Long car rides...

I love long car rides.

Not just because I think driving aimlessly is a HUGE stress buster (unless you're driving on the beltway during rush hour...in which case you might end up killing someone) but it also gives me endless time to think, plot, characterize, describe, etc. There is no better planning time for me then when I'm driving a road that I know well with music on that inspires my creativity.

For instance, driving home to Pittsburgh this weekend I came up with more dialogue for one story and an awesome metaphor for another. Having time to come up with dialogue for me is huge, because when you sit down to write dialogue it might not always come out the way people talk. So the most important thing for me is to imagine a scene and go through dialogue once, twice or fifty times. The first time I think it through, the scene is like a skeleton. Then I get to figure out how I'd react to the situation, and then flip it into how my characters would react. After I find the dialogue I want to use, I'm able to focus on setting. What's around my characters as they're speaking? How do they interact with what's around them? What arm motions/facial expressions do they use as they're speaking/reacting to speech?

I really think that you can tell the scenes I've thought out and which I've tapped out in one of my writing sessions.

In retrospect: too much thought could also be a bad thing. I could see how thinking a scene too many times through would make it sound robotic, mechanical, mundane, practiced (ha, I love thesauruses). But for me, this method works best.

Current Song:

I just found that song while perusing youtube... but it's pretty fantastic in that damaged heart sort of way.

Happy Monday!

For O

For Oliver, who recently lost a friend.


It’s strange that the sun was shining like any ordinary day;
The heat so oppressive that I should have known something was wrong.
The world so bright, when something dark had happened.

It’s strange that my lungs deflated when I found out
And sat empty for a long moment before I remembered to breathe in again
And your lungs will rest forever more.

It’s strange that the first person I wanted to call
Was you; to share the news and hear words of comfort.
Even stranger when I realized I can never dial your number again.

It’s strange that long forgotten memories
Flood my head and make it hard to see reality.
Strange, how I can hear your voice like you’re still with me.

It’s strange that I’ll wake up tomorrow morning and the world will go on
Without you as if nothing changed, as if no life was robbed and it’s strange that
I’m one of the few who knew you and will notice the difference.

It’s strange that
When reality set in
And I came to terms with what was lost,
The heavens opened and cleansed the earth
Crying for me.
Crying with me.

Warning....rant follows.

WTF is up with professional atheletes these days??

Normally whenever athlete scandal makes the news I'll read the headlines, scoff a bit, and then wait for the next one to break. Tiger Woods shocked me for a few reasons. A) He seemed like a good guy. B) His wife is gorgeous. C) I'm delirious enough to think that men with young kids won't cheat. D) His wife is GORGEOUS.
I don't understand why men with beautiful wives cheat. I mean, obviously it's because they don't feel fullfilled in the marriage. But seriously...open your mouth and speak. Don't go have sex with everything brunette with long legs a flat stomach and a pulse. Especially don't go have sex with your neighbor's daughter (she was legal at the time, but they met when she was 14. That's dirty).

Tiger Woods was shocking... but not really a swift kick to the stomach, like recent headlines with my Steelers has been. One in particular. It's beyond me why anyone who is successful would actually force themselves on a twenty year old college student. Show some class. Understand that the franchise you play for expects its players to be something other than criminal. For years the Steelers have been in the headlines for good reasons... and this past week anytime I've opened the internet, all I've seen is headlines for Santonio Holmes (NYJ's problem now) Ben, and Jeff Reed. To recap: Mr. Holmes threw a glass at a woman in a nightclub in Florida and then broke league policies for controlled substances, Roethlisberger sexually harassed a twenty year old college student, Reed was charged with drunk in public (last year he was also charged for destroying a paper towel dispenser in a Sheetz). WTF, guys? Holmes was just traded to the Jets, Roethlisberger is looking at possible suspension, a fine, or counseling, and Mr. Reed (who, admittedly, had the least serious charges of the three) just signed a two year contract.

