So, I ordered some flowers for my mom for Mother's Day. When I was done with processing the order I realized that not only was I charges for the Express Delivery, I was also charged for the FUEL associated with the delivery. I just spent $18 on getting these flowers to my mom.


Pink Ribbon Lilies (with 10% donation to Susan B. Komen Foundation): $44.99
Courier Fuel Surcharge: $4.93
Standard Express Delivery: $12.99
Tax: $3.26
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL: $66.17


Something has got to be done about these out of control fuel prices, especially considering that oil companies are continuously making record breaking profits year after year. I can not wait to get our Oil Baron out of Office!

I figure it's time for another reminder about a great LJ community called Thing in 150. This is a community that operates continuously and encourages people to write 500 words per day.

Thing in 150 evolved from its the desire of its members to do NANO, but we weren't able to commit to writing a novel in the month of November. It was more realistic for us to do the "500 words per day thing." So, Thing in 150 was born. The theory is that after 150 days of writing 500 words per day you will have written 75,000 words, which is the goal for NANO.

The thing that I love about Thing in 150 is that you don't have to feel pressured to write everyday or post your progress every day. It's a very comfortable community of writers who welcome and encourage any amount of new words or progress. I have a habit of posting 500-1,000 per day and then posting nothing while I'm editing, but the great thing about Thing in 150 is that I know it's there waiting for me to return. Plus, it gives me a great place to post daily writing progress without gumming up my personal blog with that info.

Thing in 150 is for any writer at any level. So, if you're interested in a welcoming, encouraging community of writers, you should come check us out.

Neil Gaiman is coming to MIT!

MIT is truly the place where science, technology, and literature converge and I can't think of a better innagural speaker than Neil Gaiman for The Julius "Julie" Schwartz Lecture, which will be an annual event starting in May 2008. Given the speaker, the topic, and the location, I think it's safe to say that this is going to be a fantastic event. If you're nearby, you should attend. You will be sorry to miss it!

Don't worry about buying a ticket in advance since they will be available for purchase at the door (cash only from what I understand). Also, Kresge Auditorium is HUGE so don't worry about not getting a seat because there will be room for everyone.

The text below is taken from the MIT Comparative Media Studies web page. You can also view the bios of the speakers here.

The lecture is open to the public. Anyone can attend even if you are not part of the MIT community. So, bring yourself, your family, and your friends to MIT and give Mr. Gaiman a great big warm welcome!

The Julius Schwartz Lecture is an annual event held to honor an individual who has made significant contributions to the culture, creativity and community of comics and popular entertainment. The inaugural lecture will be held on May 23rd, 2008 at 7 PM in Kresge Auditorium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The lecture is hosted by the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT, and was founded to honor the memory of longtime DC Comics editor Julius "Julie" Schwartz, whose contributions to our culture include co-founding the first science fiction fanzine in 1932, the first science fiction literary agency in 1934, and the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939. Schwartz went on to launch a career in comics that would last for well over 42 years, during which time he helped launch the Silver Age of Comics, introduced the idea of parallel universes, and had a hand in the reinvention of such characters as Batman, Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and the Atom.

The event is typically structured as a short lecture presented by the honored speaker, followed by a question-and-answer discussion between the speaker and the head of the Comparative Media Studies program, media scholar Henry Jenkins III. This will be followed by an open question-and-answer session between the lecturer and the audience. The inaugural speaker for the series is New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman.

I thought I'd pass this on to my LJ friends bacause I can't think of a better event for writers to sponsor.

Patricia Smith, one of my Stonecoast friends and a poet who will take your breath away, is participating in the 2008 New York Writers Coalition Write-a-thon.

Here's an excerpt from her LJ entry:

I'm taking part in the 2008 New York Writers Coalition Write-a-thon to raise money for the groundbreaking creative writing classes the NYWC offers to seniors, the homeless and at-risk youth. For eight straight hours on Saturday May 17, I'll be writing and workshopping my a** off--energized by your pledge. Please take a moment to glance at my page and help me reach my goal of $1000--so that we can continue to hear the voices we most need to hear.

We all have charities that are near and dear to our hearts, not to mention a restricted amount of money in this tight economy. However, if you have the ability to contribute to the cause, I urge you to sponsor Patricia for this event. You will be helping people who desperately need to find a way to hear and be heard through the power of writing.

Learn more about this event by visiting the website for the 2008 New York Writers Coalition Write-a-thon.

Stonecoast MFA Program, a division of the University of Southern Maine


Hello Stonecoasters!

I'm noticing that there are a lot of us on LJ. However, I don't think we all know one another since people have found each other more by chance than anything else.

If you are a Stonecoast student or alum, do you mind responding to this post so that we can get on each other's radar?

A short meme via pxcampbell.

Comment and I'll...
1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ.

Cheers!

How to Murder a Man by Carlo Geblér is a gripping tale of Ireland in the mid 1800s when the Ribbonmen dressed in their hoods terrorized people with the fear of torture and death if their warnings were not heeded.

