Z is for Zenith

In general terms, the zenith is the direction pointing directly "above" a particular location; that is, it is one of two vertical directions at the location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat surface there. The concept of "above" is more specifically defined in astronomy, geophysics and related sciences (e.g., meteorology) as the vertical direction opposite to the net gravitational force at a given location. The opposite direction, i.e. the direction of the gravitational force is called the nadir. The term zenith also refers to the highest point reached by a celestial body during its apparent orbit around a given point of observation. This sense of the word is often used to describe the location of the Sun, but it is only technically accurate for one latitude at a time and only possible at the low latitudes.

Strictly speaking, the zenith is only approximately contained in the local meridian plane because the latter is defined in terms of the rotational characteristics of the celestial body, not in terms of its gravitational field. The two coincide only for a perfectly rotationally symmetric body. On Earth, the axis of rotation is not fixed with respect to the planet (for example due to constant displacements of its fluid components) so that the local vertical direction, as defined by the gravity field, is itself changing direction in time (for instance due to lunar and solar tides).

____________________

Okay, so in plain terms (and this definition came from that fountain of all internet knowledge...WIKIPEDIA), if something is at its zenith it's straight overhead.  So I suppose that's a good choice of name for the two flagships of one of my fleets in one of my sci fi series.  The Zenith and the Zenith II are Captain Jaspen's "babies".  They are his whole reason for existing - or so he tells everyone.  When the Zenith gets destroyed, Jaspen refuses to be relegated to a small battle cruiser.  He wants his big ass ship back.  So he contracts with his father - the whole family is into R&D and engineering - to make him a better fleet flagship.

He does, and Jaspen gets the Zenith II.  Jaspen is thrilled with his new toy and immediately goes out into the war zone to break it in.  Well, he needed to get back out there because he was the commander of the entire group of naval forces in the system.  Not everyone is as pleased with the Zenith II as Jaspen is.  But that's because they can only see the bugs in the systems, the glitches that you get when you've got something new and shiny that's never been used before.  Jaspen, on the other hand, knows that if they just work at it they'll learn to love the ship as much as he does.  He sees the potential.

Many times, as writers, we love our "babies" to death.  We can see the potential.  We know what's there.  But we don't always see the nitpicky little details that could completely derail our stories and send them into the pile of rejection worthy material.  This is what our beta readers and our editors are for.  Beta readers, editors, and writing groups are going to help push you in a better direction.

Notice I didn't say "the right direction".  Only you can decide what the "right direction" for your writing is.  But don't ignore suggestions either.  Sometimes that glitch can kill a story as quickly as losing oxygen will kill my space naval officers and crew.  Focus on the big picture only and you miss out on the little details.  Don't obsess over the details to the point where you lose sight of the big picture either.  Find your balance and stick with it.

And never stop dreaming.  Dreaming big is what writers are here to do.

Y is for Yellow

I'm being lazy today.  This is a post of a lot of my favorite yellow things.

X is for X Marks the Spot!!!

Look!  A treasure map!  X marks the spot!  (And if we were pirates this would make more sense.)

Of course, one of our favorite pirates deserves his own pirate flag.  It's Captain Jack Sparrow's pirate flag.

Data piracy, on the other hand, is wrong.  Downloading music, books, movies, etc. illegally from websites that provide them with no recompense for the creators of the work steals from those artists/writers/etc.  You're not stealing from some big, nameless company.  You're stealing from those people whose work you admire and like.

Think before you download.  Did you purchase the item?  Go for it.  Are you stealing from someone?  You should be ashamed of yourself.

W is for World Building

I've done a series of my own on world building.  You can find them here, here, here, and here.  I introduced you to Ashe Steinburg and her world.  Ashe's story is on hold while I finish Only A Name, Birth of the Silver Lady, and Cracked World.  Ashe's world also needs a much more in depth work over than I gave it.

That's where this link comes in: Very cool link.  This link was provided to me by @KDSarge when she started doing the world building exercises on her own blog.  I intend, eventually, to use these exercises to do Ashe's world and probably Aislinn's as well.  I may use portions of it to adjust the Aleran world building notes as well.

