November 4, 2011 by Pat Bean
Hogsback Ridge between Escalante and Boulder on Utah's Highway 12, often called America's most scenic road. -- Photo by Pat Bean
My Favorite Places
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument landscape -- Photo by Pat Bean
“I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.” – Richard Wright
NaNoWriMo Update .. 8,326 words
Sitting down in front of the computer for five straight hours today wasn’t going to happen. I was stiff from two hours of physical therapy yesterday to make my old broad body unstiff, particularly my neck and shoulders.
So I did my writing in bits and spurts. I got up to 2,000 new words by 4 p.m., after starting at 6 a.m. Did I mention I was still in my pajamas?
My main character is going to have a dog, and if there’s anything I know it’s a relationship one can have with a beloved pet. So today I wrote a lot about that, along with planting a first clue for my mystery. I’ve always hated it when you read a mystery and there are either no clues – or no red herrings.
Thankfully today, I had nowhere to go and my daughter’s big house al to myself, well except for three dogs, one cat that needs insulin shots twice and day and three aquariums full of fish.
. It also showed me, however, that I tend to get more done on the days I have to do more. I’m finding this challenge very interesting.
Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged america's scenic roads, grand staircase-escalante, Highway 12, nanowrimo2011, pat bean, postaday2011, Utah, writing | 4 Comments »
November 3, 2011 by Pat Bean
I just spent one morning in Maine's Scarborough Marsh, but it was long enough for me to fall in love with its landscape. -- Photo by Pat Bean
My Favorite Places
It was fall when I discovered the Maine marsh -- Photo by Pat Bean
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller
NaNoWriMo Update – 6,268 words
I’m trying not to go back and edit as I go, but old habits are hard to overcome. The red-line that my writing program puts under misspelled words mostly takes care of spelling mishaps and typos, but what I’m finding I’m doing most is skipping words. I see them in my head as I want to write them and the fingers often assume they are already on the page. I’ve always done this, but usually catch the mistake before I move on. You don’t get 1,500-2,500 words written quickly enough this way, however.
My writing is also all over the place with verb tenses. I switch them way too often, and making them all agree is another thing I do while editing as I go. Writing so fast is really getting on my nerves, I must say.
Today was the day the dead body appeared in my story, and a new character suddenly introduced himself. I now think I need a character chart to keep all the names and descriptions of them straight. I found I had to go back to discover the name of the husband of one of the characters. I sometimes have problems keeping names straight when I’m reading the books of other authors. I didn’t know I would suffer the same thing with my own book.
Like yesterday, it took me five hours, with a couple of short breaks, to write 2,500 words.
Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing | Tagged Maine, mysteries, nonowrimo2011, pat bean, postaday2011, Scarborough Marsh | 5 Comments »
November 2, 2011 by Pat Bean
An ideal spot at the RV park where I stayed for gazing out over the water and watching birds on Chincoteague Island. -- Photo by Pat Bean
One of the Assateague horses, a rare black and white, which I saw from a boat. Dogs weren't allowed on Assateague Island. -- Photo by Pat Bean
My Favorite Places
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.” John Donne
NaNoWriMo Update – 3,736 words.
I was at the computer at 6 a.m. this morning and got right at it. No checking e-mail, no stalling until I had just about 2,500 words written. It was 11 a.m. when the goal was met.
I always write better and faster in the mornings. In order to overcome my need to check out every fact I adopted the procedure of highlighting anything that needed to be verified or researched (like actually how to you clean a fish you’ve caught) for checking later, perhaps even after the story has been told.
I’m trying to keep the story moving, and already I’m surprised what I’m learning about my characters. Now I need to go stretch my neck and back. Ouch!
How’s everyone else coming along?
Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing | Tagged Assateague, Chincoteague, islands, nanowrimo2011, novel writing, pat bean, postaday2011 | 1 Comment »
November 1, 2011 by Pat Bean
New Hampshire's Franconia Notch Flume Gorge -- Photo by Pat Bean
My Favorite Places: Franconia Notch
Waterfall at the top of the gorge -- Photo by Pat Bean
“How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you – you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences – like rags and shreds of your very life.” ~Katherine Mansfield
NaNoWriMo Update
Things didn’t quite go as planned today. I didn’t get home from my doctor’s appointment until 11 a.m. And at 1 p.m. I went to physical therapy, which the doctor prescribed for the neck pain I’ve been having. It was almost 4 p.m. before I got home from that.
