Two Recipes

Today I am going to share two recipes with you; one is for a slightly more prosperous holiday gathering, the other for a poverty-stricken meal.  

CANDIED SWEET POTATOES

2 30 oz cans sweet potatoes, drained

8 ozs mini-marshmallows white or multi colored

1/2 C brown sugar

1 large egg

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Pour the sweet potatoes into a large casserole dish. Pour in egg, sugar, and spice Whip at medium speed until light and fluffy. Gently fold in marshmallows so that a few remain on top. Cover.   Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Serve with your turkey or ham. Enjoy. Serves 6

FOOD STAMP Chicken Soup

2 chicken thighs.  Don’t worry if they are frozen, They’ll thaw as they’re cooking.  

1 small package frozen peas or green beans.  Actually, you can use any vegetable you fancy.

2 packages Chicken flavor Ramen.  There are 2 or three brands on the market, but I believe the most popular brand is Top Ramen, the 2nd most popular is Maruchan Ramen.  

Cook chicken in a 3qt sauce pan in 1 quart water and the contents of the flavor packets from the Ramen packages.  Cook it until the meat falls off the bones, stirring occasionally. Take out the bones and gristle from the chicken and discard.  Add vegetable and noodles, simmer until a bean or pea is hot all the way through 3-5 minutes, and the noodles are al dente. Add pepper to taste and serve.  Serves 2.

I used to take the thighs, ramen, and frozen vegetable in a waterproof bag to my friend’s apartment on the bus, and the frozen ingredients would thaw while I rode the bus to his place.  Ramen has plenty of salt in it, so I only say to add pepper.

The Writer & the Holidays

I’ll say it out right now.  I am a Scrooge. I’m not a fan of the holidays.  My mantra is “Bah humbug!.” As a Pagan, I hate all the commercialism.  Yule is my least favorite Sabbat. Writing is my coping mechanism. I have a blog to do for my publisher once a week, and then I’ll probably cast about for an idea for another novella to start.  Actually, my current reason for hating the holiday is limited funds. If you feel the same way, what is your reason? Is it the stress of rushing around, trying to find the right gift for everyone on your list, decorating, and planning and creating the perfect Christmas feast?  There are entirely too many ads around imaging the “Perfect Christmas/Yule.”

I think of the veterans who don’t have families, many don’t even have homes, and they’re confronted with this traumatic image of the perfect holiday.  Many take their final solution this time of year for this very reason. The veterans’ crisis lines must be ringing off the hook this time of year, made even worse by a president who boasts of being the veterans’ friend, but in reality cuts funds to the very services their meager lives depend on.  End of my political rant.

Years ago, I wrote filks of some of the better known carols so that I and others like me could bear to sing them.  “Oh Little House at Boleskine” and the Thelemic version of “Silent Night” might yet become part of the canon. For those who don’t know, a filk is different words set to a familiar tune.  The “Star Spangled Banner” is actually a filk, set as it was to a bawdy 17th century drinking song. The drinking song has been forgotten, but people all over the world know the US anthem.  

One friend, I think he’s dead now, penned an essay called “Merry Mythmas!” about all the Pagan traditions of the holiday.  I used to photocopy it, and pass the copies around. Some parts of it were rather gory, and could trigger some of us with rather delicate sensibilities, but the balls on the Yule tree weren’t always made of glass.  But I think that the more bigoted among us, who declare that there “really is a war on Christmas,” and won’t accept a “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings” greeting, deserve to have their sensibilities triggered. They believe it’s “their” holiday, and will go through some elaborate gyrations to prove it.  The one book they fall back on is their bible, which we Pagans don’t accept as holy writ, so they’re screwed there.  

It all boils down to one thing: if you get down  or stressed about the holidays, write about it. If you call yourself a writer, you should be taking a notebook with you everywhere you  go anyway, because you never know when inspiration will strike for that Great American Novel or Great Canadian Novel if you are a countryman or -woman of Elise Whyles’.  Write while you are in line at the grocer’s or the department story, or Walmart, or any of the other stores you find yourself at. I say write, meaning with pen on paper for 2 reasons: 1: I kick it old school. 2: Studies have shown that you remember it  better if you write it by hand, rather than dictate it, or type it into some app, and my shrink adds, “Repeat it orally as you write it down, and you’ll retain it even longer.”

