The SS now includes bribery? I've been doing it wrong!
Ooooooh. He says he'll give kisses if you mention how adorable and handsome he is.
Ooooooh. He says he'll give kisses if you mention how adorable and handsome he is.
Space Marine and Dragonwrangler Bar & Grill
- Thread starter ChaosTitan
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Hi folks!
I did the craziest thing yesterday. I was in the bath, thinking I had already put the trash to the curb, at 11:45AM. Suddenly I happened to glance out the window and realize that no, I had not in fact moved the trash to the curb. So I jumped out of the bath, threw on my winter boots, ran outside in a bathrobe and put the trash to the curb! SOOOO COLD! I came back in and my hair was frozen into a giant blob!
I also believe the dear old ladies next door have now all seen waaaaaay more than they needed to.
I did the craziest thing yesterday. I was in the bath, thinking I had already put the trash to the curb, at 11:45AM. Suddenly I happened to glance out the window and realize that no, I had not in fact moved the trash to the curb. So I jumped out of the bath, threw on my winter boots, ran outside in a bathrobe and put the trash to the curb! SOOOO COLD! I came back in and my hair was frozen into a giant blob!
I also believe the dear old ladies next door have now all seen waaaaaay more than they needed to.
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ME, TOO! I hates them. *hugs iMac* *does NOT hug extra monitor with stupid extra lead*
IOON, I ate tomorrow's chocolate bar. Ooops!
Joooooiiiiin uuuuuuss!
I hope that I never, ever forget how bloody lucky I am in so many ways. My parents wanted me to do well, but they didn't push too hard. They always told me I could be whatever I wanted, even when what I wanted was to be an archaeologist. They never discouraged me from writing or following any creative path I chose (including the slightly wacky idea of making soap in our cast iron dutch oven... Twice. Knowing what I know about chemistry now, I'm so, so glad it wasn't aluminium!). I didn't appreciate it much at the time, but hindsight is awesome. I'm sorry that your parents don't actively encourage you, Kricket. I will, though, if that's OK?
GO KRICKET!
(that last one is for BIC time... hehe)I say be happy. (please note I'm about to say something with tongue firmly in cheek!) After all, it's not as if it's a REAL book that he had to plot and outline and agonise over. It's just about ships in bottles. Who's going to read that?
(And maybe add one of these: 
)(Dear Mister K: Please don't send a ghost ship after me?)
This sounds like my worst nightmare. *comforts muchly*
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Good morning Cantina! I have nothing to report on my front.
I'm sort of in the same boat. My parents don't really get the writing thing either. Neither are creative. However, they don't really chide me for wanting to write. My mom and dad just want me to be happy and successful, and if that comes from writing, they're okay with that.
Just get bakery parchment paper and use that in both the oven and microwave.
Both good advice. I melted the plastic because I was trying to take a shortcut. The oven was hot, so I thought I'd use to warm food instead of putting it in the microwave. I learned.
Ouch Hills! Did you need stitches?
Awesome! Are your books SF?
The End?
I'm sort of in the same boat. My parents don't really get the writing thing either. Neither are creative. However, they don't really chide me for wanting to write. My mom and dad just want me to be happy and successful, and if that comes from writing, they're okay with that.
Congrats, Cobra, on the book deal!
Eh, no problem. If you aren't enjoying anything you eat, that's probably as bad for your long-term health as being fat is. I strongly encourage anyone who's eating healthy and hating it to adjust things repeatedly until they create a system in which they are eating healthy and liking it.
What the F am I supposed to do with the middle of this thing?
Hey! *shakes fist*
Personally, I am more partial to "That's it, I'm frustrated beyond frustrated, take your resolution and shuff it where the sun don't shine."
May I have some of that? Writing has really been gettin' me down lately.
Eh, no problem. If you aren't enjoying anything you eat, that's probably as bad for your long-term health as being fat is. I strongly encourage anyone who's eating healthy and hating it to adjust things repeatedly until they create a system in which they are eating healthy and liking it.
What the F am I supposed to do with the middle of this thing?
Hey! *shakes fist*
Personally, I am more partial to "That's it, I'm frustrated beyond frustrated, take your resolution and shuff it where the sun don't shine."
I'm sorry that your parents don't actively encourage you, Kricket. I will, though, if that's OK?
GO KRICKET!
May I have some of that? Writing has really been gettin' me down lately.
I have long held the suspicion that gif's are somehow bound up in a subset of the Tethercat Principal. If there is no change, then the object or person in the gif will be trapped in that moment forever.
