New (ish) Poem

I have finished a new poem, but I need an opinion on it and I'm hoping that my small audience of blog readers can maybe tell me what to do (or at least give me some advice.)

(No title yet-working on that, too)

River swallowed my brother down
And the rapids tumbled sad
River swallowed my father down
And the whirlpools sang a dirge
Tumbled over and over in a rolling
Rolling endless time

I will not go down into the river
I will stay on the shore
Vowing time can grasp at me
But take my heart no more

River swallowed my brother down
And the ripples mourned in quiet
River swallowed my father down
And the deeps sang for his soul
A song that roared and foamed in a rolling
Rolling endless time

I will not go down to the water's edge
I will stay far back on the shore
Knowing its icy fingers can grasp
But take my heart no more.


I am not totally sure WHERE this poem came from, seeing as I don't make a habit of writing African-American spirituals/poems LIKE African-American spirituals, but Mum thinks I should write the whole shebang out with dialect added. My problem is I'm afraid of insulting people because well, I have not one drop of African-American blood in my veins.

So my question is: Should I, as a Caucasian girl who just happened to be in the moment and write something that resembles a spiritual, do I have the right to use dialect in writing this down?

4 days to go till Who premiere. Going...let's just leave it at bonkers. My Facebook status says that the week's getting longer the longer it goes (which makes no sense, but whatever...)

Story's going well. I'm about ready to do some writing right now.

Damn, whatever that guy's eating on TV sure looks good. Now I want something with deli meat and tomatoes and really good bread (we have none of those things here, so I guess I'll have to endure.)

formspring.me

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/Poetimistic

I just joined this website on a lark. We'll see how long I stay around. Feel free to ask me anything-I have opened the questions up to anyone and everyone.

Ta,
Bec

Ta,
Bec

One Week Left

On the writing front: I am taking a break because I had a really nutty week last week. I'll probably pick up the pencil again after Easter-I have a busy week ahead here.

Doctor Who happiness abounds. New interview with new clip (I'll get to that in a minute.) The interview was very interesting. I saw hints of what was coming with this Doctor-the way Matt Smith tucked away the screwdriver certainly cracked me up.

New clip of Eleven up on Youtube. It's definitely a fascinating look into the new guy; he's NOT like any other Doctor before him (definitely a plus after 10 of these guys and their variations on the theme of "crazy superintelligent energetic child of the Universe." The last two weren't as barmy as this guy (pluses all round there) and he seems to hearken back to Doctors before 9 and 10 (more pluses). I haven't seen him slam his hands on his head and scream that his head's too full of stuff, that he's old and thick, or that he needed a bigger head (that was a Ten thing-Ten also had an oral fixation that just wouldn't quit) or hunch his shoulders and glare (Nine thing.)

In the about three minutes we've seen of him, he's shown the energy, the genius, and most importantly, the insanity that playing the Doctor requires. Being completely nuts is necessary-4 actually called someone's servants "wonderfully violent," when questioned on his accent, Nine responded with "lots of planets have a North", Ten came out of the TARDIS and offed his first opponent with a satsuma. Let me say that again: He KILLED an ALIEN with a FRUIT (it was awesome.) I guess to be a 906 year old genius, you have to have the crazy as well.

I think in about three weeks, I'll have this Doctor mostly figured out (most of them are notoriously unpredictable-even in his last few minutes I couldn't predict what Ten would do sometimes.)

One week to go! Probably going to be the longest week ever...

Ta,
Bec

Elevensies

Seen a minute (maybe) of Eleven this morning that I found while digging around in Youtube. My geek levels are so high right now I should probably find my sonic screwdriver and see if it can open door locks.

I can't BELIEVE I have another week and a half to wait. I can't believe I'm not all hesitant about the new guy. But I mostly can't believe that I'm getting EXCITED. Again.

I'm, in fact, getting incurably bouncy by the mere closeness of the thing. I'm going to get hard to live with the next week.

I've watched this one for two minutes and I'm loving every minute so far.

Oh, he can't come back to me fast enough, big chin or no. And I cannot believe I just said that after bawling all over the keyboard New Year's last because TEN WAS GONE! BWWAAA!

It's not like I don't still love Ten and all-I still cried when I watched him leave again this morning. But I'm just...oh, I don't know. I can't really explain Doctor Who. It's just Eleven looked like he was having so damn much fun he's gotten me to join in...