So, writers, take solace in your writing.  Readers, take solace in your books. It’s only one  month out of the year, and then you can return to business as usual.

Interview with a Character: Kaguhi Maimun-Cheng

Rita:  This week we’re interviewing Kaguhi Mainmun-Cheng, Takel’s older sister, and Takuhi’s daughter.  Like her mother, Kaguhi is a Kulturologist. Do you have to be bred for this work, Kaguhi?

Kaguhi:  Our DNa is designed for it, yes.  But when the Order was first started, over 2 millennia ago, having the right qualities and traist was a matter of chance.  Many girls washed out of the Order before people were able to genetically design their babies, and then, it was largely a matter of who would be willing and able to raise these children until they would be able to join the Cloister at the age of 7.  

Rita:  You mean love and care for a child, knowing she wasn’t truly “yours.”

Kaguhi:   My grandmother did it, and so did my mother.  But Grandmere did it as a kind of second career.  She had raised two sets of three before my mother, my uncle, and aunt came along, and raised two more sets after them.  She liked her children in sets of three, for some reason.

Rita:  I think it’s interesting that you have chosen to carry on in your career as a Kulturologist, instead of living full time in the palace, leading the life of a Compirial Princess.

Kaguhi:  Of course I must.  Can you think of any life more deathly dull than that of a princess?  Oh, please, give me a break! And that silly wave we’re supposed to do when we’re out in public!  That’s strictly yawnsville.  

Rita:I can see where you would grow weary of that life, as active a young woman as you are.  But when you do have to spend time at the palace, in between missions, what do you like to do for fun?

Kaguhi:  I like to dance.  Do you have any idea how huge the rooms are in that place?  Why, the refectory at the Cloister would fit in my bed chamber, with room left over for my brother’s workout room.  So in my bedchamber, I have plenty of room to dance, really stretch out, you know? I think there used to be a lot more furniture in the room, but my mother had it moved out, because she knew how much I love to dance.

Rita:  Which styles do you do?

Kaguhi:  Oh, you name them, I’ll at least try it.  Nearly all the styles of old lost Erth, plus a few of the world out here.  I even learned one from the Cat people, you know, one of our allies in the war against the reptilians and the bugs.  By the way, Rita, do you know why Kujlturologist is always spelled with a capital K?

Rita:  I think I did know once upon a time.  Oh, do tell us. I’m sure our readers are dying to know.

Kaguhi:  It comes from the German word das Kultur.  German was one of Erth’s languages. It means the arts, the humanities.  I went to the German planet UberAlles after graduation to check whether their society had developed any unfortunate tendencies, like fascism, you know.  But it was a freewheeling happy society. I developed a taste for microbrew beer there. Great place, and great sausages.

Rita:  What is your favorite treat or food?

Kaguhi:  I am a confirmed chocoholic, and when it’s cold out, I like to snuggle up with a big mug of Mexihot chocolate with lots of foam on top, and just the merest touch of rum to deepen the chocolate flavor.  That’s one of the few luxuries I love about hanging around my mother’s palace. Her chef Henri makes the best hot chocolate I have ever had. And I thought the hot chocolate at the Cloister was good. It doesn’t even hold a candle to Henri’s.  I don’t know how he does it. He won’t let me in the kitchen to observe. If there’s snything we SIster love to do it’s observe how people do things/  

Rita:  Thank you, Kaguhi, or should I call you Your Highness?

Kaguhi:  You do, and get ready to be throttled.  

Rita:  That was most enlightening.  Until next week, Bright Stars!  

Interview with a Character:Lt. Hermes Gorsuch

Rita:  Hello, this is Rita Trevalyan with another character Lt. Herm`es Gorsuch.  He started out as a Master Sergeant, but received a battlefield commission between the 2nd and 3rd book of my accidental trilogy. Hello, Lieutenant.

Gorsuch:  Hello, Ma’am.  

Rita:Which planet are you from, originally?

Gorsuch:  Zyeho IV. It’s a lovely world.  You really should visit it sometime.

