Barbara's Meanderings: writers

Friday the 13th and Postcard Friends Friday

children's writing Friday, March 13, 2009

A cut paper sculpture by Peter Callesen

for Postcard Friends Friday

Take a few minutes and check out all of this artist's work. He even does performances.:) Just something to cheer up everyone on Friday the 13th and my offering for Postcard Friends Friday.

Okay, now something about my day for all who read these ravings all the time.:) My older daughter got the coffee today. We always get tall skim mocha lattes and because there are always three cups you need one of those cardboard carriers to bring them from the Starbucks place to the car. We don't go into the place, because we have our routine. We always have our coffee in the car. So far aside from one unfortunate incident with a vanilla skim latte that spilled all over my daughter's car's floor and made the car smell like old baby spit up diaper - Yuck!!! for about three months. Since the last time we haven't had any mishaps with this arrangement. To be fair, the first happened due to a giant pothole we didn't see coming at us.:) This time we were stopped and I opened the window to get the cardboard carrier. But my daughter didn't wait until I had the window opened all the way and started handing me the cardboard carrier filled with three heavy cups of hot lattes. You know they have that little hole on top for easy drinking. Well, one of the cups wasn't sitting so well and when she handed me the carrier this cup toppled over and spilled all over me and into my lap!!! Happy Friday the 13th!! After I cleaned myself up with the trusty stain eraser from The Container Store I always keep with me. I rinsed off the stain covered with the stain eraser with water from one of the water bottles we had in the car and I was able to meet the world.

We finished our lattes and my older daughter wanted to go mattress shopping. Two things I don't like to do with her are shoe shopping and mattress shopping. So I waited in the car and hoped she wouldn't ask me to come in there with her. But she did and I unfortunately did go into Sleepy's to check out the mattress she had to have. Sure it felt great, but it was a Miralux. Who knew that brand? The salesperson said it had a fifteen year guarantee and though he wasn't going to put in the delivery cost before I came into the store when I heard that he wasn't and mentioned it to my daughter he changed his mind. They were cutting the mattress price in half and I told my daughter that she should check other ones. This is what set off my radar that maybe this wasn't a good sale. When we asked the salesperson for help he was dismissive and tried to show us the information on a phone. But when we didn't know how to use his particular phone he took it away without giving us the information. I've had a lot of sales courses and this made me think that we should leave. I didn't want this Friday the 13th to be worse than it was.

Sure enough when my daughter got back into the car and checked on the web to see if there was anything about this mattress, she found horrible comments. One person said that the mattress was awful after two weeks! Others said it sagged. Another person said he tossed and turned all night on it. It felt comfortable in the store. Sure it did.:) My daughter said it was the most comfortable bed she found in the store. But when she saw all of the comments she knew we had made the right decision. For all who are buying a mattress, don't buy anything without checking it out first. Don't trust the salesperson. You need to be aware of what you are buying. When a salesperson won't give you all the details then run!!! This is not kosher.:) Salespeople need to give you all the details of what you are buying.

I'm going to let you guess what movie I'm seeing this weekend.:) I don't even know. So until the next time, I hope that everyone enjoyed this combination of superstition and rambling.

Coming next week I have a real treat for you. I am hosting my very first author interview with children's writer, sci fi and fantasy author Simon Rose on Thursday, March 19th all day. I am hoping all of my writing friends will come, because Simon has lots of great ideas for presentations and workshops. Have a great weekend!

Come to My First Blog Interview

with Simon Rose

Thursday, March 19th all day. Your comments are welcome!!!!

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Using your life in your writing

Jim Butcher Saturday, January 10, 2009

Writing has a way of sneaking in the events and feelings in our lives that we'd rather keep hidden. You're writing about a character and the events of this character's life aren't anything like yours. You're writing dialogue and suddenly you realize you've put in a flashback to an event in your own life. The character is reminiscing about your feelings concerning an event that has already passed. When that happens it can be pretty creepy. It's as if the character was searching around in your brain waiting to pick out relevant events and reclassifying them somehow. The events happened to you, but maybe not in the same way. Or the outcome is different.

This happens to me frequently. My characters have discussions and use the parts of my life that fit with them. I never think about which events they'll choose. It's like real conversation. You say something and it reminds you of something else. My own life gets woven into the story even if I didn't have that intention at all. But I find that when I do this it gives my characters a little more depth.

It's difficult to go back to being a teenager and the feelings I had when I was younger. But it's also a look back at the teenager you were. It's a way to almost rewrite your life as a new character. But it's also a way for kids to see the hopes and dreams of your own teen years. Authors connect with readers in a very intimate way.

I am in the middle of reading the seventh book of The Dresden Files. The author has me so hooked I must read on through each chapter. Occasionally, I'll find a chapter where I can stop reading, but the story is so compelling it is difficult to stop reading it. I am sure that though this is about a wizard in Chicago the author, Jim Butcher, has put parts of his own life into it. I'm thinking about the family scenes and his feelings about children. But it is also as if you, the reader, are able to peek into these various lives, especially the wizard's life. As writers we need to do this to bring our readers into the story. I think that is why I am so in love with this series. That and the fact that the main character is not bad looking. I'm a sucker for a good looking guy.:)

Happy Weekend everyone. We're probably going to be snowed in this weekend.

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