This beautiful lady is Sara. She’s my son’s fiancee. Yep, this month he popped the question to his long term girlfriend. The marriage is in a few years. I’m getting a wonderful daughter without all the mess of raising one. But that’s not why I’m congratulating her. I’m congratulating her for graduating college. She’s now a physical therapist going on to medical school! That she worked hard for and made it! We are all so proud.
It doesn’t take long driving around Kenosha that I noticed all the custom murals. On Labor Day in the heat of the day we took out the Mustang seeking murals for me to photograph. So enjoy the scenery on that warm day (in the upper 80sF). (more…)
![The badger over the door to the state Supreme Court in the Capital in Madison looks down in judgement on all who enter. Photo credit - Me.](http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6029/5995959802_50f32dec97.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="The golden badger of the state capital"></a>)
HI! Remember me? I’m that girl that used to blog five days a week. What happened?
I’ll tell you what happened–life happened. Yeah I had to get used to working a part-time J-O-B again. Then add in a jewelry business on the side. Then for fun, I wrote a novel in my copious spare time.
The novel’s working title is House of Lucan. It’s a science fiction fantasy. I finally learned after years of writing that if I talk about a plot I won’t write it. So I shut-up and put-up or rather put the plot down on paper. I have to thank dear Eva Jarkiewicz for being my cheerleader through the process. Her almost daily support was why I got through the first draft!
Last week I went to Madison. I attended the Writer’s Institute at the Madison Concourse Hotel. It was an excellent conference. There I officially pitched to two agents and wound up beside another at lunch. All three are interested in the book and me. So I am continuing work with them to see if one is a match for me.
While there I realized how far I’ve come as a writer. I have published works from large publishers. I have connections in the industry. I’ve learned a lot of techniques that have improved my writing. I have cards with my picture! Yet when it comes to writing I feel I’ve not made any progress. I don’t know what I would think would be progress. I mean if I by some grace of the fates I wound up on the USA Today’s best seller list that inner voice in me would say, “Yeah but it’s not the New York Times.” If I got that I know the inner voice would say something like, “Yeah but that’s just in the US” and so on. I’m beginning to think that little voice in my head is the type my father warned me about. He said there are those who “if they had the Taj Mahal as an outhouse it still wouldn’t be good enough.”
Part of the writer’s block I battled for so long came from this little voice saying ‘no matter what it’ll never be good enough, you’ll never be good enough.’ The badgering (my apologizes to Wisconsin) got to me and I froze. Then along came Eva and her virtual pom-poms. She liked it. She really really liked it. I could do more to please a friend. As I did more and more I looked back and taa-daa I had a first draft of a novel. Sure it needed work but for the first time I had a first draft that I loved. One that maybe it wasn’t good enough but it would do, do for Eva and me if no one else.
Then I worked on it just a little bit and took the jump to Madison to workshop it and pitch it. I had two one on one critique sessions with experienced people in the industry. I was shocked when I left each session. I had pages, WHOLE PAGES!, with not a mark on them. When I asked they said “It’s great as it is.” I was stunned and remembered the bloody page I got back from my very first one on one critique from a pro. I HAD come a long way.
As I moved about in the conference having meals and had down time with others attending I realized how very few had published as I had. That had actually worked with real publishers and editors. How few knew people that worked in the industry and talked with them about the market, trends, and such. How few of them knew the industry guidelines on genre, chapter structures, word count, dialogue, and such.
It wasn’t then I had time to reflect on how far I’d come. Instead I had anxiety over the pitches. Then when I had them like it I walked out feeling like Sally Fields accepting her Oscar. “I can’t deny the fact that right now you like me. YOU LIKE ME!” The funny thing was that night after all the pitches were done, the one on one critiques, the critique group, THAT was when I woke multiple times with anxiety attacks. After it was all over, that was when I experienced the worst of it.
Now with a week’s perspective I can look back. I think what was happening that last night was that ‘never gonna be good enough’ voice experiencing some pretty crippling blows. It was his/her anxiety of not controlling me as much any more that woke me. No, I’m not there yet. Where ever ‘there’ is now because it’s always a moving target. But I have achieved some theres and passed them. It’s just now I’m on my way to the next there and this time is different because I’m enjoying the journey. I’ve learned to say ‘so what, it makes me happy’ occasionally to that badger above my office door. I know that no matter what my stuff is good enough for me, my friend, and once upon a time in Madison for three strangers that are literary agents. Mark that down as another there achieved and on to the next one.
