Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Quiet before the storm...

I managed to do some writing yesterday (Tuesday). Another page and a half added to the story. It’s moving forward. I’m not sure I’ll have much in the way of giving any pages to my writing group on Friday but we shall see. Tonight I’m attending a reading to support some of my fellow writers. Then home to do some work. It’s going to be a late night.

Today, I feel as if I’m in a holding pattern. There are several projects that I’m going to be involved with in the next couple of months and it’s the quiet before the storm. I’m excited at the opportunities that are arising and a little anxious over how much time/energy will be left over for my creative writing. I guess some juggling skills are in order. Who am I kidding?! I love, love, LOVE being busy…if I’m not doing half a dozen things with hair on fire then I’m bored senseless. And boredom’s not a friend of mine. It keeps me in a constant state of melancholy pining and we need to loosen that strangle hold, don’t we? All for now.

Peace,



L~

All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

This is where I’m at…

Last night, I got home made myself a big salad of leafy greens and some crumbly feta cheese and basically inhaled it. I had a very early lunch at 11:30 am…not my idea…and by the time I got home I was hun-gry! By 6:45 pm I was in front of my computer working on my novel. I worked until 8:30 with a few minor phone interruptions.

Writing: it was very slow going but I was mentally ready that it was going to come out like molasses. After not working on the novel for quite awhile it will take time to find my way back into the middle of the story again. It won’t take long if I put some time into the work every night this week. The only way to get through a difficult area is to just write my way out of the corner.

I also managed to do some light stretching and exercise. My poor body has needed some movement. This office work (day job) and then writing life just keeps me seated most of the day. Despite the short 12 minute walk back and forth to the subway, that’s just not enough of a workout. I keep having dreams about running at a flat out run so even my dreams are about movement. I’m a bit sore this morning but I’ll do some yoga tonight to stretch those tight hamstrings. Eeek!

Hmm what else? Oh yes, so I’m down to the last 40 pages of Under the Poppy. It’s so good that I didn’t want to put it down this morning. I managed to get to a good holding point but I want lunch to come around quickly so I can buy a knish and sit out in the middle of Times Square to finish off the rest of this novel. Yep, that’s all I’m worried about at the moment.

Peace,

L~

All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Uhm...yeah

The weather is finally starting to warm up and Mother’s Day was spent bbq-ing at my folk’s place. Lots of hot dogs with plenty of mustard and ‘kraut. Yum!! I don’t go near the burgers because my family makes them so well done that they may as well be charcoal bricks. Bleck! However, spicy sausages helped mitigate that loss.

Now it’s back to work and I can’t stop yawning and sneezing. Allergy season is upon us full force. I tried getting up at 5:30 this morning so I can spend some time writing…but it didn’t work. I couldn’t stay up long enough to feed my cat much less work. I sat up at the edge of my bed and looked out my window. It just so happened that it was a grey cloud covered morning and that’s all it took for me to turn around and go back to bed for another hour. I have to get myself back on a schedule…it will help me get back on track. Easier said than done.

The one thing I have been doing is reading Kathe Koja’s, Under the Poppy. Her language is elegant. She manages to extract the psychology of her characters therefore the actions they take ring true. I can’t get enough and I’m almost done with this book. The other writing aspect that I admire from her work is the way she’s able to handle the past (relevant to the characters) in snippets during the present conversation between two characters. This is not easy by any means. In fact, I find that I struggle with giving away too much information in these large meandering paragraphs and then when I go back I have to scale it all back down. Koja manages to say so much in a few precise lines about what each is capable of and why. This method is so uniquely hers that I couldn’t emulate it even if I tried. There was one short chapter that I couldn’t quite follow because she was introducing too many voices at one time. But for the most part, she does it so well. Her skill is genius. *sigh*

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. No news on my novel since *eyes downcast, toe kicking up dirt* I haven’t been working as diligently as last month. I’m going to go home tonight and work on it. No excuses.

Peace,
L~

All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.