Tuesday Tech

So, once again I am late. I'll get on a scheduling system sooner or later. Of course, then again, the relevancy of the articles I read will be a little out of date.

Anyway...

I found an article with the most employable careers 2015 (Link goes out to MSN).

A piece of advice I have for people pursuing a degree, look at what jobs you want, not what topic interests you. If you like creativity and social media, look for jobs in those areas. Often, a specific degree is required, and a bunch of knowledge you need to have to do that job.

Then, major in the field that will get you the jobs you want. I linked to the employable careers as a starting point, but really get to know what kind of job you're interested in. It can be broad, like design or utilities. Then look at the related jobs and their descriptions, it interests you, then look at the qualifications.

If you want to be a writer, then look for jobs where you can write. It may not be creative writing, but writing something in general (and the editing practice that goes with it) is important. But, like so many people suggest, don't forgo the day job so you can write (unless you have the means to do so. Even then I still recommend a part time job).

1) You need an income. Living (and dying) isn't free. So, make money doing something else you enjoy, or at least can sharpen your writing skills.

2) You need to live life. I'm not saying that people who just write or don't have a job don't live life, but for so many people, work is a big part of their lives. At work you can listen to other people's experiences and learn about other cultures so easily. This can provide inspiration for characters or stories.

The other part to the "living life" is that it often costs money to go places. Sometimes, companies will send you places for work (San Diego Comic Con anyone?) It's a good opportunity to get some other perspectives.

3) You need a break from writing. This is more for me and people like me. I need a balance in my life. I need to do some technical and analytical thinking or my brain starts feeling like mush. When that happens, my creativity goes on the fritz. It's not pretty. But, working, though it's been taking time away from writing, has been helpful for me. It gives me distance from my MS, it gives me other experiences, and I can work with a bunch of interesting people.

So, the keyword of the day is "jobs". I just wanted to throw this out there. Unemployment isn't fun (believe me, I was there for a long time), but it can give you the time and space you need to discover things you love (like writing).

Well, that's my two cents, soapbox, pamphlet advice.

Monday Musings

So, this post is late for a whole variety of reasons.

1) I fail to schedule posts.
2) Life is starting to calm down again
3)My keyboard was utterly disgusting (and it has been that way for 9 months).

Just look at it:

It was disgusting. In the left hand side you can see I had cleaned a little of it.

Now, I am not saying I am perfect and all my keyboards are dust and grime free, but this was not me. It had been bugging me for these past 9 months and I finally decided to do something about it.

Needless to say, 2.5 hours later, not only was my keyboard clean(er) my whole desk was as well. Nothing like a good spring cleaning sometimes.

Of course, the entire time I was cleaning the keyboard I pondered why companies provide disgusting keyboards? I know other people left them that way (and my desk is near a vent that seems to spit a fresh coating of dust every night). But it's gross. I would hope companies would have a little vac or something to suck out the dust and stuff.

Do all companies give keyboards like this? I really hope not. This is the third time I've received a keyboard for a job and 2 out of the 3 times it was dirty (and I don't remember the other time).

I know I'm not the only one who "procrastinates" by cleaning their work space. Someone mentioned it to me once, and it's like they seared the idea into my brain. Now, if my workspace is messy, I can't work.

Sorry for the complaints. I'm actually really proud of the work I did. I even got other work done while I was cleaning the keyboard. Too bad it wasn't writing/novel related.

Friday Fun

Is it Friday already? Goodness, where did the time go?

Well, today I'm talking about time savers or you know, life hacks. They aren't necessarily crafts, though it does take some pretty crafty people to discover the tricks.

I read a really good one on Pinterest a while ago, but I can't seem to find it. There's no loss though, because there are many other sites and lists of life hacks.

Here is a pretty good one of 16 Life Hacks (note, it goes out to buzzfeed.com).

The one I really needed was using a post-it to clean between the keys on a keyboard. When you start a job somewhere, they often give you a keyboard that is utterly disgusting and full of dust and crumbs. You can clean the top of the keys as much as you'd like, but unless you have a mini vacuum, the in betweens will stay dusty.

I also like the one about using a dustpan to fill a bucket that doesn't fit under the faucet.

Anyway, some of the life hacks there are pretty good. They don't list some of the easier/interesting ones.

Like:

You know the tab on a loaf of bread? The color of the twist tie/bread clip indicates the day of the week it was made.

They then said you can use that bread clip to fix a flip flop that has pulled through it's base (useful for Summer, eh?)

