Thursday, July 19th, 2012 … is that they take tsunamis very seriously around here.
This is a photo of the Tsunami Strobe Light Warning System right at the beach. It’s got a klaxon which blows in the event of a tsumami to warn people off the beach and to get to high ground. [It’s also tested every Wednesday at 11 a.m. You can hear it for miles.] The light on top blinks blue.
Here’s a close-up of the explanatory sign on the Tsunami Early Warning System.
And yet another sign, posted in the parking lot near the beach, warning that the beach is a hazardous area in the event of an earthquake (which will cause a tsunami.)
Here’s an unusually round sign (only unusual because all the other tsunami signs have been square) posted along the evacuation route. It makes certain you’re going in the right direction.
When you’ve reached high enough ground, this sign lets you know.
And here’s a sign in front of an evacuation site, which interestingly enough, leaves off the word “tsunami.” Presumably the locals know it’s for that purpose.
The sign just happens to be in front of the local movie theater, which I presume is an awesome place to ride out a tsunami. Because if the world is going to end, and Oregon goes floating off into the sea, you might as well enjoy a good movie (and some popcorn) while it’s happening.
Saturday, July 14th, 2012 I made it!
I’m here in Oregon safe and sound.
The trip was brutal:
My 8:25 a.m flight was delayed by an hour – so we had to sit on the tarmac while they figured out why a light in the cockpit wouldn’t shut off. The delay was mostly because of the paperwork that had to be signed off on.
And when my connecting flight to Portland, OR arrived, the yellow emergency slide partially inflated, and we couldn’t leave by that exit. Maintenance was called (this was a different plane, BTW) as well as airport folk, who were to bring a metal staircase to the opposite plane door so we could debark.
Whee! We would have had to go down some steps to the tarmac, and then up some steps to get back into the terminal.
It would have been kewl: but maintenance arrived the same time the steps did, so they decided to let us sit on the plane until the emergency slide was fixed. Ho-hum. I would have liked to go down on the tarmac.
I had to take a shuttle to the rental car place, and them embarked on a two-hour drive (really, longer due to traffic) to Lincoln City on the coast. The scenery was beautiful, once I got out of the city. I can’t wait to do some site seeing.
I’m staying at the Historic Anchor Inn – which is charming. It’s art-deco decor of the 40s and 50s is terrific. All the rooms are decorated with antiques. I so want the lamp that’s in my room.
Here’s the view outside my window:
Thanks for all the well wishes for the flight! More to come…
Friday, July 13th, 2012  It’s possible I’m dead right now. Check the news. I’ll wait.
Did you see anything about a plane crash? One heading to Oregon from the Eastern Seaboard? If so, I might be on that plane, and therefore dead.
It would also mean that all the lucky charms and talismans I stuffed in my pockets before I left, did not work.
(You might have figured out that I have a fear of flying. I don’t know where it came from. I’ve flown to Europe on more than one occasion, have been up and down the East Coast and as far west as Colorado…and I enjoyed each of those trips. But somewhere along the line, my brain wrinkled.)
I’ve been advised to take a pill and have a drink.
Instead, although I’m not normally a superstitious person, I’m carrying with me:
- Several rosaries.
- A scapular.
- A lucky sea bean.
- An acorn.
- A wad of Patron Saint, Miraculous and Bleeding Heart medals that I inherited from my grandmother.
- Some medals of my own, purchased at the Vatican on Easter Sunday – which makes them holier, right?
- A tiny, tiny statue of statue of Saint Christopher, inherited from another grandmother. It’s encased in brass, no larger than a bullet (and very easy to carry in my pocket).
- I have also made a promise to donate money to a charity upon my return. Because according to Jewish wisdom, there is extra protection given to someone who is en route to perform such a mitzvah.
If it offers protection. I’m game. I just hope they can all work in harmony. I’d hate for one lucky charm to cancel out another.
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Write about your good luck charm.
- Take a character in one of your stories and give him a good luck charm. Think of something unusual for the charm or talisman. Write the back story for it: why does he carry this particular item?
