Vincent Van Romance Writer

I’m rushing towards the end of my work in progress, Bending Rivers.  Because of that, today's post is short and sweet, but fun!  (I'm ALL about the fun!)  And by golly I’m going to finish this book before I leave for RWA Nationals  if it kills me and then I can have even more fun in Anaheim!  YiPpEe!

My youngest, Vz Gogh, shared this video with me and it made me think of writing a book…the assembly of the story, the arrangement (and rearrangement) of the details, the looking at it from every possible angle and reworking it until it flows and falls in the right directions…all the way up to “The End”.  Plus on the heels of Kathy publishing, I have to say  that even in dominoes…. you just never give up.   If you dream it its worth doing it.  And if you do it then you believe in it until the thing works.  And when you finish the story, then you sit back and watch its beauty unfold from every direction.  Then when someone else enjoys all the pieces of your dream unfold, well, there’s just nothing in the world like that feeling of accomplishment.  It gives you the encouragement to do it all over again on a new story, a new work of art, a new dream.

So enjoy this little video while I go back and regroup a few of my own dominoes.  Be sure to pay attention all the way to the end for the different views.  And tell me…. are you as amazed by this artists work as I am?  Would this be something like a NYTBS Domino-ist?  :D

 

Vincent Van Dominogh

I have a Dream

We are all familiar with the famous speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream." I think it is important to have a dream, or six, in life. One of the saddest things that I have ever heard is when someone doesn't have a dream.

As a writer, I have had different dreams at different points in my journey. Once my dream was to write a book. Then my dream was to have someone else, other than the people who love me, read the book. Now my dream is to actually sell a book. That's right; it is my dream to have someone pay their hard earned money to read the words Jean and I have written.



Dani Wade

 I am sure that it will happen, but some days I feel very frustrated and overwhelmed at the entire process. I am always happy to hear that writer friends have sold their books or found an agent to represent their work. I am always looking for ways to keep my dream of being a published author alive which is why I am looking forward this month's Heart of Dixie meeting. Danielle Worsham (who writes as Dani Wade) is presenting a program called“A Race Well Run” about how to keep dreams alive when they seem impossible.
I am sure that this time next week after hearing the program, that I will be full of great ideas to keep my dreams alive.

How do you keep your dreams alive?

Zombie Bookalypse: Story That Never Dies

(Photo courtesy of ZombieSurvivalCourse.com)

Okay, listen here... it's that time of year for ghouls and goblins, ghosts and gore. Yes, it's a mad cap world out there, dear friends, and October is the month to celebrate the rich, colorful traditions of Halloween.

Samhain and All Hallow's Eve, leading up to All Saint's Day. The time of year the world could be taken over with a Zombie apocolypse. Funny isn't it? The oxymoronish title of a History Channel program, Zombie: A Living History. Yes, in my quest to understand everything Zombie, I watched with eagerness as the history of the living dead revealed countless stories of brutality. One such story revealed Zeus' father, Cronus, ate his first five sons so they could not take his throne. Zeus, hidden by his mother, Rhea, at birth, eventually returned to kill Cronus and lead the Titan world into Legend. The first flesh eater?

Dating back to prehistoric times, man learned to surround himself with tomb-like walls in order to protect himself and his clan from danger. Throughout history, from Rome and Vikings, to Huns and disease, man grew to fear what happened to bodies after death. Interesting is the idea that we bury the dead underground, place bodies in tombs, and even arrange corpses carefully so that the undead cannot escape the earthy sarcophagus. Some ancient bodies were ceremonially buried with stones in mouths so the undead could not come back to eat living flesh.

Lots of important lessons on the History Channel. Even a lesson on how to kill the undead. Helpful tip: keep a machete or a sharpened shovel nearby.

For kicks and grins, check out Cracked.com for the 5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocolpyse Could Actually Happen.

So after watching the History Channel, I got to pondering... (We all know how dangerous that can be.) In the writing world, how do you vanquish the book that will not die? I'm talking about the undead manuscript. One by one, books like these gather under writer's beds, collecting dust, forgotten on the carpet of neglect. Buried unceremoniously, these zombies disrupt dreams, steal thoughts away from new projects, gum the very tender flesh off the muse until only pulp is left behind. Like a world overrun by a zombie horde, there is always the thought, 'can this book can be saved?'

I've been wondering about this lately. A couple of my books have finaled in contests, but not gone any farther. I've had requests for partials and fulls and great revision suggestions on a particular book. I want to make it sing but when do you ceremoniously bury a book with stones so it can't come back to bite you?

How do you rid your bedroom of the Zombie Bookalypse? Surely a machete could be useful against the paper horde but what would that do to your feather pillows?

How do YOU kill a story that NEVER dies?