Rita:  I shall, when I get the chance.  I don’t often get out of this Solar System, you  know. But back to you: Are you married?

Gorsuch:  Yes, Seven years now and have 3 kids, 2 boys and a girl.  Really sweet, well behaved kids. Smart, too.

Rita:  Who is your wife?  What does she do?

Gorsuch:  Strangely enough, she has the same first name as you, Rita.  She works from home. She’s a digital librarian for our town library.  She has a very capable chemdroid watching the kids. My eldest is in school.  We expect he’ll either go to the Stellarman Academy or the Feldmar Institute next year.

Rita:  Where do you see yourself in five Galactic Standard years, Lieutenant?

Gorsuch:  Well, if I survive the next war, and we’re fixin’ to have one, Ms. Trevalyan, don’t kid yourself, with their allies the Oraspighi at their sides, having taught then how to do away with the need for females completely, the Koinonians are going to attack the Inner Worlds, and when that happens, all Hral will break loose.  You watch.

Rita:  Whooee!  Another war!  I’ll bet the Empress won’t be real happy about that..She hates war.    You say they have no females? How did they do that?

Gorsuch:  Well, as my daddy used to say, “Beats me, Lieutenant, I’m not the regular crew chief.”  I come from a military family, you know. But Daddy never liked base housing. He reasoned, that with transmats everywhere, a soldier can be on duty in a matter of nanoseconds, no matter where he is in the Compire.  And I can train for the battlefield better if I live close to a wilderness, so that’s where I’m bringing up my children. I’ve been on leave there for the past couple of lunations.  

Rita: do you have any pastimes or hobbies not related to fighting?

Gorsuch:  In my copious spare time, haha, I put together models of battle starships.  Other than that, I’m training, always training. Gotta stay battle ready, you know.  It wouldn’t do at all to let myself become soft.

Rita:  Do you have any pets?

Gorsuch:  I don’t know if you’d really call them pets, per se, dogs.  But I raise fighting dogs. They can sniff out explosives and warn us human soldiers.  They also warn against other kinds of booby traps. They’re not ordinary regular dogs. They’re mutants, genetically designed like we are.  And my wife, she has a cat that can talk. The chemdroids clean the cat box, but mostly the cat uses the toilet like we do.

Rita:  Are your parents alive?

Gorsuch:  No. My dad got killed in the war against the Koinonians and the aliens, those bugs, they’re so disgusting, you know?  Mom’s still alive, though. She takes a rejuve bath every 5 years, you know, to stay young. She has a not a boyfriend, that’s so jejeune, Significant Oth, I think you’d call him.  Nice guy, and he really thinks a lot of Mom, treats her right, you know, like a lady should be.

Rita: And we’ll close with what is your earliest memory?

Gorsuch:  I think I was about three Galactic Standard Years old.  My dad took me out in the woods to experience nature. He was going hunting, but I just sat on a fallen log and observed all the creatures.  They were all curious about me. They knew to avoid my dad, because he had a gun, no, not a gun, this is your weapon, this is you gun, your weapon is for killing, your gun is for fun.  They came up and sniffed me.

Rita:  Thank you, Lieutenant.  That was very enlightening.

Interview with a Character: Takel Maimun-Cheng

Rita:  This is Rita Trevalyan, and today I’m interviewing Takuhi’s and Kaga’s son Takel Maimun-Cheng.  How are you today, Takel? You are the son of the new Empress, right?

Takel:  Right. And let me tell you, being the son of royalty is a real challenge.  It’s like you’re in a fish bowl. Everyone can see what you’re doing, and everyone can comment on how you’re doing it.  It’s the toughest gig I’veever had.

Rita:  But you never tried to talk your mother out of assuming that role, did you?

Takel:  Oh, Hral no!  I’d know she was going to do the Empress gig one day since shortly after I was decanted.  And you don’t even try to dissuade Takuhi Maimun out of something once she’s made up her mind.  She’ll just dig her heels in even harder. Besides, she said it would be educational for us kids.  

Rita:  And has it been?

