Join the Conversation! An Interview with Jennifer Colgan, Author and Artist

I had the opportunity to interview Jennifer Colgan about her artistic pursuits in addition to her authorial ones.  She does many different crafts and gave me some awesome pictures for examples.  Come on by and see what Zentangle is!  It's on my craft blog, Knoontime Knitting.  While you're there, consider subscribing to the blog; the button is at the bottom of the blog.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Welcome to the Summer Solstice Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Summer Solstice Blog Hop!  I'm glad you stopped by.  I'm Noony, and I'll be one of your hosts during your visit.  Remember to stay inside the hop; if at any time you lose the navbar then go back to the website, here, and start over.  Be sure to comment on each blog to be entered to win a number of prizes, including a NOOK Simple Touch with Glowlight!

For this hop, I decided to accept Alanna Coco's challenge and use the JustRomance.me scene generator!  It gave me the following scene:

These are your characters:
Veterinarian, Butler, Astronaut

These adjectives describe them.
Assign one to each character.
Wise, Creepy, Sweet

This is your setting:
Studio set

See if you can guess which adjective I assigned to which person.  Have fun!



“Channel five news tonight with Cari Ann Layton and Steve Talman. In suburban Redwing today…”

Chandler tuned out the rest of the droning voice as it went through the litany of the day’s highlights. He didn’t like the unfettered negativity. He came around the corner of the snack table and almost ran into Sandoval.

“Pardon me, sir. I didn’t see you there.” Sandoval’s hands, full of four neat stacks of papers clipped with black binder clips, spread in apology.

“Do you need a hand with that stuff?” Chandler reached out to catch the top pile as it leaned toward the floor.

“Thank you.” Sandoval smiled, his brown eyes tired. “They’re for Mr. Kincaid’s butler.”

“Oh.” Chandler tried to keep the distaste out of his voice. “I see.” The trouble with that lay with the fact that Chandler didn’t want to see William, the butler, but avoiding him meant he’d lose out on spending time with Sandoval.

Sandoval, though, seemed oblivious. “Well, you have a nice evening.”

Chandler slipped the top stack off the pile and held it. “I’ll come with you and help.” He started walking, just to get Sandoval moving. “What is all this stuff, anyway?”

“Breeding records for the stable that Mr. Kincaid is thinking of buying. I’ve been chief veterinarian there for the last eight years and have all the records since its founding.” He paused, mouth twitching like he’d frown. “It took me three hours to copy everything, but I didn’t want to give any of the originals to William.”

“Wise thought.” Chandler glanced at Sandoval out of the corner of his eye, trying to be subtle, and caught Sandoval watching him. The vet flushed a rich red, like a strawberry margarita, and looked away.

“What brings you to the station?” Sandoval asked.

“I had an interview today about my time on the shuttle.” Chandler scratched his chin, the makeup they’d made him wear still itching even though he’d washed his face. Twice.

“Your skin bothering you?”

“I wore that crap they make you wear on camera and it won’t seem to come off.”

Sandoval watched him for a few steps and then looked down, as though he wanted to say something but didn’t quite dare.

“What is it? You can trust me.”

“I have something that will help, if you’d let me use it on you.” Sandoval flushed again. “It’s not like it…” He trailed off. “It’s a facial steam with some herbs.”

A facial steam? What did Sandoval think he was? Of course, his skin really itched. Then the light bulb went on. They’d get to spend time alone together. In Chandler’s bathroom. Alone. “Okay.” He tried to act casual, not let on the way his heart thumped in his throat or his palms started to sweat. Casual.

Right.

Man, that butler better hurry up.

Setting the Scene

For the blog hop, here's what the scene generator gave me:

These are your characters:
Veterinarian, Butler, Astronaut
 These adjectives describe them.
Assign one to each character.
Wise, Creepy, Sweet
 This is your setting:
Studio set

We shall see what this prompts.  ~typity~

It's Coming...

We are gearing up to do another Blog Hop!  I'm very excited.  This time, we're doing a Summer Solstice hop and giving away another e-reader!  Wowsers.  Plus, individual authors will give away stuff too.  It's a lot of fun.

The focus of this blog hop is to either post an excerpt or short story, or to use a scene generator and write a flash story specifically for the hop.  I think I might try that.  o.O...  Stay tuned, the festivities start Wednesday and run through the weekend.

If you haven't participated before, the way it works is that the hop will go live on Wednesday, 06/21/2012.  Readers go through the hop, visiting each blog and leaving a comment.  Everyone who comments on each blog is entered in the grand prize drawing, and one lucky someone will win their very own e-reader.  Plus, you get to read some new material from favorite authors, and meet some new authors you haven't read before.  It's a lot of fun and a good way to find out what's available to you as a reader.

Stay tuned!

Into the Field for Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!  We're going to the Field Museum today.  I want to see their exhibit on rubies from Myanmar (Burma).

What about you?  What's up for your Sunday?

Thursday 13: Thirteen Images from Lunch

Not actually images of food, but images from my walks during my lunch break.  I'm fortunate to be working along the Chicago River and the weather has been absolutely fabulous lately!  Take a look:

This is the medallion in my elevator, actually.  I'm fond of it.

I love flowers.  Never know what they're called, but I love 'em.

This is actually a shot of the train platform in the morning before work; this is one of the stations that's at street level (they're in the more residential areas as opposed to downtown, where it's either the elevated "L" or a subway).  (We still call the subway the "L", go figure.)

I love this view in the morning!  We zoom over it pretty fast, but I would love to have one of the houses on the bank and a little dock so I could take my boat up and down.

