Respond!?!

I've been wondering what makes people respond to blogs. There are several that I check almost daily, and some gets hundreds of responses and some get almost none. One of my favorites is Charlie Stross. He has a robust and regular posting that is usually thought provoking on purpose and he has a very intellectual group of followers that love to mix it up. I don’t feel smart enough to even post on his site, but I love to lurk. Another of my favorites is new author Mary Robinette Kowal, who is also very regular in her postings, but I don’t think I‘ve ever seen more than a handful of responses to her posts. She isn’t fishing for responses and it doesn’t seem to matter to her. I have no idea how many hits she is getting, but whoever they are rarely engage with her. I think she’s fascinating.

More Cowbell!

If you haven’t seen the classic skit on Saturday Night live, here is a link.  I think it’s apropos to what I want to talk about this week.  It’s all about adding the right components to your story as you go along.  Maybe not quite that much cowbell, but definitely more.   It may not be quite as important on the first draft, but it really needs to be paid attention to in the rewrite phases.   If you’re an aspiring writer you really should be listening to Writing Excuses.  They have a real knack for presenting material in a way that is easy to understand and provides some great instruction.   They just added the wonderful Mary Robinette Kowal to their permanent team and this week’s episode was about Internal Motivations.  She is a great add and she has a fascinating take on how to write and is very good at clearly describing how she thinks about it. 

Father's Day

      I love my family! They give me purpose and fill me with joy (most of the time). I was thinking about writing something up about my father and what he means to me, but this year I'm going to focus on being the father.

      

These pictures are from the card my youngest daughter made for me, it bled through on the scanner a little.

       I read stories of father's that never loose their temper and always know what to say. That's not me. I wish I could keep my cool, but I get mad when the don't do what their told and at times seem like they would rather argue with me than help me. I'm pretty easy going most of the time. People at work wouldn't recognize the "yeller" that I am at home sometimes, but at work people generally don't argue with me for the sake of it.

I love eBooks but Book Stores are the Bomb!

I had a really enjoyable time this morning.  On the spur of the moment I stopped at a brick and mortar bookstore on the way back from Indianapolis.   It had been several years since I’ve been in a good one and I found it stimulating and ridiculously fun.  It was like going to a candy store.  Since I’ve started writing with a purpose and learning the craft, my appreciation for good stories and great crafters of phrase has increased dramatically.

The Graduation Speech

My daughter graduated this past weekend and she had a speaking role.  We didn't get a preview of her speech and were blown away by not only the content of her speech but the professional delivery.  I've had a couple of WOW moments with her and this was one of them.  I just wanted to share the speech here:

Why Growing up is Bad for Your Health

So, upon being told that I was to be Salutatorian, I decided it would be a good idea to look up what a Salutatorian does. It’s not always a good sign when you can barely say your own title without messing it up. I mean, that has a coolness factor to it and everything, but not very telling of what I’m supposed to do besides make a fool of myself up here. 

Blog Award

The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award

I was presented with this award by the wonderful Kristie McMartin http://lifebykiki.weebly.com/everyday-epiphanies.html

And she was presented the award by her friend Pippa Jay  http://keirbeyondredemption.blogspot.com/

Thanks to both of you!

The rules of this award are as follows: 
1. Thank and add a Link To the Person who Nominated You.
2. Share Seven Random Facts About Yourself.
3. Pass the Award on to 15 deserving blog buddies.
4. Contact those buddies to let them know.

I created a new page to hold my artwork

The link is on the top navigation bar.  I just finished a picture a my daughter for a graduation gift.

There are a few other pieces and some Photoshop things I played around with.