- Write about:
- a lucky shirt
- a four-leafed clover or bamboo
- lucky sigils, crosses, runes or rings
- a lucky ‘piece’ (a penny)
- a horseshoe – with the luck run out!
- lucky runes
- crickets, lady bugs, dragons, or scarabs
- acorns
- a rainbow
- Find a penny, pick it up
and all day long, you’ll have good luck!
- Write about someone who throws a coin down a well, and gets his wish: but not exactly the way he wanted it to happen.
- “Luck of the Draw,” his tag read. She stared at him, and he stared back. Now how was she going to get him home?
- …Star had sent to them as its messenger. The bird was stuffed and preserved as a powerful talisman. They thought that an omission of this sacrifice would be followed… ~ From The Golden Bough, 1922. Chapter 3. Human Sacrifices for the Crops by Sir James George Frazer.
- Write a scene (or more) from the point of view of person who is very superstitious.
- Luck can change in an instant. Write a scene where a person’s luck changes by the end of it.
- His mother pleaded for him too, but it was not needed. He had enclosed in his letter the strongest talisman of all, a letter written by Elizabeth in the long ago when we were children together. ~ From The Making of an American, 1901. Chapter V. I go into Business, headlong by Jacob A. Riis.
Good luck!
Tuesday, July 10th, 2012 Any seasoned travelers out there?
I’m leaving Friday to attend two of Dean Wesley’s Smith’s Writing Workshops, and I’m starting to get antsy about what to pack. (Though, I’ve got a nice pile started already…)
It’s two, four-day workshops with a day in between. So my plan was to pack for four days in a carry-on, and commit to doing laundry on the free day.
The Husband of Awesome™ (who will be holding down the fort while I’m gone – Thanks, Dear!) tells me I should pack everything I need and just check my bag.
Either way I’m in a quandary. I don’t have much experience with packing well. (Don’t get me wrong: I’ve traveled. I’ve packed! But all my trips for the last decade have been car or train trips. It’s so easy to over pack — because there’s room — and so I do.)
I like the idea of carrying on a day pack, and my laptop, and then just buying what I need when I get there…but I can see how checking a bag makes for easier entry and departure from the plane – not to mention that I can over-stuff a carry-on with lots of entertaining items for the long trip.
Either way, I’m looking forward to seeing Oregon. I’m finally going to put my feet in the Pacific Ocean…can’t wait for that!
Any suggestions for making travel easier?
Friday, July 6th, 2012  It’s not even mid-July and the dog days have arrived. The weatherman predicts triple-digit heat today and even hotter triple-digit heat tomorrow.
Makes me wish I were floating on a raft, catching some rays, reading a really good book.
(To be sure, I’d also be wearing a hat and sunglasses and be slathered from head to toe in sunscreen. I don’t tend to burn, but I don’t want shoe-leather skin by the time I’m 50….) 🙂
What do you think of when someone says dog days of summer?
I think of high school summers: lazy days on the hammock, sunning myself on the deck, crazy corn-field parties at night, loud music, driving with the windows down, dancing.
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Write about what you like to do when it’s too hot too move outside. Or, write about hot-summer memories.
- Are you completing a character sheet for a work in progress? Write about what your character does/likes/did during long, hot summers.
- Write about a summer job.
- A prompt just for today, July 6: On July 6 the first picture post card was made. If you could make a postcard, what picture would you put on it? Who would you send it to? What would you say?
- The real foundlings, the children of the gutter that are picked up by the police, are the city’s wards. In midwinter, when the poor shiver in their homes, and in the dog-days when the fierce heat and foul air of the tenements smother their babies by thousands, they are found, sometimes three and four in a night, in hallways, in areas and on the doorsteps of the rich, with whose comfort in luxurious homes the wretched mother somehow connects her own misery.
~ From: Waifs of the City’s Slums in How the Other Half Lives, Jacob A. Riis, 1890.