Week and a half to go...week and a half to go...

Ta,
Bec

Aaaaaand...NOTHING!

Okay, so after a halfway search of the closet in Mum's room, I didn't find anything.

I'm going to have to do the rest of the closet later. It's time once again to re-search the dresser and then I'm headed over to that couch again.

Story's going well; notes were typed up last night and I'll probably have Mum look them over tomorrow to see if they all make sense to her. Then I'll start writing actual story after Easter (you gotta give these things at least a week to settle.)

Next weekend's going to be busy: Merlin Series 2 premieres HERE on Friday, Who on Saturday. Sunday is Easter.

This weekend will probably be boring. I'll probably watch Doctor Who until I'm seeing Daleks coming out of the walls...

Ta,
Bec

Technical Writer Stuff

I hate it when people talk in "Sweet Valley Girl" speak. Mom's doing it and it twists my insides into bad knots and stuff.

Making plenty of progress with Caedmon and he's tying into the whole Carden/Antiphos mess very well. I'll be writing actual story soon-this is all backstory stuff I'm working on.

I figure if I get the events of twenty years previous written down someplace, I'll have that to refer to when I have questions about what kind of motives these characters would have faced with a specific situation.

Yeah, yeah. Overly technical and crazy, but this is going to help with these guys so much when I go to rewrite most, if not all of the second half of the book.

There's a big development I won't talk about with the first part-I am terribly unsure of what I want to do and I really want to keep it to myself at this moment. If I do go with the new idea, it will completely change the first half as far as setting, characters, location...everything. It won't look remotely like the story I originally wrote and that's why I'm so reluctant to do it. A lot of the good things I wrote in the first part would be gone-not sure I want to do it.

By the way, one month to my birthday!

Gotta go. Dinner's on. I have a lot of thinking to do.

Ta,
Bec

Saturday

Hit a snag with Antiphos last night. Not sure how I'll overcome it-might bounce the problem off of Mum and see what she thinks.

Didn't sleep well last night-I have a knot in my back that just won't quit (something in the blankets on the couch that caught me.) The minute Mum's out of that bathtub I'm going in there and having the warm water work it out for me so I can walk upright today.

Sprite's mad that I won't let her outside (20 degrees out there. I don't let her out until it's above 40. She knows the rules and yet still tries to push them.)

Whisper has gotten what she wanted and went back to bed.

New Doctor Who trailer...driving my father crazy by watching it ten times this morning (it's short, so I have to watch it more than the last one. And it's awesome so it's more than justified.)

Ooh, speaking of which, time to watch it AGAIN!

Quote from the Eleventh Doctor (geekgeekgeek!)

"There's one thing you never put in a trap if you're smart. If you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there's something you never ever put in a trap.

Me."

Ta,
Bec

Spritey's Having A Bad Day Today

So far, Sprite the god (sorry, meant dog!) has:

Gotten a car ride (okay, that was a highlight)

Taken to the vet

Got a thermometer shoved in a VERY personal region

Given a treat (okay, that was a highlight, too. A very big highlight)

Not given a second treat (that was a downer)

Got fur shaved off her frock

Got stabbed with a DOZEN needles (and did a good bit of yowling at the vets while dealing with the pain)

Got her old collar taken off because it was too tight (and she was promptly insulted by the owner of this blog who said it was because she had a fat neck)

Got insulted again when her owners were told her teeth were bad and that she had love handles. Which would mean less biscuits. This is a tragedy she wishes could have been avoided.

Got freaked out by this funny running water bowl thing

Didn't get another treat when she should have gotten one. She SHOULD have.

Got another car ride home ('nother highlight. But a small one, really, when compared to the TORTURE she underwent after arriving home.)

Got BATHED by two of those HUMANS of hers. With soap and water. Soaked clean through to the skin. Ridiculous!

Got BRUSHED.

And she didn't get to go outside when she wanted because the two humans from before wanted to keep her out of the mud long enough so that Mum could see her clean for once.

She wanted me to tell you all this just so you know how TERRIBLY ABUSED she is (the little liar), and that she's looking for a family of complete and utter suckers that will take her cute little arrogant gluttonous narcissistic self in, provided they keep her away from 1) Vets with needles 2) baths 3) brushes but that they let her have as much 1) food 2) space 3) food 4) and mud to lie in as she wants.

