Catching UP!

I Did IT!

   I have finished, Chapter 2 of Spirit of Rain that I started on St. Patricks Day due to the 10,000 Words Challenge at ChapterBuzz.com  Anyone who wants to read it, can follow this link.

    http://www.chapterbuzz.com/Arline/57/spirit-of-rain-by-arline-chase

10,552

Words

by Actual Count

   So I met the Challenge to start a new book and write 10,000 words within the month of March and I am going to continue and try to write at least one new scene per week.

 BUT

Don't Bother to Read It

This is the Raw First Draft

(the one nobody but a mother 

could love.)

    Hey Authors!

    This might be a good place to offer sample chapters or your own books as a form of promotion. You can link to your Amazon buy page, too and...

It's free!

Catching UP! at WWI...

Work continued on the following books this week:

EASTERN SHORE NOIR, a Collection of Work by Members of the Writers Bloc

   Okay, so here you are, reader, opening the page ... obviously you have discriminating tastes and a longing, nay, a desire, for a cracking good story pulsing with noir elements.

RED YEAR, by Jan Shapin

    Can a red-haired woman from Chicago single-handedly force Joseph Stalin to back down?         China, 1927. 

    Thirty-three year old Rayna Prohme, accompanying her left-wing journalist husband, becomes the political confidant and lover of Mikhail Borodin, the Russian commander sent to prop up a failing Chinese revolution. In a bid to continue their love affair, Rayna hatches a plan to accompany Mme. Sun, the widow of the Chinese revolution’s founder, to Moscow.

Marta's Place by C.M. Albrecht. 

   When Hal Morrison goes to work at Marta's Place he doesn't just have to deal with customers; he has to deal with love, lust, detectives, drugs, murder, mayhem…and Marta!

Chasing Nightmares by James R. Kincaid

             Chasing Nightmares, deliberately embracing terrors, isn’t what you and I are likely to do.  But you and I are not the four central characters in this novel, pretty typical college kids who sense that their lives are so predictable they hardly seem present in them.  They are determined not to succumb to the commonplace scripts set out for them, pathways that are so comfortable they might as well be padded, MUSAK softly playing.

      So, they set out from Los Angeles, trying hard to find the perilous.  They try hard to make themselves unprepared, open, desperate to vivify their minds and senses.  They make it only as far as Lake Tahoe and the nearby Donner Pass, where they do succeed in attracting horrors, certainly not the ones they had, despite themselves, anticipated. 

            But the nightmares they wrap round themselves also contain a good deal more than shivers, and the calls on their resolve demand more than simple courage (or foolhardy consistency).  Without knowing how it happened, they are drawn into a different strangeness, asking for and yet reluctant to receive something very much like love.

Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 

and Gossip Columnist.

Hi Folks,

Heard from Barbara Garro, who is working on a Collected Jesus Volume. She never forgets to e-mail me, and here's what he said this time:

   I have a set deadline to complete the work on the book by the end of Lent. With my big lifetime honoring of a senior Saratoga poet in a public program on Saturday, April 8th, including a Mayoral Proclamation for her, it will be tight, although I worked on it much of today. Soon as I get the Introduction finished, then all I need to do is go through the 33 parable chapters, much of which is already written in the seven section. I am a deadline gal.

Namaste,

     Ann Foley, sent us the Writers' Bloc minutes and they included included something about one of Arline's pet peeves, what is often called the Oxford Comma.

    Pres. Tom opened the meeting with Shirley G, Rita, Aleta, George, and Ann also attending. Note this sentence used a serial comma (a fourth comma before Ann). In his opening remarks, Tom spoke of a similar comma worth over a million dollars in a lawsuit involving a contract lacking a serial comma. We probably were all taught the comma before "and" is unnecessary, but the Chicago Manual of Style maintains it generally helps more often than hurts.

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, with its cover illustration of a gun-toting panda, earned literary editor Lynne Truss a pretty penny a while back by discussing the issue.(Tom once told me to get a life when I said I read ChicagoManualOfStyle.org for fun.)    

