Gina Bug Writes

What New Year's 2007 Means to Me

I've never been "big" on New Year's Day. Never really celebrated it much or wondered what was in store for my life after that day. Yet this year I've felt just a bit more moved (just a bit!). Wondering what I was going to write about New Years sent me to other writer's blogs. <!--more-->

Just as I was thinking about writing in my blogs about New Year's Day meaning growth and allowance for change this year, I found this quote from Michelle's:

"The goal each year is to make the "right" choices. Sometimes we do, but we make a few stinkers too. That's fine. We just don't want to make the same stinkers; we want to learn from them."

No regrets of the past, only learning. Looking forward instead of behind and growing in a way and pace that's best suited for me. This is what New Year's means to me this year.

Moving furniture outside the box...

I've been lacking a "project space" for the past six months since moving here. We're still lacking great furniture - like a nice, big, desk! - and we're lacking space. I kicked my hubby out to a dingy area of the garage to hold his office space. Sharing a desk with him was hell.

Even with the desk to myself I am not comfy there. I can't wait to get something nice with a comfortable chair under me. But besides that, I had no where to lay out projects like index cards for novels and screenplays or my painting and drawing. The kids had to wrestle for time at the dinner table with paints and Play-Doh and put everything away before dinner.

We have had the hardest time finding a dinner table that would seat 6-8 people and fit in the tiny dining area next to the kitchen. We were talking about what to do when suddenly an idea came to mind.

Our living room isn't particularly wide, but it's long. We moved our furniture down to one side near the fireplace (that I hate because it limits my furniture options) and made a cozy little sitting nook with the couch splitting the middle of the room.

On the other side of the couch is now our dining area. We're finally able to look for a full sized table! We may even have room for a hutch and a corner piece. This area is just a few steps away from the kitchen's other door, so it's going to work out.

And what's best? Our old dining area will be converted into a project area! I'm thinking we toss down a big rug, put in some more storage, a table with stools, an easel for painting, and maybe something comfy like big pillows or bean bags! I'm planning on puttinng up a white board for planning ideas and maybe a cork board.

Finally, after all this time - a solution! And it seems like we have more room than ever, not less. 

Ego-surfing

C'mon! Admit it. You go ego surfing once in a while, don't you? You're a writer so you Google your name to see who's mentioned you, who is carrying your book, or how far down the food chain your web article is. C'mon.. you ego-surf too!

Unwritten manuscripts that haunt

Amazingly even though I have such a cruddy memory, I have at least six novel or screenplay stories and several children's book stories "cooking" in my head at all times. I don't always remember everything I've written down in my files/notes on them, but I find those are often details I can throw away anyway.

The stories just keep baking and getting better, gathering steam. I think a lot imprints on my subconscious and is ready to come out when I sit to write. They don't seem to go away.

Most are fairly new - I've begun developing them in my mind within the last 1-3 years, but the oldest one is about eleven years old. It's in a different genre than I am used to so it's the least developed, but yet it's sticking around, knocking on my consciousness once in a while. I wrote a few scattered notes on it about 4 years before I ever saw the Internet. It was on a computer I got in 1994 and I printed the notes on computer paper reams with holes!

I shudder to think of when I will FINISH all of these and what's worse, when/if they will be published.

You? Send me a comment!

Get on the Blog Horse

Anna tells me I need to get back to my blog and she's so right. Eventually this blog will shut down and be replaced by another one of the same name in Wordpress software.

I've been working on my fiction writing nearly every day in general. I haven't had time since the move to get back into my screenwriting as they are such huge projects and I don't yet have a specific "space" for all of my stuff or installed the software again since losing my laptop to an untimely death. But that's coming.

I started a short story for adults and have mostly focused on children's writing. It's going very well! I have three active critique groups going and am just about ready to send a couple of submissions out to editors and publishers. I've actually got my hands on a laptop for this week so I am going to do some work at the library, bookstore and/or coffee shop.

Might I welcome everyone to my children's writer blog at my new children's author website: http://www.ginaritter.com/.

