More from the waterfall tour

The trees were just starting to turn color and the sky was an incredible blue.

I love the way the sun slants down through the foliage catching one branch or one tree in a spotlight.

Or even one leaf.

It was a perfect day to be out and about.

DuPont State Forest

Last Saturday I went on a waterfall tour. This is a picture of High Falls.

This is Triple Falls, which is a little hard to see, but there are 3 levels.

And this is Bridal Veil Falls.

As you can see it was a fabulous day to be out in the forest. I took some great foliage photos that I will save for next time. Spending a day out in nature is very refreshing for all the senses. Sunshine, bluesky - very rejuevenating!

A new thing to love about One Note

I have been using One Note to organize my snippets and snaps of notes and such for the next mystery story. (Working title is Unintended Consequences) I threw in some character descriptions and some timelines. Then I started adding places and realized I needed a floor plan.

Voila! It has a drawing function!

Geez o Pete, I was like a kid in a candy store. Floor plans! Yummy.

This has helped me think through my setting immensely. Specifically because the town is fictional. It's sort of a combination of some good and bad from several different places.

One of the big problems with this story was its lack of setting. I knew that. Sort of. And I tried to put it in a couple of places - Boston, Asheville...then I decided on the Jersey Pines. Which has a lot of different faces, everything from the blueberry farmers, the salt marshes, trailer trash, old money and of course the Jersey Devil. (I'm just going to skip over Atlantic City and the organized crime stuff. It doesn't fit into this novel.)

This has given me a big step forward in the planning. That scary first chapter is starting to shape up!

A story sent out

It's been a very long time since I submitted a story for publication. I started it for a contest. Somehow it morphed and didn't fit the contest parameters anymore. But it did fit a market I knew. So I polished it and sent it out.

When I hit the submit button I was pleased, but that OH MY GOD SOMEONE WILL SEE IT! sensation didn't hit. I think working with my critique group has finally worked that fear out of me. Now it's more of a will they/won't they anticipation. I no longer fear that I'll get an email telling me never to write again.

Self publishing has raised my confidence also. The people who have read White Lies have enjoyed it. The feedback from a wide selection of readers has been positive. That makes me feel like I know what I'm doing.

The turn around could be 3 months, so I might have a bit of a wait to find out if they want it. Of course, I always hope to hear sooner than the stated guidelines.

Part of me wanted to do something different. Part of me sees this as a bit of advertising. Either way, I really hope it gets accepted.

Lost Connection

Last week I had Internet problems. Turned out to be a hardware problem, which has been fixed. But I was without for 2 days.

It was a shock. I couldn't get online! I suppose I could have gone to the library, but that wasn't the point. My personal access was denied. I couldn't sit at my desk and roam the globe.

How quickly we adapt and then become reliant on new technology. I sat there stunned, unable to think of what to do. When I should have been working in the garden, mowing the lawn, writing...any number of things that don't involve being online.

A little part of it was panic that I couldn't do my paying-the-bills job which is mostly online. But I think some of it was outrage that my comfortable routine had been disrupted. I couldn't do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it...like check TV Guide for my favorite shows.

I felt absurdly isolated. I could have turned on the TV or the radio for a connection to the outside...but that wasn't quite the same. I can pick and choose when I surf. This story here, this article there, pictures of the ocean, a galaxy, a celeb, a cute kitten video. Me, mine, my taste, my interest, my needs - NOW.

And I wonder why my attention span has shortened.

Where do I start?

I am rewriting a story...from scratch. I know the shape of it. I know where it needs to go. And eventually, I will probably steal a couple of scenes from previous incarnations. But I just can't get started.

They say start as close to the end as possible. OK. I have jettisoned a big chunk of writing that was mostly set up, character introduction, setting, blah, blah, blah. Done. We will start with the first murder. A good place to start for a mystery.

Partly to simplify this one, and partly as an exercise, I am going to keep this in only 1 POV. That's going to be very tough for me. I think I know the character well enough, so that won't be hard. It'll be figuring out how to tell the parts of the story that were in others POVs. But I think this story will work better this way.

So I have all of this swirling around in my head and still no way to start it.

I've let it percolate for a few days. Now I'm ready to get some ink on the page, but nothing is coming out. Ugh. I'll have to throw down some placeholders and scene descriptions and come back to it.

The little nasturtium that could

This is a picture of a nasturtium flower in the top of a butterfly bush. It climbed all the way through the bush, probably about 8'. The butterfly bush is on the backside of flower time. And besides, it's purple. So I was very surprised to see an orange flower in the bush. I thought maybe it was an especially orange maple leaf that had fallen. But, no...it's super nasturtium!

Here's a more normal one, lounging on the sidewalk. Although, I don't remember it being striped earlier in the season.

Things change in my yard. Sometimes I think the squirrel is digging up plants and rearranging them. And colors change, too. I have a pink shrub rose that suddenly has a branch of bright red blooms.

Good thing I like surprises.