When Thomas French took the land agent job in Beatonboro his goal was get the tenants in arrears to quit their farms in exchange for passage to America. Little did he realize that his humane intentions resulted in undermining the Irish tenant rights in the area - rights that were generally upheld by local landlords, but not protected by law. So, French sets into motion a set of grim, yet sometimes oddly comical and sometimes horrific, events as a group of Irish Ribbonmen set out to murder him for the crime of devaluing tenant rights in Beatonboro.

I have heard many times that you need to be as cruel as you are kind to your characters in order to write a truly compelling story. How to Murder a Man was compelling from beginning to end, always building toward the inevitable conclusions that you know must come, but you hope the characters will somehow escape. Geblér has many great talents as a writer, but I have to say that his greatest talent is to keep his readers on the edge of their seats as they convince themselves that these "inevitable conclusions" won't possible be reached. Then after the climax has connected like a punch to the stomach, Geblér reels the story in with a conclusion that is both satisfying and believable. He is a master of suspense and action.

In addition, Geblér recreates with ease the look and feel of Ireland in the 1800s with bits of description and threads of detail that turn his prose into a visual and intellectual experience. I highly recommend this book to people who 1) enjoy suspense, 2) have a stomach for occasional acts of human cruelty, and 3) enjoy Irish history and politics.

This is a post in progress. I think it is a little risky to post something before it's final, but I'm curious about any comments you might have on the topic. Note, this post is largely my ruminations about the process of adapting stories between multiple story forms, which is the topic of my Stonecoast research paper. Although I won't use any of your comments in my work (without your ok), I would still like to hear them because I'm a curious cat.

These are just a few of the questions that made me want to tackle the subject of adaptation:

• What are some of the best adaptations?
  
• What is it about adaptations that draw us in as a reader/viewer?
  
• Why do writers want to adapt another person's work?
  
• How does reading or viewing an adapted work enhance or detract from your connection with the original story?

------- ( Erin's Ruminations on the Art of Adaptation )

Bogwitch64 has tagged me with the book meme thingie. This one sounded fun, so I thought I'd give it a go. Now to choose 5 of you to tag! Oh, who will it be?

Here's how this "Nearest Book" meme works.

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment to garunya's blog (your tagees will post to mine, etc.) once you've posted your three sentences.

The Five Chosen are (because I am curious what's on their desk):
- slushmaster
- sartorias
- lonfiction
- jenwrites
- benburgis

Here are my three sentences, from Beowulf by Caitlín Kiernan:

The dark blood gushes from the ragged stump, and when Beowulf kicks at it, the hand closes weakly about his ankle. He curses and shakes it loose. The arm flops about on the mead-hall floor, reminding the thanes of nothing so much as some hideous fish drawn up from the sea and battering the deck with its death throes.

She makes the story of Beowulf exciting!

... that shows like American Idol should exist. Reality shows as a whole are not my cup of tea. However, Idol has found a redeeming quality in David Cook. If you haven't heard him, you should check him out on YouTube. He did a great version of a Meriah Carey song tonight and did a terrific job with Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean."

David is a true artist who can turn old songs into something contemporary, fresh, and unique. In addition, he shows that he has a deep understanding of music, which allows him to adapt pretty much any song to his voice and style. Without Idol, I think it's fair to say that David wouldn't receive the attention he deserves.

---Addition--
Here's the YouTube link.

The Procrastinator Strikes!

So, I took the day off today to take care of a few things and to get my head on straight. The last few weeks have been difficult to say the least. Perhaps that's why I decided to take a few hours today and put together another Doctor Who video; this one features The Master.



Enjoy!

My mom, who is suffering from horrible bone cancer pain, saved her friend's life yesterday. She hadn't heard from her friend in a few days and the phone wasn't being answered. So, my mom took extra pain medicine and drove over to her friend's house to find her incapacitate on the couch with her body shutting down and not making red blood cells. The doctors said that if my mom hadn't gone to check on her friend, she would have one less friend in the world today.

My mom is pretty cool.

Please forgive the scatter plot of thoughts hitting my blog today.
---
Well, I'm going to be interviewing Chris Ryall today about his graphic novel adaptation of Beowulf. I had a lovely chat with Nancy Holder last night about interviewing techniques and I am really looking forward to this. It will be my first interview ever and it's also a significant part of my research for my third semester project - even though I am only in my second semester.

(... Ben, you will learn that I am an overachiever. I'm sure Jason will enlighten you on my obsessive behaviour. In fact, he's written a super heroes story about the pop'fic Stonecoast students...)

---
For anyone in the Cambridge area, I found out that Neil Gaiman will be speaking at MIT on May 23 at 7pm. Check out page 15 of the CMS's In Media Res - Spring 2008 for details.

---
The next night, Joy Marchand and I will be heading to the Boston Pops - an event to be directed by the amazing and talented John Williams! He does so few appearances that this is a real treat. Plus, how can we pass up movie night at Pops with a full orchestra blasting Star Wars and the Indiana Jones theme at us - all in preparation of the upcoming release of the new Indiana Jones movie, of course!

---
I have started reading The Alchemist and it's amazing. I will have to dedicate a post to it later. However, I can say that I have never read anything that so closely matched so many of my personal beliefs on fate, destiny, and a person's ability to achieve her dreams. What an amazing book!

