misfitmonkey

Holy crap on toast, I have never waited this long to let an enormous quantity of words to build up in order for me to complete Nanowrimo. I’m not even sure that last sentence made sense… I have been doing nothing but trying to catch up today.

I have a little (very, very little) over 40k words at the time of this blog entry. I need 50k to complete my fifth Nanowrimo novel. I am NOT going to fail two years in a row… except unless I do fail.

*oy*

Tomorrow is the last day to write, and I have to work through a majority of that day, so today is THE day to get this stuff done. This is the big day of “get your shit together and write,” and here I am writing a blog post because I’m not sure what to write in my novel.

EGAD. Between switching jobs and buying a house, this just has NOT been a stellar year to write a novel.

*slaps self*

*goes back to writing a hastily composed work of fiction in an inordinately short period of time*

If you’re going to be one of those people that complains about all the Nanowrimo talk during November… shoo. Go ‘way. Not interested. It’s what I do each year, and it’s AWESOME.

For those of you who don’t know, I am the Municipal Liaison for the Canton, Ohio region of National Novel Writing Month, and this is my seventh year with that title (my eighth year doing Nano). If you’re enjoying the madness, friend me up on the site! :)

This year has been really interesting so far, because I started at midnight last night with a specific novel in mind, a serious novel with a lot of heavy topics planned, and it completely TANKED before I hit 500 words. I discovered in short order that completely turning away from my Nanowrimo writing style was absurd and counterproductive, so I took a restroom break and returned to the table with zero plan and a lot of determination.

Now I have 1175 words of a novel that just materialized as I kept writing, and it would appear that I’m now writing about a cyborg man named Wendell who refuses to fight crime and save the planet because of a manufacturing mishap that has resulted in his constantly craving french fries. Since he was supposed to be the planet’s last ditch effort to same humanity, his creator, Peter Stimple, is in seriously trouble with his higher ups, and chaos will surely ensue.

The midnight kickoff at Denny’s last night was awesome overall. There were a few of us who’ve been doing this together for a while now, and new people popped in right at midnight and joined us. Pretty good turn out for the midnight event, so I’m sure today’s kickoff event will be a huge success. :) Happy noveling!

(If slideshow doesn’t appear, photo set is here.)

This interview with Doctor Anonymous was a WONDERFUL experience and allowed me to really explain a lot about my process, my creative journey, and how I got to this point in the self-pubishing process. I open up a bit about the collection, the significance of the poems chosen, how the title came out, and a lot of other really fun tidbits that make this book important to me.

Thanks to Doctor Anonymous for having me on the show!! Please give this a listen if you’d like to really understand the book and what I wanted to accomplish with this collection:

Linkage:

Doctor Anonymous Show
Interview Preview and Interview Announcement

Come down to the First Friday festivities on September 4th and I will be on the second floor of 2nd April Galerie signing copies of Columbus Groove. It would REALLY mean a lot to see friends and family at this event, because I’m nervous and have very little time to prepare myself for such a quickly arranged signing.

Signing Date: Friday, September 4, 2009
Time: 6:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: 2nd April Galerie

Come purchase your copy and enjoy all the great stuff going on downtown. First Friday is a lot of fun, with live music, food vendors and a ton of special monthly events! Even if you already have a copy of the book, the evening will be a great time!

I’ve been really busy lately with a fun project, one that I’ve been revising and fiddling around with for close to a decade. I’ve been seriously working on it for a few months now, and it is ready to be revealed…

I’m publishing a book of poetry.

I have a collection of poems that I’ve compiled into a cohesive collection, all centered around relationships, love, heartbreak, and the journey we take to find “the one.” I’ve added poems over the years, cut poems over the years, and I finally have the nerve to take the collection and share it with the world, because really… why the hell not?

Stephanie Smanto jumped on board with some amazing graphic design talents that have only made these poems look better. She typeset the inside and designed the cover, which I am truly in love with. I’m endlessly grateful to her for her patience and her creative eye. The book wouldn’t be what it is without her role in the publishing process.

I feel confident enough that this last proof is the final proof that I’ve released the book for pre-order on the website. Check out the site, which has a description of the collection and a page for pre-ordering Columbus Groove. It will also have ongoing news, such as book signings in the Ohio area and announcements when the book is available on sites like Lulu.com and Amazon.com. There will be a digital format available for purchase as well (stay tuned on the book’s site for info on getting that for free if you purchase the hard copy).

