Why I Need A Dry Erase Board In My Shower

The funny thing about inspiration is you never know exactly when it will strike.

Below is am email conversation I had today with my writing partner. By the way, we're both Michele. To clear the mud I'm Michele B and she's Michele D.  Writers that we are, we appreciate the comedy of the name situation.

writing 12 messages

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Michele B	Thu, May 17, 2012 at 9:12 AM
To: Michele D

Hey where were you last night?  I was on until about 9ish.... Saw you wrote 800 words!  That's awesome!  You have to be inches from the finish line now! In the shower this morning I finally came up with a hook for Treasures, I think. :)

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Michele	Thu, May 17, 2012 at 10:40 AM
To: Michele Buchholz
No - I only got 1 file on chapt 18. Thanks for looking at it - as I was going to sleep last night, I realized there were a couple things I need to insert in that chapter - just a few things here and there but I always think of them on my way to sleep (as in, I don't want to turn my light on to write it down, so I think I'll remember it and then never do. I'm hoping I'll think of it as I'm doing revisions. It would be so much more convenient if I could think of them in the shower like you do. But no, my brain doesn't work that way)  :)

Michele Buchholz	Thu, May 17, 2012 at 10:43 AM
To: Michele
Funny you think that about the shower.  I jump out dripping, soak my floor and mat, then drip all over my dresser while I write it down... That's if I get out and write it down.  Otherwise I do the same, repeat it hoping my goldfish memory will hold it until I"m done. :) Today I jumped out and wrote it down!

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Michele	Thu, May 17, 2012 at 11:26 AM
To: Michele Buchholz
Ok, so clearly there is no best way. Usually I'm so sleepy and warm and I'm almost ready to slide under and I just don't want to mess that up. Darn brain! Why do they do that to us? Maybe you could find a whiteboard that won't wash off - then you could just write the idea down without getting out. :)

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Michele Buchholz	Thu, May 17, 2012 at 11:58 AM
To: Michele
That is a fabulous idea!

So, let this be a lesson for all of you linear, mathematical, engineer types. Writers, well, we're creative, spontaneous and innovative.  You have been warned. The bathroom floor may be wet, and there just might be marker or pen on unusual surfaces.  Just know, it is for the greater good of the human imagination.

Where was the strangest place that inspiration took hold of you?  What did you do about it?

Graduation To-Do List

This year my husband and I will be graduating our first high school student. You see, we have chosen to home educate our children, so on June 1st our oldest son will be graduating. We are participating in our home school support groups ceremony, and I'm really looking forward to the time. What I didn't anticipate was all of the things that needed to be finished prior to the "big day"

Here's a sample from my to-do list:

1. Choose graduation pictures
2. Write biography for program
3. Send pictures and biography to appropriate person
4. Put together graduation board (this requires sorting through years of photographs which make you sad)
5. Put together all info for college. (Transcript, loans etc...)
6. Prepare party for approximately 200 guest
7. Clean house for out-of-town company
8. Make list and purchase items for everything son will need for first year at college.
9. Cook, clean, grocery shop, maintain laundry etc....
10. Work on writing...it's what I love!

Congratulations to the class of 2012!!

Camp NaNoWriMo

For eight years, I've participated in National Novel Writing Month in November.  I've only passed the 50,000-word finish line for the last few years, but regardless, I find the experience a great motivator to getting me to write every day.  I also love the community of writers that forms through the experience.

The Office of Letters and Light, the organization that hosts NaNoWriMo, kicked off an event last summer that they called "Camp NaNoWriMo", which was a novel-in-a-month event, but in the summer.  It's geared toward people who either can't wait until November's event or who don't have the ability to participate in November at all.

They're doing it again this year in June and August.  You can sign up at the official site, and there you will eventually be assigned to a "cabin" with 4-6 other writers to cheer each other on, you'll have access to the word count trackers we're familiar with in November, and you'll have the epic motivation that comes from writing a novel in a month with a bunch of other nutcases.

I've signed up to participate in June.  I need to get some first drafting done and this seems like as good an excuse as any.  I hope all of you will consider joining me on my first summer in Camp NaNoWriMo!

Home Improvement

This past weekend my husband and I tackled a home improvement project.  Like most couples we don't always see eye to eye or communicate well but, we have learned, over the years, not to get too worked up or frustrated.  We have the same goal in mind, we might have different routes planned, but the end result is always something beneficial for the whole family.

This project was no different, except there were some significant power tools involved.  And not to toot my own horn, well maybe just a bit, I have a very steady hand with power saws.  Not to mention, I love them.
However, what I do lack is brute strength.  So you can see that in building a pergola over our back patio my husband and I had to work as a productive machine.

