Lari's Bookshelf

NaNo Zombie So I'm one of those crazy people who decided it would be a good idea to write a novel in November. Well, at least 50,000 words, and they may not all be necessarily good words, but nothing like a crash course in hurried novel writing to get the creative flow going! At the end of Day 6, I totaled  9,881 words. Just shy of where I need to be to finish on time if I keep going at a steady rate. If you are interested, here is my posted synopsis for my story. It's still pretty accurate, but may change: Twenty-three year old Melvina Finnson embraces fantasy and escapism to ignore the fact that she works a low wage job at one of the few remaining SuperRents in Small Town, USA. She is more than satisfied with a life filled with movies and video games she gets for free from work, and she's jaded about opportunities for her in the "real" world. As she begins to accept the fact that she is a college dropout and content with a life of perpetual distracti

This post is my entry in the Book Nerd Out giveaway hosted by Book Riot: Reviews, Recommendations, and Commentary about books and reading (but, you know, fun). When I was studying my undergrad, I experienced the beginnings of what would become an existential experience. Many times I was confused and lost as I wandered around campus, since I was constantly deep in my thoughts.  Then one day I discovered a copy of  Meditations  by Marcus Aurelius in the library. This book was instrumental in pulling me out of a dark place and my introduction to stoic philosophy. I wrote a poem this morning about that experience: In the labyrinth of a library, Sanctuary is a small hardbound work, A dead emperor gives comfort, Words sweet like the plumeria, Musings echoed through millennia, Brittle pages redolent of weathered wood, Learning to live as bees that make honey, My own place in the universe,  Accepting what I cannot change, White steps cradle and c

Scrivener is an acclaimed writing software for writers of all kinds. Now that they are offering a free trial for NaNoWriMo , I couldn't help but download and install it on my computer. If you are interested in participating in NaNoWriMo this year, I highly recommend you try Scrivener for yourself. They even have a preset template for your NaNoWriMo novel that you can access when you start a new project. This is the first year I'm doing NaNoWriMo. I'm a little nervous about the challenge, but am glad I have a tool like this that can help me out. Have you done NaNoWriMo before? Are you doing it this year? Are you going to use Scrivener?

Am I mad about Rover? Not at all. Sure he barked at late hours of the night, but he was a good dog. Am I mad the tiny, old woman next door poisoned him with tainted dog treats? Of course not. In fact, I’ve shown her my good will by making her a delicious cake. I left it at her front door for her birthday. I may have left a note saying it’s from a relative, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s made with sugary goodness . . . . . . and d-CON © .  By Lari For Chuck Wendig's Flash Fiction Challenge: 100 Words on the Subject of Revenge 

So, I've seen quite a few TV shows or movies (many of them I like!) that have virtuous heroes against baddies, who just like being bad. For instance, my daughter just started watching She-Ra: The Princess of Power on Hulu . Princess Adora, long lost sister to Prince Adam (He-Man), fights the evil tyranny of the Horde, ruled by Hordak, by becoming She-Ra with a magic sword. Sexy, Blonde, Virtuous, and Sexy It's such a clear-cut evil vs. good show, that there is no nuance, not really with the villains. Even by having Adora a member of the Horde herself in the beginning, seemed like an artificial attempt to add depth to a character who really is one-dimensional. She simply "had not seen" the Horde being mean to people, but as soon as she sees an old man get thrown into a lake, she does a 180 and has no trouble fighting against the people who raised her. (Side note, I also think it's funny that these evil villains can at most "stun" their victims b

I haven't been doing my own creative writing. I know. I said I was going to. I made a goal. But I didn't reach it. At all this week. So what now? Do I throw in the towel? No. I'm not going to. But I am going to consider making my goal a more reachable feat. 1000 words, not including my blog and freelance writing, is just too much for me right now. I'm knocking down my daily goal to 250 words a day. Until I can get used to THAT, then I'll consider bumping up my goal again. I really enjoy running this blog, but it has taken up a ton of my time this month. Not that I don't enjoy it, I do. Good news is that ever since I figured out a schedule for the blog , I have been able to at least manage my time a little better. I think the first week with the new schedule went off without a hitch. The blog's still new, but it's finally maturing. I spent so much time online, researching on how to do this stuff right. Reading on how to design my blog, etc. Playin

Soucouyant Picture from " What's the Idea? " I'm currently writing a short story about a kid who kills a soucouyant. A soucouyant is a freaky shape shifting creature from Carribbean mythology that manifests itself as an old woman. At night, the old woman sheds her skin to reveal a flying fireball monster that goes into homes to suck blood from its victims. You can protect yourself from soucouyants by sprinkling rice in your entry way, because soucouyants have an OCD like trait of having to pick up and count every single grain of rice. If they are unable to return to their skin before sunrise, then they die. This means if there is enough rice in a doorway, a soucouyant will die if unable to pick up all the grains before sunrise. While the fireball shape is the most intimidating and frighting form the soucouyant takes, it also is the state in which the creature is most vulnerable. One can kill the soucouyant by sprinkling salt on the soucouyant's empty skin

The setting is around me. I can feel the words, sentences, dialogue bubbling to the surface of my mind. It's here; I get one sentence out, then two. I'm feeling it when... Is that poo I smell?

