Shadowhelm's (MH Bonham) Journal: Or Where the Heck Was I?

I can't remember your name, but I can recall the most obscure facts about Yersinia pestis

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:02:15 GMT

In one of my most paranoid states, I'm convinced I've got Alzheimers, especially when I forget important stuff like people's names or whether or if I fed the dogs while I was talking to a friend on the phone. My husband claims I say things I don't remember saying, which may be true or may be a clever way to get me to do things. But those worries go completely out the window when I recall various useless factoids when I visit Liquid Planet and get a double stamp on my frequent buyercard.

You see, I've been hired as a technical reviewer for a course. I have to admit that going through the course is a lot more interesting and fun than I thought it would be. You see, for the first time a bunch of useless information that has been rattling inside my brain is actually useful, and the fact that I can recall it and then look up the references on the web or in my books is kind of cool. Take Yersinia pestis, or, Bubonic Plague. The disease is simply fascinating, though I wouldn't want to contract it. Here are some factoids I know about it:

-- The Black Plague during the Middle Ages wiped out somewhere between 1/3 to 1/2 the population in areas, causing widespread labor shortages.

-- The labor shortages caused by the plague eventually ended feudalim and gave rise to democracy due to the rise of a middle class who earned wages and demanded higher payments. When you have a class of freemen with money and land, they start demanding more rights and greater equality.

-- The plague years peaked from 1348 to 1350, doing the worst damage, however, there have been about 100 other outbreaks of plague that were less widespread.

-- Dogs and other canines are resistant to plague; cats are not.

-- Some of the population has immunity to AIDS and smallpox and it has been theorized that the Black Death may have somehow naturally selected individuals because of a genetic variant.

-- Some have theorized that Black Death may not have been bubonic plague or may have been a combination of bubonic plague and other diseases such as anthrax.

-- Plague shows up routinely in praire dog colonies in Colorado.

-- Plague is transmitted through flea bites of the black rat.

-- It was called the "blue death" in Medieval times.

-- People didn't know what caused the plague during the "Black Death" and thought it had to do with bad air or vapors.

-- There are three forms of plague: the bulboe plague, the pneumatic plague and the septicemic plague. All will kill you in horrifying ways and your likeliness of survival without treatment is slim to none.

-- The Roman Catholic pope was sequestered with smoke and incense to ward off the bad vapors.

-- The flagellates were people who believed that god was punishing the world for sins, so they took to beating themselves with whips in the hopes to purify themselves.

See? This is all very interesting, and yet, worthless.

Unless you're doing reviews of material that mentions the Bubonic Plague

A day to work

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:55:53 GMT

Today wasn't a bad day, mainly because I had enough of the day to sit down and do work. I got the thousand words written early. I then did edits on lizzyshannon's Time Twist and on my own book, Howling Dead. Tonight, I'm working on reviewing a grooming course. In between all this, I watched "After the Catch" and "Dirty Jobs" as my reward. I exercised, doing 30 minutes of elliptical and 15 minutes Chi Kung. I played my flute. And, sadly, I'm hooked on Hatchlings on Facebook, so I had to feed those imaginary critters as well as take care of the not so imaginary critters here at the house.

Today felt a lot like the days I worked in the past. It felt familiar and felt like I was accomplishing something.

My laptop that I bought a year ago from Dell croaked. It's hard to believe, but they wanted me to open up the case and start touching the inside without static protection and proper grounding. I told them forget it. So, they're sending a technician to replace the motherboard and a whole bunch of parts. Good luck. I'm in Montana, remember? Anyway, I am truly disappointed in Vista, the dell laptop, and whatnot. I bought the thing with all the bells and whistles to have the OS be a POS and the hardware flake out? Wow. I remember when Dell was good.

Feliway A Kitteh Miracle

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:37:23 GMT

Before I write this blog, let me state that I neither get payment nor free product from Feliway except when I've won some product through CWA. This endorsement is entirely free because of the success I've had with the product.

Several years ago before I became a cat owner, I heard about Feliway through the Cat Writer's Association. Feliway is, in essence, calming kitty pheromones that help curb marking, scratching and unwanted behaviors. It comes in both a diffuser and a spray bottle.

