Limerick Alley...my new podcast devoted to the Limericks you all have liked enough for me to jump in.

 My latest endeavor that I'm having a blast at and it's going swimmingly well is the creation of the podcast Limerick Alley. For longer then I want to reveal but trust me it's a long time, I've loved writing limericks. Luckily others like my limericks too and after Wordpress introduced me to converting posts to a podcast, I leaped in. 

I started Limerick Alley. It's a podcast dedicated to limericks. Want a chuckle?  A little compact one minute lyrical story? Then you'll like limericks. Check my podcast out and I hope you have fun with it. 

Limerick Alley

I Got Through It and Then I Got Through It

 

I started writing a new script yesterday which felt really good. A script request caught my eye and I have a story I think fits what they're looking for. I even have a deadline and that made me feel even better and that's probably tied to my old life that had tons of deadlines. I also sent out another script that a lot of people liked. It was a relief to bring everything back to normal. Back to the, I write and I wait, life. That's my normal.

This morning, I read an interview of a very successful screenwriter. It was a great read but it made my stomach churn. My ideal world is I write, I sell, I write more that's easier to get considered reads to sell and on and on it goes. I don't want another office job and he made it seem like that's part of this path. 

 I'm still waiting for final decisions and no one has passed on that script. That crazy reality put the brakes on my writing endeavor for longer then I care to admit to. I'm glad to get back to my norm or at least close to it. I don't want an office job but the reality is, I hope I get to find out how it really goes. I'm ready for anything and either way I'm sure it's a wild ride.

Goodbye 2020 and Hooray to 2021!

 

I know we all feel like the title to this post. Wow, what a year full of crazy it was! I look back and am pleased with my writing output and I'm still at it. Of course I am because if you've been paying attention to this blog at all you know that writing is a compulsion of mine.

I'm in flux right now since the feature script getting all the attention was written with a lot of my own pain inside of it, so it was particularly hard to write. I am not a fan of painful writing so I hope that's not the only path to selling scripts.  

Luckily I love writing fairy tales and I have an opportunity right now that is very juicy in that regard. I have a fairy tale trilogy that could go well beyond that. It's fun to write and I get depressed at every conclusion because I want to stay in that fairy tale land when it comes to writing. If you do something daily like I do where do you want to live? Fairy tale cuteness or pain and sadness? 

2020 gave me another published short which was wonderful and I look forward to it coming out in March 2021 in Common Tongue Magazine's first edition. When Lightening the Way was published Soft Cartel let me know it was peaking their hits to a level they investigated it trying to find out what was going on. That was very cool and my writing partner keeps bugging me to write that as a feature script. I might, but I have a lot of other projects. 

Also in 2020 a feature script, you know that one with all the pain in it, is in consideration with two movie production companies and one producer. I am hoping it's my breakthrough but again I have fear that what they will want in future scripts is more pain. Luckily I have a good opportunity at the same time on one of my fairy tales so maybe if that goes too I won't get pigeonholed into one thing when it comes to writing. That would be really rough too since I also love writing science fiction. 

Hey I also know my life may mean I only sell one, but that one they are all considering right now, I think if it gets made it's going to go very big. Let's just say I think we can all relate and visually it should be pretty stunning. 

Lastly, in 2020 I actually started winning at poker and literally won money in six different  games within a couple of weeks. That event caused a reaction from the platform I had the run of luck and it wasn't a good one unfortunately, even though I thought they were the champions of poker play. Oh well, so it goes, writing is my real passion and poker was my distraction between writing. 

So hope you feel good about some parts of 2020 because I do and I bet if you look for it you will find good things that happened in your life too this year. Like you, however, I've never been so ready to kick out this year to get to 2021. I am definitely going to celebrate the New Year! Let's all do that!

I'm Not Trusting Machines Anymore

 

I grew up in one of the generations where computers weren't there and then they were there. I've been an advocate of the whole project since I was first exposed to it all. I realize now that my faith in machines was over the top. I trusted that spell checks et al would catch every error especially since I had yet another program backing that up before I published, I felt confident everything was A+.

Yes, I did the manual visual critical edit but that was close in time to writing it and I know that I'm too close to it to be able to see the errors. My brain passes right over them like there's no flies on the canvas even if there are. 

Recently on a novel that got a lot of love across a ton of platforms online over the years also got a lot of "fix it" love to go with those glowing bravos. I wondered how could that be? I would peruse the novel, run a spell check again that said A+ and I couldn't understand it. 

Finally and recently I decided to sit down and edit that novel. Why? Because on a feature script that right now might actually have a shot at being made a read through revealed weird capital S's in odd places. I trusted that program too but I decided to sit down with that novel now because I realized I really can't trust machines the way I have been.

