Janice Williams Loves Austin

January 11, 2010

Happy New Year?

Filed under: At home, Family, Writing — Janice @ 11:58 am

Good honk, it’s the 11th of January and I haven’t even put in a new entry to say Happy New Year? Where have I been? What have I been doing? Did I even think about making a resolution about updating this blog?

Eager readers want to know.

I have been in a blur of football for the past two weeks, that is all that is for sure.

So sad to watch Colt McCoy get hurt and for the University of Texas to not win the BCS National Championship game. But I think we all went away with the feeling that at least they didn’t suck. They didn’t screw up. They weren’t lousy. Their defense was incredible and the offense was only shaky because of the sudden change in quarterback. Some glitches, a few lost balls, and, voila, we lose a game. But now we have high hopes for September and Garrett Gilbert.

My mom has been in town for a week and that has been great fun. I drove up and got her in Waco on Monday, meeting up with her, my sister, my nephews, and one nephew’s sweet girlfriend. We had a great chicken fried steak lunch at George’s and then Mom and I came home. We watched most of the bowl games and four pro games, too. We went out to see Mark’s band (Little Elmore Reed) at Central Market. Mom is easy company. We work and do our thing and are in and out and she takes care of the cats, monitors the weather, puts dishes and clothes away after they are cleaned, and just makes our life easier.

My sister drove down from Dallas yesterday and spent the night with us and we had fun eating dinner at the County Line. I got to show off one of my workplaces to them, too. Today, they left for Dallas.

Mom has gone home. Mark is leaving town on Wednesday. I don’t know why I feel like, in my mind, that things might slow down because I’m home alone most of the week. Nothing of the sort is going to happen. I’m already starting the week off with lots of transcription for the doctors. It was a wild and wooly weekend typing constantly–or at least it felt like that. Lots of reports really needed to go out ASAP so the doctor was dictating at his house and I was typing at my house. I expect more of the same this week.

My duties at all of my jobs also seem to be increasing. That is great news on many fronts. Financially, I expect an increase in 2010 even if I don’t get a better or different job. The downside is that there are just so many hours in a day. I did this in 2002 when I was unemployed, too. You can’t turn down another part-time job when you aren’t making a real living, but then you end up with several part-time jobs that you really like and it becomes a little bit unmanageable. Right now, it is still under control, I would say. We’ll see what I say tomorrow (or in February when I get around to updating this blog).

Thanks for checking back to see if I am writing and for the notes urging me to write something. I love doing it and I write many more in my head than ever see the light of day. I spend hours at a keyboard at the office each day, hours more typing at home each night. Yes, I email and Facebook to a degree, and then I find myself shutting it down and back in another room in the house before I remember I meant to blog. The netbook really was supposed to help solve that dilemma. So instead of making a resolution about blogging regularly or even more often, I will resolve to SOMETIMES blog from the netbook and get more comfortable finding this darn update screen to blog on from it, and maybe that will encourage me to blog from the patio (when it is above 50 again) and from quaint coffeeshops and beer joints that we all know I frequent regularly.

December 30, 2009

Bookstores

Filed under: Austin, Reading, Writing — Janice @ 1:02 pm

I just finished my last interview of 2009. Sigh of relief. I miss radio interviews. Radio interviews were done and over quickly. At the end I might say, “Shoot, I meant to ask you about _____.” But they were done. And over. Interviewing for an article means taking good notes (trying) and thinking about the next question and trying to get enough wordage out of the interviewee to put something together on paper. I’m not a fan.

And if interviewing is hard, the writing is harder. I’m not saying I don’t like it, it is just hard. So I’ll be wrasslin’ with this one for a few weeks. I haven’t been told a deadline or a wordcount on this one. Usually I know those things in advance. Ideally, I’ll write this TONIGHT and edit it tomorrow and I won’t have to think about it again until it shows up in the issue. Ha. I haven’t written before the deadline is looming ever. And since I don’t even had a deadline, this may be on my mind for a while.

I read today that the last B. Dalton bookstores are closing. They, according to what I read, were the first chain bookstores and were bought by Barnes & Noble and are now being shut down. I think I used to buy a lot of Christmas gifts in B.Dalton’s. Calendars come to mind. But it has been a long time since I’ve been in one.

