Suspenseful

SUPPORT YOUR PUBLIC LIBARY

2009-07-12T14:23:00.001-05:00

Those in authority who do not because it cost too much and they got along well without it think only of themselves

WRITING: WORK OR HOBBY OR IT IS ALL IN THE RELATIONSHIP

2009-07-12T14:22:00.000-05:00

In order to show that writing is not a hobby, I have come up with a list. …

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WRITERS JUSTIFICATION THAT THEY ARE CONSIDERED IMPORTANT

I feel carpal tunnel syndrome coming on.
My hands hurt when I press the keyboard.
Oh no, a paper cut!
Why do I have to use this long definition when several smaller words would do?
Looking through all those research books with that small print hurts my eyes
I put out my back lifting those heavy encyclopedias.
The small print on my computer screen stains my eyes.
I want to clean the house, go out, but there is this guy with a whip…

The Danger of Political Correctness

2009-07-12T14:21:00.000-05:00

What are dangers in political correctness? The Nazis were scum; we all know that. They killed six million Jews. What about the Japanese in World War 11? They put people in prison camps; they worked British soldiers to death. They interred European families in concentration camps who were barely fed enough to survive. Yet we have movies and television shows too numerous to mention about Ayran groups and barely a whisper about a Japanese former commander who was being hunted by a son or relative whose father, grandfather, mother, et cetera died in one of those internment camps. No to write a drama about that, or a mystery story, would be politically incorrect. The Orient has the wisdom of Confucious, non-violence and such! Do not make us look bad!

Now you get a reason why those Cambodians died in the Killing Fields, the Iraqis and formerly Iranians exterminated ethnic groups other than their own, and the Serbs massacred Bosnians, Albanians, et cetera and no one took much notice until it was too late. Why it is as clear as the nose on your face. They were not Nazis, the predecessors of that evil White Man.

Let me continue. The Bible did not say, "Come all ye blessed African Amercans, Native Americans, Chinese, Vietnamese and other ethnic groups, enter ye into the joy of your Lord." nor did it say, "Depart all ye evil white men, into the fire reserved for the devil and his angels.", but the politically correct people would like to think so.

Want Ads from : The Stereotypical Post

2009-07-12T14:18:00.001-05:00

THE EVIL WHITE MAN

You are Lee Ching, who formerly ran the Tong in Asia.
You put your enemies to death by various tortures.
You are an expert in martial arts. Men fear you. You have amassed great wealth.
And now that you are in America, you are regarded as a weak worthless worm.
You need an evil White Man now to oversee your activities.

THE MORAL AFRICAN AMERICAN
You are an Anglo Saxon of Scottish descent, have always attended the Presbyterian Church,
have raised your children in the faith, none of your kids have been in any trouble.
Now you move to America,
but as soon as their foot steps on American soil, your kids go wild.
So who do you need in your hour of desperation?
Who else but the Moral African American

THE WISE ORIENTAL

You are a professor at the University,
you even double as a brain surgeon in your spare time,
You have solved numerous problems,
But suddenly you are told, that your solutions are not feasible.
What do you do?
You ask for the Wise Oriental.

POLITICALLY CORRECT MEDIA HIRING ADVICE

2009-07-12T14:16:00.006-05:00

Hire someone not on their talent but either because they are of a certain race, they have a disability, or are of a certain perceived persecuted group.
It is sad to say that many companies and countries have now taken that advice. True that the people they hire may have good qualifications, but they were not hired because of that. It is more a statement that "Our company does what it can to make the Cree, Assinboine, etc. (I live in Manitoba, and these are two of the Native
American tribes that live there.)feel good. I work for a nice company" or in America, the statement is "We are not racists," because they hire people who are non-white."
The danger is that they hire because they want a quota so it looks nice. In Manitoba, there is a campaign to hire a disabled person because they are nice. Well you are supposed to hire a person because he or she can do their job and are qualified, not because they can only get around in a wheelchair. That wheelchair does not magically make them qualified to do the accounting, that being in Manitoba University and getting their degree in accounting does. Sure hire someone who has something wrong with him, but do not hire on account of sympathy, just hire because he hs the best person for the job.

COMPUTERS, WOMEN, AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

2009-07-12T14:16:00.001-05:00

Many women are scared of computers. No, I am not talking about the ones that go to University and sit in those programming and business classes, nor the female geeks who find it easy to rattle off C++ and such with their eyes closed. I mean women who have sons and husbands using the computers. It is as if there was a sign saying, "You who were formerly eachers, nurse, dress designers, secretaries, office workers, or other professions, you must give up your computer, except for e-mail, to be a full time homemaker, because for you it is now a time waster. You must also not be able to go on the Internet because it is now so complicated for you." The Internet is not evil, but some sites are evil, pornographic, and harmful, especially to children, although I know adults who are terrified of these sites, not because of temptation, but it makes them sick. The purveyors of evil would love to drive off all the decent people. They do it in many ways, by sending messages telling one to go to a site, by numerous pop up windows, by taking advantage of a person making a mistake in typing the URL. However, there are numerous good sites where you can get home making information, recipes, patterns, health hints. There are Christian sites, sites about the Bible, and several Churches have their own web sites.

Now for you men out there. Please let your wife use the computer. You can make a list together of what sites you would allow your children to see. I have my own personal motives for writing this. Every time you say the Internet is evil, you let the ones who would show inappropriate so called adult sites wrestle more of the Internet from you.

I read that at the Swissair Memorial Service, the Christian ministers were not allowed to speak the name of Christ. All the others could mention Buddha, Allah, and what not. This is wrong. It is an insult to God and to the Christian community. This is political correctness

WRITING

2009-07-12T14:15:00.000-05:00

Forget those writers who came from privileged backgrounds who said their family were against it, but still I write and right now my book is on the best seller list. Family disapproval does not mean anything unless they can do something about it.

If you had to work or did not get the proper education and decided now "I am going my University or GED and become a writer," unless those in your household steal your money, throw your typewriter or computer out the window, lock the computer so you cannot get it, hide your writing utensils, or do anything physical to prevent you from acquiring your goal, there is no excuse. You may have to keep the home in order and be reasonably neat so they can see writing is not a time waster. What I am saying is threatening words spoken on empty air do not mean anything unless accompanied by blows.

All right now we got down to the mean opposition, what about the subtle examples. Let me name a few.

You are a Japanese wife. You have been told, don't bring dishonor on our family name. You know that your grandfather was a guard in one of those prison camps. You feel you must tell a fictionalized story of World War 11 but if you do, your family will disown you.

The best idea has come to you! Ah that is the correct phrase, the way the heroine looks at the villain. I have to write it down or type it on the computer. Your son or daughter have taken all your pens and pencils, and "you know who" has to use the computer to type out that special report even though he had all week to do it. It has to be done this moment.

You have finished the best game of solitaire, and unknown to you, your partner sneaks in, watches, leaves, and goes out about his business. You start to write on your short story and only then does he say, 'what about supper?'. You think this is isolated, so you choose another time, but no matter what time as soon as you write a couple of words or get as far as a sentence, yours truly does the interruption thing.

You belong to a religious organization who says fiction story writing is lying,

I think the ones who are doing this opposing should ask themselves, "Were you proud of your grandfather torturing all those people?" "Why did you choose this particular time to use the computer, and why did you not have those writing instruments handy? " How do you expect your wife to improve her writing if she does not get enough time to write a paragraph? Do you want her to be, perhaps, senile? Will taking care of a woman in her old age who is devoid of her mental facilities make you happy? " "How do you know if the so called fiction writing is a lie or not?" Remember those movie credits with "any resemblance to any persons living or dead is truly coincidental?"

What is the result of this opposition? For one thing, your novel or short story will take longer to send out. It costs more. You may have to buy the file cabinets, book cases, and other essentials out of your own pocket, not to mention books on writing. There are people who still believe that reading is a luxury and because of this many potential authors go unnoticed; many an unpublished story lies hidden in a dresser drawer.

LOOSING WEIGHT IN WINTER NOT EASY

2009-07-12T14:14:00.001-05:00

Cutting down on food just won't do it. You need exercise. Walking is the best, but it sure is hard to do when it gets to 30 below zero, and when there's a high wind chill. Walking on a treadmill is so boring, and when your house is not that big, you can't just go up and down the stairs all the time for each piece of laundry or go from the dishwasher to the cupboard with just one plate. I'd like to see a photograph on those magazine articles on "How to exercise in Winter" of someone wrapped up head to toe, so we can just see her eyes, snow banks piled up to here, and the snow almost covering her boots.
Yet when you watch Tv, and you see those fit and slim models, you wonder why do they not show anyone who really struggled like on the Biggest Loser? I have not watched that show that often, but I see those obese people struggling up hills, going up stadium steps, and when I do catch the show later on, those obese people are now just fat, lately pleasantly plump and finally slim.
Yet they are always exercising in moderate climates and even the Canadian version of the Biggest Loser, that is based in Edmonton, the losers are losing weight in Spring, Summer, and Fall, never when there is snow on the ground and it really does snow in Edmonton. It is not just a light sprinkle.
You see when it is cold, you need more fuel, and when it snows, it is harder to move and when it is forty below, shoveling snow can only be done for so long before you have to go into the house.
Yet losing weight is harder in the winter. Wait until spring and then the pounds will come out as you are able to walk.

