Tags: Writing, Canine

Tags: Writing, GCLS

So, our merry little band of writers had the pleasure of having Marlene Howard join us for two days. Marlene is one of the founding board members of Oregon Writers Colony. Marlene is a hoot! Aside from the awesomeness of founding a nonprofit organization that provides such a valuable place and concept for writers of all ilks, she’s an amazing storyteller. And Marlene tells it like it is - no mincing of words. I totally respect that!

Do you want a small dose of the haunted history behind Colonyhouse? Colonlyhouse is a log house located on the ridge in Rockaway Beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean from the back and Lake Lytle from the front.

Well, here’s a tidbit for you …

In 1988, OWC purchased the house, which had originally been left to a nonprofit organization in Nebraska, that couldn’t afford or use the house. The man who’d owned the home, a fisherman, had died and willed the home to the nonprofit – some folks speculated that Tom didn’t just ‘die,’ but that he committed suicide by boat. (No one knows for sure – well, except for Tenacious Tom.) Apparently, he missed his deceased - dearly departed wife.

But, I digress … Anyway, the current board of OWC received a call from a realtor telling them if they could make the trip to the beach right quick, they may be able to scoop up this phenomenal house for a not unwieldy sum. So, the group trekked to the coast … they entered via the basement - a dark dank cave. Hmmmmm. Not to be put off, after all the price was right - the group trudged up the basement steps and the leader of the pack, Bonnie, opened the door onto the beautiful sun drenched main level. The group bought it –– hook, line and sinker.

Spud, the trusty house repairer, arrived and was immediately introduced to Tom the Tenacious Ghost. Tom was not quite ready to abandon the old homestead. He decided to mess with the electricity and drive Spud nuts. Finally, Spud let Tom know, in no uncertain terms – ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Tom backed off - or did he?

As the house was made habitable for renting writers, Tom’s existence faded from memory. Until – someone heard a typewriter in the middle of the night – only there wasn’t a typewriter in the house. Then a woman sleeping in the basement bedroom woke up during the night, put on her glasses and noticed writing on the wall – “the writing is on the wall.” Hmmmm. A smartass ghost? Messing with writers?


Anonymous hauntings that folks didn’t want made public, but I couldn’t resist sharing a good ghost story – or two.

And our stay isn’t over, perhaps one of us will reap the rewards of a ghostly encounter. If so, you’ll read about it here!

Happy Haunting!

Tags: Writing, Retreat, ghost, haunting

Tags: Writing, Retreat

(National Novel Writing Month) event. The goal was to write 50, 000 (or more) words during the thirty days of November, in essence, a novel in one month. I dove in blind. No plot. No plan. No character arcs. No outline. No prep. Nothing. Nada. That’s kind of the idea, though – what makes NaNoWriMo what it is … crazy.
I ended my word count at around 52,000, if memory serves correctly. I put the manuscript aside and moved on to other pursuits. The writing group I am part of started a ‘round robin’ writing exercise, which went two rounds. I read a couple of books on writing and editing. I read lots of fiction, which I usually do (“hi, my name is Judy and I’m an addict.&rdquo)
I attended my first writing conference in June 2010. When I came home I pulled my manuscript out, blew off all the dust (not really – just opened the file on my computer) and re-read the story. Then I added a couple thousand words and asked a couple people in my writing group if they’d read it and give me feedback. I’d never completed an actual novel and had no clue what to do. I wasn’t sure if the story was good enough to be considered ‘a novel.’ Was it long enough? Have all the elements? Did it engage the reader?
The word count hovered at around 55,000 at that point. Two or three folks agreed to read it, so I sent the file off into cyberspace and forgot about it. In August, one of my writing buddies sent me an email informing me she’d finally read the story and it was good. The characters were good and a few other ‘good’ things. She gave me the task of editing and weeding over used words and tightening up the story. Then after I completed my homework assignment, I should send it back to her for ‘round two.’ She believed the story was publishable, but I had a long road ahead of me.
I meticulously went through the manuscript using the “Find/Replace” function in my word processing software. OMG! How many times did I use the word ‘look?’ Over 100. I know, right? After my edit and weeding foray, combined with tightening the story, the word count dipped to around 52, 000.
Time moved on, but the work stalled. The manuscript sat on my hard drive … and sat … and sat. Untouched for weeks. I assured myself, daily, that I’d spend time in the evening (after work) picking at the story. Of course, I didn’t. Time got away from me. Work got busy. Too many books from the library to read. Yadda yadda yadda. I refer to those days as avoidance therapy. If I avoided the manuscript, I wouldn’t finish the rewrite then no one could read it and tell me how awful it was.
Fast forward to January 2011. Time to stop saying “I’m going to …” and glue my butt to the chair and – DO. No matter the consequences. No pain, no gain. No risk, no glory. I dragged my manuscript out of cyber storage and plugged away. No, not every day, but many days (and evenings.) At the time of this blog entry, I have the word count up to 61,000. I still have several scenes I’ve decided to work into the story. Once those scenes are woven, ever so smoothly, into the web of chaos, I’ll need to revisit the edit/weeding out chores.
After the chores are completed and I’m satisfied with the finished product I’ll beg a couple of my writing buds to immerse themselves in the pages, again. Hopefully they’ll wade through and not come out too horrified – or bored. Bored would be the worst, I think. I fear bored.
So, no, I didn’t make any new year’s resolutions, but I did reacquaint myself with an old friend. And I intend to make that old friend all shiny, bright and full of life for my readers. Who knows, maybe someday you’ll read it – as a published book.
I dare to dream. Do you?

Tags: Writing, NaNoWriMo