Friday Funnies – Happy New Year!
Thoughtful Thursday – 3D and Writing
Coyote poses in front of my mobile craft dalek, three drawers and a surface for dreams.
It’s strange. As I look back on 2015, I wrote less fiction than I usually do, despite putting out several books and writing a short story for a podcast. I’ve also knit a lot less than I’m used to, though I’ve finished more than I think I have when I take time to talley.
The nature of 3-D creation, things like making soap, knitting, and sewing, to name a few, is that they all operate in the real world, the three-dimensional space in which we physically live. To an anorexic, this physical space thing is puzzling. By and large, we live in our minds, and coming down out of the mind into realspace can be scary and unfamiliar.
Oddly enough, my three-dimensional experimentation this last month and a half has been at the gym, rather than my crafts. In going to the gym everyday except holidays, I’ve learned a number of things. I already knew that “showing up on the page” is the way to accumulate words, it never occurred to me to apply it to the gym and getting fit. Now that I’ve made the connection, it seems obvious – I mean, if “showing up at the barre” works for dancers, or “showing up at easel” for painters, why wouldn’t it work for fitness? I’ve been working to apply the same regularity that I have with morning pages to my gym-going. It’s been working, if a lot less spectacularly than I thought it would have to be.
I suppose that’s the lesson, in many ways: reality is a lot less spectacular than the echo chambers of social media and drama would have us believe. The echo chamber wants us to be up in arms, heartbeats pounding, as we worry about the next crisis in some other place over which we have no control and no actual connection. We need to remember that we are physical bodies, not just mental, and that as such we have our own realities. The echo chamber is not reality. On a good day, it’s a reflection of reality; most of the time, it’s simply a tool of drama llamas.
So, while my thoughtful Thursday is less about crafts and writing, it’s still about three-dimensional space and writing. They relate to each other more profoundly than we realize.
What about you, Dear Reader? How do you experience your three-dimensional space today?
A Writer In Her Library
I’ve missed my Thursday “A Writer In Her Library” feature, so I figured I’d resurrect it. I’ve been doing a lot of work with autobiography and memoir lately, and I adore Tristine Rainer. She has a great book, Your Life As Story, and I’ve found it really helpful through the process.
One of the first assignments she gives is to write a fairytale of your life’s story. It’s an interesting exercise. She said that some students want to cram their lives into an existing fairytale, but she suggests writing a completely new tale, in the style of a fairytale.
What about you, Dear Reader? How do you feel about memoir and autobiography?
Work In Progress Wednesday
I’ve been coloring a lot this week. I find it relaxing. These are more from the Dover Stained Glass Coloring Books that I talked about earlier in the week. I love the one on the right page, top left, with the two men. Who knew the Celts were into m/m romance? ~grin~
What are you working on, Dear Reader?
Walking In This World – Flora and Fauna or, Snow, Ice, and Yuck
Julia Cameron talks about a lovely idea in her book, The Artist’s Way, about “flora and fauna reports” that she would get as letters from her grandmother. They were remarkable for two reasons: first, they came so frequently and for such a long duration; second, because they were so in-the-moment as to be Zen koans.
Today, I needed that idea. The alarm went off at 0500 and I did not want to get out of bed. For one thing, it was, well, 0500. Duh. For another, the weather has turned nasty, which in an of itself isn’t a surprise because it’s Winter. In Chicago. For another thing, I didn’t get up early yesterday because I needed the sleep. My body’s probably fighting off the cold that my coworker brought to the office. But really, it’s because getting up takes escape velocity.
I’ve said it before: big goals don’t work. We set them and then get stuck trying to be perfect, trip, fall, and stay down. This only makes us feel worse about ourselves and our big goal – which, after all, was meant to make us feel better about ourselves, not worse. This time of year, I see a lot of setting of resolutions, goals big and small, and I feel the competitive push to join in the dash toward personal betterment.
But this I’ve learned: novels aren’t written overnight. Morning pages keep me sane. And now, I’m endeavoring to make “going to the gym” as regular as morning pages are – which means, daily. Just go. Show up at the page. Show up at the gym. Don’t have expectations about outcome. Focus on the journey. Turn off the inflow if the inflow doesn’t help you get onto the page, to the gym, or whatever your target is. Be a friend of your future self. Stephen Covey said, “Exercise integrity in the moment of choice.” So, for today, I got up at 0500. I went to the gym. I will write my morning pages.
For today’s Walking In This World, I leave you with my favorite Zen Koan:
Chao Chu fell down in the snow and yelled, “Help me up! Help me up!
A Zen monk came and laid down beside him.
Chao Chu got up and went away.
Tue Cent Twosday – Why Peacocks or, Jurassic Birds and How Not To Be Eaten at the Zoo
When one sees a peafowl, or commonly “peacock,” one is struck by their beauty – particularly when they display their lovely tail feathers. It turns out that they shed their tail feathers annually during a molt, and this is how peacock feathers are made available for purchase – the animals aren’t killed for them.(1)
On a recent trip this month to the Brookfield Zoo, my husband’s attention was caught by two peafowl wandering around right on the pedestrian road. He crouched down, mesmerized, working to catch the closest one on camera.
“Uh, honey? Your nine o’clock,” I warned.
