The End of Autumn

Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold,

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Quote:

No one knows what he can do until he tries. --Publiluis Syrus

Blessings

Character Names

I mentioned in a previous post about character names and choosing them. This is one of the fun-est things to do with writing--on my part. Some writers have trouble doing this. Some have trouble with novel titles. Most times I enjoy choosing both.

Today, let's write about character names.

Here's a few ways I have of choosing:

• From the get-go, sometimes a character already has a name, for a variety of reasons including from the first I received the inspiration to write the idea, the character's name was part of it all.
• Sometimes I'll choose a name because I like it, it's one of my favorites, or its a name of a friend that I want to honor.
• There are times I turn to my trusty baby name book and search through it. Right now, I'm searching for a protagonist name (male) for a thriller/suspense novel. It's in the plotting stage and will need a lot of research, so I've plenty of time to come up with the appropriate name. I've begun the list to choose from though.
• If all else fails I have two tried and true methods to come up with a name:

(1) hold a blog contest. Used this method for the "bad guys" in my cozy mystery and had several entries. Ann won a gift certificate for coming up with a couples' names that perfectly fit them.

Or (2) ask my special critique partners who do a good job of coming up with names. Jam, for example, didn't like the name of the second romance I wrote, so I told them to brainstorm. She came up with a wonderful romancy type of name.

Hard? Not usually. Finding the perfect name for a character is a piece of cake--normally. And fun.

Quote:
A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something. --Anonymous


Blessings

Let It Snow, what?

It snowed yesterday. I mean, it snowed. Not those tiny little half-rain, half-snow dots that we get occasionally this time of the year, just to make sure that we haven't forgotten what the north is like.

But real, real snow. It was beautiful coming down yesterday. The first real snow of the year; big, fluffy white puffs of snow that created a magic world for just a while.

But this morning we've got less than an inch, but there is snow on the ground.

And cold.

Now I can take the snow (as long as I can get out sometimes), but the cold?
Forget it, I hate the cold weather. Not just nippy weather that brings a blush to healthy cheeks, but that bitingly, bitter, windy cold temperature that chills your very soul. Brrrr!

This has always been my favorite season, from September through December. Love to decorate, love to celebrate, love the cooler temperatures.

But have you noticed how different this year's been?
Very little rain.
Hot, hot weather.
Some cold, then warm, then hot, then cold again weather.
Unpredictable. Un-normal for this time of the year.
Finally, after months of no rain, we get some this month.
Now, this cold, cold and snow.


I think I'll go south.



Quote:
On the road to success, you can be sure of one thing: there is never a crowd on the extra mile.

Blessings

Talkin' About Fish

A friend of mine blogged about her two boys fish the other day.
Beta fish. One purple and blue, the other blue and red. Beautiful creatures. Not very nice personalities when they have to associate with their kind, but still, a person can't ask for everything, can they?

At the end of her blog, she asked for suggestions for names for the little beauties. Her boys had yet to come up with some.

Here's my suggestions:
Betas are beautiful, kingly fish. Gorgeous colors. Swirling, graceful fins. Easy to look at and enjoy. So . . .

I suggested using Britain's princes' names: William (or Willie, Wills, Billy, etc.) and Harry (or some variation).

Cool, huh?

I love names, love coming up with them for my characters. But I'll blog about that later.

Here's another cool thing about fish. They're totally delicious to eat. Not betas. Laugh.

But catfish, the salt and pepper variety, deep fried, along with corn sticks, baked potatoes and slaw. Yum. A feast fit for a king. AND, I got to enjoy that fish meal, thanks to good friends in Virginia. (Virginia does claim many people there who are wonderful hosts!)

Wanna here a fish story?
Sorry, don't have one right now, unless I'd stretch the truth a little and tell you I'm a New York Times Bestselling author.