Another one, from when I was younger: when figuring out the difference between right and left, bend you middle, ring, and pinky finger, leaving your thumb and forefinger pointing. The one that makes an "L" properly is your Left hand, and the backwards "L" your right.

For you Downtan Abbey fans (and fancy luncheon goers) you can then use this to remember which fork is yours at a fancy dinner. Your fork (with four letters) goes on the left hand side (left also has four letters). Your knife (five letters) goes on your right hand side (right also has five letters).

Does anyone else have any good life hacks? I could use all the help I can get.

Thursday Travels

A photo of an animal that is said to be closely related to rabbits and hares (lagomorphs) has been floating around.

The Ili pika:



It's adorable and looks like a cross between a rabbit and a mouse. One reporter even called it an Ewok.

Unfortunately, for us and them, they only seem to reside on a specific mountain in China. Plus, they are extremely endangered.

The reason the critter is so spectacular, besides being cute, its because it hasn't been seen for 20 years. The photograph is actually from early 2014, but only recently has become a big deal in the media.

Personally, I love it. I adore rabbits and I want to hug one of these. If my plot bunnies looked like this, I would welcome them with open arms.

Now, I'm going to return to my cave and get some work done. Enjoy the cuteness!

Writing Wednesdays

So I've never been a master of vocabulary. Memorizing the definitions of words has always proved difficult. I'm more of an application kind of person. Show me how it's used, and I should be able to use it correctly in the future (if my brain remembers it).

I am often on Google or Dictionary.com, searching or checking the definitions of words. Most of the time my brain surprises me and it uses words, I rarely use, correctly.

The words and phrases I spend most of my time looking up now are genre definitions (high fantasy, epic fantasy, space opera) and other industry terms (query, shopping, submission).

I finally looked up one of my favorite terms, plot bunny (or plot bunnies as the case may be). I think it sounded cute, but apparently they can be nasty boogers. If you are unfamiliar with the term, plot bunny is essentially a plot that gets into your head and it won't leave you alone until you write it.

If you haven't guessed, this isn't a post about remembering vocab words, it's a post about plot bunnies. :)

For me, like any bunny, these plot bunnies multiply, quickly. It gets to the point that I am inundated with these bunnies to the point I can't write anything.

To battle this, I knocked out a few queries so that these plot bunnies can relax and let me focus on the WIP at hand (52,000 words and I reached the climax...whoops).

This is helpful in several ways, if I do come back to one of those bunnies, I can (hopefully) recall the plot ideas, AND I have a rough draft of a query - a query that didn't have to be whittled down from the many thousands of words MS.

This leads to the advice I read: write your query and synopsis BEFORE your manuscript, and you will be happy. Believe me, I am. This WIP is going better than I thought (though Round 1 of edits is going to be "rewrite/reorganize/edit).

Unlike Raj (from The Big Bang Theory), I like rabbits, I know how to own plot bunnies, and I won't eat the world's supply of lettuce in front of them.

Tuesday Trade

I changed the name for Tuesdays. It's a (fun) business day and isn't necessarily technology related, though it is most of the time.

Actually, I'm changing the topic for today. I was going to post about an Entrepreneur article about how creative people are (often) undervalued and underemployed. But, while I was looking for the link to the article, I found 10 Motivating Quotes to Help You Spring Into Action. I'm really in need of motivation at the moment. I've got 8 days of extreme stress left, the kind where you just have to wait it out. It drives me nuts not being able to do much. It's also very disheartening.

I didn't really post about the start of Spring. Instead, I encouraged the creation of Nutella stuffed cookies. So, to make up for it, let's discuss moving into action.

Spring cleaning is something I have been doing for the past month or so. This is the first thorough cleaning I've done. Of course, a lot of this cleaning has been cleaning up after the tornado that is my week.

But what's more, people are coming out of hibernation and starting to do things again. While New Year's resolutions are probably, mostly, broken, here is another new beginning to start a new habit.

My favorite quote from the article is number 6:

Being defeated is only a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent. -- Marilyn von Savant

 The publishing industry, and life in general, throws a lot of rejection our way. It's only those who don't keep fighting are the ones who are truly defeated. So keep going! Keep writing, jogging, painting, studying, what-have-you.

I'm still moving. It might be at a snail's pace right now, but it's still movement. Besides, a snail's pace is normal for a snail.