My first bookstore memory was Brown’s Books in Amarillo, right by the Amarillo College campus. It was there for years. I’m sure they probably specialized in textbooks, but I remember going in there with Mom one time when there was some book that she had had them order for her. It was a neat, small store and was very intriguing. By the time I grew up and lived in Amarillo it was either closed up or I didn’t even think about going to a real bookstore.

I probably bought most of books in those days at Hastings Books and Records. They still exist today, but they are just Hastings. They were really the cool hip place in Amarillo with a location by the theater in the mall, which was handy to browse while you waited for the movie, and a bigger store down on 45th. I bought lots of books at those two stores and bought even more records and 8-tracks.

Bookstores are dangerous for me now because I will find too many things that I would really like to have. I went to Border’s before Christmas and got a few “small gifts” that added up quickly (especially since they were gifts for ME!). BookPeople in downtown Austin is a favorite and I try to buy books there if there is something specific I want. I went there to buy the romance novel a high school classmate wrote a few months back. I loved BookWoman and started going there before we even moved to Austin, but haven’t been there since they moved locations. I’m glad they are still in business. I like all their books about female empowerment.  Bookstore-wise, I probably go to Half Price Books more than any other bookstore now. Great prices, lots of surprises, and usually a used, cheaper copy of something I want if I know what I’m going in for. They have a great section of Texas authors and Texas subjects there.

The bookstore that brings back the best memories was a fabulous place in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was on business and found it in their old downtown area (I think). Maybe it was near the college. It was long and dark and had the wooden ladders on rollers that seem to only exist in movies now. I was just having a great time looking around and I found a paperback copy of Alamo House by Sarah Bird. I hadn’t read any of her books at the time, but my friend Beth had recommended The Boyfriend School. Alamo House was her first novel and they had it so I snapped it up and finished it before I was back in Dallas, I expect, and it is still one of my all-time favorite books and it opened to the door to every book Sarah Bird has written since then.

I don’t mind living out here in the suburbs with the only businesses within walking distance being an auto repair shop and a gas station and a Carl’s Jr. But, if I could make a wish for a new retailer near me, I would be very happy with a combo coffee shop/Mexican cafe/bookstore. Sigh. Bookstores don’t have the same sense of wonder as they once did. And I hesitate to rush out and just spontaneously buy a book anymore unless I’ve checked to see how much it costs used online.

I would make a New Year’s Resolution to visit bookstores more often, but that won’t fit well with my fiscally responsible New Year’s Resolutions. Yes, I know I don’t have to buy anything, but I would. I know I would.

August 26, 2009

Writing

Filed under: Writing — Janice @ 12:00 pm

I hope it is evident that I love to write and HAVE to write. I enjoy writing here very much. I love the comments and the feedback. But I also have a sense of invulnerability here because if you don’t like it, you don’t have to read it, you’re not paying for it, it is MINE. I can do whatever I want and if you don’t want to read it, that’s fine, but you really can’t criticize.

I wish I could feel that way in my OTHER writing. I just sent off my Radney Foster article for the September issue of Best in Texas magazine. My heart is racing and my nerves are on edge because of the fear that goes along with being read and critiqued. I am afraid my editors, Katie Key and Ed Shane, are reading it right now going, “Oh, no, this isn’t what we wanted at all! The deadline is Friday and this will just have to be redone by someone that knows how to write. What were thinking when we asked Janice to do this?” I think all of this over and over with every submission. I have written for them now over a year. I’ve written about the Band of Heathens, the Tejas Brothers, Bruce Robison, some new kid I’ve forgotten his name, a few small pieces that they used on their website, and a whole series of little things about the shows at Hill’s Cafe last year. This is the first cover story I’ve done and the longest piece I’ve written for them. They wouldn’t have asked me to write it if they hadn’t liked (and paid for, I’ll add) the dozen other pieces I have written for them. So why do I feel this terror?

I have no idea where this fear comes from. I don’t remember any instance of not having my writing well received, really. Mrs. Shepic, my high school journalism and English teacher, was a hard taskmaster, but I didn’t ask her to be on the paper, she asked me after I took her Sophomore writing class. She liked what I wrote. I was hired at the Canyon News when I was 18 because they liked my writing and I can only recall a few critiques along the way, mostly critiques of reporting, not writing. I have had some submitted articles rejected and a short story get ripped to shreds at a contest, but the fear was there before I submitted those, I know. I wish I could excise it.