Let me first start by stating the obvious – IT IS COLD OUTSIDE! Yes it was -16F when I woke up. No that IS the actual TEMPERATURE you don’t wanna know the wind chill – somewhere in the -30sF. I don’t plan to go out until afternoon when we are supposed to warm up to about oF. Okay formalities taken care of I’ll start on my post now.
Due to work I didn’t go down to see the folks (mine and his) until after Christmas. It worked out just fine. Aaron and Sara came down later and stayed after us as they wanted to celebrate New Year’s with their friends here. Ahh I remember when we actually stayed up in dressy clothes and partied with others. Now just staying up is the challenge. Funny as I get older I get more like a baby routine keeps me from being grumpy.
Any way here are a few photos from the trip. Not much as I only had my phone.
Okay tomorrow and Thursday I work so hopefully I’ll get another post in the pipeline for those days – maybe about the great YWriter and a postcard from the past… or maybe swamp tour or Colonial Williamsburg… or maybe not… Until next time!
You know that Mike hast to go some where on nice weekends. This time it was a reenactment over at Silver Lake in Kenosha County. Of course we got in the faithful old Mustang, put the top down and took off. When we got there we discovered a nice park not far from our house. A quaint reenactment set just before the Revolutionary War broke out. Here’s the photos from the day.
As always you can click on any photo to be taken over to my Flickr account. There you can see more images from the day. Until next time!
Back on May 26th Mike and I were looking for something to do. You know he HAS to get out and DO something if it isn’t snowy on the weekend. So after seeing in the paper that there were boat races on Lake Andrea in Pleasant Prairie we were off to see what it was about.
It was about small boats that sound like lawn mowers doing laps on a very small lake not far from our house. Really there were heats, different levels, and such. Interesting but as the sun started to set the day was getting cool we headed home. Here’s a few shots of the day.
As always there’s more on my Flickr account – clicking on any of the images will take you there. Feel free to snoop around over there as much as you want.
Until next time!
If you know me – you know I hate snow. I despise it. I’ve lived in Upstate New York, Connecticut, Michigan, and now Wisconsin. Each time my hatred so snow has grown. I’ve been here going on 9 years – it went from being pretty if I was inside and warm to keep the blinds closed I don’t want to see the damn stuff. A friend here asked me when I was going to develop at least an appreciation for snow, I said “when it’s warm and dry.” “That’s sand.” she said. “Exactly, ” I replied, “I’d rather be a the beach.” If the truth be known I don’t like sand either. Having lived where it is sand – trust me sand gets into everyTHING best to have tile floors and throw rugs that can be shaken out. However having spent half my life where it snows and half my life where it doesn’t – I prefer doesn’t and will take sand over snow any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Yet I’ve got at least another decade in Snowberia… so I thought I’d share what it looks like to live where we are getting regular snow storms of multiple inches at least weekly. Heck we deal with them then the East Coast whines and names the damn things.
For the benefits of my friends who have never lived through real winters (yes Tennesseans this includes you) here’s what every day looks like.
Here’s what it looks like at home in the winter –
Then this year I added the joy of driving to work in winter –
Oh there’s posts coming up of Mike’s snow shoveling. Yeah that’s another joy. I’d rather have to mow three times a week like in Charleston than ever see anyone shovel or blow snow again… Until next time –
It seems the small consistent presses are the ones turning out awesome stuff. The big publishers can’t get their acts together to bring everything to the table at once in a single title. That’s my take. I adored Think Tank and I’m digging Revival. Both are comics that are slam dunks of the medium – strong multi layered stories whose telling is supported by great art. Revival is about the dead coming back to life in the middle of Wisconsin, Wausau county to be exact. Why they came back, how they came back, and what it means for the rest of the world is what the book is about. It successfully goes from the personal focus to the international focus and back all building and adding to the story of the quarantined area after Revival Day. You know it’s good when you can’t wait for the next issue to see just where this is all going.
Okay let’s get the routine stuff out of the way – legal disclaimer – All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique. No more than three pages total from any one issue is reproduced.
Next a nod to the team that is bringing a great story to press. Story by Tim Seeley, Letters by Crank!, Covers by Jenny Frison, Art by Mike Norton, Colors by Mark Englert, Design by Sean Dove, Edited by 4 Star Studios.
