Friday Forays in Fiction: Script Frenzy 2010 Final Bell

Big fat paycheck : a young person's guide to writing for the movies
by Colton Lawrence.
New York : Bantam Books, 2004.
269 p.

ScriptFrenzy 2010 ends at midnight. Which is about three hours away for me.

I would recommend Colton's book for any beginner in script writing even though his target audience is young adults (middle school - middle twenties) it is chockfull of helpful advice for every step of the process of bringing a story to the the attention of the 'Big Fancy Hollywood Readers' from concept to marketing. I only widh I had read it a couple of months before ScriptFrenzy began so I could have had the benefit of the advice. But my turn for the library copy came a week into April.

If I were to measure the success of my ScriptFrenzy participation in number of pages of script I'd have to give myself a big, fat zero. But if i measure it by what I have learned and by the difference in the developed state of the story then I have nothing to be ashamed of.

Maybe, if racking up page numbers was primary for me, I should have done as I did last year and adapted from one of my finished short stories. But then I wouldn't have the story I did work on as far along as it is now.

Next year, if I participate in Frenzy again and if I decide to go with a new story then I will begin work on the development of the story weeks before April 1st. I will already have my characters created, named and sketched out, the scenes outlined and if possible a complete treatment written. That way I can focus on the mechanics of the script format.

I came to this conclusion as I reached the part of Colton's book this week in which he stresses the need to write the treatment or at least a good portion of it before writing the script. He says that making an outline of the scenes and then writing the story as a treatment helps highlight the holes in the story's logic.

But as I was reading that I realized that it would also mean that the story would be fairly complete and thus writing the script would be more like translating--more like the adaptation from a short story which I did for last year's Frenzy and which garnered me over 30 pages with little difficulty.

My inability to be in creative composition mode or storytelling mode simultaneous to being in script-writing mode may be because I'm not yet proficient in the mechanics of script writing format. It doesn't come natural with little thought like the typing I am doing at this moment along with the spelling and the forming of the sentences in my thoughts--all seamlessly working together so that the words seem to flow from my thoughts onto the screen.

I can not yet do that with the script format. I am wondering if this is all to do with my unfamiliarity--as with a foreign language--or is it at least partly to do with the script format naturally needing the editor side engaged which tends to short-circuit the muse. I keep teetering back and forth on an answer to that.

Because after all, once upon a time, back in kindergarten and first grade, the editor had to be engaged at the level of spelling the words. And right up through middle-school and into high-school the same was true for sentence and paragraph construction. So theoretically it must be possible for one to become so proficient in the script formatting conventions that they could write a script from scratch with as little thought about the margins and the capitalization and the tense and so forth as I now have for the spelling of 90% of the words in this post and the positions of the keys on the keyboard.

I'm definitely not there yet and I'm not sure I ever will be because I'm not sure I'm willing to put in the time it would take to get to that point. I read somewhere long ago and again recently that it takes 10,000 hours of practice at something to become proficient. I'm not sure learning script writing at this late date is worth that to me for it would mean taking those hours from the novel and short story WIP of which I already have more than I can possibly finish in what I have left of a normal life-span.

But though I may not want to devote the time and energy to become proficient I would still like to learn how script are written. It would add to my comprehension and appreciation of what I am seeing on the screen when watching films and who knows, maybe I would be able to offer valuable (and not clueless) input if one of my stories was ever adapted to the screen. :)

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Proliferating Options

I got another ball of crochet thread today. And three new hooks in sizes I didn't have. I had 2, 8, 9, 10 and 11 from Ed's grandmother's sewing basket. the larger numbers have smaller hooks and smaller hooks encourage smaller stitches which makes the item tight and stiff while larger hooks encourage a looser, lacier look.

I meant to get pics of what I've accomplished this past week so I could show off here tonight but I was so busy crocheting I lost track of time and next thing I knew Ed was settling in for the night. Can't be setting off the flash in his face now.

At midnight tonight it will have been one whole week since I fell into the time warp and became taken over by the hook and thread. I have crocheted at least 25 bookmarks and possibly two or three more than that. I have 'created' several more patterns which are all essentially variations on the themes of the patterns I was already doing but still gives the bookmark a unique look. Every time I do that I then want to make it in as many colors or color combos as I can with the thread palette I have.

The thread I got today isn't really a new color or even size. It's white size 10. But it is a different texture than the mercerized white that is commonly called tablecloth or bedspread weight. It is Aunt Lydia's Bamboo and is touted as earth friendly. Not sure why. I suppose I should research that. All I know is I picked up one in blue as an experiment awhile back because I liked the soft texture and I fell in love with working with it. But it won't mix well with the other size 10 thread as it is so different in texture and is limp as opposed to stiff when worked. So all I could do with it was make versions of the bookmarks that would work in a single color. Now I have a white one and that gives me a number of variations to try until I can add another color to the collection. I would love to make a baby blanket in this stuff.

I'm anxious to try this thread with one of the larger hooks I got today. But I don't know if I'm going to indulge myself tonight. Two library items were due today that I MUST be finished with by early Monday. Dr Who season 2 of which I've watched five of 14 episodes. And the novel Shadow Tag which I read the day of the read-a-thon but have yet to do the review for and if I don't get that done this weekend it will be weeks if not months before I can get the book back again and by then I would have to re-read it to do a good job.

And, I still have 100 pages to read in The Time Traveler's wife which isn't due for two more weeks but I want to finish it before I pick up Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol which is due Tuesday and which we waited for months and months for our turn and would have to wait weeks and weeks more for another chance. Though Ed is telling me not to bother as he wasn't impressed and he really liked DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons.

The options They do proliferate.

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Homesick a Bit

My sister-friend Jamie took this picture of bluebells in my Mom's yard in Longview WA this week and posted it on her blog along with more. She has a knack for taking pictures of flowers. None of the ones I took last year turned out as nice as these. Her's have triggered a touch of homesick in me.

Thinking about taking those pictures last spring reminded me that a year ago this week i was still at Mom's house with (unbeknownst to me) another two months to go on my six month stay.

