Point of View

I’ve been reading a lot of Katie MacAlister lately. Two things really stand out in her writing. One, she’s a hoot. And two, her heroines - they’re insecure, they do stupid things, they’re overweight, they make mistakes. In other-words, they’re human.

Despite the reading binge, I’ve been thinking about my writing lately. A lot. I know that thinking isn’t the same as doing, but it’s still progress. At least I think so. Reading good books helps me see what’s wrong with my own writing. I think I’m beginning to read like a writer.

One of the very first short stories I ever wrote started out in the 3rd person point of view. The story was okay, but once I rewrote it in the 1st person POV it was great. It was amazing what a change in the point of view made.

Katie MacAlister writes in the first person. I think that’s another reason I enjoy her books, it’s easier to identify with her heroines.

With that one exception, I have always written in the 3rd person POV. Lately, I’ve been giving POV serious thought. I have considered changing my POV to the 1st person in my writing, but it’s a major step. You are limited to one character, they have to carry the whole story. And if they’re not strong enough, the entire thing comes crashing down. You’re also limited to revealing only the information that that character is privy to - only what they can see or discover, what’s told to them.

Still, it’s worth thinking about. But that’s just my point of view.

For Those Who Care . . .

I blame myself really. Yesterday I made some comment about the rate at which my money vanishes and I got all smug because I was finally treading water (financially speaking). So that bitch Fate had to come along and push me under again.

The root canal went fine, despite having a tooth root "a mile long" and a raging infection (which meant the freezing started coming out before he was done). Because of the infection, the root was badly calcified and is pretty much just floating in place in my jaw.

But he believes it has a good chance of repairing itself. The procedure wasn't as complicated as they thought it would be, I only needed 3 posts instead of 4. Now, one would think that would mean that I wouldn't have to pay as much because the assessment for the insurance was for 4 posts. Enter Fate. I ended up having to pay more than double what I thought I was going to.

And let's not forget I'll have to pay for the permanent filling next week.

And the check up in three months

It's making my head hurt.

And my jaw.

Where's the Advil?

Whiny Wednesday

Is it just me or is this batch of America’s Next Top Model the whiniest ones yet? Some of them are truly above and beyond the call of whine-dom. To my mind it lowers the quality of the whole show. If I wanted to listen to whiny women sniping at each other, I’d pay more attention at work.

And can anyone tell me, what’s with the snow we keep getting dumped on us? This is Spring damn it! We are past both the March Break and Easter. Where’s the grass? The flowers? Yesterday we got another 5 centimeters of snow and there’s rumours of more to come later in the week. At least the snow we got yesterday had the decency to melt today. Grr!

I put my procrastination to good use and put off doing our tax returns for as long as I could. However, I finally sucked it up and did them yesterday and e-filed them today. I don’t know why I hate doing them so much, they’re pretty easy. I guess I’m just afraid of making a mistake and ending up in jail for tax fraud or something.

It’s a good thing I’m getting a refund though. I’m getting a root canal done tomorrow and the insurance is a couple of hundred dollars short of covering it. And it certainly isn’t going to cover getting the permanent filling in a couple of weeks.

C’est la vie. That seems to be the way things always go with money and me. Just when I think I’m getting ahead, something comes along to take all my money away again. Like dental bills. Or vet bills. Or some other kind of bill.

*sigh*

Updates

Unlike some people I could mention (Chippy! Crazynance!) I try and update my blog on a regular basis. I, unlike other people (Chippy! Crazynance!), even feel guilty when I fall behind in my posts.

I was going to update on Friday, but I was so tired and frustrated by the time I got to sit down that I changed my mind. I was one of the lucky ones who had the day off, and I spent pretty much the whole day shuffling books from one shelf to another. Who’s idea was it to organize my books, anyway? Oh. That’s right. Mine. Well, it was a stupid idea. It took forever, and the only one who even cares is me.

Saturday the husband and I drove to London to visit the daughter and the boyfriend. We had a very nice time, culminating in eating way too much at a restaurant. Traffic wasn’t too bad, the weather was cold, but nice and clear (perfect for driving).

Sunday I finished shoveling out the office. It’s looking pretty darn good if I do say so myself. Give me a 12 foot extension cord and a comfy chair to sit in and it would be perfect. We won’t mention the pile of stuff in the spare bedroom. Or in the closet.