The fear is a pretty stifling thing. I felt it at its worst when I took a writing class in Dallas. For the second meeting, we were supposed to write 10 pages of our novel and bring them to class. We didn’t have to read aloud, just bring copies for everyone to read. I did the assignment, but I did not take it with me. I couldn’t bear the thought of letting them read it. After the class, I did go home and mail my writing to the teacher–sort of my proof that I was a good student and I did do assignments. She called and left glowing praise on my machine, the nicest compliments anyone could say. I still have what she said written down somewhere. That made it the tiniest bit easier to start bringing my writing to class and I stayed in her writing groups for a long time.

But what is it going to take to get OVER it? Or is it just one of those things people live with? Maybe I need to be in a writing group again. Or submit writing ALL THE TIME. Or at least keep writing here where people will read it.  Now, by writing this, I am NOT asking that you comment and say nice things. But you certainly can. There’s no doubt I write for the praise, not for the money!

June 22, 2009

Projects

Filed under: At home, Austin, Family, Music, Writing — Janice @ 12:23 am

I have two topics tonight:  The new family project I started yesterday and the PAIN I am suffering from.

I’ll start with the pain. Last night Mark had a gig downtown at the Amsterdam Cafe. There was a time I rode with Mark to a lot of his gigs. I would hang out and kill time while he set up his drums, I would watch the whole show, kill more time while he packed up the drums and loaded out, and then ride home with him. Somewhere along the way I wised up and I go separately to a gig if I go at all. Mark told me from the beginning that it wasn’t a requirement and he is working and it doesn’t matter if I am there or not (though he does love to have me there, he assures me). So I decided yesterday that since he was playing with Jackie Bristow, who is very talented and I like her, along with Chip Dolan, a friend of mine, too, that I should go see them play. Also, it was an early start, a short show, and just around the corner from my office, where I wanted to pick up a large framed photo I bought on Friday.

He began to set up and I drove his truck to my parking garage and killed some time on the internet and then, about showtime, I got my photo and went out to the parking garage to put it in the truck before I went to the gig. With hands full, slippy shoes, no free hand to hold the handrail, my foot slipped on the bottom step and I went down, twisting my ankle and banging it and twisting my knee and every other joint in my body and ended up on my bottom on the garage floor. Ow. Good thing:  The framed/glassed photo did NOT break.

I sat a long time debating calling 9-1-1 or information for the security guard number of the building. I didn’t want to call Mark because he should have just been starting the gig. Eventually, I tested everything and didn’t think anything was broken and I got up and hobbled back to the security desk. The very sweet guard got me a chair and an ice pack and bandaged the ice pack to my ankle. We talked a long while and then I did some flexing and testing and decided I was able (if only barely) to go to the gig.

I have a lot more sympathy now for people that cross the crosswalk ever so slowly (unless they are on their cell phone). I waited until traffic was nonexistent to cross at the crosswalk and I slowly made it across. With nothing to lean on, that was probably the most difficult part of the walk. I clung to the Norwood Tower wall the next block. I’m sure diners in Perry’s Steakhouse wondered why this drunk woman was grasping at their windows with a pained look on her face. I rounded the corner at the gig and Jackie and Chip were outside. They had not started yet. That was good in that I could tell Mark why I was walking this way. He got me a good seat and I propped my foot up high and enjoyed the music until he could get packed up and get me out of there.

A night of rest did wonders and I’m much better today. I’m still not making any land speed records and I am avoiding walking to the other end of the house if I can. But, yes, this has made me KEENLY aware that we are among the nation’s uninsured. We don’t want to be, but Blue Cross is taking their sweet time deciding if we (well, really Mark) is healthy enough to insure. Anyone who doesn’t think the insurance industry needs reform or our government shouldn’t get involved and help people find insurance, not just affordable insurance, hasn’t been laid off and lost their insurance. Oh, wait, I was going to stick to two topics tonight, wasn’t I?
Now, on to the family project that I told you about yesterday and is on the web here.  What I hoped would happen happened fast. Just by starting the project, I got enthusiastic. Yesterday I wrote about Pitt Williams, my great-great-grandfather. My intention was (and really, still is) to just write down everything I know off the top of my head and then go back and do the details later. I’ve learned that when I start putting in details and parents names and brothers and sisters and on and on, I get bogged down. Or, when I try to cite my sources in detail, I realized I don’t HAVE sources so I go in search of the information again to cite the source. So yesterday I just wrote about Pitt Williams and then today I wrote about his wife Nancy. But immediately I got back into my genealogy programs and started filling in the details and adding more bits of information and some pictures. I don’t want anyone to have to read it over and over and see the differences, so maybe you’ll just want to come back and read it when it is all done. But my plan/hope is to write what I know in my head about one person a day. I’ll start with 16 great-great-grandparents, then do 16 pairs of great-great-great-grandparents (because there’s only a few I know much about the wives) and then come back to the 8 great-grandparents and eventually get to the grandparents and more. So by the end of summer, I should have a lot of sketchy information and I hope I will have gone back and filled in more of the details as I go, too.

