Carpe Deann?

 This one (of these Great Lines see here) comes from Carpe Deann. It hit me cause I'm always it seems in the midst of a silent treatment. Deann must know how I feel.

Your silent treatment will turn into forever if you're not careful.

Ugh, I'd hate that, but I can see what she means!

Elizabeth, Betsy 

Evershade, evershades, ever shade, ever shades, shades of Betsy

Done with Teams

 I am very much NOT a team player. 

Lately, we had to get ready for a presentation as a team. As I mentioned in previous posts, I do them quite well now days. I don't even have to rehearse much, I come up with a mental plan and go from there. My team however did not have that type of faith in their abilities. They wanted to have 5 1 hour rehearsals for what will be a 20 minute presentation. Five, that was a TON of rehearsals. 

Still, this will be the LAST time I work in teams! 

Well, unless I'm forced. 

This has not been a fun team project. Our project is about building an a program for an existing company. It started out well. Two of us doing the Lion's share of the work, while the other kept us on track.  

If it was just me I think I would have Winged that Sucker. Some folks are not fine tuners by nature. That's not to say I can follow APA, I don't do that at all. I just don't like people who can't make a decision and go with it. Instead of fine tuning the paper, the paper became a dumping ground for our team's comments and problems all needing a solution. 

Worst of all, we had to be guided and have a long discussion about which APA style to use, 6 or 7. Seriously? Just pick one and go. This is something I have problems with at work as well. I'm very much a move quickly and deal with the problems later guy. Sometimes to my detriment. I don't work well with those who take forever to come up with a plan and execute. 

Our team should have had this entire project complete last week, instead it's still outstanding. Working alone I would have already turned this in and moved on. Plus,  thanks to having to work in teams I'm finding some super easy to spot problems that haven't been taken care of by the team. Using personal pronouns in the paper, tables and charts all look different, appendices for some information, not for others. The rhythm and flow of the paper is a mess. 

I get that not everyone works the same and it takes a village, but when it comes to projects like this I'd rather work alone than depend on others. 

The only good news is that unlike our last class, we have no page count restrictions. Minimum . . .MINIMUM of 15! So we are already well over 25 pages and a dozen more of appendix! It's like a tax audit! We are overwhelming them with information! Hope it works!

A Bit of Vaingloriousness

It might be a bit too much self pride, but I love getting these reviews and posting them here (see here). They have two affects. First, they're fun to read. It's interesting to see how others view and process my writing. I didn't realize that my writing was detailed or that I was at all like Hemingway or Heller (see here). Secondly, it inspires me to write more. I know that this morning I should be getting homework done. I should be reading articles about what chemicals are produced by the amygdala via emotional responses to create more resilient long-term memories. Instead, I wrote about elephants in my eastern-Africa thriller novel. 

This first one is from a reader who read my book of short stories, Stories from the Day (see here). I love that chuckled. That's exactly what I was hoping for! 

This second review comes from someone who read On the Edge (see here). Like some of the other reviews she mentions characterization positively, which is awesome for a writer to hear, and the fact that she "devoured" the book. Several others have said the same things. One person wrote that they read my novel in just a few hours and that she couldn't put it down. 

Again, love getting them and reading them. These are two of the best, there were a couple of others that earned me 5 stars but weren't so detailed. Looking forward to more. 

Another Every Now and Then

Following in that same vein as yesterday, things that strike me as funny, there was this. 

In this case, I can say, I've personally verified that this is quite true!

Elizabeth, Betsy 

Evershade, evershades, ever shade, ever shades, shades of Betsy

Remarkable People and Connections

Lately, perhaps because I'm approaching 50, I've been thinking more and more about the numbers of remarkable people that we meet in our lives and the connections we build with them. 

There are those people who come and go and are hardly a blip in our lives. There are those people who stay in our lives and are great folks, wonderful to be around, but hardly "remarkable" and although we may have a connection with them due to work, school or family, we don't "make that soul touching connection."

Then there are those folks who connect with us on a different level. Those are the people I think about. 

What's ultimately sad, is that due to the nature and the brevity of our lives, so often these people, these rare people with whom we connect on that next, deeper, more emotional level, often flit away much too quickly. 

I'm sure I've brushed up against some truly remarkable people who have that ability to connect on a different level throughout my life, but for one reason or another we didn't make that connection. Maybe it wasn't the right time, perhaps we were friends of friends and our roads divided before that connection could be made, or the stars just didn't align. 

I'm also aware that that connection I'm speaking about occurs and has occurred in my life and then due to the transience of life is pulled apart and ripped away. Still our lives are ultimately better for it and the connection was worthwhile because of it. 

Looking back on the last 47 years or so it's amazing to me how rare that deeper connection occurs. Among all the myriads and millions of people we may meet, the recipe, the timing, and the opportunity so rarely meet up to create that moment for connection. Sad too. One of the more life fulfilling aspects of our time here on earth is the relationships we make, and those with these types of folks are so brief and fragile. 

I love the quote by Ward that "Opportunities are like sunrises - if you wait too long you miss them." The same can be said about these people with whom we connect. If you don't take advantage of them, of that time, of that connection, and that opportunity, you'll miss it and you'll miss the chance you may have to interact with them. 

