Aversion to Social Networking....and a little something extra

I know it has been a few days since I have written a bog entry. I do apologize for that, but between the holiday rush and getting the frantic hustle and bustle of life in order I have not had the hours in the day to write up a bog entry and keep up with my own deadlines.

In light of this, I think it's high time I put a little more of a personal touch to this blog entry for any of you who happen to be reading and caring what I have to say.

So up until a little while ago I was strongly averted to ALL social networking.

When I say averted; I mean while I did have a FaceBook; I found it an obnoxious time consuming boredom enticing waste of my day. I refused to subscribe to twitter, and to MySpace or any of those other sites. So needless to say when I started on my trek to seriously achieving my published status as an author-- I rolled my eyes and groaned at the prospect of making social networking a part of me everyday life.

In hind sight, one side of me still  groans over the idea of posting to FaceBook and Twitter AND my blog, and some days it really does feel like a full time job with no pay and no benefits. While that is technically the case if taken literally.

The other part of me is over joyed at the reception both my fan page, and my Twitter has gotten when I do post. I find myself checking my Blog status to see what countries are reading what I am saying and how many times my page is accessed daily.

It’s a thrilling environment and so fast paced that it takes up most of the time I would have been spending on  flash games doing absolutely nothing of value. Where as now, I find my words are being listened to and advertising goes along way to having people looking forwards to Excerpts of my Novel, or even (shockingly) release information on the novel-- that is still a work in progress.

It gives me a small taste on what it’s like to be a celebrity. It also adds a new depth to the world that I had been missing.

So what is my current standing with social networking?

It’s still torn between the groaning disposition of putting my life on display and the thrilling expectations that someone somewhere actually cares enough to read what I say. I am however leaning more towards the Accepting status of Social networking.

Also, considering when I got my new phone, I couldn’t wait to get a wi-fi connection to download the FaceBook and twitter apps from the market so I can keep connected even while on the go.

Forgive my nerd-ism here, but I wonder if this is what it’s like to be assimilated by the borg?

~x~

In other news, My Novel The Hourglass is progressing smoothing through stage two of the writing process, and I am hoping by this time next year to have it out in all forums of media. And to give you a small view on what I have been working on here is an awaited excerpt from the novel.


‘  Adrian Grey was a hunter of very particular tastes, so particular in fact that he more often than not found himself lazing in a tree then hunting. After all, the game that he went after rarely showed them selves to the human population. 
 Today was no different then any other normal day. Adrian was staring at the canopy of Argoth forest, his grey eyes holding a bored expression. Even his day job had proven to be rather slow. 
 “Damn wolves… they had to just go and attack that hiker.” he muttered to himself as he sat up. A long stemmed leaf stuck between his lips. “Not that I can really blame the wolves, they where doing what came naturally to them. It’s the stupid human’s fault.” 
 He spat the leaf out from his mouth and glanced at the forest floor some thirty feet below him. The breeze toyed with the life around him sending the leaves of the trees frolicking with the new-day light. 
 Normally a day like the one he was facing would bring him some kind of peace and contentment. 
 Something was disturbing that very peace and it irritated the hell out of him that he couldn’t figure out what it was. 
 The nights of late had not been restful. For some unknown reason Adrian found himself being awakened every few hours. 
 He loathed nights like that, for they generally spelled trouble following closely. 
 “Didn’t help the moon was vacant from the sky.” he muttered under his breath, swinging his legs around the thick branch that served as his perch. As his legs dangled the dangerous expanse of near empty space between himself and the ground, his eyes watched the forest around him. 
 It was both his home and his hide-away. So naturally everyone who wanted to acquire the services of an Expert Myth hunter such as himself knew exactly where to find him. This included fellow hunters.
 ‘Like this jolly-ol’chap here.’ He silently mused as he watched the tall undergrowth shifting as someone picked their way rather noisily towards his house. 
 “Rathbart! Some Hunter you are! You can’t manage to sneak up on a human being, how the hell do you think you’ll manage against a Myth?” He called out watching the movements stall. 
 “Silver eyes get out of hiding! I have something that I need to talk to you about!” The gruff out of breath voice called back. 
 A sly smirk presented itself on Adrian’s lips as he slid off his branch to land-- rather gracefully in his not-so-humble opinion; on a branch below him. Straightening to his full height of six feet even, he lazily walked along the branch to a connecting branch, leading to a neighbouring tree. 
 “Forest express at your service.” He whispered to himself in a mildly amused manner. 
 Adrian was of a mind that roads where needless expansions of human territory, humans didn’t need to rip apart nature to get where they wanted to be. 
 The Myths certainly didn’t. 
 His lazy walk following the natural highway through the trees brought him to stand directly above a stout older man who appeared to be completely oblivious to the fact that he was even there. 
 “You know if I wasn’t in such a bored mood, I could have paid you back three times over for your little job last month.”  

