live and learn.

I made one small change to the backstory of the storyline I'm supposed to be working on. The result: a story that has felt that it didn't have enough to drive it forward suddenly shows new signs of life as it simmers in my brain. I'm glad I didn't give in to my impulse to just shove it aside and start a new storyline. Not finishing manuscripts is a dangerous habit I've visited before, and I don't want to do it again unless I write something that's just not viable (and that obviously sucks to anyone who reads it).

Now to get some motivaiton going....

Whoever said planning for a wedding is fun LIED THROUGH THEIR TEETH!

Haven't been writing any fiction. I have been writing for my job, and the funny thing is that my writing skills are strong enough in that area for my boss to be confident that I'll send out letters that will get all the necessary and potentially sensitive questions asked to all of the people involved without insulting anyone. So I can still write. Sort of.

Meanwhile, I also bought a book called THE MIND OF YOUR STORY, by Lisa Lenard-Cook. I'm hoping that examining the heart of my story will help me figure out why this one isn't a joy for me to write and why my slow writing has ground to a complete halt.

Now all I have to do is catch up. To remind me of how important catching up and writing is, I've placed some dragons on this page. Whenever anyone finds a reason to visit this blog, the dragons (now eggs that hopefully won't die) will be here. For any one to visit this page, of course, there has to be something worth reading here. And since my own life is not particularly exciting, the something worth reading will most often involve writing. No worries, I am NOT going to use this blog to chart my wedding planning progress. That would only add to the stress.

But I see why people say blogging is good for writers. I try to think about my story often, and I fail miserably to get any farther than regret about not writing. But WRITING about working on my story somehow makes it more possible that I could actually work on the story. Henh.

Succumb to whimsy at some time this month. It'll make you feel good, and everyone else will eventually forget their own shock.

I want to WRITE AGAIN! It's been too long!

But I've forgotten where I wanted my storyline to go....