...And can we take a minute to discuss Roethlisberger's press conference yesterday? The boy was a mess. What the hell was he wearing? And has he been introduced to a pair of scissors and a barber's chair recently? (obvious answer is no, he hasn't). And were the reporters so terrifying that he had to stare at his "speech" like it was a lifeline? He didn't sound sincere and what he said was laughable (he thinks the choice not to prosecute was the "right one"? Of course he would think so...that means he won't go to jail (where twenty year old girls would have been the least of his problems)). Apparently he managed to shave, get a haircut, and buy a suit before his meeting with Goodell today. Personally, I hope he gets suspended. And that's saying something, coming from me.

Because everyone needs a laugh:
Ben's Press Conference
It wouldn't let me embed it in my blog, so click on it and happy laughing.

And, because I couldn't resist:


Happy Tuesday! (and now, since I don't have class I'm off to watch American Idol. Like I said, I'm addicted.)

An exerpt from book one, chapter one of "Collide"

Because I mentioned the other day I was going to start posting things I'm working on, here's an excerpt from the first chapter of my book "Collide"

Comments, whether they be constructive or flattering, are always welcome (and appreciated). And I'll apologize in advance for the format of the post... the blog is not friendly when it comes to indents. I know how to format a piece, trust me... but when I posted it everything was removed.

Click me!

Night writing

When I was younger and had trouble falling asleep, mom always told me to think of something I liked to do and imagine it until I was asleep. I remember the first thing I imagined was shopping. I think I was probably seven or eight, and I imagined that I was old enough to drive, had pierced ears and a boyfriend. In this daydream I was standing at a jewelery counter looking at earrings.
I'd like to think that some of my creative potential started there. However, a problem arose with this. Some of my best ideas come at night, when I'm trying to fall asleep. By that time, my computer is off and I don't feel like getting up, so most of my best ideas are gone by the time morning comes. But then part of me feels like maybe I was delerious when I was thinking these things up, and maybe they aren't as great as I thought.
And another thing, I always get the desire to write at the most inopportune times. At work, I'd love to write. But once I get home, nothing. Once I get going, I can type for the rest of the night, but it's just getting started that's difficult. I wouldn't call it writers block either, because I know exactly what I want to type. Sometimes I feel like it's a let down. I've had these characters imagined since I was in the sixth grade, and they've been my "happy place" at night whenever I fall asleep. After I get my thoughts down on paper, I don't go back and revisit things they've done. So part of my problem I think is parting with my characters.

I have issues, I know.


I'm thinking about doing my hair like the girl with the guitar. Let me know what you guys think. LOL.

Chasing Cars and other odd things

So I'm supposed to be doing some edits to my blog...and I've actually already done one (here's a hint, the blog's name is different). I'm also thinking about creating a second blog where snippets of what I'm working on will be posted so you people can see what I'm up to.

But instead of editing the actual blog, I'm updating...and trying not to spend any more money downloading songs from American Idol. I'm addicted. I promised myself years ago that I would never watch that show, but when I was snowed in at mom's house in February she watched it and I found myself hooked. I have to say, my two favorites are probably Big Mike and Crystal, but I think Lee is adorable (And my age!). It will be a sad sad day when he's voted off and I can no longer watch him on TV, lol.

ANYWAYS.... in other (dorky) news, this month celebrates the 30 year anniversary of the Empire Strikes Back release. Entertainment Weekly has a five page article including pictures that have never been released from George Lucas. Five pages totally didn't satisfy my SW desire (the cover is so promising and the article is somewhat lacking) but Lucas is publishing a book full of previously unreleased material. I don't know if I'll buy the book, but it'll be worth an afternoon at Borders at least. And I'm also excited to see what comes of this sitcom they're talking about producing. Hopefully Lucas doesn't try to write the scripts because then it'll turn out as bad as episodes 1-3 (burn?).

Enough of my dorkiness and procrastination. Back to editing.

But first...

Current song:


and since I'm on an American Idol kick:


totally not good quality, but it was the best I could find. lol. He's another cute one. (Sorry Lee). Anyways, enough of my chattering...and swooning. Happy Weekend!