Takel:  I’ll say!  And how! Has it been!  I’ve had so much to learn.  When we got the word that the old Empress was dead, Kaguhi and I looked up all the Empresses there have been for the past 2200 Galactic Standard Years.  There really haven’t been that many, because of life extension, you know. I think she was over 300 years old when she died. A rare old bird. I never met her,but I’ve seen holovids of her.  But she kept the Compire on an even keel all of her reign, and Mom has been working very hard at continuing Annabelle’s legacy.  

Rita:  Excellent!  And what do you do for a living?  I know that neither you nor your sister are content:to laze around the palace all the time, drinking out of lotus petals.

Takel:  Indeed we are not.  I was a Stellarman, like my uncle, but after getting wounded and PTSD in the war, I switched career paths.  After mediating and ending a feud between my aunt and my Significant Other, I went to school to become a mediator.  And I think I’ve become quite good at it. I’ve ironed out some feuds that could have gone on for generations if they hadn’t called on the services of a mediator.  I’m also a notary public, so I can witness the signing of papers officially ending the feud.  

Rita:Excellent!  My oh my, you have been a busy boy, haven’t you.  You mentioned a Significant Other. Who is she?

Rita”  She is a very beautiful young lady who I met on my parents’ land.  They have a nature preserve, you know, on Sogdien III. They wanted to sock a little land away so that no matter how modern and industrialized the planet got to be, there would always be a piece of it kept wild.  But they needn’t have worried. The settlers Sogdien has attracted are interested in keeping as much in its original wild state as possible. Some industrialists have tried to exploit it for minerals and fuels, but we’ve all worked to keep them out of the place.  Why, just the other year some tried to go big game hunting, but no one would supply them with a guide, and the forest killed every last one of them. Since then, there’s been no more talk about bringing mining and industry to the place, since the men who were killed were the loudest voices in favor of exploiting the place.  If you know what you’re doing, and take proper precautions, it can be your own little slice of Paradise, but if you don’t, it’ll kill you quicker than [snaps fingers].

Rita:  What are your future plans?

Takel:  To persuade the lovely Rabia to settle down with me, at least for awhile, until she feels the need to go gallivanting off on one of her missions.  She’s a Kulturologist, same as my sister, same as my mother was.

Rita:Thank you for talking with us today, and good luck in all your endeavors.    

Interview with a Character: Kaga Cheng

Rita:  Hello, Rita Trevalyan here with another character interview from my forthcoming book Takuhi’s Dream.  Will you tell us your name please, sir?

Kaga:  Kaga Cheng.

Rita:  Home world?

Kaga:  You mean the world I was decanted on?

Rita:  Yes, and spent your childhood on.

Kaga:  Gessename V, but I started at the Feldmar Institute when I was very young.

Rita: How old?

Kaga:  Don’t recall exactly, think I was 3 or 4.  I was an orphan, my parents were killed by bug invaders, and I was sent to the Institute where I lived and studied until I was 17.  Then I started going out on missions as a FirstInScout.

Rita:  What does a FirstInScout  do, exactly?

Kaga:  Makes first contact.  He (usually we’re males, just as kulturologists are females) encounters the planet, and reports on the physical part of the planet, planetologist, meteorologis, biologis and other fields all rolled into one.  The Kulturologist concentrates on the intelligent life forms of the planet. 

Rita:  Yes, we interviewed one of those last week.So the training for this career is somewhat involved, sounds difficult and dangerous.

Kaga:  We have to be tested extensively for our suitability for the work.  But in my case, it was, how you say, duck soup. It’s as though I were bred for this.  We may lose a few along the way, from attacks from wild creatures on the planet, but we’re taught self-defense techniques and how to deal with most species, even ones we haven’t encountered before.  

Rita:  So you’re taught mind control techniques?

Kaga:  Yes, but only with creatures which are non-sentient.  The sentients are within the Kulturologist’s bailiwick, and so we leave it to her.  

Rita:So you have some psi, some psychic powers.

Kaga:Yes.  We all do, it’s imprinted on the DNA of every member of the Human sector of the Galaxy, but the Koinonians try to suppress it among their people.  Anyway, we’re tested for our amount of it, and if we have enough, we continue with our FirstInScout training. I don’t know what happens to the kids who fail. We never talk about them.  

Rita:  Ah. Very interesting.  Are you usually the leader of the team?

