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THE MAP!

So even though I had this post already to go my brain wanted to do some coloring. But now on to our regularly scheduled programing... No wait Look it’s another random blog award!

The Kreativ Blogger Award has given to me by Miriam Joy. She claims it’s because I’m creative, but I secretly suspect it’s also because of my occasional kreativ spellings. And what tasks have been assigned to me via this award? Hm...

• Answer 9 questions – That doesn’t sound too hard.
• Provide 10 facts – I think I can manage that.
• Pass it on to 7 people – No, I’m not going to. Sorry, but I’m playing dead end.

Okay, now on to the questions and facts.

THE QUESTIONS:

1. What is your favorite song?  - Step-by-Step by John McCutcheon has a lot songs I love, but Step-by-step is my anthem. It reminds me that things will get done, one step at a time and to ask for help when needed, because you can’t always do it alone. *grin*
2. What is your favorite dessert? – That’s a tough question, but I’m going to go with an ooey gooy hot fudge brownie topped with mint chocolate chip ice cream, whip cream and a cherry. *drools*
3. What ticks you off? – When my kids don’t listen to me or do what I ask them to do (really anyone who doesn’t listen when I’m trying to tell them to stop doing something). Sadly it’s tears before anger so when Daddy asks, “And why should you listen to Mommy?”, Fiona answers “So that she doesn’t cry.” *sigh*
4. When you’re upset, what do you do? – I tend to hide and cry. I’ve got a lot of tears and it seems to be the best way to let out my upset... crying coupled with chocolate and a good book to escape into, works wonders. Though more often,  it’s sleep that I really need. *zzzz*
5. What is your favorite pet? – My husband... he counts right? If not then, currently I have to say my kitty Dusteen (RIP). She was a rescue kitten we adopted shortly after my mother kicked her mental x-bf out of the house. Dusteen may have been prone to wobbling, flopping and thunding on stairs, but she was full of purrs for me. I miss falling asleep to her lullabies. *sniffles*.
6. Which do you prefer: black or white? – I consider them equal, though white tends to show a lot more of my life with kids and the black puppy. *grin*
7. What is your attitude? – I can be sarcastic or serious, but in general I prefer to be lighthearted. *giggles*
8. What is perfection? – I don’t know. I’ll tell you when I find out. *grin*
9. What is your guilty pleasure? – Writing pure teenage romance. The kind that plays out my dream of what I wish high school might have ended as if my outcast self met the cool, secretly geeky, jock. Reading romances makes me feel a little guilty, too.

THE FACTS:

1. I seriously dislike making random lists. Unless it has a direction (like a grocery list, or to do list) I find it very hard, therefore the remainder of this list will be facts from my university days.
2. I applied to two universities, one in Kansas (near my grandparents) and one near home (that my boyfriend went to). I got into both, but choose to go to the latter.
3. The day I went to my orientation was the day I decided to go from Liberal Arts Undecided to a Bachelor of Science in Textile Chemistry; however, they wouldn’t let me switch my major until a week after school started.
4. The boyfriend mentioned above and I broke up on my mom’s birthday my first semester at the university.
5. About four months later I started hanging out with a new guy, whom I haven’t been able to get rid of (as if I’d want to *giggles and grins*).
6. I found out I could have tested out of Physics, after I’d taken the second semester.
7. My chemistry teacher (whom I had for five semesters plus) was always telling me I should be a straight Chemistry major
8. I tutored Chemistry five hours a week in my last two years University, and loved it (especially when I had students to tutor).
9. There was only one Textile Chemistry major who graduated with me, yet I knew the Chemistry Majors in my year better.
10. I have two diplomas, one says magna cum laude, the other summa cum laude. The later was sent as a correction to the former after the graduation ceremony. 

Next week I’ll try to be a bit more serious. Any suggestions for topics? I’ve been thinking about starting that world building. I’ve already done a post on Maps. (See look I’ve sort of completed mine.) *grins*

:} Cathryn Leigh

Imaginary Friends need Love Too!

