Distracting Research by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Time is running out, and I am way behind in my writing this month. I’d like to say my transportation issues are what is causing me to be so far behind on Nano but the truth is it's still social media. Really need to stop scrolling through the stories on Facebook.

I’ve read so much about rude people, entitled people, and dumb people and it totally surprises there are so many stories like this.

I was just reading a story about a guy who helpfully raised his hand so the witness could identify him! And that wasn’t even the dumbest story in the post. And some of the "rude people" stories were so outrageous I wondered how they could keep their jobs, but then in some of those the employees did lose their jobs, just not all, in most of them, they only lost a customer.

And that doesn’t even come to the entitled people.

I mean I’ve read stories where these insane people think they can claim to know the owner of some business to get away with all sorts of shenanigans, but the funniest ones are when they claim to know the owner and they are speaking to the owner! Though I read one where the business was owned by three siblings, and one customer claimed to know the oldest of the three and even used his first name in the claim, but the next second one of the sibling owners walk past and the customer says hi to him calling him by the younger brother’s name – it was the elder brother.

I read some were about the customers claiming to be a wife, or some other family of the owner while talking to an actual relative to the owner, but the best one was when a guy tried to claim to be the owner’s favorite grandnephew, he knew the name and everything.

Only two problems. The owner’s oldest (and favorite) grandnephew was in his late teens but the guy making the claim was clearly closer to thirty. And the second problem? That idiot was talking to the owner of the identity he'd claimed as his. The kid had a name tag on and everything.

One story had a woman claiming to be the wife of the owner. The so-called “mere” employee she claimed she was going to get fired stared at her and said, “That’s funny; you don’t look like Mom.”

I mean really, how can dumb can you get? Claiming to know people you don’t know! Things like that can be proven.

I read one where the customer wreaked some havoc and then claimed the owner would believe him, a supposed best bud, over some mere employee and the employee was going get fired. The so-called employee turned and called into the next room and said, “Hey, Dad, you want to come out here and hear this customer’s complaint?”

That’s even better than all the various stories I’ve read where disgruntled customers go into a tirade demanding to speak to the manager, only to have the person they are ranting at, give the fool some version of, “You’re speaking to him.”

But the one I really liked was the kid who, in response to a request for the manager, said, “Sure, I’ll go get the manager on duty,” then walked into the other room, turned around, and came back out and asked the ranting customer, “How can I help you?”

Cute.

The best part was the customer had been calling the kid all sorts of names, mostly deriding her about being female, and that manager would put her in her place. Yeah, right.

Like the grandmother arguing with the manager (name tag indicating that and all) and asking a nearby employee to please go get her boss. The said employee pointed to the person she was railing at. The grandmother refused to believe a person of color could be the manager and demanded to speak to another manager in the place.

The only other manager on duty that day was also a person of color.

I admit I got hooked on these stories a few months ago when I was doing some research to be sure the antics of the “Karyn” in one of my stories weren’t unbelievably over the top. Folks, I had to amp it up, because I wasn’t even close! Not by a long shot!

But I keep reading to find more fodder for my story. Except it's not the one I’m working on!

I really need to work on this new one. And I hate the idea of not finishing but it looks like I may not finish this year. I’ll keep plugging away, though I clearly will not be done by Thanksgiving, not a prayer.

Happy writing everyone!

Nano and Me by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

Here it is October 26 and Nano is less than a week away, and I have no idea what I’m going write this year.

Oh, I have a character, but that’s about all. I have no idea what sort of story this will be, and I don’t have an outline. Okay, I usually don’t have an outline, but I also usually have more than just a character in my head by this time too.

Actually, I usually have a bit of an outline in my head but not written down before I start any project. I mean I do know things likes and dislikes of the characters, what in general is going to happen. I can think of lots of times I’ve asked for help brainstorming and told the person helping me their ideas won’t work because of some reason I already had in the story that I hadn’t written down yet. So, in essence, I outline in my mind and rarely write it down.