I’ve really been hesitant to talk much about the book, because I’ve let silly insecurities get the best of me up until a week or so ago. Telling people you’re self-publishing can open you up for a long of ignorant and hurtful criticism, usually by fellow writers who want to accuse you of cutting corners or simply not writing anything good enough to be published traditionally. I’ve been lucky enough not to field those comments since announcing this project to writing friends, but I’ve heard the comments all too often before becoming a self-publisher myself.

The truth is, I haven’t submitted this collection to a single publisher, and the process I’ve gone through has not been easy. In choosing to have ownership over every part of this process, I have been completely responsible for the product I’m releasing, including editing, obtaining and approving the best quality design, choosing an appropriate price, submitting the work to the copyright office, and figuring out how and where to sell this baby.

This is much more than just the content of the book for me. I’m releasing a product, complete with packaging that has taken months to perfect, fonts that were painstakingly chosen and approved, page ordering and author bios that were redone a million times, and a game plan that I’ve had to finalize largely on my own, with zero help from a big publisher or an agent.

I’m finally done with the insecurity and I’m really proud of that. I’m proud of the collection, I’m thrilled with the whole package, I’m grateful for the support I’ve received, and regardless of the reception from this point out, it took guts to get this project off the ground. I hope you’ll enjoy the celebration with me. :)

“What did you do before we had the Internet?”

Wow. Well, I have mention that prior to the internet, I was young, so the difference between what I did pre-high school and what I do now has a lot to do with my age rather than the internet, I think.

The internet has really taken its toll on a couple of things though (along with life, a job, and being a grown up, I guess):

1. I read less. I was voracious reader as a child, to the point that I could devour several books in a day if I had the whole day to do as I pleased. I’ve recently found a better balance, which has been easier after finishing my Masters and not having that residual school-induced resentment of books that I typically get from classes that force me to read crap that I don’t want to read.

Did I stop reading as much solely because of the internet? I guess I would say that the content of my reading changed drastically as blogging hit the web full force… it’s honestly possible that I read as much as I ever did, just less items of the tradition book variety. Is that a bad thing? I’m not sure it is… although I’m not sure it isn’t either.

2. I write less. When I wasn’t reading, I was writing creatively, whether it was short stories, poetry, or my own journaling. I use to write creatively on a constant basis, notebook always in tow, constant scribblings, constant editing of poems… I thought at one point in my life that I would be a Writer as my main calling and while I know at this point that my purpose is a little broader than that, I still hope to accomplish a few things as a lowercase writer. ;) (Stay tuned on that, actually. I’m entertaining serious plans to finally self publish something I’ve worked on for a long time.)

I would say that only in the past few years has the internet really taken a big chunk out of my creative writing volume, because where my poetry and short story writing lessened with the onset of internet availability, my online blogging/journaling skyrocketing for a long time, and at the time, the internet was the perfect venue to express myself through introspective/personal writing of a journaling nature.

Initially, the internet actually increased the amount of writing I did, but as my need for cathartic LiveJournal-type writing decreased, my creative writing didn’t increase to keep the balance. Other things on the internet (shiny new videos and podcasts and lots of other people’s amazing and innovative new content) grabbed my attention and up until recently I’ve allowed other people’s innovative content to use up some of the energy that I should be using to create my own innovative and creative content.

As you can tell, I’m trying to remedy this lately. This journaling prompt actually prompted (pun intended) some introspection on how I can more often use the internet to foster my own creativity, rather than let it draw my attention away from my own goals with shiny, pretty internet things. :)

What did you do before the internet? Is there something you love that you should still be making time for, even if that baby laughing on YouTube is still funny the twentieth time you watch it?

Random excerpt of the day:

All three of the scientists got down to business, Rigec and Jaco taking the second specimen back to the ship’s lab while Doctor Kimlynk Coh continued to wander the area looking for further plant life. Peter Xylim and Jomy passed the doctor on their way around the perimeter area just as Jomy was nearing the end of his patience.