And I realized too that the anniversary of the day I started learning to crochet the bookmarks passed unnoticed by me sometime in the last ten days. So I've been at this a year and am still obsessed. Hmmm. It's lasting longer than some. I've crocheted something like 25 since the wee hours of Friday. Three more yesterday in a new pattern that was a variation on one of the others.

Meanwhile, I spent this afternoon sorting through and reorganizing my sewing and craft stuff, making some items more accessible and gathering pieces of targeted projects together in 'kits' to make them easier to get out and work on on an impulse or portable enough to take out to the porch or back yard when the weather turns sunny again. I had the whole bed piled a foot or more deep with the stuff. It amazes me it all came from somewhere in the room.

I cleaned out the bottom drawer of my sewing chest (the drawer below the one holding my collection of crochet thread) and distributed its contents to other places to make room for my yarn collection that was still in the Ziplock bag meant for storing winter coats or blankets in which it traveled to Longview and back for that six month stay at Mom's last year. Ever since last July I've had to wrestle it down off a shelf and back again while standing on the bed. Now it is directly behind my desk.

The next major project or should I say sub-project of this sort project is to sort and redistribute the items in the top drawer of that chest, which has become a 'junk' drawer for sewing and craft related items that are in a jumble and so stuffed that getting any one thing out is a formidable chore. I hope to dedicate it to the most accessed items for currently targeted projects.

I also put most of the finished bookmarks into the 8x11 inch sheet protectors I have for protecting the hardcopies of my best manuscript drafts. I say 'most' because a few were too long and those with beads on them wouldn't stay in place. If I'd taken pictures as I worked I wouldn't have had to steal one off my sister's blog for this post. [Thanx Sis :) ]

We're having a stormy week. Wind and rain and hail. We've had several power outages--lasting only a second or three but still annoying as clocks have to be reset and the DSL and satellite TV have to reset. The dirt track races have already been canceled for Saturday.

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Our Wait Is Half Over

My nephew, Jesse, is an Army Medic on his second tour in Iraq. He just emailed family and friends the pic below of him with his unit which is slated to return late summer. Actually the title of this post isn't quite true as their tour is 4-6 weeks past half over.

I cropped the pic at top out of the one he sent and enlarged it. Jesse tells us that his commander took the unit out in the dessert (I suspect so there wouldn't be local identifying structures or landmarks) with the flag and whiteboard and each member took turns being the one in the center holding the whiteboard with whatever message for family and friends they wanted to put on it. Jesse drew the raccoon head and tail which has become his families signature on letters and cards since his dad, my brother, first drew it on one a number of years ago. Jesse's last name is Coon as was mine before I married.

We are so proud of Jesse. But can't wait for him to be back stateside. 4 to 4.5 months to go.

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I'd Rather be Crocheting

mouse pad for sale at zazzle.com

I guess I've sunk into some hitherto unknown slice in time and space where it's as if there is no passage of time. At least I've lost all sense of it. Since the wee hours of Friday morning I've crocheted around 19 bookmarks. 15 of the original pattern and four of a new one I call the mini-scarf.

I've only done the crochet part though. They all need their tails tucked. Two each for the original pattern and 18 each for the mini-scarfs. Then they along with the 16 others made in the last six weeks need to be blocked and dressed. The original pattern aka the granny or shell stitch are dressed with ribbons and beads. The mini-scarves need eleven one-inch tassels on each end and the twelve or so with the crossstitch stitch need the single fat three inch tassels.

I should stop crocheting and start tending to the finishing touches. But will I?

Probably not tonight. And not only because I'd just rather be plying the hook and watching the things form under my fingers. It is a great deal to do with the fact that the blocking and dressing procedures can't be done while sitting on the edge of the bed with a single small pool of light from a desk lamp light which is what I'm limited to when Ed is sleeping.

What I need to do is flip my hours again so I've got enough daytime in which to pull down my supplies and spread out over the bed and room with them.

Meanwhile. I've got another idea for a new pattern which I might play with tonight. And it will look as pretty in either a single color or a variegated which would mean only two of those pesky tails.

But my right arm between wrist and elbow is twinging already and I've only crocheted two bookmarks since waking this afternoon. So maybe I'll get the tapestry needle out and start tucking tails which uses a different motion...

*bleh*

...or maybe not.

I could work on my Script Frenzy script. I've actually been working on it in the story-dreaming mode while crocheting. I've always found needlework that requires little thought once you've mastered the stitch and gone on autopilot to be conducive to incubation of stories and poems.

Or, I might just read . I've got a little over a 100 pages left in The Time Traveler's Wife and I had great difficulty closing it when I had to sleep Sunday morning and yet haven't picked it up again yet.

Or, I could watch some DVD that are due at the library Thursday, which includes Season Two of Dr Who and the BBC mini-series Clarissa. I've got to have both of those finished by Monday morning latest so I shouldn't wait too much longer to get started. And those aren't the only DVD coming due Thursday. There are also two documentaries, the movie Flash of Genius and the BBC series 3 of Black Books. But those last two Ed wants to watch with me. I just included them here to indicate the time commitment between now and Monday morning.

And still, I'd rather be crocheting......

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Sunday Serenity #176

Two of my favorite things. Kittens and yarn (or thread).

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Some Things Are Just That Fun!

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Today was the second weekend of race season at the local dirt track and thus my second Saturday home alone for 8 to 12 hours. Last week it was very close to twelve. Today it was just over eight hours. Last week I had to prioritize the 300 some pages I had left to read in King's Under the Dome and 5 DVD all of which had to be in the library drop box before noon Monday. This week such pressures were off. I did have some chores to do in our room and laundry but nothing pressing. I was planning to spend the bulk of the time working on my script for Script Frenzy as I mentioned in last night's post. And if the weather was good (and it was!) I wanted to sit on the porch with Merlin and a book for a bit, alternating reading with sessions on the mini-tramp. And this evening I'd hoped to watch a movie on the big flat screen TV in the front room.

But before Ed and his folks left at 2 this afternoon, I started crocheting while listening to downloaded news pods. After making five more of the original pattern bookmarks, my wrist was twinging so I decided to get out the embroidered bookmark I've been working at for several years off and on. Next thing I knew I was glancing up at a dark window. I hadn't eaten. I hadn't started laundry. I hadn't sat out on the porch with a book and Merlin. Hadn't got on the mini-tramp.