But this year, I think I’ve spent far too much time editing my epic sci-fi to be thinking about something new. And then there is the issue of how many novels I’ve started and never finished. Some I just can’t seem to think of something more to add, others I have ideas right up until I open the manuscript to start writing then my mind goes blank.

I’m thinking that the ones I can’t think of more to add to I need to scrap. Though I am not sure about even that. A few might even count as novellas if I just had a satisfying ending. Some others have clear skips in the storyline that need filling in, and I keep drawing a blank on just how to write those scenes.

Actually, I have trouble with any story where I skipped around. If I manage to write sequentially, I am more likely to finish it. This really bothers me because I know of writers who do skip around during the rough draft. They write what scene comes to mind at the moment then when they edit, they move the scenes around.

I can’t seem to master that. I am trying. I actually have two stories that I can think of where I have been adding scenes into the middle of them during edits.

Actually, on both of them my rough draft was more like an exceptionally long synopsis: boring and telling. I have been going back and not just adding detail but showing the story.

If I think about it, all my rough drafts fall into that category. I have to work pretty hard to show the story. Show don’t Tell is something I have always had issues with, so maybe I need more practice on that.

On another note, this will be my 21^st Nano. I can hardly believe it’s been that long, but my first Nano was in 2001 and here it is 2022. I am officially the old pro in my group.

In fact, back on the 15^th, my group had their Preptober meeting, and one of the ladies who attended mentioned this was her first official Nano, and that she wasn’t sure if she could manage it, which prompted a brief discussion on who had done it the longest, which ended up being me. Everyone else, including our two leaders, started participating after me.

There wasn’t even a local group when I first started. I did the first couple of Nanos without a single write-in or group get-together. And even then, the lady who organized our first write-ins has since dropped out because she was too busy.

And I know one writer who only participated a few times, even though she still writes, during the winter, when there isn’t a whole lot to do around her farm. She’s one busy lady.

Actually, not too long ago, I was talking to a friend and happened to mention I know a local published author, and even mentioned that her first book was “A Monster Like Me” and the person I was talking to freaked at the idea I knew the author. She loves the book, and she asked me if I could manage to get her copy autographed. I mentioned the author’s connection to a locally well-known farm.

The person I was talking to hadn’t realized she’d met the author at the farmer’s market! It had never dawned on her that the author was even local let alone that I might know the woman.

And for those of you who don’t know, the author is Wendy Swore.

Anyway, are any of you doing Nano this year? If so let me know. I’d like to know what you are writing and how you are doing on it.

Happy writing everyone, and good luck on Nano!

My Age and Nano by Bonnie Le Hamitlon

 

How young do I look? I am serious here; how young do I look to you?

I’m asking because the other night I ended up taking my sister-in-law to the emergency room. Now, you need to know that my sister-in-law is only about three months younger than me and Konnie’s big sister, Jacki, AKA Dictionary. They were born the same year.

So, I took my sister-in-law, Shirley, to the ER the other day because she’d taken a fall (yes again) and passed out for a time. And this happened to me.

I had helped Shirley inside at the door, then went to park my car, when I joined her at the registration desk, the lady there glanced my way and asked Shirley if I was her daughter!

I said, “Come on, I don’t look that young, do I?”

This lady excused her faux pas because the masks we had to wear hid tons.

I simply pointed out that Shirley wasn’t old enough to be my mother.

But that wasn’t the last of it. Once we got to the exam room (and could take off our masks) the nurse walked in, glanced at me, and asked Shirley if I was her daughter.

Now come on! I do not look that young!

Yes, my hair was in a ponytail, just as it is in the picture above, but I have definitely aged over the years, just like everyone does. Okay, so I don’t show my age as much as others do, but that is just ridiculous.

Though I admit it isn’t the first time someone has considered me the daughter of the woman I was with when the woman I was with was only a year older than me.

The first time it happened, I was in Downtown I.F. with Jacki, and she ran into someone from her past, they spent several minutes catching up, then that person asked if I was Jacki’s daughter. Boy was Jacki mad!

