I've moved

Sorry for the run around but if you are looking for the story factory, it's at http://susanhaven.com

Write or Die

So, I have this new program called Write or Die. I put in the word count and the time goal and start writing. Not a lot of bells and whistles. But there are these two bars at the top that track the time and the word count so you can track progress. When you stop writing, the whole page turns red. There are sounds when you fail, but nothing actually kills you, a good thing. But it's kind of fun to have the goals and the the lines on top racing each other. Right now, my time is five minutes and the goal is 500 words. No way, no how. But I wanted to see what Kamakazee mode does. And I will find out, and there is no way I can write all 500 words in five minutes. If I could, I could actually make a living writing, I do belive. The thing about a timer, is that you can tune out the twitter and the facebook when you see the read line racing the gray word line. I used it to write about five hundred words early on the acutal work in progress. two pages a day and eventually I will have a real novel. I hope.

Please explain this freelance request to me

Title: Money Junior 
Project ID: 710391 
Budget: $250 to $500 
Category: Writing, Editing & Translation 
Description: I need some to complete a book on Financial Literacy for preschooler. Estimate total number of pages should not exceed more than 150 pages, ideally should have some grahics to do the illustration, if not is ok. 


Do Preschoolers REALLY need a book on Financial Literacy??? 


And 150 pages????


My child was reading at three, but not sure this is a topic he would have been interested in.


I think I will pass on this project.

Prompt 4

4. The best Halloween costumes you've ever seen on Halloween. Why they were so memorable to you and why you wish you'd thought of them first.

So, I was siting with Ms.Snow White herself Kelsie, in the stands. We didn't make the finals at the Duncanville invitational, but we were staying to watch, because next year, that would be us. We knew it, we could feel it. So therefore, we stayed to watch. Four of the Euphonium players decided to be KISS and one of the band chaperones did a pretty decent job on their makeup. I wasn't sure that our little gang would win though. We had a chance, but among the storm troopers and other star wars figures, poor Garret, stuck as Han Solo, had to compete with us, the Disney Octet. But the real problem was Tim and his flute playing girl friend Britney. They were Belle and Edward and Tim covered his face with glitter to "sparkle." I wasn't sure he would show his face again. But Twilight was too popular so they had to win. No hope for me. But Garrett did ask me if I would rather have been Princess Leia. All I could say was...

Prompt 3

Prompt 3. In a burst of charity, you are planning to be the best Halloween house in the neighborhood by giving away the best candy. Go through the days of preparation and detail your holiday evening. How have the chidlren reacted. Haven't you sampled on etoo many of the goodies, perhaps?

The Band Chaperones went overboard with our buses. Somehow, while we were off doing our collective “things”, they decorated our buses with crepe paper, banners, goey stick-ems on the windows and large sacks of candy and cheapo toys. Everything we would have gotten trick or treating. Kelsie said that her mom had spend a week talking to the other chaperones with email, texts and facebook trying to have everything ready, and looking at our bus, this was a band-wide things. I can only say that I was glad that my parents were NOT chaperones. They would fully participate, but I would forever be hearing about the sacrifice they made so that the band kids could have a Halloween. The Band Parents on our bus? They would never mention it. They were having just as much fun, dressed in costumes and helping us with ours, as we did.  

           

I only wished I was on another bus. Not that sitting with Kelsie and playing Apples to Apples with her and some other sophomores wasn’t fun. But I had to wonder what Garrett was doing on the Junior bus.  Leila wasn’t there, so I wasn’t exactly jealous, but still, I was here and he was there and I couldn’t just turn and look and see what he was doing. Like I could in the stands when we were sitting and watching the other bands, and he was in the row behind me hanging with the other drummers. 


The chaperones  seemed pretty proud of themselves. Kelsie's mom Rita was not on our bus, as the parents weren't allowed to be on the same bus as their kids, but she was on Garrett's bus. And now that Kelsie had a real boyfriend, I held out hope that Rita would spy for me on the Junior bus. 

Prompt 2

photo © 2010 Loren Javier | more info (via: Wylio)

Prompt 2. You have a 16 year old daughter who wants to go to a Halloween Party with all of her peers. You take her to the Halloween store to find an “appropriate” costume. She is resistant to most “conservative” choices. Describe the encounter, your feelings and what you end up deciding upon.

