Voodoo Child v. 17: Welcome to the One Woman Show

I've been sick for almost three weeks on and off. This hasn't been a great month, but sitting here the last few hours home sick on my days off has made me feel sad over not being able to finish what I've started. I hate  knowing that I can't finish, but it's supposed to make me more motivated? Nah, that's okay.

At any rate, this is life. November was a bad month: a retreat this weekend, family time on the weekends, etc., has not made me as productive as I wanted to be. Perhaps I'll do it again in January when I have time to myself.

As life would have it too, there are changes to my health that necessitate reviewing what I'm doing with my life. I won't get into it, those of you who know, know. The option to take some time off work and go on disability has been interesting, to say the least, but who knows if that will work. I'm willing to entertain it, but I know being away causes more work, if you know what I mean.

Christmas is coming up, and it's already starting to get me antsy. Luckily, we will do the Kris Kringle thing this year. I'm excited about that, to be honest. Takes a ton of work off my hands, you know? Well, it's been forever since I updated, and my apologies for that. There's been a lot on my mind and even more on my plate. We'll be back in December. Promise!

Voodoo 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Geez, I'm really behind now. But hey, that's life, right?

I realize that I am going to need some REALLY good stuff to kick it into gear. I think I have a somewhat of a main character, a conflict, but that's it. I need to think long term on this one.

I have decided to cheat and use places I go to all the time as settings. I figured that the guy lives in Visitation Valley. I know what he looks like, and I know what his family looks like. I am in the process of finding some tool friends (so this is where you weirdos will come in).

Yes, I like to write about my friends and deposit them in the story. So if you want to be in it, let me know. I'll add you in. I might add you in as a pet or maybe as a street name, but I'll throw you in. What have I got to lose?

 I am way in the hole, so I'm going to need to work real hard to make up that deficit. I will be spending some quality time at Bacio soon, so I'll have to schedule that one in! Ciao for now, people. Hope you're doing well. Now that long awaited snippet at the jump!

-VDC 

Continue reading "7332" »

Posted by Voodoo Child at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Fark, I am so behind. I should have 10K words by now, and I'm shy a little under 4K. I'll have to pick it up, but i won't give up. I promise. I'm really happy where it's going, but I am a little stressed that I haven't had enough time to work on it. I've been busy with side projects, my class, and trying to take care of myself. You know?

But enough of the excuses. I like what I'm writing. I really do. The freaky baby story wasn't meant to be freaky. It was meant to be cute. Scary cute. Anyways, here's another installment for you to check out. A lot has happened since the Freaky Baby incident.

BTW, I have 9 pages single spaced, and I *just* got started. Here's the snippet, after the jump.

-VDC 

Continue reading "6463" »

Posted by Voodoo Child at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So overnight I developed a bit of a cold. Darnit. The weather changes, and people get sick, so I get sick too. Fresh.  I cranked out a good 500 words then Husbandido came home. We went to sushi, and I took a dayquil there, but then got hooked up with some hot sake (it really does clear your sinuses, note to self), and now I'm drowsy and feeling like I got nothin' in me to write about.

Good movement tho so far. Here's what I came up with, after the jump.     

Continue reading "Novel Stopped Due to Illness" »

Posted by Voodoo Child at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Holy shit, batman...here's the news: Nanowrimo has started, and I'm in it to win it, baby. So I have 1672 words so far...that's pretty, um, insignificant, but I'm on target.

I've also set up my horrible excel sheet of doom:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pHPceuzKF5ZWdRxNg8D5DDQ

Please, check it out so you can see how SLOW I am and how the intestinal suckitude goes. My novel is titled "Don't Say All When You Mean Some" it's something I taught in class and it's quite hilarious. At any rate wish me luck.

After the jump I'll post every day a few lines for your utter amusement. Last novel I did, I haven't even re read the damn thing. But this one's for you people. Enjoy. Please don't laugh too loud.

Continue reading "Don't Say All When You Mean Some" »

Posted by Voodoo Child at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, chilluns, I got TWO BRLers doing nanowrimo. As soon as they give me their nanowrimo pages, I can post their word counts here, so we can keeps it reals for you people

Anyone else down? FESS UP!

VDC 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 07:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I went ahead and signed up for National Novel Writing Month. I'm screwed. Novel #2 in 2007 drops on you November 1!

Wish me luck. And this time, I won't lose my work. I promise.

VDC 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay, we have breached the 64 page mark, and now we're moviing towards something like HELLA more. I am going to close call for entries today at 9PM. If I don't have it, it's not going in. I won't chase any of you down. That's it. Fini. (Damn it is SO tight!!! I wish you could see it.)

Voodoo 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 08:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hello all,

It's 64 pages long, and I'm ready to close the gates on the submissions. I won't harass the authors anymore but FRIDAY AND THAT'S IT, BABY. I can't keep changing the book last minute. The more pages it gets, the more expensive too, etc. And it's a pain to put together.