Here's how it went down, or I should say, up:
Day 1: We are full of energy and carry six 6x6 posts that are about 15 feet tall around to the back yard.  We, or I should say my husband and our wonderful neighbor, dig all six post holes by hand.  This takes us ALL DAY! I helped finish the last hold in the dark.  My main role was to mix and pour the concrete into the holes and help brace the posts.

 Day 2: I carried all the 2x6 x10 boards around to the cutting station where I 'dog-eared' them.  My arms nearly fell off.  Treated lumber is extremely heavy. But, while I did the cutting the men did the lifting.  See, team work. Below is a picture of my husband cutting the excess off the posts once we had the stringers level. He is using a chain saw. I am standing back out of harm's way.

 Below is a picture of my cutting station.  I love that saw.

Coming soon: a finished photo once the patio stones are all back in place.  We expanded the patio about five feet as well for a larger grilling area.  At the end of day two a storm arrived so we didn't get to do the arranging and decorating yet.  Hubs went from post to post with an 18 inch drill bit, punching holes through the supports and posts.  I followed along behind and set the massive bolts in place that hold it all together.  We finished that up just as the wind picked up and the rain begin in earnest.  Teamwork, we succeeded through to the end.

Without my team here in Fiction Flurry, I doubt I'd be at the place I am in my path to publication.  Thanks much everyone!

First Blooms

We know you like to write,

but what else do you do? 

What inspires you? 

Leave us a comment...

For me, it is gardening:

www.bethnbijoux.blogspot.com

Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse

As we all know (or perhaps you don't), the world is supposedly going to end sometime on December 21, 2012.  The Mayans said so.

In other words, this is shaping up to be 2012's version of Y2K.  And much like I did back during that chaos, I've taken the sarcastic route.  (I mean, maybe the Mayan calendar ended because the guy in charge of creating it just got tired?  Or died?  Ever think of that?)

Regardless of how not seriously I'm taking the whole thing, my friends and I have been joking for months that on December 21, we're going to have a party.  Because, first of all, you can always use a good excuse to play drunken Apples to Apples.  And second of all, there's something strangely appealing about counting down to December 22 and then going "oh my goodness, we're all still alive, I'm SO SURPRISED!"

One of the requirements of this party is to come decked out in your best zombie-fighting gear and wielding your favorite zombie-fighting weapon.  I mean, if the zombie apocalypse does occur on December 21 (and let's face it, if an apocalypse happens, it'll be a zombie one), we want to be able to defend ourselves.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is my group of friends.  And this is normal for us.

The zombies will be running in fear.

 My friend Emily and I were talking today via our company's instant messaging system (she recently started working for the same company I do, which means we can bother each other more effectively).  Somehow, and I'm not sure how, the topic of the zombie apocalypse came up in our conversation.  We came to a very important conclusion.

In the case of the zombie apocalypse, it's more likely that the nerdy, geeky, creative types will be the ones to survive.  For one, the nerdy, geeky, creative types are the ones who have spent too much time talking about the zombie apocalypse in the first place.  And second of all, we're really good at thinking out of the box.

Let's face it, if you're trying to beat the zombies, thinking out of the box might be your best bet.  Where one person sees a toilet cover, a thinking-out-of-the-box type will see a handy, zombie-crushing weapon.  (Yes, this has actually been discussed by my friends and I.)

Emily and I also decided that we should change the saying "the meek shall inherit the earth" to "the geeks shall inherit the earth."  It's true, you know.  If the geeky types are the ones who will survive the zombie apocalypse, then by default we would be the ones to inherit the earth, yes?

So take comfort, my fellow nerds, geeks, and generally creative types.  Come the zombie apocalypse, our amazing skills of thinking outside the box and finding creative ways to maim the characters in our novels will benefit us greatly.

And, of course, don't forget your favorite anti-zombie weapon of choice.  I'll be wielding a toilet lid.

The Education of a Mustang

If you know me this next line comes as no surprise.  I am a Daddy's girl.  My earliest memories are of following my Dad around 'helping' him.  As a parent of a three and five year old now I know that it was through the greatest act of love and patience that I was allowed to 'help' my father do anything. But that isn't the topic of this post.  Today, I want to tell you about an evolution.

You see, my Dad, he is a Ford man.  Yes I know, most of you reading this right now are women and probably not car people and even less of you are motorcycle people.  But, stay with me. I'm not sure of the exact year my Dad bought one of the most collectible mustangs of all time but I do know those few years we owned it I begged him almost daily for rides in it.  I learned the value of hard work each weekend when we shined her up for car shows.  How to be careful and gentle when I was anywhere near her glossy black paint or pony stitched leather seats.  Believe it or not.  In the early 1980s we owned a 1968 Shelby Cobra GT500KR Fastback.  A what?

