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Posts Tagged ‘postaday2011’

Scarborough Marsh and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , on November 3, 2011| 5 Comments »

 

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.

 

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Chincoteague Island and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on November 2, 2011| 1 Comment »

  

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?

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New Hampshire and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Nature, Writing, tagged , , , , on November 1, 2011| 4 Comments »

 

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?

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Royal Gorge, Colorado, and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on October 31, 2011| 6 Comments »

 

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.

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Palo Duro Canyon and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 30, 2011| 1 Comment »

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?

 

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Niagara Falls and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , on October 29, 2011| 11 Comments »

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?

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Yellowstone and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , on October 28, 2011| 4 Comments »

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.

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South Dakota’s Badlands

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 27, 2011| 3 Comments »

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

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Gearing Up for NaNoWriMo

Posted in Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , on October 26, 2011| 9 Comments »

“Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” – M. Scott Peck

The best way to start any day is with an awesome sunrise, such as this one that I took in Harker Heights, Texas -- Photo by Pat Bean

Travels With Maggie

Most mornings I start my day the exact same way. I awake with the sun, get up, fix coffee, catch up on my e-mail, savor my cream-laced coffee, look at the landscape outside my RV window and write my daily blog. At some point during this process, I take a break and walk my canine traveling companion, Maggie.

Many days, since unlike me Maggie likes to sleep in, I’ve already finished my blog before we go for our walk. My binoculars are usually around my neck and my camera is in my pocket for it’s usually on such walks that I get inspiration for my blogs.

This is the look Maggie gives me when she finally wakes up and has decided it's time for me to take her for a walk. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Then it’s back to my RV for some more writing – or procrastinating to write, which is just as likely.

Still, it’s fair to say that most of my day is spent in front of my computer – and that’s going to be even fairer to say in November since I’ve signed up to for NaNoWriMo. This is the abbreviated way of saying National Novel Writing Month, which has been held every year since 1999. It started with 21 participants and last year had over 200,000.

The goal is to write a novel in one month. Actually it’s to write a terrible novel of 50,000 words between Nov. 1 and Nov 30. The exercise is supposed to help increase productivity and halt a writer’s obsession with spending hours on making sure every sentence is perfect before going on to the next, to which I plead guilty.

I’ve signed up for the event quite a few times, but that procrastination addiction of mine won the month. I’ve signed up again this year – but this year I intend to win. My advantage is that this year I’m telling everyone what I’m doing in hopes that my pride will not let me down.

My goal is to write 2,500 words a day for six days a week, and then excuse myself from even signing on to my computer for one day a week. I figure I’ll need that one day to keep my sanity. I’ve been thinking I needed that even before I committed to NaNoWriMo. 

To give myself a few days of extra time to think about characters, setting and plot for the AWFUL mystery I plan to write, beginning tomorrow I’m simply going to post photos of some of  the best places I’ve visited over the past seven years of my travels with Maggie. I mean I’ve come too far meeting the daily blogging challenge to not make it to the end.

Hopefully my commitment to the NaNoWriMo challenge will also make it to the end. I’ll keep you up to date with its progress on my blog. Wish me luck.

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Himalayan Snowcocks and the Ruby Mountains

Posted in Birds, Journeys, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 25, 2011| 9 Comments »

 “My favorite weather is bird-chirping weather.” Terri Guillemets

Himalayan snowcock -- Wikipedia photo

Chasing Birds

While the recently released movie, “The Big Year,” hasn’t been a top box-office hit, I thought it was a great film. Of course I’m a passionate birder and could relate to the chase to be best North American Birder of the Year.

The record number of species seen between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, by the way, is 745 species. I won’t tell you who holds the title, however, because that might spoil the movie for one of my readers who hasn’t yet seen it.

One of the scenes in the film, which shows just how crazy we birders can get, depicts a wild helicopter chase of Himalayan snowcocks in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains.

Chukar on Antelope Island ... Photo by Pat Bean

Boy I wish I had such a conveyance at my convenience. I’ve never seen this pheasant species, and these days am not up to the rough hike, which unless one is extra lucky, is the most likely way of spotting one.

I may still give it a try next year, however. Like a lot of other birders, “The Big Year” inspired me to step up my birding game. And my curiosity about snowcocks inspired me to see what I could find out about these birds. The Internet, which I have come to love, turned up a couple of interesting blogs from birders who have seen the Himalayan snowcocks in the Ruby Mountains.

I noticed, when looking at pictures of the birds on a couple of Web sites – http://tinyurl.com/3uya55p and http://tinyurl.com/3w6edbx– that the snowcocks look a lot like the chukars I have seen on Antelope Island in Utah’s Great Salt Lake.

The chukar, however, is not a difficult bird to add to one’s life list. It can be seen in at least nine western states, whereas the snowcock can only be found on this continent in the Ruby Mountains. And it wouldn’t even be there except that Nevada Fish and Game thought the bird would be a good game bird for hunters – and in the 1960s, transplanted about 200 of them there from Pakistan.

There may be 500 or more of the birds today roaming around the mountains near Wells, Nevada. Yes, I am for sure going to have to visit the Ruby Mountains soon. The snowcocks are calling to me.

 

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