HOnestly, laying out stuff is pretty easy, but it's tiring to make it come together. I've been staying up late again with the project, but it's paying off. It sucks that my computer is a little slow, but it's coming together nicely.

Everyone's been so helpful so far in getting stuff done. But I'm ready to send it to the printers and getting it taken care of for you all.

Thanks much,

VDC 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 09:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night I spent a good few hours trying to layout some of the anthology, and it wasn't so bad...at first. It's going to be a bit challenging, but I'm doing good.

I am going to spend some quality time with it this weekend and will review most, if not all, the submissions. If you haven't turned it in yet, let's talk. But it DOES look SO GOOD, BABY.

Voodoo 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 08:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

First off, hey mama, happy mother's day! And to all of you moms out there, much love.

I was looking forward to this month all year so far...but so far it hasn't really materialized. Outside Conan O'Brien, I pretty much outlined by book, and I was on the way to kick ass, but so far it's been nil.

There are been roadblocks along the way, namely trying to get through this period of late nights at work with all the ethnic grads, events and whatnot. More on the eth nic grads after this. I've enjoyed staying late at work though, with all the happiness and hyperness of the end of the semester looming near. I have kids ready to graduate, students struggling to find footing in an uncertain period of their lives, and incoming newbs pounding down the door, looking for support when they haven't event finished reading their admission letters.

I've struggled with keeping up with my own projects, just not wanting to sit in front of a computer anymore than I already have. But I think as this summer starts to become a reality, I'll be here to see it through. Next month is painting, and I'm not sure where that's going to go. I haven't painted anything in a long time. I think I might switch gears as the deadline for the Anthology comes closer. 

Continue reading "Nonfiction is Fiction: Unsuccessful Attempts at Creativity" »

Posted by Voodoo Child at 07:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi all,

It's late, I'm in bed and I just PUT to bed video #2, the Voodoo and Mango Go to Europe video. I have lots of raw video from the trip I never did anything with, and it's compressing right now as we speak! I will hopefully have it uploaded tomorrow to the brl server for your viewing pleasure. It was fun to make, took me about 4 hours to do. Had problems compressing it though, and i hope tomorrow it'll be good to go.

I have two more like I promised you, and I should have those done this week, if not by my deadline of 4/30. Next month is non-fiction, so I'm excited about that. I am considering writing the higher ed leadership book that's been floating around my head. But if not, I have no idea what I'm going to do. If you have ideas, let me know.

I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but Mr. Mango has been called to duty in San Jose where he now resides with his lonesome. He's sick right now and that kills me because I know my guy would love to have some soup. I'm sure he has good friends who can take care of him for me, but if not I will have to drive down and do it myself! Three months is a long time, but I think I'll be okay :-)

It's only Tuesday, but god, I'm so tired. I know part of it is just staying up late and doing my projects, but I made a commitment to do the work, and I want to hold true to that. I'll have to be better about it and go to bed early tomorrow. I have appointments to tend to in the morning, and I can't slip on that ;-)

At any rate, I'm off to bed.  Hope you're all doing well.

Voodoo 

Posted by Voodoo Child at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Good weekend, kids.  A little bummed out about everything coming and going so fast, but it just reminds me that I need to spend more time with my other family. I'm debating about renting yet another Bodega Bay house with the family just to get out of the city for a bit. I went without the intarwebs for a few days (two to be exact) and it was kind of nice to be away from the world at that time. I just wish I had my movies with me or at the very least some device to watch some movies.

AT any rate, no big update to share with you all...but i DID do my first video for the month. I know. Total lagger. I have three more to crank out, and I'm close to putting together my second one. Going back to the Year of Creativity concept (I'm going to write a .pdf on how to make your very own year of creativity). One thing that I think is very important to mention to you all is that each month starts anew: there is NO formal planning or preparing for that month. I did not do an outline of my novel first...then waited for the 1st of the month to start to begin writing. I waited until the 1st of the month to write to actually begin writing. The same went for poetry month. The same went for photography month. And that's what happened this month. I started a little late, but I didn't actually get the concepts for the movies down until last week (I know it's been two weeks since the month started). The reason for this is that I needed for each of the month's activities to be as organic as possible. I wanted to physically start the event right at the moment of birth.

It proved to be two things: good to have a blank slate mindset, so I'd be open to all possibilities, but it also made me feel at ease with each project. THe novel was rough, yo. It made me really struggle with the day to day, but I looked forward to it and thrived from the writing. But it killed me. The creative process now is killing me as well, but I feel more open to things as the day goes through. As I was taking video of the drive home (I used a tripod to attach the camera to the passenger's seat), I became more aware of the drive, what the cars ahead of me were doing, what the light was like, etc. It's surreal to document the day to day, and the minutes and minutes that rush by without a moment's notice.

Continue reading "Back to Work" »

Posted by Voodoo Child at 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)