Kaga:  Usually.  There are several departments under me, zoology, botany, geology, and so on, then there is the Kulturologist.  Together, she and I lead the team. There are up to twenty five on a large team.  

Rita:  Do any missions stick out in your mind?

KagaL  Yes, there was the Mission to Sogdien III.  Beautiful planet. We were just packing up when--No let your readers find out when they read Takuhi’s Dream.

Rita:  Yes. Watch for it when it comes out from Crimson Frost Books.  Thank you, Mr. Cheng.

Kaga: Any time for you, Rita.

Interview with a Character: Takuhi Maimun

This is an interview with a major character from my upcoming books, Takuhi’s Dream, Takuhi’s Nightmare, and later, Takuhi’s Daydream, Takuhi Maimun.

Rita:  Good morning.  What is your full name  and occupation?

Takuhi:  Takuhi Maimun, kulturolgist, Sister of the Order of Kenderited.

Rita: Sounds fascinating.  What does a kulturologist do?

Takuhi:  We analyze cultures and determine what, if any, contact they may have with the rest of the Galaxy.  

Rita:  Do you ever run into trouble from certain sectors of the Compire,who disapprove of the classification we might give a given society/culture?

Takuhi:  Not all that often.  But when we do, it’s because the industrial sector wanted to exploit some natural resources, and one of my Sisters had placed the culture under protection by the ExTee Council.  The Council generally rubber stamps the protection seal and the classification. They are pretty incorruptible. The industrial sector can get pretty vociferous when the Sister has made such a classification, and the Council has ruled against them.  The industrialist sector only cares about the bottom line, and isn’t all that enlightened.

Rita:  Just like in my time.  We certainly could use a few of you in my time on this planet.  I see by the document you handed me that there are basically 4 classifications.  I is open for colonization/trade with the rest of the Galaxy. How often do you run into one of these?  

Takuhi:  More often than you might think.  Most stars have exoplanets, and many are capable of advanced life.  Many of these had been already included by the Compire by the time you Erthlings had entered the scene, but there are many more still to be discovered, which is the job of the FirstInScout.

Rita:  What does a FirstInScout do?

Takuhi:  He makes first contact with the planet.  If there is intelligent life, I or one of my Sisters is sent in.  He can request a specific Sister if he’s worked with her successfully before.

Rita:  What are the other classes?

Takuhi:  II Society may mingle with rest of galaxy but colonization is not encouraged. III A  No contact with this culture. It is under protection as a fragile culture. B. No contact with this culture for the good of the Compire.  The denizens of this culture are dangerous. IV. Under quarantine. This culture is so inimical that any contact is prohibited. Quarantine while Sisterhood, FirstInScout Council and ExTee Council decide whether to sterilize the planet.  That has only happened once, to Koinonia, even so, some managed to leave the planet, survive, and breed.

Rita:  Hasn’t there been an advancement in technology so that sacrificing all the life on a planet is not necessary?

Takuhi:  Yes, in the past 100 Galactic Standard Years the Il’a’nai capsule was developed.  It terraforms a planet in just a few Galactic Standard Minutes. We used it on the planet formerly known as Koinonia, and opened it for colonization.  

Rita: Not to get into anything negative but you’ve mentioned the Koinonians who got away, escaped their fate, so to speak.  How are they so dangerous?

Takuhi:  They oppose all the positive and enlightened values of the Compire, as you would put it, “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”  You see, although we are a monarchy, we have a great many rights you Americans do not possess. One is freedom FROM religion. A religion or ideology may not proselytize.  You may inform about your chosen faith, but not exhort. The problem with the Koinonians is that they feel they must exhort, and their women are good for just one thing, they feel, to carry around their babies until they are born.   Can you imagine? Carrying around a fetus until it exits your body? [shivers] Obscene.

Rita:  I look forward to our developing the artiwomb technology.  I will be writing the 3rd book in this accidental trilogy starting in 9 days.  You can find Takuhi’s Dream at Crimson Frost Books or on Amazon very soon. 