No. Instead, I had sat in the same spot I spend most of my waking hours all week--the edge of the bed--and worked the hook or needle while listening to month old news; something I could do any time of any day. Now, unless Ed's folks choose to go out of town on the same day Ed has to work, sometime this week, I have to wait a week for the next race day, hoping for a dry track, to have another chance to do those things I can only do when I'm home alone.

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Friday Forays in Fiction: Too Many Irons? Or Lack of Dedication?

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I'm not really claiming I have writer's block at the moment. I just couldn't resist sharing my LOLcat and it's not completely unrelated to what's going on. It's more likely that I'm just not prioritizing all the irons I have in the fire this month such that writing has top honor. Most of the irons were related to writing in some fashion but in the end have sucked up so much of the heat of my energy, creativity and time that the writing itself has fallen of the coals.

What irons am I referring to? Here are a few:

• Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon on April 10th in which I hosted a mini-challenge and put up the 5 prizes (custom made crochet bookmarks).
• Preparing for possible involvement in a citywide yardsale with a table featuring my crocheted bookmarks in mid May. (am trying to accumulate 100+ finished)
  
• Still working on the Book Drum profile for The River Why
• My turn came for a plethora of library DVD I'd been in queue for for weeks or months. More on the way in the next month. (some of these can be counted as research for Script Frenzy but research that should have been done before the 1st of April)
• Ditto for a number of high demand library books in the last three weeks with more coming in this week and more the week after that.
• Working on a website I'm building
• Working on some unfinished book reviews
  

April 10 was not the only 24+ hour awake event for me this month. It was the third that week and there have been two more since. Though all the 'event's besides the read-a-thon were just me being so wrapped up in whatever project I was focused on that day or, in a couple cases, being pressed by a library due date. (Like watching 14 episodes of Bone season 1 in 12 hours following the last 4 hours push to finish Stephen King's Under the Dome.) It's no wonder I'm distracted and weary whenever I call up a WIP in WhizFolder, a word processor, or the Celtx script ap and the moment I start thinking about one of my stories my first response is to get sleepy.

This is the last week of Script Frenzy and I'm going to turn my focus back to my script for the duration even though that will likely mean scrambling to complete other projects up against much closer deadlines the first half of May. I could just bow out of Script Frenzy this year and move on calling what I did the last week of March and the first week of April good. But I'm afraid if I did that, the story would end up abandoned forever and I was truly having fun with it. So in the spirit of that fun I'm going give my script top priority for the next seven days.

That doesn't mean I won't be picking up any of the other irons at all just that I'm moving that one to the front and committing to giving several hours per day of attention to it.

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Are You Doing Your Part?

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Reduce Reuse Recycle

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Because I Cannot Help it

"I'm just going to write because I cannot help it."
Charlotte Bronte 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855

Happy Birthday Charlotte

And thank you for Jane Eyre the first best novel I ever read. I was twelve and that year began my first attempt at a novel and from that point on never considered another path.

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Taking it Easy

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Feeling a bitt under the weather today. Am hoping it is just the sudden return of Oregon overcast and sky-drizzle. Or allergies. But my MIL has a cold and I know all the sleep deprivation of the last several weeks has weakened my immune system. So I'm going to respect my bodies signals of distress and have an early night. Again. I slept from 10pm last night until 7am this morning and took a 90 minute nap this afternoon.

Have had productive day in spite of it though. Worked several hours on a web page project I've had up my sleeve for awhile. Crocheted half a bookmark. Would have crocheted more but got a massive knot in my thread.

And in keeping with the sentiments expressed in last night's post, I read about 80 pages in the novel, The Time Traveler's Wife, in the last 24 hours. Would like to make that 100 pages before I sleep.

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Want More Storytime.

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Being pressed up against a deadline with a 1074 page novel with the threat of having to wait months for another turn, forced me to put reading fiction at the top of each day's priority for over a week. Although I don't want to feel THAT much pressure all the time, I do want to keep fiction reading much nearer the top of each day's todo list. I really enjoyed being immersed in a long and riveting story and I want more of it. I want it to be more like when I was in school from fourth grade on when seldom a day went by that I had not consumed over 100 pages of fiction.

Since I didn't finish Dome in time to work on a review with the book available, I was hoping to do a musing ramble from memory about King's Under the Dome for this post but I'm just too wiped. I finished the book after ten last night and then spent the next 14 hours watching episodes of Bones Season 1. I finished that just before noon. Just in time for Ed to take it along with all the other DVD and books, including Dome in to the library drop box with just an hour to spare before before the 20 cent per day fines on six items due Thursday would have kicked in.

The sleep I had today amounted to little more than an extended nap so I am sitting here listening to Ed's snores with a sense of longing and envy. I can't think of one good reason not to join him.

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Sunday Serenity #175

Drums, mesmerizing color in motion. Watch in full screen!!

I finished Stephen King's Under the Dome this evening. Plan to spend the night watching episodes of Bones Season 1. Can't get them all watched before 9am unless i were to speed them up but who wants to listen to listen to David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel sounding like the Chipmonks.

So I guess I do the best I can and get back in the double digit queue for another turn in about four months.

So what is the best I can expect without speeding up the videos?

I'm 8 episodes in out of 22. I've got 12 to go and 9 hrs. They are probably 43 or so minutes per episode. So that's 43x12 divided by 60 = 8.72 or 8 hours 40 some minutes. Hmm so there is a chance if I don't take more than a cumulative 20 minutes to switch discs and get snacks etc.

So possibly it's doable. Unless of course Ed has to leave here before 9am which he won't know until morning.

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misc biz

misc 3D balls by ~aphaits on deviantART

Thought I drop a couple of reminders regarding miscellaneous ongoing business here.

I. There are two book drawings still open on Joystory. Deadline for entry on both is NOON Pacific Coast Time Saturday May 1, 2010:

Alex Cross's TRIAL by James Patterson & Richard DiLallo

Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow

II. Only two of the five winners of my RIF mini-challenge during the read-a-thon last week have checked in with me. I still need to hear from:

Michelle~ New Horizon Reviews
infogoddess
debnance at readerbuzz

You have each won one of my crocheted bookmarks including the chance to choose the design and colors.

