J R Elkins

From mamculuna

Sarah Palin managed to get Roe v. Wade, but was stumped when asked to name any other Supreme Court decisions. In the spirit of remembering that there is more to law than that one case, I am participating in this meme.

The Rules: Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic to your lj. (Any decision, as long as it's not Roe v. Wade.) For those who see this on your f-list, take the meme to your OWN lj to spread the fun.

Mine is Miranda v. Arizona.

That's where we get Miranda rights from. More info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_v._Arizona

I feel like I can never finish this with a "Hoo!"

I just got an email today from the editor that my adoption story has made it into the final selection for the anthology. BUT ... if the galley pages come back and the book is too long, one or two stories might have to get cut. Of course, this rarely happens, and blah-di-blah-blah, but now I feel like I have to wait until next May or June to find out if my story really made it in or not. The book is scheduled to be published in June 2009. I should get my check and contributor's copy a few weeks before the book publishes.

So now I get to hold my breath for another ::counts on fingers:: nine months. lol It'll be like having a baby -- except my baby will be a check and a free copy of a book. And the bragging rights to finally say I've had a story published -- and gotten paid for it!

Almost fifteen hundred of them, at that.

Title (for now): Dominion
Typo: Elyssa, you're my perfect little angle.
Distractions: Lighthouses and a twenty-five pound cat.
Music: Sisters of Mercy, Dominion/Mother Russia
Darling: A lighthouse rose up from the desert.
Inspiration: A promise made a month ago to write something new before the next WriterGrrls meeting. Which starts a little more than twelve hours from now. And Little Miss B. And Andrew Eldritch. (I still love that song.)

I just received the edits to my Cup of Comfort story. It feels weird to be on this end of the editorial process. I love it!

23 August 2008

Project: Still working on that
Task: Researching local ghost stories and "weird" stories.
Learned: There aren't many local haunted houses in any of the books I've been reading. Wah.


Reading: New Moon by Stephanie Meyer
Learned: A friend recommended Twilight to me and I read it in about four days. I can't believe I'm hooked. I just bought New Moon today. ( Spoilerific )


TAW: Insert angsty bemoaning of my inability to stick to things. And then start over.
Morning Pages: I haven't been doing my morning pages/detox lately.
Aritst's Date: I took myself out to the capital to take some photos and be artsy. I got some very lovely shots of a beautiful old church on capital square.
Learned: I think I hit on a nerve recently. I'd been suspecting as much and then shortly after, I stopped doing my morning/detox pages altogether. I had been doing fifteen minutes or so of journalling both in the morning and at night. Now I'm procrastinating about starting them again.

I've just been informed that my story "Scenes from Motherhood" has been selected as a finalist for publication in A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Families. They haven't made the final selection of what will be published, so there's no "Hoo" to add to my "Woo" yet, but I'm hopeful! Thanks so much to everybody who helped with feedback and suggestions! Keep your fingers crossed!

There's at least a couple people on my f-list who might be interested in this market:

ANTHOLOGY: Women and Horses

This Seal Press book (stories 2000 w. min.) has a deadline of August 15.

Guidelines:

http://sealpress.com/docs/womenandhorses.pdf

kelljones is obsessing on pacing and purpose -- some things I struggle with a bit myself. One of my favorite characters has no purpose, so she wanders around her stories aimlessly. I've put her aside and nearly given up hope on her, but kelljones mentioned a process that works for her which might also work for me. I'll have to give it a go and see how it works.

July 1, 2008

Project: Challenge #243
Task: Re-writing. I'm going with Option #3 and revising an old LJ entry into an essay.
Darling: It took me longer to forgive myself for being vulnerable enough to feel hurt by her in the first place.

Learned: I read an article yesterday that reaffirmed my personal epiphany that I need to get up at oh-dark-thirty to get my writing done. But I'm still using the "I'm sick" excuse to get out of actually getting up that early. Bad me. *flagellates self with a wet noodle*

Reading: The Essential Bordertown

Exercise: 90-minute bike ride with Little Miss

Noticed: This is an old something that I noticed, but I never told anybody about it or wrote it down until today. A few weeks ago, I saw the strangest thing. There was a man jogging along a service road. In and of itself, that's not too strange. What was strange was his attire. I swear it looked like he was wearing a khaki shirt with a green kilt and a pith helmet. There some kind of bright neon green fabric wound around the helmet and his waist too -- but it didn't look a standard belt. I only caught a glimpse of him -- he was running westbound on the service road, and I was driving eastbound at sixty miles an hour on the beltline -- but I swear I thought the fabric around his middle and the hat was tulle. It was arguably the strangest thing I have ever seen.