Now, I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to people touting a single product solving all your problems, but I had tried Feliway on my cat and Comfort Zone with DAP on my dogs with results I couldn't point to and say "wow, this works." That was until I brought Sam into the house.

Hailey, my tortie, is a bit of a bully. She's big for a cat (13 lbs) and has been the only cat for quite a while. Sam is a muted orange tabby who has had it a bit rough, so he could use some babying. He's smaller than Hailey and a bit jumpy. I suspect he had been hit by a car due to a limp and a break in his tail. I had done slow introductions with the cats (through doors and windows) and would get varying degrees of hissing. After a bit, I did decide to bring Sam in.

At that point, I put a Feliway diffuser in my office where Hailey stays while the dogs are out and eventually moved Sam into the room. I expected fights. Instead, I had two cats sharing the futon and napping in the cuddler and various places on the cat gym. When they came out of the office, Hailey would whap Sam, but in the office both cats were calm and serene. The marked difference in behavior was even noticed by my husband when the cats slept within a foot of each other and even touched noses. Outside the Feliway influence is an uneasy truce.

After this, I realized I could have peace in the house by adding more diffusers. So, I bought more and I'm now experimenting with them. I'll tell you how it goes, but after seeing such behavioral changes, I'm expecting some pretty spectacular stuff.

How Feliway works is that it is the synthetic pheromone that cats secrete in their cheeks. This pheromone is calming and relaxing to the cat because it says to the cat, "I'm friendly." It's the same pheromone a cat uses to rub up against people they love or objects in their house. Unlike the urine spray that marks territory, the facial rub is a "let's be friends" signal.

I've written about feliway in my books, but until I really saw it in action myself, I thought of it more as a supplement to training than something that would make a substantial difference in behavior. I still believe that the proper introductions made a difference, as did keeping the two in different rooms and whatnot, but I really think that the Feliway made the process go easier. I know my cats are less stressed and in better moods because of it.

So, there you go: my endorsement of a product. As usual, YMMV (your mileage may vary) and I only used the diffusers. I don't think the spray is nearly as effective with general behavior problems given you must spray it and renew it constantly. (I've been told it's good for scratching and marking).

Ginger mint, dead mice, and yowling cats

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:56:33 GMT

The night before last, Hailey refused to sleep on the bed but instead made an odd yowling sound. I was wondering if it was perhaps because Sam was on the bed. (Sam has been yowling to go out because he used to be an outdoor cat). Well, come to find out, this was a hunting yowl and yesterday Haegl flushed a mouse from the boxes. The mouse leapt under the vacuum cleaner and when I turned it over, Haegl tried to get the mouse that was peering out from the vacuum cleaner.

Note to self: don't turn on the vacuum, even if your husband says you should.

I made my husband clean up the mess. Well, it was quick and the mouse didn't know what hit it. It was nasty.

On another note, the garden center has these $1 coupons that you get when you spend $10 with them. They're only good the first weekend of the month in July. I had been saving the coupons and got a strawberry planter and a bunch of herbs to put in it. One of the herbs that was on sale for a $1 was ginger mint. I've been planting chocolate mint, but seeing ginger mint was kind of cool. So, I planted that. I'll let you know what I think of it.

It rained last night in buckets. That was a wonderful thing. Cousins come today to visit. No idea if I will get work done.

4th of July, Market and whatnot

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 06:08:14 GMT

Tonight is basically a warzone out there where people are shooting off a ridiculous amount of fireworks. For years, I've been afraid of the possibility of fires, but given half the neighborhood is emergency personnel (cops, firefighters and whatnot), I think we're probably safe. (I may be wrong on this) Anyway, the fireworks are so high powered, you can feel them shake the house and we're at least a quarter mile away. The animals are on edge, but there's really nothing I can do except keep them inside and safe.

It's a bit hazy to me whether or not the fireworks are illegal here. In the city limits and on public land, they're illegal, but I'm not sure if it is in our area. There are signs that say "no fireworks" prominantly displayed the moment you get off the highway, but obviously, it means "no fireworks that aren't really good."

I went to the market today. Next week we should be getting Flathead cherries. Today, they had cherries from Washington, which are good, but not nearly as good as Montana cherries. You wouldn't think Montana would be the place for sweet cherries, but it is. For three weeks, you can have some awesome cherries. I got strawberries, lettuce, carrots, peas, kohlrabi, broccoli, basil, morels, bacon, cheese, butter, prok chops, cherries and cucumbers. I also got a bag for my flute, so it is now protected.

