JRW Writing Show

Speaking of James River Writing Show. As I just did in previous entry.

There's another Writing Show coming up.
Uh, tonight technically, since this is the 24th, September, Thursday. Already! Can you believe it?! Egad!!

Oh, but back to the James River Writers Writing Show. If you are in the Richmond, Virginia area come by and take it in.

You can find all the information here - http://jamesriverwriters.org/jrw_programs/workshops/writing_show/index.htm


Come by and gather information about how some authors have writing groups and how they work it. And about NaNoWriMo coming up in November. Come on you don't really want to miss that do you?

Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic

Do you write for yourself or do you write to create some kind of message for others?

I remember at a JRW Writing Show one of the audience members seemed a bit upset that people didn’t seem to take away from the story what she intended them to.

It was along the lines of it was her story and they were supposed to get from it what she wrote.

But can we ever Really do that?

We are all individuals with individual experiences. Even those that grow up in the same household can have entirely different experiences. [Believe me I know!]

I think it’s because we all are such unique individuals. We are living a common thread here but each seeing it the way we are, where we come from, and way we choose. Which also influences us- the choices we make. And if you’ve read any of my blog at all – although may be in the blogspot one not the livejournal one since the blogspot is the one I started first and has more entries – one of my favorite movie phrases [uh, I have quite a few different ones, just so you know] is one from ‘Under The Tuscan Sun’ - the movie Not the book, don’t even get me sidetracked there! – the main character begins to take on her life, feel at home in it. She says something about ‘any little turning along the way and she’d be different, she’d be elsewhere.’ That’s true of us all isn’t it? And our perceptions of things we see, think, and, of course, read. So how can we see, think, and feel the same things? I’m not sure we even should. How can you help someone else if you are mired in the same feelings exactly the way they are? I think we can, and should have empathy. Empathy, not sympathy. Those are two different things.

As long as you buy and read my books I don’t know that I’ll really care what you take away from them.

Okay so really as long as you buy them. Let’s get real here. [uh, this is where the arithmetic part of the title comes in. Just so you know.]

Yeah, so every writer wants people to read and Really like their books. But, maybe because I’m still working on the writing parts, in my mind right now I think I’d be willing to settle for you just buying them. I think. Right now anyway.

And as long as you don’t do weird stuff like stalk me or anything. Ok? Promise?

So as a writer do you think of your reader at all?

As a reader do you think about how the writer intended their writing?

Magic anyone?

Thinking about magic. And weddings. And Love of course. The shining faces of people gloriously in love.

Who doesn’t sit at a wedding and look at that young couple, so happy and so in love, and wish for that feeling again. At least sometimes. Come on, don’t you?

But did make me think about love as being magic in a way. It sure has the power to transform.

And isn’t that what magic is, or does?

Made me realize we all have magic. Or the potential of magic. Since we all have the potential to love. And be loved.

Does the power of love transcend everything else?

Even throughout the whole story of wizard Harry, he said over and over he would have given it all up to have his parents and their love back.

We all have the potential to love. And be loved.

Maybe that’s the real magic.

And maybe that’s all the magic we need.

Or what we can actually touch?

What do you think?

Miss Me?

Have been hopping around with all kinds of doings. How about you all?

From quick travels out of town to a friend’s son’s wedding, to things JRW, meetings, and count-down to Conference.

You ARE going to be there right? The James River Writers Conference in October.

I get to do a panel with the graphic novelist Dash Shaw, the writer of humor filled mystery series Donna Andrews, and the super Uber-talented often mentioned here…ta ta ta daaaa…Maggie Stiefvater!!! Yay, Yay, YAY!

And since I’ve already warned you I am a Bemused Writer you might be getting an inkling of how my mind works.

My friends, or just those around me, are still a bit ‘bemused’ by how it works I think. :::grin:::

For some reason along with everything else I’ve been thinking about recently, I’ve been thinking about magic. Is this only a writer’s foible? Musing about different things like this.

As writers aren’t we all magicians of a sort? Or maybe better put, magician’s assistants, since we all are looking for the best words to blend together to create the best alchemy of a story, or to tell a story.

Or at least I am. I’m always casting about, looking for the best most expressive way to create the same, or close enough, scene in your head when you read, that’s in mine when I write, with the fewest, but best, words. Isn’t that magic? Or alchemy?

Not that I’m trying for the turning everyday objects into gold things that is the dictionary description of alchemy.

Although when you think about it, isn’t that what Every writer Really wants to do?

But as writer’s whether we admit to the first definition of turning things into gold there is the working of the second definition which is:

2 : a power or process of transforming something common into something special

Which we are definitely trying to do as writers. At least I am.

And which we hope to do the first definition with. Which is transform it into gold. Right? ;)

So here’s to writing magic. Or magical writing.

Hope to see some of yours soon. ;) As well as my own. :::grin:::

Summer's waning

The cool weather has crept in making us think of fall, hasn’t it? I know some out there, those worshipers of all things tan and sun, are bemoaning this. But there are plenty, especially around Richmond, Va., that are ready to bid farewell to the hot steamy mugginess that passes for summer in central Virginia. Are the ones that really enjoy the summer around here the ones that can escape all the time to the beach and/or lakes? That would say they don’t really enjoy summer around here either now doesn’t it.

I like the fall, where summer’s heat and mugginess ceases to drag at the senses until all of them have just melted into the pavement.

Fall is a pick-me-up time, where it’s such a relief to have the draggy days of summer gone and the crisp cool begins to rejuvenate all the tiredness away.

If you notice you can also tell the beginning of late summer by the sounds. The crickets and critters have a quieter voice than they do in the spring and beginning of summer where they are stridently clamoring for recognition and, well, all the rest of it.

By summer’s end even their noises have taken on a tired quality to it. The evenings become softer, both by sound and by feel.

You can actually begin to breathe again.

At least until the cold winds of winter’s bite begins. But while we are still somewhat in summer’s grip that’s easy enough to ignore for now.

So who are you – a summer fan all tan and sweaty? ;)

Or are you an autumn fan glowing with the mix of sun and cool?

I’ve already indicated mine. ;)

What about yours?

To summer’s ending, autumn’s beginning, glow. May it light all of us and shine the light on all of our hopes and dreams. And our attaining them.