Books in Brown Paper Bags

I finally got down to doing the book review thing as I’ve always been threatening. I’m trying to update every week with a new book. Some of the books I have been saving up with reviews. Rogue Moon, Treasure Island, and Underground London all have reviews up now.

www.brownpaperbookreview.wordpress.com

Script Frenzy has started. I’m not really a script-writer, I realized, but I’m still writing one, or something that looks like one, this month.

Everyone Likes Free Stuff

I thought I would post this because I got some audio books from here, but it has a lot of interesting Free stuff (including lessons/courses, apparently).

Open Culture

Woah. I Finished A Novel. (Sort Of)

So it’s been three years, but I finally finished my 2006 NaNoWrimo. It’s a story I’ve been working on in one form or another since oh, about eighth grade. Don’t worry, the thing has matured as I have and I expect it to mature more yet as I edit.

In some ways I’ve finished with the easy part — the easy part many people don’t finish. What the first draft comes down to is putting your butt in the chair and advancing the plot. If something doesn’t click, you can write it out in the next scene and write a ‘note to self’ to edit it later.

But the most important part is to write. The writing won’t be done all at once (the fastest I’ve ever done a draft is 30 days, that was part of a challenge and it was hardly the length of a usual novel: 50,000 words), so the best thing is to do a little ever time you get the chance. This may mean doing the same time every day, or like I did, in between everything else. I took a spiral bound notebook with me and wrote scenes on the bus, on my lunch hour, on the train, on the weekends. I wrote a lot of  other things in that notebook too, including bus schedules, phone numbers and grocery lists. Interspersed were pieces of my novel.  When I got home I would transcribe the latest bit of my story into the document in my computer.

I had to write the end of the story three times before I got one I could live with. There are a lot of loose ends to the narrative and I have a feeling I know what my next NaNoWrimo subject is going to be.

Something to keep in mind about writing though: everyone works differently. Find the thing that works for you. I may take a lot of searching. I can only write about what works for me.

So the “easy” part is done: now I get to edit this big fat mess. It’s a story I’ve been working on so long a yet I still love the characters — which I take as a good sign. Hopefully I’ll be able to afford the ink/paper needed to make a hard copy…

Making Christmas Presents: What I Learned

So this year, for lack of money, I decided to make my Christmas presents. Other years, I’ve thought of doing it, but I’ve had enough money to buy most of them. This year I have more art supplies than money so I went handcrafted!

Well, not entirely. But for those who are considering it for next year: Here is what I learned:

1. Don’t learn a new craft. If you are serious about making nice gifts, don’t use this time to learn something new. There is no time to learn it properly, then get and the item won’t turn out very well.
2. Make a list of your recipients. That way, you will make gifts that the recipients will like and you won’t make too many or too few.
3. Time is the real expense. What you won’t spend in money, you will spend in time. I started making the presents at the beginning of December, after NaNoWrimo wrapped, but the few hours I had after work and the weekends wasn’t enough. Now I promised myself that this year I will have Christmas in July. Right.
4. People like small handcrafted things better than large bought things. Making a small gift shows a lot more thought and care than buying it, so the things you make don’t have to be elaborate or large.
5. Shipping will cost. Don’t forget, buying the presents is not the only expense. If you live away from most of your family like I do, you will have to send most of your presents through the mail or UPS or FedEx or whatever. Luckily you can decide the item’s weight and size.
6. Don’t forget to do your homework. As always, just because you know how to make something, doesn’t mean you have it all planned out. Sketch out your project, even if it’s on the back of an envelope. It will save you time and money and your sanity later.

I’m sure there are a lot more that I haven’t thought of.

On a completely other note, I’m pretty sure that tweeting book reviews is not going to work. I’ve also hatched a plan to started another blog strictly about books.

November Madness and Book Reviews

It’s almost November (a few more hours…),  and I’m going to the midnight launch of National Novel Writing month in Portland. So I’ll be dreaming up a novel in November.
Go to www.nanowrimo.org to witness (or get in on) the madness.
Also, find me on Twitter: “ThePripyet.” I’ll tweet some book reviews during the month instead of writing here. I don’t have a pic yet, but don’t get freaked out. I’m planning to add one very soon.

And, for the record, The Adventures of Augie March is slow going.

Books and Buses

I really need to get into the habit of blogging while here in Portland. I stopped because I was packing to make my way here and then didn’t really continue because I was trying to unpack. That, and the fact I haven’t really been making anything. I’m still trying to make that table centerpeice for my mother which was supposed to be a gift for last Christmas. Most of the week, I’m working or worrying about money. *Sigh*

One thing that I have enough of are books (even so, I still heed the call of the Library). I’ve discovered that a great place to read is on the bus to work. I’m awake, unlike times past when the only real time I had to read was before I went to bed. Complex, ‘deep’ novels are hard to get into while half asleep. I can only bemoan all the books I got rid of because they would be so much better on the bus. I’ve already read Who on Earth is Tom Baker (Baker), and Rogue Moon (Budrys) that way. I’m currently chewing on The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow.

Since I’ve always wanted to amass a bunch of reviews about the books I read (I’ve made false starts over the years) I was thinking that’s what I’d use my twitter account for: book reviews in 140 characters or less. That’s all I can really come up with after most books anyway. I’ve always got this space If I need to go in depth. If I decide to do it I’ll leave the details here, so stay tuned…

I’m Back!

Whew!

When I went off to Tampa, about …er… two months ago now, I was in the middle of packing up my stuff to move to Portland Oregon. So I’m blogging from Portland, and it’s HOT. I was promised some rain…

Anyway if we jump back a bit, I have some arty pictures from Florida. Click on the Pic.

Do Not Molest the Alligators Sign

I realized that most of my pictures don’t have people in them. It’s a thing with me, but most off the pictures I take of people are of my family, and I dont’ publish them on the internet. I’m private that way.

In my last post I mentioned twitter, but to be honest, I don’t tweet much. I mostly listen to others.

Chirrr-up!

So I joined Twitter a few days ago…

I don’t have  much to tweet about and I mostly joined to follow people, but — I foresee a time in the future when it could be a good quick promotion tool.

It’s surprising how some people can give you glimpses into their life in the two lines allotted and others don’t have much to say at all.

In the meantime, I’ll use it for the rare times I have  petite brilliant idea and happen to be in front of my computer. As if those two things are concurrent often…

Meanwhile I’m off to Tampa (FL)… (though certainly not for fun).

Street Painting In San Rafael

On Sunday I took a brief turn around the San Rafael Italian Street Painting Festival. Pics:

A Chuck Close Portait

I was actually there to hear a friend play in the Banda Italiana di Marin – A band formed in the spirit of the Italian town bands, so I didn’t spend too long with the actual artwork.

Unfinished Mermaid Through a Porthole

There were lots of stunning works though!

Josephine Baker Dancing

The theme was ‘Faces of the Renaissance’. Most people took this to mean the Italian (European) Renaissance, but there was Josephine Baker and Billie Holidays thrown in for good measure.

Hollywood Kiss

Because of the horizontal nature of the ‘canvas’, it was hard to get a non-distorted picture. I saw people with cameras on poles (to hold over the middle of the picture) to solve this problem.

Unfinished Hillscape.

Links for Italian Street Painting Festival (on the Youth in Arts Page, links to the 2009 Festival site)

Pictures! Memorial Day 2009

Okay, memorial camping pics, late as usual.

Click the duckie.

Lady Duckie -- Click for Flickr Page

Over the weekend, I read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes adventure, The Sign of Four. I also wrote about five pages on the story I was working on.