The Creation of Myrrddin Rising

Yesterday morning I finished the first draft of a writing project I had been working on for some years. The reason it took so long was that I lost the WIP a number of times, due to the flash drive it was on being corrupted and having to be reformatted, which of course erases everything on it.  But this time I was determined to finish it. It would also serve as my training table for NaNoWriMo, which starts 2 weeks from tomorrow. (See last week’s blog, “NaNoWriMo and Me”) I recorded the number of words I wrote on my calendar each day. One day I even managed to write an entire chapter, over 2400 words’ worth in one session.  It was the trial of a kidnapper near the end of the book.  

The story starts in Tintagel Cave, where Myrrddin, pronounced Meer-th(voiced th as in the)in (I used the Cymric version of his title), awakens after a sleep of over 16 centuries and moves to the Berkeley hills in California, where Emrys, his actual name, discovers how to become an American.  I used two sources. One was the movie The Strange Case of Benjamin Button, and E.B.White’s materials about Merlin the Magician, in which he says that Merlin lived backwards and “remembered the future.”  E.B. White may be better remembered as the source for the Disney movie The Sword in the Stone.  I didn’t go into the more scholarly wranglings of the Merlin story because I wanted my story to be pure entertainment, not a scholarly treatise.  

The young woman who awakens him goes through various adventures with him, including a trip back in time to the priestess sanctuary where she and the priestesses are chased by Saxons intent on rapine and destruction.  At one point, they even encounter aliens who invite Earth to join the Galactic Federation, and take a honeymoon junket out among the stars. The household Talese lives in is a cooperative household in a made-over former fraternity house in the Berkeley hills off the UC Berkeley campus.  Emrys helps them overcome their constant enemies, or should I call them the the household’s nemesis? The jesoids who seek to overcome them at every turn because they cannot tolerate a group which ascribes to either their side, or that of the jesoids’ supposed enemies, who are in reality their secret allies.  Emrys destroys a group of 20 of them, who has been hacking Gryphon House’s computer LAN and server farm.  

Because of the church’s constant harassment of them, a judgment is placed upon them, and the church loses not only cash money, but also their televangelism TV network, which is ceded onto Gryphon House.  This is the fulfillment of a long held dream for several of the residents, and they work at the studio, producing content for the network and invite other Pagan and Wiccan groups in the Bay Area to produce programs for the network.  A ward spell Emrys creates produces for the house and grounds of Gryphon House in the shape of turning all would be intruders into gold creates another revenue stream for Gryphon House. The amount of money this generates is so great that The residents cannot spend all of it themselves, and vote to create a Pagan dining hall and community center to help the homeless and other low income and disadvantaged people, of any faith in the Berkeley-Oakland area.  

This center is a huge success and provides a model for other Pagan groups who, after judgments that accrue to them large amounts of cash, are motivated to create dining halls/community centers in their own cities.    I admit fully that this story is a wish fulfillment fantasy. May it come true, with or without the presence of Myrrddin in our century. 

NaNoWriMo & Me

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo since 2006, when my fellow writer and adopted niece Kira Cattan first told me about it.  NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, but the “National” part is a misnomer because it has spread all over the globe.  In it, you write a 50,000 word novel in a 30 day month. It used to be that if you didn’t have a plot, no problem, just writing, maybe one word 50K times, and you had it.  But these days, they’ve turned professional, and are asking us to prepare for the big event. I have had several of my NaNo novels published, once they were polished and edited.  Or was it Kira? It strikes me that it was actually my fellow Druid Michael Sharding who informed me about NaNoWriMo, and the rest is history. I got involved in it. My dearly departed the late Richard L. Fulton II called it “the Olympics for writers.”

Like many other writers, I battle writer’s block every day, so I got a book by Jenna Glazter titled Outwitting Writer’s Block  from Writer’s Digest Books.  I employed several tricks from the book, but my favorite has to be “the ugly notebook.”  From a salvage operation I participated in during a muggle gig, I acquired a 3-ringed looseleaf binder that had started its existence as an Office Services manual. I disposed of the contents, and put a package of college ruled notebook filler paper in it.  In this “ugly notebook, I warmed up and limbered my brain to do my writing. I started with the verbal form of scat singing. Scat singing is an art form started when blacks were slaves, and not allowed to own or play any musical instruments. For one thing, it’s rather difficult to play the banjo when your hands were required for picking cotton.  After they were freed, Such artists as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, and in our own era, Bobby McFerrin were known for their scat singing skills. I did it to warm up my brain. After all, dancers warm up their muscles, as do athletes. Shouldn’t we, as athletes of words warm up our writing muscles?Later, I took to asking questions pertaining to my stories.  

