News From Around Me

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I’ve been away and definitely guilty of not posting anything of substance.  I’m still writing, though it’s sparse.  My hours at my job (10-7) mean that by the time I roll out of  bed, dress and race to the coffee shop to check e-mails I can’t answer at work, it’s time to hit the highway, and by the time I get home, Prime Time programming is just starting.  I’m starting to miss the days where I had time to meander from room to room just not thinking about anything.  Now it seems there’s always something to be done.

I’ve hauled out my laptop table again, and when I’m feeling froggy, fire it up to look at words.  The ideas have been there, they’re even written down.  I’m just not motivated to turn them into worlds.

While I’m at work, in the downtime I have, I’ve been active on the Goodreads site, where I’m a Librarian.  I have ninety-two (92) books listed and I’ve been adding Sony Reader books as well.  I went looking for eBook groups there but they are sadly inactive.  I’m being friended by a lot of authors, so perhaps I’ll check out what they have as well (except the Romance, Chick-lit, and Ghetto – I have my reasons).  I’m a terrible reviewer in that I don’t often review books there unless I really l love them or really hate them (which leads me to my next point).

I’m active again on Writer’s Café, much to the chagrin of writers who really don’t want reviews but lots of hugz and pats on the head.  My first review back was for a guy name JakeStar who’d written a 3,000 word block of description but neglected to add a story.  When he ran out of words, he “startled” his heroine off a balcony when the dark mysterious figure she’d glimpsed in the mirror was herself.  (Oh, right – SPOLER ALERT!) Did I mention she’d killed her boyfriend?  Yeah, he didn’t either until nearly the end.  When I pointed out the plot flaws and pacing problems he told me I was trying to hard to be a critic.  Then he called me “chubby”.  When I noted that he could work on his sarcasm as well, he closed his profile.  His stories are still up should you want to view them.  For someone who wanted help in becoming a better writer, he didn’t want “help” so much as cookies.

It dovetailed nicely into this post by JA  Konrath, which (for the tl;dr crowd) is about taking advice and incorporating constructive criticism.  I realize that where it comes from is key.  I fully understood that when Jakestar read Gabriel’s Assistant (right before he called me “chubby”) and told me that my protagonist needed work and the ending was anti-climatic.  I informed him that the protagonist was fine the way she was and he could go eat it.  However the next review, by a guy who knows his way around a keyboard, Garrett Cook, said pretty much the same thing.  I listened to him, because I’ve read Garret’s work and while I don’t love everything he has to say, I respect him.   GA is a trunked story for all intents and purposes and has been for a while, but I like to leave it up because it reminds me of an earlier time in my writing.  This isn’t to say I’ve dismissed any or all comments, because that isn’t the case at all.  I don’t like tinkering with it too much, since I can see clearly where I’ve been. 

Some of the stories are an absolute mess over there, but a lot of writers really are trying to find a voice and express themselves.  I’ve come across some real gems in the last few days and it’s thrilling.  Of course that  means that I’m wading through a lot of really unreadable stories from people you’s swear learned English from bright  kindergarteners.  Far too many stories feel like they were written by and for the OC crowd with plodding descriptions and nothing in the way of an actual story.  I don’t mind short, since that’s what I seem to do well, but lots of stories start out describing the weather, introduce a character, trot out a tired cliché, throw some blood and tits in, and call it done.  Maybe there’s a crowd for those stories.  I’m just not a part of it.

I have a post coming up about Defendant Kwame Kilpatrick that will make you chuckle.  He can’t open his mouth without sticking his big ole foot in it.  His latest offering: playing the race card by claiming the Prosecutor was using the region’s racism against him.  Only a fallen Black Man would accuse a strong Black Woman of using race against his felony perjury charges and infidelity.

By the way, where’s Carlita?  She loves him better when she’s a thousand miles away and can’t actively strangle him.  I think she needs to find her bat and show him how much love she has left.