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ClickStats, my clicker-training data-keeping app

Writing emotions. No, not ABOUT emotions.

The problem with writing is that it’s wholly subjective. Qualitative. No hard data.

ClickStats, my clicker-training data-keeping app
ClickStats, my clicker-training data-keeping app

Where we can do quantitative analysis, we can make reasonable judgments even when our emotions aren’t in alignment. “I felt great about this today, but we actually had only a 70% success rate.” Or, “Oh, man, today has been a total downer and I hated this session, but we nailed it with a 90% success ratio.”

That’s very nice for behavior analysis and free throws. Not so useful with writing.

Writing emotions. No, not ABOUT emotions.
Felix B. Bauer, on the right

Generations, Brick by Brick

So today’s post is about a field trip to family history.

All Saints, formerly St Joseph's Catholic Church
the impressive entry and steeple

We hopped in my new car and headed up to Logansport, IN. There’s a Catholic church there, now called All Saints since it blended with two other local churches, but it used to be known as St. Joseph’s. It was built in the 1880s, and my great-great-grandfather and his sons handmade each of the 650,000 bricks to construct it.

Generations, Brick by Brick

D&D Gone Off the Rails

English: A twenty-sided die (d20) as used in w...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s no secret that I’m a nerd and a geek, but I’m pretty new to the gamer scene. In fact, my first Dungeons & Dragons experience was at Gen Con a few years ago. And it was a lousy experience, to tell the truth. The scenario was written so badly that even the GM (assigned to run it, not his choice) realized that it wasn’t possible to save it.

D&D Gone Off the Rails

Earth Day, and I’m off to the Northern Colorado Writers Conference

Grass
(Photo credit: DBduo Photography)

So for Earth Day today, I didn’t mow my grass.

Okay, so I probably wasn’t going to mow today, anyway. I have real grass, the grass that was here when the bison were still eating it, and it don’t need no stinking fertilizer and it don’t need no stinking water — during last year’s record-setting drought, it stayed green long past the time when most grass and many trees in central Indiana were dead or dying — and it’s tougher than most mowers. So it takes a bit of mental gearing up to challenge this grass.

Earth Day, and I’m off to the Northern Colorado Writers Conference

Yuki Onna photos

Yuki-onna (雪女, the snow woman) from the Hyakka...
Yuki-onna (雪女, the snow woman) from the Hyakka…

The yuki onna is a femme fatale of Japanese folklore. When travelers are lost or exhausted in the winter snows, the yuki onna (“snow woman”) appears to greet them — and they are never seen again.

/cue shivery music/

Yuki Onna photos
Han Solo, image courtesy Wikipedia

The Music of the Spheres

Han Solo, image courtesy Wikipedia
Han Solo, image courtesy Wikipedia

Working on a science-fiction short and surprising myself with how much I’m enjoying it. One of my writers’ group last night commented that a character was “a mix of a symphony conductor and Han Solo” — and I’m pretty happy with that description.

I went searching today for some title ideas, and I happened across this nifty toy — tool — program — quest — thing, a computer code meant to blend mathematics and light and sound into a literal music of the spheres.
The Music of the Spheres

Spoiler! People are Funny.

Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense.

This quip, variously attributed to Mark Twain or Leo Rosten, is quite true. In story, writers must pay a great deal of attention to motive and consistency. In real life, people are hilariously inexplicable.Spoiler! People are Funny.

Embarrassing True Story

Good thing my bikini is made of chain mail... ...
Good thing my bikini is made of chain mail… no really.. (Photo credit: Crys)

I wrote a parody short story. It was a parody of high fantasy, meant to play on tropes and cliches and the sheer over-the-top ridiculousness of itself. It probably wasn’t very good, but there it was. It had sword fights, chain mail bikinis, haunted swamps, chases on horseback, the works. I worked hard on my protagonist’s name — it needed to be feminine and sexy, yet exotic and barbaric, and utterly unsubtle….

Alura. Oh, perfect. Alura.

Embarrassing True Story