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Friday Forays in Fiction: Stephen King on Under the Dome

Stephen King talking about the writing process for Under the Dome.

I mentioned earlier this week how in awe I was of the huge cast of characters in this novel and of King's consummate control over them and the timeline of the story.

My takeaway: You (the author) have to love all your characters if you want your readers to. You can't phone it in.

I'm still quite busy reading and am now possible renting the book as the fine of 20 cents per day unless I get the book in the library drop box early Monday morning. Still almost 400 pages to go. It's doable but not if I dilly-dally.

Here's Stephen King reading from the first chapter:

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Wha cha doin?

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Yep. Still reading.

Sorry. I should probably just put up a closed until further notice sign until I finish the book.

Today we had blue sky and the temps hit the 70s I got to read out on the front porch for several hours this afternoon and early evening. With Ed and Merlin on his leash. That was refreshing but it probably slowed me down. So many distractions. Like unsnagging Merlin's leash off things. Or trying to figure out what he was looking at so intently. Eavesdropping on nearby conversations. But the case of cabin fever I have is raging.

I got on my mini-tramp for several short sessions. A few of them I even had the book with me and read while I moved my feet. This provided a workout for my arms as well. It would not surprise me to learn Under the Dome weighs ten pounds. If I did not have the book stand to hold the book for me as I read I would not be able to read it for longer than fifteen minutes at a time as I could not hold it steady at the right distance and angel any longer than that.

1074 pages! I think I typed that in wrong earlier this week and need to go back and fix it but I don't want to take the time right now. Monday morning is fast approaching.

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Some Dream of Disney

I dream of visiting Shakespeare & Co bookstore in Paris.

No, I take that back, I dream of living in this bookstore or one very very like it.

Meanwhile, I'm still reading Under the Dome, due at the library tomorrow tho I'll be keeping it until at least Monday morning (fine-free) after which I may have to 'rent' it at $0.20 per day (our library system's fine) retroactive to Friday.

Meaning, I must consider that I may be in 'rent' mode as of midnight tomorrow. Still over 400 pages to go. Didn't progress far yesterday as I chose to take advantage of my in-laws being away overnight to watch DVD on their big front room TV most of last night and until noon today. At which point I'd been awake over 24 hours again. And so soon after Saturday's Read-a-Thon!

I had around four hours of restless sleep frequently disturbed by the sound of hard rain or hail on the trailer's roof. (Imagine being trapped inside a child's lunch box on the playground in a rainstorm). So I don't know how long I can expect to read tonight.

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Freakin' Me Out

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Why do we humans (and several cats I've known) seem to like to be skeeered?

That's the philosophical thought I've been playing with as I read Under the Dome, Stephen King's latest. I'd like to muse on it here sometime but I don't have time today. I've made it to page 511 which is nearly halfway. Not only is it getting harder and harder to put down, I only have until Monday morning to finish if I'm going to avoid a fine.

Besides the King novel due Thursday, there are several DVD due Thursday as well and several more due next week between Tuesday and Thursday (14 in all). Ed and I just watched one movie and half a season of BBC's Black Books on his folks big screen TV which we get to do when they're out of town. I'm hoping to watch one more movie and maybe two on the big screen before noon tomorrow. But I need to read for an hour or two in Dome first--wear my eyes out on the smallish font and then I'll feel I have the right to spend a couple of hours watching a movie.

But I'm in the same fix with several of the DVD as I am with Dome and three other books--been waiting in queue for months and my turn is nearly over and the queues are six weeks to six months for another turn.

Sigh.

I do seem to like to push deadlines. Is that another aspect of seeking out the freak out?

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King Rules

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I spent most of today reading Stephen King's Under the Dome.

I probably spent more time reading today than I did the entire read-a-thon Saturday. Yet read barely half the pages because this is far from large print. I read 265 pages of large print for the read-a-thon and 140 today.

I'm going to have to repeat the feat five more times before next Monday morning as the book is due at the library Thursday and I have to have it in the drop box before the library opens Monday to dodge a fine.

As I get deeper and deeper into this story I marvel at every turn of the page over the control Kng has over his huge cast of characters and the steady drumbeat of the unfolding plot. I hope to learn something about how he does that before the end of this story.

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Sunday Serenity #174

This was one of the videos posted on the Read-a-Thon hub in the final hours. Some giggles to stimulate us for that last push. This one just floored me. I'm still giggling.

Meanwhile. I was still awake four hours after the Thon was over and slept only seven hours. So I'm still feeling punchy from yesterday but no regrets. Never any regrets. Can't wait for October!

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Reading Is Fundamental (2010 Read-a-Thon Mini-Challenge)

Scroll down or click here for my Read-a-Thon post, My Brain on Books, intermittently updated like a blog within a blog until the end--of the Thon or my consciousness whichever comes first.

My mother's mother Zoe Bonnette Myers reading to her two eldest grandsons circa 1946. Over ten years before my birth. My Mom was still a teenager. Grandma Zoe had been a school teacher before marriage as was her husband, his sister, my mother and my dad's mother. So reading was fundamental in my family from way back.

The challenge is to create a post celebrating the reading child and to link to the Reading is Fundamental webpage.

Open until 5pm Pacific Coast Time aka end of Hour 12
(several have indicated in comments they believe finished at the end of its first hour so I'm clarifying.)

Suggestions for content:

• post a picture or video of a child or children reading or being read to
• post a picture or video of yourself reading as a child or reading to children
• spend 20 minutes reading to or being read to by a child age 0-15 and post about it
• interview a child about the meaning of reading to them and post the interview in text, audio or video
• relate memories about the meaning of reading in your childhood (text, audio or video)
• post a thank you message to RIF for their efforts on behalf of child literacy (text, audio or video)
• post a thank you message to any adult(s) responsible for turning you on to reading as a child (text, audio or video)
• visit the RIF site and report on one or more of their programs or activities, linking to the page(s) discussing it.
• post about a personal encounter (if any) with RIF--did one of their free books impact your childhood? did you participate as either child or adult in one of their sponsored activities?
  

Those are just suggestions to give you the idea. I imagine there are many creative minds among you who can come up with any number of riffs on the theme: celebrate reading and childhood and link to RIF.