This is my treat to all of you out there who follow this blog, It’s also my form of apologies for not being around to post more! Hopefully this shall change (or that I will have something of value to put up here soon)

Happy holidays to everyone, no matter what tradition or holiday you follow (if any at all.)

Copyright 2011@Trisha Ellen (All works are the subject of the authors copy write and my not be used in part or whole for any reason with out the expressed permission of the author. Plagiarism is against the law, so in short, just don't do it!) 

Sleep the fleeting whimsy

"That feeling of your head hitting the pillow after a long day of playing and fixing your writing.... "

So, while talking with a fellow author friend of mine I have come to the mildly irritating conclusion that sleep and authors don't tend to get along. This explains A LOT. Seriously. 

I have always had trouble sleeping, because I had some thought pop in to my mind at the very last minute demanding attention, which then demands expansion... which by the end of all the demands turns in to a list of To Do's for the ever fickle and slave-masterly Muses. This is particularly annoying/obnoxious/frustrating when you as an author have just spent the better part of the day working on something; feeling the stubborn mule of inspiration digging its heels in to the ground say. Well F*@&# that.

As an author of any genre/style it's exhausting trying and often failing in pulling that wanted chapter revision/article/cover art/comic panel out of your mind: all we generally want is a good night’s sleep that lasts for 36 hours instead of the measly 7 we're Lucky to get. Of course what we want as our day has shown us quite bluntly isn't a factor in what is going to happen... it’s a general rule somewhere.

We shut down our computers; put our pens and paperwork away. Stand up, shuffle zombie like to the coffee maker set it for morning then crawl our way in to our bedrooms, flopping heavily on the bed. It's a painstaking process of gather up our worn down energy reserves (in my case its usually running on fumes by then) to climb under those heavy blankets; tug them up to our chins and roll on to our sides trying to sleep. 

As I am sure you have been following by my implications, as sledge-hammer blunt as they have been. "Trying" is the operative word here. Sleep may touch the mind for a split of a second but by then it's already a long time far too late. Our eyes suddenly snap open, a glare being aimed to the heavens. 

......only to find inspiration smacking you in the face as you look up at the ceiling. Next thing you know it's after 4 am and sleep was only a fleeting whim.......

Authors by nature are lazy creatures. We don't want to have to go fetch our bags, binders, pencils especially once we have gotten it in to our heads that it's BED TIME. It's now our turns to dig in our heels and say 'No, I’ll remember it in the morning.' 

Have you ever tried digging your heels in when a mule or donkey decide it's time to run? Good luck with that. 

The muses are no different, once then decide to bestow their blessing of inspiration an author’s mind has no choice but to follow it. Much like a fisherman who runs across the deadly sirens song; All ideas of sleep crash and burn, so we get up, jot down some chicken scratch hoping to appease the muses long enough to go back to bed. That chicken scratch becomes a novel of thought that thread between one another. 

if there is no paper readily available, or exhaustion is too close (as tends to be the case more often than not) we plot and plan till our heavy eyes close, the sand papery feel of them scratching our peepers as they do so reminds us that we need to blink more often while writing. That mild distraction that catches the muses off guard, much like the magpie the muses chase that shiny in to oblivion of sleep. 

When we wake once more: Drag our selves to the coffee maker knowing we had something to remember, something jotted down somewhere. The winds of sleep and shiny distractions erase every word, every thought leaving only a vague impression of what once was. It reminds me of looking backwards on a beach as the tides come in. You have a vague impression as to the distance travelled by the evaporating foot steps, but don't really remember walking so far. 