Rituals and Holy Days, those are the things that bond us together as humans in communities and families. I learned that this week in World Geography. Pre-AP, which is the fancy word meaning no gangstas in class and slightly more homework. I remember the line about bonding, but I don’t remember exactly what rituals and holy days we were acutually discussing. That might be because it was two weeks to Halloween and I was thinking more about the rituals involved in that particular holiday and. My life was so different since moving a thousand miles, so I was sure Halloween was going to be as well.  

The last couple of Halloweens, back in New Jersey, we partook of our share of  rituals. The night before Halloween is a holiday of it’s own, Mischief Night. And in our neighborhood, we celebrated Mischief night.It was an evening where the popular kids houses would be toilet papered, egged, and sidewalk chalked. Or some would push the doorbell and run.  As I was a lowly freshman, and a band nerd at that, no one would bother my house. But my best friend Theresa’s older sister was the head cheerleader and every one who was anyone was going to try to do something to her house. So Theresa’s dad paid Theresa and I  in Hershey Bars to sit up in the two Maple trees on bordering her street with bags of water balloons and eggs, ready to defend the borders of the lands. Theresa’s sister was never actually there, having a life and all. But we would launch our grenades on the football players and other jocks who came to drape the trees with Charmin.

I hadn’t met anyone with popular sisters yet, although as a member of the cymbal line, I wasn’t quite the nobody I was in New Jersey. But no one mentioned Mischief night coming up. Mischief night was on a Friday and there was a football game, and therefore a half time performance. So no mischief for me. And the next day, Halloween, I found out I didn’t have to worry about being invited to Kaitlyn’s party. We had a band marching contest three hours away, the Duncanville Invitational. According to the itinerary, we wouldn’t be home until one in the morning. So much for Halloween.

            But cymbal line took up so much time, I didn’t have much time to think about it. Hannah felt our pain, but had an announcement after practice. “Mr. Band Director said that we could have a costume contest while we are in Duncanville,” she announced after practice two weeks before Halloween and the contest. “I thought the cymbal line could all go as something together.”

There were eight of us. We all looked at each other as we were circled around Hannah.  What could we possibly do that would incorporate the eight of us and not be stupid or immature? I glanced at Kelsie. She looked heavy in thought. I could tell when she was thinking hard because she would screw her lips up into a half pucker.

Hannah held up a cymbal with little pieces of paper on top of it. “Everyone, come get a character name. We are going as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

I was right. There was nothing we could do that wasn’t stupid or immature.

My first thought was that Hannah was going to be Snow White, but she was staff, so she would be above the humiliation. (Girl 1) took the first folded slip of paper. She slowly opened it, playing with all of us as we watched and wondered. She read it, then signed. “Doc.” I felt a bit of relief.  I didn’t want to wear glasses.

Kelsie went next. She picked a folded peace of  paper, and almost ripped it open. Then she started jumping up and down screaming. “I got Snow White! I got Snow White!” She came back to my side and whispered, “Think we can get Garrett as Prince Charming?” I just shook my head.

The rest of us drew our parts and I was relieved to be Bashful. Much better than Dopy or Grumpy, although the latter would be an easy part to play.

After practice, Kelsie’s mom took us to the Halloween Store, where Hannah had assured us there were reasonably priced costumes. Kelsie’s mom, Rita, was almost as excited as Kelsie. The building itself was huge and barren, taking up much more space than Halloween deserved. Rita said it was a WalMart once, but after they built a SuperWalMart out on the  by-pass, the old WalMart building would house the seasonal Holiday Boutiques. Or Boo-tique, as it was labeled today. Next month, it would be Santa’s Workshop.

We walked in behind Kelsie’s mom. Rita, didn’t work and offered several times to make costumes for us. Kelsie said that she wasn’t very good at sewing, and unless I was willing to look like a kewpie doll version of Bashful, I should say over and over that there was no way I could intrude on Rita’s time like that.