I've spent a week so far and I'm almost done but is it going to be perfect? I'm hoping so because after not reading that novel for years I think I got there, where it needs to be so the reader doesn't stub their toes on stones on the road of what they say is a great story. I want the full Bravo, I love that story too. 

So I'm not trusting machines anymore. I hope to be able to finish a novel, script and send it off to editors that happily wait to fix it. That's one of my future goals. For now, I have to rely on myself and machines but I am not trusting them as much anymore. 

I write on excited to put out the Second Edition of The Earthlings, soon. Thanks to everyone who told me about what their reader eyes saw and loved the story enough to save it. I think that's wonderful!

Another Short Story Is Being Published!

 Okay so I am a little behind the bell here. But this place is my quietest place when it comes to posts I do. It fired up just recently because I have a script that three movie production companies have given me the signal they dig it. That's catapulted me into another world that I am swimming around happily in. How could three dig it and not do it? I don't think that's the outcome on this one. They checked me out which cause the recent spikes on every one of my little writing hang outs online, hey that's fine, it's the world we're all in now. I'm a writer, they found that out. 😉😀

The other good news is I have another short story being published. It's a dark fantasy tale called Rebecca's Chest. It's being published by Common Tongue Magazine a publication dedicated to dark fantasy. I also got paid handsomely by them which I really appreciated. I found that out some time ago but I forgot to post that here. 

So here I am, writing, here, now and still. It's going slower right now because knowing that three different movie companies dig the script, that's news I never thought I'd get on any script. It doesn't negate being published for the second time on a short. I love that story and I'm super happy they picked me out of thousands of stories to put in their publication. 

So, bye for now, keep on writing everyone. Happy Holidays too!

A Halloween Limerick

 

A writer walked into a room,

Filled with witches holding brooms,

She said, "Hey! Do witches read?",

The witches all sneezed.

One witch exclaimed,

"Are you insane? 

We have no time,

For silly rhymes!"

"I don't write rhymes,

I write books of lore

You surely will adore!"

The witches heaved

Fell to their knees.

Bats began to fly,

The witches began to cry,

The writer sighed,

Left her book by their side,

And dried their crying eyes.

One witch grabbed the book,

Using a long hook,

She began to read,

Laughing she got off her knees,

Then turned into a spectacular beauty. 

She read the book to the others,

The other witches turned into,

her long lost brothers.

 

"My story was good you see,

Ended the curse of those evil bees,

Who turned you all into witches,

After you came back from the sea.

Now go buy a copy please".

 

What I've learned since I dropped everything to write..

 I've been a full time writer now of novels, scripts, short stories and even flash fiction for three years. Scripts for one year because this journey started with novels. 

It's a giant game of waiting for the break through because you need marketing money to promote indie novels. If you can't stand rejection and it breaks you into a million pieces get ready to take some Xanax or buy some therapy because this is a rocky ride of ups and downs and almost there moments.  This is wishing upon a star territory. If you think this is an easy road it's not, for anyone. Did you hear that? It's not, for anyone. 

What else have I learned? Forget critics to a degree. Some are evil bastards that hate everyone but some are real and want to help. First figure out if you can which one is giving you that feedback. I don't seek feedback or competition wins anymore I write scripts and novels and pitch them. 

Right now I am waiting on several decisions from big agents, movie producers and book agents that any sale would be that moment you aren't sure what you would do with. Screaming is likely part of it or wild laughter. Then it would be back to earth knowing that is only one step in many that has to happen to get onto a screen or bookshelves everywhere. 

I have thought about quitting but I write anyway and it never stops so there is no quitting. If you can quit you are better off then me, I think. I might change my mind about that if I make it. We shall see. 

 

One Wish granted....

 I am over the moon excited that I've finally climbed a big writer hill that I found out about yesterday.Make a wish then work on your dream because the only way it 100% for sure can't happen is if you do nothing at all to make it happen. On the other hand even when it's a million to one shot it can still happen if you try.

SUGAR HIGH... a cavity odyssey

Pic by StevePBon Pixabay.com

When I was a kid and I mean I was one real kiddo in my day and it was great. I started entrepreneurship early in life just for one thing and one thing only, candy. A little store very close to the little house I grew up in had plenty of it to fulfill my every candy desire. 

 

He had liquor and dirty magazines as well but I was interested in the candy aisle. I would buy that candy by the bagful; spend everything I had on it every time. Once my candy horde was almost finished, and that never took long, then I would do some other thing, to get more money for more candy.

 

They let kids run around free in those days, picking up odd jobs, collecting bottles they paid five cents a piece for and you could turn in at the same little store. We would take little red wagons filled with bottles and get the money for bags of candy.

 

I didn’t know I was getting a rush from the sugar, this was normal every day living, it became part of my biology. Life included candy and consequently life also included cavities.