Which seemed funny, since when Jacki was in her mid-teens, she’d been in downtown Poky with our mother, and they ran into someone our mother knew from work, that someone asked if Jacki was our mother’s sister.

Jacki had felt it was cool that an adult thought she was an adult too.

It had never once dawned on Jacki that looking older than you are at fourteen or fifteen usually means that you’re going to look older than you are at forty plus. (At this point she is now sixty.)

On the other hand, Konnie and I always could pass for younger than we are, which frankly came in handy being behind in school. But even still, our junior year, after moving to Tacoma Washington, I had someone think I was still in junior high!

Okay, I admit, it was January, and I did have my warm enough for Idaho winter's coat on, so that did cover my build, but still, I can’t possibly look that young! I was eighteen back then, not fourteen.

But over the years few people have ever guessed my age correctly.

There was once a lady who came within five years of my age, but she admitted she guessed higher than she normally would have guessed because I was there (this happened at Lagoon, which is a theme park near Salt Lake City back before I got married) with a bunch of clear young adults.

The people in my group ranged in age from pushing thirty to barely twenty-one, and I was not the youngest one there, I was in fact twenty-three.

The lady said I had been there in a group that was a mix of ages, she’d have assumed a “family outing” and guessed me to be a younger teen than what she had guessed.

I wasn’t even a teen!

I can think of plenty of other instances where people had my age all wrong.

I once mentioned my husband went to high school with my youngest uncle, and the lady I was speaking to said, “I thought he was quite a bit older than you!”

There was another lady present for that interchange whose husband is ten years older than her; Tom wasn’t even four years old when I was born, at least not quite. His birthday is in August. He’s not that much older than me, but then neither was my uncle. He was five when Konnie and I were born.

And I can’t tell you how many times someone has been shocked when I revealed my age! And that was even recently.

So anyway, how old do I look?

Happy writing everyone!

PS. I did finish Nano this past Saturday. How did the rest of you do?

Nano and Other Things by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

As you know, this is November, better known to writers around the world as Nano. I am yet again trying to accomplish this challenge. For those of you who haven’t heard of National Novel Writer’s Month (better known as Nano) it is a challenge to write fifty thousand new words toward a new novel in the month of November.

It is a challenge, especially when you haven’t been writing regularly in the months leading up to this, but I did have an excuse most of the time. Not just my work schedule, but my old computer dying on me last month.

(Yes, folks, I have a new computer. Thankfully.)

Its nice that this computer will work with me, instead of fighting me. With my old computer, I had to hit buttons several times for it to do anything  at all, and it would take multiple times to highlight any text so I could copy it. (Let alone it wouldn’t highlight all of what I needed.) I was constantly taking longer just to get my post from word to our blogsite than to write it and that was driving me crazy, but I was trying to make do with it, because I didn’t want to spend any extra money right now.

In the end I didn’t have choice.

I needed a working computer.

And this one is fantastic!

Would you believe I can start to type some phrases and longer words and my computer will, on its own, fill in the rest. I just hit the tab key when it does that for me to skip to the next word. I’ve never seen anything like it before, but its great. Some of the longer words, I don’t need to try to remember how to spell it, the computer will do it for me!

On another note, I am doing great on the Nano. I reached the halfway point a few days ago and am on track to finish early (per my usual).

Of course, I have had some extra time on my hands since I stopped working at DI at the end of last month but the new program, I applied for has yet to place me in a position. So, I’ve all day to waste and I promise, while I am doing well with my writing, my screen time on my phone is way up too.

I really need to curb that.

Also need to wrap what Christmas presents I do have, figure out what I still need, and get those gifts going out of town shipped this month.

Does anyone have gift ideas for a few of the men on my list?

If it were Tom, I could manage. Mostly because he was good about giving me a wish list. But also because I have a knack for seeing things someone I know would love and, well, I think about that person. So, if I think about that person, it’s a great gift for them.

I just wish it would happen more often with men like my one sister-in-law’s husband, Claire’s husband, and well, Konnie’s husband and one son. The other one I hope I finally picked the right gift for him. I did think about him when I saw it. So, that is a good sign.