June 20, 2009

I Married My Father

Filed under: At home, Family, Radio stuff, Writing — Janice @ 4:11 pm

Okay, I didn’t literally marry my father, but sometimes I am amazed at the similarities between Daddy and Mark. And I know Daddy used to groan and not particularly want to be compared to Mark, just like Mark did today when I said, “I married my father!!”

I have been attempting to do some voice work for my dear friend Steve who I’ve worked with at Mix 102.9 in Dallas, ABC Radio in Dallas, and StarSystem here in Austin. Now he owns a radio station in Gainesville and I’ve done a couple of commercials for him, but I still haven’t gotten my “studio” tweaked the way I want it to be to sound right when I record for him. Upon his advice, I bought a good piece of equipment to process the signal and make my voice sound warmer and fuller. Mark brought me a great microphone (well, he’s brought me a couple actually). But the sound still didn’t sound right. Steve’s advice was that I needed a microphone filter.

Everyone has heard someone POP their P’s when they’ve been on a microphone. It’s something that disc jockies learn to control and radio station equipment is also designed to eliminate that burst of air from making a sound through the mic. Steve sent a link to one he recommended, but I hadn’t wanted to invest yet.

I asked Mark about his thoughts on a filter for the mic and where I should go to get one and asked if he already had one (that’s a great thing about Mark, most things I ask for in the way of wires, cables, audio equipment, etc., he already has it!). Mark said, “Here’s what you need to do. Get you one of those round things that you do needlepoint or whatever in.” An embroidery hoop? “Yeah, that. Get one of those and pull some pantyhose across it and you’ve got yourself a filter.” No way! “Sure, that’s all they are.” Right. Am I going to believe that?

So today he needed to go to Guitar Center and I tagged along. Then I thought about needing a microphone filter and figured they would have them. They did:  At $20, $30, $50, and $70. So I asked what was the difference between the lower priced models and the higher priced models. The clerk was knowledgeable and said, basically, these two cheaper ones, they are like, just a hoop, with, like, nylon hose pulled across them. Incredible! Exactly what Mark had said. So, did I rush home and get my embroidery hoop and pantyhose and save $20? No, of course not. I still wanted the cool looking filter that attaches to the mic stand and looks impressive. I paid the $20. No, I let Mark pay the $20. Thank you dear.

Now why is that like my Dad? I’m sure I have other examples of Daddy saying the most ludicrous statements and thinking he was either losing his mind or just was simply mistaken, my favorite happened only 15 years ago or so. I say that so you’ll know I wasn’t just a rebellious teenager that refused to listen to my parents. I said something to the folks about not having any tomatoes on my big tomato plants despite a lot of blooms. Daddy said, “Here’s what you need to do. Get your broom and go out there and just wail the tar out of those bushes.” I thought he had to be out of his mind. He didn’t offer any explanation. Would the tomatoes cower in fear and say, “Okay, we give, here’s your stinking tomatoes”? I think I did do it and I don’t really remember if tomatoes immediately popped up, but one day I was listening to a garden show on the radio and someone had the same problem. The host offered the solution of going out and shaking or striking the tomato plants in order to shake up the blooms and the pollen and get things going. Unbelievable, Daddy knew exactly what he was talking about.

Obviously, I immediately began believing everything my father advised from then on out (NOT!) and I’m sure I will do the same with Mark.

—-

I have just begun a new family history project. If you want to follow along on the progress, you certainly can. Right now it is just off-the-cuff, writing from memory, and I will fill in more details as I go. We will call it Janice’s Big Family Project and you can find it here.

June 3, 2009

Busy

Filed under: At home, Job search, Music, Writing — Janice @ 1:37 am

I really hate when people complain constantly about how busy they are, so I won’t. I certainly won’t complain, because it is all a good busy. My only complaint is that some things get pushed down the priority list. Like this. I have some great things I want to say and want to write about, but I feel guilty when there is a long list of PAYING gigs and health-related things to be done (I say health related because Adult Protective Services might take Mark away from me if I don’t clean the kitchen at least once a week).