My kids have been spectacular inspiration lately. They're just fuel on my fire. The little wisecrackers are driving me nuts and cracking me up at the same time. I cannot believe the stuff that comes out of their mouths!

I think that sums up almost everything that's going on lately. Send me some comments of love and I'll write more!

Writing = Eating = Writing

Cute article on the importance of eating and writing:

He Ate the Whole Thing
And other tales of gluttony and gastronomy from inside the TV writers' room

Taking Criticism

My kind of "wit" is not for everyone. I get myself into trouble. When I am not totally smeared in chocolate (ie: PMS'ing) I can usually take this well. I mean, is Kathy Griffin for everyone? No. Carlos Mencia? No. So I am okay with it generally and I just write what's in my head and am satisfied to be me. it's taken 30 years to be happy being me (took me 29 to figure out I was stuck here).

But then I get weak and maybe one too many criticisms come in during the same week. And maybe it's for several works I have circulating in different genres. And maybe, just maybe my husband agrees with them. Then my own kids turn on me. And it seems I dry up and nothing else comes out to replace the work that I am told is is poor taste -- like my Nutty Knitters column and my Some Pumpkin kids book and my knock knock jokes in the car.

And then in the middle of my crisis my hubby tells me it's my turn to cook and there's nothing left to make for the whole family. And so my refusal to cook ends in a stand-off at High Tech Burrito and when eating outside people are yelling at a kid nearby that they think is mine and glaring at me. And then I get a Gatorade spilled down my leg. And then my hubby announces he's tired of eating out and we have to cook which means I will have to find time in all of my despair to get groceries. And then maybe we get home and I am just left with no chocolate, swollen ankles, my own shame and a stinky Westie who loves me and needs a bath before I'll let him sleep on my bed.

So, how do you keep your chin up when your humor isn't everyone's favorite? I am no Gregg Podolski. I don't have universal charm and wit. I am seriously going to have to save and print out positive comments to look at when I am feeling down.

Where's my muse?

I've been hiding from my work, writing and online "stuff" since the move. The retail/wholesale business has drained me and is (luckily) in the process of being sold. The other biz is holding steady and improving in the nick of time.

I don't have any furniture to speak of, so I don't feel comfortable pulling out the art supplies and have to keep cleaning up my messes when I "nest" around one of the camping chairs we use in the living room. I haven't been in the mood to write much of anything more than a few posts on my blog(s). Or rather, I am in the mood but just don't seem to get it done when I am and when I have the time, I am no longer in the mood. I began catching up on my children's writer crit group when my laptop crashed (again).

I'm sort of floating along when it comes to "work." I'm unsure of how to continue on in this new place. I want to, but I feel like there's no inspiration. Of course I am so totally MOM and that's it, so it's not like I get any kind of reprieve or retreat to reconnect with the muse.

I did go to an Italian art festival with sidewalk artists this weekend AND went to the library (both with family in tow). I have stopped into the local bookstore since moving here and each thing makes me surge with motivation and creativity...until I go home that is. Then daily life takes over again.

Don't get me wrong - this domestic diva stuff has it's payoffs and I am pretty happy. I am very happy, in fact. But that creative piece is missing. I'm ok putting it off so long as I KNOW I will be chasing those dreams again this fall when J goes to half-day Kindergarten. ALL alone again for a few hours a day. Whoohoo!!

I started to read Creating a Life Worth Living but wonder if I should wait until fall when J is in school with the other two boys. If I get started now, school will be out for summer (June 8th) and I'll certainly not get anything done with all three home. Besides that, every time I try to read it I either cannot relax OR I fall asleep.

Mom writers tend to have a New Year in the fall I think anyway. When the kids go back to school, moms go back to more full time writing. I don't know HOW moms do it when they also work outside the home. I don't have that much time or energy being home full time. I don't know - maybe it gets easier when they're older, but then you have three kids in three sports and schools that require lots of effort from the parents. I don't know how it all gets done. I just know I am lucky to be home and be able to make these choices and think about these things.