Tired tonight. Will write more tomorrow.

Ninja, tigers, and bokkens

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:11:21 GMT

It's getting towards the 4th of July weekend, and as much as I want to go to the Arlee powow, I really haven't mustered enough energy to drive that direction and hang out. It's something I've wanted to see, but right now, I'm not in a mood for crowds.

Went to ninja yesteday and enjoyed the class quite a bit. We've been working on taking knives away from attackers, which is a very cool thing. The other day, my husband and I went into the place that used to be the Sportsman's Warehouse here and I got to see and feel the weight of a recon tanto, which is the knife our fake knives are patterned after. I noticed how different it feels holding one compared to the rubber knives. It's not just the weight, although weight has a lot to do with it. It has a feeling that makes it different. Excuse my woo-woo analogy, but it's like the essence of the knife is different. Different energy. Different power. And I have knives, so it's not me being afraid of it or anything. So, when sensei suggested that we train with blunted metal weapons, I thought it might be a good idea. Still, it was an odd feeling holding the actual tanto after becoming so familiar with the training weapons.

Husband and I have been practicing with the hand and a half bokkens (called "wasters") and while the feel is different than the live blade, I actually feel good if I had to work with the live blade. The bokkens are blade-heavy -- I think that's for building up your wrists. I have so much pain and inflexibility in my wrists that working with these bokkens are painful, but it does appear to help loosen my wrists up. At once, I started thinking about medieval knights and warriors. Did they suffer from arthritis? Or didn't they live that long? It's kind of a cheat for me to give my hero, Lachlan, self-healing powers as it prevents him from experiencing what I experience on a day-to-day basis. But let's face it, he gets wounded and damaged enough to where I think he can probably start feeling the effects. Just because you heal up, doesn't mean you do so perfectly. But I have a sneaky suspicion that if the pain is too great, he'd focus a bit on it. Unless he's a bit of a masochist.

Yesterday, I received an email from a zoo I contacted regarding their big cats. One of my characters is a shapeshifting tiger which required me to ask questions about tigers. I think I have enough good information.

Lastly, I got Samurai Son almost back to the point where I lost the file. It was painful, but the book is saved and is saved in two or three different places, including offsite. Editing later today!

Sequel is blocked due to copyright.

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:39:49 GMT

Salinger Wins as Judge Blocks Publication of 60 Years Later :

Finding that author J.D. Salinger is “likely to succeed on the merits of its copyright case," a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction barring the publication of what Salinger’s attorneys called an unauthorized sequel to The Catcher in the Rye.

Writing, multitasking and earning a living as a writer

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:59:42 GMT

Yesterday, I pounded out a 4000 word book proposal and got it sent off. On another project, a client and I have been discussing a contract and we've now reached an agreement. I've sent the contracts and I'll have some money coming in, which is always nice. I've been working on my editing work, which is always present. I have plenty of work to keep me busy for months, but whether it produces cold hard cash is another story.

The reality is that most productive writers are working on several projects at once. The reasons are manyfold, but the primary reason is to not get stuck on something and be less productive. At any time, I have 2 books going, several editing jobs, several book reviews and at least one book proposal. Each of these projects keep me fresh so I can continue writing on my other projects.

The truth of the writing biz is unless you're golden and hit what I call the writing "jackpot," that is, getting a steady gig that pays or, better yet, getting a bestseller, you really have to make some hard choices in your life as a writer. You can choose to have a day job (as I have done in the past) and try to find time to write between lunch breaks and at home. The plus of this is that you have a steady paycheck. Or you can freelance, as I have done, and write like crazy and look for paychecks wherever you can find them.

Unless you're rich or have an extremely generous benefactor, the reality of the writing life is at some time you have to 'ho yourself to make a living. It's a rare writer who makes it big off the bat writing what he or she really wants to write and makes enough money at it to live off of. Whether you work as a freelancer, writing like mad to pay bills or whether you work a day job, it's all a means for keeping yourself in this business.