Note: Last year I didn't hold the entrants accountable for not having a link to RIF because I'd visited over half a dozen without making note whether they had or not. Not wanting to waste reading time to re-visit them, I made an executive decision to let it slide for all. I won't repeat that mistake this year so having the RIFF link is MANDATORY. If nothing else just copy/paste the first line of this post (the one below the top picture caption) into your post.

This challenge is open for three hours and I am willing to mail the prize internationally.


Each winner will receive one of my crocheted bookmarks similar to these:




Except that I will custom make them after consulting via email with the winners on their preferred colors and style so they can design a bookmark they know they will love.

Since last October I've increased my stash of ribbon by a few and nearly doubled my selection of thread. I now have over half a dozen variegated and nearly 20 solid colors that can be combined in endless variations.

Besides more thread I've added several new patterns including the narrow band with ribbon pictured in red at top of above picture; the wide tasseled with alternating bands (can be either 7 or 11 bands plus tassel and bands can be solid or variegated) pictured near right edge of above picture and in progress below; and the mini-scarf pictured below in white and pastels which can be in any color combinations desired (ie school colors, holiday colors).




A full length view of that red and black laced one can be viewed along with more examples here.
More examples of the tasseled one can be seen here.

And of course last year's two patterns: the two-toned wide with ribbon and the original twelve row shell stitch with ribbon. Most of the ribbon adorned ones can be either single flat ribbon, doubled over ribbon with bead, button or key ring at top and the doubled over ribbons can be flat or laced like a shoe lace like the blue one on the upper left corner above or the red and black one in the bottom right corner (cut off). A flat braid can be substituted for the ribbon as seen below far right.





Please enter URL of the post in the Mr. Linky below. Leaving a comment also will alert me by email that I have an entry to visit. :) But a comment isn't required. After I have visited each entry to verify it, I will choose 5 winners via random.org.

If you don't have a blog or webpage you can still enter by leaving a comment on this post that conforms to the rules: RIF link plus a paragraph or so on the theme. This option is limited to text only of course. Then leave the link to this post's comments along with your name in Mr. Linky.

Depending on how many entries I need to visit, I will post the winner's sometime between this evening and tomorrow evening right here below this paragraph. Then winners will need to contact me [joystory @ gmail.com] with their contact info to discuss their design.

The 5 Winners:

Michelle~ New Horizon Reviews
Bonnie
Morphidae
infogoddess
debnance at readerbuzz

Fair warning: for some versions if made from scratch it may take several weeks to get them in the mail.

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My Brain on Books VI

<-- click the pic to learn about the Read-a-thon

I am reading for RIF today. I don't have a sponsor but I'm putting this plug at the top in hopes some who stop by will check out their site and see all the great things they do to foster love of reading in kids.



This post will be organized like a blog inside a blog with recent updates stacked atop previous ones.
I will post a notice at Twitter whenever I update this post. Or at least whenever I remember to. Be sure to scroll to bottom of this post. You won't be sorry.

Read with joy.

5:55 Ode to a Read-a-Thon

Sleep sneak attacks at the oddest moments
The world tilts you out of your seat
The ground looses its grip on your feet
Then clad in not but the sky's adornments
You slide into dream as long regiments
Of text glide endlessly past your eyes
On the flapping wings of dragon flies.

by Joy Renee October 2009

4:22 AM Sunday
I have just posted the winners of my RIF mini-challenge drawing
Thanks to all who participated. All of your offerings were wonderfully touching and inspiring.

Now I'm off to do some cheerleading until the end

1:44 AM Sunday
I'm still touring the entries to my RIF mini-challenge. It's going to take me longer than I thought. In fact I may not finish before 4AM and if not I will finish up after I've slept and use the last hour to cheerlead. Which would mean of course that I won't get to announce the winners until late Sunday at the earliest.

Shortly after I got restarted on the tour of entries, I figured out why I kept getting comments via email that weren't showing up on the challenge post all of which bemoaned missing out but willing to leave their link anyway. The links to the challenge were incorrect at the hub for the 2nd and 3rd hour of the challenge. There were seven of you led astray (to last year's RIFF challenge) who yet persisted and as long as I find the RIFF link & a contribution on the theme you'll be included in the drawing.

11:44 PM Finished Shadow Tag with minutes to spare. So I can say I read one novel cover to cover. I'm going to be reeling from the ending for awhile. So I'm not picking up another book right away and when I do I won't be starting a new novel. I had been reading Stephen King's Under the Dome all week and set it aside for the day because I knew I would frustrating slow progress with the small print and physically heavy and unwieldy book. If ever there was a book I wish was an ebook... 1074 pages. Who gets away with that other than Proust, Tolstoy or King?

Anyway. I have an unfinished task to tend to before I pick up Dome. I need to finish the tour of the entrants to my RIF mini-challenge, do the drawing and post the winners on the challenge post and notify the hub blog. And if there is still time after all of that, and I'm sure there will be some, I have committed to do a minimum of one hour of cheerleading. I purposed from the beginning to do that hour in the last three or four of the thon because I know that though I may no longer be able to read 1000 pages in a day, I still have one well honed skill or possibly a birth defect--I can stay awake for 24 hours plus without obvious decrease in mental acuity. I do it several times a month. In fact hours 16 to 32 are usually better than hours 1 to 6. Sometimes I think I was meant to be born on a planet with a 36 hour rotation.

So that's why I like to do cheerleading in those final hours because I feel not only more needed and useful but more myself by then.

9:22 PM Just checking in to assure you I'm still reading. I'm now about 80 pages out in Shadow Tag which means I still have a really good chance of finishing before midnight if I stay with it. The story has reached that point where it's hard to put down. The climax is just ahead. The story is like a puzzle and poem; like a Rubik's Cube made of precious stone. The sentences as precise as a jeweler's etching tool. Not a story for speed reading but for lingering over. I can't say I'm surprised since I've read several Erdrich before. So I guess the truth is that reading quick isn't even a near priority for me anymore. To read with joy for me is to hold the words on my tongue, allow metaphors to melt slowly into consciousness, let images mingle and meld and characters morph and transform and in this way open myself to transformative wonder.

