Please Don’t Feed the Writer

Of opening your own restaurant? I think everyone has at one time or another. I have. Cooking is my passion, but the business sense belongs to my wife, not me. Leave me in front of a keyboard or a cook top and the world is happy. Leave me in charge of finances and we’ll be eating Ramen for a month.

If you are in the market to start your own restaurant, be sure to check into the rates on any restaurant loans you may consider. It will save you heartache in the long run.  And remember, since your working capitol is a loan, the interest you pay is tax deductable.

Margaret Atwood’s the Handmaid’s Tale.

Looking back it occurred to me that my English teacher, Mr. Young, had a chortle or two at the expense of “Banned Books” everywhere. As a matter of fact, I clearly remember my Senior year’s book list. We had to have our parents sign off on the list the summer before and everyone’s parents did so. On this list was The Handmaid’s Tale, Grendel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Canterbury Tales, The Color Purple, and several other novels that had made it to the BBL. Genius man that he was, he had us read the stories and then make comments, discuss, and not once did he mention that the US had gone up in flames over this stuff. Tell a teenager it’s forbidden and they may read it, but it will be laced with guilt or adrenaline and you won’t get the full effect. Have them read it and then discuss it among themselves empowers both the reader AND the book.

So for day 1 of Banned Book Week, I want to discuss The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

What was it, I wonder, that got the proverbial panties in a twist? Was it the fact that a man of power, from a fallen USA, could take multiple wives? Or was it the humiliating threesome in which the “new wife” would have to be held down from behind by the “old wife?” Maybe it was the forced slavery of all the women in the US…I’m not sure. While I found that appalling, for the CHARACTER, I remembered it was a work of Fiction. The story left me feeling unsettled. What I do remember is her journey through hell and her rescue from it. I remember being swept away by a fantastic piece of literature. Ban it all you want, America, The Handmaid’s Tale is here to stay. Long live Margaret Atwood.

Well folks, the holidays are rushing in pretty quickly. (Where did I leave that countdown to Christmas widget???) The day all of us, besides my sister “the dedicated shopper” that is, will be upon us before you know it. You can’t stop it. It is as inevitable as the tide, and it is coming for all of us.

I’m referring to Black Friday, the official beginning of the holiday shopping season. Major retailers all across the country will be slashing prices on just about anything they want to move out of stock, and as anyone who’s gone shopping on this particular Friday can attest, the best deals are usually on items that are limited in quantity.

More often than not, you’re not going to find out what the retailers are going to put on sale until Thanksgiving Day, when your weekly sale paper arrives and the commercials hit the airwaves. Then you’re stuck with the old way of doing things, like getting to the store at 5:00 AM to brave the lines of turkey-dazed bad tempered shoppers that are all trying to buy exactly the same thing you are. But what if there was a better way to handle Black Friday?

There is. Instead of doing the same old song and dance on black Friday 2007, just log on to Black-Friday.net and sign up for their newsletter. You’ll be informed of the new sale items before anyone else is, and receive direct links to those products, with discount codes so that you can buy them online, not stand outside the store at zero-dark-thirty hoping that you’ll get there in time.

As an editor and copywriter, I have personal pet peeves.  Words that drive me crazy, especially if used improperly.  Yes, I know I’m not perfect, but no one is.  Think about the irritating girl in class who used to snap her gum all the time or the “I’m not touching you” jibe your irritating little brother used to throw your way. 

What works for some does not work for me.  I can ignore and/or easily correct some things: a lot being spelled as one word, anyways as a word (it’s anyway, if you’re interested), or informal IM conversations that have l33t strewn throughout (LOL for example).  What really burns my bacon or chaps my hide is the misuse of Your, You’re, It’s, and its.  So lets discuss:

Your refers to something belonging to you.  Your car needs an oil change.  You left your purse in my car.  Your dog is quite the yipper.   

You’re refers to the contraction: you are.  You’re going crazy!  You’re very sure? 

If the word you’re can be subsitituted with “you are”, then it needs the apostrophe. 

It’s  refers to the contractions: it is and it has.  It is NOT used as a possessive spelling.  It’s raining outside.  It’s going to be a long day.  It’s been a long time. 

If the word it’s can be subsitituted with “it is” or “it has”, then it needs the apostrophe. 