I used to get really angry at people who discounted what I did for a living as writing. After all, I wrote well over 20 books on pets alone, plus hundreds of articles. While other writers were still rehashing the drafts of their first three chapters, I was published and making money. But for some reason, the fiction community has the stigma against the nonfiction folks. Which is wrong, of course. You want to learn how to write well? Try paying your mortgage with your writing career. I guarantee you'll step up fast or get out.

Nowadays, I look at those dilettantes as being full of themselves and woefully uninformed. I've been published by some of the biggest publishers and my books have brand recognition. It doesn't mean that I don't want to write novels, I do. But I use the nonfiction to support my fiction habit. And nonfiction is one of the best ways to improve your writing. Don't believe me? Try writing it sometime

Stuff I Tweeted About

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:35:01 GMT

My Twitter tweets for today:

23:47 Ninja Camp and BBQ networkedblogs.com/p6726454 #

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Ninja Camp and BBQ

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:13:24 GMT

Today I went to a one day ninja camp, BBQ and seminar for those of us who practice ninjitsu here in Montana. Basically, it was a cookout/video/roll around in the grass training for those of us in class and a few people who knew us. I brought bison and potato salad. Some other folks brought bison hamburgers and elk roast. There were bratwursts, chips and beer. Which of course, begs the question: do ninja eat brats and drink beer?

A good portion of the day was spent watching videos of a seminar some of the other ninja had been to. It was very interesting because it dealt with the tessen (fan), the sword, and the bo. It was interesting to see the difference in a ninja seminar versus one of one of the other martial arts. People wore all sorts of clothing, from gi (black, white or otherwise) to street clothes -- and nobody got called out for it. What's more, the sensei worked with everyone from black belts to white belts. They were all very serious and were there to learn. The video has a lot of good stuff in it and I think I need to see it several times to really get everything the sensei was doing.

Afterwards, we had the cookout, where we sat on the porch and ate steaks, brats and hamburgers and chatted about training, life and whatnot. When we were all done, we went out into the field and practiced different tessen techniques and kind of made up our own stuff. At one point, sensei's two sons, ages 7 and 10 accosted me with bo staffs. It was pretty amusing, but it got me working with two opponents, which was actually really good training. By the end, I could say I could probably beat just about any 10 year old with a staff. Impressive, huh?

One thing I have noticed is that Montana is a very dog-friendly place. At any party you can expect at least three dogs and not all owned by the person hosting the party. In this case, the three dogs were 1. the owner's 2. one of the other ninja and 3. The neighbor's, who was not there, but his dog was.

I'm tired, but it was a good time and I learned some very interesting things.

We had gotten there at around 10 am and left at 6 pm, making it an eight hour day of ninja fun and frivolity.

Sleep, that's it?

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:53:42 GMT

Ok, rdansky, a friend of mine has posted something about the secret to good writing. I'll let you read it and think a bit about it. I looked at it and started laughing. Maybe I just haven't had enough sleep to contemplate such a blog.

I'm not anti-sleep. Au contraire. I am a bit of a sleep hog, even though I tend to stay up late. But anyone who knows me, knows I occasionally don't get enough sleep. Even so, I've produced a fair amount of books.

My thoughts are that it takes more than sleep to become a good writer. At the very basic level, you need good sleep, exercise and decent food, but that won't produce a novel. I've been known to have stayed up and written some pretty decent stuff while sleep-deprived. I don't recommend it, but there you go. Even with enough sleep, you're not going to hit your peak as a writer until you push yourself to write each day and write enough each day. The only way to make yourself a better writer is to write. And if you choose sleep over writing, you'll never get there.

That being said, you can write a lot of crap when tired. I know. When I'm too tired, I go to bed. But if the writing is flowing late at night, I still write. Writing is important, just like sleep, so when you're on a roll, don't stop. Just realize that this isn't normal. Unless it really is.

Which reminds me, I'm tired. Time for bed.

Stuff I Tweeted About

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:35:01 GMT

My Twitter tweets for today:

13:14 Back to the grindstone writing. #

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Life stories or tragic disappointments --- listening as a writer

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:08:08 GMT

Some folks must think I'm their shrink, or at least their bartender. I think part of it is that when people talk to me, I actually pay attention or at least try to look somewhat interested. I'm probably the only person in the universe that does that, because the rest of the world seems to ignore these folks. Lord knows, no one looks interested when I have something important to say. I get the feeling that some day I'm going to run out into the street shrieking like Cassandra about the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupting and people will walk by with their cell phones glued to their ears, trying to ignore me.