When a Writer Has to Move....

I spent 3 hours going through all the papers in my dining room today. Whew… Papers, manuals, bills, junk mail, things to file, etc etc etc ad infinitum. They’re all in piles on the table. Now I have to go through everything to file them away.....somewhere! I gave away my file cabinet.

I have 2 huge stacks of business magazines that I do not want to get rid of but must. So I am going to go thru them to find only the articles I need. Some are a few years old so I should just toss them altogether.

I also have to finish going through my writing stuff upstairs. I need to box up the books I decided to keep (we’ve sold about 400 and have at least 300 left to sell) so I can stare at the boxes for a month and then sigh and go through them again to get rid of more. It worked when I boxed up my fiction and biz books! LOL

I have so many books. I am down to only a few non-fiction and fiction books that I am trying to read before June (fat chance) but I have turned over a new leaf and am reading in bed before lights out. I haven't had a lot of time to just READ in a long time. The rest are business, computer stuff, and writing books.

The biz books have got to go. Most of them have. I am holding onto a few. The writing books are PAINFUL to get rid of! I have some novels I am attached to because I like the writer, I have some I haven’t read about the craft of writing, some I have read and others I am using as reference.

By the time you add it all up, I must still have 100 books or more. What’s a girl to do?! I don’t want to ship them all media mail to CA, but I may have to if we run out of room in the move. My husband has the same thing happening too. Lots of books, even though he pared down.

The lives of 5 people must fit in a minivan and a 4x8 uHaul pull behind. And though that sounds gruesome, I am looking forward to the fresh start!

The Momster Chronicles Causing Concerns??

Last week I received fan mail from someone (a mom with 2 books and regular column) on my new Momster Chronicles column. I’d just put up a maiden voyage piece (though it needs some tightening) on the site and the Momster blog http://blamemama.blogs.com/momster/ she found it either in one of my groups or on the site itself.

She said she was feeling a bit grouchy and my column lifted her spirits and made her laugh until her sides hurt (I’m going on memory here, not verbatim). The column was an exaggeration of my feelings towards the boys as they grow older (when they get sick). It’s a humor column and it’s truth based but an obvious stretch. So I thought.

A couple of days later I got non-fan mail. I cannot say hate mail and even non fan mail isn’t quite right. It was a man concerned by my portrayal of parenthood. He said he never writes someone when a column doesn’t please him but felt so compelled in my case. He felt I’d come across very uncaring and he wanted to “hold my puke covered son.”

He said he assumed I didn’t really want to be seen that way and that I might get more negative feedback than intended. He said that my writing was very good – so good it was too vivid for him, hence his terrible reaction. He wishes I would use my powers of writing for good instead of evil. (said tongue in cheek).

So I asked my husband to read it and HE said it was good but he didn’t like it. He says it was an obvious exaggeration but still didn’t like it. Why? Well because he’s lived it. I told him he has PTSD, that’s all. I am not very compassionate when he’s sick… or at least I didn’t USED to be. I think I have gotten better, but hubby’s sensitive sometimes and won’t forget.

But he’s encouraging me to keep writing these things. He’s so supportive! And he says someday it will be exhibit A in his defense in the courtroom and he’ll get to walk away with all of my riches and children. Bwahahahaaa

Anyway, I answered this dear man back (and haven’t received a response). I told him that I was fully aware that my brand of humor isn’t for everyone. I caught some flack from the Blame Mama domain name and from my writing in the past. I am ok with who I am because if I didn’t write like me, why bother? There’s a comedian in her 50s that’s hot right now and MAN is she fork tongued (Lisa Lampinelli?). I may not listen to her stuff but I respect her for being who she TRULY is and wonder how long it took her to get there.

Now here’s where I am concerned though. No, I don’t write like her (check out my site http://www.blamemama.com/) BUT I don’t want it to cause problems when I am marketing my children’s books. I have one nearly ready to go out now and expect more this year.

I’m no Judy Blume, but wonder if I am going to cause more harm than good. Any thoughts?