writing

Theory of Living (Okay, Not Really)

/ Alex Whitehall / 1 Comment

“Every day is a new beginning.”

I’m sure someone before me said that thing in quotes, but I don’t know who. Maybe I’m just really that inspired.

Aside from lacking internet this weekend, it was a very nice time. And when I got home on Sunday I moved my bedroom around, which I enjoyed way too much. I didn’t even move much, but I got a different feng shui thing going on now. I also started sketching again, and writing a new story, and working on my projects. Let’s here a happy “Go you!”

I know it’s only Tuesday, but I already know the next two weekends are going to lack BL-time. This weekend I have movie night with some friends, then saturday is riding, community day, then Kw-time. I’ll somehow wake myself up Sunday morning for mother’s day and head home. I should probably do something for mother’s day. Curses.

The next weekend is the Tom Curtin clinic, which involves leaving early Friday morning and not getting back until late Sunday. I’ll be bitchy on Monday, for certain, but I get a long weekend after that, so hopefully I’ll survive.

Ironically, nothing planned for the long weekend. I ❤ Memorial Day. Though I'm still in shock that it's May and soon it'll be June. (O.O) I was actually fairly certain I had something important to post here…but it seems I was mistaken.

That’s a Valid Point.

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For those of you who follow Neil Gaiman’s blog, I’m sure you’ve read about Amazon’s Fail. I first heard about it this morning from one of my web comic authors, here. I’m hoping this was just one giant “WHOOPS” that will be remedied. I haven’t read everything there is on the topic, but it’s kinda really aggravating. But most things are in this world. Part of me concedes that they are a business and they can do whatever they want (within limits). Part of me thinks that if they are/were to follow through with this, that they’d realize it’s not a good idea. Here’s hoping.

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend, although I got no extra vacation out of it. Just candy. So my exercising is offset by candy eating. Hopefully balancing it out. I’ve been pretty good about exercising on days that I’m not at the barn (or Fridays when I’m with my friends) and walking anytime it’s not raining or too cold. But of course work is causing more stress so I stress eat. I may do some meditations before bed to chillax–or something like that.

My writing has shifted focus again, this time in the form of a girl named Justine. I’m not sure where she’s taking me, but I’m just going along for the ride at this point.

Tonight I edited about 10 pages worth of story, which felt good. I’ve also begun a list of things I seemed to have forgotten, so I’ll have a chance to add more length to the story–which is hopefully a good thing. My goal is to be done editing by the end of the month. I want my first two test subjects to get it as soon as possible. Go team!

Still undecided on the cable decision. Part of me thinks that it’s a really good idea, and the other half thinks it’s not really worth what I’ll save. I suppose I don’t really have to rush to make a choice.

The Wind of Winds

/ Alex Whitehall / 1 Comment

Sweet Saturday, thy name is pleasure.

Okay, I may be over dramatizing a bit! But weekends are wonderful. This morning I went to the barn and rode, which was windy but fun, since my horse is only slightly lame and hopefully will heal without any care, just time off. Then home for shower and food and off to the store to buy dice (a lot of dice. 260. don’t ask.) and cards (because I’d like to start playing Contract Rummy and Hand&Foot again. so I needed decks of cards). Also, while I was out I found this:

Which is odd, I’ll give you that. They are candy snakes. Lollipops from what I gathered. My one friend loves snakes, so…I had to. 😀

I also picked up the game Apples to Apples, which was mucho fun when I played it at group and I’ll be bringing it to my brother’s birthday party. Plus the game that we played a year ago where we all insulted said brother having birthday. I wonder which one he’ll want to play….

I actually have the next step of one of my stories sort of worked out in my head, which makes me feel better. I also have a vague plan of doing a serial story like writers used to do in newspapers. Part of me wants to do it just to do it, part of me sees it as a challenge, part of me thinks it would get some sh*t done.

In totally unrelated, not getting sh*t done news, I read two “comics” which I wanted to share, although most my people know about them. One is XKCD, an example of this is:
They are uber geek.

The other is A Softer World, which is like this:

They are kinda indie.

Both make me feel smart. Both make me feel stupid. And I enjoy both experiences!

A side note (also, congrats if you made it down this far), I’m considering not getting cable TV anymore. I don’t watch loads of TV, and it would be best not to have that temptation anyways, right? Plus I’d save $20 a month, which isn’t really a lot (which is why I question dropping TV). Err, I’m still debating this one, but I guess input would be appreciated.

This is not a Trick

/ Alex Whitehall / 2 Comments

I’m very happy for Wednesday this week.

Not only was my weekend full of people and doings, but then Monday I was home long enough to cook dinner, but then didn’t return until nearly 11, last night was better, I got home by 7:30 and then cooked something up for a lil party we’re having at work.

The reason for the party? To celebrate my one coworker not getting Mono and having to take off all that time. It’s also April 1st, so it seemed like a good day to do it. The party is limited to the four of us in editorial, but we’ll have yums and drinks and such. Good times all around. I think it’s nice just to break the monotony.

My writing has been unfocused lately and rather bland feeling. I’d rather not talk about it.

Today I don’t have anything outside of my home planned and I’m looking forward to cleaning, exercising and doing some much-needed editing. Yay for Wednesdays!

Creativity gone too far

/ Alex Whitehall / 1 Comment

Perhaps it’s time to cut back on the writing, or perhaps I need to write more, I don’t know. Last night I tried to sleep and my brain was buzzing with books I’ve read and stories I’m writing and I couldn’t sleep. When I finally drifted off, my dreams were vivid and fantastical, with invisible monsters stealing souls which were returned by guardians. I’d almost like to write about it, but fear I cannot do the monster justice.