Last week I talked about where I get my strong and independent female characters. Today I thought I’d talk about how Sarah’s Phoenix got started. I’ve probably mentioned it a little bit but, I thought I’d go into more detail. It starts in my childhood

*Wayne’s World Dream Sequence Motion*

I don’t know when my parents told me, but it feels like I’ve always known that I had a brother. Unfortunately, he died about a month before I was born after a year or more of being sick. There was a one in four chance that I could develop the same sickness because it’s due to a recessive gene.

Around the time of my parents’ separation, I created an imaginary friend. Wishing that I had a sibling to share my turmoil with the person I talked to was always male. I never gave him a name though. He was just always there when I needed him. he’s the one how got to hear me rant and rave as tears poured down my face, just because my  mom’s bf had put pieces in the puzzle I was working on. (Hey I was 14 or so, very emotionally unbalanced and that guy... well he’s another story.)

Life moved on an I got boyfriends and that imaginary guy friend receded into the back of my head. I met my hubby, we dated, we moved across country together, then we got married and started trying to have kids.

*Back to Life, Back to Reality*

Now I know that Sarah & Jason (the original title of Sarah’s Phoenix) was typed into the computer in about 2005, the year my daughter was born, so either early that year, or, as is more likely, in 2004 I wrote Sarah & Jason in a notebook; or two. There are bits and pieces of it in numerous places.

Writing it was like documenting a waking dream. In those days I’d wake up at six in the morning to get ready for work, but after I’d eaten I lie on the couch daydreaming; but not. It was like the story had a spell on me and I would spend a half hour each morning living it like it was a dream, a very real dream. Then I would write it. I even wrote it at work, when I had spare moments. That’s what there are printed paged paper clipped to the original notebook.

The story has come a long way from that waking dream. Certainly Wholawski, named because he was supposed to be a donkey cavity (creative synonyms for the win!), has become a lot more sadistic than I ever wanted him to be. But, Jason, the supposedly imaginary friend of Sarah, turned out to be my childhood imaginary friend.

Apparently, now that I was happily married, I had no need for him. But, being me, I couldn’t just abandon him. I like my happy endings. I have one, so why shouldn’t he? Enter Sarah, the protagonist most like me, only a bit more kick donkey. *giggles* She gets to play the role I would have loved to have (before I met my hubby) – girl travels to what she thought was her own imaginary world to help conquer an evil man and find true love all at the same time!

Yes, I love my happy endings so much I gave one to my childhood imaginary friend...

Stepping Towards the Stars

So last week I talked about my dream goal. But you can’t just stop at dreaming. It would be nice if we could, though. Life would be so much easier, but as most of know life isn’t easy and it’s going to throw up road blocks of all sorts. So to obtain that dream goal you have to keep working towards it. In my case, I’m taking what I consider baby steps.

  

These baby steps are my goals for this year and I’ve tried to make them SMART. That means they are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. Or at least I’ve tried to make them that way. Let me give you some examples of what I’ve created.

Example 1: They say that part of being a good author is to read, read, read, so I’ve created a goal around this.

• Read at least one novel a month
• Read at least one short story a week

So by the end of the year I expect to have read 12 Novels and 52 short stories. That seems pretty specific and measurable. Is it attainable? I think so. I’ve already read my short story for the week and I’m currently working on that first Novel. As far as realistic and timely goes, well you have to remember I’m responsible for the feeding and clothing of my family, plus my own writing, so I think it is.

Example 2: the other part of being an author is to write, write, write. Needless to say I have a couple goals around that. I’ll show you the one related to The Phoenix of Vervell Trilogy

• Complete the editing and posting of Phoenix Triumphant (February)
• Complete the “Massive Revision” of Sarah’s Phoenix to align it with Phoenix Rising and Phoenix Triumphant (August)
• Send Sarah’s Phoenix out for critique and beta reading (September)

I’ve made these as specific and measurable are as I could. I haven’t been through the editing process enough to know how to measure revisions, but I suspect I’ll know when I’m done. Sending it out will be the easy part to measure. Again they are as attainable, realistic and timely, as I can make them. I gave myself an extra month on editing Phoenix Triumphant, just in case life throws some curveballs at me.
 

