Passion

Laura Williamson, Charron Vineyards, is a Master Sommelier here in Southern Arizona. Read her following quote and insert your work, your labor of love, your passion—inside my parentheses.

“Even though [winemaking] appears a simple measure…it is certainly one of the most tedious, unforgiving passions that can either fulfill or exhaust one’s desires.”

Wow. I love those words! Isn’t it so true for all of us that have found our passion in work? A writer would not write without passion. Sure, reporters are assigned stories they could give a rat about, and some fiction writers are persuaded into a story line that will sell rather than one that stirs their hearts, but writing is, by its nature, a labor of love. It isn’t glamorous. We sit alone at a keyboard for hour after hour but not counting, and the only thing in real time we recognize is that the necessity of eating and going to the bathroom becomes an annoying interruption.

Did you know that less than one percent of all persons that say they are going to write a book actually finish it?

I wish you a passion that will both fulfill and exhaust you.

                                                               Arizona Skylight. by lala corriere

LalaCorriere

http://www.lalacorriere.com

New character Interviews coming soon @    http://twitter.com/lalacorriere/

Debut release of Widow's Row coming soon!

Reading, Writing, & Mythmatic

My alphabet starts with this letter called yuzz.  It's the letter I use to spell yuzz-a-ma-tuzz.  You'll be sort of surprised what there is to be found once you go beyond 'Z' and start poking around!  ~   Dr. Seuss

The definition of READING:  The dictionary says it’s the act or practice of a reader.

Simple enough!

Notes to self: Read. A lot.

The definition of WRITING: The dictionary says it’s language characters written or imprinted on readable matter.

Simple enough!

Notes to self: Write. A lot.

The definition of MYTHMATICS: Lala says it’s the art and science of fiction and it is not to be defied.

Simple enough!

Notes to self: Forget about the NYC super-agent who told me the setting for my manuscript, Widow’s Row, was ... “Ludicrous. No small town would have that kind of thing". She added, “Not in this world.” Well, as it so happens my manuscript is set in the actual sleepy southern Colorado town of Trinidad, known widely as the “sex change capitol of the world”. This is fact, and in my book of fiction. And the reason she rejected Widow’s Row.

I’m not writing historical fiction where my facts have to be correct, down to the very brand of shoelaces young women wore on their lace-up boots in the Victorian Era. But of course I wouldn’t use a real town and brand it something it is not.

What I see in the publishing industry is exciting! Writers are finding their voices and writing what they want to write, AND getting their work published. Is it good enough? Time will tell. The numbers won’t be fictional.

I guess my ranting is about the one true fact that fiction should be fun. It’s where you get to lie and make stuff up!

Today I wish you a little bit of make-believe!

Debut release of Widow's Row coming soon!

A Case of the DTB's!

“Keep your mind open
to change all the time.
Welcome it.
Court it.
It is only by examining
and reexamining
your opinions
and ideas
that you can progress.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 —Dale Carnegie

It’s not something you come down with quickly, this case of DTB’s. Rather, it develops over years.

I have a case. I suspect you have a case. And although we love our DTB’s, somehow they’re getting an image problem.

DTB’s—Dead Tree Books. Yup. That’s what the Kindlers and other e-reader fans call our beloved leather bound books. And don’t even ask the Green Team what they call the zillions of paper pages that line our mahogany bookshelves.

On my last blog I wrote about the increasing rapidity factor in dialogue, scene and plot delivery. Now let’s look at our world and the entertainment industry.

‘Stop the presses!’ no longer means  there’s breaking news. Today the presses just stop. Two-newspaper cities are almost obsolete. Magazines have either folded or acquiesced to the demands for a complete online presence. Cable and satellite companies are scrambling to be the quickest provider of instant-download movies. Is a nanosecond too slow?

            And Amazon made the announcement just this week. With an original goal to outsell all other booksellers in the world, it seems Amazon itself might have been surprised that they are now selling more digital print books than hardcovers.

            Here’s what Jessica Strawser, editor of Writer’s Digest, has to say about technology in general:  “Regularly, WD Interview subjects debated in earnest the merits of the pen versus the keys. Eventually, they skeptically began to ponder the invention of word processors. Later, they wondered whether this new Internet thing might be here to stay.”

Here is a link to the Amazon story in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/technology/20kindle.html

And for writers, here’s a Wall Street Journal cover story about digital printing success:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704912004575253132121412028.html?KEYWORDS=mcquestion

What does this mean for you and me?  It means we have plenty of good books to read!

Today I wish you time to read.

Not a Moment to Spare

'If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.'


~Isaac Asimov


The world is speeding up. This much I know.

Remember when you could read a book and muddy your way through a third of it without much of a hook? We trusted the author and we read on, knowing we would finally get to the meat of things.

When I first started writing professionally the name of the game was the first five pages. Nab the guts of your reader in your opening pages or you’re doomed. [The First Five Pages, by Noah Lukeman, is still a must read for any writer.]

The game changed again. Soon it became clear that you had only the first page. Then the first few paragraphs. Dare I say the challenge has become hooking your reader in the first couple of sentences? I think it’s a safe observation.

I’m guilty of purple prose. It’s impossible for me to forego all of my adjectives and I blame it on my interior design background. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. But I’m careful. Really, I am. I try to let my readers use their imaginations to fill in the details. Show. Don’t tell.

Examine the example the world is showing us. Listen to the pattern of speech. It’s fast. It’s clipped. It’s verbal shorthand. LOL.

Is your writing of dialogue current? Ranting and woes and old ladies with knitting needles may tend to rattle on, but many conversations of today are brief, abrupt, and interrupted.

The introduction of the Vook is yet another example of a speeded-up delivery system.

I don’t wake up each day and follow Isaac Asimov’s mantra of writing faster. Quite the opposite. I get it down on paper. That’s a good start. But a reread usually shows me my masterpiece is nothing but silly dough and finger paint. Dissection begins. Does each scene carry my story forward? Is the paragraph necessary? Is the sentence integral? The very word?

Today I wish you the right write words.

Learn More About Vooks

Thanks for all your comments and questions regarding VOOKS.
Here's a great link for a quick look at this growing trend:

http://promo.simonandschuster.com/vook/

Writing Rapture

“We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about.”

                         -Joseph Campbell Author, Editor, Philosopher & Teacher, 1904-1987



Previously I wrote about life’s light bulb moments. Today, their Grande Papa…Rapture. Getting lost in the moment. For hours.

When is it that you lose track of all time? For me it is often when I’m deep into my writing mode, both fiction and non-fiction. Sometimes I feel I have been writing for an hour only to look up at the clock to see that three or four hours have passed. In a blink.

A page-turning book can do it. Currently I’m reading some Dennis Lehane, an old Mary Higgins Clark, and Patricia Cornwell. Occasionally I’ll become totally absorbed in an art project. Often it happens when my husband and I are sitting outside shooting the breeze, a ritual for us. This is pretty much amazing in that we’ve been shooting the breeze together for over 25 years!

Time is an odd thing, isn’t it? It’s an innate condition of our planet that we can’t ignore. Deadlines are to be met, dates and appointments are to be honored, and sleep must be respected and attended.

As a writer I am blessed. I do something I love. I have passion in my life.

Today I wish you time to think about your rapture experiences. And, once you’ve identified them, I wish you time to go get lost in your rapture.

Convening With Nature

I recently posted about the inspiration derived from nature and the need to convene with nature. This is NOT what I had in mind!

Look for my post later today... Writing Rapture. We will not be talking Gila Monsters.