Short Story about Bataan

I spend an inordinate amount of time driving and commuting for work. My office is about an hour away from my home. When I took a job about 12 years ago, it was in an area nearer to my house. Since the company merged with it's largest competitor, the office moved 30 miles to the east, away from my home. Now I'm stuck in an industry that's a significant distance from my home. This leaves alot of time for listening to music, podcasts and sports radio. 

At the moment I've been listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (see here). I started trying to listen to this a year or two ago and gave up. Apparently my barrier for entry is lower on my commute as I got into it and now I love em. 

The first one I listed to was called Supernova in the East. It's a terrific series on how and why Japan fought in WWII and why the war fleshed out the way it did. During one segment Dan discusses McArthur's pull out from Bataan and the troops that were trapped on the peninsula and the fighting that took place there. Although I've never fought in the jungle, we as a unit did a ton of training in jungle warfare and when Dan was discussing the rigor and hardships of fighting in the jungle it sure made me think about my time in Panama. 

As a part of that segment Dan asks the listener to imagine themselves in a fox hole, in the middle of the night, with just your buddy in the fox hole with you, and the next fox hole out of visual reach and perhaps due to the forced silence you can't hear them either. All around you there are jungle noises and mixed in there, with the total blackness of the triple canopy jungle, are suspicious noises of Japanese soldiers getting through the defensive perimeter (something they routinely did) and killing soldiers in their fox holes silently. 

It's a terrific word picture and I was thinking of writing a short story about a guy who gets stuck in his fox hole alone and doesn't know what to do next. I've been that guy in the fox hole in the middle of the night not sure what to do. I've been that guy in the jungle all night. I can't add the combat experience, but I can add the stress, the fear, the uncertainty. 

It would be a fun short story to write. 

Now that I'm spending so much time working on papers for my PhD, I don't have the time to write my novels, perhaps short stories can be my milieu for a while. 

Short Story about Bataan

I spend an inordinate amount of time driving and commuting for work. My office is about an hour away from my home. When I took a job about 12 years ago, it was in an area nearer to my house. Since the company merged with it's largest competitor, the office moved 30 miles to the east, away from my home. Now I'm stuck in an industry that's a significant distance from my home. This leaves alot of time for listening to music, podcasts and sports radio. 

At the moment I've been listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (see here). I started trying to listen to this a year or two ago and gave up. Apparently my barrier for entry is lower on my commute as I got into it and now I love em. 

The first one I listed to was called Supernova in the East. It's a terrific series on how and why Japan fought in WWII and why the war fleshed out the way it did. During one segment Dan discusses McArthur's pull out from Bataan and the troops that were trapped on the peninsula and the fighting that took place there. Although I've never fought in the jungle, we as a unit did a ton of training in jungle warfare and when Dan was discussing the rigor and hardships of fighting in the jungle it sure made me think about my time in Panama. 

As a part of that segment Dan asks the listener to imagine themselves in a fox hole, in the middle of the night, with just your buddy in the fox hole with you, and the next fox hole out of visual reach and perhaps due to the forced silence you can't hear them either. All around you there are jungle noises and mixed in there, with the total blackness of the triple canopy jungle, are suspicious noises of Japanese soldiers getting through the defensive perimeter (something they routinely did) and killing soldiers in their fox holes silently. 

It's a terrific word picture and I was thinking of writing a short story about a guy who gets stuck in his fox hole alone and doesn't know what to do next. I've been that guy in the fox hole in the middle of the night not sure what to do. I've been that guy in the jungle all night. I can't add the combat experience, but I can add the stress, the fear, the uncertainty. 

It would be a fun short story to write. 

Now that I'm spending so much time working on papers for my PhD, I don't have the time to write my novels, perhaps short stories can be my milieu for a while. 

Every Now and Then . . .

Every now and then I run across a meme that hits me in just the right place and makes me laugh. What better place to put it than here so I can go back and laugh later. 

This one did that to me. I don't know why, I just thought it was the funniest thing I had seen!

Elizabeth, Betsy 

Evershade, evershades, ever shade, ever shades, shades of Betsy

Could Have Been . . .

Thinking through prose and thinking about things in past and things to come,  . . . this little nugget came to my thoughts:

You could have been the hero of my story, and would have been the reason for my wonder, life and love. 

What made me think of this? This little nugget from my Twitter friend:

"My lips could have been your wake up call."

Ah, what a wonderfully descriptive thought.

Elizabeth, Betsy 

Evershade, evershades, ever shade, ever shades, shades of Betsy

Another Great Review (and a less than stellar one)

 I love getting these reviews . . . well . . . some of them. 

I say, some, because of this first one I got. 

I guess my response to this review, if I was going to write to Ariana is:

Why did you decide to buy, read and review my book if you admit upfront that "you don't like action stories"?

There are many other reviewers who have said the exact opposite of what you said about there not being enough in the beginning to grab the reader's attention. Other reviewers have said "fast paced", "page turner", "wild ride" and "action from the get-go!" 

I kinda think this was a revenge post rather than an actual reader, but whatcha gonna do?

This second review is one that I would much rather focus on. Amazing detail! An engaging book! and the perfect length! I'll take all of those reviews happily!