Dr. Jeurel Singleton 

A.K.A. Dr. J. Critter. 

Dr. Jeurel Singleton missed the deadline on Eastern Shore Noir, but e-mailed his poem

"Do Let the Bedbugs Bite"

 to Arline (who due to a round with her old pest DD) hadn't gotten around to setting the type yet, so Thanks to Dr. Critter, we can now we can get on with the book!

As for around here, Arline wrote until 3 a.m. one night, but she gave me treats before she started. To hell with any Chapter Buzz challenge--lets concentrated on the important stuff. 

First Things First, I always say

As for the rest of you, PLEASE don't forget to send me news of any personal appearances, signings and so on that you have planned... so I'll have some gossip to pass along next week. 

Just send an e-mail to arline@mail.com with 

 "News for Jack" 

 in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up here for all the world to see!

Catching UP!

   I have finished, and posted the prologue and first chapter of Spirit of Rain that I started on St. Patricks Day to the 10,000 Words Challenge at Chapter Buzz.  Anyone who wants to read it, can follow this link.

    http://www.chapterbuzz.com/Arline/57/spirit-of-rain-by-arline-chase

I really am very happy to be writing again, but very sure that something  is wrong for the following reasons.

   1. It's coming quite easily as long as I keep writing and don't stop.

   2. I keep going to sleep in the middle of sentences.

 PAY NO  ATTENTION 

to the Word Count that has me at almost 9,000 words

    In the Post a chapter section, I posted the beginning of SPIRIT OF EARTH, vol. 1 with the link 

http://www.chapterbuzz.com/Arline/58/spirit-of-earth-by-arline-chase

to where it can be bought (because it's always a good idea to offer a sample to potential readers in case someone want's to buy it.) And they counted all those extra words from the book that was already finished and published --
I did NOT write 9,000 + words in ONE week! 

But you knew that!

This might be a good place to offer sample chapters or your own work as a form of promotion. As far as I can tell, It's free!

Galleys that went out this week:

Marta's Place by C.M. Albrecht. 

   When Hal Morrison goes to work at Marta's Place he doesn't just have to deal with customers; he has to deal with love, lust, detectives, drugs, murder, mayhem…and Marta!

Work continued on the following books this week:

EASTERN SHORE NOIR, a Collection of Work by Members of the Writers Bloc

   Okay, so here you are, reader, opening the page ... obviously you have discriminating tastes and a longing, nay, a desire, for a cracking good story pulsing with noir elements.

RED YEAR, by Jan Shapin

    Can a red-haired woman from Chicago single-handedly force Joseph Stalin to back down?         China, 1927. 

    Thirty-three year old Rayna Prohme, accompanying her left-wing journalist husband, becomes the political confidant and lover of Mikhail Borodin, the Russian commander sent to prop up a failing Chinese revolution. In a bid to continue their love affair, Rayna hatches a plan to accompany Mme. Sun, the widow of the Chinese revolution’s founder, to Moscow.

Chasing Nightmares by James R. Kincaid

             Chasing Nightmares, deliberately embracing terrors, isn’t what you and I are likely to do.  But you and I are not the four central characters in this novel, pretty typical college kids who sense that their lives are so predictable they hardly seem present in them.  They are determined not to succumb to the commonplace scripts set out for them, pathways that are so comfortable they might as well be padded, MUSAK softly playing.

      So, they set out from Los Angeles, trying hard to find the perilous.  They try hard to make themselves unprepared, open, desperate to vivify their minds and senses.  They make it only as far as Lake Tahoe and the nearby Donner Pass, where they do succeed in attracting horrors, certainly not the ones they had, despite themselves, anticipated. 

            But the nightmares they wrap round themselves also contain a good deal more than shivers, and the calls on their resolve demand more than simple courage (or foolhardy consistency).  Without knowing how it happened, they are drawn into a different strangeness, asking for and yet reluctant to receive something very much like love.

Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 

and Gossip Columnist.

Hi Folks,

   No news from you guys again this week. It's been pretty dull here at home, too.
Except for Sunday, when Arline was looking for a bowl on the shelf and knocked a pitcher off. Don't worry, it didn't break! It just fell down in the chair and bonked my baby sister Spunky right on her soft little head!

   She  was napping in her favorite chair -- and it HIT HER right on the head. Her head is pretty soft, so so the pitcher didn't even break.

   Arline was very upset, she kept petting her and making sure she was okay. Boy, did Spunky like that.  Licking Arline's fingers and getting a belly-rub. Then when Arline went back in the kitchen. Spunky stayed right there, begging for treats, and just fawning all over everyone, sucking up the way she always does. She rubbed herself all over Sid's boots and hopped into Roger's lap and licked his chin. She never even knew what hit her, but she sure knew how to milk the action.

    I'll bet she just thought it was trolls, again.  And she didn't go to sleep again until after everyone had left and then she got me to look EVERYwhere, to be sure No trolls none had got in the house.

   This is a secret, so don't tell, okay? But I used to hide under that chair and grab her tail whenever she jumped up. She'd squawk and jump down and look everywhere. While she was sniffing around trying to find out what happened, I'd stroll out looking all innocent and tell her she had been attacked by trolls and didn't she see them?  I told her they were big purple animals with warts and big, big teeth and they loved to catch sleeping kitties  and take them far, far away from from their homes, and leave them all alone in the woods.

   I felt really bad when she thanked me for chasing them away and said she was lucky to have a big brother who knew how to make trolls run. To this day, she never climbs in that chair without checking underneath for hidden trolls.

Arline has had her head in the computer all week, so she really was writing, but she keeps falling asleeep and waking up with a whole screen full of e's or P's but Roger said he's happy, cause she's always happy when she's writing and maybe he'll get lucky and she'll write some love scenes. 

As for the rest of you, PLEASE don't forget to send me news of any personal appearances, signings and so on that you have planned... so I'll have some gossip to pass along next week. 

Just send an e-mail to arline@mail.com with 

 "News for Jack" 

 in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up here for all the world to see!

Catching UP!

I, Arline Chase, have actually entered the 10,000 word March Writer's Challenge at ChapterBuzz.com  I'm LATE ... But at least it's a start. 

Many Thanks to Aleta Kay Dye, an old writing friend, who is also taking the challenge and encouraged me to try. 

Wow. Ten thousand words! Can I really write 10,000 words between now and the end of the month? 

Probably not... 

But since I've been procrastinating about starting this book since 2006, writing even ONE scene was a milestone. 

Time to CELEBRATE! 

And I did it. There are actual words on paper and you can all read them and leave feedback here:

www.chapterbuzz.com/dashboard/challenge

The challenge is accepted. The work has actually begun...I feel so good.

Only 9,156 words left to go!

Work continued on the following books this week:

EASTERN SHORE NOIR, a Collection of Work by Members of the Writers Bloc

   Okay, so here you are, reader, opening the page ... obviously you have discriminating tastes and a longing, nay, a desire, for a cracking good story pulsing with noir elements.

RED YEAR, by Jan Shapin

    Can a red-haired woman from Chicago single-handedly force Joseph Stalin to back down?         China, 1927. 

    Thirty-three year old Rayna Prohme, accompanying her left-wing journalist husband, becomes the political confidant and lover of Mikhail Borodin, the Russian commander sent to prop up a failing Chinese revolution. In a bid to continue their love affair, Rayna hatches a plan to accompany Mme. Sun, the widow of the Chinese revolution’s founder, to Moscow.

Chasing Nightmares by James R. Kincaid

             Chasing Nightmares, deliberately embracing terrors, isn’t what you and I are likely to do.  But you and I are not the four central characters in this novel, pretty typical college kids who sense that their lives are so predictable they hardly seem present in them.  They are determined not to succumb to the commonplace scripts set out for them, pathways that are so comfortable they might as well be padded, MUSAK softly playing.