The motivational quotes article didn't have my favorite, so I thought I'd share it:

To succeed you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality. -- Anita Roddick

It goes back to my insistence that persistence and determination really make the difference in life. So keep working toward your goal(s) and I'll work toward mine.

Does anyone else have good motivational quotes that weren't in the article?

Monday Musings

What a weekend! I achieved nothing that I needed to do, but I did a little what I wanted to do, except read.

I did watch TV though. Season/mid-season finales always put characters' lives on the line, hoping to entice you to watch on. Sometimes, they go so far as to kill off a beloved character.

That character? Well, they're usually my favorite character. It says a lot about the show if it can kill off my favorite character and I come back to watch anyway (bitter about the loss, but still holding on).

This always leads me to think about favorite characters, how fandoms mourn them, and why it's always my favorite character that is offed.

I call it a curse. Be it books, movies, or TV shows, as soon as I mark someone as my favorite character, it's a death sentence for them. Even in a video game, after going back and forth about my opinions about the character, I decided I liked him, quite a bit. Not a second after I finished the thought that an assassin took aim and fired, killing him.

Every. Time.

The same happened in a TV show. I think "oh, I like this character," and in the next scene, they're killed. Oh look, a movie, boy the older brother is a good character, well, he was.

It's a curse really. Either that or like people have noted on The Walking Dead, the "moral compass" is the one that gets killed first, and I tend to like characters with a moral compass, which still leads me to believe it's a curse.

Only once, in my memory, did my favorite character defy all odds and made it to the end of the book (well, play). Way to go, Horatio, for defying the odds of being my favorite character in a Shakespeare tragedy. *throws confetti*
\
Anyway, the way people mourn over the death of characters makes me wonder, does it affect us the same way as the death of a loved one? (You know, someone we actually know in real life). I'm sure the attachment has some sort of emotional toll. There are still character deaths I get a little teary-eyed over a while after they are gone. Mostly though, I'm just bitter, especially towards the writers who thought it was ok to kill off the character.

But, life moves on. More stories, games, movies, and shows are created and I set my heart up for more pain when I see a new character I like.

Does this happen to other people? Or am I just an odd duckling? (I guess both options are possible, but in this scenario). What favorite characters are people still upset about? (I just realized this post could have been the mother of all spoilers for all things entertainment, but it wasn't. Except for your Hamlet readers, I'm sorry to tell you, but Horatio did live.)

Friday Fun

Hey guys, life has gotten pretty hectic for me, and not in a good or fun way. Times like this I always get the desire to create something, anything.

Sure, writing is creating, but I'm talking about artisan crafts or cooking. I want to make something visual or tangible to get that instant gratification. I dabble in so many different mediums, I've lost count.

It's the first day of Spring, so I should do something in honor of that. Instead, I'll share with you my cheating and lazy person's guide to Nutella Stuffed Cookies.

They are delicious and terrible for you, which is probably why they're so good. You can search the internet and there are thousands of recipes for Nutella Stuffed Cookies, but they all mention making the dough from scratch.

I have two problems with that, 1) it's time consuming and I have a ton of other things I want to do and 2) I'm not a big baker/cooker. It's a rare urge I get - mainly because I loathe to do the dishes - so when I bake things, I like to find a simple way to do it.

I should note, I loved baking with my roommates. It was fun, we'd try new recipes, and we'd split the dish washing. Not to mention I wasn't alone in eating the creations. We'd make a Friday or Saturday night out of it, marathoning Criminal Minds or some other TV shows, and we'd make food. But I don't like baking or cooking for myself. I'm just that lazy sometimes.

So without further ado, the quick and easy Nutella Stuffed Cookies with estimations from someone who doesn't bake often:

Ingredients and necessities:

Nutella (or peanut butter or chocolate spread that Reese's or other companies have come out with)
Cookie Dough Roll (it can be sugar, chocolate chip, what have you). I used Pillsbury Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.
Flour
Spoon (one you normally eat off of)
Wax Paper
Cookie Tray/Pan
Freezer
Oven

1)The first step is to put wax paper on a tray or plate. It will be the place you put the Nutella/Peanut Butter.

2) Spoon out your spread into dollops/mounds, I'd say about tablespoon sized. Keep them spaced apart. You may have to use your finger or another spoon to get the Nutella onto the tray.

3) Once you have the desired amount, put it in the freezer. This was always a hard part in my apartment as we had a tiny freezer for five people.