June 29, 2008

Project: Untitled/Unknown
Task: Research. I got a wild hare, and went looking for tales of "weird Wisconsin."

Reading: The Essential Bordertown

Detox/Morning Pages: Done
Learned: I need to actually do this in the morning to make sure it gets done.

Exercise: None, too sick

Scriptures: Had the missionaries over for dinner, does that count?

Woe is me. I'm a failure. Okay, now that I've got that out of my system, back on the horse again, eh? I've learned two things though over the past several weeks.

First, for the record, I am not a morning person. So imagine my surprise, chagrin, and frustration at discovering that I wake up best and get the most work done when I wake up at Oh-Dark-Thirty in the morning? I've been dragging my feet at changing my schedule. I've tried waking up at 6:30. I've tried waking up at 6. I've tried waking up at 5:30. I've tried waking up at 5:15. No. None of these work. The only time that seems to work for me is 4:30. Gah!

Second, which dovetails much too conveniently with the first, I need to put my priorities first. I've been getting up and taking care of breakfast, lunches, laundry, getting Little Miss to school, getting my work done, picking Little Miss up, getting dinner ready, more laundry, maybe some freelance work, and then it's eight o'clock and I'm vegging out on the internet. I've got my nannyware so that I can't veg out on the internet as much anymore. That's working very well, but I was still putting off writing until 9 and 10 at night, then not doing it at all because I was too tired. But if I wake up at oh-dark-thirty, before everybody else is awake, then I can do the things that are important to me before all the other things that need to be done.

When Little Miss got out of school for the summer, I thought to myself, "Great! I don't have to wake up at 4:30 anymore!" But not only is waking up later harder for me, it's also leaving me tired and needing a nap in the early afternoon. And then at the end of the day, I still don't have time for the things that are important to me. So, starting tomorrow, I'm up at oh-dark-thirty again. I'm putting my priorities first instead of last, like I've been doing.

June 16, 2008

I had a dream the other night that I received an acceptance package in the mail from the Cup of Comfort people. Then the next morning, I received an email from them. (Are you holding your breath? I was!) It was just an acknowledgment that they've received my submission. The earliest I'll hear back is July if my story is accepted; the latest I'll hear back is September if it isn't. And it could be later still if the editor gets behind her deadlines, so this could be a long wait. I'll just try to forget about it and work on anything else until I hear, one way or the other.

No time for writing yet today, it's been another busy one. I might be able to squeeze in a few minutes of research though at least.

Detox/Morning Pages: Will do after my nannyware window closes - I've only got ten minutes left!

Exercise: 30 minutes, walk/jog

Scriptures: Psalms 12-14
Learned: I need a better bookmark so that I can remember where I stopped. I've also decided to read my scriptures first thing in the morning instead of last thing at night. I can see some of the logic now behind Julia Cameron's Morning Pages -- but that still works best for me as a detox at the end of the day. I've found that I literally can't sleep if I don't write my detox pages.

June 12, 2008

Project: "Scenes from Motherhood"
Task: Final edit and submit
Inspiration: Little Miss
Darling: All of it, which may mean means I'm still too close to it, but the 15th was the submissions deadline and I didn't want to miss it.

Reading: The Essential Bordertown

Detox/Morning Pages: Not yet, but will do it.

Scriptures: Not yet, but will at least read a verse or two.

Yesterday and today were more of "those" days. Yesterday I worked til two, picked up Little Miss, worked a couple more hours at home, then got some work done in my garden, didn't get my detox pages done until 10:30 then it was time to collapse in bed. Today it was work til two, run errands, run to pick up Little Miss, run to local elementary school for tour of the building, run home for dinner (leftovers), run downstairs for tornado warnings, watch the news until the tornado warnings expired, then watch Dark Crystal, now it's almost time for bed. I'm trying to wake up earlier to get my exercise done in the mornings. So far, my plan isn't working too well. Sadly, the only thing that does work well is waking up at 4:30 -- but I don't want to wake up at 4:30. Grr.

I just hit the SEND button and submitted "Scenes from Motherhood" to the Cup of Comfort anthology for adoptive families. Eep!

June 10, 2008

Project: "Weeping Willow"
Task: I read RoF's Folkroots column by Terri Windling on my lunchbreak today and got some ideas/thoughts about WW. I'll call that read-writing (research). It's been another one of them days.

Reading: Can I count RoF's Folkroots column twice? Otherwise, all my reading has been work-related.

Detox/Morning Pages: Not yet. Did do last night's after my nannyware window closed. Will probably do the same tonight.