Jomy sighed. “There really doesn’t seem to be any danger, Peter. We’ve been around the ship perimeter about four times so far, and we haven’t encountered any sign of life forms at all. I think this area of the planet is deserted.”

As aggravating is it was to admit that Jomy might have had some useful insight after the utter chaos he had created earlier in the day, Peter had to admit that Jomy had a point in suggesting that they were likely to be completely alone in this area of the planet. They really hadn’t seen a single living organism in quite some time, other than the plant life that the scientists were already investigating.

The fact that they were alone wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, because generally when you’ve landed on someone else’s home planet, avoiding the inhabitants of said planet can sometimes avoid deadly confrontations or just generally unpleasant relations. Peter was rather encouraged by the idea that they might be able to land here on Earth, quietly fiddle with the native plant life, and then be on their way again without any confrontation at all, but if their previous attempts at this particular mission were any indication, they should really be looking for whatever complete disaster was currently lying in wait.

Originally published at Brandice.net. You can comment here or there.

Because you all asked for it, here is the prologue to my 2008 Nanowrimo novel. I am in no way responsible for what may happen to any of you as a result of reading the beginning of what has become quite a work of utter and complete crap. I’ll try and only share the slightly readable bits, so enjoy (or hate) the beginning.

PROLOGUE (or The Way This Whole Mess Began)

Somewhere, in the very vast reaches of the deepest of deep space, there is a very tiny planet. The planet is small despite laws in the universe that would seem to indicate that planets cannot possible be this small and still withstand the forces of space, but there is also some evidence that would point to a mishap in intergalactic mail that should have been speedily delivered to this planet at the time of its creation to alert its inhabitants that the planet would simply not do. This type of communication is often lost in transit (damn meteors), or is delivered prior to the planet’s inhabitants being fully evolved to the point of being able to decipher the communication, which is how the square, invisible planet in the middle of the Milky Way continues to exist despite the impossibility of said existence.

The planet is called Myklox Prime by its sentient inhabitants, the Zomi people, and the inhabitants are sadly unaware of the fact that their planet is in total and complete violation of universal size-related guidelines. While the inhabitants themselves are also quite tiny, they are unaware of anything amiss with their little world, and they have lived in peace for a few million years.

Until five years ago.

Five years ago, a devastating evolutionary process took away the Zomians’ beloved delicacy, snum goi. It wasn’t so much evolutionary as it was an accidental result of an experiment by a very cocky scientist with too many test subjects who escaped his cocky lab and commenced in spreading an accidental snum goi-killing bacteria throughout the tiny planet. It really didn’t take long since the planet is only the size of Texas, and the Zomi people quickly found themselves without a single bit of snum goi.

Not only were they without their beloved snum goi, they were unable to grow it any longer due to the elusive and fancily complicated nature of the quickly dispersed bacteria. The bacteria could not be contained, the snum goi could not be grown, and the very cocky scientist was quickly fed to an animal of great ferocity and enormous size (at least when compared to the rest of Myklox Prime’s inhabitants). Zomians around their tiny globe were extremely displeased.

It was decided that a team of researchers, scientists, and other useful Zomians would need to leave the planet in search of similar plants that could be genetically altered to recreate their beloved snum goi. Several of the very sensible, reasonable and intelligent scientists on the planet suggested that this was a very silly solution to a stupid problem, but then quickly found themselves recruited for the space voyage themselves because they were the best scientists on the planet. It was quite a bad situation for the lot of them, but then you really should avoid openly disagreeing with snack-related opinions on a small planet, no?

The voyage was planned, and the scientists flitted off to the nearest planet to look for snum goi, quite disgruntled and unhappy. The first trip was to the planet Wontwyrk, which was inhabited entirely by sentient talking tree moss that had evolved to a point where trees were no longer needed. Had the Zomians known about astro turf football fields, this planet would have been a large mass of evolutionary irony, but the Zomi scientists simply threw up their hands and headed to the next planet, Stylwontwoark. Stylwonwoark had a plant very similiar to the snum goi berry, but when the scientists tried to alter the plant’s makeup to make it more like snum goi, the berries went feral, gained intelligence, and took over the entire planet in a matter of three days.