HATE CRIMES

2009-07-12T14:05:00.002-05:00

Someone who burns down just churches, does not allow Christians to hold meetings, does not let Christians to express their opinions and says that Church groups should allow people of different sexual orientations or those who do not follow the Christian way of life, is just guilty of a hate crime as someone who beats up a homosexual.
To make it clearer, murder of anyone no matter what is a hate crime. If you allow hate crimes, it will soon be thought crimes abd is that what is happening now? What about the people in the Sudan and in much of the Muslim world who are being tortured or persecuted because they are Christians.
Yes in America, they are going after those who do not like homosexuals, while brethren in far off lands are being hauled off to jail, tortured, women raped, children hacked to pieces and horrible things done to them because they refuse to worship Allah.
Who do you value the most?

MARRYING FOR RACE OR SOCIAL STATUS

2009-07-12T14:04:00.001-05:00

Actually there are only two races here on Earth, the children of God and the children of Man, and both groups have variations in skin color, shape of noses, faces, hair color, straight or kinky, etc. We are all descended from Adam and Eve who were probably in middle as far as features and shade are concerned. However we come now to the present and a peculiar situation. What about marriage? It does not matter if you marry someone whose ancestors came from Europe as you did, or from Africa. You should marry the one of the opposite sex from you because you get along together, you love each other, you have the same basic beliefs. You shouldn't marry to show that you are not a racist, or that you believe people of that particular opposite ethnic group are more virile, love children more, more close to the earth, or all that stuff. And your children will not be African Americans or Native Americans or Canadians, they have the genes from both of you. If the mother is black, and their father is Scottish Irish, that Scottish Irish in them does not disappear.
Now in Canada and many other countries, both ethnic groups counts and so there is no pressure on the blondest girl marrying the blackest man or visa versa. Because no matter how the mix, all the elements of both backgrounds come together. There is another thing. There is no resentment - except for the Native Canadians who went to the residential schools - and part of it was because what used to work in the Public Schools in England did not work in Amerindian society where the children were never separated from the tribe or the family and whereas there were safeguards in the English Public Schools where potential pedophiles were found out before, there were none in the Residential schools and of course the pedophiles and child abusers as evil men have done, took advantage of this lack of security.
There is another thing about Canada. We have mixed neighborhoods, where the only thing that separates one community from the other is one is middle class, one is working class, and one is upper class, but in the United States, the lines are of color and that makes racism more attractive.
So instead of the rich man marrying the poor girl or the rich girl marrying the poor boy who does his best to show he is worthy, one marries someone of a different ethnic group to show that he is worthy.
Yet both these ideas are wrong. One is assumed to show one is not a racist and the other to show that one does not care for the class system and neither work because there will always be resentment. Marrying should be for love and because both parties have something in common, or are of the same beliefs, and not to prove a point.

NATURAL DISASTERS

2009-07-12T14:02:00.000-05:00

First let's say something about Katrina. The former President George W. Bush was losing his popularity among the Blacks because he did not come to their aid as they would have liked. First did Katrina deliberately target the black communities? If slavery had not happened and if the majority of the population were either native Americans or Whites, would Katrina have never happened? Would you have rather had the aid just go to the Black communities and leave the whites to fend for themselves - after all they are 'not worthy.' Do you think that Bush actually caused the hurricane? Was that God's punishment on you for electing him president, would God have wanted you to elect a president who is against what he stands for? Would you want a president who perhaps is not only pro abortion, and for homosexual rights to marry and adopt children (because they are being sob sob persecuted), but also cheats on his wife? If you had elected a Democratic president who is against the morals Bush follows, would Katrina have just been denigrated to a tropical storm and not done any damage? Isn't aid supposed to be dependent on the person's circumstances, not on his class, color or lack thereof? Did Katrina, the Earthquake in Pakistan, and other diasters happen so that the taxes will be raised and wages lowered in the more prosperous part of America, Canada, and Western Europe in order to transfer monies to these areas? Do these disasters happen because we are in the End Times and God wants all men to repent and in the case, of Katrina, would it not have been better to imagine the worse case scenario and take the best protection so that when Katrina did strike, it would have caused less damage?

What is Prejudice or Bigotry

2009-07-12T13:57:00.000-05:00

Prejudice is when you think that people of a certain ethnic group are superior to others. It has nothing to do with sexual preference. There are some things that God is against and normal people find morally reprehensible. However let's examine if the media is prejudicial. If Black man says that "I came out of Saratoga Baptist Church with my wife and children when I saw the old man crossing the street, the car hit him," that would be shown in the drama. If a white man says that, "I came out of the Saratoga Methodist Church (which is across from the Saratoga Baptist Church)with my family and we saw a Blue Pontiac hitting this old guy," there would be no mention unless you find out that same white man was the member of the KKK, a white supremist or the church was really named the Saratoga Whites First Methodist Church or something similar.
Now what if that black man was the member of the Saratoga Blacks are Better than White Society, an organization known for buying property at below cost values so that black people who would not qualify for low cost mortages - i.e. drug dealers and gangsters - can get in a neighborhood. If one mentioned this, would that be prejudicial?

If you need a new police chief, you happen to live in a town in Minnesota -yes, the majority of the people are of Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish descent, but you hire a black chief, would that be acceptable? However, what if the reverse were true? You live in New York City, in Harlem. The chief retired or you hire Jack Johnson a blue eyed man of Swedish descent, complete with the tall rangy look and blonde hair. In what instance, would you get the most irate letters, emails, and phone calls? So why is it acceptable to have Daniel Lamont, who is an African American who just moved from South Carolina be the police chief in Smalltown, Minnesota, yet Jack Johnson originally from Minnesapolis, Minnesota cannot be the police chief in Harlam. By the way, lets say that both men worked in their various police stations in their original towns, and both got honorable discharges from the army, complete with medals for heroism, both are married, are active in their churchs, etc.

This is just a small example. So being prejudice does not mean that you are prejudiced if you think black people are inferior, it means you are also prejudiced if you think white people are inferior. In fact, anyone can be prejudiced against someone of a different or even a lighter skin color. It is saying that we give preferential treatment based not on experience but on the color or lack thereof of one's skin.

Types of Movies I Do Not Like

2009-07-12T13:54:00.000-05:00

Besides pornographic, movies that extol Buddha movies that show Christianity in a bad light, movies that show that the only moral character is non-white, and the one getting persecuted is non=white, where the sheriff or head of the police department is Black and it happens to be in New Mexico or California or Kansas,etc. I hate movies that shows that

The White person or people are dead, lets celebrate: e.g. Deep Water and Playing it Forward are an example. Have you noticed in both, the music played was inappropriate? No dirges, no sad instrumentals in a minor key. As if you are supposed to be happy that a couple drowned at sea and were eaten by sharks or a boy was murdered. Of course, I also don't like movies where there are proficious use of the f-work, or blasphemy. I mean, a guy hits his thumb with a hammer, he loses all his money, someone kills his wife – you'd expect him (I am not talking about true Christians) to let out a curse, but every second sentence?

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL, THOU SHALT NOT COVET

2009-07-12T13:49:00.001-05:00

In the last few years, possibly more, there has been a raft of movies whose titles were borrowed -in one case, slightly altered so that the hero of the movie would be an African American. This is outright stealing and also shows a lack of originality. Although movies such as The Front Page were also done in various versions, they were not redone for the purpose so those of a certain ethnic group would say that that was the only movie made. Even in the case of movies such as The Magnificent Sevenreference that it was a western version of The Seven Samuriwas stated, not so in the movies made to reflect an African American or Black hero. The former were redone to update the date, and time, not to make an African American, Chinese, or whatever to associate the movie with their ethnic group. This is not the first time. How many people know that Martin Luther originally referred not to the man who led the Civil Rights movement, but to the former monk who started the Protestant Reformation? Unless you are a Christian, not many.

Below is a list of three of the movies redone to let the African Americans be the heroes and I doubt any of them played the villain.

Original: The Bishop's Wife: Remade: The Preacher's Wife
Original: Doctor Doolittle Remade: Doctor Doolittle
The Manchurian Candidate Remade: The Manchurian Candidate

Now The Manchurian Candidate may have been brilliantly written, even got three out of five stars — a major accomplishment, but unlike the others which just changed all the characters into Blacks or African Americans, it makes the hero played by Denzel Washington, an African American who goes against the villain and villainess who are white — another case of "we Blacks are morally superior than you whites who are more inclined to commit crimes against your country, etc." And that is the case here. It would have been better if in this remake, the villain and villainess were of the same ethnic group as the hero. But then again, 'don't make us the bad guys, always make us the good guys.' At least James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeman played villains and for that they showed courage. Also before the present political correctness, other Black actors played shady or morally bankrupt,even bullies and cowards. Where is that courage now? Sadly lacking.