......Of course only frustration remains the next morning as the cycle begins again. Welcome to the Authors life.

So, if anyone ever tells you the life of an author is simple. Kindly remind them that as my friend so eloquently put it.... "Writers = society’s acceptable insane” and we don’t generally begin our journey that way... it’s a trait that comes from dealing with the muses 

Children & Simple pleasures

Children are the worlds biggest joy to have around, they are an authors inspiration....The things they say can irritate, flabbergast or bring the sunshine to anyone's day. Every parent worth a grain of salt will tell you the same thing. They'd be lost with out their children.

Yet, i find myself this week looking at my niece for guidance. Awwed i am by the simplest things she does and says. the fiesty attitude when she wants something, the fearless jaunt of her chin as she daringly climbes on to the counter for her morning ceral. Her slack jawed wide eye'd excitement over the small flecks of snow falling from the morning sky.

They're little lives are both so easy and yet so hard.

They take everything in this world in with that wide eyed wonder and Independence only childhood adolescence can bring. Yet, astonishingly enough they are never afraid to ask for help, to cry out when the need a hug, to scream when they are scared.

Children are amazing creaters and it makes me wonder why as we grew older that all changed. We forgot the simply joy of fetching breakfast like a big girl (while our parents walked in on the milk-splattered-breakfast-everywhere kitchen that had been cleaned the night before. We forego the joy of snow for the cringing disposition of having to shovel it. We moan and groan over the simplest things and forget the joy and wonder this world holds.

We pay the bills, we sweat and cry over the little money we earn, we fret over deadlines, the next big break, how many burgers we flip. We never look at the morning and say, 'Wow'.

My niece has re-taught me the value of the simple pleasures in life this past week. With stress up to my eyeballs- it was a reminder well needed. One that came as the same sort of wide-eye'd-slack-jawed expression that she held this very morning as the little flakes of snow fell from the sky. this epiphany of sorts came after the hundredth time of being asked to watch 'eensy-weensy-spider' on youtube and my finally giving in.

The simple joy of watching her sing and dance to that little children song was all it took for me to remember life isn't so bad-even when S*)&% hits the fan. It's something i would like you all to remember from your child hoods as well. So for you all today, i went and found the same video that my niece found such joy in.

If you have children, this group is amazing and worth gathering their videos up on DVD if you can find them.

Love and Joy to you all in this stressful time of year.

Risk is not the way to de-stress

So, I figured after all of that celebrating, i would go play some flash games to "de-stress" from the trials and tribulations of writing.

being the military-nut i am at heart, i decided to play some online risk...... Let me tell you, that is NOT the way to go. Especially if your like me, and the epitome of Murphy's law... "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.... and probably already has" At least in the gaming world.

So lets just say this author is just going to stick to marching her little soldiers on paper not on screen.... it's just safer that way.

Everyday Without a NO is a VICTORY

So, tonight is the first night of my blog.

It has been a busy night for an author who just wants to get down to writing. It's almost a slap of cold hard reality that being an author isn't just writing a story and having people read it. It can be hard to remember where the fun lies, and where the work ends.

So I find it's important for every author to celebrate the victories, even the small ones.
So successfully getting this blog up and running is Victory.
 Making my Twitter is also a nice victory. https://twitter.com/#!/TrishaEllen1
Gathering up my wits and Making a FaceBook FanPage Yet another Victory. https://www.facebook.com/TrishaEllen

So while i haven't gotten much in the way of writing done tonight i do have a few victories to celebrate. A friend of mine who also happens to be a fellow author has said something to me that makes a lot of sense which has spurred this blog post (that i was going to put off till tomorrow)

She said "every day without a no is a victory"

This is true for us authors, we are constantly at the mercy of publishers and editors. Every day we feel that looming NO hanging over our heads, especially after we have submitted something and the time for response keeps drawing nearer and nearer.

So in the light of this, I am going to celebrate the accomplishments of the day, and leave the ''No's'' Floating about in space for the time being. After all there will be plenty of them.