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First of all, go here. I know in my case, Miranda is right on the money. Writing my thesis made me into an overwrought, inflated-sentence writing machine. Well, that, and reading all the Victorian lit, which is a whole ‘nother bad writing problem. Anyway, an interesting idea.

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Also, look at this. Alternate universe me, Cath Schaffer, talks about why writers are essentially mad. Mad, I tell you! She makes some interesting points.

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So…I went to the doctor yesterday. I have a sinus infection, although thanks to the magic neti pot, only I can see the evidence of it. Lovin’ me my neti pot! Anyway, now I have some nasty antibiotics that make everything I eat taste on the wretched side.

Like any good patient, I also spent some time asking my doctor questions about a few other things that had been bothering me. As we age (45!), we tend to have more questions. What did I ask?

Q: Can I have the handouts for the plantar fasciitis stretches, since you know, exercise and all that?
A: Certainly! Stretch when you get up and before you go to bed. Also, don’t be afraid to ice it, or use jets on it.

Q: What about my weight? I’ve been eating healthily and exercising regularly, and I’m not losing. What can I do?

The answer might surprise you.

Continue reading “The Shape of Things to Stay”

Dave Mamet’s Memo on Drama to the Writers of the canceled show The Unit.

I guess the question for Unit viewers is this: Did the writers listen?

Anyway, it’s an interesting read.

Catherine

Last week, we bought our new electric blue Touring. It comes with Features (TM) and with bonuses. One of the bonuses is 3 months of free Sirius XM.

“Pshaw!” said the Stumps. “We will not keep this Sirius one second more than necessary. We are beyond that. We have a Nano, and we know where the jazz station is on the dial. We are Unimpressed.”

Catherine asked the dealer, “Will we have to shut this off?”

“No,” says Kandy (her real name). “Believe me, they will not let you keep it a minute longer. But you will get offers for continuing it, I’m sure.”

“We won’t need them,” said Bryon.

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The mistake was turning it on. Kandy, who must have known what she was doing, managed to leave Sirius XM set to the 80s on 8. Like all creatures of my time, I enjoy the music of my college years. Every regular radio station that plays 80s music plays a set. Right now, I’m hearing songs that I haven’t heard in years. I’m not making any kind of quality statement about the music, okay? Some of it *is* bad. But I can’t remember the last time I head “Cult of Personality” or the theme from Miami Vice.

Would Sirius XM be worth the bourgeois fee if we could get some depth in our favorite kinds of music? And if it has 80s, what else might it have?

Continue reading “The Sirius Seduction of Catherine S”

I’ve been meaning to mentiont this, and since only 11 shopping days remain until Christmas, you should know about it if you don’t already.

December Lights is a series of short stories designed to “light up the winter season.” The likes of Sarah Prineas, Sherwood Smith, Jenn Reese, Tiffany Trent and Stephanie Burgess, just to name a few, have written holiday stories for you.

So, after fighting at the mall, come home, brew a cup of tea, put your feet up, turn on your lap top, and have a quiet moment.

Catherine

Libby Smith.

Because every wardrobe needs olive and taupe boots.

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I think I’ve outsmarted my Nook. In order to delete items from it, you have to go into your Barnes and Noble account on the computer. When I get home tonight, I’ll double check that the Rick Riordan example is gone.

The Color Nook is working out well. It appears to be true that e-readers do not have that “from the screen” feel that reading on your computer does. I also like that it marks my pages for me, and that, should I wish to read my book on my computer, it remembers where I am. It’s easy to use, charge, and port. It’s also a quick Internet device if you need something for just a second.

Some of you single device folks might wonder why you’d want to buy a separate eReader. I have a separate phone, a Garvin, an eReader, and a computer. Because if one thing goes, I’m not entirely cut off. Crazy, I know…

Anyway, hats off to the spouse for a good by. Catrina, I bought Rick Stasi’s Guide to Scandinavia today. It’ll be nice to not have to lug along a book, just the eReader and an adapter.

Cath

Here we are at Finals Week. It’s very quiet so far, but then again, I haven’t cracked open the work email quite yet, or answered the phone messages.

We had our Christmas party on Saturday night in spite of the frigid weather and stormy conditions. About 2/3 of the book club and film group made it out for a viewing of Hogfather and a discussion of the Death strand of the Discworld books. I was too keyed up to sleep well after the party finished, and yesterday spent most of the day going through the motions of life and napping when I couldn’t. It was a dangerous day, the kind of day I could have driven a lawnmower off my driveway backwards.

Three other things happened on Saturday. My brother Ken called. He makes an effort to call once every six months. I used to try to call him, but his phone number tends to be a bit erratic, so I have found it best just to wait for him to get in touch with me. We chatted about a variety of things while he channeled the blizzard live, letting us know what they were getting in Southern Iowa, so we knew what would be coming our way.

One small point of conversation was how my mother might appreciate a phone call. I had a tight but sane conversation about how I’m not riding that train anymore, and he was pretty okay with that. After finishing the phone call and a quick check in with the husband to make sure I didn’t sound neurotic (the verdict was that I sounded sensible and sane while talking about Mom), I filed that experience under done, and set about putting a bunch of buns on a platter.

During Hogfather, a friend from Minnesota called. She lost her own mother last week, and the loss is raw. Her relationship with her mother was not an easy or simple one. As is the way of these things, she’s grieving, and she felt like perhaps she hadn’t handled the relationship well. There are also a host of family issues to be resolved.