This:

Only a few hundred were made and each one was numbered.  There are only a very few left in existence and they sell for more than most houses do.  At the time we owned them they weren't worth a fraction of what they are today.  And I cried like a baby the day my Dad sold it.  Watching it leave our drive way was pure torture. Complete with all the drama a pre-teen could muster. My sincere apologies Dad.

For Dad, that car was one of many in a long line of Mustangs.  Albeit the most special of the breed.  So, when I was fifteen and car hunting I did what every young lady dreams of.  I bought my own 1966 Mustang Coupe.  It was only a little inline six-cylinder.  Not the hefty 289.  Though my uncle did have a 350 Windsor in his garage he said he'd help me install when he was teaching me how to solder my leaking radiator. Dad, however, was a firm No. Not because I wasn't capable of learning and doing the job, but because he was worried about all the illegal racing I'd probably do.  Frankly, he was right!

Here she is:

I spent hours working on that car with my dad. Again, he demonstrated his bottomless well of patience as we rebuilt the carburetor.  Too many little parts and pieces to name and describe for you here, but amazing that things smaller than your finger nail can keep a car from running properly.  Then there was the day we changed the valve cover gaskets.  Inside these covers are the most mesmerizing moving parts, that when the engine is running, squirt oil everywhere!  Yes, Dad knew my fascination so, he did rev that engine for just a few seconds.  It was worth the hour of clean up.

A few years later I went off to college and fell in love with a 1989 Mustang GT 5.0 five speed and traded up in the world.  Don't get too excited though this was in 1996.  So, still a cheap car.

This is the era where I learned to drive. I was already well trained in the art of changing oil, spark plugs and fan belts.  Though the battery still terrified me.  I've seen a few of those spark. No Thank You. I'll let someone else handle that.

This leads me to the next evolutionary step of car buying.  By this time I was married.  My amazing husband is into motorcycles.  I am also a lover of all things two wheeled, be they road worthy or off road ferocity. He actually bought me my first motorcycle and much hilarity ensued as I learned to ride that top heavy beast. But, I'm off track.  In his infinite wisdom since we were newly married, I'd just graduated from college and had my first real job, we did NOT, I repeat, did not buy a newer mustang like I wanted.  Oh no.  He bought me a Saturn Vue.  I almost died the first day I drove that car.  Not from humiliation as you might believe, though that was a close second.  I was simply used to the power of a mustang, the speed and handling.  A Vue did not have those features and I learned that quickly the first time I pulled into rush hour traffic and the four cylinder could barely get out of its own way.

Needless to say that car did not last in my life very long.  Which leads me to my current vehicle. Much to my husband's continuing torture.  About nine months after purchasing the Vue I begged him to go to the grocery store with me.  Not something he normally did, but he was eventually persuaded.  Upon arriving at the establishment I parked in the side lot which was conveniently located right beside the same dealer who sold us the Vue. "Oh look honey!" I said pointing to the gorgeous Ford Explorer Sportrac that was climbing the gigantic rock pile that just happened to be in the middle of their parking lot. "Let's go look."

I did not buy groceries that day.  To quote Charlie Sheen, "Winning."

And now, we've made it to my current dilemma.  Ten years later I am ready to purchase a new car.  I keep drifting towards my beloved mustang.  Especially since there is a new body style release in 2013.  I can start educating my boys on the proper care and maintenance of a muscle car.  Each time I go to our local Ford dealer I take a trip through the showroom and drool over their 1968 Hertz Rent-A-Racer.  I have pointed our many features to both of my little ones, surprising the salesmen is also a small reward in and of itself.

This is also how I feel about my writing, its an evolution.  See, I did get back to the roots of this blog. I wrote my first novel and a short story.  I joined a critique group and a professional RWA group.  I'm entering my work in contests now so I can get feed back from professionals in the industry.  I keep learning and practicing, growing. I didn't give up even when others told me it was hopeless. I did what made my heart sing. Even if you didn't understand all the technical aspects of my analogy I hope you came away with the understanding that no matter what you are tackling patience and perseverance payoff.

Back to my dilemma.  Do I be the responsible parent and get the Soccer Mom SUV?  Or do I indulge my passion and buy the 2013 Mustang GT? Did I mention my Dad's newest purchase? A Cobra Kit Car...

I know what twelve-year-old me would do.