Happy Friendship-Day!

Even writers need friends besides their imaginary one...

So may real life gift you with as many friends

as your books and stories!

#Happyfriendshipday

How to become a writer's best friend....

Being friend to a writer can be really challenging.

Not because they are mean people but because in general - well they live in a different world than you!

So sometimes its hard to reach them (Cellphones don't really work on other planes or in other worlds and times!). But once you get through writers are really nice and worth trying to be friends - after all not too many of your friends can take you through magic gateways and introduce you to imaginary friends, right?

So here are a few rules to keep in mind when trying to get a writer accustomed to you:

1. Sometimes your writer friend will space out, or stare off into space while you’re talking. You cannot take offense to this, they are not ignoring you or bored by your story (okay, in fairness they might be bored by your story I don’t know for sure) but more likely they are daydreaming a new story they want to write, or a scene they want to create, or even a blog post they are dying to write.
2. If you’re going to tell your writer friend a story you must proceed the story by saying “You can/cannot use this...”if you don’t specify, then we will assume that it’s up for grabs and you may see your story in a future blog post, or story that we create. When we write it, we might not even remember that we got the idea from you, so you really need to tell us whether it’s on or off limits. The responsibility is all on you, are we clear here?
3. Accept that writer friend may want to write about you all the time. Or never at all. Or a combination of both, at completely random and unexpected times. Writers can’t predict it, why should you be able to?
4. You should understand that while writers may seem to be listening to you intently, really they are mentally recording this entire conversation in  their memory so that they can use it later for their own creative purposes.
5. Understand that while writers appreciate your helpful ideas, they might not be able to use them all in their writing. It doesn’t mean they aren’t great ideas (Okay, again it might mean they’re not great I don’t know...) but it just means they can’t make it work for what’s sparking their creativity at the moment. Don’t take offense, it’s not you, it’s their muse!
6. If writers tell you that they are unable to do something because they are writing it doesn’t mean that they don’t want to do what you’re asking them to do, it just means that they really are -  writing! Writing isn’t like a job where you clock in and clock out. Sometimes if they put it aside, when they come back the spark, the idea, the inspiration is gone like a puff of steam on a cool night. If the story is coming now, then now is when writers have to write it! 

More soon - you're not off the hook yet!

THIS ... 🙌

Let me open a door for you...

... and guide you to Charlie Jane Anders' (author of All The Birds in the Sky)  #5 of her "10 Writing "Rules" We Wish More Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Would Break"...

 

5) No portal fantasy

 

The “portal fantasy” is a mainstay in both science fiction and fantasy, even though it’s mostly used in the latter. (You could argue that Hitchhiker’s Guide is a “portal fantasy.”) In this type of book, someone from our world discovers a pathway to another world, where he or she is our relatable everyhuman explorer, and we discover this new world through his or her eyes. It’s a tried and true notion, and Lev Grossman gets a lot of mileage out of it in The Magicians — both Brakebills and Fillory, in different ways, are strange worlds that Quentin visits from the “real” world, and there’s a lot of portaling. But we’ve heard many people say that “portal fantasy” is over, and so is the neophyte who learns about the magical world over the course of a book. Now, everybody wants stories where the main character is already steeped in the magical (or science-fictional) world as the story begins.

But as we argued a while back, there’s still a lot of awesomeness lurking in the concept of an ordinary person traveling to a strange world. There are so many ways to tell that story, and so many metaphors buried in the notion of someone being thrust into a weird new world. Isn’t that what we all do when we start exploring genre fiction? I think to some extent, this is something that die-hard genre fans have seen too much of, but these sorts of stories could still have a lot of appeal to mainstream and newbie readers.
(I kept Charlie Jane Anders' link for reference)

I totally support breaking this "rule". Please open new doors, portals or whatever else you can open to help me enter new worlds! I want them ALL. I'm actually convinced that's where I went as a child when I got totally unresponsive as has been documented by a score of caretakers and family members. Isn't this what books are about? Escaping into worlds of magic that remove us from daily live, responsibility and ... news? I go from one room to another through a door (usually), why not let me continue entering another world through a portal of whatever kind? The only "portal fantasy" I find somewhat annoying if the only thing the protagonist does is try to get back. Like, really? You enter a new world (probably because he was depressed, lonely, or got something wrong) and all he wants is to go back? But if we get to explore and make the most out of it:

                                        GET ME THERE!

