Day: August 16, 2018

When Writing Comes Together

I’m in the throes of starting a new book. The working title is Night Shift. I’m learning about the characters, both of whom have been in previous books–the hero in three, the heroine in one.  The hero was a minor a character in the first two books. He played a larger role in the third (the fourth Toke Lobo & Pack book, which is pending, TBA). I kept seeing him as Seth Rogen.

Even though one part of my brain kept seeing this, I knew it was wrong. My hero is not a funny guy.

I caught part of the Espy Awards, thought maybe Jake Wood could be the visual.

I thought wrong.

For giggles, I wondered about the guy who plays Jon Snow in A Game of Thrones. Now, for the record, I do not watch this show. I know nothing about this show except some memes I’ve seen on Facebook. So I went to Pinterest and typed in JON SNOW. This is what came up.

Well, if that wasn’t a sign I was on the right track for the hero of Night Shift, I don’t know what was. So I typed in the actor’s name: Kit Harrington.

OMG, this is my character. Jean jacket. T-shirt. Jeans. So that was settled.

I decided to do some reading about the character in the show, just to see what was what–if he was a good guy or a bad guy and so on. Good guy. That works. But he’s called the white wolf? He has a white direwolf as a pet? I was flabbergasted.

But yeah, I think I’m on the right track for the hero of Night Shift.

 

#UpbeatAuthors: Laughter

Optimism, it has been said, promotes laughter. Laughter is good for you.

  • Reduces stress response
  • Boosts immunity
  • Increases resilience
  • Combats depression
  • Relieves pain
  • Improves social life
  • Is a mini workout
  • Lowers blood pressure
  • Improves your breathing
  • Is contagious.

Contagious? Yes.

There’s this thing called laughter yoga. It begins as prolonged voluntary laughter, but soon turns into genuine laughter. One person I know has done this and said it’s great. Some small-scale research has indicated that there are actual health benefits to laughter yoga. Unfortunately, it’s a group activity, and I try to avoid those whenever I can.

There are plenty of You Tube videos out there if you’re interested in gathering a group and trying it. Hmm. Maybe on my next writing retreat…

Letting Go

We’ve all made fools of ourselves at one time or another. We’ve embarrassed and humiliated ourselves and done things we wish we could either undo or do over. Memories of those moments keep us awake at night, haunting us like the Ghost of Christmas Past haunted Ebenezer Scrooge.

Or we’ve been angry and upset about something that happened to us. We’ve been slighted. Insulted. Ignored. These incidents fester.  Unchecked, they can poison a person’s outlook on everything.

There’s a meme floating around on social media: “Don’t look back; that’s not the way you’re going.”

Great advice. But letting go is easier said that done.

What works for me is writing out my wrath. Putting my pain on paper with a pen. Keeping a journal or a diary or whatever you want to call it lets me vent without annoying other people. I’ve heard other people write things down then burn them. That would work. The point is to get it out. Let it out. Once it’s out, you can let it go.

 

Time to Tell a Joke

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Yes, August 16 is National Tell A Joke Day.

I love jokes.

Here is one of my all-time favorites:

Four engineers are driving to a conference when the car sputters and dies as they pull off to the shoulder.

After a moment of silent contemplation, the electrical engineer says; “you know, I bet the coil’s bad. We need to replace the core.”

The chemical engineer says; “you’re nuts, it’s obviously the fuel’s gone bad. We need to drain the tank and refill.”

The mechanical engineer scoffs; “you’re both wrong. Sounds to me like a valve lifter is froze. We’re gonna need to rip the block apart.”

After another moment of silence the three look back at the computer engineer who says; “maybe if we get out of the car and get back in?”

 

Happy National Ice Cream Day!

If you follow me on Facebook, you may know that I am extremely upset by the closing of a local dairy store in my neighborhood. It seems the company–a local one–has decided to focus on the commuters in the area instead of the neighborhoods that had sustained them since 1933.

When I was a child, everyone sang their TV/Radio jingle and changed the lyrics from “Chuck right full of vita-mine” to “makes you look like Frankenstein.” We were kids! It’s what kids did.

I am a fan of Byrne Dairy. Their milk still comes in refillable glass bottles. One of my uncles worked for a company that made the machines that seal cartons of milk. He didn’t live in Central New York, and I still remember the shock on his face when we told him Byrne still used glass bottles.

But the biggest plus about Byrne is that their ice cream still comes in full half-gallons. My supermarket has good ice cream, but the cartons are much smaller than half-gallons. And Byrne Ice Cream is phenomenal.

I miss them being around the corner. I remember one day, I was home sick from work. My son did not yet have his driver’s license.  He walked up to Byrne and got me ice cream.  I let him drive me to the doctor’s office.

I frequently stopped in to buy ice cream. Now I don’t know what I’m going to do. None of the supermarkets in my immediate area carry the brand (although there are some in other areas that do). There isn’t a Byrne Dairy store on my way to anywhere–except my parents’ house.  Which is not convenient because I don’t live there.