You notice I haven’t mentioned the writing pledge I made myself . . . I think I forgot to mention that it doesn’t take effect until today.

Or maybe tomorrow.

I Swear!

No, I'm not talking about the kind of swearing I did when I got pulled over by the cop on the way to Tim Horton's yesterday. I'm talking about swearing an oath to write every day, no matter what.

I'm finding that the longer I go without writing, the harder it is to get back into. It's been a few days since the last time I opened up one of my book documents and the more time that goes by the more effort it seems to get into the writing mind set again.

The only way to fix this is to write every day. It doesn't have to be a lot, and it probably won't at first, just so long as I write something on one of my projects. Blogging and letters don't count.

It helps that I'm feeling a little less pressured by work. My doctor wrote a truly impressive letter that she faxed directly to the head office of the company I work for. They will have no option other than to grant me my accommodation, or lay me off (with a severance package). If they try to give me any more flack I have more than enough ammunition to take it to the Human Rights Commission. And don't think I won't!

Oh, the Humanity!

Normally I don't watch American Idol, mainly 'cause half the fun is making comments about the singing and the cats aren't much for conversation.

Anyway, I wasn't feeling well tonight, and it was pretty much the only thing on, so I watched it. They were having a Beatles theme night, which meant they were all singing Beatles songs.

A couple of them were pretty good - the 17 year old, and the guy with the dreds. However, what was up with the ones who turned the Beatles into Country and Western??? And the chick who sang Yesterday? The liberties she took with that song were just wrong. And worse were the judges who actually liked it. I don't care if she took the song and made it her own, it's not her song. Leave it alone!

So, no more American Idol for me. I'll stick to the Space Channel from now on.

Bookcase Fiasco

Thank God I’m “just a woman”.

Being a woman, if I’d been building my bookcase I’d have used bricks and boards, or something funky to use as supports. When I mentioned this to the husband, who has some kind of an aversion to bricks and boards, he pointed out that it might not be stable enough for the cats to lounge on.

Good point. My next idea was to use long square pieces of wood for supports. Or even better, cut up some of those tree limbs lying around outside for a natural look. I’d drill a hole through the shelves, drill a hole in the top and bottom of each support and use dowels to hold it all together.

At this point, the husband took over. First he bought this thick, hardwood doweling to use as supports. Then, not liking my “who cares what colour it is” attitude, he had to stain the doweling. It took forever to dry, hence the actual construction of the bookcase had to be put off a week.

This weekend he started assembling it, using heavy screws and his beloved electric drill. Much cursing and swearing ensued. Apparently, hardwood is really hard. Over half the screws ended up bent. Then the cordless drill ran out of juice. It was re-charged, only to die completely. MUCH more cursing and swearing.

By this time it is too late to go to a store to get some nails to just nail it together. He wonders why he didn’t think of that before. (Uh, could it be because he likes any excuse to use the drill?) If I’m real lucky, the book case will get finished tonight, which means I won’t really get to fill it until next weekend.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all the work the husband is putting into this. But like I said. Thank God I’m “just a woman”. If I’d done it my way, it would be done by now and I wouldn’t be sitting here updating, I’d be cataloguing the books in my new book case.

Beneficial Dreaming

I woke up in a surprisingly good mood today. Surprising because last night I was deep in the abyss of depression over this whole work thing.

The form I had my doctor fill out earlier this week was deemed inadequate, so I had to draft a letter that I’m hoping my doctor will sign next week and also hope will be found sufficient. If I have to go home from work to stay off the phones the first thing I’ll do is call the Human Rights Commission. I’m thinking the first form should have been specific enough.

But I must have done some very beneficial dreaming last night because the good mood I woke up in stayed with me the whole day.

However, the good mood is wearing off now. I’m just feeling tired. Very tired. And old.

Too Cool!

Okay, this is way too cool to keep to myself.

As you know, if you know me or if you've been reading this blog for a while, I have been saying for years that I'd like to catalogue my books so I could keep better track of them. Not only so I can keep track of what books I have, but also what books are missing.

A while back I'd saved the link to a free book program, but didn't go any further than that. Today I opened the link and downloaded the program. OMG! It's called BookBD and it's the greatest thing to happen to books since the printing press.

It keeps track of your books, it keeps track of where they are, it keeps track of who's borrowed them . . . and the best part is, you can add books by using the ISBN number! It'll search the book out and fill in all the information - what a time saver! And, for those of you not trusting with your hard drive, you can download it to a flash drive and work from there.