Things were clearly not going very well for the very unmotivated snum goi non-fan scientists, but upon communicating their double failure back to Myklox Prime, they were sent even further out into space, where they were knocked off course by a very tiny space particle (remember, they are very tiny creatures in general and their spaceship is incredibly miniscule) and ended up on the planet Direnshelpaltina.

The plan on the intended destination planet had been to cultivate a certain plant that they knew existed that was almost identical to the snum goi berry plant, and when they unknowingly landed on a different planet, they found what they believed to be the correct plant and made the adjustments they’d already designed and planned in transit. The results were quite terrible, and no one speaks of what happened or why T’im the ship janitor disappeared.

Now, three failures behind them, a tiny crew of Zomian men have begrudgingly set off a fourth time, heading for a planet named Earth, hoping that they will finally be done with their snack finding endeavors so that they can return home and provide their famished people with the snum goi they have gone without for half of a decade now. No matter that a snack food is a silly reason to voyage through out the dangerous vast reaches of the universe! No matter that none of them really wanted to go in the first place! This last voyage will bring victory, fame, and the conquest of the furthest planet the Zomians have ever managed to reach via space ship.

And most importantly, it will produce tasty treats, or they are all likely to be fired and told to stay on Earth.

Originally published at Brandice.net. You can comment here or there.

My entry for the Felicitea contest. Loosely based on real mornings I’ve had (not necessarily yesterday, though). I’m not entirely enamored with it, but it’s the last day for the contest, so here goes nothin’… ;)
_________________________________________

Yesterday morning
our bathroom shower broke.
Scrambling to make up
the lost time,
I washed my hair in the sink,
wear the nearest clothes,
no blow dry
no legs shaved
no kiss goodbye as my
husband crashed past me,
also late.

It was already
a stellar sort of day.

Slamming down
black tar from the
lounge at work,
I jittered through
daily tasks
like a crazed hummingbird,
coming home to an
equally agitated
energy drunk
Red Bull’ed husband.

The landlord fixed
the shower while we
were psychotically scrambling
through our
wrong foot day,
so this morning I
wake up early and
shower away
the previous day,
blow dry my hair,
put on my favorite suit.

Today I have time
to heat the kettle,
watch the leaves unfurl
as the water darkens.
I pour hot earl grey
into my best
travel mug before
heading down the road,
rockstar playlist blaring,
calming caffeine in my cup.

Today is already a
day for entirely
new adventures, free of
black tar and steeped
in possibility.

- Brandice, 2008

Originally published at Brandice.net. You can comment here or there.

*Ugh* I really forced this stuff out of me tonight. I finally got Pepper on the plane, but not the final connecting flight with her family. That's coming soon.

LOL. Last night's Nano meeting was nuts, and it ran so late at the Denny's after-write-in that Di and I left at 7:00 a.m. I just woke up two hours ago... whoops.

I'm finally downloading BC to my MacBook so that I can have a full WoW install again, but I'm not sure how much gaming I'll be doing until this semester is over. I've been a bit overwhelmed with everything this semester. It's not as much actually work, but it feels like a higher stress environment, which an internship that requires actual skill, a job in social work, and classes that are a little more useful, even if they're driving me nuts.

I've been glad for the break from Warcraft, honestly, but now I'm jealous when listening to the social worker and psychiatrist on the psych unit at internship talking about WoW and the new patch, so I have to get back into things.

Nano is going really well... over 30k as of 7 a.m., so I'm pretty psyched about that. :) Viddler group exploded, the NanoVideo page at Nanowrimo.org has been amazing and I just can't wait until next year, when I'll only have work and I can really give Nano media content my all. :) It'll be awesome.

The Google Group for PodCamp Ohio (http://podcampohio.com) is in the baby stages, but it's fun to talk about actually having a local unconference about something I'm *interested* in. June 28th is the tentative date.

Family stuff is still a mess... apparently my mother won't be working with me on this situation until after the holidays, so I guess I'm just going to Jim's parents' house for Thanksgiving. I'm really disappointed in how unsuccessful I've been in my efforts to simply get my mother on the phone. I think I've made the efforts I can, and I just don't know what else I can realistically do, so I'm just going to move forward with my life and accept that things are this way right now.

Okay, I need to do eight million things, and some video editing especially. :) Happy Sunday!