- Dog-days of summer word association. Write whatever comes to mind when you hear one or any of the following words or phrases:
- lazy days
- ice cream
- steamed crabs
- street festivals
- swimming
- water balloon fights
- tree houses
- bullfrogs
- home-grown tomatoes
- on the beach
- car washes
- roller coasters
- ice cold watermelon
- open-air concerts
- berries plucked and eaten off the vine
- lightning bugs, fireflies, glow worms, dragonflies, June bugs, Japanese beetles, moths, mosquitoes, chiggers, deer flies, hover flies, see-me-nots, bumble bees, ladybugs
- There in the morning, still, while the fierce strange scent comes yet
Stronger, hot and red; till you thirst for the daffodillies
With an anguished, husky thirst that you cannot assuage,
When the daffodillies are dead, and a woman of the dog-days holds you in gage.
~ Epilogue, from Amores. D.H. Lawrence, 1916.
- Uses your senses. Choose one sense: sight, smell, touch, sound, or taste…and only write about that:
- The smells of summer
- The sights of summer
- The sounds of summer
- The touch of summer
- The tastes of summer
- Let not experience disqualify or excellence impeach him. There is no third term in the case, and the pretense will die with the political dog-days which engendered it.
~ From Roscoe Conkling’s speech nominating Grant for Third Term for President, 1880
Good Luck!
Wednesday, July 4th, 2012
Happy Independence Day, everyone!
Who’s got plans today?
We’ve got none, though the Husband of Awesome™ and I will probably sneak off to see the fireworks later. We haven’t been to a “live” show in years.
It’s been a weird schedule today: I slept in, got up and wrote some, recorded an installment for “BroadPod” (I’m sharing a work in progress, rather than an already published work!) and read a bit.
I’ll probably write a bit more later before the fireworks, and then call it a day before heading out for the show.
What have you got planned?
Friday, June 29th, 2012 Today is National Camera Day.
In the spirit of things, I’ve chosen a photo as today’s prompt. Write the first thing that comes into your mind when you see it. Don’t restrict yourself to an essay or character sketch, try a poem form you’ve never tried before or try writing in a POV you don’t normally write in.
If you don’t like my photo, don’t despair. I found it by going to Google Images and typing in the word, “random.” You can try it, too. Or choose a different word. Open up the dictionary, and type in the first word you randomly stab your finger on. See what comes up!
Here’s Your Prompt:
Monday, June 25th, 2012  I’m just full of newsy bits of newsy-news this afternoon, it seems.
On the Path available at Smashwords!
On the Path is finally available at Smashwords in multiple formats.
It was first published in the Parsec Ink Anthology, Triangulation: Dark Glass. It’s full of neat things like soul-powered plows which blow up, and Chinese ancestor-ghosts who come back to haunt their children and take over bodies of the living. Fun for everyone!
It’s priced at 99 cents for now, but will likely increase later this year. Here’s the link to On the Path at Smashwords.
The Complete Guide to Writing Paranormal is an Award Winner
The Complete Guide to Writing Paranormal (Dragon Moon Press) won a Book of the Year Gold Award in the Writing Category at The Foreward Reviews.
From the Web site: “ForeWord Reviews’ Book of the Year Awards were established to bring increased attention to librarians and booksellers of the literary and graphic achievements of independent publishers and their authors. ForeWord is the only review trade journal devoted exclusively to books from independent houses.”
Neat!
I have a chapter in the book on joining (or starting) a critique group, along with a short essay on how to critique.
You Should Be Reading The 3Six5 Blog
There’s a fascinating blog called The 3Six5. Each day is written by a different writer and is a slice of their life of what happened on a particular day. Each entry is 365 words or less and includes a picture of what happened on that day.
The writers come from all over the world, and every day is so different than the last.
Today was my day: I talked a bit about my job at the National Agricultural Library and how (strangely) Jack FM played Christmas Carols all day today. You wouldn’t think the two would join for a decent essay, but come together they do.
Read it (and others!) on The 3Six5.
Friday, June 22nd, 2012 I’m playing a word association trick with you today.
What’s the first thing you thought of when you read the title, “bugs?”