Exercise: About 1.5 hours of full-contact gardening.
Learned: Digging up sod is strenuous labor. And although I am right handed, I'm apparently left footed. I tried using my right foot on the shovel to get under the sod, but it just didn't work as well. My left leg is probably not going to be very happy with me tomorrow. Nor is a great deal of the rest of my body for that matter.

Scriptures: Not yet. Not sure whether or not I will at all. It's going to be another one of those weeks. Or two. You know, the ones where you try to cram 20 hours of living into 18 hours of wakefulness?

Totally non-writing-related question: Should I dig up a bunch of my irises and replant them around my mailbox where I'm going to replant the tulips? I originally planted them on the N side of the house two years ago (? not sure if that's right). Last year, one of them bloomed, very briefly. This year, five of them are blooming. (Well, three are blooming, two or three more are thinking about it.) They do not get full sun where they are and I suspect that is the problem. But I worry that if I replant them again, the next year, they won't bloom again. Any green thumbs have any thoughts? They won't get full sun where I want to plant them either, but I do think they will get more sun there.

June 9, 2008

I am a complete slug today. No, that's not true. I've just been too busy running around the county to do the things I've been tracking on my metrics post. Ran daughter to school this morning. Was running late, so ran to get breakfast at BK. Ugh, I needed that reminder of why I try not to eat fast food anymore. Bleh. Work work work. Ran to grocery store to pick up non-perishable items. Ran back to school to pick daughter up. Ran to meet husband at restaurant for dinner. Eat eat eat. More fried food. Bleh. Ran to therapy appointment. Ran back to grocery store, this time to pick up the perishable items, and the few items that I couldn't find in the quick trip before picking up daughter. (Note that non-perishable items are still in the trunk since I haven't had time to go HOME yet.) Finally get home at 7:30. Put away groceries. Balanced bank accounts. Paid bills. Finally at 9:30 I hopped on the internet for my scheduled nannyware internet time. Which I'm quickly running out of now.

Highlight of my day: Discovering that a third iris has bloomed. My irises smell delicious. I've never smelled one before, and this is the first time I've tried growing them. (Out of some fiftly bubls, only five of them are threatening to bloom -- but that's four more than bloomed last year, so it's progress.) They have such a beautiful delicate scent. I wonder if anybody makes a perfume that smells like irises?

Okay, my nannyware just warned me that I've only got five minutes left. So, ta. Maybe I'll have some actual progress to report tomorrow.

June 8, 2008

Project: "Weeping Willow"
Task: Research and words -- 281 of 'em
Inspiration: Hans Christian Anderson's "Under the Willow-Tree"

Reviews: One. I could say I did two reviews today. I did write two reviews, but they were for two parts of the same story so I'm not sure if I want to count them as two reviews.

Reading: The Essential Bordertown

Detox/Morning Pages: Done

Scriptures: Psalms 11 & 12

June 7, 2008

Reading: Perennials for Minnesota and Wisconsin by Engebretson & Williamson
Learned: I keep changing my mind on what to plant for my yellow flowers. Now I'm considering an aggressive, low-growing loosestrife (lysimachia mummularia, creeping Jenny, moneywort) instead of globe flowers; if I can't find that, I might try fringed or yellow loosestrife.

From the flist: lilithsaintcrow's Friday writing post via footlingagain because I skimmed over it when I first saw it myself. *facepalm*
Learned: Lilith included several good writing tips, but this one in particular spoke to me:

Never doubt that you do have a story to tell. There are stories lined up around the block for you and only you--stories that have chosen you to tell them. [...] The stories are always there, crowding in around you, peering over your shoulder. Part of the discipline of everyday writing is so they know you'll be there, same bat-time, same bat-channel, so they can form an orderly queue and wait their turn.

[... D]o not ever buy into the notion that you don't have a story to tell. [...] Relax. They'll come out and play--if they can trust you to sit down and spend time listening to them.

I even got to see this last night as I was reading Hans Christian Anderson. As his story unfolded, I started to see bits of my own story peeking out at me. They're a little hesitant right now because I've been ignoring them for so long. It was a bit frustrating at the time, because I'd get a little peek but then the story would hide away again. Now I feel encouraged that my stories will "come out and play" more often as I spend more time with the writing process.

Exercise: Walked around the carnival for an hour and a half.
Learned: That I need to wear sneakers, not my Danskos for lots of walking around.

I'm exhausted and am going to take a long hot bath now and read some more The Essential Bordertown. I'm not going to do my detox pages or writing process or scripture study tonight. I'm just too sore and tired and want nothing more than to take that long hot bath right now.