I was pleased that she called me, and that Ken had called me earlier in the day, because it had given me a chance to re-affirm my own situation, and counsel her wisely about hers. Perspective can be great. I don’t mind being the friend you call because your own family is crazy, and you understand mine. She volunteered that she appreciated my advice because I was so sane, and I had to tell her how I had to ask Bryon earlier in the day if I’d successfully managed to keep my grip.

The holidays can be a tough time. Everyone wants to belong and there are these archetypes of parental-child interaction that bombard you. When yours don’t measure up, there are a host of feelings. Everyone is awkward in these situations.

But you know, I do belong. After I got off the phone, and the movie finished, I mentioned that Ken had called, and mentioned just a little bit about my family. My friend Michele stopped me cold and reminded me that the people at the party are my family now. That they were happy to be here.

Every time they do that, I realize that the accident of birth only keeps me from having a family at the holidays if I want it to. I’m getting more and more used to that idea, and I like it.

I hope you find peace of mind during your holiday season, and a measure of love with your real family, genetic and otherwise.

Catherine

These posts do my work for me.

Tamora Pierce

Jim Hines

I’d like to add that we shouldn’t talk about the Wikileaks and the rape charges in the same breath. These are two separate issues that happen to feature Julian Assange, as no one has brought to bear compelling evidence to the contrary.

Catherine

Probably our highest profile member of VP XIII, I’m pleased to present an interview with the bi-shop-xual Ferrett Steinmetz.

You should totally read the interesting, in-depth interview, but if you just want to pop to the fiction, I’ll make that easy on you.

Tamago: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Ferrett: In fourth grade. I submitted my first poem to a teacher, which included the phrase “In a time / when people live with the spider of hunger in their bellies,” and she thought that was the most amazing thing. I said, “Wow, if I can inspire that reaction, then I want to write!”

Which, to me, is largely what writing is about: inspiring reaction. Can I make you cry? Feel outrage? Root for this character? If I can get you hooked, then I have affected you without even being there. That’s a win, man.

What’s not a win? My poetry. “Spider of hunger”? Come on, fourth grade kid, you can do better than that.

Tamago: Are there any kinds of stories you are more inclined to write, or themes that you return to in your writing?

Ferrett: Pretty much all my best work could be summed up in one title: Desperate People Locked In Strange Rooms. Whether it’s a squid trapped in a moat created for him by a mad Scientist (“As Below, So Above”) or a teenager trapped in a world that records and ranks his every behavior (“Camera Obscured”) or a jock trapped in a school of mad scientists (“Under the Thumb of the Brain Patrol”), almost everything I write involves someone in a weird situation they didn’t create.

That said, I write a lot about time travel as a futile way of trying to fix the past (the idea of people using time travel as a video game save point is something that crops up in no less than three stories of mine). I also write a lot about how the singularity is probably going to be a wretched mess of advertising hell for people.

That said, my wife actually put a lock on me for 2010: “No more stories about teenagers learning life’s lessons!” (This culminated just after I’d written “In The Garden of Rust and Salt,” which is perhaps my most depressing tale ever.)

Tamago: You have a fairly popular blog. Why do you keep a blog, and what will readers find you writing about there?

Continue reading “VP Profile #7: Ferrett Steinmetz”

Because Firestone discovered that our car trouble was in the transmission, coupled with recent difficulties we had with the Versa’s exhaust system, we traded the Versa in tonight for a new Hyundai Touring Elantra. We based our choice on our previous STILL RUNNING Elantra, which is at 278K and going strong.

Our new car is a beautiful electric blue. Tomorrow i have to finish up the last adult stuff, transferring our insurance.

I’m rather proud that Bryon and I could go from Dead Car (TM) to new car in one night. Because that’s the way we roll.

As soon as I can, I’ll post the next cool writerly thing.

Catherine

I’m aware that the title of this entry sounds like a commercial for heart healthy food, or low cholesterol. Bear with me, and read on.

The Outliers post from a couple of days ago received a great deal more attention and more discussion than I expected. If you read that post, you know my plan is to write 12 hours a week until my retirement in 10 years to meet my goal of 10,000 hours of writing by the time I leave teaching to live on my retirement salary and write full time.

I’m taking the focus off of publication and putting it on the development of my craft. This is not to say that I will stop sending things out and attempting to get an agent. As a matter of fact, I expect this commitment will increase the amount of material I have to pursue those endeavors. It also does something new for the kind of writing goals I make, and takes the emphasis off of a product, and puts it on my career. This might be an approach you would enjoy.

Will you join me? Will you commit to a writing time goal? Yours can be more modest, such as one hour a day writing (just like going to the gym), or five hours a week (let’s write the Jim Hines way!). Make sure that the goal you set is attainable (sure, writing 20 hours a week seemed like a good idea when I shared that bottle of wine with Schaff-Stump…) and that you decide what activities are acceptable in terms of meeting that goal (for me, writing, revising, brainstorming, researching, and writer education). And then make appointments with yourself and your writing.

Throughout 2011, I’ll be posting Outlier Challenge updates. Not only time spent, but updates on projects, interesting insights, and deep philosophical thoughts. I hope if you take up the challenge, you might do the same.

So. I commit to

1. Writing 12 hours each week for 52 weeks, a total of 624 hours a year. More is okay too, but this is the minimum require for the 6000 more expertise hours I want to achieve to achieve my goal of 10,000 hours writing (4000 down!)

2. Scheduling my writing time each week so that I can find time to write 12 hours each week and scheduling around vacations and difficulties accordingly.

3. Publishing updates and insights as they come to share in community.

Feel free to join in. Let’s see where it can take us.

And…because it’s been quite a while, I had a hard time deciding between the shiny and the velvety Giulias, but the shinies won.

Catherine