I have had some lovely relaxed moments among all this busyness and that is good. My best friend Beth is in town from Canton, Ohio. We had lunch at Mandola’s Saturday (fabulous Italian food, but so far north!) and got a pedicure and then a shaved ice (with Eagle Brand drizzled on it… I never heard of such a thing, but I’m a fan now!). Last Friday I had a great lunch at the Athenian Grill downtown with Denise. I miss seeing her every day in our old office, but it was more fun to get to have lunch and catch up.

I have started a new job and it deserves an entry of its own. It is very cool and very music related and, so far, it eliminates a lot of the things I don’t like about other jobs I’ve had, i.e. crisis management, talking on the phone, super weird hours, unbearable bosses. It has many of the good things I do like: Attention to details, music, flexible hours, music, and, well, music.

Meanwhile, I don’t know that I reported that I quit one of my medical transcription jobs, the new one that was keeping me very busy and tied down in the evenings. I quit it as soon as this new job was on the horizon. I am also winding down things with my friend Marsha, who has been my saving grace these last 18 months. I will continue to work for her in various ways, I expect, because I like her and I like what she does and because I am finding myself not wanting to let loose the control I have over certain functions I have with her! We’re not done yet, so I won’t cross that off my list of jobs.

I do have a list of jobs that hasn’t been updated lately and needs to be. I created it when I woke up at 3 a.m. and realized I hadn’t finished a job I had promised for one of them. Now I check it each night before I end my day so I don’t forget something. The list was:  work for Marsha, writing on-hold messages for my new company (I do that from time-to-time when they are in a bind), doing some other music related things for my new company (that I was doing and am still doing from time-to-time), the medical transcription I do for Dr. Stern, the medical transcription I was doing for the other company, writing articles for Best in Texas magazine, and doing some voice work for my friend Steve. So now I’ve crossed off the second transcription job and added the new music scheduling job. But I may add some more voice work, so the list may get longer instead of shorter.

And tonight I had promised Steve to do some voice work for him and I’m writing here instead. Well, Mark is asleep so I can’t really do ANNOUNCING (it is very loud) while he’s sleeping. Steve is patient.  And I have written an entry. Maybe if I put BLOGGING on my list of jobs I’ll get to it more often.

April 14, 2009

My Newer Job

Filed under: Job search, Writing — Janice @ 1:12 am

One reason I have been so bad about posting lately is that I am learning a new job. I haven’t talked much in my blog about any of my jobs, so I’ll tell you about this one.

In 2002 I began doing medical transcription for a psychologist here in town, Dr. Stern. It turned into a wonderful part-time job (that I would have loved if it could have been full-time). Actually, to be fair, he did offer me a full-time job at one point, but it would have been as office manager with lots of dealings with insurance companies and people and I knew I would HATE that part of the job so I declined. I worked in their office up by the Central Market and Heart Hospital and loved the doctors and the office manager he hired, Judith, and life was good. While I was doing that job I was also working at the radio station and then the radio station offered me the full-time job that I couldn’t refuse because it was perfect.

I had to quit working for Dr. Stern, but we all remained friends and I still had lunch with Judith from time to time and kept in touch. When my job ended again, I called them to see if they needed any help. Things had changed and now the office was WAY up north in Round Rock. I helped catch them up on some transcription and made the long drive to their office a few times. They decided then that they wanted me back as the transcriptionist and let the other person who had been doing it, part-time, go. And now they had the fabulous capability of letting me do their typing from home.

Immediately I was in business, doing their typing from home. They email me an audio file and I type it for them and return it by email. It has worked out wonderfully for a year, but is still only part-time, a few hours a week.

I have told many people that I wanted to do more medical transcription and more than one has been nice enough to recommend me to someone they knew that had a need or even had a transcription service. I pursued them all, but none became anything more than being on a waiting list. I knew I was limited because I have not fully trained as a transcriptionist and there is a lot more to it than just fast typing. I have not studied medical terminology, though I’m pretty good at figuring out a lot of terms–IF the doctor says them pretty clearly.