5:22 PM Well my mini-challenge officially finished at the top of this hour. I spent the last two hours visiting entrants and still haven't finished. I hope they will all forgive me if I go back to reading for awhile before finishing the tour and drawing the winners.

Ed has headed over to the deli for a roasted chicken and when he gets back we are 'picnicking' on the bed. I'll have to put away the books and netbook for a few minutes as finger-food it may be but hot roasted chicken is not compatible with library books and expensive electronics.

After we eat I'm going to go out on the porch and get on the mini-tramp for a few minutes. I may be able to read while I'm doing that. But it is overcast so the light isn't very good for me and there's a risk of a sprinkle. We'll see.

Meanwhile, I only made it halfway in Shadow Tag, my first novel, before stopping to make my challenge tour. So my goal of finishing in under twelve hours is already defunct. The actual time spent reading the first half was 4-5 hours. So maybe by midnight?

3:33 PM I got so into reading I lost track of time. Missed several fun sounding challenges. My own RIF challenge is up now at top of page so I'll be spending the next little while visiting entries. There seems to be confusion that the challenge finished at the end of its first hour but it is open until 5pm aka the end of Hour 12.

BTW I passed the half-way point in Shadow Tag, the novel I'm reading, just before stopping to post an update and begin my visits to entrants.


7:33 AM The Kick-Off of Champions Mini-Challenge

We want to know how you have prepared so you do not have to leave your cozy reading space

My cozy reading space today is the same place I spend the bulk of my days and nights. It is bedroom, reading room, entertainment center, writer's workstation, sewing room. But today it is library and reading room. As I sit propped by the pillows, my desk (missing in above pic) is approximately next to my left knee:


Next to my left shoulder:

And to my right:


The top two pics were taken last week but the bottom two over a year ago and the contents of the shelves fluctuate often. Most shelves are two rows deep. But you get the picture.

To insure I don't have to leave here for hours, I made a pot of coffee just before 5am and filled a large lidded mug. Also a big tumbler of ice water. [Note: take care not to get dehydrated. That can cause headache, fuzzy brain and blurred vision] Been sipping at them ever since. Ed got me a few finger foods which I have in here with me and will be adding to them later today.

5:55 AM Hour 1 Meme

Where are you reading from today?
From our room in my in-laws trailer home. Later when/if it warms up outside I may sit on the porch. I might even read while doing some light stepping on my mini-tramp out there.

3 facts about me …
I'm legally blind from RP.

This is my sixth Read-a-Thon but the first one in which my vision has been optimized to the extent it can be as I had a pesky cataract removed last September and didn't get my prescription lenses until the week following the thon.

I'm also a six time vet of NaNoWriMo and am currently participating for the second time in their April Script Frenzy.


How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
I live in a room containing hundreds of books, including a few dozen library books. And there are hundreds more ebooks on my netbook. In all previous thons I planned ahead, even with themes like YA; short story; NaNo prep; very short novels; and so forth. I always disappointed my high expectations. So this year I decided to go with the flow for the most part.



Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
I have one main hope: to read one novel cover to cover in under 12 hours. Once a nearly daily event for me its now a rarity. So I'm beginning with a short large print novel. After finishing that it's whatever mood and eye condition directs.

If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, Any advice for people doing this for the first time?
frequent 30 seconds to 5 minutes of activity is more helpful than a cup of coffee to maintain alertness. I love my mini-tramp for this but before I had it, I jogged in place, swung my arms, walked up and down the hallway. Some activities allow for continued reading.

Also, avoid being in an overheated room. Being over warm but especially breathing warm air is more soporific than sleeping pills. Especially if you are sleep deprived as in the final stretch.

5:o5 AM And we're off!! Beginning with Louise Erdrich's Shadow Tag. 265 pages large print that I'm hoping will be easy on the eyes and allow for more sustained reading than most regular print.

4:44 AM This is set to autopost at 4:44 AM. If it is much after 5AM and nothing has been added atop this line I hope its not because I overslept.





moar funny pictures

FYI Two book giveaway drawings are open here and here

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Read-a-Thon Frenzy Prempts Script Frenzy

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I must admit that I've not done much with my Script Frenzy project for several days and now it will be a few more before I do as tomorrow is the Read-a-Thon so today has been all about getting prepared for it and Sunday will be all about sleeping it off. I'm hoping to be asleep within the hour so I can have a full night's sleep before 4:30am.

Today's prep included preparing three posts including this one. The other two being the Read-a-Thon post itself, My Brain on Books VI, and the post for the mini-challenge I'll be hosting between 2 and 5pm. Last year I didn't prepare the mini-challenge post until a couple hours before it was due to launch and it ate a huge chunk out of my reading time.

I've got three large print novels lined up for tomorrow. I'm hoping to read at least one cover to cover. I may not confine myself to them as I've plenty of other things in this room to choose from, including e-books and scripts in PDF collected for Script Frenzy.

I'll probably begin with Louise Erdrich's Shadow Tag as, at 265 pages LP, it is the shortest. The other two large print novels are The Time Traveler's Wife (643p) and Her Fearful Symmetry (637p) both by Audrey Niffenegger.

Ed has picked up a few finger foods and some drinks and will pick up more tomorrow. He's notified his mom we're fending for ourselves so we don't have to come to the table and I don't have to do dishes. He will be reading along with me part of the day as an unofficial participant. He no longer has a blog so I've offered to let him comment on his reading in my post tomorrow but he doesn't know if he will.

I'll be depending on caffeine, chocolate, energy drinks and my brand new mini-tramp to get over the rough spots. Although I should second the advice I've seen on the read-a-thon blog itself: beware coffee in amounts and strengths you are unused to. Same with sugars.

And this is the truth: five minutes of activity is as stimulating as a cup of coffee or tea. That's why I'm so glad to have replaced my defunct mini-tramp in time for the read-a-thon. I can even keep on reading while I move on it as long as I step gentle and keep at least one foot planted on it.

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Book Giveaway: Alex Cross's Trial by

I'm authorized to give away 2 copies. Rules for entry in the drawing are below. Please read them carefully.

Also, there is still time to enter my drawing for Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent



Alex Cross's TRIAL
By James Patterson & Richard DiLallo
Trade Paperback
Grand Central Publishing
416p

Separated by time

From his grandmother, Alex Cross has heard the story of his great uncle Abraham and his struggles for survival in the era of the Ku Klux Klan. Now, Alex passes the family tale along to his own children in a novel he's written--a novel called Trial.