Quit your laughing! I may make it some day. Smile



Quote:
We must have courage to bet on our ideas, to take the calculated risk and to act. Everyday living requires courage if life is to be effective and bring happiness. --Maxwell Maltz


Blessings

Bright Morning, November Morning

November Morning
by Evaleen Stein

A tingling, misty marvel

Blew hither in the night,

And now the little peach-trees

Are clasped in frozen light.
Upon the apple-branches

An icy film is caught,

With trailing threads of gossamer

In pearly patterns wrought.
The autumn sun, in wonder,

Is gayly peering through This silver-tissued network

Across the frosty blue.
The weather-vane is fire-tipped,

The honeysuckle shows

A dazzling icy splendor,

And crystal is the rose.
Around the eaves are fringes

Of icicles that seem

To mock the summer rainbows

With many-colored gleam.
Along the walk, the pebbles

Are each a precious stone;

The grass is tasseled hoarfrost,

The clover jewel-sown.
Such sparkle, sparkle, sparkle

Fills all the frosty air,

Oh, can it be that darkness

Is ever anywhere!

Quote:

Whining is anger thru a small opening. --Stuart Smalley

Blessings

Working With . . .

Beginning writers.

I've been thinking about offering my services to amateur writers. Not sure how to approach it.

Perhaps as a limited free service such as a chapter every week for a month (3 months, or even 6 months).

Or perhaps a one time offer to critique a chapter.

I'd like to give back to beginning writers, and this has always seemed like something I'd like to do in a limited fashion.

I wouldn't want to be tied down forever, but within reasonable lengths it could be beneficial to some and satisfactory to me.

I know the two girls locally that I've mentored have come an impressive ways toward publication. One even had an editor request a manuscript.

Whatever I decide, whatever the future holds as far as what I can give back, I want to begin soon. We'll see what happens.

Just as a heads-up: Linore Rose Burke will be the featured author on my blog on Christmas Day. Those who comment AND get a friend (relative, someone) else to do so also, will win a very nice gift. She's a very talented author. I'm impressed with her writing. Watch for more info.



Quote:
Man lives by praise. Most of us would rather be hurt by flattery as helped by criticism. --Lawrence J. Peter

Blessings

Another Thought on Marketing

I've been trying to come up with a good topic that I can use as a marketing tool for ME. In other words, I need a topic that I can speak on that will be interesting and vitally important to writers. A topic that I can use to speak at mini writing conferences and seminars after I'm published, if not before.

I've thought about writers and their health. Would that be the same old, same old? Boring? How could I make it different and unusual?

Anyone with other ideas for topics?
Help me out here.


Quote:
I'm not going to limit myself just because people won't accept the fact that I can do something else. --Dolly Parton

Blessings

Fly Away, Fly Away

Wherefore Wings
by Evaleen Stein

Heigho, sparrow! Reckless of the rain;

When chill the cheerless wind grows,

Chirping might and main!

Is it naught, then, when the rose

Blows again?

Beating, sleeting on your draggled coat!

Surely, 'tis enough to drownAny happy note

Nestling in that downy brown

Little throat.Ah me, sparrow!

Had I but your power,

Think you in the freezing sleet I would waste an hour?

--I'd sing my sweetest to a sweet

Orange flower

Quote:

In spite of the cost of loving, it's still popular. --Stuart Smalley

Blessings

Getting Ready

With my path to publication getting closer all the time, I've been thinking more and more of marketing. It's not my favorite thought, but it's gotta be done--eventually.

Here's some things to do:

1. I've taken some classes--and will take more--on marketing by people who are pretty knowledgeable about it for authors.
2. I'm joining more online groups, especially where there's chances to mingle with other writers.
3. I'm attending this fall more writing seminars and smaller conferences close to home.
4. I'm getting to compile my contact list.

And that brings me to the point I want to talk about.

My contact list. Its a list compiled of people who can be alerted when (if?) I get published so that they can either buy the book (if they want it. Smile) or spread the word through mouth or online about it. As "they" say: word of mouth is still the best way of advertising.

So . . . I'm making a list--and definitely don't want a short one. I'm including you, readers, on it, and hope you'll pass on other names of possible interested readers. I'll probably run contests to get the word out, print up bookmarks, etc., do blog interviews for those interested in helping me out, and give a limited number of books away to those who make a good effort to help promote it.

Anyone else with some good ideas?

Anyone willing to help out?

Quote:

Trust your hunches. They are usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level. --Dr. Joyce Brothers

Blessings!

More Poem Fun

After Apple Picking
by Robert Frost

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still.
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples; I am drowsing off.
I cannot shake the shimmer from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the water-trough,
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and reappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
And I keep hearing from the cellar-bin
That rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking; I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall,
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised, or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

Quote:

Become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid. --Lady Bird Johnson

Blessings!