June 6, 2008

Project: "Weeping Willow"
Task: Research
Learned: I'm reading Hans Christian Anderson's "Under the Willow-Tree." There's a story within the story, told by a baker to the children, about two gingerbread cookies who fell in love but never spoke of their feelings. In the end, the gingerboy ate the gingergirl cookie! The story itself is about a boy and a girl who grew up playing under a willow tree. The boy fell in love with the girl but, like the cookies, never said anything about his feelings. After the baker told the story of the gingercookies, the children bought the cookies, then put the cookies in the willow tree and told the story to their friends. At the end of the story, they discovered their gingergirl cookie had been eaten! One of the children they told the story to got hungry and ate the cookie, but for a moment, I thought the tree had eaten it, which gave me a chuckle.

Reading: Write by Karen Peterson, The Essential Bordertown ed. by Terri Windling & Delia Sherman, and Perennials for Minnesota and Wisconsin by Dong Engbretson & Don Williamson
Learned: I finally found out what two plants growing in my yard are -- Spiderwort and Solomon's Seal. Also decided what to do with my sidewalk garden that gets trampled every year by the grade school kids who walk past it. I've already transplanted some tiger lillies into it but still have some spots to fill. I'm going to put my Spiderwort in some of the blank spots and some Globe Flower in the other blank spots, then add Candytuft to the border, and put some Phlox in the rocks. (Sounds like the makings of a Dr. Seuss book, Phlox in Rocks.) My tulips are just starting to brown, so I should be able to transplant them soon to my mailbox garden, which currently is a wreck from digging out the overgrown tiger lillies.

Detox Pages: Done

Exercise: I fast-walked 5 minutes on the treadmill to burn off some anger today, does that count?

Scriptures: Psalms 10 - 13

June 5, 2008

Project: "Weeping Willow"
Words: None
Excuse: I'm extremely resistant to writing tonight. I'm almost tempted to do one of those non-dominant hand exercises that I think are so hokey. I'm not giving up on me yet though. If I can talk myself into doing just five minutes, I'll be able to give myself a gold star for tonight. But so far, it's taken me an hour and a half just to admit to myself that I'm actively being resistant to writing or doing anything about writing tonight. It's looking like no gold star for me tonight. (ETA: Done. Five minutes of research.)

Reading: Write
Things learned: I'm really having a hard time with this whole "parallel monologue" stuff. It just all sounds like hokey crap to me. I've printed out the lists to try them, but it still seems hokey. I'm also getting aggravated by the author's writing style. She keeps repeating herself, every time she suggests "parallel monologue" questions, she spends the next two paragraphs talking about her own responses and I don't give a crap how she answers her own questions. There's still some interesting tidbits to take away, so this book hasn't been a complete waste of time, but I'm glad I borrowed it from the library instead of wasting money on it. One interesting thing the author's done is divide the writing process into six steps: "read-writing", which includes reading other people's works similar to mine or reading what I've already written; "cowriting" which sounds to me like asking other writers for feedback; "rote writing" or transcribing notes, collecting information, and "anything that requires brain concentration just above a flat line"; prewriting; writing, and rewriting. She didn't say so much, but I assume that "read-writing" would include research. I'd never thought of research and requesting feedback or transcribing notes as part of the writing process, but they really are so why not give myself credit for them? Hey maybe that's how I can work on WW tonight, do five minutes of research, and call that fulfilling my time block for the writing process. I still don't know why I just don't feel like writing tonight though. I think I need to change my LJ template so that it doesn't focus on words since I'm trying to change the way I look at writing. Which brings me right back to a good quote from her book: "[O]n any given day at any given time, depending on the mood you're in, you can usually find at least one part of the writing process you can manage to tackle." I think I can manage five minutes of research tonight.

Another important point she brought up is "Don't revise while you are writing [...] Try to engage only one step of the writing process at a time." That's part of why I have such a hard time writing on the computer. It saves me the time of not having to hand write my first drafts and then transcribe them later, but it's way too easy to try to revise while I'm writing, which is part of what kills the actual act of writing for me most of the time.

Morning pages: Done.

Scriptures: Psalms 8 & 9

Noticed: I spent the better part of dinner tonight making Little Miss laugh. I made her laugh so hard that her stomach started hurting. The problem with me making people laugh is that once they start laughing, I want to keep them laughing. And it's so easy to keep an 11-year-old entertained with slapstick type humor. But at one point, I just really sat back and enjoyed it for what it was -- a good honest belly-laugh. Sometimes she laughs too hard, and I can tell she's faking it, for whatever reason she fakes it. Either she doesn't understand the joke but wants us to think she does, or I don't know what else. But this was a good honest belly-laugh. I've been so mad at her, and grumbling at her so often this past week that I needed to make her laugh. Not just because I like to hear people laugh; because I needed to diffuse my anger and frustration, and I needed to make sure we had some kind of positive interaction.