 

I hated the dentist because that guy he would scream and yell at kids. I could hear kids freaking out just on that other side of that door that I had to go into next. That dentist never screamed at me though, I was one of his real cash cows. It was typical for me to have several cavities not just two or three. There were other kids I knew that beat my records.

 

I thought that was normal, seemed all those kids back then had the same thing going on. It never stood out that this wasn’t normal to have tons of cavities. Brush more they said but hey I brushed as a kid during all that candy time and I learned when I grew up what the real culprit of cavities was.

 

You are thinking now, well didn’t she listen to the teachers? I was a kiddo like I said and like most kids some things stick and some things don’t. I liked my life I wasn’t willing to even consider not being a candy girl.  Those memories remain the sweet innocent part of my life.

 

Eventually, I grew up as we all do and I actually stopped eating candy. My adult brain finally connected the dots. I noticed the lack of energy that lasted longer than the small burst I got from a sugar rush. I moved on from sugar to better things that gave me a lot of energy and no backlash of feeling tired out afterward. I stopped eating candy and I stopped having cavities.

 

I was shocked when the dentist first told me I had no cavities. What? How could this be, he must be lying to me. I am a young woman by this time and I have learned men sometimes have a problem when it comes to that group and they lie. But nope he wasn’t lying he showed me the x-rays of all clear.

 

Once I had children, when they were very young and before they entered the giant world of kindergarten where your control is first lost, I kept all sugar out of their diets. I mean I didn’t go nuts on it reading every label for it. I just didn’t give them candy. They didn’t get ice cream they didn’t candy suckers they didn’t get any mainstream sweets. I didn’t want my little kids to feel left out of the candy world of kids so I lied to them and told them that frozen yogurt was ice cream and they loved it.

 

They got as excited about that frozen yogurt as if it was real ice cream. Every sweet treat my little kids got they thought was a sweet candy, when it was actually a super good sweet tasting nutritious food. Of course when they started school they realized the great lie their mom had told them. But they didn’t have a developed sweet tooth now either. Though candy became part of their life, as it does for everyone, it was only around Halloween that we celebrated with gusto back then.

 

All of my kids are grown now and they are all health conscious and I get little credit for it. My youngest is married now with his own kiddos, well they are just babies, twins in fact. Yes I am proud thank you. His sweet wife told me he insists that real ice cream always be available in the freezer. We both laughed when she told me. But what they all realized is that what I did saved them all from cavities. Unlike me not one of them ever got a cavity and to this day, out of three kids, only one got one cavity. Food or should I say, candy for thought.

 

 

LACY...A Limerick

Oh me oh my,

Lacy cried and cried,

She wanted to die,

Because of that guy,

That poked out her eye,

How will I ever be the same?

Will anyone know my name?

Will it affect my fame?

Why am I maimed?

Lacy cried and cried,

Until she got off that ride,

Looked at her patch with pride,

Used it to get a new guy,

A new place up high,

Full of pride,

Until he poked out,

Her other eye.

pic from Gerd Altmann on pixabay.com

Laddy .... A Limerick

There was a bully name Laddy,

He always hated his daddy,

Who always called him fatty,

So Laddy ate his daddy.

 

After that he decided to go,

Into the basement below,

Covered up with hard packed snow,

So no one would know.

 

Laddy loved to smoke crack,

Get on a computer he previously hacked,

And began his attacks,

Of anyone that gave him any flack,

Had the nerve to talk back.

 

Laddy hacked the addresses of a few,

Started thinking about what he might do

For his ego that got bruised,

By those that refused,

That fought his lying rouse.

 

Years went by as Laddy typed,

Got famous in cancel culture hype,

Got paid for his gripes,

Even bought a bigger crack pipe.

 

More years went by,

Cancel culture died,

Laddy cried and cried,

And cried and cried.

 

They found Laddy years later,

Everyone remembered him as a hater,

Considered him a bastard traitor,

Threw his rotting corpse to the gaitor

That gaitor died minutes later.

 

 

A writer's update

It's Friday, my day off from the rigors of survival. It includes extraneous man made and not man made things. Don't worry I'm an old pro at it all. Writing full time on it, becoming that Paris street artist and betting your whole life on it, has been my life for years at this point.

Has it been worth it? Yes, the encouragement I've received from the "judges" of it all definitely are to blame if you want to hate on my work. It's been wild to say the least. I pour through too many piles of posts of other writers being cut to pieces while I accept rejections that include praises on my writing, ideas, the whole gig. It just hasn't jumped over the hurdle, it needs to, so it can be available to more people and that never before dreamed reality becomes reality.

I have no social agenda in my writing. I write and edit and write and edit etc until I decide it's fit for the public's eyes. I've heard the typo thing and frankly those that seek perfection will never feel satisfied by the beauty all around them. I try, but all the programs and everything else I do just doesn't get to perfection.I think nothing does unless you have a team of editors.