Connected by blood

As a lawyer in turn-of-the-century Washington D.C., Ben Corbett represents the toughest cases. Fighting against oppression and racism, he risks his family and his life in the process. When President Roosevelt asks Ben to return to his home town to investigate rumors of the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan there, he cannot refuse.

United by bravery

When he arrives in Eudora, Mississippi, Ben meets the wise Abraham Cross and his beautiful granddaughter, Moody. Ben enlists their help, and the two Crosses introduce him to the hidden side of the idyllic Southern town. Lynchings have become commonplace and residents of the town's black quarter live in constant fear. Ben aims to break the reign of terror--but the truth of who is really behind it could break his heart. Written in the fearless voice of Detective Alex Cross, Alex Cross's Trial is a gripping story of murder, love, and, above all, bravery.

Watch the video

James Patterson talks about Alex Cross's Trial

Listen to an Excerpt
Listen to an Excerpt: Part II

Rules:

• Leave a comment in this post expressing your interest in entering the drawing.
• Provide an @ by which I can contact you in case of a win. Either in your comment or in an email to me at joystory AT gmail DOT com If you email your @ be sure to connect it to your entry. If I do not receive an @ your entry will be disqualified.
• If, in the case of a win, you would like me to link to your blog in the winners announcement post, provide your URL in your comment or via email. This is not a requirement for entering nor do you have to have a blog yourself in order to enter.
• Bonus Entries: If you blog or twitter about this giveaway or link to it in other ways (ie facebook, myspace etc), send me a link to the post or page and your name will be entered again for each case. Meaning, you can blog and tweet for two extra entries. (Multiple tweets will not gain you further entries as I do not wish to encourage twitter spam.)
  
• Deadline for entering is NOON PDT Saturday, May 1, 2010. I will select the winners with a random sequence generator using www.random.org.
  
• I will announce the winners in a post as well as notify by email. Winners must respond with their mailing info within two days or forfeit. In which case I notify the next entry in the sequence generated by random.org.
  
• Winners must provide a US or Canadian mailing address. Hachette is unable to deliver to PO Boxes. Also, for those of you winning the same title in more than one contest, be aware that Hachette may not deliver multiple copies of a single title to a single address.

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Saturday: Be There or Be Ware!

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The read-a-thon is coming. The read-a-thon is coming!

I'm so excited!!!

At least I would be if I weren't nearly face-planting on my keyboard. I didn't lay down between 3am and dawn as intended. I'd been alternating between reading Stephen King's Under the Dome and watching news pods or Lost episodes online ever since finishing last night's post. I kept on alternating between reading and some other less eye-straining activity until after 3pm when I crashed into a nap that Ed woke me from to prepare for the call to dinner at 5pm.

The King book is a library book and is due Monday. Ed was going to read it first and pass it on to me but it was obvious he wasn't going to finish leaving me enough time so I'm getting a head start on it reading while he's sleeping, at work or on his laptop.

I can tell you right now though that I won't be spending much if any time with it for the Read-a-Thon Saturday. The book is 1074 pages and hardback and heavy and awkward to hold steady at the optimal distance from my eyes. Even using the Book Easel. I may, if I'm in a place hard to leave off, spend a little time with it when Ed isn't wanting it Saturday but it's unlikely as I'm planning to switch to one of the two and possibly three large print novels I've collected from the library for the Read-a-Thon. I'm hoping to read one cover to cover and maybe get well into a second. I dislike setting aside one fiction story for another but in this case....

I've also got a few dozen ebooks and scripts loaded on my netbook which can display any font size I need at the moment though reading off the screen has its own issues.

This will be my sixth Read-a-Thon but the first one since cataract surgery plus new prescription eye-glasses significantly lessened the visual impairment in my central visual field that had been making reading more and more difficult in the previous five years. I’d had the surgery before last October but didn’t get the glasses until the week after the read-a-thon. It did nothing for the peripheral vision destroyed by RP of course but its the central vision that I use most for reading and close needlework and writing.

I'm hoping that this switching of my hours will stick through to Saturday morning. If it does, it will be the first time I participate with more than 4 solid hours of sleep to start off. In fact the last three began with zero to 40 minutes in the three hours before kick-off and I'd been awake since noonish on Friday. And yet I've made it to the finish in all but one! During my second one I had to quit with thirty minutes to go because I was hallucinating. LOL The following day, I had to re-read the last thirty pages of the book I'd finished just before crashing that time and discovered that I must have been dreaming the ending of the story because my vivid memories of the stories finale were in fact the author's version.

Well, if I'm not to risk that happening again, I'd better wrap this up and do a bit of crashing right now.

Oh, I’m also to host a mini-challenge again this year with my crochet bookmarks as prizes.

And I'm probably going to sign up for a little bit of cheerleading too though I've yet to do so.

I'm so psyched.

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Saying Good-bye...Saying Hello

About six weeks ago, give or take a week, my mini-tramp almost bucked me off when two of its elastic bands broke accompanied by a ripping sound. We suspect they were sun-rotted from the tramp spending the late summer and fall days of 2009 standing on its side on the front porch with its underside exposed to the afternoon and evening sun. The top side was protected by the blue vinyl cover seen in the pic below taken when it was fresh out of the box in October of 2008.

The slide show above is of me working out on it in late November 2008.







Above it sits on my in-laws front porch in November 2008 and below it sits on my Mom's front porch in February or March of 2009. (late Feb to mid March based on the blooms in my Mom's front yard in other pics taken the same day)







Above shows a section enlarged and cropped out of the pic seen below to show the frayed and broken bands. This pic was taken tonight of the dismantled tramp sitting in the back yard awaiting the next trip to the dump.



We have rescued the blue cover off of it and I intend to attach it to the underside of my new mini-tramp bought last Thursday seen below fresh out of the box with it's resistance bands, pedometer and DVD of workout instructions.



Or I may put the silver one on the bottom and the blue one on top. Either way I'm hoping that by having both sides covered the elastic on this one will survive the summer sun.