He came right out from between the bushes, under the low hanging branch, right at my husband as he crouched there. Michael even waited a moment or two, figuring he’d stop or go around.
Nope.
It’s at this point we realized there were about ten peafowl converging on the spot where we’d stopped to watch.
My husband said, “Clever girl,” reminding us both of the movie Jurassic Park. Remember, when the velociraptors attack from the side?
I couldn’t quite catch all of them in the same shot, but they milled around us as though waiting to catch us with our guards down.
Right. We’ve seen this movie, Mister Peafowl. And thankfully, you’re not as big as a terror bird; and they, thankfully, are extinct.
Notes
Tuesday Tips – How To Avoid Smudges When Coloring
As much as I like the color of water color pens, they are still wet when you’re using them. They don’t dry quickly and this can lead to smudges – from ink that gets on your hands while you’re coloring, or from ink that gets on whatever surface you’re coloring on.
Here’s what I’ve learned works for me: I use a clean sheet of paper when I’m coloring. If I leave the pattern in the coloring book, then I use two sheets, one on each side of the design. If I remove the pattern piece from the book, then I use one sheet under my coloring, then I rest my hand on the other one so that I don’t accidentally transfer color with the heel of my hand.
The only thing you want to be careful of, is if you have a particularly wet pen, you don’t want it to transfer from your blotter sheet to the design.
What about you, Dear Reader? What tips for coloring do you like to use?
Make Something Monday – Coloring
Image drawn by John Green, from Dover Publications Little Seashore Stained Glass Coloring Book; colored by A. Catherine Noon.
Okay, ever since I started knitting, I’ve discovered that I’m hip. Not because I’m, like, hip, or something; but because, apparently, what I’m into is the new black. My theory is, it’s all us X-Geners putting our collective spending power together and making stuff popular because we want to buy it. Take coloring books, for instance. I’ve adored coloring books for years. My two favorites are the Dover line of Stained Glass Coloring Books and mandala coloring books. The latter were hard to find up until this holiday season when, apparently, booksellers started listening to me and my X-Gener pals and poof – lots of options.
Just in time for me to be on a budget, of course. 🙂
But I figured I’d share some of what I’ve been up to, particularly because it dovetails nicely with the whole yoga-meditate-getinthemoment-beinthebody vibe that I’ve got going lately.
This one is held up against my monitor so you can see it by the glow of the light. That’s why I like these, because they are translucent. One project I’d like to do at some point is make a Japanese-style paper lantern using these colored designs.
Here’s the back of the book so you can read a little more about it. (If you click on the image, it will jump you to the Amazon page if you’re interested in shopping.)
I figured a discussion of pens is warranted, especially since there’s such an interest in adult coloring books now. I’m a pen snob. This will not surprise any of you who have been reading me a while, but I say it because I’m extraordinarily picky about what pens I like to use. Pentel pens are, by far, my favorite for luminosity and lasting power of the pens themselves. I know there are more expensive and higher quality pens (I made the mistake of telling a graphic artist friend of my love affair with Pentel and got an ear-full). But here’s why I like these: I’ve owned this specific set for OVER 20 years. No, that’s not a typo. The red’s a little dry now, and so is one of the greys, but by and large it’s still working for what I need it to do – color coloring books so I can relax. I don’t use them for serious Art with a capital A. (Well, that’s not true – I have used them for that; my point is, I’m not saying these are the best pens out there, just that they’re my favorite).
Here’s the inside of the set; I like this wallet type. I saw online that there’s a version in a rectangular case, but this one allows me to put them in the order I want them in and they stay organized. They do sell smaller sets, if you don’t want to fork over the money for all 36; I used a smaller set for years too. They really seem to last. I’ve put a hyperlink to Amazon in the image so if you click on it, it’ll jump you to the shopping page.
Tell me, Dear Reader, what are your favorite coloring books and tools? Pens? Pencils? I’d love to know.
(I think I’ve fixed the comment problems, but holler if not; email is a.catherine.noon AT gmail.)
When “What He Said” Isn’t Enough – Free Workshop Coming February 2016 on Coffee Time Romance
Free Workshop,Writing M/M Romance – When “What He Said” Isn’t Enough
Writing M/M romance, or “male/male” romance, came about in the late 1960’s (probably much earlier, but that’s when folks admit to it), written largely by and for women. It has its roots in the fan communities and stories were mimeographed, (anybody remember those?), to be passed around at conventions or mailed, (yes, snail mail), back and forth. That’s not to say it doesn’t also appeal to men; I have a number of men friends, gay and straight, who like to read it too.
And then came the internet.
Now, with the explosion of ebooks and the ease of sharing stories via forums and archives, the genre has come into its own. There are now more and more original stories with two male characters who meet, have conflicts, and fall in love. And yes, there’s the sex.
We’ll talk about how to write convincing male characters and how to handle pronoun confusion. We’ll touch on some elements of erotic writing and how to make scenes as hot, or as sweet, as one wishes.
Most of all, we’ll have fun. Join me for some discussion and, most of all, some writing.
Join me for a free writing workshop at the Coffee Time Romance forum, here, Sunday, February 7th through Saturday, February 27th. You don’t need any experience as a writer. Just bring your curiosity, enthusiasm, and your internet connection. We’ll create the rest from there.