But the story is lost to those people so I try to get it there. But my path left novels and turned into a love for screenplay writing like a lightening bolt that I am now the servant to whatever purpose it may have. But no worries it's not bad because my stories are dark to light but hey I am a writer so what pops out isn't limited to anything. I've learned that. That's real.  

I am going a little nuts for now, waiting for big news that I don't now which way it will turn.  I know if it turns the right way my life will change for the better. But for now, I wait. It's a writer's life.

I'm still here....

I don't give this blog enough attention, sorry. But my writing craft is the focus and writing a blog entry isn't a high priority. Some say it should be, some say this, some say that and where I'm at is, it's about time management.

Sure I would love to come here daily, or at least regularly with this, that and the other but it just isn't in the cards of my time to get things done. I loved writing scripts so much I have quite a few already and even working right now on my third feature script. But I don't know if they will ever come alive, breathe beyond my disk drive, it's all a wait and see. I have only just begun.

I just started pitching executives and others in the movie industry. My first experience was recently and all I can say it was weird from beginning to end.  I thought it went great, the guy was laughing and seemed to be enjoying it all but he passed. I'm jumping back into that fire shortly with a new executive for my TV Comedy series script.

I also have a plan for Return to Limerick for next month. Hopefully it sends it on a track to get made into a movie.

Otherwise I'm still here. Thanks for visiting this little slice of me on the internet. Cheers!

HAPPY EASTER!

This cheery Easter Pic is by Jill Wellington on Pixabay

Got another review!

After a long while I signed into my author central page on Amazon and was surprised to discover that someone had posted a review on The Earthlings. Overall it was a good review, three stars and that I have learned is a very good review.

But something odd was said and it was about "typos". In fact, the review itself led off with the statement that there's a bunch of them. I have to wonder about that part because spell check in Word and Amazon's own spell, check says there are zero typos.

I do reviews on a script writing site and just today I saw a review on a script I reviewed, that ripped this script writer upside down and sideways on a script that maybe had two typos. They claimed in their rant there were 50+ but that would have meant every word was spelled wrong given the script itself was short.

In the beginning of putting myself out there as a writer with novels, short stories and now scripts the review thing was what was waited for like some nirvana water in the desert. Now, I don't wait for them at all but I was happy that the one I got, despite the typo mystery, was a good one.

Writing remains on fire!

So the horror didn't make it. But lately I've been rolling around the internet while I wrote my next and been hitting a ton of posts regarding scripts that didn't make it in a competition and are now in production because they found a talent manager/agent. Also got news from various sites that scripts were picked up that were posted on their sites. I did note they were all short scripts which to me fell in line with another poster's point that two set max short scripts are your best way into production as an unknown.

But for all it's worth I still love writing scripts at a level that I can't stop if I wanted to. I just finished a comedy for TV script and entered it into a competition. Soon as that happens it's "wonder if it's good enough" time. But as always I will take a brief brake to recharge and get back to writing another one.

The writing never stops but I took time on my break between scripts to update you all here. Well it's not a you all it's just a few of you. But I am not promoting anything as of late so it doesn't bother me.

It was a great birthday week but now I have to recover from it.

So I've started my next script and I also got news on one of the competitions I have scripts in right now. They didn't pick me and told me that I was in the wrong category basically. Okay so how did I know family flicks don't allow a bar scene and a corruption reference. When I looked at the quarter finalist list I knew what they meant. Okay more My Little Pony if I do another one of those. But that script is in another competition so it's in mix still and who knows. That competition isn't family it's animation but well, I submitted it under family. That was before I heard from the first one.

I have a horror up for results this week and Thursday. We shall see. But whatever happens writing never ends. As I said I started a new one.

I did have a great week partying it up for my birthday but I went too far and today, ugh, my stomach is feeling that week long fiesta. Today, I am actually looking forward to Monday.

Finished another feature screenplay..

Well everyone I just finished another feature screenplay and sent it off to a competition. I have three screenplays in four competitions now and keeping my fingers crossed. It will be a while before I find out results but I will start writing my next screenplay soon. My happiness is directly connected to writing so I can't stay away for long but breaks are necessary.

As to novels after realizing the very real connection between marketing money and results I decided to take my writing in another direction for now. I hate letting my books languish but my financial reality can't accommodate the marketing requirement. When and if that changes I will go back to it.  But I have to say I am loving writing screenplays and the opportunity to get a story onto a big screen is pretty motivating as well as dreamy. Grab the popcorn!

Love the pic and the credit for it is :  Johnny Lindner   Comfreak on pixabay.com

After all the writing this year....

I am on vacation. I wrote 4 novels, 33 short stories, 2 spec scripts, 1 short story script and a full feature script this year. Phew!

I am looking forward to next year. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all of you!

A Wonderful Editorial Review for Return To Limerick