Its refers to the possessive use of it.  The dog lost its will to live.  The sun turned its face from the world. 

Soapbox rant over. 

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom is sponsoring national banned book week beginning September 29th through October 6th, 2007.

I’ve always been amazed at the number of books that are banned or that someone is attempting to have banned from public schools or public libraries. When i was younger, it was Mark Twain and Laura Ingles Wilder on the chopping block for Huck Finn and the Little House series. this is truly asinine in my opinion and I urge everyone to participate.

Please note that I have nothing against a parent dictating what his or her child does or does not read, whether it be from a moral/religious perspective or just because that parent does not feel that the subject matter is inappropriate for his or her child. What I DO have a problem with is those parents attempting to dictate it to other people’s children!

Take this week and read one, or all of the most contested books of 2006. It’s our freedom, let’s flex some muscle, shall we?

More information HERE

OK, off the topic of writing completely, but as a veteran myself, I wanted to pass this along. You may or may not be aware that you’re entitled to VA benefits or a veteran mortgage, because of your time in service. These benefits may also be available to military spouses, so learning all you can is most definitely in your best interest.

YourVABenefits.com is dedicated to providing information to Veterans about benefits offered by the VA. (Department of Veteran’s Affairs) These benefits range from G.I. Bill to home loans, career training and burial benefits. If you’re a vet like I am, it’s someplace I highly recommend looking into. Some of this information is difficult to find on your own, so take a minute out of your day and stop by YourVABenefits.com.

O.K. back to the subject at hand…

In case you haven’t heard, Robert Jordan, author of “The Wheel of Time” series died last Sunday at the age of 58 of a rare heart disease.

Science Fiction and Fantasy have lost another master of the arts and he will be missed.

More information can be found at Robert’s official blog HERE.

The laser printer is the best friend and ally of both aspiring and published writers alike. They’re available for less than an arm and a leg now,so if you don’t have one, go get it. Attempting to submit a manuscript printed in an ink jet or bubble jet will probably not gain favorable marks with any publishing house, and will eventually cost you as much as your first child in ink cartridges.

Once you do have a laser printer, always be armed with at least one spare toner cartridge. Supermediastore.com can help out with cheap Samsung toner, as well as toner for Brother (my laser printer), Canon, HP, Epson, Konica Minolta, okidata and many more.

Don’t take the chance that you’ll run out of toner in the middle of printing a manuscript. Order a new toner cartridge at the same time you install the last one you’ve got in reserve, and please recycle the old cartridge.

20 Master Plots and how to build them is a wonderful resource, especially for NaNoWriMo entrants. Ronald B. Tobias goes to great lengths to detail the 20 different “Master Plots”, or the 20 plots from which all stories are derived. Armed with this kowledge you’ll be able to outline with greater ease, especially since you have the arc of your chosen genre at your fingertips.

Mr. tobias covers the following topics and more:

• Invisible fiction
• The lowest common plot den ominators
• The strong force
• Deep structure
• Triangles

I found the book insightful, interesting and thought provoking. For instance, i didn’t know that the original “riddle” plot line was “The lady and the Tiger”, though I remember the story well and remember that it hung with me for weeks after reading it originally. (I think the poor fool died at the end, but I’ve been jilted a few times.)

Take chance on 20 Master Plots and how to build them. If nothing else it will give you a better understanding of how some of your favorite works are put together. For me it helps greatly to fit my latest idea into a category, if not necessarily a mold. Is the tale a Quest or is it an Adventure? What defines the two and why are they different? This book will tell you

I own it, I use it regularly and I recommend it.

Let’s face it, we can’t live without them any more. Whether you prefer to hand write your initial manuscripts or not, the computer is where edits and final drafts are done, and if your computer is more than 3 years old, it’s probably time to consider a new machine, and definitely the time to consider a new monitor.

Your eyes are your most valuable commodity and an aging monitor isn’t helping them out at all. Even if you had the state of the art in CRT or LCD a few years ago, and whether you notice it or not, that old monitor isn’t working as well as it used to, and it’s going to strain your eyes.

ABT Electronics can help you here with available free shipping on all kinds of electronics and consumer goodies from Whirlpool trash compactors to computer monitors and brand new computers and PDA’s.

You’re eyes are valuable, protect them with updated equipment and good lighting practices.