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Archive for the ‘That’s Life’ Category

New year – same goals

Happy New Year from England!

The boyfriend and I are visiting the UK to see old friends, see family and do some sight seeing. Posts about England will follow later this month. This post is about my yearly goals. As usual I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to last year. I did not submit ten short stories and one novel. Though I did submit short stories. I did not read twenty-four books. I read five. The workshop goals I always manage to do. And the movie goal is easy to accomplish as well. I watched movie 100 in England.

Onto this year’s writing goals:

1. Write every day with an average of at least 1,000 words a day
2. Read twenty-four books
3. Watch 100 movies
4. Read twelve scripts
5. Critique more
6. Take at least two workshops
7. Give workshops
8. Submit ten short stories and one novel
9. Continue to grow the in person writing group
10. Update website

I’m taking Margie Lawson’s Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors so I’m confident I will be able to accomplish everything on my list this year.

I hope 2012 is great for everyone. Do you have any 2012 goals?

Until next time…

Cindy

Hallowe’en

All Hallows Eve when you and old dress up. The old usually dress up for parties. The young to go trick-or-treating. Hallowe’en was always my second favourite time of year. Well, maybe I loved it as much as Christmas. It was a chance to be someone else for the night. Have fun. Watch scary movies (what ever happened to those?), or go to any one of the numerous Hallowe’en activities in the city.

This year we went to the Haunted House of Horrors in Guelph. I have one word. AWESOME. This dude does an amazing job. The movie props were great. The actors did a fabulous job. Walking through the house made me feel like I was in a horror movie. Which made me want to get back to my script. Soon I’m going to have to stop fixing it, call it done and submit it. The house also gave me nuggets of ideas for stories. Check out the website (link above) and view the photo gallery.

The last night for the haunted house is tonight. But the attraction is open every year around Hallowe’en. If you’re in Guelph around October 31 you should go. Some of the proceeds go to the Guelph Humane Society.

Tonight I get to go with my niece trick-or-treating. Can’t wait for that. She’s so adorable. Then I must hide any candy we might have left. Or I can keep it handy for NaNoWriMo.

Did you do anything for Hallowe’en this year?

Until next time…

Cindy

Spring cleaning

I love spring. The weather is warmer, the sun sets later. People seem to be happier. But with spring comes spring cleaning. And boy do I have a lot of cleaning to do. I’ve let it go too long. The downside of being a writer is the housework takes a backseat. It’s lowest on my priority list so you can imagine the state of my house. The kitchen is fine. The living room isn’t too bad I guess. You can see the table and sit on the sofa. Even the bedroom isn’t overly bad. But none of it is spotless.

So, this week and for the next few weeks I’ll be going on a cleaning rampage. My main objective in all this is to get my office finally set up. I miss having an office. All of my books and office supplies in one place. An actual desk to sit at. A place to put my printer. Being able to find my pens, envelopes, paperclips, post it notes. Sigh.

I also want to get the “library” started in the basement. All of the books in the house in one place. Well, most of them. The research and writing books will be in my office. I’d like to get a sofa or at least a love seat in the basement so people can actually watch TV down there. There’s a nice television down there we aren’t using at all. It would be nice to be able to go down there if the boyfriend is watching something I don’t care to watch or playing a video game when I want to watch television.

Right now I’m off to work. The rest of the cleaning will have to wait until I get back.

Until next time…

Cindy

Read an ebook

So it’s read an ebook week. I’m late, I know because ebooks really aren’t my thing. I’m an old fashioned girl when it comes to books. I like printed books. I like to turn the pages. I like the feel of them in my hands. I like the smell of them. I like seeing them on a bookshelf.

I thought I would give an ebook a try because my friend Danielle Gavan has a few out. She’s a great writer with interesting takes on some of your favourite princesses from your favourite fairy tales. I’m reading Tarnished Tiaras right now, an ebook of short stories that answers the question – what happened to the fairy tale princesses that the fairy tales didn’t tell us? You’ll never look at fairy tale princesses the same way again. I’m liking the stories. I’ve always loved fairy tales. And I’m not minding reading it on my iPhone either. I can read in bed with the lights off while the boyfriend is sleeping. You can buy her book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Smashwords.

Until next time…

Cindy

Think about what you’re saying

Had a pretty good weekend. Friday afternoon was an all about me afternoon. And when I say ALL, I mean all. Everything I did that afternoon was for me. I went swimming, went to the bookstore and bought some books, ordered others. I went to a restaurant for lunch. Then I went home and watched two movies, giving my full attention to both. No laptop, no iPhone. The movies weren’t great but not all movies are of course. Just like not all horror movies are scary. FYI, none of the horror movies I watched on the weekend were scary.

Saturday the boyfriend and I went to a beer tasting in Waterloo. I drove so he could sample. The brewery was very nice and they had a good turn out. But lots of people drinking free/cheap beer has the conversation going all over the place. Some of it good, some of it not so good. Most of it though, had me more determined than ever to finish a few stories I have on the back burner.

Interesting word all. A lot of people use it without thinking about what they’re actually saying. All was thrown around quite a bit Saturday afternoon. If you’re going to use the word think about what you’re saying first. All women think men are jerks. No, they don’t. Plus, have you asked every single woman on the planet what they think of men? So how can you make that statement? All men think women should be barefoot and pregnant. Uh, no. At least not the men I know. And have you asked every single man on the planet? All religious people think non religious people are lazy. All non religious people think religious people are fanatics. Hmm. Did you talk to every religious and non religious person on the planet to come up with those conclusions?

You can say a lot of women who have been hurt by men think men are jerks. Or the women I talked to think men are jerks. You get the idea. FYI I do not think men are jerks. Some are sure. But most of the men I know are great people. I do not believe any of the all statements in the previous paragraph either.

Now here are a few alls you can use. All men are people. All women are people. All thumbs are fingers. All horror movies are movies. You get the idea. Think about what you’re saying before you use all to make a statement about someone, something, a group of people. We’ll all be happier if you do.

Okay, off to work. Where all the work I have to get done will not be finished in one day.

Until next time…

Cindy

The Sims 3 as reward

I’ve been playing The Sims 3 way too much since Christmas. As a result I haven’t written much. Not even close to what I wanted to have accomplished by now. So I’ve decided to use the game as a reward for writing. Now some people might think if I really wanted to write I wouldn’t need a reward. That a reward for doing something indicates a desire not to do that thing. Not true. I have what I like to call writer’s ADD. I have so many things I want to work on I sometimes can’t pick which one. Do I work on the urban fantasy suspense? Or how about the romantic comedy script? Perhaps the horror short story.

But it’s not just the works in progress that vie for my attention. There are my Excel spreadsheets to keep track of everything from the clues in my story to how many points I’ve eaten in a day. The websites I want to update or finish. A new software I bought to create WordPress templates. The books I should be reading. The movies and shows I should be watching. Yes, should because as a screenwriter I need to study movies and television. And of course family and friends time.

So, back to The Sims 3 as a reward for writing. I’ve set up my word count tracking spreadsheet to calculate how many minutes I’ve accumulated for Sims play. I must write enough words to accumulate an hour of time to play. It’s really not worth playing unless you have at least an hour. Every week the time I’ve accumulated resets. Since I need to write 12,000 words to be able to play for an hour I’m thinking The Sims is out for this weekend. Next weekend though my goal is to be able to play for at least an hour.

Right now I’m going to get some words done before I go to bed.

Until next time…

Cindy

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