Television's Desire On Modern Life

2009-07-12T13:47:00.000-05:00

In the nineteen fifties when I grew up, shows such as Father Knows Best and Westerns reflected the morals of the times. In the nineteen sixties, although there were shows such as Leave it to Beaver,there developed a disturbing trend in the late sixties with shows such as Bewitched and the Munsters putting a peaceful face on the horror shows our parents and grandparents watched at the cinema.

In these witchcraft became good and beneficial, witches and monsters were seen as ordinary people with strange powers, not the denizens of hell that they really were. Now we see an increase in psychic readings, witchcraft as a good force, and Christianity, the only thing necessary to stop this, is shown as a hypocritical religion.

Television and movies also influence family life Have you noticed that many of the shows in the nineteen sixties and seventies featured couples dating for inordinate periods of time so that it seemed their biological clock would run out before they popped the question?

In the eighties, we developed racially oriented television. I cannot count how many police show had black police captains, and how many had the sterotyped wise Japanese or Chinese. In fact, it still is that way now and we wonder why many young men of European ancestry do not go to University or drop out. In the nineties the Japanese and Chinese as well as the other nationalities were now viewed as the rest of us with all the traits of goodness and badness that makes up the human population. The blacks, however, were now shown as very good even when they were on the side of wrong, knowledgable and the holders of moral values as so perfect. (Star Trek Voyager makes fun of this attitude with Tuvok.) We also had shows in which the black cop or partner had children while his white partner was single, had no children, or going through a divorce after a childless marriage.

This trend has now increased and the media is to blame. Most shows put blacks in superior positions, teachers, police chiefs, heads of companies, etc. The danger in this that it discourages those who are non black (that is white) from trying. Now not only are the blacks in superior positions, but they are usually arrogant,and bossy. However, when I watched a documentary about a murder, the police chief there (who incidentally lived in an area with a high black population) answered the interviewer's questions with decency and politeness, showing that television does not echoe real life. You cannot stereotype ethnic groups and you cannot get ahead at the expense of others.

Now in twenty first century, we have the shows in which if there is a pregnancy and a birth, the child is always, every single time, a girl We have shows where if a child dies, it is a boy, not a girl. If a boy lives, it is usually non white. (Now I hope this trend does not continue, I do not want to see any increase in the membership of such organizations as White Supremecists and the KKK who would be watching these shows.) I even watched a show where one of the heroines said to one of the characters that "your son died so that little girl could live." It seems that baby boys and little boys are a dying race on television land. So how do we change this?

Apart from writing to television stations, whenever an actor or an actress has a baby boy, those who are on posts can write with the same enthusiam as when the actor or actress has a baby girl. If one writes fan fiction, don't kill off the boys. Don't just make the boys in minority races. If you are writing a continuing story speculating the hero and heroine, have a least one of the children a boy, and don't make him die or (in the case of one particular story I read) all the boys die in infancy while the two sisters survived. Not real life.

We can remember that not all boys grow up to be wife abusers, some actually become decent citizens and how many of you "I want the baby of this particular show to be a girl because they are so cute and innocent" are able to carry down a two hundred pound unconscious man down a ladder from a blazing building? If television were real life, are any of you girls or women willing to work as hard as your fathers or husbands or brothers the whole time up until you are sixty five or beyond, with the same intensity, in the same hard jobs they do? Not every woman is built like a Word Federation Champion.

Television, Movies, and Ethnicity and How They are Played Out
First I believe there are two races on Earth, the Children of God and the Children of the World. However for those who believe that there is a white race, a yellow race, a red race, and a black race (making it simple), it often influences the roles the particular ethnic group plays on Movies and Televsions. Today, mostly when watching a show about someone being victimized, wrongly accused of a crime, having his child denied a life savings operation, being pursued by the CIA, FBI, or whatever, being mistaken for a vicious criminal, etc., he is always an African American or Black (that's so we can distinguish if he was from the United States or from Jamaica or someplace else, but I doubt he was from the latter definition.)

Now giving that these horrible things could happen to everyone, when watching these shows, one gets the impression that the person was persecuted because he was African American. In other words, he was persecuted because of the color of his skin.

Such portrayal of the media is wrong and diminishes the sympathy and help to those who are not black who are being wrongly accused, etc. It also makes people blaise about black people in the Sudan who are being persecuted for being Christians.See Sudanpage.Unfortunately the media only got interested when the Arabians from the North started attacking all the Black people in the Sudan, not just the Christians, but also the Moslems and Animists.

Examples of Fiction: THE COMPASSIONATE GENTLEMEN

2009-07-12T13:28:00.001-05:00

The Great War had just ended and veterans were enjoying their new found victory. Captain Jensen was overjoyed to see that on the chair facing the ocean, two men were seated on either side of ther taller companions.

"Shell shock," said the one in the white Panama hat.

Jensen, who was busy talking to his first mate, nodded.

"Any word on the London Waxworks robbery?" the mate asked.

"Yes. I have word from Scotland Yard that they might try to get away on the ship. We have everyone checking the cabins and the passenger's list.

The mate loosed his collar. "It's going to be a scorcher!" The captain agreeed that it was unusual for that time of year. They decided to go to the dining room.

An hour later, they returned. Shocked, he looked at the quartet. Were not the two in the center a little bit shorter and wider? Quickly, he sent for several burly seamen who surrounded the group.

"All right," said the captain, "turn around and stand up!"

The two on the end obeyed, causing the center figures to lurch forward, practically toppling into the ocean. As the seamen grabbed them, their hands became sticky with hot wax.

"The missing wax work dummies!"explained the captain and promptly placed the thieves in the brig.

Example of Fictiion: THE LETTER

2009-07-12T13:27:00.001-05:00

he door hung open, swinging and knocking against the wooden floor, against the foot protruding from the room. Officer Ethan Clancey grasped the handle with a handkerchief and entered.

Mary's hair still had that silver glow and she still had that turquoise evening gown, but it now stained with dark red patches. The dark brown table still held her manuscript and the letter. Clancey took time to phone the coroner and his superior and blinked his eyes.

"The letter was gone!"

Yesterday at the pub, he was talking to his companions about Mrs. Phenni's trouble with the rental agency. Ethan tried to strain his mind, trying to think of someone listening with overly intentness. He knew that his friends just yawned and made suggestions about Ombudsmen, What about her relatives? Surely she has a son or daughter some place? If it were my mother, I'd…

Mary Phenni had a lot of trouble and now she was dead. The murderer apparently was someone she knew. No forced entry. Well that always is the case. Clancey went over the room again. The faded rose chenille cover and the white bleached pillows with the embroidered red carnations and dark green leaves covered the double sized bed. A pocket book with the name "Sweet Surrender" lay on the small round table. Its gaudy cover of a blonde woman being caressed by a dark hair hunk, contrasted with the pale gray finish of the antique furniture.

What do women see in this romantic stuff? Mary was a widow and her marriage was not much worse than most. Maybe her daughter gave it to her. He went into the kitchen. Mary had prepared her supper, a small tin of stew, a couple of potatoes and an attempt at a salad, that is, head lettuce, tomatoes, and French Dressing. No green onions. Then he remembered today was the fourteenth. She would be getting her pension check tomorrow.

Example of Fiction: LITTLE MURDERER

2009-07-12T13:25:00.001-05:00

I knew mother was dead.

Now no one thinks that a little girl is capable of murder, but she is. I had watched my father time and again get that box off the shelf in the garage. I had watched my father put the powder in cracks and crevices around the house and had watched him put the chicken wire fence around so that Muffins, our cat did not go near.

Muffins was tiny, and not much good for anything. I think my parents were glad when she died. After all, I had to see if the powder worked. Mummy suffered a lot when she died, especially when she could not dial the phone. But I had watched television. I knew that if you pull out all the plugs in the wall, you couldn't dial out

My aunt is very cold to me. I heard that she was trying to reach mother on the day I killed her. I heard that she talked to the police. The rumor that daddy was let go makes me angry. Say why are they coming? They are supposed to take daddy to jail.

Example of Fiction: THE TAKEOVER

2009-07-12T13:24:00.000-05:00

We were in this restaurant along the Trans Canada highway, eating unbuttered ham sandwiches, listening to farmers talk about their stock, and elderly women chat about Calgary. Suddenly a scrawny old woman snatched a gun from her purse and sprang on a table.

"I've had it," she screamed, frail arms holding the weapon, "Every year it's the same thing. Every year, our bus stops at this stupid restaurant a bus tour and every year we stop at this stupid restaurant and get the same crummy sandwiches at the same ridiculous prices!"

"Hold it," said the waitress, "we don't allow weapons here. We're Canadians."

"Well I am not. I am from the good old USA. and can hold any d— weapon I please. So there, sweetie!"

The waitress rushed to the phone, but tripped over the orthopedic shoes of another pensioner who struck her umbrella, saying "take that, take that,"

The patrons made a rush to the door. Who knows farmers could be that speedy? We enjoyed the spectacle. You see,we are not allowed to carry guns. The government is afraid we will admit a mad dog killer into our house, show him our gun collection, and the drawer where we kept our bullets. I would not be surprised if they figured we would show the felons whose place to rob and "I won't tell the RCMP about you if you take care of Mr. So and So. He's been a pain in my existence!"