Nightmare fuel comes free with every post...
Picturing native americans who accept having their picture taken with the exception that it is not GIF'd.
I hope that I never, ever forget how bloody lucky I am in so many ways. My parents wanted me to do well, but they didn't push too hard. They always told me I could be whatever I wanted, even when what I wanted was to be an archaeologist. They never discouraged me from writing or following any creative path I chose (including the slightly wacky idea of making soap in our cast iron dutch oven... Twice. Knowing what I know about chemistry now, I'm so, so glad it wasn't aluminium!). I didn't appreciate it much at the time, but hindsight is awesome. I'm sorry that your parents don't actively encourage you, Kricket. I will, though, if that's OK?
GO KRICKET!
I say be happy. (please note I'm about to say something with tongue firmly in cheek!) After all, it's not as if it's a REAL book that he had to plot and outline and agonise over. It's just about ships in bottles. Who's going to read that?
(Dear Mister K: Please don't send a ghost ship after me?)
Well thank you, that really makes me feel better.
And as much as you're joking, it is kind of true.
And, actually, there's a nice little niche there that could work for him. He wants to make it an e-book so it's more accessible. Anyway, I've told him to just focus on writing the book and working with his photographer and then we'll worry about how to publish it.But in all seriousness this is equal parts cool and equal parts sad for me. Because if he sells a book before me, I might cry.
But we're done with the Kricket Pity Party. I need to go finish editing this secret short.
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I'm sort of in the same boat. My parents don't really get the writing thing either. Neither are creative. However, they don't really chide me for wanting to write. My mom and dad just want me to be happy and successful, and if that comes from writing, they're okay with that.
I think my parents never expected me to take this stuff seriously. I've been writing since high school and I think they thought I'd grow out of it once I got married and had kids and stuff.
What the F am I supposed to do with the middle of this thing?
May I have some of that? Writing has really been gettin' me down lately.
Write words.
*shares happy thoughts*
My dad was always a huge cheerleader of my writing, ever since I was about twelve years old, and he read one of my funny SF stories (about a mutant plant that ended up eating the local garden club). My mom is just less demonstrative in general, so less of a cheerleader. But in all these years, I never heard either of them say, "Why don't you get a regular job, you know, the kind that pays actual MONEY?"
Now that Daddy's gone, Mom doesn't really say anything against or for the writing. She just lets me get on with it.
That counts as supportive, right?
Now that Daddy's gone, Mom doesn't really say anything against or for the writing. She just lets me get on with it.
That counts as supportive, right?
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Well thank you, that really makes me feel better.
Well, there was a big green smiley, anyway.
*hugs*
Okay, I take part of that last statement back. Back about a decade ago, I was coming to the end of a multi-year break from writing. I had little children, and I had to choose: raise my children or write. I couldn't do both. So I chose the children.
(I make no judgement on those who choose differently. Maybe they can do both. I couldn't, so I didn't)
So I was coming to the end of this long long dry spell, and I was deeeeeeeply depressed. Like suicidally depressed. My mother came into the living room one day, sat down, and said, "Junie, you are the most desperately unhappy person I have ever seen in my life. What is wrong?" And I couldn't tell her, because I didn't fricking know. You know how depression seldom makes sense in that way.
So she says, "Well, would doing something different help? I've got plenty of money, and I can watch the children. What do you want to do? Do you want to take a trip? Go back to school? What do you want?"
The first thing that came to mind was how happy I was when I was younger, writing stories. And I said, "I want to write a story."
Mom said, "Then why don't you do that?" And she disappeared into her room for ten minutes. When she came back out, she had a stack of legal pads and a handful of pens, which she handed over to me. And that was that. I've been writing ever since.
Moms are cool.
(I make no judgement on those who choose differently. Maybe they can do both. I couldn't, so I didn't)
So I was coming to the end of this long long dry spell, and I was deeeeeeeply depressed. Like suicidally depressed. My mother came into the living room one day, sat down, and said, "Junie, you are the most desperately unhappy person I have ever seen in my life. What is wrong?" And I couldn't tell her, because I didn't fricking know. You know how depression seldom makes sense in that way.
So she says, "Well, would doing something different help? I've got plenty of money, and I can watch the children. What do you want to do? Do you want to take a trip? Go back to school? What do you want?"
The first thing that came to mind was how happy I was when I was younger, writing stories. And I said, "I want to write a story."
Mom said, "Then why don't you do that?" And she disappeared into her room for ten minutes. When she came back out, she had a stack of legal pads and a handful of pens, which she handed over to me. And that was that. I've been writing ever since.