But, despite not having as much time as I wanted in which to write on this first NaNo day, I got 1,307 words written. Nothing is on my schedule for tomorrow so I plan on doing better.
Meanwhile, I’m hoping my night-time thoughts and dreams will be filling in a few more blanks in my holey story. How’s everybody else out there doing?
Posted in Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Nature, Writing | Tagged Franconia Notch, nanowrimo, New Hampshire, pat bean, postaday2011 | 4 Comments »
October 31, 2011 by Pat Bean
I took this photo of the train I was riding on as it went about a bend on the journey through Royal Gorge. -- Photo by Pat Bean
My Favorite Places: Royal Gorge
Looking up at the span across the gorge from river level. -- Photo by Pat Bean
“I feel as though I have lived many lives, experienced the heights and depths of each and like the waves of the ocean, never known rest. Throughout the years, I have looked always for the unusual, for the wonderful, for the mysteries at the heart of life. – Leni Riefenstahl
NaNoWriMo Update
Still thinking, with trepidation, about the novel I will start tomorrow. My night-time thoughts solved one problem that’s been worrying me. I came up with a motive for one of the characters to approach my main character.
Looking down on the Arkansas River from the top of Royal Gorge -- Wikipedia photo
It’s a little thing, but it’s part of the opening scene that still exists only in my head. And at least I now feel more confident about that first blank page.
I’m worried, however, because mornings are my best time for writing and I have a doctor’s appointment at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow. The visit has been planned for a month, and since I only have a short time before I’m off on the road again, I have to keep it.
In the past, I’ve let other plans like this keep me from even starting the challenge. So I’m almost glad that I will be facing this simple one on the very first day. It should help me know I can overcome interruptions – just like solving the first travel difficulty in my RV gave me confidence that I could handle anything the road threw at me.
Is this bravado speaking. Yup! But I’m depending on it to help pull me through the next 30 days and 50,000 words.
Posted in Nature, Travel, Writing | Tagged Arkansas River, bravado, Colorado, nanowrimo, pat bean, postaday2011, royal gorge | 6 Comments »
October 30, 2011 by Pat Bean
Three things can not be hidden long: The sun, the moon, and the truth.” Buddha
A wide awake cub hidden among the foliage near a half-dozen other cubs and their mammas, all fast asleep in the heat of the noon day sun. --Photo by Kim Perrin
Posted in Nature, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge | Tagged buddha, lions, pat bean, weekly photo challenge: Hidden | 7 Comments »
October 30, 2011 by Pat Bean
Palo Duro Canyon, located south of Amarillo, Texas, is awesome, but travelers don't have a clue until they get to the rim and look down. -- Photo by Pat Bean
My Favorite Places
A landscape carved by water and wind. -- Photo by Pat bean
“Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
NaNoWriMo Update
One Day, 14 hours, 20 minutes – and counting down
In a comment I made on a blog this morning – Galen Leeds Photography http://tinyurl.com/3bakmuv – I meant to tell the author to keep crossing “roads” to take pictures. Instead I wrote, and posted before I proofed – keep crossing “words.”
I guess I have NaNoWriMo on the brain. Hopefully that’s a good sign.
I read a quote this morning that inspired me for the coming challenge: “Having a dream to chase is what makes life worth living.” I’m not sure who said it, but it spoke to me. As does Helen Reddy when she tells me I “can do anything.”
What inspires you?
Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing | Tagged helen reddy, inspiration, nanowrimo, Palo Duro Canyon, pat bean, postaday2011, Texas, writing | 1 Comment »
October 29, 2011 by Pat Bean
Everyone should visit Niagara Falls at least once -- even if it's not on their honeymoon. -- Photo by Pat Bean They provided us with yellow raincoats to keep us dry, but when one walks on the storm deck right below the falls, a raincoat is worthless. -- Photo by Pat Bean
My Favorite Places
“All rivers, even the most dazzling, those that catch the sun in their course … go down to the ocean and drown. And life awaits man as the sea awaits the river.” – Simone Schwarz-Bart
NaNoWri Mo Update
2 days, 10 hours, 25 minutes – and still counting — to go
I’ve started going to bed thinking about the novel I will be writing in November, hoping inspiration about the proposed book will invade my dreams.
