Rain in the Desert

I can blog straight from Picasa. I did not know this super interesting fact until tonight. I really don't have anything of value to say. I just wanted to blog from Picasa. This thunderstorm occurred in the high desert on Monday of this week. It happened, of course, in the middle of a furniture delivery. It is a rare occurrence, so I journalized it. Monsoon season doesn't usually hit this area. It might rain again tomorrow. It doesn't last long, and you don't know it's coming until you hear the thunder. Then you have about five minutes of wind and lightning, the kind that you miss if you blink. Flash floods could occur, a threat hanging over our heads, but they normally don't. Excitement.

Research

• Should my character's VW bus have a spare tire in the front or in the back?
• Where did all the free food come from in Golden Gate Park?
• Who were the Diggers?

It's exasperating to be writing, typing along feverishly, and realize that you don't know what your character is wearing--or what she should be wearing--or how she got that skirt in the first place! So you type in a placeholder, "long, flowing denim skirt," and decide to research later.

Well, let me tell you, one question leads to another. The internet is a good place to start, but at some point in time, you will find yourself immersed in a book about the history of fashion, and then maybe raptly perusing a .pdf file of a manual for a 1966 VW Bus. You may then find yourself wandering around in the itunes library for the Summer of Love. You may then also find yourself forking over cash to itunes for the entire playlist, including the deep cuts. You may then find yourself humming "Light My Fire" for no apparent reason throughout the day, including when the UPS guy hands you the little sign here thing (I need to research what that is called) and is alarmed by your gyrations to the inaudible music playing only in your head.

All you can do is smile and explain, "I'm sorry, I'm researching a story."

They will either nod in relief or scurry away quickly. Either way, you're back to your research and the world may revolve without you until your next discovery, proclaimed from near your desktop, to anyone who is unfortunate enough to be standing nearby.

In my case, only the cats get to hear about LSD and bad trips and the Monterey Pop Festival. They look really interested, though.

Feedback = Good Stuff

I'm not ignoring this blog. I'm not a slacker. And I am decidedly, most certainly, not a complete and utter hack.

I've been working. On work! Yay!

So I turned in 52 pages of my latest project to my mentor and we'll see what she says. I also overcame my shyness and offered to let some trusted friends with a creative spark of their own read it. Two kind people accepted and one provided feedback already, while the other is still formulating his response, but said nice things in a preliminary fashion.

This is almost more scary than waiting for my professor's response!

My one friend that provided the feedback already chose to share my manuscript portion with her teenage son. I wish I had thought of asking her to do that! He is totally my target audience! And, guess what? He enjoyed it! Yay!

So, thank you to my readers, and I will probably expand to asking more in the future, since I will not have a workshop readily available to me anymore. Does anyone know of or belong to a children and young adults creative writing online critique group that might accept me, please?

Thank you!