Bad writing...

I was on my way to class yesterday, listening to the radio (which is out of character for me, usually I listen to my ipod) and the lyrics to some of the new songs astounded me...and not in a good way.

I'm not sure what song it was that came on, but some of the lyrics went as follows: "girl you're the whole pacakge/ you even pay your taxes"

... ... ...Seriously??? Since when is paying taxes something worth singing about? And is the IRS giving them a cut for reminding everyone that it's almost tax day? I mean, I guess finding someone who isn't into tax evasion is a good thing... but damn. Could the artist really not find something else to rhyme with 'package?' There are websites designed to help you find rhymes; and while 'package' isn't the easiest thing to find a rhyme for, couldn't we replace the word with something else? Or why are we even rhyming at all?

On another note, in class last night Bob was talking about a book he's struggling to get through called 'The Book Thief' because it's so badly written. He said he couldn't understand how the book made the best sellers list until he noticed that all of the praise for the book classified it as a young adult novel. That made him feel better, but kind of struck a cord with me. Why are we okay with sub-par writing for America's youth? Isn't that kind of like teaching tomorrow's writers that it's okay to take shortcuts? And it's so difficult to get published today... how the hell did this guy fall through the cracks?

I applaud anyone who publishes a book for young adults or children because it promotes reading at a young age. If you think about it, authors like JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer (*cringe*) caused literacy levels to shoot through the roof because they produced books that kids wanted to read. They made reading cool. And their writing was good. Well, Rowling's writing was good.... Meyer needs some work, but had a great plot (Sara, if you're reading this, stop glaring at me. I know you like Twilight... lol) but the point is they didn't take shortcuts. And if we're letting other writers write bad, then kids are going to learn how to write badly.

I'm not sure if I made my point...I'm at work now and somewhat distracted...so I apologize if I got off track somewhere in the above paragraph.

Bookcases

One of my favorite things about staying in other people's houses when I house/dog sit is the opportunity I get to raid their bookcases. And last week was amazing, because they had so many books scattered on shelves throughout the house. For me, a book choice says a lot about a person, and the books people decide to display say even more.
Coffee table books do the same thing. For instance, if you're a very religious person you'll be more inclined to buy religious books and display them. If you're into gardening, your coffee table will have a book about gardens, cooks will display cooking books, etc, etc.
Back to my original point... I love raiding bookcases. For me, it's like roaming a bookstore without the commitment. I can sample books and then put them back. I can learn something about the tastes of the person who bought them. In the house I was at last week, the wife is an artist. So in their bedroom on the bookshelves were books on artistry, but also feng shui, and a few guidebooks (Italy 2007 and Newsweek's Nation's Best Colleges stuck out). In the hallway were more novels. A few books that I'd glanced at in Border's were stacked there, in addition to the Postsecret books (if you don't know what Postsecret is, go to Postsecret.com. It's an amazing site.). It was interesting to see that some of my taste of books is echoed in that house and I also opened a few novels that are outside of genres I would usually pick.

With that being said, when it comes to bookcases, I love messy ones. Like such:

That's one of my many bookcases in my room. There's no order to it (Well, I try to group authors together...but other than that there's none). Maybe the stacks of books on top of each other just indicate that I need to spend money on more bookcases. But to me, this is a seriously personified bookcase. This is character. I absolutely HATE clean and tidy bookcases. And maybe I'm alone in that. But a neat bookcase to me says that the owner bought the books for decoration and they've been read once or twice but tossed up on a shelf to show off. I have some books like that... but mostly because I'm a freak. I have Harry Potter books that are for reading and others that are collectables. I have a problem. I'm willing to admit that, lol.

But as evidenced above, the rest of my bookcases look as though a tornado hit them.

Anyways... that is my rant for the day.

To recap:

Messy= good.

Clean= bad (or in this case psycho insane. Color coding?? Really???)

Happy Easter!

Current Song: (The first one- BoyslikeGirls)


Current Book: