Long Time No See

It's surprising how quickly time has passed. Busy with other things, I've had thoughts about a variety of posts, but no time to see them through by writing them up.

A few of the posts I haven't done are about:

1. An air travel survival kit. Substituting TSA-compliancy for a knife turns this into a small kit ideal for day-hiking.

2. A few states still legalizing marital rape. I thought the U.S. was a leader in women's rights but it turns out wives in those states are not much better off under the law than wives in certain Muslim countries.

3. The direction of my writing. I always thought to write novels in the thriller genre, but I've been reading Hemingway and find my desire turning to more literary prose.

If it's true that one doesn't die until one's life work is done, at the rate I'm going, I'll live forever.

Fortunately as a Christian, it's already guaranteed in writing.

Until next time.

Test Your Vocab

How many words do you know? A quick test gives an interesting result.

"Romeo & Juliet"

Feeling like I have a great love story to write, but not knowing anything about how to write one, I decided a good place to start learning is to read "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare since I've seen two movie versions several times.

Do you remember the story? A teen boy and girl from feuding families fall passionately in love and the only way to solve the mess is to fake their own deaths so they can run away to be together.

More or less.

It turns out to be much more.

First of all, Romeo is already in love with Rosaline to the extent that he crashes a party thrown by Daddy of the feuding Capulets in order to see her.

Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, spots Romeo and reports him to Capulet with the intention of having Romeo thrown out or worse.

Surprisingly, Capulet thinks Romeo has a decent reputation and tells Tybalt to leave Romeo alone. Perhaps Capulet is feeling magnanimous because Paris asked to marry Juliet who told her parents she's willing to think about it and they'll get to know one another at the party.

Except Romeo and Juliet do the love-at-first-sight thing at the party. Rosaline and Paris are forgotten as they pledge their love, not knowing anything about each other.

They must've been hot-hot-hot to fall so fast for each other, don't you think?

Somehow (you need to read or see it to learn how if you don't already know), they learn they're from rival families, decide to overcome it with a secret marriage, and the rivalry breaks out again with Tybalt killing Mercutio and Romeo avenging Mercutio's death by killing Tybalt.

As a result, Romeo is exiled and Juliet mourns his leaving.

Understandably, Capulet assumes Juliet is mourning the death of her cousin, Tybalt. However, it's beyond me why he thought getting married to Paris in two days would end her grief. It's also beyond me why Paris would agree to it. What decent man wants to consummate his marriage to a grieving young woman, sobbing in their marriage bed?

So, there are the main male characters of this love triangle:

1. Romeo, an outrageously rude party-crasher whose fickle-mindedness causes him to dump Rosaline for Juliet in a heart-beat

2. Capulet, the father who thinks getting married will dry the tears of his grieving daughter, and

3. Paris, who wants to wed and bed the grieving Juliet.

In my opinion, they're nuts.

Book Pricing

When I went to the store last week, I was pleased to find "The Brass Verdict" by Michael Connelly back on the shelf and displeased to find it US$2.00 more than in February.

Still, the $7.44 price is less than the cover price of $9.99 which was two dollars less than the ebook price of $11.99, now up to $12.99, which is why I wanted to buy the paperback instead of the ebook. It's simple economics.

What I don't understand is why the publisher wants more money for the ebook than for the paperback instead of less since no trees are killed in the making of ebooks and no oil is consumed to truck ebooks to the distribution points of sale.

One might assume that the publisher is taking advantage of ebooks to cash in on their rising popularity. It isn't only Connelly's publisher that's doing it because I've seen higher prices for the ebook version of other best-selling titles, too. Even the typical $9.99 is too much for an ebook because it costs so much less to make and distribute compared to a paperback.

One might also deduce that by pricing ebooks higher than paperbacks and releasing ebooks several weeks after books printed on paper, publishers are trying to retain their traditional control over authors' works by discouraging readers from buying ebooks through delayed availability and over-pricing.

Once an author realizes that s/he can receive more money from a self-published ebook or print-on-demand contract than through a traditional publisher which takes approximately 52% of the price of the book, there might not be enough incentive for an author to try for the traditional route. Already, publishers are experiencing the desertion of writers, although not yet in the droves one may expect due to the lingering stigma of the vanity press.

The advantage for readers is that with traditional publishers losing control over the writers who are going for independent publication, they're also losing control over what is available for readers to read. Censorship by editors rejecting manuscripts solely because of personal bias, such as the editor who rejected a novel containing capital punishment only because she is opposed to capital punishment, is being eliminated by authors bypassing the traditional publishing houses in favor of the independent route. This makes the digital revolution the best expression of freedom of the press we've yet to experience.

What's surprising to me is how traditional publishers are fighting against and trying to resist the inevitable change after seeing how newspapers have declined and blogs have flourished instead of trying to figure out how to work with the transition for everyone's benefit. It's always difficult for those in power to step back and give up even a little of their power when the normal attitude is to gain even more power.

These certainly are interesting times.

Cabin Fever

It's overcast and cold which is to be expected of February.

Imagining myself outside flying a kite under a warm, blue sky, I think of things I want to do, need to do, could and should do. They range from going through mail to shopping for new clothes to (re)learning French, German, and Spanish because I want to travel, to redesigning my websites. Yesterday, I tried a couple of color schemes.

Reconnecting with a past president of my former writers group whose memoir chapbook is scheduled to be published next year, reminded me that I need to learn how to use the aids I've acquired to market my own books which I have to actually finish writing first in order to get published.

The horse goes before the cart.

Honestly, I have so much to do, I don't see how I'll ever die.

If only life worked that way for everyone.

James 4:
13. Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

Journal Excerpts Online

Finally! I put a baker's dozen worth of excerpts from my travel journal of my Road Trip 2006-2007 to The Reading Room of my website and invite you to read them.

One reason I wait is to get some distance to make it easier for me to see the glaring rough spots so I may edit them out. This time, other factors including the theft of my laptop in 2007 while I was in San Ysidro, CA, made the length of time several years longer than intended.

While reading them to select which journal entries to add to my website, I was surprised by the number of details I had already forgotten. One, a man telling me that he and his friends were in a local establishment during a storm when a tree fell on another patron's car, brought back the memory of my waiting in the lobby of that particular Motel 6 in Oregon so vividly, it was as though I was there right after the man finished his story.

As a result, I encourage all travelers to take the time to record their travels in a journal. Even if you're not a writer, or find writing difficult, whatever you write will bring back precious memories of your trip for you to savor years after it's over.

While I email mine to myself and other travelers may blog, all you need is a pen and a journal. Nobody else has to read it unless you want to share; it's up to you.

The benefit is immeasurable.

"Prey"

I watched the movie, "Prey," this morning on HBO and can't contain this rant. I didn't know it was supposed to be a horror flick which is okay because it isn't. It is, however, the type of movie that has great scenery, excellent animal action, and an encounter with natives that had me tense up.

It's also the kind of flick that's great to hoot and holler at and for throwing popcorn at the screen.

For those who have yet to see it, "Prey" is a survival story about a woman and her two step-children, all seemingly fairly typical American tourists, who go off on a game safari in Africa for a day.

Got that? I don't want to spoil the story for you so it's important for you to get those parts. Game safari, in Africa, for a day.

Oh, heck.

***** SPOILER ALERT *****

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Is that enough space?
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Who in their right mind goes off into the WILDERNESS in AFRICA without WATER? Sure, they hired a guide and he should have had a large container of extra water, but he didn't and they didn't think to check. I didn't see a can for extra gas, either, and he certainly didn't have a radio or a satellite phone, nor a first aid kit not that the latter would have helped considering the way the lions were killing off the people.

The guide dropped his keys in the grass and the step-daughter used her camera's zoom to verify that the bright shiny thing is one of the keys so they know it's worth leaving the vehicle which may put them at risk of being attacked by the lions that kept them in the vehicle on the afternoon of the first day and all night.

Why didn't they use the camera to check for lions before leaving the vehicle to get the keys?

Why didn't they have binoculars with them in the first place? It wasn't a visit to a zoo where the animals are sure to be closer than they are in the great outdoors of Africa. The guide didn't have any, either.

Unbelievable. No water and no binoculars.

Yes, they had a little water with them that quickly ran out, but when the girl went to get water, she didn't take any containers with her. Surely, she wasn't planning to carry water back in her palms, was she?

I don't mind when what goes on is plausible such as when the woman panicked driving away from the attacking lion, got them lost, and damaged the vehicle by driving too fast off-road.

I didn't mind so much that they didn't have whistles or red bandannas to signal for help or didn't think to gather enough grass from around the vehicle to make a fire on the roof of the vehicle to signal the helicopter or use a mirror from the vehicle or a compact, if either the woman or teen step-daughter had one.

I didn't mind that no one thought to take inventory of what was available to them until the third day...except they waited until the THIRD day.

However, I did mind that they didn't think to even try to collect rain water during the first night so they'd have something to quench their thirst.

Come on movie people, especially the writer(s). In the WILDERNESS, in AFRICA, without enough WATER to last them through the first afternoon.

Puh-leeze, gimme a break.

New URL for Personal Website

I usually hate changes that force me to do things on another entity's schedule.

In this case, my ISP is discontinuing its personal web pages forcing me to find another web host by March 15 or lose my personal website. [Update: I received a letter on March 4 stating that the date has been extended to March 31.]

That's the bad news.

The good news is that my ISP is lowering my monthly bill enough to cover the cost of the web host and there are specials out there that may actually save me a couple of bucks each month.

So, I've been busy creating "This page has moved" notices for the most popular pages on my ISP site to lead visitors to my new domain at:

http://www.gailrhea.us.

For those of you who want to learn more about fountain pens, stationery, and tea, or who may want to read some of my short stories or view some of my photography, please accept this invitation to drop by and visit.

Making a Change

I've been thinking of changing the title of this blog because "Sound Off!" doesn't suit what it's become as well as I thought it would.

One option is "The Pachinko Machine" because one never knows where the ball is going to bounce.

Another option is "Falcon Works" since I write with a fountain pen and my favorite is the Namiki Falcon because of its flexible nib.

The third option is to simply use my name. Boring, huh?

Let's see, what other options are there?

Decisions, decisions...

As it turns out, it was easier to select one of my photographs and change the banner.

[The photo was taken at the 16th Annual White Sands Hot Air Balloon Invitational that is held every September at the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.]

Your Life Story

About ten years ago, I encouraged a former co-worker to encourage her parents to write down their life stories as a heritage for her and her daughter because they lived through times and experienced events that we never will such as World War II.

Now, it's time for us to start doing the same because even ordinary life has details that future generations won't comprehend unless we leave a record of what it's like for us.

For example, what was air travel like before the TSA and 3-1-1 bags?

Do you remember where you were and what you felt when you learned about the assassination of JFK, the Oklahoma City bombing, or the events of 9-11?

How did you connect with your friends before email, cell phones, and text messaging?

What was it like listening to music before you got your first iPod or MP3 player?

How did you spend your time before Facebook, Twitter, "NCIS" reruns, and LOLcats?

Do you attend noodle rolling gatherings at church? What is noodle rolling?!

What were your favorite pet(s) and other memorable animals?

Did you meet and fall in love online or in real life?

What were the joys and pain, hopes and fears you experienced on the birth of each of your children?

And, how did you spend your summer vacations?!

For Christians, our life stories are testimonies of God's faithfulness.

This was confirmed last night when my friend brought it up during our dinner together. "That's interesting," I commented. "Just last week, I was thinking that I should encourage my blog readers to write their life stories."

"But, Gail, I'm not a writer," she said. "Will you help me?"

"Sure, in a limited way," I replied. While I won't do any of her writing for her, there are tips I didn't hesitate to share:

1. Don't worry about grammar. Write conversationally as though you are talking to your best friend or a close relative.

2. Read aloud what you wrote because hearing your story is the best way to catch awkward-sounding passages so you may improve them.

3. Don't worry about sequence. If you make each vignette a separate file using the format of Topic-MonthYear.doc for the filename, it'll be easy to organize them into chronological order or by topic after you're finished writing them and when you're ready to collate them to make the first draft of your book.

4. Back up, back up, BACK UP! because recreating something from scratch is agony. Trust me on this!!! If you don't already have an external hard drive, get a USB drive, burn your files to a rewriteable CD or DVD, upload them to a cloud storage site and/or email a copy to yourself, and print out a hardcopy of each file and store them in a 3-ring binder where it, not only will serve as a primitive backup, but will also be easier to review and redline when you want to change something.

5. Double-space when you type so that there's room to redline when you proofread and edit. Generous margins will also help. I recommend that you set the top and bottom margins at 1" and set the side margins at 1.5" which will also provide room for the holes needed by the binder rings.

6. Thoughts about what you should write about will flit in and out of your mind while you go about your daily business. Keep index cards or a steno notebook or anything similar at hand to jot down a reminder of these thoughts. Perhaps, a small hand-held tape recorder will be easier. Debbie Roome's article, "How to Write Your Life Story" has a list of topics you may want to address.

7. After everything's written and organized by chronology or topic, reread it with an eye for a recurring theme or something you may use to compose the opening and conclusion that may be either a summary or a look toward the future.

8. Set the first draft aside for 6-12 months so you may return to it with fresh eyes to polish it.

9. Rinse and repeat. That is, after your second draft, take a shorter, 3-6 months, break from it before returning to polish it into your third draft.

10. Finally, keep a journal because your life story is a continuing saga that won't end until the day you die. Add to your autobiography as your life unfolds using your journal as your rough draft for the new material until you feel you've conveyed all the lessons you've learned and described all the places to which you've traveled and the interesting people you've known.

Please share your dreams and goals, joys and disappointments, and let your descendants get to know you and the life you have instead of letting the evidence of your existence and the lessons you've learned disappear through time leaving only your genes and your name behind.

Write on!

NaNoWriMo 2008

There it is. I participated. I met the challenge head on and won. I can't say that I'm proud of it, though, because it was a lot of painful work for a negligible reward. It feels like a hollow victory.

I'm not talking about the web badge or PDF certificate I was awarded. They're kewl and I'm glad to have them.

What I mean is that NaNoWriMo isn't for everyone.

The intent of NaNo is to enable a writer to produce a novel's first draft in only 30 days instead of the six months or longer that it usually takes. It is particularly effective for writers who can't quell their inner editors long enough to finish a first draft.

Unfortunately, as in other aspects of life, one size does not fit all. NaNo isn't suitable for every writer; I suspect especially those who don't tend to do a lot of rewriting. In case you're wondering, writers fall somewhere along a line that ranges across three basic categories: from writers to editors to revisionists.

For example, Lee Child writes a first draft and that's the only draft he does.

In "James A. Michener's Writer's Handbook: Explorations in Writing and Publishing," Michener described himself as being not a good writer, but a great editor.

At the opposite end of the range from Lee Child are writers like Louise Ure who describes herself as a revisionist who changes everything that's in her first draft. Everything!

Because I tend more to Lee Child's end than I do to Louise Ure's end of the range, being a polisher and tweaker instead of a rewriter or revisionist, I am still dismayed at the huge amount of untenable crap that was the result of my participation in NaNo. Sure, I won, but what I got from it was merely the length of a novel. It wasn't a first draft as far as I'm concerned. From the 344 manuscript pages that resulted from my NaNo efforts, I've been deleting everything I have to rewrite from scratch. As of this posting, only 55 pages remain.

That's a serious load of crap, isn't it? I'm not concerned about the actual rewriting because I have all my preparatory material. I'm annoyed only about the waste of time.

The reason for this is because the pressure of the short deadline and the advice given by Chris Baty and other experienced NaNo writers influenced me to cast everything I learned from Mary McClure to the wind. In addition to being a mentor to journalists, Mary encourages all writers and has an excellent sense for what works. It's not that Baty et al give bad advice, either, only that it doesn't always work for everyone.

So there I was, halfway through November, suddenly aware that extremely little of what I was writing could remain. It's not that the story is bad. It's because the writing was truly awful; I haven't seen my writing that bad before - ever. Not even in junior high school. By striving for the quantity that NaNo demands, I wasted nearly a month's worth of writing time that would have been put to better use producing pages that I wouldn't have to delete at the end of the challenge so I can rewrite them.

I would have given up and quit at that point of unhappy discovery, but I decided to see it through. After all, I had dedicated November to NaNoWriMo and I didn't have anything else to do on the spur of the moment. I did, however, quit as soon as I came to a natural stopping point after passing the 50K word goal even though there were more days left that I could have used to write more. I just didn't want to have to rewrite any more than I did already and I'm not enough of an adrenalin junkie to want the intensity of NaNo writing to last longer than necessary.

It really is an accomplishment to come out of NaNo as a winner. I only wish that what I got out of it was more like other first drafts I've done.

The bottom line is that while I have a winner's badge, the real prize for me is a workable draft. That is, a draft that I can actually work on, not one that I have to delete and rewrite.

Maybe if I was a revisionist, I'd be a happy camper. Instead, I suffered the insanity of NaNoWriMo and have only 12,000 words to show for it despite being a winner. I could have had that anyway if I hadn't been honor-bound to not start writing before November 1. NaNoWriMo simply isn't my cup of tea.

Will it work for you? Here are some things to consider. If you:

1. Are a procrastinator

2. Can't stifle your internal editor long enough to finish a first draft

3. Typically do heavy editing, rewriting, or revising

NaNoWriMo is likely to work out very well for you.

If you're a procrastinator who doesn't like to rewrite, all I can suggest is that you either set your butt down and write on your own volition, or bite the bullet, do NaNo, and rewrite whatever results.

To be a NaNo winner, I offer the following tips:

1. Dedicate enough time to churn out an average of 1,667 words per day for 30 days in a row. Get a haircut, do all the laundry, buy groceries, warn your family and friends that you won't be available, get an answering machine or turn off your phone, put a "Do Not Disturb" sign on your door, have your spouse pay all the bills or pay all you can afford on October 31 and delay as many as you can until December 1.

2. Persuade someone to prepare your meals or stock up on sandwich fixings, cereal, Ramen, and other quick foods like Knorr Rice Sides and Sides Plus to which you can add a drained 8 oz. can of vegetables and a drained, two-serving can of meat like chicken, ham, or sliced Vienna sausages after preparation according to package directions. That will give you a one-pot meal that serves two. If you're single, refrigerate the second serving and reheat it later for another meal. (For easy cleaning, fill the pot with hot water and a few drops of detergent as soon as it's empty, and let it soak while you go back to writing. It'll be easy to clean after a few hours.) During NaNo, I had an unusual craving for milk and grapes. Since protein and fruit are synergistic, I wasn't concerned, only noticed that the combination and quantities were unusual for me.

3. Plan your story as much as possible. The more you know about your characters and plot, the less you'll get stuck. Free-flow writing works, but if you get writer's block, having an outline or a stack of notes at hand will help you get back to writing. If it isn't cohesive, don't worry about it. Write on. Fix later.

4. If you don't have names for your characters before Nov. 1, don't get hung up on inventing them during NaNo. Simply call them something, anything, consistently all the way through. That way, you can go back after you determine a name and do a Find and Replace All if you're using Word or the equivalent in other word processors. Then, you can tweak the names according to how other characters address them during a regular editing pass. I used occupations such as POLICE CAPTAIN, WAITRESS, character types such as VILLAIN and VICTIM, and physical characteristics such as BLONDE when I didn't want to waste time thinking up a name.

That's all I can think of at this time. If you have other tips that helped you become a NaNo winner, please post them in Comments.

Happy Writing!

NaNoWriMo

I'm thinking of signing up for NaNoWriMo.

The reason I'm thinking about joining is because a couple of characters in a story I'm plotting are trying to go off the reservation. At first, I thought I had a plot problem, but no, it's these people. They want to go off and do something that's going to land them in Federal prison if they get caught and I need a way to stop them.

Because they're the good guys.

Good guys aren't supposed to land in prison if a prison isn't part of the story. That's where the bad guys go when the story ends. Good guys aren't supposed to do really bad things at all unless it's against the bad guys, to stop them or in self-defense.

Everybody knows that. Yet, here are these two characters of mine who are headed straight for the pen if they don't straighten up and the bad guys haven't even made an appearance. Who's going to beat the bad guys if the good guys are in jail?

"What's that?" you say. "You're the author. You made them up. You can make them do whatever you want."

No, it isn't that simple. Sure, I created them, but as many authors can verify, some characters have a way of going off, doing their own thing, and the only thing the writer can do is watch and write down what happens.

In this case, however, these characters are trying to take off on their own at the start of the story. I've got them checking into a motel and they're planning on getting a good night's rest so they can go do something illegal tomorrow.

ARGHH!

There are two ways to handle them. The first is for me to simply refuse to write about them until they decide to toe the line.

That method worked well with Cathy in "Personals 106," my first story since high school. She was created to be a romantic interest for the man of the story and the next thing I know, she's planning to involve him as the other man in a torrid adulterous affair.

I swear, I didn't know she was married!

There we were, figuratively duking it out. I folded my arms and simply refused to write. Eventually, Cathy decided to give up and go back to her husband, and I was able to conclude the story.

So, here I am again, refusing for the past month to let these characters do their own thing. This is where the [inter]National Novel Writing Month comes into play. I figure if they continue to refuse to let their story be plotted my way, on November 1, I'll start writing anyway.

That's the second method.

I'll let them arrive at their motel, check in, and go straight to jail if that's what they want to do. For all I'll care at that point, it'll serve them right. Hopefully, it'll purge their systems enough for them to let the bad guys do the bad things when I write the novel I intended for them.

Under NaNoWriMo rules, all I have to do is write at least 50,000 words from November 1 - 30. It could be the complete first draft for a short novel or a substantial amount for a longer one. Let's see:

50,000 words over 23 days (not 30 days because of Sundays, Thanksgiving, and an out-of-town day) = 2174 words a day.

At 40 words per minute because I'm slow, that's about 54 minutes of typing per day.

That looks do-able to me. With these characters, even if I'm not a NaNoWriMo winner, I'll win.

For those who don't finish writing the rough drafts of their novels in November, another website designated the month of December as National Novel Finishing Month. The month of March is designated as the National Novel Editing Month to give writers a rest and fresh eyes for editing their drafts.

If my troublemakers quit their shenanigans and allow me to plot the book during the next three months the way I've got it in my head, I'll be able to start writing on November 1 with plot notes in hand. If not, I can watch what becomes of them and if they land in jail for the entire month, that's what I'll write about.

Or, I could write another story I've been plotting...

As soon as I figure out from where the waitress came and what she's doing serving the woman a cold drink after her swim. I mean, I thought the man and woman were at his house. That's where I put them. The waitress, however, makes it look like a resort hotel which makes me wonder: Where are they? How did they get there? They aren't in Oklahoma, Texas, or Arizona. Is it Florida? Las Vegas? Southern California? Someplace more exotic like Hawaii or the Cote d'Azure?

As annoying as these characters can be, I gotta admit it's never a dull moment and the mental vacations are great.

For Writers - The Pen Addict

Nothing is more important to anyone who writes than the instrument used for writing. While paper might be something on which we compromise by resorting to the backs of envelopes or napkins, a favorite pen is something we'll take time to hunt down if misplaced. How much it weighs, how it's balanced, how fine or broad the line, the color of the line, the smoothness and longevity of the line, as well as the way it feels in the hand, fat, medium, or thin; all contribute to a writer's obsession with pens.

Have you ever wondered what a particular pen is like before you buy it? For those not entranced by fountain pens, I highly recommend The Pen Addict who provides a valuable service by reviewing many pens available and provides links to other like-minded sites.

If you're new to fountain pens or are looking for tips about use, care, or suggestions for paper or other websites, I refer you, of course, to my own pen webpages (shameless plug). The page listing the Best Pens to Buy For Everyday Use has been updated.

About Writers

Writing can seem to be an almost mystical journey. From where do the ideas spring? How does the writer settle on a particular word or turn of phrase?

Those who engage in writing find that one size does not fit all. It isn't a matter of simply turning on the computer and typing. Some have to perform preparatory rituals such as sharpening a dozen pencils or refilling their fountain pens. Some write best while listening to a certain style of music or in dead silence. Some writers take their laptops or pens and paper to coffee houses and sandwich shops because they need the bustle of business that doesn't concern them. One screenwriter in California writes on his portable manual typewriter at the beach or in a park because fresh air and sunshine make the words flow.

Some writers rent office space or lease a studio while others are okay with a converted bedroom or the space under the stairs. Some write before their families awake in the morning. Some write after the spouse goes off to work and the children to school. Some wait until everyone's asleep.

Agatha Christie plotted while soaking in her bathtub, eating apples.

The point is that a writer needs what that writer needs. Anything else, whether it's from ignorance, misguided good intentions, a misunderstanding, or presuming to know what a writer needs better than the writer does, is a hindrance, an obstacle, or downright sabotage. By the latter, I refer to reneged promises and assurances. I know people whose family and friends say they support their writers and wannabees, but what they actually do exposes them as unsupportive, self-centered, disloyal, liars.

For example:

The wife who said she'll keep the children quietly occupied elsewhere after dinner so he may write who then invited both next-door neighbors, with their children, over for dinner to socialize for the evening.

The parents who promised their unpublished adult son a laptop as a birthday gift, then bought a desktop computer that he still can't take to the library when he does research.

The mother who called her writing daughter several times during the day despite knowing that she was trying to finish a book while her young girls were at school because her agent already had a publisher lined up who was eager to see it. The writer insisted that her mother call only after 2:30 P.M. then quit answering the phone and let the answering machine take the calls when her mother persisted in interrupting her work just to chat.

The friend who wanted to go to lunch every day like they used to do when they were in college, who got angry when the writer said no, only once a week.

Please examine what you've been doing, not only to the creative people in your life, but to everyone you know. If what they're doing isn't illegal, immoral, or ungodly, what do you care how they live their lives and achieve their goals? It's their lives, their dreams, and their goals, not yours.

Go get your own.

John 21:22. Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.

Reviewing My New Pens

The ink rollers aren't turning out anything like I expected. The Kaweco Sport, in particular, has raised a new issue.

Playing with my new pens, I discovered that the line from the ink rollers depends on the ink. The Pelikan is supposed to write a finer line than the Kaweco, but using the short standard international cartridge that came with the Kaweco, the Pelikan makes the same broad line that makes my writing sloppy and unattractive.

Switching over to the Sepia ink that I bought solely to have the great Montblanc bottle it's in, the Kaweco line shrinks down to only about .4mm. Very nice!

