Big Sur = Big Inspiration

Expressing what I gained from going to the Big Sur Writer’s Workshop is impossible, it would take me pages of this blog and your eyes would explode before you ‘x’ed me out. But to say it was wonderful and worth every penny is an understatement.

Just having a big-time literary agent, not dropping names, YET, say…”This is excellent.” Sent shivers of excitement through me to rival my first time! That’s a bad analogy, my first time was dreadful, let’s say my first time with my über, awesome ex-husband. When words of wisdom flowed from her lips like buttery Chardonnay, I was ready to axe the very heads off of my characters to make them fit what she envisioned as the perfect tweaks. And now that I’m making those alterations…OH MY GOD, she was right!

Everyone at the conference brought such a depth of knowledge and approachability to the table, that I never once felt uncomfortable or like a bug under a microscope. My other critique group leader was the awe inspiring Eric J Adams, co-writer and producer of numerous books and movies, one hitting NETFLIX yesterday, December 6, ARCHIE’S FINAL PROJECT. (Please refrain from adding it your DVD cue until I’ve received my copy.) He was funny, honest, has met more celebrities than TMZ, and is way easy to talk to. He talked about his next film starting on January the tenth, the way I’d note my next dentist appointment. Not to mention he built us a fire and even saved me when the smoldering wood tried to attack. Yeah, maybe I developed a wee crush. But you would too, so shut up.

Ellen Hopkins, yes, THE Ellen Hopkins, was amazingly awesome to chat with and it was nothing at all like I imagined eating spinach salad with a two million copies sold NYT Bestseller author would be. Jealous, right? She was so totally chillaxed, I almost offered to pick out the stem stuck in her front teeth for her. I refrained!

I only had one regret...my critique partner the snarky queen herself, Gina White, was unable to attend with me.

I could gush and carry on about everyone there, but I won’t, it would make you physically ill that you missed it and I don’t want to be responsible for that. So why are you still reading this? Google, google my friends and sign up for the next one in March 2012.

Apocalypse Anyone?

I am participating in the A to Z Blog Challenge, but didn’t start until the letter “C” so this is a make-up blog. I do know the alphabet, honestly, I do.

a•poc•a•lypse/əˈpäkəˌlips/Noun
1. The complete final destruction of the world, esp. as described in the biblical book of Revelation.
2. An event involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale. More »
Wikipedia - Dictionary.com - Answers.com - Merriam-Webster

Apocalypse…the word means different things to different people.

To my mother it means the end of the world, as described in the Bible in the book of Revelations, see numero uno above. She sees the attack on the World Trade Center as the first horse of the apocalypse. She truly believes that Barack Obama getting elected heralded in the second horse…something to do with his views on Israel. Yada, yada, yada. So when she called me to espouse her views on the tsunami, earth quake, and subsequent damage to the nuclear reactors in Japan, I wasn’t surprised to learn that was the third horse. As she has nothing else to talk to me about, figured I’d make her happy and asked when she expects the fourth horse to be coming down the track? Let’s just say that conversation didn’t end on a pleasant note. But hey, it gives her something to pray about…besides my soul.

To me the apocalypse, in some form, is my favorite writing subject. It’s the possibility, of all that havoc and wretchedness. Not saying I buy into the whole four wild horses, I’m more of numero dos option. It opens my mind to describing what a certain place would look like if it actually survived an apocalypse.

The most common in movie themes and literature is the nuclear holocaust. And I’m no different, that’s the exact world I’m building in my current WIP. But I don’t have total devastation, as I don’t believe total devastation is likely. Sure, if every country currently holding nuclear weapons decided to release them against each other in showdown, we’d most definitely have total devastation. But what are the actual chances of that? Man has the innate will to survive. And even the most evil villain alive, with the exception of a certain few, realizes that a nuclear war would take them out as well.

So what do you think? Am I wrong in making part of the planet still inhabitable? According to the definition I suppose I am. Leave me a comment about your thoughts and apocalyptic works.

G is for Gassler

I galloped through the gamut of ‘g’s but couldn’t garner one that got me going so I gave up.

And will use one of my own, “gassler”.

Writing YA the vocabulary changes as rapidly as Paris Hilton’s lovers.

I have a couple of online sources that I go to often http://www.thesource4ym.com/teenlingo and http://onlineslangdictionary.com. I also ‘Google’ like mad for new Adalonic (Adolescent Vocabulary) Dictionaries. But sometimes even that’s not enough.

For instance, my current WIP is a dystopian set in post apocalyptic America, vaguely set about seventy years in the future. Writing dialogue becomes more of a challenge.

Will ‘lame’, ‘tard’, ‘sick’, ‘sweet’, ’awesome’, or ‘bank’ still be common teen usage of the future? Or will they have gone the way of ‘stoked’, ‘stellar’, ‘tubular’, ‘dude’, and ‘chill’?

The language of the future is just as unpredictable as the fashion sense of their generation. But instead of taking this as a roadblock, I’ve made up a few of my own words and given an alternate meaning to common words. For even though the words will change, a teen’s need to be different and possess their own vocabulary will not.

So that brings us to ‘gassler’. It’s a slur. A newly seized genetically unaltered human and is non-gender specific. So go ahead and insult someone today, call them a gassler. The worst that can happen is they think you are accusing them of wasting too much fuel or burning up the ozone layer.