I also have some goals related to this Blog. The first is to continue weekly postings and the second to turn it into an Author Blog. The first is getting harder as I struggle  for topics each week. The second entails changing the name, and probably other stuff that I'm not entirely sure of. I do have a few ideas though. Some are more specific to this year than others.

• 30 days of World Building – Starting on April 11th, I’d lead you through the exercises as I flush out my own for NaNoWriMo 2012
• Setting a topic for each blog post such as: First of the month is a book review, last of the month is a goal review.
• Inviting some guests over to blog (yes Charley and Miriam I’m looking at you)
• Finding a book on writing with lots of exercises that we can do together. (could be one a month?)

I want to tie into my fellow writers as well as my readers without having to maintain two blogs (or a website), so please, let me know your ideas, comments and questions you have on how to make my blog better. Believe me I’d appreciate it.

:} Cathryn Leigh

The Power of Dreams

Dreams and the waking conscious are powerful things. How many times do we wake up with a strong idea rattling around our head? Or perhaps, you suddenly bolt upright because yesterday’s problem now has a solution. Yet, even when they aren’t giving out story ideas or solving problems they can be entertaining and sometime frightening. Dreams also give us insight into ourselves.

When I was younger, around the time of my parents’ divorce, I had a reoccurring dream. It never happened the same way twice but it was always the same thing.

I would be at a place waiting for my mother to pick me up and take me home. I’d wait for a bit and then shed arrive. Sometimes she’d get out and talk to the person whose house I was at. Sometimes she’d just say something through the open car window. But, every time she would drive off without me. I would be left there, standing where I was crying.

Even retelling the dream makes me misty eyed. I’m still afraid of being abandoned or forgotten, just not so much that I continue to have that dream.

Another dream form my youth, about the same time frame I think, is the one in which I died; yes, died. It’s a bit convoluted and hard to describe, but I’ll try.

It starts off at night in an abandon bus yard. The yellow school buses are all park, silent for the night. There is a jacket lying on the ground and, being cold, I pick it up. No sooner do I put it on then all the bus headlights flick on like monsters opening their eyes. I run and manage to make it inside the house. I’m not quite sure what happens inside the house, but there are more people and I think ghosts that chase me. Then it’s morning and I go for a walk with my dog. We head just into the woods where I’ve dug out a fort. Climbing inside we curl up for a nap, oblivious to the construction equipment nearby. We get bulldozed over and die. Now a spirit, I wander about until I come across this amusement park. I can still clearly see it in my mind, but describing it is a completely different story. Take the Titanic, cut it in half and set it on land, slightly buried into the ground. Now paint it pink, hot pink. Add zip lines from the decks to the ground in multiple places, and then populate it with arcade games, bowling allies and kids. Yeah, something like that. So, as a spirit, I float up to one of the decks and meander about. Then I take possession of a girl. I have no idea who, but I’m alive again I guess.

Looking back I can say, my dog’s death had to do with the fact we had to put her down eventually. But the Bright Pink ship, and there is now way I knew this when I had the dream, but the Bright Pink ship was related to my mom’s first boyfriend after the divorce. The man hated the color pink. The brighter and more fluorescent the more he hated it. He also happens to be the only person I hate.

So this turned out to have nothing to do with my original thought. But hopefully you were at least entertained by my dreams. Because what started this dream blog idea was my waking up early in the morning two days ago thinking about St. Malroy’s Forever and the fact that I might get to be a beta reader, and what kind of valuable feedback I might be able to give, being an American adult over 30.

:} Cathryn Leigh