The Americans do not have that problem. The only people not allowed to carry guns are criminals, and insane person and that old lady looked pretty sane to me.

Yes, there she was, five foot nothing in a white straw hat, reading glasses, a pink rose printed rayon dress, a pale rose cardigan,and a large white vinyl purse with "San Francisco" on it, sallow face, white hair, and holding a forty five automatic

Yup, if I were the manager of this establishment, I would be scared too. I saw him scurrying around the back, trying to make it to the back door, which were blocked with various boxes of toilet paper.

When the police arrived and hauled the senior citizens off, we figured that justice had taken a back turn until the next day. As we put our bags in the car, we happened to glance at the headlines in the local paper.

Health Department Closes Down Restaurant. Dead Cats found in Back. Old Lady a Hero!

Example of my Fiction: RETRIBUTION

2009-07-10T10:32:00.005-05:00

He shoot through the broken window at the car lights. Dozens of squad cars as well as several red trucks surrounded the area. Farmers with shotguns cursed at him, giving vent to what they would do, if the law would allow it.

What they had in mind was not very pleasant.

Oh I have been such a fool!

Gregory ran to the back door, but the vicious pit bull snarled at him, straining against its chain.

I should have keep the family alive!

He touched the blood stain on the hardwood floor, now turning a dark brown and recalled the child's innocent face before he plunged his knife into her chest.

Poor baby! I am so expert! He did not want to waste a bullet on her, like he did on her parents.

The moon was become clearer. Gregory spotted the sniper on the roof top over the shadows. He knew that he would never get out alive.

"You can't get me, copper!" he yelled, adding a few four-letter words for emphasis. He swallowed the remaining slice of chocolate cake on the dining room table, wiping his ice stained fingers on the yellow patterned tablecloth.

Carefully, Gregory removed the bullet, and burped.

He then started towards the front door. He could make it! He could, but then the pit bull was at the front, mouth slathering, clawing at the flimsy wood door. Gregory knew that in just a second, it would be over.

Someone yelled, "Let's wait until the dog finishes him. It'll save the taxpayers some needless expense!"

As the dog broke its chains and sprang, Gregory heard a vicious laugh from outside mingled with his screams.

Borrowing

2009-07-10T10:29:00.002-05:00

Sometimes a writer admires a character written by another author that he wants to mention that character or make reference in his story. Perhaps you want to make a phrase like "As I waited for the light to change, I saw that scuffy detective talking to that famous police psychologist. The latter had not changed his raincoat for weeks." Pretty sneaky way to mention Columbo. You are not saying who he is, but anyone who watches the series knows who you are referring to.

Unfortunately your character would have no idea who that scuffy guy in the raincoat is. He would probably think he was a bum.

Now suppose you want your character to say that he saw Spiderman crawling up a wall. After all, you read that comic book and you saw this man poking out the apartment window, looking up.

If it were reality and Spiderman was crawling up a wall, your character may have seen it so many times that he would have not taken any notice.

All right, you decided to be bold and write a story about a widow of a police detective suspected of corruption asking a detective of a famous writer who lives in the same town as you to investigate. Now suppose it was in November 1998. Unfortunately the famous writer wrote a story of the same time period, but he had not sent it to the publisher yet. In this, the detective of the famous writer is in Ireland, investigating the mysterious death of a relative and he left in October 1988 and is spending the Christmas holidays there as well.

Not to be perturbed, you make your character be related to an action hero of another famous writer. This hero in the writer's last novel was getting close to a certain young lady and there were hints of marriage. Okay the writer may have intended to make the character married but his audience would not accept this for now. And for reality's sake, would not the hero's employer's order him to fake his wife or his own's death, make a different identity like he was in the import business, etc. And would not those who hired this action hero make sure that any real marriage of his was kept secret, perhaps a fake one in his place, along with a cover story? Why if your character was related to this borrowed character, he would probably think that his father was a business traveler, salesperson, et cetera. Why he may think his father died, divorced, or a bum who left mother and I penniless.

All right you decide to mention that your character was in the same area when something happened, perhaps the action hero was chasing someone (okay Chinese Communist agent) and there was a big fight. You decide to play safe by mentioning not the city or state but it was "near Macey's around Christmas 1985". You researched and know that the author wrote a story called, "Danger Christmas". But your character would probably have been approached by the government, CIA, or whomever hired the action hero to keep quiet in the interest of national security

The safest way to reference a borrowed character would be at a distance, a character who could be but you are not sure, mention being at a certain restaurant when the action hero was getting in trouble with the waiter - "I hope this is not what happened the last time I was here. The waiter seemed to be arguing with this customer. Who? I don't know. He looked like military or something.

This is probably the safest way to write about the danger of using characters borrowed from other authors than to say "You would violate copyright and you would probably not get the author's permission.

REASONS WRITERS DO THINGS

2009-07-10T10:29:00.001-05:00

No one has explained why a writer must take a certain amount of time each day other than, "it is a job like any other, if you were going to the office every day, you would spend eight hours, etc." But writing is not like any other job. No one has told me the reason why I have to increase my vocabulary to at least a grade twelve university level other than,"you do not want to sound childish." No one has told me why I should not let my family or friends read my work and critique it. No one has told me why I should keep all my writing books, and other equipment in the same room and have a private room or time to practice my craft. So I think I had better explain why.

You need a writing space with your equipment, books, et cetera on hand, because if you have your books, for instance, downstairs, everytime you run to get that obscure reference book, you lose valuable writing time. You also save on leg power. Someone may take your absence as an okay for them to get on the computer and play a game.

Your vocabulary has to be more than looking up in a dictionary because you have to know the nuances of the word in such a way that they became second nature. It does, also, make people respect you and expect more than a story of your tragic life when your father locked you in the closet even though he never did those things and was the nicest man in your city.

You need a certain amount of time because you must see at least a page or several paragraphs completed, not only a sentence. In connection, you should have a particular time period, preferably an hour at least, with no interruptions because if someone bugs you during your alloted writing period,you cannot concentrate because you are thinking that any moment now the phone will ring, the husband will want to play his game, the dog has to go out, and so forth. In other words, eventually you expect to be interrupted. It is sort of like those rechargeable batteries. If you stop too soon, the battery life decreases and you wind up writing, "See Dick Run." instead of "As I entered the room, I observed Mrs. Marvin, her head attached in a rather strange angle and her eyes glazed over — knowing that someone in the house had killed her, I immediately phoned the police, et cetera, et cetera.

You do not let friends critique your work, because they have different tastes in writing and that reflect on their judgements. In other words, they are asking, "why does she or he write about this lovely family and how they got to America?" "I love Romances." and fail to see if you used the passive voice a little too often, the hero in your story suddenly changed his name in mid stream from Barney to Howard, or other blunders.

You do not let family critique your work, because they confuse your writing with whatever you did wrong and have seen you on your bad days.

You only tell that you are writing, not the exact detail of plot, city, or name because in the first case, you might, say, suddenly decide to change to science fiction and would you not be embarrassed!

You do not give a copy to your friend because she may be a helpfuL aunt. What a helpful aunt does is to show the copy to as many of her friends as possible. (She is glad to meet a real writer ) Eventually it may wind up being stolen by an unscrupulous person masquerading as a friend who says, "Oh I am not interested" and then steals it from the coffee table, dresser drawer, and has it published under his or her own name.

As for me, I got sick and tired of people asking, "Why do you need this and could you not get, et cetera, et cetera." I thus to write it down. Hope that satisfies everyone.

My Thoughts on Prey and Pretender Fan Fiction:

2009-07-10T10:26:00.004-05:00

pIs it all right to persecute those stronger and faster and smarter than us while not all right to persecute those weaker and less intelligent or less advanced than us? What classifies us as human? Are the 1.6rs considered human but a more advanced stage of humanity? Since in the series, they can have children with ordinary humans or homo sapiens, and the offspring are fertile, does this classify them as human beings? Does a species using the term "mate" for "spouse" make that species, animals, although a highly intelligent form. Why did the species suddenly appear in one part of Mexico, seeing that there were probably other settlements of white people, possibly artist colonies or expirates hiding from legal prosecution in other areas. What did the Dominants do to the people they killed? Did they use a ray gun or disintigrate them, did they bury their bones in various locations, did they eat them? The latter would be if these were a highly intelligent form of animals. Dld they kill all their prey or are some forced to work or become concubines so that the Dominants can breed more Dominants.

My Thoughts on Pretender

&nbspAre the Pretenders really Dominants but drugged so as not to use their true talents? I seem to think so.
All that chasing around and no one doing anything. Miss Parker doomed to chase Jarod until they both wind up in wheelchairs. Is that what you want? Enough of this nonsense.
&nbspWhat will Miss Parker do with Jarod if she catches him? Will she have to lock Sydney and Broots in a closet so as not to be disturbed? I can imagine this.
"I love you Jarod."
"You love me? You didn't act like it when you chased me. Say whats all that pounding?"
"Oh nothing, just mice."