---
I need to be more consistent about sending out stories. I don't write that many shorts, but I really should put more energy into revising what I have and getting them out the door. My most recent short got rejected, but I received some terrific feedback. Thanks Slushmaster!

My short story goals are going to need to include getting one new short sent out every month. We'll see how that actually works out! haha!

---
Last night I attended a special lecture at MIT featuring Chris Eyre, the director of the films Smoke Signals, Skins, etc. He asked, "What's the point of doing art, if you're not making art that you love?"

He went on to talk about balance in life and in the choices that we make. After his talk, I really started thinking about this idea and the compromises that artists are forced to make in order to keep making the art they love. The combination of this lecture and reading The Alchemist has put me in quite an introspective mood. I'll have to write a post about this also.

So much to say, so little time!

---
On a more serious note, I want to encourage everyone to spend more time with people they love. You never know when it'll be too late to share fun and rewarding experiences with them, and waiting until they're sick is waiting too long.

---
So there we are. There's not too much of a point to most of this rambling entry. I just felt like putting it out there so that it wouldn't be knocking around inside my head.

Now, it's time to kick the day job into gear.

EDITED:

Hah! Even my links are messed up. My mind has gone a bit haywire today. Maybe I should just delete this post. LOL!

It looks like I have given myself another month with a full schedule. I didn't quite pull everything off last month, but I got pretty close. I figure the more I shoot for this big goals, the more likely I am to achieve big things. So, here's what April 2008 looks like.

Stonecoast Work for April
Reading:

• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  
• Beowulf by Caitlín Kiernan
  
• The Road to Xanadu: a Study in the Ways of the Imagination by John Livingston Lowes
  
• Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  
• How to Murder a Man by Carlo Gebler

Writing:

• 10k of new fiction for Eighth Day
  
• Revise - Thomas Moore Fairy Tale
  
• Write - Blind Sight

Interviews:

• Chris Ryall, Beowulf comic book writer
  
• Neil Gaiman, Beowulf screenwriter

Other Items

A friend also asked me to write a few scripts for next weekends 48-Hour Film Project: Boston. I don't really have the time, but how could I say no? I have three ideas that I will turn into 4-7 minute scripts. Each script can then be "modified" to fit a couple different genres. That should give the team quite a few options with my scripts alone.

.... or at least it will be tonight.

I'm sending my March 27th Stonecoast packet of fiction and annotations to Nancy Holder today. I've hit my 10k mark for new novel fiction and annotations on "Beowulf" and "20th Century Ghosts" by Joe Hill. I think I may post a snippet from my annotation here on the Joe Hill book because I was so incredibly impressed by the richness of the worlds he creates.



Later today or tomorrow I'll be posting my schedule for next month, but not until I get this packet in the e'mail. ;-)


Also, a little warning to the kiddies out there who plan to attend Readercon. You might want to think about reserving your hotel room now before the hotel sells out. I think it sold out around May last year.

Cheers!

For those of you in the know, I've been driving a project to start up an online magazine that is run by the Stonecoast community. The name has just been confirmed as The Wolfe's Neck Review.

The first issue should be appearing online sometime during the summer of 2009, which means we have plenty of time to get this thing up and running. If you want to keep up with the Stonecoast happenings, check out the Stonecoast Journal since that's where I'll be posting future updates on this and other projects.

The Wolfe's Neck Review is going to be an amazing project once it's done. Stay tuned to learn more! Also, let me know if you want to be included on the E'Zine Team! If you're not a Stonecoast student or alum that's ok because this won't be an exclusive magazine, but it will reflect the general philosophies and work of the Stonecoast community.

I have the opportunity to spend one half of my workshop in Ireland doing poetry. I'm not much of a poet nor am I all that adept at poetry analysis. However, I am interested in learning more about poetry.

Do you think it's worthwhile to torture myself with trying my hand as a poet? Or should I just stick with fiction and focus-focus-focus?

Help!

So, I've given myself the task of writing a short bio. I absolutely despise this type of task because I have no stomach for talking about myself from this type of perspective. I'm just horrible at it.

Does anyone have any advice on how to write a bio other than "hold your nose, close your eyes, and type"?

This month has been a killer. I am feeling so frazzled and exhausted that all I want to do is sleep.

A couple weeks ago I got my packet back from Nancy, and the comments were very good and encouraging for first draft fiction. Also, yesterday Nancy mentioned that at odd moments she keeps finding herself thinking about my novel and the world I have created. That makes me very happy. :-) So far, I have 28,779 words on the novel and I need to put down at least another 1,200 words before I send out my next packet.

I have read Beowulf the poem, the script, and the graphic novel. I've also read Jumper and am halfway done with Joe Hill's "20th Century Ghosts". It's time for me to finish up the annotations that I've started, but I'm losing steam right now and don't really feel like doing anything but kicking up my feet and writing this LJ post.

I've also been up to a few other Stonecoast related things which you can see on the Stonecoast Journal. Other than that, it's all been MIT related work and overtime hours, and then some relaxing time with my husband.