Sometimes the shortest words can have the most meanings, depending on context.
I deliberately didn’t post a photo (like I am wont to do) when presenting a writing prompt, because I didn’t want to influence what your initial reaction might be to the word “bugs.” I assure you, there is a picture.
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Write a story, poem or journal entry about the first thing you thought of when you read the word, “bugs.”
- Take the first thing you thought of, and see how it applies to an old memory. Write about that memory involving bugs.
- Write about a flu bug, cold germ or cooties.
- Write about a room being bugged.
- Write about someone who bugs you (or a time when you bugged someone else). Write about things that bug you.
- Write about a master computer programmer who inadvertently programs a bug into a program. Writer about a hacker who deliberately puts a bug in the program. Write about one person this bug affects, and how he or she solves the problem.
- Write literally about bugs: flies, ants, cockroaches, bedbugs, head lice, spiders or stink bugs.
- Write a favorable (or at least, not negative) poem about a much-disliked bug, like a roach. For example:
How delightful to suspect
All the places you have trekked:
Does your long antenna whisk its
Gentle tip across the biscuits?
Do you linger, little soul,
Drowsing in our sugar bowl?
Or, abandonment most utter,
Shake a shimmy on the butter?
(From Nursery Rhymes for the Tender-Hearted, by Christopher Morley, 1921. Read the full poem here.)
- Write about catching a bug, a wild enthusiasm or obsession, for something.
Good luck!
p.s. If you want to see the photo that made me think of bugs, here it is.
Friday, June 15th, 2012  I was getting ready for work this morning and the TV was playing an old I Love Lucy re-run. It reminded me that a book I’ve recently finished reading (The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos – I didn’t like it, BTW) mentioned that Lucille Ball spoke Spanish.
Apparently, when Lucy visited with Desi Arnaz’s friends, she spoke fluently with them.
That one fact created a depth in Lucille Ball’s character that changed irrevocably how I feel about her.
I’m currently reading David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (This book is a tortuous read which will not end!) in which I’ve met the unlikable (yet memorable) character of Uriah Heep.
According to David Copperfield:
He had a way of writhing when he wanted to express enthusiasm, which was very ugly; and which diverted my attention from the compliment he had paid my relation, to the snaky twistings of his throat and body.
Ew! But how memorable.
Today’s prompt deals with character quirks: gestures, mannerisms, or even distinct physical attributes which make your character stand out. The quirk could be good or bad, depending on how you want to portray your character.
Whatever you do: don’t over do it. Choose one memorable quirk per character — and don’t riddle all the characters in your book with memorable traits, else how will the important ones stand out?
Here’s Your Prompt:
- Create a character quirk for a someone in your work in progress. Write a character sketch to flesh it out before using it in your work. Decide how this quirk affects your character.
- Create a physical quirk for one of your characters which influences the character’s choice of religion.
- Create a quirk based on someone’s eating habits. (Does this character eat only blue foods? Mash his food together? Must keep all foods (and all their juices) separate? Etc.)
- Create a quick based on someone’s hygiene habits. (Does this character wear too much perfume? Wear too much make-up? Dye his hair a different color every week? Wear two-different colored contact lenses, doesn’t bathe, picks her scabs until they bleed? Picks her nose all the time?)
- Create a long list of attributes, quirks or mannerisms and write them on little slips of paper. Fold them up and stir, then randomly choose two options for a new character. Here’s a short list to begin with:
freckles, lisp, nail biting, body odor, wears the same clothes every day, wears too much perfume, whispers instead of talks, only eats sweet foods, doesn’t comb hair, hiccups when nervous, noisily stirs tea or coffee, a full beard, a limp, an irritating laugh, chews food with mouth open, allergies, gets seasick, paranoia, knows it all, argumentative, class clown, morbid, dresses only in one color
- If you journal, consider writing about a family member or close friend with a memorable quirk. Think of a time that quirk caused an argument, created laughter, or instilled love. Write a ‘character sketch’ about this person or the incident.
Good luck!
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