What kind of work will they do once the Centre is no more? I was thinking of either Bails Bondsmen or Detective Work specializing in tracking down dead beat spouses. If that does not happen, will Miss Parker just keep Jarod and make him do thing for her? (Just imagine all the money she can save on not paying anyone to fix up her place, doctor bills, a driver, going to the pharmecy, etc.)

My Thoughts on Inappropriate Fan Fiction

2009-07-10T10:26:00.002-05:00

I am not talking about racist fan fiction. For some reason, people nowadays seem to think racism is a more serious sin than any other. It is considered so bad that one may receive a more serious sentence if he killed someone considered to be of an oppressed race. This is not what I am writing about. I had to revise this paragraph because some scum ball looked at this site, decided that anyone writing about what I wrote about loves it and decided to send me some inappropriate junk mail. Writing fan fiction as an excuse just to show how to write sexually explicit scenes is wrong. The plot becomes minimal unless you are writing what he did to her, what her reaction was, how she felt when—, what he did later, what they did on the living room floor, etc. and that is no plot.
I assume that such stories are password protected so only adults can assess them. Those java scripts do not work by the way.
If the story has the characters having intimate relations, and you are writing it for adults who enjoy such stuff, think about the characters and write it with discretion. If the character has been thrust into the world without being raised by a family(and I use it in the strict sense of mom and dad/or widowed/divorced mom or dad with or without natural and or adopted children) or given a decent moral background, and he intends to make love with his girl friend, he is not going to wear any underwear at all or he will wear briefs. If he were raised in one of the family situations, he would get to know her first. The sex act, if at all, would come later. If he were raised in a family situation, the character would have sex with a girl that had a bad reputation or not at all until he got married.
You also have to be careful about pressing that the hero is wearing boxer shorts because on television shows, they always show boxer shorts because briefs look too sexy. So kill the boxer short insistence unless you want me to get very angry at you since you seem to be saying "The Good Looking Hunk can produce several children because I wrote him wearing boxer shorts and a man who wears briefs is practically sterile. so there!!!!!" If you want him to appear sexy, do like Mulder did in X Files when he said he wasn't wearing any underwear.

Where Do I Put My Fan Fiction?

2009-07-10T10:25:00.002-05:00

You may have been adviced by your writing instructor, group, etc., that putting fan fiction on your site might be detrimental to you getting an agent in your new novel. Unfortunately, sometimes you get this advice too late (that is, after your fan fiction has been up on your site.) A story on a web site is considered first rights, which is a good thing to remember if you want to write several novels based on the Andromeda series. If you join a private egroup rather than a public one. Some egroups even critique your work and you do not have to worry if a publisher says "Say she's writing a story on Briscoe of Law and Order. We really don't like that! BLACKLIST HER!" .

Fan Fiction egroups have rules as to the classification they accept from general, to Pg 13,up to 18 and above. Unfortunately 18 and above means description of explicit sexual acts. It is also known as adult just as PG 13 and PG 16 has a lot of teenage angst. So you might have to join a group, see what's going on, and if the stories posted make you nervous, quit after a while and join another. Now if there were egroups that accept mature fan fiction and do not expect a whole description of what Lewis in Prey is doing sexually to that beautiful human captive, for example, I'd be happy. Also, those who want categories of where your fan fiction goes, they'd better have plenty of room, because what i write does not just fit into one category.

Suggestions for Fan Fiction

2009-07-10T10:24:00.000-05:00

Okay before I put down a story, I would like to make a few pointers that I would not like to appear in fan fiction stories.

One: Taking the easy way out,killing off the hero, or making him sterile.
Two: Making the bad person good in one shot.
Three: Changing the particular group in the series because you cannot accept them for what they are
Four: Using euphenisms because of the character's ethnic background
Five: Having everyone in the fan fiction believe the same as you do. If you do not believe in evolution, and want to show your own belief by putting a character in who is, say, a Baptist, don't convert anyone to your beliefs unless the original writer in the series showed that he or she was already questioning evolution in the first place.
Six: Not taking in account the mores and values of the times
Seven: Not researching the series or watching most of it to see whether what you assumed at the beginning episodes was changed by a future episode. This assumes that you did not put in something like "this happened between episode three and four' where 'The Handsome Hero' had just learned about his alien origin."
Eight: Making a Minor Character important ot good because he happens to be Black.
Nine: Continuing on making the Villains the majority ethnic group and if they happen to have someone in their midst who is of a minority ethnic group, making him or her the hero, the good guy, the one who says 'Supreme Leader, you should not introduce poisonous chemicals into the drinking water' <> Ten: Making every child of the heroes or heroines girls all the time or most of the time especially if the hero happens to be white and it's a very good chance that he and his wife or sweetheart will give birth to a son. I know there are some out there whose husbands beat them, whose son is a thief, whose father abused them, etc.,but why not all white men, babies, or boys are evil and not all African American men, babies, or boys are good.
Eleven Making the characters on the fan fiction have your personality, your ideas.
Twelve In character summaries about Fan Fiction, giving a negative reason for the character's position in the Television, Movie, or Book.
ThirteenMaking an organization which is shown to be evil, good.
FourteenMaking the hero or heroine bad and the reverse.
Since one of my favorite shows was the Pretender, I'll answer this giving the Pretender as an example. These last two are done through a warped idea that you must never say anything bad about an evil organization (like the Centre in Pretender.) and perhaps thinking that Jarod could have changed it by not running away. Again you should really watch the series. He was a prisoner, a captive, put in a cell at night. Not allowed to go anywhere without supervision. Closely watched and guarded. Think of what you could do in that situation. Could you accomplish anything? No, in my opinion, the only way Jarod could get anything done, tell Miss Parker about her mother, etc. was if he did escape.

Definition of Fan Fiction

2009-07-10T10:20:00.000-05:00

Fan fiction is usually based on a television series, movie, book m or comic series. You may not have the same beliefs as the writer, but it does not mean you cannot write a story based on that particular series. Here is a short list of my Favorite TV shows past or present that lend themselves to Fan Fiction.

"Prey", a group called either 1.6r because they are 1.6r better than us or 'dominants'. These Dominants (who were not Mexican natives by the way) suddenly appeared in Oxaca,Mexico, apparently because of global warming, becoming stronger, smarter, more vicious, and faster than us and trying to take over the earth by eliminating us. "Prey" was cancelled by ABC and is now being rerun on the Science Fiction channel which also carries Horror shows, so be warned.

"Above and Beyond" Marines go and fight aliens who are attacking human colonies on other worlds. If there were intelligent life out there, they are not necessarily all good. >

"The Pretender" is about a man Jarod stolen as a child by an organization called The Centre which calls itself "a Think Tank" (you may now laugh or guffaw at this point.) Having something called the Pretender gene, he can become "anyone he wants to be." Kidnapped as a child, he is kept in the Centre as a captive (although I could use another word: Slave) and forced to do hundreds of simulations. At last, he escapes, right injustices and searches for his family while being pursued by Miss Parker(the presumed daughter of Mr. Parker, a descendant of the founder of the Centre) and her cronies, Broots and Sydney (Jarod's teacher at the Centre.) Although not stated in the series, Jarod and Miss Parker may have had a child which might have been adopted or fostered out. The reason is that Mr. Parker sent his daughter to boarding school and made sure that Jarod was kept below in the subterranean level of the Centre.

"Law and Order" and the consequent series. Law being the police perspective, Order, being that of the courts.

Series such as 'CSI", and "ER." The first involves crime investigation and the second, the workings of an Emergency room in a hospital. In the second, although characters come and go, the premise is good and lends to many stories about the characters in their environment, although I have seen some fan fiction which would be considered off color, at least.

My opinion of cancellations? Cancelling a show at the cliff hanger is entirely wrong as is also cancelling show when you leave the characters hanging in mid air (I think of "Above and Beyond" for example) An excellent example of a show that had a good cancellation or conclusion was "War of the World, the Series."

How to Train Your Voice - wikiHow

2009-04-27T20:31:00.000-05:00

How to Train Your Voice - wikiHow

Why your Novel changes

2008-09-20T16:25:00.003-05:00

Most novels go through many rewrites and after the writer gets past the point where he or she does not make many grammatical mistakes, it comes to the point where the character takes over or the author understands that the character would not do that. Most start using their own experiences and their own personality. So the character is a reflection of you. If you are immature, the character becomes immature, if you hate mussels, the character also hates mussels. If you love to sew, the character is the son or daughter of a weaver. And this leads to the character sometimes doing things that you did not intend to or what makes him look stupid.
Another thing is taking out necessary conversation. One needs not ask how the weather is on the planet Xerion or shake hands with all the relatives, if it is not going to advance the story. So if your ship can only land on Xerion in calm weather or your hero is a spy, and that is the code phrase, you do not need to have that conversation. Consequently unless shaking hands with relatives is a way to discover that one of your relatives was replaced by a serial killer and that serial killer forgot that your aunt had a prominant wart in her right palm, it is no need to go through the "hi Bill," et cetera.
One that seems to be is making a preview, a story before the main story that gives the back ground of the story.
Another thing is practicality. If you plan for the hero to get back by Christmas at Vancouver, and you had your character be stuck in the LaGuardia airport on Christmas Eve, then you had better change his home location to Rochester, New York rather than Vancouver, Washington.

