I Did It Again...

I fell at work. Again. This time, instead of hurting my hand, I've royally f***ed up my left ankle. It hurts like hell. Severe sprain, and here I am hobbling around on it. I'm thinking I may call off work, even though I have an interview scheduled this afternoon and one tomorrow--it's going to be better for me to stay off this leg as much as possible.

Although I have set a record...I went more than two years without spraining an ankle. Hah!

Tipsy Tuesday

As a writer, you need to keep the readers engaged throughout the entire story. It's not uncommon to have a terrific, high-octane start and an exciting, dramatic end, but somehow, in the middle, things break down and get a little, well, boring. How can you avoid this?

One way is to make sure you keep the action rising. A fast pace is crucial to keeping reader interest, so everything that happens before the climax should keep kicking the suspense, the drama, up. Stephen King argues that a closed door can be a continuous source of fearful suspense, but only so long as it remains closed. Once it's opened and the "Unknown Thing" confronted, suspense is resolved. (Danse Macabre)

How many movies have you seen where the hero's car starts just fine throughout the movie (even after being shot up and driven into the ground) until that moment when the villain or monster is about to catch him? The motor grinds, viewers slide closer to the edge of their seats and, finally! The engine catches and the hero escapes with only seconds to spare. Trite, perhaps, but certainly tried and true.

It's like this: each time you make it bad for your characters, you must then make it worse. Then worse yet again. And still worse until you reach the climax.

That's how you hold reader interest and keep them turning the pages.

Man Meat Monday

I just love this guy. Now, if he'd only just. Drop. The. Towel...

Star Trek and Stargate Atlantis

I don't talk about it here much (well, not *too* much), but I'm a Stargate Atlantis fan--I love the team dynamics, the action, the suspense and, of course, the cutie-pie known as Joe Flanigan (who plays the lead, Lt. Col. John Sheppard). While browsing around Gateworld.net, I came across a link for a video that is just too funny, and thought I'd share it here.

Keep in mind, this is one of the "inside" jokes on Atlantis--that Sheppard is a "Kirk" when it comes to alien women. But I think you'll enjoy this if you like Star Trek, even if you've never seen Atlantis. It's about 4 minutes long.

LOL!


P.S. Now that dang song's gonna be playing in my head all day, 'cause of course I had to make sure the embedded link still worked before I posted my blog.

P.P.S. According to my friend S, this song was really popular in the 80s in Australia. I'd never heard it until I stumbled across this video. There are, of course, a couple of videos at YouTube that use actual Star Trek footage with this song, but, hey, I think Joe's cuter than Bill. *G*

Friday Funny

The inventor of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, Arthur Davidson, died and went to heaven. At the gates, St. Peter told Arthur, "Since you've been such a good man and your motorcycles have changed the world, your reward is, you can hang out with anyone you want to in heaven."

Arthur thought about it for a minute and then said, "I want to hang out with God."

St. Peter took Arthur to the Throne Room, and introduced him to God.

God recognized Arthur and commented, "Okay, so you were the one who invented the Harley-Davidson motorcycle?"

Arthur said, "Yeah, that's me."

God commented: "Well, what's the big deal in inventing something that's pretty unstable, makes noise and pollution and can't run without a road?"

Arthur was apparently embarrassed, but finally spoke, "Excuse me, but aren't you the inventor of woman?"

God said, "Ah, yes."

"Well," said Arthur, "professional to professional, you have some major design flaws in your invention:

1. There's too much inconsistency in the front-end protrusion,



2. It chatters constantly at high speeds,



3. Most rear ends are too soft and wobble too much,



4. The intake is placed way too close to the exhaust,

5. And the maintenance costs are outrageous!!!"



"Hmmm, you may have some good points there," replied God. "Hold on."

God went to his Celestial supercomputer, typed in a few words and waited for the results. The computer printed out a slip of paper and God read it. "Well, it may be true that my invention is flawed," God said to Arthur, "but according to these numbers, more men are riding my invention than yours!!!"



LOL!! Have a great 4th of July, y'all!!

Saying Another Goodbye

Most of the time, when I watch the news and they talk about this celebrity or that celebrity, I really don't care what's going on in their lives. Angelina and Brad and their babies? Phfft. Good for them, but I. Don't. Care.

But there have been two people who have recently died that have made me regret I never had a chance to meet them. One is Tim Russert. The other is this man:

Don S. Davis. His acting portfolio is varied, but what I remember him best for is his portrayal of General George Hammond on Stargate. He was one of my favorite recurring characters on the show and I missed him when his appearances were curtailed. His last role was on the upcoming Stargate: Continuum movie that's being released on DVD at the end of this month. It'll be a bittersweet experience, watching that movie.

Joe Mallozzi posted a very touching tribute to Don on his blog yesterday. When I read it, I was pleased to discover that the man I thought Don was, based on my observations of him, was really the kind of man he was. Gentle, gracious, and loyal to his friends above any consideration to himself.

Rest well, Hammond of Texas. I wish I'd known you.

Tipsy Tuesday

I had an author day on Sunday over at Love Romances Cafe, and had quite a list of questions to answer from the owner Dawn. One of the questions that's nearly always asked is "What advice do you have for aspiring writers?"

My response is always: Read, read, read. And then read some more. Not just the how-to/craft books, but also the books in the genre you're planning to write, whether that's romance, mystery, horror, sci-fi, etc. If you're targeting a specific publisher, read books by authors already published with them.

Another tip: Do *not* expect your editor to be your grammar/punctuation cop. You want your editor to be able to concentrate on the story--does it flow, are there sections that don't make sense or need more fleshing out, etc. (Having said that, each house has its own style, so you may see grammatical and/or punctuation changes even if you were very careful. Case in point is my manuscript for Kensington that just went through copy edits. When I wrote it, I followed the comma rules that Ellora's Cave uses, only to see that the copy editor inserted commas all over the place. Commas that, I might add, I would have had in there had I not followed Ellora's Cave rules. Other things you won't know until you get into the edit stage are the house rules on words like blond/blonde.) If you're unsure of yourself in this area, invest in a Strunk & White Elements of Style and a dictionary.

Plus, if you're using a word processing program like Microsoft Word, pay attention to the squiggly colored lines that appear under certain words. Red means the program thinks it's a misspelled word (sometimes it's not), green means there's a possible grammar glitch.

Turn in the cleanest manuscript you can and you're a step ahead of the rest of the pack.