Now let’s talk story set up, May Tao a local reporter breaks the news to the world that the recently dead in central Wisconsin are coming back to life. Her story goes international complete with a reviver jumping out of a cremation oven. The area is put on quarantine by the CDC. Why? Think if this is contagious – no one dies but birth rates continue what would that do to the balance of the world resources? That’s why. So a perimeter is set up where no one is allowed in, no one is allowed out. A task force is formed to study the Revivers with CDC representative and a local officer who is the main character if there is one Dana Cypress. I’d say she’s more the linchpin character that ties all the others of the ensemble together. Oh by the way her younger sister is a reviver – murdered and came back, doesn’t care to solve her own murder though.
This book doesn’t follow the formula of comics of an arc, an issue, an arc and so on. Instead it’s telling a story that keeps growing and developing involving an ensemble cast. This is a hard thing to pull off in book series, TV series, and comics – to develop each character fully while keeping the stories moving and in balance. There are arcs for individual characters, May Tao just completed one with the odd fundamental cutting edge exorcist. Yet the one with Justin and Jamie and their reviver father has just started. Some are short arcs like May’s some are long and slow building like Em sister of Dana. That’s what makes this an awesome read! It’s well written and just because one story beat wraps up in this issue others are at their mid beats or just starting. That’ll keep me reading for a long time.
Now for the art which is awesome. Honestly I forget I’m reading in someways and feel I’m watching a movie play out. A good novel does that to me just like a good comic. The story is so well done the medium of how it is told fades away and I’m left enjoying the experience. I don’t think I can pay any higher praise to a comic book artist than that – you made the story real for me to watch unfold.
If this isn’t on your pull list it should be. It’s not to late to go back and get reprints of the first few issues. It’s well worth catching up and if you do it as one night’s read I’ll bet my last potato chip you’ll have a great time!
**** SPOILER ALERT********Some interior pages*********Maybe Preview/Review for some but Spoilerly to others *********
In some cases the death and revival are harder for the living to deal with than the dead. In other cases, like the one they are coming from it was hard for the dead to be cheated out of the eternity of bliss with those they loved that had died before them. Interesting to see various reactions from those involved.
I like how the Hmong population of Wisconsin is worked into the story. As it goes on we see the vast difference in the generation that migrated here after Vietnam and those who were raised here come to the surface. That also plays into the story of how they interact with the events and the mysterious white ghost/demon creature.
Here’s Dana and Ibrahaim from the CDC. What’s awkward is they had a romantic encounter the night before at a local bar before they knew they’d be working together. Honestly I like them and hope both sides of the partnership flourish.
Here’s a good example of story layering. May is coming near the dramatic conclusion of her arc with the fundamentalist stalker. Em is just learning a bit of what this white lurking thing we’ve caught glimpses of in other issues is and what it wants. So the fast developing story of May is driving to a conclusion, the slow building story of white creature is developing, and Em’s personal story moves a bit further along it’s arc while encountering the crescendo of May’s story and the building arc of white creature. Cudos!
Here’s a look at what the world saw to introduce it to Revival Day.
Until next time!
One thing I noticed our first season here was the attention to yards. No really here and Michigan people on the whole tend their yards more than say in Tennessee, South Carolina, or Florida. Why I don’t know, but they do. I suspect it has something to do with the awful winters they generally have here and the Midwest ethos. I throw in the last part because there’s awful winters in upstate New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island (all place I’ve lived) but they don’t pay attention to lawns like Michigan and Wisconsin do.
This lawn attention carries on to holiday decorating. I showed you our neighborhood at Halloween, now let me introduce you to it during the Christmas season. There is a street here in Kenosha called Christmas Lane. It’s known for the over the top Christmas decorations. It all started as a friendly competition between two neighbors. They tried to out do each other every year. It got so competitive that tarps were put up so the other fella couldn’t see what was coming until the great reveal! Eventually the whole street joined in the spirit of lighting up the night.
What follows are highlights of our neighborhood and of Christmas Lane. You can click on any picture to be taken over to my Flickr account and there see even more photos.
Until next time!
Thankfully we weren’t slammed by Sandy like Cuba and the upper East Coast of the US were. However she did get here going against the usually pattern of getting our weather from the West. We got mostly winds from the storm.
One night when it was in the upper 20sF here we got a wonderful ice ring around the moon. Bigger than my house- here’s a few photos of it.
The next day the wind rolled in and we got some great waves. Many people were out at the point and on the beach making pictures of it. I was one of them. Rappy went with me and enjoyed the crowd much more than the waves. The waves scared her. Our usually blue lake was brownish being churned up by the high winds.
Mary Louise Eklund 