Now these are reasons why often the novel at the last draft is not the same as when it started. Usually when you first start, you record all the conversations instead of the ones necessary for the plot. You also have the characters talk long monologues without taking a breath ——at least i do, and have a character suddenly appear as by magic, or leave and then he is in the scene the next chapter, when he is up north somewhere or dead. Then there is the way his name is spelled.

By the time, the last drafts appear, you are finally getting things right and then you start cutting out unnecessary words and cutting out the extra sentences, and finding that the butler's name is not Hey you. By then, the fun starts and now you have to look for an agent, or if you have lots of money, publish it yourself.

The Slow Way to increase your writing time

2008-03-01T21:51:00.003-06:00

After much turmoil, I decided that I had better increase my writing time. I had tried so many words, but without success, tried a certain time of a day but found that not all days are the same, and sometimes things go wrong. I thought of printing out my old draft and go over it, but that would not work, because I have one of those cheaper printers that are only suitable for article writing and short stories. - very short stories. So one day, I turned on my timer and wrote as much as I could without getting tired and wrote past that ten minute mark where the words start making sense.
The next day, I set the timer for one minute past that mark, and since then, every day except for Sunday, I started one minute later than the previous.
It is a slow way to increase my writing time, but it worked. I have tried to find the best time, and right now I am writing on my novel at one in the afternoon. However, I do not know what will happen when the snow melts and I want to go for a walk. I may have to go to bed early so that I am refreshed enough to write in the morning. Stores do not open until ten here, unless you count Walmart and Staples.

Fan Fiction a good way to write without worrying about First Rights

2007-11-04T12:39:00.000-06:00

All right, you may think, well only teenagers write fan fiction. Once you get to be a woman of a certain age, forget about it. You are too old and dignified unless you are writing a Murder She Wrote fan fiction. Well I love to write fan fiction, I would love to write a story about NCIS, but have no idea whether Tony will fall in love, since I did write one about Law and Order: Criminal Intent and they did not follow my romantic inclinations, so I stick with shows that have been canceled or have not been around for some time.
I find in Fan fiction (I love crossovers) that if there are villains or space aliens, the Homo Dominants in Prey, that people love to even the playing field. Great, I watch a show and I see the people have no chance against these shape shifting aliens, so why suddenly make the aliens not being able to stand sunlight or all you have to do is to push them outside? Another thing I notice, that if in the story, the girl or boy who was raised by evil people, and then later on reforms and turns out to be nice, the reason was not that he or she came to his or her senses or someone convinced her that shooting everybody was wrong, but that she is really not the daughter of that evil person, but in reality the daughter of the handsome prince or the good doctor.
Now how do you make Crossovers? You have a connection. In some cases as in a future episode, the CSI team or rather Grissom has to go to New York to cooperate with the Without a Trace Team and even if it is not shown, or the show was canceled, you can use parts of each show to make the Crossover natural. For instance, I connected The Pretender with Prey, with two episode, Jarod jumping off a boat and swimming to shore, and jumping off a building onto Broot's car. Normally he would have died from that distance. In the same way, you can connect, since House is in Boston and since Boston Law is in Boston, if there is an episode where a lawyer has a sudden attack and taken to the hospital.
Now the good thing about Fan Fiction is that you can show your talent and practice on it. You do not have to worry that you are losing your first rights, unless you are given a contract to write a Star Trek or a Buffy, etc. story. You do have to tell everyone that the characters, other than the ones you made up, belong to the owners, the original writers, and to what station they gave them to, but that is all.
So get writing about your favorite Movie or TV characters in those spare moments and when you are not working on your novel and or short story.

Why OneTime a Day is Not Enough

2007-10-30T17:51:00.001-05:00

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Now playing: 15-Elizabeth Harwood Quando m'en vo'
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: 13-Regine Crespin Un bel di vedremi
via FoxyTunes I am the type of person that if I stare at the computer too long, I get hypnotized by the monitor and soon I am falling asleep or at least, doing a facsimile thereof. I have tried the time thing, and found it did not work, nor did the word limit work. For one thing, sometimes I rush things so that at least I have the appearance of something being done, and another thing with the word limit, I might not have enough time. So I decided to do a little compromise
I call it the two period writing. The first one is I decide to write for an hour or so, just putting in the next two or more paragraphs and then go over them and check for those terrible reversal errors or passive sentences. Then in the afternoon or at night, I go over these paragraphs and try to make it much better.
Sometimes the second forty-five minutes becomes an hour, well because I am fussy. I am now more than half way through my novel and guess what, I found a better name for one of my characters, so the next revision I have to go through and change his name once again.

I find this much easier than writing all in the morning and then finding that I have not gone far enough because I spend a good deal time on one paragraph when I could be writing a whole page. So now I write a whole page (well not the 1000 word, but that will come back) and do a little correction, since I also have the page from my former draft and I am copying that plus also inserting and changing it around. In the evening, I have not had my former draft, so I can work on revising and correcting what I wrote that morning.

That is much better, but that does not sometimes work. I mean if I write in the morning, and there is something going on, then I find I have not written as much as I like. So I often wind up keeping the page open all day, and add a bit here and there. Then I check the word count to see if I get past my goal that right now is 500 words a day. That is what writing is like. You just cannot time it. Now if only I had a lap top, then I could write whenever I felt like it, not have to go to the computer room.

Fiction Writing:Confirming your ideas

2007-10-06T10:07:00.000-05:00

I just got back from a trip across Canada to P.E.I. and through the States. Now while I was in Prince Edward Island, we went to visit the old forts that were now covered with sod, and read the plaque about the first French citizens who became the first permanent settlers of the Island. It was quite hilly and quite steep as we went from one top of the hidden fort to reach another top and it reminded me of the shows on England about the areas where the Britons had their defenses which now are covered with pasture and farmland, but if you are in a plane above can still see the outlines.

Well I did not see the outlines, us being on ground, but I am writing a novel about a man going into a strange land, and getting a feel how his legs and his heart felt as he went from one area to another, depending not on a car, but on his own transportation, be it horse or foot.

Now most research is done before the story starts. You go to a bakery and learn how they make bread, and then you incorporate a bakery in your story, but sometimes one can get understand how people's bodies reacted by later going through the same thing yourself or as much as you can take. And it also shows that you may not have been far wrong in telling, "how his heart almost burst and his shoulders ached as he climbed the crevice."

Fiction Writing: My Take on Critiques

2007-09-08T23:57:00.000-05:00

I spent about half an hour looking for my Stephen King book on writing. I suppose he said something about critiquing, but I have no idea what it was. Anyway, my views are that for a beginner it is good, but as you get on, you become more selective as to who is to critique your novel. Unfortunately the ones whom you want is usually too busy.

You see, I was told you need to have a critique group to look at your work, but except for a nice author who gave me good suggestions about distances,, times and places and how to write a good first chapter, most of my critiques were crap. They made me disappointed, but I felt I had to have them, and for a time, I sent my work in and then I got On Writing by Stephen King and surprise! He did not like critiquing either. He did talk about creative writing classes, and if one could not take any, to get books on writing and study hard.

So now I go over a chapter at a time, and think does this move the story and it is much better than worrying about someone else's idea, because if I am not satisfied, neither is anyone else.

Fiction Writing: The Dialogue Thing

2007-09-05T20:40:00.000-05:00

When I first started writing, the characters were engaged in some rather interesting conversations, interspersed with dialogs that moved the plot. However, most of it consisted of "hi, haven't seen you since last November," and "I think I feel a cold coming on," along with long monologues about their mission, whatever it was. I see the same thing on fan fiction stories where Jarod and Miss Parker have a long conversation, insulting each other. I was told that this was wrong, and wondered why. Surely character one does greet character two, and they do talk about the weather and stuff like that.

Instead I found that when you are writing a story, you are allowed so many pages and when this happens, you only put in the conversation that makes the plot go forward, also known as the dialog. So what you have is character one say, "Are all things in readiness for the invasion?" and character two replying, "Yes sir. The humans will not be expecting us. Hail Zerhx, our leader!"

So what does happen to the conversation they really would have? Well I suppose it goes into the description like this; Xery greeted Xerwe, his twin pod, speaking much about the weather on the planet Zerrx, the war with the Insect people of Wry, and the mating rituals that occurred in the month Qwer, the only time their race was fertile.

So in short, this is the difference between real life and fiction. In the latter, much of the conversation goes unsaid unless it is of earthshaking importance.

Fiction Writing; Wishful Thinking

2007-08-29T16:48:00.000-05:00

In this day of Political Correctness, even writers try to make sure that those who were looked down on, the cripples, the poor, the deprived, the non-white are given a place of importance in fiction so that they are the heroes, the ones of importance so we will read the book or watch the movie and say, 'how wonderful!" forgetting that even supposed privileged people endured heartbreak.