Last month, my aunt in Oklahoma mentioned that her neighbor did medical transcription. As always, I said, “See if she needs any help.” This time I got very lucky and my aunt’s neighbor has a BIG transcription business. She has over 40 employees and who knows how many client doctors, clinics, and hospitals. I’m sure the reason she gave me an opportunity was because of my aunt’s work ethic! And Aunt Louie is a stickler (as we all are in our family) for correct spelling, punctuation, and accuracy. She hired me for a part-time shift to be done from home.

So far, I am still in training. I may have made $30 dollars last week, but I figure that is $30 I’m making instead of having to invest in a $1200 course at UT that would take a year and you would only have the HOPE of being hired after that. I’m making money while training.

Tonight I worked a solid three hours so I probably made tonight as much as I made all of last week. I am just learning one doctor’s business and style right now, but will soon move into some other clients and I will do anything that they dictate at the end of the day.

If I’m not writing, a lot of it is because I have already spent 12 hours today (and many days) at this computer with one job or the other (and yes, email and Facebook too). I have never been one of those people that doesn’t like the computer after their workday, but these days I am just bleary eyed and muddle headed. I hope it all comes together soon and is as “easy” and second nature as the reports I do for Dr. Stern’s office. I won’t say they are all “fun,” but I do look forward to doing his reports and am interested in the patients he cares for.

Writing is something I love to have done, but don’t always like to DO, but I do hope to keep in the swing of things.

March 12, 2009

Family Tradition

Filed under: At home, Family, Writing — Janice @ 10:04 pm

I intended to do a lot of cleaning and clearing this week in preparation for my big birthday on Sunday. No sense having old clothes, dishes, shoes, books, jewelry, JUNK, hanging around as I start a new decade. But, the week is getting away from me, filled with work and other things that have kept me busy, so I haven’t gotten very far.

But I have managed to throw away a couple dozen floppy discs. It is an obsolete format, so I figured I’d better save the files while they are usable and save them in a different way if they are worth saving. So mostly  I’m just transferring to the computer to really be looked at later, but I’m opening a few and finding some interesting things. I am sure a prolific writer, no doubt about that. My first novel was on these floppies and the book I wrote on our family history. There were lots and lots of letters. And some things I wrote for a website as a columnist over 10 years ago that I had completely forgotten about. It makes me happy to read something I wrote back then and to think that it is good!

But I just found something that makes me cry and makes me nostalgic and makes me smile, all at the same time. If you don’t know, Mark is a knifemaker and a knife collector. He doesn’t make the handmade custom knives as much as he once did, but they are something VERY special. A work of art. I met Mark’s dad before I met Mark and one of the first things he showed me while telling me about his son was a small pocketknife that Mark made. I was so impressed at this delicate thing of beauty and function, I knew I would like the maker.

Once Mark was in the family, he expressed the desire to give our nephews a knife. The boys loved to come to the house and see his collection and hear about knives, but, of course, they were too young to own one. Their mother agreed that 12 years old would be a good age for a boy to get a pocket knife. So it was Christmas 1999 when my oldest nephew Brandt had just turned 12 and Mark gave him a pocket knife. Not a handmade knife, but one from Mark’s collection that he was proud of and wanted to pass on.
So in my looking through the files, I found the letter Mark wrote to Brandt that accompanied the knife. I may think I am a good writer, but I think my husband is a brilliant writer. He just doesn’t do it enough. I hope neither he or Brandt mind if I put this here. I can’t ask either one of them this minute (Mark is at a gig at the Saxon and Brandt is asleep in Paris, France, on spring break). So I’ll act now and apologize later. Mark wrote:


Christmas 1999

 

Dear Brandt,

 

Merry Christmas young man! You’ve reached the age where I believe you can handle an important responsibility, your very own pocketknife.

 

The pocket knife I’m giving you is from the collection of my Grandfather, A.Z. Hays. Granddad loved knives and enjoyed collecting them for many years. As a young man about your age I enjoyed sneaking into his dresser drawer to look at his knives. He taught me the importance of safety when using a knife and I want to pass that knowledge on to you.  I have no doubt that you will use it wisely and carefully, and I hope you enjoy it.

 

Your knife is not a toy, it is real and it is sharp.  You can do a lot of great things with it and have a lot of fun.  You can also do bad things with it and cause yourself some trouble. I hope you quickly learn to appreciate the difference.

 

Cut away from you, not toward you, ever.

 

Never take your knife to school.

 

Never loan it someone else.  If they need something done with it, do it for them.

 

Never use it when you are sleepy, angry or in a hurry.

 

Running with a knife is one of the stupidest things you can do.