(By the way, despite what Sprite says, she ain't leaving this family or going anywhere.)

Ta,
Bec

Erin Go Bragh (But Give Me My Stuff!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all my Irish relatives (there are a hell of a lot of you.) Hope your day is lucky.

I am allergic to luck (they had a leprechaun touch me and I came up in green boils.) I am having a bad week. I wrote out a lovely backstory for Carden, only to find it held a massively bad mistake that I was too tired to fix on the day I made it. I haven't gotten round to that yet.

You probably don't remember this, but back at Christmastime I mentioned that Mum had bought me a copy of Muse's Showbiz CD and a ring from Goodwill. I also mentioned that she had lost them.

We haven't found them yet. Three months of cleaning her room, searching under every surface and scouring every INCH and nothing. We gave away HALF of her clothes and found not one CD and not one ring buried underneath.

It's turned into a sort of battle of wills-me with my undying belief that it's got to be in here SOMEWHERE, Mum with her undying belief that if she buys me another CD and another ring that she'll stop me from tearing her closet apart looking for the stuff. And that she'll shut me up.

She doesn't remember that I pummeled my way through 5 years of college purely by my own perseverance, does she? Does she think I won't do it to retrieve something that's technically mine?

The only thing holding me back from going in there and doing it is that my youngest sister cleaned the closet from top to bottom around Christmas and A) will kill me if she finds it torn up when she arrives here tomorrow (never mind what Anna will do since she's here now and B) she's the bloodhound in the family and may save me having to do it anyway.

If someone doesn't come up with a better idea of where to look in two weeks, that closet is fair game. I'll put it back together when I'm done.

Ta,
Bec

Been Working on the New Idea

The idea I had last week continues to expand, and I'm actually now writing stuff for the backstory of the novel that will never make it into the book itself. I'm going at it like a fanfic (in other words, creating a backstory for a character in a TV show or book or something) except that it's my own story this time and whatever stuff I'm making up is going to immediately effect the way the novel turns out. Backstage stuff that happened in a prestory universe is going to mess with whatever's going on on the stage in front. This means that genius me's going to have to commit to a massive rewrite when it comes to Carden's and Antiphos' lines.

It's going well; probably going to start typing it up today. I've found things go better for me if I write whatever I want out on paper with pencil (never pen; makes it a bitch to erase mistakes when you use a pen) and THEN I type it up. Then I edit till my eyes water or the computer screams at me that it's good enough-whatever comes first.

So I just, you know, stepped backwards twenty years into the past to be able to tell my story in the present better. I've still gotta build a backstory for both Antiphos and Caedmon. Antiphos should be easy; his story eventually gets deeply embedded with Carden's, but Caedmon is going to take some building up.

On with the work!

Ta,
Bec

Changing Names Again...

One fine day awhile back while writing this dang and blast story that never seems to be finished, I decided to up and change the names of ALL of the characters. Why I did it is probably because I wanted names that MEANT something according to whatever character they were attached to.

Here's a list that explains some of what I did:

Ansien became Tiernan, which means crown in Gaelic
Uther became Carden, which means black in Gaelic

Well, here I go again. Amon needs his name changed. Originally, for some inexplicable reason that I don't remember, I named him after Amun-Ra, the Egyptian god of the sun and light.

But his name has to change around because as a necromancer, Amon is now a Master of Shadows and Keeper of the Darkness. His name is completely inappropriate.

This will probably take a couple days to fix. I usually explore several languages, usually Gaelic, Hindu, Latin, and Greek, to find the name I'm looking for. It has to be easy to pronounce and yet be fitting for the character (he also needs a last name because I've never given him one. But if I have too much trouble then I won't bother with it.)

So far I have Nox, Nyx, and another name too close to Carden's for use.

Ah-I'm in luck. I found a list of Greek prefixes and put Anti (against) with Phos (light). Put 'em together and you get a name that means "Against the Light." Amon has become Antiphos Nox (Roman primordial god of night) as of this moment. Not a bad switch, and it sounds good when you say it, so that's what it's going to be.

Fingers are getting tired of all this work, so I think I'm going to land in the blankets early tonight.

Ta,
Bec

Why One Should Never Think When in the Bath.

So I went to take a bath, like I do nearly every day after Mom leaves for work. I like being clean and I like being warm.