I remember reading a book by one of my favorite authors where the hero had three people helping him, three with various forms of disability and the one who was the worse off actually got transported to another Universe where the political scene had changed: In that, the Democrats won: wishful thinking.

The fact is if you decide to make those former despised people the heroes, unless it is about someone who overcame his background, you run the risk of believing those of the privileged who got shafted, lost their jobs, or were in a car accident that resulted in them loosing their limbs actually deserved it. And have you seen that the recent trend in movies, where the villain is rich and white? When someone once despised becomes a hero or a hero's companion, then the wicked one must be one who in past novels would have been the hero's friends. So the man who answered the door or worked in the field, who begged in the street is now adored, while the business owner, the upper class one is now despised unless he happens to be, perhaps, the adopted son born in India, Nigeria, etc. and whose skin is as dark as midnight.

Most people hang around with people of their own background and culture. I was born in Scotland, of German English descent so most of my friends are Western European. A woman who was born in South Carolina and of Black African descent, most of her friends would be African American. A man born in Nigeria would make friends like him. So if the hero or heroine of the story lived in Texas and was a Mexican American , his friends more than likely would be that type and the only one surviving the massacre would not be that Dutch kid they befriended on the Cattle Drive.

What did they do wrong? Surely everyone deserves a chance, but that is what they did. They did not write the story or the play as what would have happened in real life (unless the hero was the only white kid in the ghetto and he thought he was black)- , They wrote the story to even up the field, they were engaged in wishful thinking.

Fiction Writing; Who do You Kill

2007-08-16T22:57:00.000-05:00

Sooner or later, one of your characters is going to die. Usually it is a friend of the main character or of the villain. Now in action adventure movies, it is someone the main character loves, for instance his wife and his children, but it does not matter what race or ethnic group the victim belongs to because the whole point is to get the hero so angry that he will finish off the villains in as violent manner as he can.

In other movies and in writing it is different. Race and ethnicity does matter, according to the movies I saw, and the novel I am reading. It seems that back in the nineteen seventies, even with black exploitation movies, the Black community got so angry at them being portrayed at being drug dealers, that they demanded to be portrayed as good and moral citizens even when they were bad guys. Thus many movies and some writers have followed suit. Not only did they make the African American as the one with the moral code, they made sure that his death was shown with more sorrow and regret, and if at all possible, he survived when others died. Yet this never happened to the Italians, Chinese, or Japanese. We still see movies where they are portrayed equally in a good light and a bad light and when they die, no one mourns long and hard. But this is wrong.

When writing your novel or story, forget about who will be mad and decide what is believable. If there is a massive explosion, the bombs kill indiscriminately, and do not decide what race the victims are., and it has to do with percentages. If the majority of those trapped inside were white, then the survivors are more likely to be white. If the story was about a building exploding in Harlem, the survivors are more likely to be black. So think of not what would be acceptable, think of reality and do not discriminate or make up for past discriminations. Think not of what others would want you to write, think what would be more logical.

Fiction Writing; The Necessity of Research

2007-08-10T18:50:00.000-05:00

I am writing on a Christian fantasy novel, no no witches with super natural powers, no flying demons that can materialize as men, or anything like Obi telling Luke to "feel the Force,"— although it does have at least three monsters in it. But like most fantasy novels, one has to invent names for the characters and give them a history.

Now people assume when you write a fantasy novel, you can make up names like Feran Fainthearted or Lalia of the Limmering Light, but most fantasy are based either in the far past (like before the Flood), in the time of Conan the Barbarian, on another world, or in the far future after a nuclear explosion or other disaster has destroyed most of humankind and left the survivors, savages. These are being pursued by mutants, creatures who were made by excessive radiation — at least, that was what was assumed in the 1950s before they learned that there would be no horrible mutants, they would all have died.

Anyway depending on what era or what planet the Fantasy novel is based on, one has to make sure the character names fit. For instance, the past, you may have to go to a web site on the original Indo Aryan languages and make names that are pre-Romance and pre-German. If the character is, for instance, an English man from the Thirteenth Century who somehow was transferred to the future, you go on the website for Medieval England, and write it the way, he would, not the way we would write it. If you go into the future, you will have to make names that record the past, if they came from Earth, and if they survived a disaster, you had to marry who was left, so you mght wind up with a name like Jeavan, or a combination of Jean and Ivan. If your character lives on another planet, and is not descended from Earth people, you can get away with calling him Xerfry, or make any other alien name you want. But if you want your characters to have an Earth origin, you have to decide whether these were pre Norsemen or pre Latins, in which you have to get a book on ancient names or go to the website. The same applies if you are writing about characters who were kidnapped from ancient China before Genghis Khan or Nubians who were taken aboard a space ship before the time of Rameses the Second. In the first place, you cannot use any Mongolian names or customs and in the second case, the people will not mention Rameses the Second having trouble with the Hebrews when the great god took them into the sky.

That is why research is necessary even for fantasy and science fiction. You have to understand not only the name, but the food they eat, and the culture and any changes that you make have to reflect their origins. So go to the Library, get on the Internet, find those history books, your copies of the Illiad and get on researching.

Fiction Writing; The First Draft

2007-08-06T22:06:00.001-05:00

According to the Soap Operas and many non-writers, we just have to write once and that is it. Well surprise we have to do this first draft or as I call it, the pre-draft and when you compare it to the finished drafts, who could have written such garbage?

But that is what you have to do, keep writing chapter after chapter without correcting to get the whole story finished. After that is done, then you go back.

Now some people may write an outline or a summation of what the story will be about, but as you go along, the characters take over the story.

Quote; "Darn it, I wanted him to go in guns blasting, but what does he do? Hides behind the bushes and finds a piece of tinfoil, then calls his superior. Why the girl could be dead by now.!'

Yes, that idiot character police detective fouls up your plans for a gun battle by being extra cautious. So you have to write a different chapter from the one you intended. That is why the first draft never is like the one you have in your head. In fact, it seems rather childish sometimes. Your characters go on in long monologues telling their stories just as they do on the Soap Operas. You all know that when Rachel said to Mac, 'Remember when---" and we hear what happened last week or the day before. Instead of showing, you tell what is happening and when you send it off to your critique group, you get remarks like "your story is quite good but your dialogs are way too long.' or translated, 'your story stinks.'

Well I am on the sixth draft of my Novel and from what I heard, I have three more to go, if I live that long.

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Now playing: 08-Sumi Jo Der holle rache kocht in meinem herzen
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: 06-Joan Sutherland Casta diva
via FoxyTunes

Fiction Writing: Writing and Finance Savings

2007-08-04T20:30:00.000-05:00

If you have a good paying job, or are in college, you probably have enough so that when you are ready to publish your novel, you just have to go to the Post Office and buy the stamps, plunk down the parcel and it is off. If it is rejected, you merely print out another 2000 or so pages, put more stamps plus the post card with extra stamps that they will send you back if it is rejected. In fact, you may be able to send it out to twenty before at lets say, a cost of $10.00 per send out or about $220. Now this is just a guess, the stamps might be $2.50 to $5.00, but even at that, for someone who makes $7.00 or less an hour, that is quite a bit of change.

So how do you get enough money and where do you put it? If you are an American, you may only need a savings and checking account, because most publishers are in the United States. I suppose it also applies to the United Kingdom and Australia, they have lots of publishers. However if you are a Canadian, although you can send your book to a Canadian publisher, you may find the most customers would be in the States. So you also need a good US. Savings account. Many banks in Canada have American money bank accounts and if you put so much a month, your interest and balance will add up.

It is also good to put money aside for unexpected, like the computer breaking down or you need a new printer. So instead of waiting until they die, why not take about $50 to $100 and put it in a high interest savings account? I will tell you what I did. I got a high interest savings account and I put an automatic deposit out of my pension. Not only that, I decided any money I got from myLot or any other internet went to save for a new computer plus a new printer. We decided to buy our paper in bulk instead of one at a time. I also decided to correct most of my work on the computer, thus saving paper except for the first two drafts. I got a basic American account to put money aside when I got a check and that was to pay for any stamps I would order. If my printer ran out of ink, I would get a refill rather than buy a new cartridge. I also decided to perfect my craft rather than send it off and get an automatic rejection. However that is going to take time because I am also working at home. Right now I can do one hour, but I am gradually increasing. So wish me luck.

Writing and Finances

2007-08-02T15:18:00.000-05:00

One thing people forget is that you need more than just you brilliant imagination and quick verbosity to write. You need equipment. The days of taking out a quill or fountain pen, writing on a paper, and sending it off to the printer for him to print it is gone. The editor wants to see your work typewritten or computer written. If you cannot do it yourself, you have to hire someone to do it for you. So either you get a typewriter or a computer. If you make many mistakes, and throw paper in the waste basket, you look for a computer and that is where the trouble begins.

You say you are a writer and then you get the suggestion that any computer, or rather the cheapest one will do, but you realize that if you decide to write speculative fiction or historical fiction, your computer has to do more than just words. You need graphics. If you write articles, you may need to draw diagrams. Your desk might get messy, so the computer needs a flat panel monitor, plus the desk with the bookcase, or the separate bookcase, the boxes where you store your information and magazines and so on.