The point is world building - especially for science fiction and fantasy writers - is vital if you're going to create a rich tapestry of stories.  You can keep it simple, limiting yourself to a handful of facts about your world.  Or you can do what I've done with Aleran, what Tolkien did with Middle Earth, and what many other authors have done with their own worlds.  You'll draw maps, write snippets of creation myths, describe all of the cultures and countries in your world, etc.

Don't shrink from building the best world possible.  Even if most of those facts never see print in your books, they'll still show through in your writing.

V is for Very, Very Lucky

Yesterday I went into the ER with what I thought was yet another kidney stone.  They'd dope me up, flood me with saline, and I'd go home a few hours later.  That was what I expected to have happen.  What did happen was a lot more frightening.

They did a pelvic CT scan, like they usually do when someone comes in complaining about kidney stones.  The doctor - a very polite and caring man that I wish I could get every time I go in there - told me with sincere confusion that there were no kidney stones on the left side of my body - which is where my pain was.  But there WAS something concerning on the right side.  There was a dark spot on the CT scan that may or may not have been a scar.  He wanted to check it out by doing another CT scan, this time with the contrast dye.

I figured there wasn't anything wrong with letting him go ahead and do it.  So I went through the scan.  He came back to me with the news that they were admitting me to the hospital.  I wasn't suffering from a kidney stone.  I had a blood clot in the vein that leads to my right ovary.

I think I kind of went into shock.  I just stared at him for a minute.  Then it clicked in my head what he'd been saying.  At that point I started panicking a little.  The doctor noticed my distress and told me they were just going to run some routine tests and that I'd be able to leave the next day (today) as long as the other two doctors working on my case cleared me.

Needless to say that didn't comfort me much, although it was enough to know that it wasn't something completely life threatening - yet.  It was that "yet" part that bothered me.  The nursing staff was right there, helpful and cheerful in spite of delayed medication orders and conflicting directions.  They got everything sorted out and got me taken care of.

I have a great deal of respect for the men and women at that hospital.  The ones I dealt with were compassionate, helpful, and infinitely cheerful.  They made sure I had all of the information I needed.  They made sure I was educated properly on the types of medication I'm going to have to take.  They hounded the doctor until he finally signed the clearance for me to leave.  They went to bat for me, and for all of their patients, just like they're asked to do.

I don't know what triggered the pain so reminiscent of a kidney stone, but I do know that it was vital for me to get to the ER when I did.  If the clot had broken up, or moved up into my lung, there could have been even more trouble.  I am truly grateful for the fact that something inspired me to go into the ER so I could get this taken care of.

U is for Unanimous

Unanimous...it's such an amazing word.  To have something be unanimous it means that everyone has agreed to agree to the same thing.  It's a word we all want to have associated with our books - that people unanimously love our writing and want more.

Sadly, that's unlikely to happen.  Different people have different tastes and you are going to run into those that just don't like the book.  It may be because of a style variation they don't care for.  Your cover art isn't what they expected.  The story didn't end the way they wanted it to.  Your characters don't speak to them.  Whatever it is, there are going to be people out there who don't like your books.

What you don't need to do is get all bent out of shape about it.  You've read books you couldn't get into, or you didn't like what the author did.  Heck, some of us started writing out of a fit of pique because we thought we could tell the story better than the author.  (Please tell me I'm not the only one who's done this?)  So we know that there's the possibility someone won't like our book.

Just accept it and move on.  If everyone agrees unanimously your book sucks, there may be a problem.  But if not everyone agrees that your book is the most awesome and amazing thing ever, thank them for their opinion and go on with your life.

T is for Time Management

Time management is something I'm not very good at.  I tend to procrastinate to the last second and then rush through everything.  I'm slowly teaching myself to be better at it, but it's still a struggle to do what I know I need to in a specifically alloted time.