I got the water all in, was all set for a calming soak, when

BAM.

I had an idea. Or several.

All.

At.

Once.

Not for poor, pathetic Part 1 of Prince Within, which I still haven't worked the Gordian knots out of. No, THIS was for Part 2.

The idea was generally deepen three character's backgrounds, motives, and well, characters. If I can make the changes I potentially want to make, things might get better in Part 1. But I don't know. We'll see.

I'm having so many ideas at the moment, in fact, that my head is starting to hurt.

So, my bath today lasted all of 20 minutes because I simply couldn't LET the ideas sit there and wash over me like so much nice hot bathwater, and I didn't have a pencil and a piece of paper handy, and it was kind of wet in there so that probably wouldn't have been a good idea. I had to JUMP out and DEAL with the problems coming up in my brain like gophers in a prairie.

I'm getting the ideas down, bit by bit. I have to go back and look at some old notes now, so I'll be getting back to you on my progress when I come up for air.

Ta,
Bec

PS: Found some old descriptions of Caedmon and Carden in the note heap I have kept. There's some sort of note about flicking butterflies and beating people up with magic in Caed's and apparently Carden is a "bulky sort of fellow," but there's not much else. I do have notes somewhere on Caed's backstory that hint at a nasty entanglement with Amon.

Ah. Not much there. I made them brothers and Caed was the good guy while Amon was the bad guy. Yawn. I think from now on they might be cousins or something-there's enough brothers cracking each other over the head in this story already.

There were also some hilarious drawings of Einin (lead character's love interest) doing a naming ceremony on her boyfriend. He looks positively freaked out when she's holding that torch over his head...

See, I'm a hoarder when it comes to notes on a story. I have kept EVERY scrap of text I have written on this story...at least that which hasn't been lost in the two computer crashes I had in the middle. I have 7 years worth of handwritten notes on just about everything I could think of. The lot comprises of 4 main drafts and a whole LOT of notes on interesting topics such as: How big T's cell is when he's captured (actually laid down on a floor with a meter stick for this one), How old Carden is in relation to other characters, the national anthem of Caiomhe, what these people worship, what happened to Andraste, where's Einin during Part 2, how'd T's parents die, how useless Roland is after the beginning part of Part 2 (I killed him off, don't worry), drones, dragons, poisons, kishkis, people's temperaments, maps, timelines (lots of these), and sketches of EVERYTHING...

Writing either produces insanity or insanity produces writing-I'm not sure which. All I know is- it produces a damn lot of paperwork.

PPS: Had some good thoughts today-enough to cover an entire page. That is progress!

Been Busy Today

After having:

-Downloaded the video from someone else (it was legal-don't worry)

-Watched the whole thing through

-Converted the video into a file I could do something with

-Found software to split the video into manageable, Youtube-sized pieces (finding software was the hard part. Took hours. But I figured it out.)

-Labeled, uploaded, and labeled AGAIN those pieces of video

I think I'm done with putting this stuff up. Three Muse videos, all from a documentary back in 2001 that someone put up on the Internet for all to grab ahold of. I thought it should be on Youtube for all to enjoy (specially the bit about Matt trying to snag a date with a hot girl who was apparently also a witch) so there it is.

I'll post a link to the first one here, and you can go into my account and find the second and third parts if you like after that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVn2-dh1Dmo

Enjoy! Comment and let me know what you think!

Ta,
Bec

Poem Reading

Busy playing with the microphone built into my MP3 player (again), and this is what comes out of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlpm_cGSDt0

Recall that this poem was the one that jumped out at me last year when I least expected it (poems and even characters do that. Sometimes I feel like a lunatic when this happens. Trying to explain it apparently is useless as other people just don't get it. Ever.)

Sprite's busy begging for another biscuit (which she won't get because she just had one not 15 minutes ago) and Whisper's sleeping with one paw poised in the air.

Now to a minor bit of business: I have been accused of being young and idealistic on this blog in recent days. Note that A) I can be insensitive, and for that I am deeply sorry BUT B) this is my blog and I can say what I want when I want to. I try to keep from trashing too many people by name but hey, my relatives are terrible to try to coexist with. If they ever read this, well, I can only say I told you the truth from my point of view.

If you take offense with my way of thinking, fine. That's your thing. Good for you. Just don't start calling names when I insult someone else.

Ta,
Bec