Anyway, case and point is that I was at the local grocery store and sure enough, the bagger offers to push my cart to my car and unload the bags. Now, I am far from infirm, but seeing as the guy practically hijacked the cart and started outside, and seeing it was a lovely day, I figured what the hell, give this guy a little sunshine. The whole conversation started off where the guy was getting off work soon, so this was sort of a nice way for him to burn time. Ok, I can deal with that.

The guy tells me he's saving up his vacation because he's getting married next year and going to this giant waterpark with his wife for their honeymoon about an hour away in Couer d' Alene. Then, his face lights up and he says "They've got a Red Lobster and Olive Garden there!" At this point, he's telling me how the TV news announced we were getting a Red Lobster and an Olive Garden, but they decided to not open one here in Missoula because of the airport (I have no clue -- this is just what he said). And he was dreadfully disappointed in that we wouldn't get one any time soon. "It's like, when they said they were going to open a Toys R Us in the mall, and that didn't happen."

There was more to this, and I didn't have nearly as much groceries as you think I would have for him to tell me all about his expectations and disappointments. I suppose if I was one of those "normal" folks with a cell phone attached to my ear, I wouldn't have listened, but I did listen. I listened because I'm a writer and because it's my job to listen and get ideas. This guy, bless his heart, gave me a bunch of ideas as he was talking. I'm not sure if he would've talked quite as much if he knew I was interested because I'm a writer.

It's not just people talking to me either that gives me idea. More than once, I've sat down and listened to other peoples' conversations. Much of it is inane crap, but occasionally, you take away gems. Some things I've overheard have just been priceless and I've wondered how on earth I'm going to put them in a book. Maybe the fact that I look interested is why people will talk to me. Maybe it's because I listen, and most people don't. Maybe they too feel like Cassandra, shrieking in the wind. Or maybe I just look like my life is so uninteresting that they have to tell me about theirs.

You never know. Maybe the Yellowstone supervolcano isn't really that important.

Stuff I Tweeted About

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:35:02 GMT

My Twitter tweets for today:

20:52 Eaten alive by mosquitoes while practicing with the hand and a half. Too bad you can't cleave mosquitoes. #
20:57 It's a bad year for mosquitoes. I'm slathering benadryl on my hands and feet #
21:16 cool #
22:43 Why am I so hooked on this hatchlings thing? #
00:05 Right now, just working on the novel. #
01:37 damn. My shoulder still hurts #
01:38 Swords, Ninja, Cats, Mosquitoes and Writing networkedblogs.com/p6573494 #

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Swords, Ninja, Cats, Mosquitoes and Writing

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:38:44 GMT

Tonight I spent about a half hour or so getting eaten alive by mosquitoes to practice some hand and a half work. Don't get me wrong -- I gave as good as I got with those pests, but honestly, if there was anything I could change about Montana, it would be the bugs. We have more bugs here than we did in Colorado, which is very annoying. I've declared my house a bug-free zone, but the insects sadly didn't get the memo. Anyway, we trained until the very sharp twinge in my right shoulder said "That's ENOUGH, thank you." So, there you go.

Last night was ninja and my husband was sick so I went alone. It happened that no one except another person showed up and so we worked on stick and threw the medicine ball around. At one point, I was holding the staff over my head and my arm and shoulder started shaking. I went into these odd neurological tremors that caused the guy to ask if I was high. No, I wasn't (anyone who knows me knows I've never used illegal drugs), but it was interesting to see the tremors come out due to who knows what sort of neurological damage I have from all the injuries I've sustained from martial arts and mushing. (It's not the years; it's the mileage). Basically, we worked on the two bo katas and then we played for a while with sticks.

Sam and Hailey are slowly coming to terms with each other nicely. They touch noses when I'm there and they're not hissing and spitting at each other every two minutes. I know a lot of people make a fuss about cats, but honestly, they're nowhere near as bad as Malamutes and I suspect that with a little patience they will be best of friends.

Writing -- despite the terrible setback, I've been writing again. And I'm rewriting the sections that got eaten by Windows. Thanks, Bill Gates.