You need paper, a printer and with that, cartridges, postage stamps, envelopes, etc. Now if you had a good paying job, a university education, or a trade, this is no worry. After all, you can save for the computer in no time, a year at the most, and still pay the mortgage, the car, go on a trip once a year, clothes, games, eating out once in a while, and all that stuff that life requires.

This is why if you have a low paying job, that it is essential to save. So put money aside, open a savings account, and put so much fort nightly for your writing equipment, allow so much for the stamps, and you will be on your way to financially support your writing career.

Preparing to be a Writer: Education.

2007-08-01T17:28:00.000-05:00

Although many suggest Creative Writing Course and Journalism, the path to be a writer is often hampered not by the lack of will, but by the type of preparation. In the old days, people learned at home and those whose parents were professors or professional people had a better chance of writing down their memoirs or stories than those whose parents were farmers. So those who take the academic stream are better able to engage others with their words than those who concentrate on mechanics, vocational training, and office work. In some States and Provinces, the requirements for English are the same, but in others, the standards for those who go to University are much higher. If you happen to live in one of those not so equal states and you decide to be a writer, you will have a hard time about it unless you are writing first person stories.

Unless you cannot avoid it, take the courses that will lead to University. Grades Ten to Twelve are very important because it is there you will acquire a college vocabulary and have access to more material, as well as development of thinking skills. However, if you have to switch to the general program in Grade Ten or Eleven because of a death in the family, or the sudden loss of money, you will have to learn on your own and usually you may not get a chance until your family is grown or you have acquired enough money to take night courses.

Someone who did not go to college or did not have the proper education cannot pick the right word out of the sky. The person, will have to work harder as I did and I am one whose circumstances forced me to change from the University to the Business program. I have Word Wrap on my computer, I have a couple of online dictionaries available, and I have the dreaded Word Grammar and Spelling Checker. There are some meanings whose nuances I am not sure of, and there are some words that are not part of my normal vocabulary because I missed hearing them in Business. The reason why there are books telling one how to improve your vocabulary is because of the division of learning structures in some schools. So if this is your case, it will be harder for you to become a writer, but not impossible.

Fiction Writing: Do you need a Creative Writing Course

2007-07-31T18:23:00.000-05:00

Whenever you say you want to be a writer, there is always someone who tells you to take a creative writing course. Now if you are attending college or university, you can easily take one. The same applies if you are working and you can take a night school course. However not everyone has the time or money and if they did decide to go to school for an hour or so, it might mean the sacrifice of something necessary. In these cases, they might have to go to the library and get books on how to write. They also might have to buy books on writing or learn online. The point is there are many ways on learning to write. It is not creative writing or journalism or nothing. Writers Digest Book Club has many books as well as a magazine that would instruct you on how to write.

Now you may want to improve yourself later and take a course, but that is when you feel it is necessary or when you find you have gone so far and did not improve. But then again, even though you wanted to, you could not afford to. That is life. Do not worry about it, just do the exercises in that how to write book you bought and join an online critique group.

Writing; Setting a Time

2007-07-30T19:43:00.000-05:00

I am back from my cruise, with a determination to continue with my novel. So far, I have found it hard because I was trying to make money by various online activities, that now include posting at myLot. Yes, this is the nickname I use. I have found it quite, well not lucrative, but almost, and enjoyable. My photos of the cruise are private. Sorry, but there are some there that I want to give to my Church for the concerts they have in the Spring and Summer.

Before I was writing my novel whenever I had time, but found I could not find any. So I tried a new tactic. Find a time when, although my brain is not in high gear, my endurance is. This left the first thing in the morning after Bible reading, of course.

So this is the rule of setting a time: The best time to write is when you can sit at the computer or typewriter longer without getting exhausted, falling asleep, or dreaming.
The second rule is decide on the minimum amount of time you will write.
The third rule is decide how long you are to write, and if you do not have a timer, get one.
The fourth rule is make sure you increase the time by one minute a day, not counting Sunday or if you are Jewish, Saturday, and so on. If you hold no religious affiliation, decide on one day off. This is to give yourself a break and you would not want to take an unfair advantage against those who value their holy days, do you?

Now the above is when you are typing, not when you sit around, with your journal or your laptop (lucky you!! grr!!) because that is when you get your thoughts or ideas. Some writers like to write on paper first, (oo, I love to crinkle it in my hands. It makes me feel so creative! Well I have poor wrists, and have developed a memory to compensate.), but I do not, because of the reason stated. I wish I could. There are times when I am visiting and I have a good idea, but if I wrote it down, it would not be legible enough to read.

Any suggestions as to how to make my wrists stronger and the left side of my left hand stronger, would be appreciated.

Found items

2007-07-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

Well apparently my blouse, t-shirt, and pants were not stolen. The baggage handler or my husband must have put them in his suitcase instead. So I do not have to worry about what will happen on the next trip. There is still one broken vase to contend with. It was imported and I should have carried it with me, but we are only allowed twenty pounds. Anyway my husband liked the trip so much, that we plan to save more money for another one. I am also saving for a laptop so I can write on the trip. Oh and if we go to Vancouver, I will try to persuade my brother to get a computer.

We're back home

2007-07-07T13:30:00.000-05:00

We are back home after a wonderful Alaska cruise *(except that I cut the back of my ankles -really should not wear anything other than leather) and the baggage handler who stole three items of my clothes_ a black pair of pants, checked blue and white t-shirt and a short sleeved blouse --sized 2x. I will be posting pictures, once I learn how to do them properly.
We were in Vancouver or rather Surrey. My husband wants to stay in Winnipeg, but I love the coast!!!! It gets too cold here in Winter.

The Alaskan Cruise

2007-06-26T09:37:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow my husband and I go on our Alaskan Cruise. This is the first cruise I have been on other than the one that brought me, my dad and mom and my brother to North Vancouver from London, England. We later moved to Vancouver, but that is history. Right now about our trip. We're flying out to Vancouver where we will get the ship and go along the inlet, take in the sites, and then return to Vancouver in seven days.

We will then visit our relatives there including my brother for two or three days at which time, we will take the plane back to Manitoba. We will be taken quite a few pictures and I will try to post some here.

Some Authors Get The Help!

2007-06-12T17:44:00.000-05:00

I just learned from my husband that I should really love Harry Potter because the author had a hard time as a single parent, she is an excellent writer, and that she was only rejected once. Oh yes and the publishers were so kind to help her with editing her book and she thought of the idea while riding in a train and had the whole seven books already decided, plus much of the plot.
Well she was a teacher before and that is a plus. You work in a profession such as being a doctor, a lawyer, a journalist, and teacher you are bound to not have many rejections. Of course writing about magic helps. That reminds me, except for one of those Sword and Sandal Movies, and the Bible plus sermons, no one has told much about Simon the Sorcerer, you know, the one who tried to bribe Saint Peter to give him the Holy Spirit. I can just see Simon the Sorcerer announcing his next trick while a beautiful woman in a short tunic, fastened on one shoulder.
"And now," he says, "I will suspend the moon by two ropes, but first I shall introduce my beautiful assistant, Lydia!" I was waiting for that line. It never came.
I saw the Harry Potter movies and I can tell you that it is hard to be a wizard. All the utensils rise in the air, they try to escape out the door, you have to watch for flying ghosts, not to mention cribbage and falling off a broomstick. By the way, what if they are caught in a forest fire? The Broomstick goes boom! Guess they should switch to electric brooms, but then there is the chance of being struck by lightening.

My New Cellphone

2007-06-12T17:13:00.000-05:00

Actually it is my first and possibly my only cellphone. I have been saving up for it well even before I finished paying for my computer. Have not turned it on yet except in the store when I bought it. Evenings after six are free.
We already have a land line and am not getting rid of it. However when we go on our cruise and cannot get to a phone, I can use it. When we go to Great Britain sometime in the future (at least a couple of years) I can use it. Just have to find out what sims cost. Anyway it is a Sony Ericsson one of the best. Unfortunately it did not come in fushia or pink, but who's complaining? Black's good and it is a good camera phone as well.

Joined MyLot

2007-06-12T17:03:00.000-05:00

Actually I joined about three months ago. It is just that I have been busy working those ptrs. Now I can do what I like: write. It is fun answering questions, asking world shattering questions such as "is the money you get per post based on the length of the words, sentence structure, or relevance of the subject." Now as soon as I get rid of my ptrs, I will post on the other paid to post sites I joined. Oh and my grandchild should come any moment now. Looking forward to that.

The Computer Question

2007-04-06T13:10:00.000-05:00

Ah shall I keep the one I have? Can I afford to get a new one? Shall I have enough money to buy a MAC? My dream is that I buy something small at Future Shop or Best Buy.
Suddenly a bell goes off and thousands of balloons fall on my head, and they say I am the 1 billionth customer and for that, I have $30,000 or thereabouts to spend. So I gaze around and I spot this Mac computer, but then the quandry begins. I also want a lap top. So what one do I get? Ah decisions decisions.