            So, they set out from Los Angeles, trying hard to find the perilous.  They try hard to make themselves unprepared, open, desperate to vivify their minds and senses.  They make it only as far as Lake Tahoe and the nearby Donner Pass, where they do succeed in attracting horrors, certainly not the ones they had, despite themselves, anticipated. 

            But the nightmares they wrap round themselves also contain a good deal more than shivers, and the calls on their resolve demand more than simple courage (or foolhardy consistency).  Without knowing how it happened, they are drawn into a different strangeness, asking for and yet reluctant to receive something very much like love.

Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 

and Gossip Columnist.

Hi Folks,

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

And the luck of the Irish to us all!  This week we heard from a couple of you:

   The Writers Bloc will have its March 18 meeting Tomorrow at one in Meeting Room 3 at the Wicomico County Public Library. Also, Arline worked on some changes to your cover for the Noir collection (see above...) 

Barbara Garro sent the  flyer for her summer promo campaign for her first poetry book, Love Bites.    

     Barbara has color copiesall printed and ready to distribute wherever she goes this spring and summer. She lives in Saratoga Springs, a big tourist town, and plans to display copies on bulletin boards everywhere: from huge hotels to the Bathhouses, colleges, senior centers, libraries Performing Arts Center, downtown shops, ANYwhere there's a bulletin board. 

     Barbara is an artist (she painted that pretty cover herself) and goes to a Lot of Meetings. So she's just going to keep a few flyers in her bag and post them wherever she goes. Sounds like a good idea to me, even if you don't live in a big tourist town...

As for around here, Arline must be writing Her Own Stuff again, because she hardly looked up all day Thursday! She never gets like that when she's formatting other folks' books. You should see her shaking her head and making faces. Computer keys click. Then she stops and goes backspace, backspace, backspace. Then she writes some more, then she growls, picks up the mouse, wipes it all out, and starts over -- makes her right grumpy, too.

Personally, I has a big shock after breakfast on Thursday morning (First things First! Nothing but food matters until after breakfast). Arline turned on the TV and the screen was nothing but polka dots and White STREAKS! I thought the TV was broken until a newslady stepped in and started talking about a BLIZZARD! And not the kind you get at Dairy Queen either! She said it was in Washington DC! Hey, that's right across Chesapeake Bay from US! Arline said, "About 30 miles away, as a crow flies." 

Then I remembered what Roger had said last week about the ocean getting warm, so I looked out the window. SUNNY DAY! Not a sign of snow on OUR side of the Bay.  And better still, it STAYED that way!

 

It has been mostly sunny, but REALLY FREEZING outside, ever since. What's left of the daffodils are coated with ice, the blue phlox is shriveled and brown from frost, and the Judas tree lost all it's buds! Nevermind, though. It'll come back and bloom next month, like it did last year. Until then, me and my baby sister will just Stay Right Inside. No more sneaking out for us, until it gets warm again.

Well, time for a nap. Spunky likes the rocker in the living room, but I take mine in the back porch with the sunshine coming through the windows. There's nothing like a nice snuggle in my favorite chair with warm sunshine all toasty on my fur. It makes me feel Cozy All Over, even when the thermometer outside says 20 degrees!

 

As for the rest of you, PLEASE don't forget to send me news of any personal appearances, signings and so on that you have planned... so I'll have some gossip to along next week. 

Just send an e-mail to arline@mail.com with 

 "News for Jack" 

 in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up here for all the world to see!

Catching UP!

Read an e-Book WEEK

It's not too late

to Celebrate!

    Hope you've all been having a pleasant e-book week. As we get older, and ma little arthritic, e-books appeal to us more and more. Here's Why!

   1.Even though the device feels awkward to you at first, once you get engaged in actual reading, it's fine. You concentrate on story and the words instead of the machine. 

   2.You don't have to dog-ear the pages, it always remembers where you left off.