I might even read the manual to see what else you can do with it :-)

Anyone who's interesting can find out more about it HERE

P.S.

Actually, the P.S. should stand for Pre-Script instead of Post-Script because it'll show up before the regular post.

I almost forgot to mention. I had another router crap out on me. When the old one went I thought I was lucky to still have a little one kicking around to use as a substitute until I get a new one, and then promptly forgot I needed a new one. Then the ethernet cord went, now the router itself is pooched.

So, no sitting in the living room playing on the internet for a while. Which is another good reason to get the office cleaned up.

S’No Fair!

It’s been awhile since I’ve had a rant, so here you go.

Could someone please explain to me why we had a green Christmas, and yet it appears to have done nothing but snow since then? It’s been snowing for two days straight now, and it’s not supposed to stop until sometime tomorrow. It’s starting to remind me of that Little House on the Prairie book The Long Winter.

My shiny new stove is wonderful, but the first time I used the oven it gave off enough fumes to choke a horse. The new dishwasher led to the discovery that we needed some plumbing work done under the kitchen sink. We need new taps for the washing machine to be hooked up to, so our washer and dryer aren’t hooked up yet. But my fridge holds a pizza box with no problem.

I got an e-mail from one of my sisters this week which made it sound like the time I booked off in April to do a “sisterly bonding” thing was the wrong week. Grr! However, I spoke to my other sister today who said no, I booked off the correct week. You can see how well we communicate.

I’ve been wanting a new bookcase in my office for some time now. One that would go up to the window ledge and span the entire length - more space for the cats to lounge on, more space for books. Yesterday I got the planks (yes, planks! They’re 96 inches long) and today we got the doweling to go between the shelves. All I can say is, at the price we paid for the doweling this better work.

Speaking of work . . . they’re getting serious about moving the chat to Manilla. I’ve been fighting to stay off the phone, but the HR woman claims I no longer have an accommodation. I have to get a new form filled out by my doctor, and until it’s done they can insist I go on the phone. The worst part is, the new form will most likely only give me a stay of execution. Once the chat is moved to Manilla (which I expect to be the beginning of April when the quarterly shift bid is closed) they can lay me off. I’m getting too old for this.

Organization

I’m becoming addicted to organization. I blame Clean Sweep for this. It started with the plastic containers in my kitchen (I found some cloth baskets that fit into the cupboard perfectly - instant organization!) and snowballed from there. Next was organizing the kitchen counter to make room for my spiffy new spice rack. This led to cleaning out a couple of cupboards as well (my spice/baking cupboard looks positively barren).

The point of this (you did figure there was a point beyond patting myself on the back, didn’t you?) is that I think organization is what my problem is in Driving Into Forever. This section I’ve been working on has a lot of information in it, but it needs to be organized. It needs to be told in just the right order for the story to progress.

Last night, before I figured out the organization angle, I had a marathon phone session with my writing buddy. I told her there was one piece of information in particular that had to be presented because it was pivotal to the next book as well. She suggested I turn it into a nursery rhyme that one of the characters recites. So, while we were talking I started doodle-writing and came up with a rhyme. It works great!

Thanks CrazyNance! You get the first batch of cookies that comes out of my brand new convection oven . . . once I figure out how to use it.

Slow But Sure

You know, there is one good thing about having more than one story on the go at a time. When you get stuck with one, you can go on to a different one. Which is what I’ve done.

Driving Into Forever was beginning to drive me a little crazy. I didn’t want to just skip over the section I got bogged down in because I’d just have to go back and fix it later, and it’s one of the pivotal scenes in the whole thing so until I know what’s happening there I won’t know how the characters will react later on.

So, I’m back working on Changeling. And progressing nicely, I might add. Since I’m not under any time constraint I can meander all I want with it. True, a lot of it is pure crap, but that’s what editing is for. Right now I’m getting the story down with as much detail as I want, no matter how bad or corny it may get.

Last week was a busy week. The daughter came home for a few days and since I don’t see her that often I made up for the home-cooked meals she’s missed. We went shopping and watched some DVDs . . . she got some writing done while I . . . didn’t (see previous post).

I had three books from Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dream Hunter series and I finally got around to reading them. I’ll post my opinions of them on the book blog. And when I was in the drug store I noticed a Lynsay Sands book that was just out. Bonus!