The parking structure is almost all gone.  Looks like a scene from some big space exploration, like a robot lost a bucket or something.

Trump tower is in the center.  You can't really see it very well (my camera on my phone doesn't have a zoom), but the metal superstructure at the top is a crane for the window washing crew.  !!!!  D00d.  I will never complain about my day job again!  Sheesh!

I love this one.  It isn't great from a composition standpoint, but it captures everything I like about my lunch walks:  the flowers (these weird cabbage rose things that look like colored Brussels sprouts, huh?) and the water with the boats.

This is a prior shot of the demolition, where you can still see the building, parts of it.  This was just 2 weeks ago.  It's startling how fast a brick structure can just disappear.

Purdy!

I love they have mint planted along the river!

More greenery.  This is right in the midst of downtown, too!  (See the next shot for context.)

This is the bridge by my office, and you can see the river and flower edging.  Cool, no?

I love reading signs about things; it makes me feel more like I know what's going on.

MINT!  It has lovely purple flowers, too.  I just love how exuberant this plant is.  ROWR!

Walking In This World - Promptly

The 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month are the Prompt Group meetings for the Evanston Writers Workshop.  It's funny, but I find that on prompt days, I don't usually do my morning pages in the morning.  Today is no exception; I wrote this morning instead of doing the pages (by that, I mean I worked on a WIP and not my journal).  I think that says less about the pages or Prompt Group than it does about me and my feelings around having lots or too much to do, but there you go.

What do you do on your lunch break?  Do you take a break at lunch?  I learned many years ago that for my own sanity, I have to have a break in the middle of the day.  Today I took care of some housekeeping tasks and then went outside to knit for a half hour.  Having to deal with the odd man babbling loudly on the sidewalk, while annoying, kept me in the moment.  What was he doing?  Why was he babbling?  Did he know I sat on the park bench above him?  Did he know the stairs led around a switchback and he'd be practically in my lap?  Was I safe?  Was I being judgmental?

I find those kinds of monkey-mind questions happen more on days when I skip my morning pages than on days I do them.  That's not to say I float through my morning page days all serene, like a yogi; I'm just more aware of them when I don't put them on the page.  It's as though my thoughts, expecting to have been put down on paper, are waiting for the attention I normally give to them.  Meanwhile, I knit.  I got a row done on a shawl I'm designing. 

There's some kind of universal lesson there, I think.

Hair Tea - Emerald Fire and Herbs

In writing, we get to use what we know.  This used to intimidate me (what if I don't know anything??) until I realized that's my inner critic talking.  I do too know stuff.

So.  What do I know?

The airspeed veloc...  Nevermind.  Hair tea!  I know how to make hair tea.  Not tea you drink, though I do know how to make that too, but tea you put on the hair to make it healthy and shiny - and augment the color.  In writing Emerald Fire, Rachel and I got to put that knowledge to use and give it to the Keepers.

I figured I'd share some of the secrets today at Torquere Press:

"Research and World Building – Teeka’s Special Hair Tea Blend"

I hope you have a moment to stop on by!

Worldbuilding with Emerald Fire

Join me today on the Writer's Retreat Blog where I talk about the process of worldbuilding as it applied to our experience of writing Emerald Fire, as well as some tools you can use in your own writing.

Win An Ebook!

Watch for posts on Facebook and Twitter about my book. Then comment on it and share with friends. Your comment will enter you to win a free copy of the ebook. Everyone participating and commenting will also receive a coupon code for discounted shopping.

Facebook | Twitter

I'm Blogging at Samhain Publishing and the Writer's Retreat Today

I have two articles for you today.  The first is at Samhain Publishing, Who To Write About (When You Can’t Write About Your Friends and Family).  Rachel and I use pictures to inspire us in our stories, and I share some of what works for us.

The second is Why Big Goals Don’t Work - Baby Step Your Way To Success.  I'm forever hearing from people who want to make some gigantic goal their sole purpose in life (lose a hundred pounds, write a book, etc.).  I've been told "I'll just do P-90X," "I'm not in this to play, I'm in this for a New York contract," "Little goals are a waste of my time," etc.  Those people, the ones who said those things to me, aren't around doing their work anymore.  P-90X was designed by a triathlete who found to his shock that yoga challenged him.  But the part about him already being a triathlete meant that he understood how to accomplish things.  The one who told me they wanted the New York contract isn't even writing anymore.  See how dangerous such large goals can be, when they're not tempered by small, achievable steps?

I hope you're having an enjoyable and productive Wednesday.  Remember, today is in your hands.  What do you want to do with it?

My Tue Cents for Twosday

I think it's easy to get sidetracked.  I talk to authors who complain, "I don't have time to write."  While I don't think they're lying, I do think they're not speaking completely honestly - to themselves, at least - about what their time is like.

When we settle down and are honest with ourselves, the reasons for not writing aren't, usually, about time.  They're about fear, or block, or the inner critic saying that we have nothing worth writing.  But they're not about not having any minutes in the day to set fingers to keyboard or pen to paper.

So today, ask yourself this:  What would it take for me to get onto the page today?

Collaboration

Romance Divas is back up and running and, from the looks of it, going full steam ahead.  I'm very excited, since I've been a member there for several years now, and it's a terrific resource for writers.

I'm very excited to report they hosted an article of mine, "Collaboration."  I hope you'll stop by and, if you're so inclined, leave a comment.

Write on!-

It's a new month already!

Wow.  I can hardly believe it's already June.  What a busy year it's been.  Things have gone by so quickly, and yet it's only June - not yet half over.  What do you still want to accomplish the first half of 2K12?