Heads up - I will be guest blogging for Deliberate Pixel from time to time, and if you already have Jen's RSS feed on your friends list, I create an LJ feed many months ago : deliberatepixel. Keep your eyes peeled for my added greatness to this already fantastically witty and intelligent blog. :)

I have a manuscript going out in the next week to a chapbook competition, and I'm looking for anyone who's willing to give the nearly finished final draft a once over and then give me a general opinion of how things fit and how well the font works, etc.  It's 30 poems maximum after I do some trimming (MUCH MUCH thanks to copperbeech for her awesome crit of the first version of the full manuscript!), and won't involve anything too strenuous.

Let me know and I can email it. :)

Okay, I have no idea what to do at this point.  I need a beta reader/editor and nothing I do elicits critique at a pace (or at ALL, most of the time) that's going to help me get a chapbook ready by February.  I've spent the past two days going through every poem I have, sorting them, archiving the hopelessly bad ones that won't make it into any books any time soon, and I have about 48 poems for the first chapbook, which is all love-related poetry.  The second will be more broad in subject base and I'm going to tackle it later, if I ever get the first one finished.

I just don't know where to find a fellow writer who will help me with this, who is technically and creatively versed in poetry, and who can help me organize the poetry within a book format.  I can't find any local intensive (or even casual) writing groups... I'm going to do some deep searching online today for poetry critique forums.  If anyone has advice on this, please let me know, or if you're willing to seriously commit to helping with me with this, let me know that too.

Danke.

Remember when I used to write poetry on a constant basis and posted it lots?  I miss writing on a regular basis, and I'm also tired of saying "someday I'd really like to put together a few chapbooks of my favorite work and try to do something with them."  Why haven't I done that, when it's so easy anymore to put together your own chapbooks and market them online?

Maybe this is the year to really make a regular writing group out of Nanowrimo, since there are so many more seemingly serious writers in the bunch... it's been a failure in the past, because eventually everyone just stops working on anything or doing writing prompts or even writing period, but maybe this could be a better year to keep the writing going, and maybe revive the reading group as well.

What do those of you in the Nano region think about our group's future?  What do the rest of you think about my  putting together a chapbook or working toward this?Poll #886446 Creative Nano Group + Poetry
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

What would you like to do with the Nanowrimo off-season group?

What do you think about my putting together a chapbook of my poetry?

My region is compiling all of our novels into an anthology to be shared among us only, and the formatting and uniforming of all of these files is going to make my brain explode.  Every time I think it's ready to be finalized, I get another novel or I realize that a cover page is going to flip on the wrong side or something.

Brain.

Explode.

That is all.  I'm going to bed and I'll work on it more tomorrow.  

I know have a few licensed therapists on my friends list, and I wanted to ask if anyone has experience or information on bibliotherapy?  It's something that was mentioned by one of my professors who is a huge fan and brought in a large collection of bibliotherapy books, and I felt like a light bulb went off when we were talking about it in class and now as well, as I'm perusing biblio/poetry therapy websites instead of writing the last four pages of my social work practice paper.

I feel like this is a potential direction for me, both as a future therapist and as a long-time writer of poetry and the ocassional hasty novel.  I had no idea that bibliotherapy existed, and it just seems like this big section of therapy and social work that I've been awakened to that looks almost as if it would fit me like a glove.  I'm interested in the process of writing bibliotherapy books and the idea of using them as therapy as well in my future casework, because I've always felt that there are many aspects of reading the right book that can help to heal an emotional wound.

I wish I had put some of the bibliotherapy training books on my Christmas wishlist now, because I'm suddenly just engrossed with the idea.  Maybe this summer I can find a training session somewhere or some good books on how to both write and how to use bibliotherapy in a counseling setting...  I think it would be awesome to learn more.  If anyone has any information or insight into that aspect of therapy, I would really love to discuss it! :)

Dozens of awesome pictures involving me, other wrimos, fake mustaches, and Dianah's hat are here:

http://brandicedesigns-cantoakrowrimo2006.buzznet.com/user/photos/?id=3835632

Also, I told scarlite to film a video with my camera and without warning, promptly attacked Dianah, who complete spazzed, creating the best video known to man:



Thanks for a great year guys!

I wrote a novel, and no one said "yay."

Bastards.