Solstice Party

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:23:42 GMT

Today, my neighbors had a solstice party, given that today is summer solstice. From what I understand, the whole thing started sometime around noon, and I suspect the hardcore partiers are still out there, despite the rain. My neighbors bought a 150 lb pig and cooked it from 2:30 am to about 3 pm when it was deemed ready. It was, without a doubt, some of the best pig I've eaten. They soaked it in salt water, apple, mango and other juices with cloves, cardamom, nutmeg and other spices. It was the most tender and juicy pork I've ever had.

I brought blackberry mead and because I'm quite fond of the stuff, had a glass. My neighbors loved the stuff and drained the bottle, which was perfectly ok. It tells me it was really good wine and I've got to buy some for other celebrations. I met a lot of their friends and my other neighbors and a gazillion dogs ran around while the party went on. I left to take care of animals and when I got back, they had a live band, a small bonfire, and enough drunk people playing nails and talking about the bears and moose that showed up at their house. The spring near my house evidently had a moose visitor according to one neighbor.

I went home at about 10 pm and played the flute to the sunset. The band was still playing and people were still noisy, but it was ok. I had a decent time. I wish I was a bit better at talking with total strangers, but I've never done small talk well. So, I enjoyed the party and headed home to take care of all the animals yet again.

Today I also started writing again, trying to recover the portion of the book I lost.

Stuff I Tweeted About

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:35:01 GMT

My Twitter tweets for today:

23:06 Join me on @Dropbox and get 2GB plus 250MB of bonus space! www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTEzODI0Mjc5 #

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Disaster

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:24:40 GMT

I'm pretty good about backups largely because I have systems that back up. Even so, today was a total unmitigated disaster. Samurai Son became corrupted on my flash drive and after searching high and low and trying all the fixes Microsoft offered, and even called up Microsoft tech support, the file was so corrupt that I couldn't even open it. I did all the sys admin tricks I knew and learned a bunch in the process.

I'll admit that I spent about an hour crying on the phone with my husband, who suggested that I look for a data recovery service. About that time, when I was resigned to trying that, I stumbled across a file that was about 5000 words less than the one I lost. So, instead of 100,000 words, I have a little shy of 97,000 words. Which is better than the state I thought I was in, that being around 50K.

After finding this copy and making three more copies, I knew I wasn't going to be able to write tonight. So, I took a shower so I could relax, lit some candles and played my Native American flute. There's something relaxing about playing it here in the forest. The pure notes bring joy to me; perhaps it's a way to express myself without too much pressure.

Tomorrow I will sit and try to regain what I lost.

Stuff I Tweeted About

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:35:02 GMT

My Twitter tweets for today:

02:04 Two kittehs; one lap. I think Sam and Hailey are becoming buds. #
02:05 Of course, now I can't move. #

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Bastard Swords, Staffs, Writng and General Exhaustion

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:21:25 GMT

Husband is home, which means my days get turned around. Not unpleasantly, mind you, but I end up doing less work and more fun things. Not that bad, really. Yesterday, he had me go on a short walk up the state land with him. Then, after a nap, we worked on the ninja staff kata and he taught me the first bastard sword kata. We received our practice hand and a halfs a few days ago, and I noted the practice swords being more nose-heavy than the actual blade. Still, it felt interesting to get the practice sword in my hand and try it out.

Tuesday at ninja, I got the guys to walk me through the first ninja bo kata. Last summer while my husband was sick, they learned it and were far ahead of me on the kata. However, with their help, I was able to get the first kata down. I then went over it with my husband who learned it well enough so that we can do it in class.

I tried getting my 1000 word count done yesterday, but I think either allerrgies or a cold made me feel so tired that I fell asleep upright in my chair with Sam the cat in my lap. When I awoke, Hailey the cat had replaced him, though I don't remember anyone moving. She was even in the same position as Sam, so where I fell asleep with an orange tabby, I woke up with a tortoiseshell. It was a very odd surprise.

Tuesday, I managed to only get 750 words or so on the book. Today, I've promised myself to get more work done.

