March Madness (in a non-sports way)

It’s almost April and the last time I posted was a month ago when my story “The Collector, or, Google It” went up at Wily Writers.

This is due to March Madness.

This is not a sports reference. In no way do I follow sports, nor do I endorse the following of sports. In fact, it was only after I typed March Madness that I recalled its use in the world of sports. I’m not sure which sport, or sports… but those sport people use the term for something. (Did I mention I don’t follow sports… at all?)

It was just the month of March. It was certifiably insane.

But lots of good stuff was crammed into that insanity. I hope I’ll get to share soon.

One thing I can and will talk about is the Fraternity ofFlash being put on by Grand Poobah Misty Dahl. In a nutshell, she’s crazy like a fox and decided to host her own, invite-only, flash fiction fest.

And that makes me happy. Not just because I’ll be rubbing digital elbows with some really fine writers (such as Mercedes M. Yardley, BradC. Hodson, Lisa Morton, John Palisano, Robert Devereaux, Jeff Mariotte, Jason Reinhardt, and many more) but because I love when people just take the bull by the horns and instigate something wild like this.

Why is she doing it? She had an idea and didn’t sit around wondering whether it would garner some huge pay-off or whether it was super-strategic-according-to-the-latest-marketing-strategy.

She loves writing and she loves writers. And she acted.

Inspired! Hence actually posting something on my jilted blog.

Rabbits and Catapults

Once again my blog is a repository for inane inside jokes.

Battle Bunny, one of the members of our infamous writers' group The Illiterati, failed to secure tickets to World Fantasy Convention 2011. Everyone else in the group got their tickets.

Battle Bunny did not.

To commemorate this tragic event I created this.

Photoshop you are my friend.

When It Rains It Gets Wet

So, my posts have been sparse lately, forgive me. I've been crazy busy.

I know I meant to share more info on my adventures as a ghostwriter, but MORE has happened!

A few of you might have heard of the SOUL SURFER movie coming out about Bethany Hamilton, a young surfer girl who was mauled by a shark, lost her arm, and not only returned to surfing, but became a champion surfer.
Well,

See, my dad's name right there in small letters!

I got a chance to work with my dad on the book "Raising a Soul Surfer" which he wrote with Bethany's mother, Cheri Hamilton. (Actually, my dad is the "with", it's Cheri's book)

It's a movie tie-in book. An "Inspirational Autobiography."

And I got to earn some industry cred... or maybe crud... by helping my dad to crank out the manuscript in record time. I edited, fact-checked, and occasionally rewrote chapters at Cheri's and my dad's direction.

It wasn't quite as legendary of ghostwriting 50k words in 50 hours, but it was close! haha.

Also it was an interesting glimpse into the professional world of writing.

Those of us who write take for granted that the written word is our milieu. Words are our spirit's limbs, moving them, arranging them, crafting them to convey and emote.

We forget that many many people who can communicate in person, on screen, etc, etc, etc, aren't as comfortable with words. They can say it, speak it to huge crowds with passion and clarity, but when they sit down to write a book it just doesn't come across like they want.

I suppose it's like people who are photogenic, and those who look normal until you take a picture of them and they seem to look goofy no matter what.

Or like otherwise accomplished people who can't sing in tune even with training. (I've met these people, they baffle me!)

It has been exciting to help a woman who has a pretty amazing story share it with the world...

But MAN it was a lot of work. I had to sort through a half dozen insertions and notes and possible scenes--and the deadline was like a bear gnawing on my shoulder.

It was new realms of intensity, frustration, and validation.
Sending it off to the editor on the last day before DEADline felt sooooo good.

Now I can actually spend time wroking on my book! sheesh. :)

Why My Writers' Group Rulez

When one of our members (Mercedes M. Yardley) needs a writerly kick in the proverbial pants, who's there to put their boots on?

The Illiterati, that's who:

http://abrokenlaptop.com/2011/02/16/bust-it-out/

You can be sure we are awesome. They should bottle our sweat and use it to fight fires, because everyone knows forest fires yield to awesomeness.