I've got something of a schedule and I'm training myself how to follow it.  Get up at 8.  Take my shower.  Check FB/Twitter/email/blog.  Start writing at 9.  Write until 11:30.  Take care of whatever other little things I need to.  Go to work.  Come home.  Write from 11 to 12.  Go to bed.  Rinse. Repeat, except on the days where I have to be to work earlier.  Then my schedule changes.

I'm not making much progress on my schedule.  Then again, I was one of those kids who hated schedules.  I wanted to do things in my own time and my own way.  I hated having to follow the class schedule.  I didn't want to abide by my mom's rules of scheduling homework right after school.  Okay, so I never wanted to do most of my homework anyhow.  But that's beside the point.

I'm also a poor judge of what would constitute a good use of time.  Watching cartoons all day?  Hey, that's a GREAT use of my time.  Never mind the dozens of things I have to do at any given moment.  Sleep all day?  Sounds good to me.  Except then nothing gets accomplished.  Sleep in?  Sure, I can do that.  I throw off my entire schedule and feel rushed all day but I can do it.

Time management, especially for a writer, is vitally important.  Often we have only a limited amount of time to dedicate to our writing.  We have to be able to manage that time well.  We can't let ourselves get drawn into any kind of distraction (unless you're a parent & have kids...kids always take priority) if we want to get our books written, revised, edited, polished, and published.

How about you?  What are your time management skills like?  What are some of your tricks for maximizing what time you do have for writing?

S is for Spring

Spring is one of my favorite seasons.  It's neither too hot or too cold.  Everything starts blooming.  You have all the little baby animals running around.  It's a beautiful season.

I'm not too fond of summer here.  I don't like temperatures much above the mid 70's and we can see temperatures in the 100s here in the summer.  It's also usually fairly dry.  Very few summer storms that actually have rain.  We have a lot of dry lightning, which has led to some pretty devastating fires.

Fall is my other favorite season.  Again, the temperatures are moderate.  All of the deciduous trees are changing colors.  Frost decorates everything.  Harvests are being brought in.

Winter...winter sucks as far as I'm concerned.  I don't like the extreme cold either.  Snow is pretty.  But not in my front yard.  I like looking at it on mountains.  And realistically it does us more good in the mountains since that's where the bulk of the water for our river comes from.

But spring...spring is my main favorite.  I love getting out into the garden (when I have one) and digging and prepping the ground.  I love planting.  I love seeing flowers bloom and other plants start growing.  I enjoy watching the lambs as they bounce around in the pastures with their parents.  I even like seeing the calves and foals, although the smells from the horse and cow pastures are kind of gross.

I like the rain too.  Our springs don't tend to be too rainy but when it does rain I love it.  Spring is just full of a lot of my favorite things.  That's why it's my favorite time of year.

Now if only spring would start here...

R is for Rejection

I feel almost special these days.  I can officially say I'm a would-be author.  I have, to date, received 43 rejections for my short stories.

Rejection hurts.  Don't let anyone tell you it doesn't.  No matter how hard your skin gets you're still going to be slightly injured by the rejection of one of your babies.  But you have to keep going forward.

Many of my rejection notes have been the generic "Sorry but you don't fit what we're looking for" letters.  I had one that told me my writing was amateurish (uh...DUH), childish (what?), and not worth their time.  I've had several that told me I had a real talent but that because they were too long (D'OH) my stories couldn't be published.  And I've had three editors tell me that my writing lends itself more to novels.

Fantasy is a much harder genre to get short stories published in anyhow, so to me it makes more sense these days to work hard on my novels and try to get them published than it does to continue to pursue getting my short stories published.  Okay, okay, so they're technically in the novella range rather than the short story range.  Probably why I can't get them published. *grins*

I expect dozens, maybe hundreds, of rejections over the next several years as I struggle along the road to publication.  It's a part of being an author.  When you read Stephen King's On Writing he discusses the rejection letters he got.  I'm sure that Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, Mercedes Lackey, David Eddings, and many of my other favorites have scores of rejection letters too.