Life vs writer

So there it was. Or better IS. Shiny in the corner of my mailbox.

The returned manuscript and with it all my beloved characters

AND

the comments from my last Beta Reader.

In the other corner:

LIFE

Truth be told I used the excitement first to get a few things done.

Stuff that had been laying around, projects to be finished.

Cleaning up. Yuk.

But that seriously works MUCH better when a treat is awaiting you.

So, I behaved and steadily worked towards my goal.

Picked up and stored, finished, cleaned.

Even put all traces of Christmas down and away.

Well, not quite.

As I carried my stack (why is there always 

MORE Christmas decoration after Christmas than I carried up?!) 

down to the basement I was greeted by an 

avalanche.

 Shelves from a cabinet in my already overstuffed cellar compartment

had collapsed and spilled everything into the narrow footpath formerly left in the middle.

What followed the shock can't be added here.

I dropped my stuff and shoveled (well it had snowed, it was the closest thing at hand)

outside and in a corner, returned to my living room to check fleamarket apps and something like craigslist for a free little cabinet to fill the void. (No way of reattaching the shelves as the famous IKEA screws had burst out of their home and shattered the wood)

Found, wrote to givers and got a reply plus acceptance (from the 16th or so)

Pick up day/time arranged, I traveled to my treasure.

Only to be told upon arrival "Oh bad luck, has just been taken by somebody else!"

WT(insert choice)?!

HAPPENED TWO MORE TIMES.

On an app where they actually tell you if both hit "agree" it's a "legal and binding transaction":

SAME THING.

The blond King of the world Rumpelstilzchen was nothing against my (private and internal monologue) reaction.

Finally found another and was actually surprised to discover it was waiting for me at designated location. Measurements had assured me it would - although bigger than planned as I wanted little to carry and simply stack boxes on top - it would fit perfectly in the corpus aka empty shell cabinet.

Unscrewed on street (at -5C), stuffed in my little car and eventually got back home where I reassembled the thing.

Of course it didn't fit through the narrow footpath.

Enlarged the path by stacking more boxes outside and wrangled the new cabinet in. Arrived at shell and could get the thing around the corner to fit inside.

More Rumpelstilzchen.

Dragged it back out (where it collapsed as the precast-holes spit the screws out again.) and sawed at it like a craze to narrow it before I attached the side again.

Got it back inside AND around the corner - tested if the suitcases (which I now remembered had to go back there as there was no space anywhere else fit on top.

Guess what.

Back outside - more swearing, sawing and tears - all to make it now SMALLER.

 Screwed it back together - it nowhere resembled the former. Pushed the wobbly thing in once more

where it audibly sighed and leaned relieved at the carcass of the old cabinet...

No I had no energy to sift through the stuff, but I sorted and boxed everything 

and put it on the new shelves underneath the suitcases before I dragged myself back upstairs.

"I" collapsed on the sofa. Screws had been lose before.

That was two days ago. My manuscript was within reach.

The night before restarting the writerly engine I woke up to Armageddon.

I fell out of bed, stubbed my toe on an incomprehensible object in my dark path as I tried to locate the light switch.

Turn on. Turn off.

I went back to bed counting tiny blond Rumpelstilzchens.

Today I searched for a replacement for the living-room cabinet...

3-2-1...

Well, that was oddly gratifying! 

😂😂😂

What can I say...

It's still so nice and warm and summery out...

And my computer is INSIDE.

I can't do this responsible thing yet.

Enjoy end of summer!

Have a great summer! (Taking a media-´vacation)

They are here...

#Pokemongo #crazyandiknowit #crazyandlovingit

Pokemon... GO!!!

