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 

Research and Doing Art Right

Research.  Research, research, research, research.  Research.  Oh gods, I don't know what I'm doing!  Write what you know...  But I don't want to write what I know, I want to write about a sociopath who takes over the world as we know it.  I want to write about a nation corrupted and laid to waste from the inside out.  I want to write about wars and power struggles and places I've never been and occupations I've never had.  *whimper*

So... research.  Research, research, research.  Anybody know how to research destroying one's own government FOR FICTIONAL PURPOSES without showing up on some kind of Homeland Security watch list?  Love the paranoia.

Hehe...  heh.

In other news, Amanda Fucking Palmer (sorry for the language, kiddies), has done it once again.  Her Kickstarter project for her next full length studio album has been funded by fans, both new and old, 10 Times Over.  You read that right.  Her goal was $10,000 and we, the people, with no help from any record label, have raised/donated over a million dollars to make this album a reality.  And there are still 51 hours to go (from the time of this writing).  I signed up and donated my meager five bucks, just to get all the extra stuff.  And because I believe in what she's doing--making music, on her own, supported by no one and nothing but fellow musicians and her fans.  This is how art is supposed to happen.  And it's why I'm sharing it with you here.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amandapalmer/amanda-palmer-the-new-record-art-book-and-tour