 

Opening it in a moving car is another.

 

Keep it clean and dry so it won’t rust.

 

If you get bored, pull out your knife and look it over.  Get familiar with how it opens and closes.  Study how it is put together.

 

If you cut yourself, apply pressure to the cut until it stops bleeding.

 

If you ever have questions about your knife or anything else, ask your dad or me.

Love,

Uncle Mark

Isn’t that sweet?  I think Connor got his knife on his 12th birthday and was surprised because he thought he would have to wait until Christmas. Neither boy has become a “knife guy” like Mark is, but they do have an appreciation of their heritage and their family and I expect they both have their pocketknives from Mark in a safe place.

October 28, 2008

NaNoWriMo

Filed under: Writing — Janice @ 12:50 am

Have I told you about NaNoWriMo? It stands for National Novel Writing Month, which is November. There is a website all about it. The idea is to join hundreds and thousands of others in writing a complete start-to-finish novel of at least 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. 50,000 words is about 250 pages, maybe, so that is a very short novel, but certainly attainable in a month if you put your heart into it and strive for 1800-2000 words a day.

I first heard about NaNoWriMo in 2005. If you don’t know me well, you may not know that I had written a novel before that, called “The Man Magnet.” I started it in 1991 when I was taking a writing class with my friend Pam, the woman that introduced me to Mark and then married my father-in-law. I struggled and worked on that novel from 1991 until maybe 1999 or so? Maybe later. I don’t know when I finally finished it, to some degree. It sucks. It really does. It has some great scenes and some things I really like, but, as a reader, I know it is lacking… a LOT. So that went on the shelf. That seven-year novel obviously was not actively being worked on for much of that 7 years and, knowing there was no deadline, it was easy to not work on it (especially in all that time that I was falling in love, etc.). There was a great man named Tony in our little writing group and I remember when he heard that I was in love he said, “There goes the novel!” Since the novel was primarily about a single woman that hadn’t found love, he knew I would forget all about how that felt.
In 2005 I heard about NaNoWriMo and decided that this was an opportunity to try a different way of approaching a novel… where you had to write, no matter what. Where there was an assignemnet and a deadline and a goal.  I have always been a “good student” (which can be a curse),  but that might be exactly what I needed to jump start a novel I had been wanting to write. So in 2005 I wrote “What Goes Around” and I must say that it was/is a MUCH better novel than “The Man Magnet.” again, it still could use heavy rewriting and editing, things I’m not so good at (especially with no assignment and no deadline), but it is a pretty decent story and has much better characters and surprises.

At the time, I thought NaNoWriMo would be something I could particiapate on a yearly basis. As someone pointed out, the novel you write at 25 will never be written by you at 50 and vice versa. You shouldn’t put off the attempts and the effort. This time will never come again. But when November 1 rolled around in 2006, that was when Dad went to the hospital for his cancer surgery and he never came home. I was in Dallas every weekend and that was totally my focus. I think I actually signed up and started that year, but never got more than 2000 words down. So, I re-focused and knew I would do it in 2007. I was geared up and ready and then I got layed off. Yes, technically that would have been the perfect time to throw myself into a novel and have something to do, but somehow my mind wouldn’t cooperate. I don’t even think I signed up to try.

So now we are into 2008. I have been trying for weeks to come up with even a simple plot. I know from experience that it doesn’t have to be all laid out. That is the amazing thing about trying this sprint to the finish. With a rock solid deadline of time and words, you have to keep typing, even when there is nothing to say. When you are doing that, sometimes the characters and the situation present themselves to you without effort. It is a surreal experience to have the characters truly take charge of the story. I had ready about it, but never experienced it until I tried the NaNoWriMo. But I hadn’t thought of much more than the barest of situation, not even a plot. But tonight while I was at TC’s listening to Little Elmore Reed, an idea came to me. Not a conclusion, not really a plot, but at least a twist to add to the situation. I will sign up soon and begin my attempt at 50,000 words beginning this Saturday. Of course, with that being my focus, this blog may get a little left behind . . . or, with the extra creativity pumping through my veins, I may have so much to write I will have to write here, too.

When I get signed up I will give you the link to my NaNoWriMo page so you can see my progress and maybe read an excerpt. There may be one up somewhere even now from that last novel. I don’t know if they purge those or not.  So, wish me luck and I’ll keep you posted. Maybe an agent reads my blog and will have my contract prepared before the last word is written!

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