The costume store had portable shelves with large signs at each end proclaiming the gender and sizing of the costumes on the aisle. I could barely make out a Snow White costume in the children’s area, but dutifully followed Rita and Kelsie into the Ladie’s aisle. It was almost as educational as a day in World Geography. I never realized that Snow White  was so, um, attractive, to older men. I wasn’t sure what Kelsie would have to stuff the costume with to hold it up. Rita stood behind Kelsie, pulling the dress around her chest. This was too much for me. I walked around the rest of the store, past the wigs, the fangs, the makeup. Surely, somewhere there had to be the rest of the dwarf costumes. Maybe in mens, I thought. I turned the corner and looked for a hole in the floor to swallow me up. There stood Garrett and Leila. He was holding up a Hans Solo costume, and Leila was whining.

“There is no way I am going to wear my hair in those little buns. I don’t care how close my name is, I am not one of those trekkies.” Leila’s pony tail bobbed in time with her rant. She was holding two costumes, I could make out the names, Sonny and Cher. I had no idea who they were, but they looked like sixties hippies.

 “It’s Star Wars, not Star Trek,” Garret calmly corrected her, “and it is a classic.” He looked up and saw me. I tried not to panic. “Right, Jules? You would be Princess Leia, wouldn’t you?”

Yikes. What do I say? The truth, of course I would be your Princess any time? No, not with his girlfriend, Leila, the junior cheerleader co-captain. It would be social suicide to say that.  “Um, I have to be Bashful. To go with Snow White. It’s a cymbal line thing.” I held my chin up as I said the part about the cymbal line. That was kind of fun to say to Ms. Cheerleader-Thang.

Garrett smiled, “That would be fun. Hey, if you need a Prince Charming, I could help out. Leila could be the Queen.”

Leila smacked him with the Sonny costume.

            “Wow.” Garrett said.

            I turned around and looked at what took Garrett’s attention. It was Kelsie, trying on the Snow White costume. She looked ready to work at Disneyworld, black wig and all. I was so jealous that Garrett got to see her in that. Rita followed and handed me the Bashful costume.  I was doomed to dwarfdom. I wondered if Bashful had any musical talents. I might need to rewatch the DVD tonight.

1,000 Writing Prompts.

One of the Blues Brothers'
Halloween 2010

Since November 2010, I have been pretty diligent about doing "morning pages", three handwritten pages each morning about nothing in particular. But I am trying to get my writing discipline back, so I next started making evening "writing appointments." These appointments are fine, but I'm not getting any work done on the current novel, and I need to get something going. So I bought the Kindle edition of Bryan Cohen's 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories, and More. So the plan is to start today with prompt 1 and use the book each night, in numerical order, to work on writing on demand on whatever the prompt says.

And so far, it isn't working for me. But soldier on I will....

1. Explain your most memorable Halloween, from the candy you received, the costume you wore, the environment of your neighborhood (if you trick or treated) and why it has dwarfed all your other Halloween experiences.


Wow. It's March, and Spring is here and the last thing I really want to think about is Fall and Halloween. The thing about my family was, costumes were not purchased. They were not "made" either, not in the traditional way where mother pulls out the Singer Sewing machine and whips up a Princess dress that would intimidate Cinderella's Fairy Godmother. Sure, mom put some thought into planning it, and like a good Manic Depressive, would have all the planning and acquiring of materials during an up-time. So there were plans, fabrics, etc. Unfortunately, by the time it was the actual week of Halloween, mom was in a valley emotionally and didn't have the energy to actually make the costume. Costumes were not made, therefore, they were assembled from things we already had. Her long skirt and white peasant blouse? Poof, I am a gypsy. Leftover white dress from Confirmation ceremony? Presto, a sixties Bride in a mini skirt, complete with veil.

I don't remember Halloween, until First Grade. I walked to school ever day with Raymond Darbenzio. We went to school in the morning, then everyone went home for lunch and changed into costumes and walked back to school for afternoon Halloween parties. (I am sure there were some kids that had to bring the costume to school and change there after eating cafeteria lunch, but they were not in my neighborhood). I had some kind of princess costume, typical first grader. The best part is that walking home from school, we trick or treated. The rules were that we couldn't go into anyone's home, because only pedeophiles would invite strange children in. And we were not allowed to eat any candy until we got home and our parents "checked for razor blades and poison." Which now that I am a mother, I know that it means, "mom pulled out the good stuff."

I'm not sure that Halloween "dwarfed" other experiences. When you have 46 Halloweens, after a while they do run together.  And making the holiday fun for my kids was way more fun than anything I could remember doing growing up. Which I guess is part of growing up.