4) Wait about a half-hour to forty-five minutes for your Nutella mounds to harden. It may take more or less time depending on how cold your freezer is and the circulation in there (things get frosty if you cram a ton of food in your freezer).

5) Prepare a cookie tray and open your cookie dough.

6) Put some flour on a working space or on a plate for your hands.

7) Once you're sure the Nutella mounds are hard enough to work with, remove them from the freezer.

8) Put flour on your hands.

9)Rip off (or cut) a piece of the cookie dough roll and make it semi-flat in your hand. It doesn't have to be perfect. If you're a Nutella lover, it will be perfect already.

10) Put a mound of Nutella in the center of the flattened cookie dough and roll the sides up around the cookie.

11) Roll the cookie dough/Nutella formation into a sphere. Remember this from grade school?

12) Repeat steps 8-11 as many times as necessary until you have a tray full of cookie balls. You may need to stick the Nutella mounds back into the freezer if they start to thaw. The flour helps the cookie dough from sticking to you, but not the Nutella.

13)  Turn your oven to the temperature dictated on the cookie dough wrapper. I don't know what cookie dough your using, so cooking times may be different.

14) Once up to temperature, put the cookies in for the time designated on the cookie dough wrapper.

15) Wait and drool over the smell coming from your oven.

16) Remove the cookies when the time is up (with an oven mitt, cause the tray will be hot).

17) Let the cookies cool off enough so you can enjoy them without burning yourself, and enjoy. You earned it.

And that my friends is the lazy person's recipe for Nutella Stuffed Cookies. (I should write a cookbook, right? The Lazy Person's Guide to Decent Food.)

Thursday Travels

Maybe it should be called Thursday Inspiration or something. Of course, then it wouldn't be an alliteration.

I love reading Historical Fiction, especially about ancient or pristine civilizations. I've always loved learning about ancient civilizations from anywhere in the world, but never really had a chance to study them as much as I'd like.

One of my favorite Historical Fiction authors is Michelle Moran. I often find myself thinking about The Heretic Queen or Cleopatra's Daughter. She recently came out with a new book, The Rebel Queen, which I bought and put on the short list of "To Reads".

So, through my daily RSS feed reading of articles, mainly comprised of business articles, I came across this Archaeology Magazine article: Why did Teotihuacan Collapse? (Tay-oh-tea-wa-kahn. At least that's how my Latin American History professor said it).

It's a very short article, but it's enough to let your imagination go. It'd be awesome if someone would write a historical fiction novel about this. We know, generally, why the civilization collapsed, but what else drove it? What characters?

If you're inspired, feel free to write it. While I said I love historical fiction, I don't know if I'd be the best voice for it. I have about 9 novel ideas left to write before I would even consider writing this. Of course I'd love for you to let me know about it (and autograph my copy. I collect autographs of my favorite (living) authors).

Anyway, are there American (North or South American) historical fiction novels prior to 1492? Once colonization hit North America, I lose interest quickly. :)

Writing Wednesday

Hey! It's been a week since I (officially) started this blog journey. It's been pretty good.

So, the topic for this Wednesday is editing your writing. I actually get paid to edit business documents and the funny thing is, I was terrible at grammar (still am if I review these posts).

In school, I would never want to learn how to diagram a sentence, finding all the names for the parts of speech tedious. It wasn't until I wanted to write for the fun of it that I actually wanted to learn grammar.

But what to do?

Reading was one choice for me. The more you see it correctly done, the easier it becomes for your to write "correctly" (whatever that really means). Novel writing has some peculiarities compared to grammar and punctuation of normal writing. In addition, the odds are the stuff you learned in grade school has been changed.

The other thing I did? Research. That seems to be one of my strong suits. I searched "how to edit a novel" or common editing mistakes for beginning novelists. There is a ton of information out there (or should I say terabytes of information out there???) I'm not going to reinvent the wheel, listing the advice for everyone when it is already out there, and written pretty well too.

Here are some sites I liked and thought I would share:

Grammar Book- for your grammar needs. This is for everyone. Not just fiction writers.

Novel Writing Help - for punctuating dialogue. One blog, run by editors I believe, stated one cue that the novel was written by a beginner was the incorrectly formatted dialogue. This should help fix that.

Of course, after I write that, I find the blog I mentioned: The Editor's Blog. This links directly to their segment about dialogue.

Here are some more tips that I am still working on: Warrior Writers

Well, that's all for now!