Today is a big day. It is the day I hit 100 followers on twitter, and the one month anniversary of this blog! (Don't be fooled by the older things in the archives here that I imported from other blogs.) When I first started posting here I had a hard time getting some regular posts out, but as I wrote and read things that interested me, and since I started doing book reviews, I've really had motivation to share lot's of things here. I've started to make some online connections with other writers, readers, and even book publishers. I'm also beginning to understand how to better organize myself and my personal writing and reading goals. Not to mention, I love blogging. This is a great creative outlet for me. The first time twitter came out I thought it sounded like the stupidest thing ever. To me it was a watered-down facebook that only allowed status updates. But since I started networking with people online, I find it way more flexible than facebook. I have a fee

I'm probably the last person in the world to hear of this, but I just came across this nifty challenge to write 1000 words a day . I love stuff like this. It helps me set a reasonable goal, and I may actually finish some projects if I follow through with this. I'm going to check on myself in a month's time and see how successful putting myself to the challenge will be. I'm also not going to include any blog or freelance writing word counts.

There are many things I have wanted to say here, but haven't. I'm facing a struggle with authenticity. Sometimes I want to write what pops into my head. But I restrain myself. I hold back. I'm constantly censoring myself. I worry of what people will think of me. Worried that people will judge me. I frankly look up to people who can be so open on their blogs and just be so naturally authentic . So I'm drawing a line, right here and now. If you are on this blog, you are mine. I can't be worried about appealing to your sense of "decency," or "appropriateness." I'm going to be authentic with myself, my writing, and what interests me. It's not going to happen in one day, but it's a goal I'm working towards. "Old habits" as they say... Part of it is my background. I have a lot of friends and family who are conservative/religious and I know they might stumble upon here at any minute and question my use of the word "d

If you're like me, you probably have a lot of ideas bouncing around in your head. And if you are most definitely like me, you have a hard time organizing the overwhelming amount of random stuff that goes through your brain. I recently discovered something nifty called Stickies . It's absolutely free, and it allows you to manage sticky notes on your computer. I just installed it and after messing around for a bit I was able to figure out how to have multiple sticky note colors, reminder notes, and picture sticky notes. I also put an image of a cork board as a desktop background for funsies, and here is what I got: Welcome to my brain. I'm still working on figuring out how I can use this effectively in the actual writing process. Do you use something like Stickies? If so, what do you use it for? If you don't currently use it, does this software interest you at all?

I just finished my chronological outline for my novel. I've had a few false starts already, but lacked knowledge of "where it was going" and hit dead ends. I think this is the first time I really have a clear picture of an ENTIRE book in my head. When I was in college and writing chapters of different novels for different creative writing classes, I had a lot of ideas but not a lot of direction. I almost fell into that trap again. The man and his creation.* Recently, I read At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft. The man is a genius and I don't care if you don't like his paragraph sentences. I relish every word. So I had Lovecraft on the brain, and while researching what an Old One might have looked like, I came across this short little article written by Lovecraft himself called Notes on Writing Weird Fiction . It wasn't anything particularly brilliant. It was simple. Too simple . But in a way, that's what made it so decidedly useful to m

The title may sound like a downer. But it doesn't need to be. Frankly, a lot of talented people get published, but in my observation and experience, a lot of not so very talented people get published as well. Talent doesn't guarantee a person success in the least. So how do some mediocre writers get published over some very talented writers? Humans try to find patterns and order out of chaos. We try to find reasons for why things happen the way they do, when there really is no reason to be found, only invented. I'm currently reading a rather fabulous book about randomness called The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. My current random read. In it, the author illustrates some enthralling examples of how randomness plays out in different industries, and how people try to intepret meaning where there is none. Eventually this causes them to lose out in the end. Mlodinow applies the idea of randomness to the publishing industry as wel

The past few days have been good for me. I had the opportunity to go camping with my family and consider a few things. We went camping in Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii and had the opportunity to get our minds blown at how freaking awesome nature is. I also had the inspiration to write a short story about Lo'Ihi for the latest webook writing challenge, a challenge that calls on the author to create a world and destroy it in 300 words or less . I don't know why I get a kick out of these writing challenges, but I do. For one, it is a way I'm able to get some creative highs from them, and inadvertently they help me with my own personal creative endeavors. For two, they are a lot more fun than some of my freelance articles. Speaking of which, I'm still working on a schedule for my freelance work, but I have my excel document creator open and I'm going to start that as soon as I finish rambling here. I'm continually fascinated by stories in all their forms.