I have what’s known as dyscalculia, or math anxiety, so it was easier for me to write 2000 words per day for 25 days than 1667 for 30.  I took 5 days off for the Veterans’ Day parade, Thanksgiving, the Scottish Ritethe Liberty Lodge Thanksgiving dinner, and spending the day with my daughter.  After Doc died, and I moved to Sacramento, my housemate Stephen couldn’t understand why I would engage in something that didn’t have an immediate monetary payoff, and would try to sabotage me in all kinds of ways, mostly by trying to distract me by his incessant chattering like a monkey.  To persuade him of my seriousness, I wrote every day, resulting in 60,000 words or more.  Once I’d polished my manuscript, I submitted it to my new publisher, and after some edits, the book would come out, in ebook format.  After I got my Dragon, It was that much easier to produce my 2000 words, since I would dictate them, and the Dragon would type them on the screen.  I wrote in the morning because the chances were greater that I would be left alone, and I would have the rest of the day to do whatever I needed to do.  

I was, by now, participating 3 times a year, because they added Camp NaNoWriMo in April and  July. At first the April Camp Nano was “Script Frenzy”, and I wrote a screenplay, and a stage play.  Then I turned back to writing novels. Lately, so that I don’t have to wake up to a blank screen with an equally blank mind, I scribble out on paper on my clipboard “(I have 10), at least a portion on my writing for the morrow.  I take that clipboard with me to the bank, the store, the bus stop, and Kaiser, so that I’m always creating, even when not at my computer.  

A warning:when you go to www.nanowrimo.org to commit to your novel and sign up, they will strongly encourage you to donate.  With the exception of one November Nano, and two camps when I either couldn’t participate at all, or had to drop out for health reasons, I participated for 13 years without donating, so you don’t need to, if you’re low fixed income like me.  But if I ever strike it big, I intend to. So get an idea, go to www.nanowrimo.org and register your novel idea. Plan and prep.  Then, starting November 1st,at 12:01 am if you’re really eager and a night owl, write your 1667 words or however many words you write, and on every day, through November 30th, then validate your novel,and join me in in the winner’s circle.       

Excitement & the Art of Publishing

I'm so excited.  I'm about to sign a contract to get the sequel to Takuhi’s Dream published. Takuhi’s Nightmare was my July Camp NaNoWriMo effort. The old Empress is dying.  She has chosen Takuhi Maimun-Cheng as her successor. Can she maintain the Compire and keep balance between the Compire, its Assembly, and its allies?  What challenges lie ahead for her two children and her husband?  This is by no means my first published novel.  It is number 11. I get excited each time I sign a contract as though it were my first one because it took me so long to reach this point, and it’s all due to Saturn, the planet named after the old Roman farmers’ god.  I call him the Great Manifester because he will grant your heart’s desire, but you will have to work long and hard to attain it. .  

My mother supported my writing by bringing ho,e from the office she worked in waste paper with a letter printed on the other side.  It was fine for my rough drafts. Of course I would have to use a better paper for the final version.  .But I dreamed of an easier way that I could just dictate and avoid the laborious job of typing.  At last in the 20-teens came another dream come true, the Dragon. Speech recognition software. At last the price was down to where I could afford it, so my house mate and I each got one.  Then we had to train our Dragons. The movie that came on TV was How to Train your Dragon, and we laughed at the synchronicity.  I don’t know about Stephen, but I started using my Dragon right away.  I suppose that he was so busy playing his sex game that he hardly ever wrote anything with it.  

But I use it almost constantly. I still have to type a little, as when I translate the gobbledegook  my Dragon makes out of my speech into intelligible English. But that is just par for the course with Saturn.

highlight lyrics to add meaning...