Last night it worked, although it was while I was still lying awake and not yet into dreamland. I thought of a new twist for the mystery that makes logical sense to the plot.
Of course then it took hours, or so it seemed, before I made it into dreamland. And then the only thing I dreamt about was silly stuff, like climbing a tree in search of a fish and coming face to face with a grizzly bear and then watching it turn into a stuffed teddy bear.
Does anyone else have such weird dreams?
Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel | Tagged dreams, nanowrimo, niagara falls, pat bean, postaday2011 | 11 Comments »
October 28, 2011 by Pat Bean
Grotto Geyser, located on the walk to Morning Glory Pool at Yellowstone National Park. -- Photo by Pat Bean
Lewis Falls is always one of the first places I stop when I enter Yellowstone from the south entrance. -- Photo by Pat Bean
My Favorite Places
“It’s my job to invite all of you to come to Wyoming and Yellowstone Park where we hope you get a glimpse of the grizzly. We hope you do not have an encounter with the grizzly.” – Mike Enzi
NaNoWriMo Update
My goal yesterday was to use my drive time to Dallas from Lake Jackson to think about my plot for my November novel writing experiment.
North of Houston, I stopped at a Flying J to dump my holding tank. Not only were the RV dumping spots full – I’m used to this task, which I usually do when I traveling between the two cities, taking a half hour – but when I learned that the once RV-friendly service station was charging $10 to dump, I drove on without waiting.
I might have paid $5, but certainly not $10 for my little 20-gallon holding tank. Most RVs have at least 40 gallon tanks. And no longer will I seek out Flying J’s to get gas. I felt the cost was an insult – and I’m still pissed. .
My outrage interrupted my head-plotting for the next few miles, and then I detoured off Interstate 45 – I hate driving on freeways – at Huntsville and took highways 19 and 175 the rest of the way into Dallas.
It was the first time I had gone this route so I mostly just watched the scenery go past.
The little plotting I did for the upcoming challenge involved thinking about the Gulf Coast landscape, which will be the setting for my yet as unnamed mystery.
I drove this landscape recently, between Surfside and Galveston, to get a feel for it. But my only thoughts on the book this day were that the endangered Ridley sea turtle and offshore oil spills might make good conversation fillers.
Sure hope, as past NaNo participants have said, that the characters take charge of the plot once the writing begins. Meanwhile, I still have to find a place to dump.
Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel | Tagged flying j, noanowritmo, offshore oil spills, pat bean, postaday2011, ridley sea turtle, RV travel, Yellowstone | 4 Comments »
October 27, 2011 by Pat Bean
Now why would anyone want to call this landscape the badlands. Awesome lands is what I would call this view located in the Badlands National Park.
The area in the center of this photo, taken in Badlands National Park, was once a jungle. -- Photo by Pat Bean
My Favorite Places
For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment, but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life – the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.” – Claude Monet
NaNoWri Mo Update
I’ve decided that I will start each November novel writing day with what’s long been my favorite song. It’s an oldie, but goodie that first topped the Billboard Chart back in 1972. It got me through many a tough day of working and raising children at the same time. The lyrics tell me “I can do anything.”
I hope that includes writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.
I am Woman, Hear Me Roar
“I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an’ pretend
’cause I’ve heard it all before
And I’ve been down there on the floor
No one’s ever gonna keep me down again
You can bend but never break me
’cause it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
And I come back even stronger
Not a novice any longer
’cause you’ve deepened the conviction in my soul
I am woman watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my lovin’ arms across the land
But I’m still an embryo
With a long long way to go
Until I make my brother understand
Oh yes I am wise
But it’s wisdom born of pain
Yes, I’ve paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to I can do anything
I am strong
I am invincible
I am woman”
— Helen Reddy and Ray Burton
Posted in Travel, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged badlands national park, helen reddy, I am woman, Monet, nanowrimo, pat bean, postaday2011, writing | 3 Comments »
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