#Pokemongo #crazyandiknowit #crazyandlovingit

Show you care while you can...

I always wondered why people don't show

while others are still around.

We need to hear, see and feel

others care.

Flowers on a grave wither

without being treasured, touched and smelled...

A year. Friends never forgotten. Sunflowers again.

 A year ago on their way to their vacation...

their plane was shot from the sky...

... they died in a sunflower field...

 ... and as seeds from the Ukraine sent to me by a kind soul

bloom in pots at my window, so shall they never be forgotten...

I miss you guys.

I miss you.
I still love sunflowers.

#MH17
Thank you,  Paul McGeough at +The Sydney Morning Herald 

Happy 4th of July from my desk to yours!

Who needs editors?!

NOBODY!!!

Why would anybody need editors.

Overrated.

Oh and by the way:

Happy 1st!

(And don't trust writers today!)

😉😉😉😉😉

He has risen indeed!

When the women and disciples looked up and about 

they didn't look for chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs... 

But when you find one, give thanks for what it symbolizes: 

Life is stronger than death. 

Love is stronger than hate. 

And one CAN make a difference...

Wishing you all a very HAPPY & JOYFUL EASTER!

⛪️✝🙏🏻🐰

Ode of joy...

This should be played more often.

Answer terror by not being cowed

and embracing life and the beauty surrounding us!

#prayforBrusseles #smileisgood4you

Prayers for Brussels... 😢

 

 

 #prayersforbrussels #JeSuisBruxelles

#UniteEurope #unitedwestand

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

But if they do:

You've got something to write about ;)

Most writers don't "grow up"!

 A little while ago a writerly friend "complained" on her blog that

some (grown up) people suffer from what she calls a 

never-stopped-being-a-child syndrome.

Now I confess that for all those serious, successful and perfect adults someone who gives in all the things they deny themselves for the sake of being "adult" must be utterly annoying. 

They remind them of what they can't have.

Oh they'll be quick to tell you, that they wouldn't WANT to be that way. They wouldn't want to be caught dead imagining.Well usually what bugs us most is something we want.

Reverse psychology.

Something a grown-up inner child merging on inner teenager shouldn't know.

I even say it out loud.

Especially when I am told to grow up at last!

All my life I tried to follow this "grow up"! 

Trying to fit into drawer and being the way I was expected 

was actually very damaging and in the end brought me down. 

A child once told me most adults are just children behind bars. 

Another called those "real adults" buttoned up people. 

I found both extremely accurate. 

Locked away - from the magic, the fun, the pure joy of living. 

Nowadays I acknowledge that I am the SAME person I was when I was little. My body aged somewhat, but the inside stayed the same. "We" have more experience and yes in certain situations we acknowledge that we should follow certain rules, but in others I won't and I don't give a button if I'm called crazy. I'm not bad at playing adult, but no way I will become what others see in it! I will talk to cats, birds, my characters on the sofa and even my Grandmother and her new friends wherever she is now. I will stop in the middle of the sidewalk to rescue a bug, snail or admire a flower breaking through. And I will laugh when I feel like it. 

As a writer I can be as crazy as I want. 

As a person I choose to be as much child as I feel I need. 

My inner teen demands it. Now.

"So perhaps as long as the energy of your childhood is channeled in a suitable way, then never growing up could only be good for us."

Yes, Anna, it is.

I don't suffer from never-stopped-being-a-child syndrome,

but I really did when I tried to change it.

I'm not good at adult. Thank you Peter Pan.

Join #raymondsrevolution - kids need listeners... before they go!

Go follow @raymondsrevolution on Instagram if you find a place to care. Thanks.

#savealife #preventteensuicide #reachout #raymondsrevolution #lifeisgood #smileitsgood4u #standup #stopteensuicide #raymondhowell #gonebutstillaround #stopbullyingnow #gonebutstillwithus #youcount #gonebutneverforgotten #nevergiveup #raymondhowelljr
#ripraymond #speakout