The Bouncy Castle in Space

Well, my holiday week was interesting...

See, I only have one sister. And her husband is a horrible person. I know, we try not to say such things, but it's true. Self-centered, antagonistic, short-tempered, verbally abusive. For over 20 years now my mom and I have had to bite our tongues until they bled, while she gets more miserable but won't admit it. They have a marriage straight out of Jane Austen, where she knows he's a nasty human being but he's rich and she's scared of losing that life.

Or so we thought.

The day before they left, she confessed to my mom that she's thinking of getting a divorce! And, in my experience, once you're willing to admit to someone that you're thinking about it, you've actually already made up your mind.

It's going to be messy, I'm sure. No kids, but they own three houses and a bunch of other stuff. The lawyers are going to be busy...

But it feels so encouraging to see my sister finally believe in herself enough to realize she doesn't deserve this kind of life. Everybody, keep your fingers crossed that she finds the strength to take care of herself.

Wow, MsJudy, I admire your sister for her strength. I've never understood why women - my own sister included - stayed in abusive relationships. But then, I've never had to live through that. I've never been insecure in that area of my life, and I know how much I am blessed to be able to say that.

Hopefully she can surround herself with people who will encourage and support her and help her see her own worth. Keeping fingers crossed and sending up prayers for her.

Fingers crossed here for sure, MsJudy. It is a very hard thing to do. I was in an abusive relationship for several years as a teen, and I am always thankful I managed to eventually get myself out, and not go down the all to common road of ending up stuck there or in another one with someone else. She is very lucky to have you and your Mom for love and support.

Thanks, sissy and spiral. Back in the early years of their marriage, she was having second thoughts and I made the mistake of encouraging her. She decided to stay, so then of course I was the Bad Guy for a few years because I "didn't understand." So now I'm going to keep my mouth shut and let my mom do all the talking, at least until my sister brings up the subject herself.

Having loving family members there to support her is sure to help.

I really hope she goes through with it , because she deserves better than someone that would treat her like that. Good thing kids aren't in the picture because that would be terrible. Sending prayers your family's way Ms. Judy. Hope things work out.

Edit:

What do you guys know about 'Apprentice' type books? Are agents still looking for them or are they a huge turn off? My w.i.p Miraculous Mr. D is an apprentice type book about a boy that becomes an apprentice to the boogie man. I just started thinking about all the ones that are out there right now and started doubting...

The Kidd said:

I really hope she goes through with it , because she deserves better than someone that would treat her like that. Good thing kids aren't in the picture because that would be terrible. Sending prayers your family's way Ms. Judy. Hope things work out.

Edit:

What do you guys know about 'Apprentice' type books? Are agents still looking for them or are they a huge turn off? My w.i.p Miraculous Mr. D is an apprentice type book about a boy that becomes an apprentice to the boogie man. I just started thinking about all the ones that are out there right now and started doubting...

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It all comes down to writing. If it is fun and they enjoy reading it they won't care. I'm not a huge reader of apprentice books, so I may not be the most qualified for this, but I don't ever remember hearing about an apprenticeship to the boogeyman type of book. Seems like a great idea!


EDIT: Question for everyone here. So my girlfriend and I are bilingual and we have just recently expanded our sign language up to about 200 words (we can communicate just fine with sign language so we might even know more than that) now my question is everyone I talk to about this doesn't consider sign language a language. They say they just consider it basically, there. Now hypothetically if you could speak three languages, and one of them was sign language would you consider yourself trilingual or put it on your resume you were trilingual?

EDIT 2: Just hit 6,000 words!

Yes, its another language. It uses neither english words not english grammar. If it was the same as English...English speakers would all be able to use it. It's just not a foreign language!

Of course, it's a language! It can also be a foreign language, depending on the sign language you're learning. I'm assuming you're learning ASL (American Sign Langauge), and not Japanese Sign Language or Russian Sign Language or Langue des Signes Française (yeah, I could have just written "French Sign Language", but that sounded much coooler, didn't it?), etc.?

Interestingly, but not surprising if you think about it, there are also many regional differences in sign language. If you speak to me very long, my Southern twang will eventually slip out. The same sorts of differences in dialect are present in ASL.

Happy New Year to everyone. Hubby and I were looking forward to a quiet evening at home; dinner is cooking and a bottle of champagne is chilling.

Offspring #1 left; he and a friend are performing at a local venue.

Offspring #3 went to a friend's, where she will hopefully make good choices.

As Offspring #2 left to pick up his girlfriend, he said, rather indulgently, "Have fun hanging out here at home. Maybe Xander (the cat) will keep you company."

Now we just feel pathetic, LOL!

Don't feel pathetic, Ruth! I'm still debating whether to go to a party tonight. I love parties in the summertime, but in the winter I prefer to curl up on the couch with the cat and a book. Or a good movie.

I often skip New Year's parties. My friends have finally accepted this about me. So, shall I surprise them all and show up? Or stay home, alone with the cat, like I want to do?

Yes, sign language is a language, which is why most colleges that offer it include in their foreign languages department. And actually, your friends who say it's not are sadly mis-informed and are quite likely to offend any hard-of-hearing or deaf people they happen to meet. At least here in the US, "deafness" is not considered a disability by many of those who have it. "Deaf" is considered a culture--and the fact that deaf people have their own language is one of the ways they prove it.

(I have several deaf cousins, so I've gotten something of an education on the subject. Not that I've ever been fluent enough in sign to really debate the subject with them...)

It all comes down to writing. If it is fun and they enjoy reading it they won't care. I'm not a huge reader of apprentice books, so I may not be the most qualified for this, but I don't ever remember hearing about an apprenticeship to the boogeyman type of book. Seems like a great idea!