Tuesday Tech

For the video game lovers, both hardcore and casual, I saw a big announcement that broke today in Japan:

Nintendo is going to be making smartphone games!

This means characters like Mario, Bowser, Link, Zelda, and Samus could be coming to smartphones (like I didn't already have a problem with my battery).

Nintendo is partnering with DeNA, a mobile gaming company, to make this possible. What I really liked is that DeNA uses a "freenium" model. That means it's free to play, but to get enhancements like extra lives or power-ups, you have to pay.

This article (I've seen two so far) mentions a fear that Nintendo might steer into the "pay for power-ups" model for their console games. I personally don't see why they would bother. Their model works now (especially with this amiibo craze).

Now someone is going to need to invent an indestructible phone or padding for people. Have you seen photos of what happened to people's handheld consoles when Super Smash Bros came out? Phones won't be able to handle the fury.

Monday Musings

When the going gets tough, the tough get Mad Men.

Now, I have never actually watched Mad Men, but I know it's popular. Many places I turn talk about or reference the show, proving just how big it is in pop culture.

Why the post though?

Well, this morning I read an article on Business Insider saying "Every studio passed on 'Mad Men' at first; here's the epic story of how it finally got on air." It's a long article, but it details not just the process of getting a network to pick up the series, but how agents and actors/writers parted ways because of negative opinions.

In an industry full of form rejections, it's nice not to just read about best sellers that had stacks of rejections, but hearing that novel writers are not alone in the mine field of rejections is refreshing.

I am in the midst of rejections, and I am sure that I will be seeing many more in my future. But, if I give up now, not only will I disappoint myself and my characters, but (yes, you need to be a little cocky to say this) I'll disappoint the world.

A key take away from the article? Persistence. It's important to not to give up on something, but sometimes that something needs a break. The timing may not be right. As many novelists have hears, Dystopian and Paranormal Romances are tough sells right now. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't write that Dystopian Paranormal Romance. Who knows, you might be the exception to the saturated market.

For those who are not familiar with the publishing industry, Dystopian and Paranormal Romances may be hot now (or dying down in my opinion), but publishers are looking about two years into the future. Two years from now, we may read one or two dystopians, but not many. We'll be crazy over Sci-fi cozies or something.

Well, that's my shiny penny on the topic.

Remember, shoulders square, chin up, and get your work done!

Friday Fun

The inaugural Friday post needs to be dedicated to one of my favorite comics I saw in the newspaper years ago from For Better or For Worse:

I love rabbits, what can I say?

Thursday Travels

My blog is travel themed in the sense of background, so in honor of that, and that my series I am working on is adventure, I thought it would be good to share some travel/archeology related things.

I am a huge fan of archaeology, especially ancient civilizations. And I don't travel too much, though I'll highlight some cool places I see on the internet (of actual places to visit). I hope something will be interesting or inspiring for someone.

One of the articles I read was New tomb discovered in Luxor, Egypt. The link goes out to Archaeology magazine's article.


If you don't read the article, I really recommend looking at the picture. A lot of the images I've seen of Ancient Egyptian tombs have been pretty damaged in one way or another. But the image of this new tomb shows pretty much what the paint was like when it was applied. Really vibrant!

Writing Wednesday

Wednesday seems like a good day to start this blog off and the best way is to say a bit about my writing.

The MS (manuscript) I am sending to agents is, indeed, my first completed novel length story. I completed it over a year ago as part of NaNoWriMo, but I have been thinking of the story for years before that. I even started storyboarding it because I knew I wanted to tell the story, I just didn't know how. I thought about web comics and scripts, but when November came around, I realized a book would be the best format for it.

Now, of course there will be some comics of my story, things I can't publish in a trade book. Those will come later.

Currently, I have the MS and a novella that accompanies it, told from the point of view of another character in the book. In addition, I've started the sequel book, which needs an overhaul, and a prequel book, which needs a massive overhaul.

I'll get more into these as time goes on. But for now, that's the bit about me. In general Writing Wednesdays will be about writing, either tips, tricks, or an update on what I'm doing (writing wise).

Have fun and great travels!

~Rejourneys

The Maiden Post

And so it begins...

I'm still currently setting up shop for what will be come my writing/author blog.

I've got a few things I'm hashing out in the world of blogging, so it may take a bit before this guy is up and running.

I'll be testing out themes, posts, and finding pictures for this blog in the mean time. Until then, you can find me on twitter (@rejourneys).

Hope to see you again when it's go time!

~Rejourneys