   3.Even if a book is 2,000 pages long, the reading device never gets any heavier to hold. Your wrists don't ache and your fingers never go numb.

   4.You are never bookless! Your reading device will hold dozens of titles for you to choose from. If you finish a book at the doctor's office, there are lots more right in your reader, just waiting to be read!

   5. If it ever should happen that you've read everything stored in your device, downloading more is as close as the nearest Wi-Fi. The Library, your local coffeeshop, or even your doctor's office is sure to have one.

Work began on the following books this week:

EASTERN SHORE NOIR, a Collection of Work by Members of the Writers Bloc

   Okay, so here you are, reader, opening the page with a sense of entitlement because, well you bought the book, or somebody gave it to you as a gift.  Obviously you have discriminating tastes and a longing, nay, a desire, for a cracking good story pulsing with noir elements.

RED YEAR, by Jan Shapin

    Can a red-haired woman from Chicago single-handedly force Joseph Stalin to back down?         China, 1927. Thirty-three year old Rayna Prohme, accompanying her left-wing journalist husband, becomes the political confidant and lover of Mikhail Borodin, the Russian commander sent to prop up a failing Chinese revolution. In a bid to continue their love affair, Rayna hatches a plan to accompany Mme. Sun, the widow of the Chinese revolution’s founder, to Moscow.

Galleys that went out this week:

Chasing Nightmares

by James R. Kincaid

             Chasing Nightmares, deliberately embracing terrors, isn’t what you and I are likely to do.  But you and I are not the four central characters in this novel, pretty typical college kids who sense that their lives are so predictable they hardly seem present in them.  They are determined not to succumb to the commonplace scripts set out for them, pathways that are so comfortable they might as well be padded, MUSAK softly playing.

            So, they set out from Los Angeles, trying hard to find the perilous.  They try hard to make themselves unprepared, open, desperate to vivify their minds and senses.  They make it only as far as Lake Tahoe and the nearby Donner Pass, where they do succeed in attracting horrors, certainly not the ones they had, despite themselves, anticipated. 

            But the nightmares they wrap round themselves also contain a good deal more than shivers, and the calls on their resolve demand more than simple courage (or foolhardy consistency).  Without knowing how it happened, they are drawn into a different strangeness, asking for and yet reluctant to receive something very much like love.

Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 

and Gossip Columnist.

Hi Folks,
   This week we heard from an old friend, Marie Tsuguda, the young author of one of the first books we published back in another millenium. She had discontinued it earlier, but now would like to put it up for sale again.

    Back then my big sister, Honeybear, was your bookstore cat and I was only  a gleam in some random feline person's eye. Anyway, Arline said this was a good book, very well written, and had a great message for anyone who might be interested in recovery. Better still, she still had the files, so it should be back in bookstores soon. 

    Here at home, it's Spring. The dafodills are up, the blue phlox is trying to eat up the front yard, and the Judas tree has buds all over. I snuck out for a good look when Roger opened the door to bring in the groceries. 

    Our own personal groundhog, who lives in the copse between our house and the Little Angels Day Care next door, had been out, seen NO shadow, and has been sprucing up the entrance to his den. Although the big sycamore out front where the big nest was is gone, the squirrels must have found another place to live, because they have been hanging around the walnut trees. Stupid creatures! There won't be any more nuts until August!

   When I was coming back inside, Roger and I saw a robin, and although there are still snowbirds around and the weather people are predicting there will be Another Big Snow before the seasons really change. Butt I don't Think So! To me, it looks like we are all ready for spring here.

    Roger says the bad weather will slide north of us again, because he sun is gaining strength and the ocean is getting warm offshore. He knows about stuff like that. And he's been playing and singing every day, so I guess maybe I'll forgive him for all those earlier remarks about my weight.

    As for the rest of you, PLEASE don't YOU forget to send me news of any personal appearances, signings and so on... so I'll have some gossip to pass on next week. 

Just send an e-mail to arline@mail.com with 

 "News for Jack" 

 in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up here for all the world to see!