I've yet to try the drier Montblanc ink in the Pelikan, but since it followed the Kaweco by producing a broad line when I inserted the short cartridge, there's no reason to expect a drastic difference.

Have you guessed the issue?

I bought the ink roller pens to use up ink that I bought only so I could have the terrific bottles and now, I'm anticipating having to buy more bottles so I can have the ink.

How perverse.

(If you see discrepancies in the reasons I give for buying pens and ink, that's the addiction talking. The plain truth is that I just gotta have them as any true addiction demands. Good thing that I'm a writer, huh?)

So, the Kaweco Sport is turning out to be a nice writer. It's comfortable and lays down the fine line that I like.

The Pelikan is less so. Although it takes the long standard international cartridges, not only the short ones I reported previously, and would be better because I can go longer before needing to refill, it isn't as comfortable to use because there are hard ridges circling the grip. Also, the plastic clip feels like it would break if handled carelessly, although it makes a nice, clear, sharp, clicking sound when I play with it.

Yes, there's more to pens than merely writing with them.

Other than the dilemma raised by anticipating having to buy more ink that I intended to never buy again, the only disappointment is that the ink rollers aren't quite as effortless as my Parker Reflex rollerball. This translates to my not being able to write as long with them. The Parker rollerball Fine refills are among the best I've found (others are from Retro51 and Schmidt) and it's too bad that Parker discontinued the Reflex series a few years ago.

(If you'd like to have an excellent, inexpensive rollerball, Kingpen bought up the remaining Reflex stock from Parker and has the Reflex rollerball pen left only in green, a pretty emerald green, for $4.19 including a Medium refill.)

As for my new Pilot Petit1 and Platinum Preppy fountain pens - oh, my!

Forget what I said about my worrying about ruining fountain pens during travel. These pens are so inexpensive, yet are so comfortable and write so wonderfully, that it should be a crime for a pen addict not to have them.

I have to post the cap on the Petit1 to make it long enough to be comfortable, but once that's done, it's fantastic as is the Preppy. The only thing I can say against them is about the Petit1 - the posted cap lays against the base of my index finger which rubs it off if I don't post it securely. Other than that minor inconvenience, it's great. Anyone who has yet to try a fountain pen, or who tried a fountain pen and wasn't impressed, should give these tipped, Fine nib pens a chance. They write so much better than other fountain pens made by other companies, especially those priced under $7. At $3 for the Preppy and $4.50 or less for the Petit1, there isn't much money at risk and a whole lot of writing pleasure to gain. Accolades to Pilot and Platinum for producing such excellent writers for so low a price!

In regards to the Uni-Ball Signo UM-201, the lime green is great but the .18mm line is too fine for me. As a result, I ordered the .5mm pen.

That's right. The lime green ink compelled me to order another one along with more Petit1 and Preppy fountain pens for traveling. (Ahem!)

So, There!

Every once in a while, someone I know comments on my speaking or writing vocabulary. The nice comments are along the lines of, "You have a good vocabulary." The others complain about my using big words. One aspiring writer who complained that I speak and write over his head said that he doesn't want a broader vocabulary because he doesn't need to advance beyond the reading capability of the people he wants to reach.

Frankly, I never understood the complainers because we've all been to college and, supposedly, can read and converse at the collegiate level. When I check my writing in Microsoft's Word, the reading levels usually come out between the 8th to 11th grades, right where I need them to be. Since I've never discussed it with anyone, I've wondered if Word miscalculated, especially in the light of the comments I've received.

Until now.

CriticsRant has a blog readability test that verifies what Word's been telling me all along, that those who complain about my vocabulary either weren't taught very well by their schools or they weren't paying attention to their teachers or something else totally unrelated to me:

To those who have been to college AND think I use words that are too big --

Nyah-nyah-nyah! Phffbt!

So, there! :P