So hold your rejection letters high.  It means someone cared enough to let you know that they didn't think your writing was right for them.  Someone somewhere will.  It just takes time and patience.

(And a whole lot of tissues and chocolate...)

Q is for Quitting

I'm a quitter.

That's right, you heard me.  I'm a quitter.

I've quit writing.  No, not today.  Definitely not today.  Today I'm closer than I've ever been to the point of actually submitting my work for publication than I've been for a little over ten years.  But in the past, more than once, I quit writing.

That was a mistake.  I'm a natural born writer.  What that means is I've had some kind of crayon/pencil/pen/word processor in my hand since the day I learned how to read.  My writing is crap most of the time.  But without my writing, I go nuts.  I have to write.  If I can't express myself with the written word then I have a serious build up of random bits of things floating around in my head that escape into my dreams and make sleeping rather annoying and sometimes uncomfortable or terrifying.

Some people draw.  Some people (like almost all of you) write.  Others sing.  Some dance.  Or sew.  Or make jewelry.  Or work with clay.  The list goes on and on.  We're each a natural SOMETHING, and I'm sure at some point in our lives we've all quit thinking we'd never take it up again.

But there it is, on a shelf in the back of our minds - or our closets, or in our garage - and it's taking up space.  It's a reminder of what we swore we'd never get back into.  It's like a dirty little secret lurking there, gathering dust, and expanding until one day it breaks free and we dive back into it.

I did that, and ONLY A NAME is closer to being a publishable manuscript (I hope) than I ever expected it to be.  I've got a dozen or more projects either needing to be edited, waiting to be written, or needing some love to  get them to the point of my writing them (world building and character development).  I LOVE writing and regret ever quitting.

Do I think I'll quit writing again?  Probably.  When the rejections pile up and I feel discouraged.  I may quit for a while.  But writing will always be there and I'll always come back to it.

P is for prejudice

To go with my O post yesterday, I want to take a minute to talk about prejudice.

prej·u·dice

  

noun, verb, -diced, -dic·ing.

–noun

1.

an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand orwithout knowledge, thought, or reason.

2.

any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable orunfavorable.

3.

unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, especially of ahostile nature, regarding a racial, religious, or national group.

4.

such attitudes considered collectively: The war againstprejudice is never-ending.

5.

damage or injury; detriment: a law that operated tothe prejudice of the majority.

–verb (used with object)

6.

to affect with a prejudice, either favorable or unfavorable:His honesty and sincerity prejudiced us in his favor.

—Idiom

7.

without prejudice, Law . without dismissing, damaging, orotherwise affecting a legal interest or demand.

I've talked about this before.  This is one of the facets of human nature that I find most distasteful.  In fact, this is one of the main themes behind a lot of my stories because of how deeply it's affected me.

I've spent my life dealing with prejudice on a personal level and through the stories of my friends.  I used to cower and try to hide when people attacked me verbally with their prejudicial thoughts.  I cried a lot as a child and teenager as I was bullied because of the differences between me and my peers.  Because of my dad's job, I was also treated badly since he worked for a company no one liked.  I've had friends from all over the world and many of them have come back with stories of being treated as second class citizens because of their nationality, their gender, their beliefs.

Prejudice is a main source of conflict.  I've only dealt with minor instances of it.  The ultimate prejudicial actions are taken by those who would wipe out an entire group of people simply because they're different.  Genocide is the ultimate expression of prejudice.

O is for open (as in open minded)

Too many people in this world are close minded.  If more people were open-minded, there would be less war.  If more people were open-minded, there would be fewer instances of hate crimes.  If more people were open-minded, there would be less persecution.  If more people were open-minded, there would be less of an opportunity for politicians to lie for us.  If more people were open-minded, there would be fewer bullies.  If more people were open-minded, there would be less of a need for soldiers dying for their countries.

