Some Pennies for My Thoughts

Hello my lovelies.  Summer, though technically a week away, is in full swing in firespark's realm.  It's too hot outside; the garden, as usual, is overgrown and under-utilized (though there are a few green tomatoes on the plants, which means they're faring better than last summer's tomatoes); and the day job still takes up too much of my time and brain space (which has nothing to do with summer--it's just one more thing to complain about, and I like things in threes).  The writing life is limping along, but I did just receive my first writing paycheck for a couple of articles I did last month.  Like the tomatoes, this is a definite improvement over last year, when my total writing wages were exactly zilch.  They were little things, these paid-for articles, and not the fiction I long to wrap my days with, but it's still money and it's still writing.  I'm a happy spark. 

Here's a bit of randomness I'd like to share with you.  If you like random, read ahead.  If not, I bid you adieu until my next maybe-random-maybe-not post.

Best Fortune Cookie Fortune Ever:

Well, maybe the 2nd best.  My now-deceased grandmother once told me she'd found a fortune at a Chinese restaurant that said, "Help!  I'm trapped in a fortune cookie factory!"  I never saw this notorious fortune with my own eyes, but if she was telling the truth, THAT would be the best fortune cookie fortune ever.  If she was pulling young firespark's leg, however, then this is the best fortune cookie fortune ever, which was found by a friend and promptly handed over to me, seeing as how I'd be able to fully appreciate it:

~ Book lovers never go to bed alone. ~

Oh, you know you chuckled.  ;)

Wait...

THIS JUST IN
Mittensmorgul is going through a writing crisis.  It's related to... RESEARCH!  (full horror movie scream... key up scary reeeeeee-reeeeee-reeeeee hacker music)

Her story is set in a city where she doesn't live, and, as my friend Sarah would say, her google-fu powers are failing her.

She writes:

"I just need to know what the first possible exit street from the lower deck of the bridge is. My MC needs to be waiting there to pick up her surveillance on the bad guy's car. AND I CAN'T FIGURE THIS OUT!!! GAH!!!"

This is the sort of crisis which strikes fear in the hearts of writers everywhere (and if it doesn't, it should).  Why?  Greg Rucka said it best in his article, Why I Write "Strong Female Characters"

"The reader is smarter than you. The reader is always smarter than you. And the reader knows when you've taken a shortcut, or phoned it in, or are trying to pull a fast one. And the reader don't like it one bit."

Oh mittens... I feel your pain.  And your fear.  Stay strong.  I've been informed that help, via red-headed carrier pigeon, has just landed.  The exit has been found.  It's going to be okay.  

Stay tuned for our next episode of Writing Life Beyond 'What You Know.'  

Over and out.

Update

Petre is pondering research, too.  Is there something in the air?  Weeeeiiiiiiirrrrd...

http://petrepan.blogspot.com/2012/05/late-at-night-and-fiction-research.html?showComment=1339639035255#c3898597279907800707 

Pen and Print by David Reber Hammer's Photography

Hello, friends!  Just dropping by a quick note to let you know my dear friend, T. Z. Wallace, has managed to earn a spot in a contest, and I want to shout about it a little.  It is Miss Snark's First Victim's Secret Agent contest, and our lovely Ms. Wallace is May Secret Agent #3.  If you click on that last link (the red words saying "May Secret Agent #3" just to your left . . . I've linked them again in case you missed them the first time), it will take you to T. Z.'s entry, at which time you may find yourself drawn into the first scenes of a rather riveting story.  Once you've feverishly read through every word, you may then find yourself compelled to comment about this story, to say how it made you feel, why you kept reading, and maybe even a little constructive criticism (writers do like feedback, after all).  This would be the desired effect.  If even one of you first read this, and then read that, I'll have done my job.

For the record, I do love her opening ever so much.  But I won't try to sway you with my own opinions, however weighty they may be.

Happy reading!