Tonight's the night we're gonna make it happen

Tonight we'll put all other things aside

Give in this time and show me some affection

We're going for those pleasures in the night I want to love you, feel you

Wrap myself around you

I want to squeeze you, please you

I just can't get enough

And if you move real slow I'll let it go

That’s the song that occurs to me right about now.  Sure, it’s about making love, but couldn’t it be about other things that get one excited too?  I’m sure that were I to use my blood pressure cuff the number would be high, in spite of my having taken both blood pressure meds today (I’m very religious about taking them.) because I’m under stress, but it’s a good kind of stress.  What makes you excited? What quickens your heartbeat? What makes your eyes sparkle with anticipation? What gets the adrenaline and cortisol pumping through your bloodstream because the body cannot tell the difference between good stress and the other kind?

Hypergraphia: The Compulsion to Write

Back in the 90s, a favorite Sunday evening key show of mine was Silk Stalkings..  As you might guess is it was what they call a police procedura, one of my favorite TV drama genres. One episode they were in investigating the death of a woman and suspected her husband had done it. What made the the episode memorable for me was that she had written on every piece of paper in the house, and when she had run out of paper, she had written on the wallpaper. The CSI guy explained that she had a condition called "hypergraphia," the compulsion to write.

I began to think about how fortunate I was – – still am, actually. I have an abundance of paper and besides, an abundance of places on the Internet in which to express myself. That poor woman had only a few paltry pieces of paper and the walls of her home to express her loneliness and her feelings of hopelessness at being stuck in a marriage to a cold and unfeeling domineering possibly abusive man. I had no such hopelessness, but I do have her condition of hypergraphia.

I have to write. I've tried going without writing for a few days, but then I have to write. Something. Whether it's journaling in my diary, on one of my three blog sites, or work on my WIPss (works in progress) I must put pen to paper or fingers to the computer keyboard. My fellow Wiccans would say that I have a very active Visuddha (throat) chakra.  The throat chakra is the seat of artistic self-expression. I’m much more fortunate than that poor dead woman was because of the many outlets I have for writing. Writing.com is a website for writing. Most of my works are far too long to put on that site, however. Then I have my LiveJournal site, blogger, and my author page on Facebook.

What do I write about? Not much happens in my day to day life, but ideas do occur to me. Back when I was 10 or so years old, while the other kids were killing their imaginations by various means including television, I was busy beefing mine up and improving it. Much later, when I was learning magick, creative visualization came very easily to me. I hardly had to work at it on all except to make the visualizations sharper.

Ideas can come from anywhere. On my favorite mental games to play with myself is "what if – –?". Fear-based what if is to be  discouraged. If your main reason for playing what if is just to create disaster scenarios I discourage it unless you're going to use these disaster scenarios in a story. People in the planning and first responding industry use what if disaster scenarios to plan various drills and preparedness scenarios. In their case thinking of all the horrid things that could happen is part of their job. But unless you are writing about a dystopia, giving yourself nightmares is not a very constructive use  for this sort of thought experiment. For me, real life is already so horrid considering the news of the nation in this world, that I really don't want to think of all the bad things that can happen. A lot of those things are happening in actuality. I don't have to play the negative what if game. These incidents are plastered all over the nose and on Facebook and other social media. So instead of dwelling on the things that can go wrong., I think instead of what could go right. What if an alien  ship disgorge ETs and we have first contact? Sure we could have problems because the aliens could be completely on a completely different wavelength than we are and regard us the way we regard pesky insects. But maybe, just maybe we’ll have more in common with these aliens than we as first guessed. Maybe, just maybe human and humanoid are the basic shapes for advanced life in the galaxy. Of course, we’ll have to broaden our definition of what being human means.

In the far future, two millennia from now, Earthlings have already ventured to the stars. They join an interstellar society called the Compire, which is short for constitutional empire. There are still many worlds left to explore. And on some of these are cultures of advanced sentient life. A group of women, a sisterhood, the members of which evaluate each culture/society to ascertain which level of contact with the rest of the Compire it should have. Takuhi’s Dream is about one of these Sisters as she flees from a nightmarish creature pursuing her wherever she goes as two men pursue her with different agendas. It is true that Takuhi’s Dream was published before, but that was as  a YA, young adult novel but this edition has the adult portions fully restored. Why are the men pursuing her with such fervor, and will she discover the true nature of the creature in her dreams?