The Trouble with Dashes

I use far too many dashes in my writing.



I'm going through and working on draft #3 of my novel. One of the items which I have to focus on in this draft is cleaning up grammer and punctuation. And unfortunately, that means a lot of my dashes have to go.

It's really quite strange, but I find them quite a natural thing to use. To me they seem to convay a natural speech pattern. The problem is, they don't look nearly so natural on the page. And when one gets a good dozen of them every 250 words or so, one knows one is overdoing it.

So the dashes go out and commas and colons and semi-colons and periods come in. Not nearly as fun, but a good deal more professional.

Candy and Classic Cars

I got to do something rather interesting today! My grandfather has two old classic cars, both from the 50's, and he and my cousins drove them in the local town parade. My sister had recently finished a 50's style dress, and I always have something I can throw together, so we got into the back of the lovely old red pickup and threw candy out to the kids.

It was really fun! Except, of course, when we ran out of candy. That was sad...all the kids waving at us and we didn't have anything to give them...and let me tell you, we started out with a LOT of candy!

Anyhow, the plan is for my grandfather's other car, a 1954 Crystler New Yorker to make an appearance in SOTB. So perhaps you all will get a chance to see that eventually.

The Future of Avram's family

So the end of Fiddler can be seen as rather depressing...by some people. Some of our fellow castmates were rather disenhearted when we got around to staging "Anatevka." Not so in my family. We've decided that after getting dispelled from our village, we go to join our relatives in California...who happen to be some of the Jews who founded Hollywood. Avram becomes a famous screenwriter.

Of course, the children didn't take this seriously at all. Yitzak claims that he is going to grow up and become Stalin, while Hadassah is determine to convert to Protestantism and become a triple spy for the Russians...or the Americans...or the Russians...

And that's what comes from men and women dancing.

Agatha Christie again

Oi oi oi...I'm in a marvelous bit of an Agatha Christie rut. I tried to pick up "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" by Anne Bronte, but I just couldn't get into it. There is something so addicting about mysteries...and I do love Christie. She seems to write in just my style. A bit too morbid at times, but nothing compared to what modern authors deal out.

My sister and have enjoyed the Tommy and Tuppence adventures greatly, as (except for "By the Pricking of my Thumbs" they are generally on the lighter end of Christie's work. "The Secret Adversary" which is the first Tommy and Tuppance story, is perhaps my favorite. They are the youngest then, just settling into their grove, and the mystery is an intriguing one. And Tommy and Tuppence are just so differant from Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. They offer a totally differant perspective on things. Younger, and then later, a 40ish married couple (which was most unusual). And Tuppance is sometimes so outrageous and yet quick-witted...just hilarious to read. Tommy, on the other hand, is the level-headed, slower thinking, meticulous side of things. (In temperments, Tuppance would be a Sanguine-Choleric mix, and Tommy would be Melancholic-Phlegmatic).

A good Miss Marple was "Sleeping Murder." It was the last Miss Marple story written by Christie, and while not her most brilliant work, holds together nicely. I was less impressed by "The Mystery of the Blue Train" staring Hercule Poirot, which had a weak plot and needed more fleshing out.

To round things out is another Miss Marple: "A Murder is Announced." It has a nice cast of characters, and a very unusual resolution. Not quite on par with "Murder on the Orient Express" or "And Then There were None" but it's higher up in terms of the revealations at the end. Worth reading.

And now I'm settling down to reread "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?" also titled "The Boomerang Clue" which imho is one of the funniest of Christie's works, and is my sister's favorite. Features an original pair of detectives - a middle class auto mechanic and a titled daughter of the aristocracy set off on their own to solve a suspicious death at the golf course in their small Welsh town...

Fiddler Construction

Today was a "Work Day" for the Fiddler people! My schedule actually allowed me to go to this one, which was awesome because I have been feeling like I needed to build something lately...no, normally I don't build things. But I grew up with a father who was very handy with a hammer and I love the smell of fresh wood and the excitement of seeing a project take shape. Plus I just love designing and constructing things out of any medium and the logic that works for designing a dress actually transfers fairly well to building.

So after running around and picking up brackets and paint (we were able to get free paint from one of our cast member's father!) and planting flowers and painting stuff, I was able to weasel my way onto one of the contruction projects and help work on the house of Motel the tailor! Of course the guys did all the grunt work...I just used my mind and overseeing abilities to help move the project along. It was quite fun. :)

And all around us, of course, the town of Anatevka was rising up...slowly but surely walls were appearing...and I had to go before they built my house. Phooey. But at least I get to decorate it. How appropriete it is that I play the bookseller's wife!

Also, we did our first run through the other week and it was really pretty good! The coolest bit was that we were finally introduced to our show pianist...who was one of the original members of the show "Triple Expresso." !!! For those of you who don't know, "Triple Expresso" was an extremely popular show in the Twin Cities and it's quite an honor to have a performer/musician like this gentleman to do our music!!!

And that is the latest from Anatevka...stay tuned for further notices and if you haven't watched the movie yet, go out and rent it today!

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A Writer's Life Continues

I've come to realize that I'm really not very fond of revising. I mean, I can do it, it's just not as creatively interesting to me as writing the first draft. Perhaps part of that is because I'm a choleric. Once I do something, I tend to stick with my decisions. I don't see a need to change it. That doesn't mean that there isn't really a need...there probably are several things I should change in this novel. I'm just more interested in finding out where my story is going to go next, than fine tuning the existing story!

Oh well. Just another thing to learn about becoming a professional author. It's far from being all fun and games. One must stick with the hard parts as well as the good.

On the upside, I have been working on book #2 and I'm pretty excited about where it's going to go. Unfortunately, I can't say much about either one of them until I know what's going to happen on the publishing front. Prayers about that would be appreciated. After I revise this summer I will begin the process of looking for an agent. Quite intimidating, that!

The Sound of a Fiddler

I could keep talking about how busy I am...really I could. I could write a post about it every day...except I'm too busy to do that!

I thought I'd mention that in addition to the movie, I'm also participating in a production of "Fiddler on the Roof" this summer. It is being performed by the same group that did "Beauty and the Beast" last year (see sidebar for picture links). I'm not costuming this time around - I'm acting!

Nothing fancy - just a variety of chorus parts. I'm the mama of a family, (Avram the bookseller's family) and then I get to appear in Matchmaker (they're adding another verse so that all the girls can participate), plus I'll be some dead relative in the Dream song. And apparently I may get a very small solo in "The Rumor." Hurrah!

We chorus people are having fun with developing our seemingly insignificant parts. For instance (in true FT-Forum fashion) we're bringing in the babies! I've got my little "Ya'cov" to carry around everywhere, and one of my girlfriends is going to got through the show "pregnant" and emerge at the end with TWINS!

It's fun to be involved in something that I don't have to plan or direct. I can just show up and do what I'm told and goof around (a bit) with my friends. A nice change of pace.

New Moon Trailer

Okay, I like this. My mouth was wide open at the end...I think there's some interesting trailer editing going on here, but it definetely worked.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON trailer in HD


I'm not having confidence in the CGI yet...but there's time, I suppose.