EDIT: Question for everyone here. So my girlfriend and I are bilingual and we have just recently expanded our sign language up to about 200 words (we can communicate just fine with sign language so we might even know more than that) now my question is everyone I talk to about this doesn't consider sign language a language. They say they just consider it basically, there. Now hypothetically if you could speak three languages, and one of them was sign language would you consider yourself trilingual or put it on your resume you were trilingual?

EDIT 2: Just hit 6,000 words!

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Keeping my fingers crossed it is a good idea and works out. I've been reading 'apprentice' books for the last few months and I'm almost to the end of my list with 'The Last Apprentice' series. Congrats on making it to 6k, sending digital martinis your way

So I'm a huge music buff (started guitar when I was 13, so coming up to nine years that I have been playing, seven of which were filled with lessons, and I picked up the piano in college) and I bought Christina Perri's album on iTunes. I'm HIGHLY impressed by it. I believe she writes all of her own music too which is even better. I recommend everyone trying the free samples of her work on iTunes if you haven't already heard her singles: Jar of Hearts, Arms, and One Thousand Years.

EDIT: Hit 8,000 words this morning. If only a mad scientist could harness that weird groove writers get in when the words are literally jumping onto the page, he would be a billionaire and there would be far more happy writers haha.

Happy New Year everyone!

playground king, good luck keeping the words flowing!

king, do you know the story behind Perri's rise to fame? She was working as a waitress in LA. A friend gave a copy of one of her demos (Jar of Hearts) to one of the choreographers on So You Think You Can Dance. Instant hit on iTunes--thousands of downloads in 2 weeks.

Sometimes fame really does come from being in the right place at the right time!

MsJudy said:

king, do you know the story behind Perri's rise to fame? She was working as a waitress in LA. A friend gave a copy of one of her demos (Jar of Hearts) to one of the choreographers on So You Think You Can Dance. Instant hit on iTunes--thousands of downloads in 2 weeks.

Sometimes fame really does come from being in the right place at the right time!

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Wow that's crazy. I knew her rise to fame was a crazy one (I heard stories of it kind of just happening over night literally) but I didn't know it was like that. Isn't that kind of how One Republic got started? I remember hearing apologize on the show a couple of years ago and then it became HUGE. It's the apologize version before what's his face decided to add a bunch of unnecessary stuff to it...ahh Timbaland I think his name is.

EDIT: Does anyone have any suggestions of other artists like Christina Perri I should check out?

EDIT 2: 9,000 words! Hurry someone come take my blood and duplicate it so I can take a glass full of whatever is inside me these last few days so I can take it daily!

EDIT 2: 9,000 words! Hurry someone come take my blood and duplicate it so I can take a glass full of whatever is inside me these last few days so I can take it daily!

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Whatever it is, I could use some. I feel so sluggish today, and I'm avoiding this scene. I need to just shut off the WiFi and write for six hours. Will I do it? Probably not :/

playground_king said:

EDIT: Does anyone have any suggestions of other artists like Christina Perri I should check out?

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Hmmm. If you like Christina Perri, you may like Ingrid Michaelson, Regina Spektor, Adele, Norah Jones, Sara Bareilles, Alison Krauss, and my fave artist of all time, Ani DiFranco.

EDIT 2: 9,000 words! Hurry someone come take my blood and duplicate it so I can take a glass full of whatever is inside me these last few days so I can take it daily!

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Congrats! Keep it up.

I'm not sure where I'd ask this so I'm hoping I can get the help here:

If I were to make my own website and put samples of my current wip's, does that take away from my work not being published anywhere? Like if I post my sampling s on my own website, do agents consider that "distributed" since unlike here I am posting it for others to view and not edit?

I've heard it's not a problem as long as it's less than one chapter, and once it's in submission to editors you have to take it down.

But to be safe, why not write something specifically for the website? A short story or two that you don't intend to submit anywhere. I would think that would be more satisfying for readers, anyway. Reading the first chapter of a book that may or may not be published someday, don't know when, can't get my hands on the rest of it if I want to... I don't really see how that would build up a following. But if every moth or two you post something new just for the website--then the site has a purpose, no?

Good morning and Happy New Year everyone!

All right, any good resolutions, anybody?

My mom always resolves the same thing: Not to throw stones at hippos.

She's the only person I know who actually keeps her resolutions!

MsJudy said:

All right, any good resolutions, anybody?

My mom always resolves the same thing: Not to throw stones at hippos.

She's the only person I know who actually keeps her resolutions!

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Become conversational in four languages. I have English, Spanish, and Sign Language down. I plan to either learn Chinese or French next. I will probably go French since my girlfriend wants to learn French before Chinese and since I learned Spanish through college and her help, it makes learning a language a MILLION times easier when you can converse in the language at any time to practice. Plus it also helps French and Spanish are both romance languages.

Then of course get published.

Even though she doesn't post here, my girlfriend has the resolution to lose weight (which she doesn't need to, and I'm not just saying this like honestly it's a shame she feels she does because she does not, but she feels she does so I will workout with her and support her) and number two is for her to learn a fourth language too (which will be French).

What's everyone else's?

MsJudy said:

All right, any good resolutions, anybody?

My mom always resolves the same thing: Not to throw stones at hippos.

She's the only person I know who actually keeps her resolutions!

Click to expand...

Ten years ago, my husband resolved not to make any more New Year's resolutions. He's stuck to it!

One year, I resolved not to smoke, which is easy for me because I'm not a smoker. Other years, I've made slightly more difficult resolutions: be perfect, master telekinesis, etc.

I haven't thought of a good one for this year yet.