Moms are cool.
My family was always amazed at the books I'd talked about but never finished. Always been good at convincing people I was smart, but never really good at finishing what I've started. Can't wait until I finish a novel that's not crap like my other one and it gets published so I can do a little dance and walk the talk as it were.
I guess what I'm trying to say is: there's a lot of support for you at the end of the road, just pretend you're there already (swag swag swag).
My family doesn't even know I have ambitions of the writerly persuasion. My friends don't even know. The only people who know are you guys, the people I spent a 12 week employment course with, and an old man.
I've just avoided telling them because my mum would get really into the whole idea then whenever an idea died a slow and painful death alone, neglected and unfulfilled not only would I feel like I'm letting myself down, I'd feel like I'm letting her down too. Even though that makes absolutely no sense.
I've just avoided telling them because my mum would get really into the whole idea then whenever an idea died a slow and painful death alone, neglected and unfulfilled not only would I feel like I'm letting myself down, I'd feel like I'm letting her down too. Even though that makes absolutely no sense.
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My mom's an artist, so there was always encouragement to work in the arts...with the caveat that I also have a back-up career, as the arts pay diddly and squat, for the most part.
I haven't told my folks I'm published yet, though. Mostly because I don't want to deal with the whole m/m erotica discussion.
I haven't told my folks I'm published yet, though. Mostly because I don't want to deal with the whole m/m erotica discussion.
Nobody in my family really talks about the writing. It's just a part of our lives, I guess. My husband never asks what I'm writing, or is it going well. But he makes sure I've always got a laptop, and if I need a reference book, or new ink for the printer or whatever, he says, "Get it," without hesitation.
My mom has said openly that she isn't the least bit interested in reading anything I've written. But that's kind of a family joke already: she won't read anything that was written after 1900, regardless of who wrote it. She's a fanatic, and an expert, on Victorian era novelists (except American, she hates American authors). The joke is, the only way I'll get Mom to read one of my stories is to steal a TARDIS and travel back to 1880, and write it there.
My kids love my stories. Well, Sarah and Levi are; the other two kids are pretty indifferent. And, as I've said before, they're perfectly happy to answer questions or help me work some scene out.
It probably helps that I tend to be very secretive about stories when I'm writing them. I don't like to talk about them or show them while they're still in progress.
A Sci-Fi author (can't remember the name now) once used the Rule of 50%:
50% of people who want to write never do.
Of that, 50% who start, never finish.
Of that, 50% who do, never revise.
And so on until only a sliver of the original group is actually submitting stuff.
Just by completing a novel, you are well ahead of the majority. And once it's complete, you can polish it as many times as you need until it shines. But you will have completed it and that is a huge, huge step.
My mom cooks most of the time. She has high cholesterol, can't take meds for it, so most of the stuff we eat is very healthy. But it's not like we eat nothing but salad. She just makes leaner versions of everyday dishes. Like meatloaf. Instead of ground beef, she uses either turkey or sometimes venison. It still tastes yummy.
To be honest, I think my mom's just happy I've found something that I like doing. She doesn't care for my genre, but she encourages me to finish.
Is that evil laughter or the funny kind?
ION: If I ever get published, I'm debating whether I should use a pen name or not. Part of me wants my real name attached to my accomplishments. But the other part is concerned about privacy. Not that I'm excepting hoards of fans to stalk me on facebook, but you never know. What are all your thoughts?
I'm using a pen name because I have children; I don't want anything I write to come back and bite them in the butt. It probably won't, but then again, I live in the Bible Belt, in a very small town, and I write about the occult and magic and stuff like that. People can be damned stupid, sometimes.
As for what Cobra said, I like that Rule of 50. About half the time, I don't give a rat about being published; just the pleasure of writing the story is enough. Unfortunately, the other half of the time, I want to be published so desperately that it's like a physical pain in my chest. Publishing = validation, I guess.
I try to ignore that second half. Just enjoy the process and let that part sort itself out as it comes.
The only reason I'm thinking of using a pen name is that my surname is terrible. To this day I have never known anyone who was able to spell or say it correctly without either numerous attempts or me guiding them through it in some way.
So yeah, my surname's probably getting altered if I ever eventually manage to get anything published.
So yeah, my surname's probably getting altered if I ever eventually manage to get anything published.
I'm too stubborn to use a pen name, and if I did have one foisted on me by a publisher, I always have my blog to correct the assumption that my words are from some other hand.
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