And it would be nice if I were better at finishing projects, because I did start a gift for Konnie’s husband a couple of years ago and I still haven’t finished it. Yeah, that’s me, started but never finished. Is it any wonder I have so many more unfinished WIPs and only a handful of finished WIPs?

I’m counting myself lucky I actually got to “the end” as many times as I have. By the way, I believe my number of finished WIPs is six, but don’t quote me on that, I’m not looking at my list and for once my computer isn’t helping me.

I’ll figure it out, new system and all.

And I would write more right now, but I do have other things to do. Like write my newest WIP.

Are you doing Nano this year?

If so, comment your username on the Nano site and I’ll make you one of my buddies.

My username is FaithfullSpirit2. Look me up.

Happy writing, everyone!

Nano and Covid by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Nano (National Novel Writers Month) is finally here, and I finally have a brand-new computer! Yeah!

And I’m sure Konnie is cheering too. I can post this week for a change.

I can also access my notes and get to work on my Nano writing, which is even better. I have been stir-crazy this last week or so because I couldn’t so much as edit my sci-fi let alone prepare for Nano.

I might have been able to work on something, if I had hardcopy notes, but guess what, I didn’t. It’s way easier to type than to write longhand.

I’m so glad I finally have my new computer.

I just wish we could gather in person! I’m tired of only meeting on Zoom.

In-person is a lot more fun, but I guess I can put up with one more year of keeping my distance. After all, I do know Covid is real. I’ve lost family to it. The most recent was a week ago when an uncle of ours, and his wife both died of Covid.

Konnie called to let me know while I was shall we say, “otherwise occupied.”

When I noticed I missed a call from her, I called her and asked her why she was calling me so early in the morning.

Honestly, I should have realized it wasn’t good news.

Because of that call, I was running late for work, and then when I was finally on the road, I looked ahead to see a train blocking my path. For nearly a year I was working at DI (Deseret Industries) and I crossed those tracks every working day of that time both going to work and returning home. Never had I seen a train in all that time and now on the day I was running late, there’s a train!

I was thinking I’d have to call in and let them know how close I was (Close as in about a block away on the wrong side of the tracks.) and why I was going to be late when the train finally came to an end.

And the only reason I managed to clock in on time is that they give you a three-minute leeway. It was precisely 10:03 when I finally clocked in. My usual is to be three minutes early.

Not a good start.

At one point during the day, one of the other supervisors came into the area where I worked, and he didn’t seem all that happy, so I asked him how he was. He answered he was fine, then asked me how I was.

I let him know I wasn’t having a good day and even mentioned my uncle and aunt who had died the night before.

The supervisor immediately asked if they were from Pocatello, which they were, and he asked because a couple in the ward of one of the other supervisors had died of Covid the day before, just like my relatives.

Well, I have seen them on occasion, but I’ve never been to their place, I didn’t know what part of town they lived in. He asked me their names and went to find out who the other supervisor had lost.

Turns out, it was my uncle and aunt.

The other supervisor came by asking how I was related and asking about their kids and if they had grandkids, and I hadn’t seen the kids with spouses or children when I last saw them at our older aunt’s funeral.

But it gets worse, my supervisor came up to me after hearing about my loss and said, “He didn’t seem that old to me.”

Yeah, she knew him.

So, I spent most of the day talking to the bosses about my uncle and his wife, and about the fact that he was only five when Konnie and I were born.

Though this time it didn’t come up that he went to school with my husband, a fact which someone once remarked, “I thought he was quite a bit older than you.”

Excuse me? I’ve seen larger age gaps, so not even four years doesn’t seem all that much to me. I know couples who had ten or more years of age gaps. Starting with our father, whose second wife was ten years younger than him, and ten years older than Konnie and me.

And now I need to get going on my writing my Nano project! Are you doing Nano? What is your project? Mine is a romance, again. My usual.

Look me up on the Nano site. I am FaithfullSpirit2 on there.

Happy writing everyone and good luck with Nano!