To say the least, I survived today only through the blessing of chocolate and painkillers. Between doing real work, I wrote about wolves and romance and the strange country they meet in. It kept me awake, though I doubt it’ll do much to help me sleep tonight. Need to be competent tomorrow, have a meeting about web content. Motivation is minimal.

Sometimes, when running bare foot and fleeting and alone, you feel graceful.

It’s called Almost Productive

/ Alex Whitehall / 1 Comment

“Weekends always go far too quickly.”
-Lament of the working individual

This past week I felt tired and unmotivated, so my working out has been fail-tastic. Today, when putting my saddle back on the rack, my arms felt extremely tired. So I don’t know if I’m pushing myself too hard and getting ill or if I need to push it up a notch.

I ordered my brother’s birthday present online today, so hopefully it’ll arrive in time. It wasn’t procrastinating (I normally get this stuff done way ahead of time), I just had no idea what to get him.

On the other hand, my other brother (and only watcher of this blog), is easy to shop for, because I can pretty much get him any book and it’s a safe bet. Like today, I was at goodwill (where I picked up pants, yay) and I found a book I think he’ll like. I’m an awesome sister.

I did my federal taxes, and I’m getting a nice return, so that’ll pay for my new laptop (wee!). But I still have about 2 chapters to go before I finish my book, so I have to do that yet. But hopefully I’ll be done this week. And then shopping will occur.

My original plan was to dive right into the sequel, but a conversation last night kind of makes me want to work on another world that is forming in my head. Along with the three that already are there. It’s getting crowded.

Speaking of crowds, though, not really: I was hanging out with my friends on Saturday, and I enjoyed their company, but I wasn’t really interested in most of the conversation. Lately I’ve just wanted to talk about writing and reading alot (which I suppose is normally, considering), but I feel like talking about my own projects too much is pompous (and I’ll admit, I’m a little superstitious), and my friends don’t really talk about that stuff. It just makes me feel like I’m missing something in life.

I hope I make you cry, a little.

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It’s snowing outside, I’ve just eaten Andes Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, and I sit down to write the aftermath of the battle. Honestly, the next few chapters (and possibly another book) will be about the aftermath, but this is the first chapter, where we change perspectives and realize that people have died.

I was sad already, it being Valentine’s Day and me being single, not in the 1.0 vs 1.1 way, but in the 1 vs 1.0 way. Which may not make sense to you, but makes perfect sense to me. It’s all about the place holder. So I was sad.

And then I’m writing about people having died and how horrible it is to have to handle corpses to send them off to loved ones. But I feel content with how things are going. Although I know a funeral chapter is going to have to happen and I’m not particularly looking forward to it. I hope I cry and I hope the readers cry, whenever they get a chance to read it. In 12 years.

So it was still snowing, and I ate more ice cream, and I realized I should share this, even if it’s just with myself.

salut, january

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I’ve been kinda pendulumatic lately, so I apologize if I’ve worried anyone, or thrown anyone for a loop. Parts of life were really scary for a bit there, and parts of life were being made more terrible in my imagination than they really were. But is it not the darkness of winter that lingers in our hearts? Or something like that.

My writing has not been so much lately, although my once a week promise still stands strong. For my large project I’m going to have to write a battle, and it should be pretty grand in the scheme of things, and this terrifies me, because I’m not really a fighter. So…that’s next.

Tonight I put “write” on my to-do list, and since I’m avoiding said battle scene, I wrote this piece. I’m rather fond of it in this moment and may call it “Mirror Child” although it’s one of my Tales and thus normally has no name.

I also made a half-batch of brownies tonight in my pie dish. (half batch = 1 oz chocolate, .5 c sugar, .25 c oil/butter, 1 egg, .25 c flour, touch of vanilla/extract of choice) Yummy. And bakes in 12 minutes. And keeps me from being a complete pig! Currently I’m just apiglette.

Pretty good for a Monday

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I started this morning filled with dread and an overall feeling of wanting to die, which is pretty extreme, even for me.

But the day went well enough–possibly fate’s way of saying “hold on.”

Now at home: I’m eating a bean and cheese quesadilla. Mushed pinto beans and a cheese blend (Monterrey and pepper jack, I believe, or something similar) fried in a pan makes for some yummy dinner. And pretty healthy too.

I just read that The Graveyard Book won the 2009 Newbery, which is awesome. Go Neil! It makes me happy that I have a signed copy and read it (in a day, at that). That man is great. An excellent writer/storyteller and a nice, down to earth, funny human being (I’m assuming on this last one, he could very well be an alien).

Last week, which was pretty awefully blah for me, provoked very little writing. This morning, which was horrified and painful, gave me some poems. I’m hoping it’s a sign that the writing block has stopped. It didn’t really matter, since I’ll be writing tonight–whether it’s good or bad.

Tired of this darkness

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I woke up yesterday from 8 hours of sleep and was tired.

“Well,” I thought, “It’s snowing and dark and Monday, it’s to be expected.”

My energy picked up once I was home from work and all was well.

I woke up this morning from 8 hours of sleep and am tired.

It’s still dark, no longer snowing, and no longer Monday. I have my tea (and a twang of pain in my throat). And I remember, “Yes, this is the darkness of Winter that makes me want to call out of work every day of the week.”

It also makes me want to sleep ungodly amounts. If it wouldn’t make me feel lazy as sin (and probably make me wake up at 4 am), I would absolutely come home from work and sleep. I wonder how long I could sleep if my body weren’t on a schedule.

I think I need to do some more meditations. My body is in that restless state again. Freaking out. The war is going to start soon. I don’t know if I’m ready.