I think my favorite saying came from my niece - who is half Mexican and looks it - when she was fourteen years old: "I'm a human girl.  You're a human boy.  We're all human. Who gives a damn if my skin is darker than yours?  Open your fucking mind already.  It's not like I'm going to kill you or anything.  Being different is cooler than being the same as everyone else anyway."  Of course, her mom washed her mouth out with soap for swearing but the sentiment is very true.

I'm a human woman.  You're all human beings.  Who gives a damn what color, nationality, religion, political persuasion, age, gender, and/or sexual preference you are?

I certainly don't.  Being different, being open-minded about those differences in other people, THAT'S the coolest thing ever.

N is for Naughtiness

It's sometimes fun to be naughty.  As a writer, I tend to shy away from erotic scenes and the whole forbidden love bit.  But sometimes, just sometimes, it's fun to step outside my comfort zone and write those types of scenes.

In Birth of the Silver Lady, my story of the creation of the Goddess of Magic, I've got the wedding night scene from the Silver Lady's time as a human when she got married to the man she loved.  It just flowed out of me when I was writing it.  It's far more detailed than most scenes I write.  This was one of the first sex scenes I allowed to go to its completion.  Usually I just do a "fade to black".

I've got a sci fi story where the main character is very much in love with her roommate.  The two of them are a couple and I've written a few steamy scenes for these lovely ladies.  The pacing is off and I rush through it, which makes for awkward scenes but I'm getting to the point where I can edit them and slow things down a little so the scenes flow better.

I've got a forbidden love that ends in tragedy, like many forbidden loves do.  I've got one that ultimately leads to happiness for the couple involved but not before both of them lose almost everything and everyone they hold dear.  I've got a forbidden love that ends in disaster but also leads to redemption for one of the characters and a much happier life for the other.

Sometimes being naughty as a writer can be fun and a little liberating.  What do you think?

M is for Music

These are just a few of the many songs that touch me and inspire my writing.  Music is an art that can touch souls.  It can fire you up and make you want to dance.  It can inspire you to make things better.  It can also destroy.  Like any kind of art, music can be used to inspire destruction.

Battle songs were sung in the old days to help build up the armies, to bolster their courage and drive them to fight harder.  An ill advised song, written in a moment of pique, could destroy the composer's life if a monarch took offense to it.

Music can also soothe.  Lullabies for children help soothe them into sleep.  Soft, gentle music can calm us down and help us refocus our thoughts.  It can even put us as adults to sleep, if we choose the right music.

Music can also make us smile and laugh.  How many times have we listened to the lyrics of a song and smiled at their meaning?  We laugh at the parody songs of artists like Weird Al.  Joyful, happy music brings smiles to our faces and sometimes makes us get up and dance.

Music is a staple in my life.  I can't write without it.  I don't sleep well without something playing in the background.  It is what wakes me up in the morning and puts me to bed at night.

L is for Life

Life is certainly an interesting thing.  Without it, we'd be dead.  Without the lives of others around us, we'd be alone in this strange and oftentimes hostile world.  Without plants and animals to share our lives, we'd probably die anyway since there wouldn't be plants to create the oxygen and no animals would mean we'd lose one of our food supplies and one of our main methods of making clothes.

Life can be painful.  I know this from personal experience.  Life can be filled with joy, sorrow, pain, and peace.  The best thing about life, though, is you can use your own life to touch others.  You can bring some light and joy into their world just by being there for a friend, or by telling a story that lightens the heart of others.

I write because without my writing my life would be pretty empty.  It's one of the things that gets me going each day - the thought that I get to write something.  My stories will soon go out into the world to share a little of my life with other people (since I draw on my life experiences and use them as themes in my books at times).

Life is good, even when it's not the happiest moments.  We just need to remember that life happens...and then we die.

And as this is my 100th blog post...WE HAVE A WINNER FOR OUR CONTEST!  That's right!  Our winner is...............Lynda R. Young!  Lynda, DM me on Twitter with your info & I'll get these books in the mail ASAP.  Congratulations on winning my first ever contest.  *grin*


The winner of a free ebook copy of @Scath's Code Walker is Liana Brooks!  Liana, I'll DM you with the coupon code some time today.