Of course if it were up to me, I'd make sure it wasn't left in the sun for ten to twelve hours a day. Especially with the bare elastic exposed. But the front porch is my FIL's domain and he rearranges it at several times per month between Easter and Thanksgiving and maybe half as often between Christmas and Easter.

Who am I to fault him for that? As witnessed by yesterday's post and all the others on the same theme, I've rearranged and reorganized my workstation at least as often if not more.

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Well, It Finally Happened, Just as Dad Warned

Except Dad always said they would fall ON me while I slept. This book loaded tower of shelves toppled forward along the side of the bed about 10:15 Sunday morning. Only four hours or so after I'd gotten to sleep. I'd spent all day Saturday pulling stuff out of that area also known as my office, cleaning, rearranging, organizing and putting as much as possible back into place before Ed's bedtime. My desk and computer had remained in the living room thank goodness. I had moved them out there the first evening Ed's folks were gone--Thursday and didn't move them back in until Monday evening. So the fix Ed and I applied to the book tower had one night to prove itself.

I hope one night was enough.

Saturday afternoon I had noticed the stack was beginning to lean forward so I strapped it into place by wrapping sticky silver packing tape around it from inside the closet door to the right and around back to inside the green book shelf behind it--right across where the top crate set on the second one down. It seemed sturdy and like it was going to hold. My only concern was that the tape would not adhere well to the wooden surfaces of the closet door and the green bookshelf. But the tape did not loose its grip on the two ends until after it broke and ripped across the front.

Our fix was to substitute a bungee cord for the tape and install it just under the top edge of the top crate.

If we hadn't been able to stabilize it to Ed's satisfaction I'd probably be straddling that forth crate under my desk as I have been since last fall.



Merlin jumped up into this shot just as I began to press the button on the camera. I was trying to show the space which is behind my desk before I moved it back in. I didn't realize he blocked the view until after the camera batteries died.

You can see, though, that I've moved the printer back into the closet on top of my sewing chest

And you can see a corner of the big box we use as a hamper which used to be on the other side of the sewing chest behind the closet doors. Making that hamper more accessible was one of two primary motives for the rearranging of my office. The other was to add the forth crate to the tower and stabilize it which I thought meant only moving that floor lamp out of the way so that one side of it would no longer need to be propped up by various objects because the other side was on top of the lamp's base.



So here we are with the 'desk' back in place. This is my view as I sit on the edge of the bed which is where I spent the bulk of my waking hours when my in-laws are home.

They arrived back home while I was prepping this post. They had left Spokane early this morning with their youngest son driving the whole way.

I had expected to be finished with the room do-over and the laundry by Saturday night and have all of Sunday and Monday for my own vacation which I intended to use writing my Script Frenzy script, reading, watching DVD on the big screen TV in the front room, crocheting and working out on my new mini-tramp which we picked up Thursday to replace the one whose sun-rotted elastic bands had broke six weeks ago.

I didn't get the final touches put on the room until 8:30 tonight. But I had to take a break from that project last night when Ed went to bed and couldn't resume it until after I had put the rest of the house back in order which I had accomplished for the most part by noon today but then I rewarded myself with two movies on the big TV before tending to the room and moving my desk back in.

What I accomplished on my 'vacation':

• a visit to the library and Jo-anne's on Thursday afternoon.
• watched equivalent of 7 movies on the big TV (four episodes of the BBC comedy Black Books counting as one) Black Books, The Big Lewbowski and Rattatouille with Ed; Atonement, Secret Life of Bees, Being Julia, and Dreamgirls by myself. Hey it's research!! :)
  
• half a dozen or so gentle getting-to-know-you 'workouts' on the new mini-tramp.
• read half a book on script writing
• 3 loads of laundry
• general cleaning of room
• major overhaul of office
• watched 3 episodes of Monk online--the first three of the last six episodes of the series. I've been holding the last three out as a reward for after getting the chores done--for after Ed's folks got home and I was back in the room without access to the big TV. I meant to save them all (plus Lost episodes) for after I was holed up in the room again but I had needed a short break a few times and didn't want to commit to a two hour movie. Watching a TV episode online is usually 45 minutes.
• cleaning kitchen twice (Ed did it several times as well as cooked all the main meals bless him)
• two long late-night phone visits with my sisters--one on Friday night and the other on Saturday.
• sorted one major junk drawer--the bottom one in my sewing chest. Yay!!! It was stuffed to the gills with various sizes of plastic bags. Between what was in that drawer and another bag full I found in the closet, I managed to toss at least a bushel of musty plastic bags. This hoarder is patting herself on the back
• washed a dozen or so plastic zip bags--sandwich, quart and gallon sizes--for use in the craft and sewing sorting projects in the near future I hope. I had rescued them out of the bag of bags I'd been shuffling about the closet for the last couple years. They were the only ones I kept but I promised myself that I would either wash them along with the dishes this morning or I'd toss them. They would not return to the room awaiting another opportunity.
• pulled all my shoes out from under the bed and organized them, putting several in the bottom half of Merlin's crate which is under the bed and several more in a cardboard box that will slide under the bed but can serve as my foot rest while sitting at the computer. Now Merlin's access point to under the bed is blocked and he can't go under there and drag my shoes by their laces out of my reach.
• a lot of thinking and a little bit of online research for my script. [I said in Friday's post I was going to switch to adapting one of my completed short stories to a script if I didn't get going on scene writing for the Snags in Her Stitches story by this evening. But that was when I was sure I'd be done with eh bulk of my chores by Saturday night. So I'm extending that until Wednesday evening as I HAVE worked out a lot by thinking about it while I did my chores this weekend.]

Things I did not get done that I'd hoped to:

• a lot of scene writing on my script
• finishing the novel A Reliable Wife which was due today. [made it to page 4 on Thursday night and didn't pick it up again so I'll have to get back in the queue which is at 15 now]
• finishing the purse crochet project which stalled out a week ago Thursday when I ran out of black thread for which I made the trip to Joann's on Thursday.
• cutting out the sections of the silver cloth for the linings of the crocheted purse and the two 3 panel needlepoint bookcovers. [for this I need to set up a card table somewhere where there is very good light or bring the light to it.]
• several serious 'break-a-sweat' workouts on the tramp while I could have it indoors

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