Friday, November 8, 2013

Chronicles of Glovebox Gnome: Postus interruptus

Yesterday morning before we ventured out to make the 15-hour journey from "washington???" to "wait no california," I had this post almost completed, and then blammo! Out the power/Internet. You know, because the wind blew.

Current status is we're in Santo Nella, California, still a few hours away.  Glovebox will be submitting his report later. Yes, we will miss 'big announcements' and yes, we missed WoW Insider parties last night, but from the Twitter streams, tweets went from sobriety to not. 
Australia counter-point? We Yanks would know far, far less: this geographer got it right.
Okay, so I mentioned previously the opportunity to meet one of my favorite bloggers presented itself, Akabeko of the Red Cow Rise blog fame. We met in a hip little vegetarian-themed cafe (the one place in the state of Washington that does not sell coffee: but she was impressed by my adept skill of blending ginger tea with lemonade from the self-serve fountain). We didn't have any formal interview questions for one another, but our conversation provided rich insights organically. It was interesting to note many shared experiences in terms of writing, including acceptance (or rejection) of our creative passions by past paramours.

Ultimately, the gifts of our meeting included:

1. Acknowledgement that those in our lives who do not support our creative endeavors, but seek to sabotage them, need to be jettisoned immediately;
2. I have found some new and willing writing partners with her and Dahakha. Wait. Let me rephrase. I have found my real blogging version of Mr. Snerguls. (She volunteered you, Dah. Thanks!)

This is really big news.

Now Navimie and I do a lot of shared writing in terms of idea swapping: her stories are perfection. Mine, often, are not. I publish too fast, and have many bad writing habits. I don't revise enough. I don't let things "percolate." I create unrealistic deadlines and impulsively hit the 'go' button. Akabeko has offered to read my sh*t before I hit the publish button. She and Dahakha have a keen editorial eye, and understand the process of story-crafting better than the average bear. It's like having my own personal, virtual writing workshop again, but with the added bonus of writers who understand this genre. I have often been reluctant to share my Azerothian-bent tales with others for fear of the cocked-eyebrow of judgy-mcjudge-ness.

We (Azerothian reporters, bloggers, writers) hold a Smaug's treasure trove of writing resources and inspiration. I've put together a list of just a few:
  • Blog Azeroth
  • Writer's Write (South Africa)
  • Update: this is where my post dropped yesterday morning: all my links and thoughts went with it,  and are at home on the home computer. Bottom line: read. Read more. Write everything down. Keep journals, scraps, napkins, notebooks, etc.
And find some good, objective friends ready and willing to read your stuff for errors, confusion, etc.

See things a different way

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous8.11.13

    15 hours! OMG! I don't know why I thought it would be about the same as me driving to Jacksonville Florida, I guess I don't know my left coast geography, lol.

    That is so wonderful about Aka and Dahakah! And yes, people who aren't supportive just kick them to the curb ... go ahead kick them hard!

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  2. Anonymous8.11.13

    Must have been great to meet up with Aka. Hope the rest of your journey goes well and you get to meet up with more. I couldn't agree more with the non supportive types although the lurkers make me wonder sometimes too.

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  3. As a test, I had my 16yo son name the states of Australia. He knew Tasmania without pause. He was less sure about "West Oz","South Oz" and "North Oz" but was mostly correct. I couldn't convince him they were actually Swan River, Augusta and Victoria, but that did prompt him to say he thought Victoria was one of the others. He came up with New South East Oz and Barrier Reef Coast. I couldn't convince him the little coloured dot was another Territory.

    I think it was 10 minutes later that I realised I had agreed it was "New South East Australia". I'll pretend it was because I was savouring my pleasure in remembering "Swan River Colony" although I had almost called it "Swan Lake Colony".

    Note:I spent a few years with my Spell Check stuck on British/Canadian, which ruined my editing ability!

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    1. There is a map by a US person of Australia, and I think it basically says "things that will kill me." The same can be said of Texas. Nice job on the geography! I would be in the camp of "Navi lives here/things that will kill me/Nemo finds his dad."

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  4. Dahakha10.11.13

    Always happy to be of service.

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