Temporary Restraining order as judge considers whether characters are copyrightable

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:50:01 GMT

Temporary Restraining Order Issued in Salinger Case :

The judge hearing arguments in J.D. Salinger's lawsuit to prevent U.S. publication of Fredrik Colting's 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye ruled that Salinger's Holden Caulfield character is copyrighted, and issued a temporary restraining order blocking publication for at least 10 days while she decides whether Colting has a reasonable fair use defense.

Stuff I Tweeted About

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:35:01 GMT

My Twitter tweets for today:

15:52 At liquid planet, doing the writing thing #
17:01 So far, 500 words written on Samurai Son #
17:25 You know, some people have no business wearing low slung jeans and high waist tops. I'm just saying... #
17:40 Onto ninja. Later, tweets! #

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Change of scenery

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:40:02 GMT

I'm sitting at the local coffee/tea shop in downtown Missoula called Liquid Planet. A couple of times a week I get into town for various meetings and appointments and between all of them, I figure I can tote along a netbook and write. Honestly, it's not like I'm into the whole coffee shop cache, but sometimes writing in a different place helps. A coffee shop isn't a bad thing because there are seldom interruptions, although I admit that having access to the internet is still like getting a hit of crack. I mean, the internet is not helpful to those who are addicted to it.

For the cost of a large cup of tea (less than $2) and parking ($2 max), I can grab some juice for the laptop, stuff earbuds in my ears, and type to my heart's content. Everyone is always amazed when I tell them I'm a slow writer. In two hours, I got about 500 words written. Not bad for me, but I'm sure others could write faster. Tonight when I'm home, I'll be writing 500 more words for a total of 1000 today.

When stuck for writing, try going someplace else. I'd write more, except ninja is next.

Stuff I Tweeted About

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:35:01 GMT

My Twitter tweets for today:

13:26 Writing, Ninja, Flutes, Kittehs and Markets networkedblogs.com/p6109644 #
13:36 Made fruit salad for upcoming breakfasts. Took care of animals. Now to write! #
00:32 Done with my 1000 words. Samurai Son is now at 99,000. #
01:02 Cats seem to be getting along ok. I might play my flute again or I might just listen to music for a while tonight. #

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Social Networking Time Sinks and Blogs for writers

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:30:38 GMT

As tempting as it might be for me to let my postings go in favor of facebook and twitter, I decided that blogs are still very important and people still read them despite all my tweetings and facebook posts. By the way, if you're a social network junkie, you can check me out on Facebook HERE and Twitter HERE. Friend me and you might win some books!

Anyway, the whole social networking thing is a gigatic time sink when it comes to writing. It's not that I think it's a time waster to connect with my peeps. Au contraire, I think it's marvellous. I'm talking about the distractions associated with these networks. I mean, do I need to go to woot and buy that deal? Do I really need to read the latest Boing Boing? Or worse, do I have to play Hatchlings and feed the cool critters I collected so they won't run off?

You see the problem? What becomes a social networking site becomes "oooh, shiny!" for those of us who need a particular motivation to write instead. And I mean, there's a lot of stuff I do related to writing that isn't exactly quite writing.

So, what exactly am I doing now, but sitting in front of the computer writing my blog instead of writing my book. Yeah, it's easy to do. But it also gives me a good excuse to write about not writing. So, if you find yourself in the ~~trap~~ sticky web of social networks, take heart! You're not alone. Here's some guidelines to get you beyond the social networks.

1. Schedule your writing time. I use Essential Pim for this on my netbook.

2. Insist on a word count. Yes, word counts ARE important. Don't skip.

3. Don't answer the phone unless it's important. That doesn't means friends or relatives, sadly. It means husband and business to me.

4. Put on some writing music and take breaks frequently. About every 20 minutes.

5. Use the social networking thing as a reward. (I can feed my Hatchlings if I get 1000 words written).

6. Do something besides being on the computer. That means exercise, playing with pets, martial arts, playing the flute, etc.

7. Don't substitute TV for social networking. Honestly.

8. Limit your blogs to one or two a day. Limit your tweets to no more than 15.

9. Use the social network add-ons to post to your other social networks. I have twitter going to livejournal and facebook. I have facebook occasionally posting my blog to twitter.

Hopefully, I've given you some ideas. Now, I have to get to writing!

UPDATE: My facebook link oddly didn't quite work. It's fixed, Or you can find it at http://www.facebook.com/skywarrior