"Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched."
Guy de Maupassant: French short story writer and novelist (1850-1893)
In my first novel in the HERITAGE series, BOTTOM'S DREAM, my story begins with the rebuilding of a once-great country from the ashes of tragedies. There are two tragedies actually: a pandemic and a civil war. The former preceeded the later, but respectively I tagged them the Green Fever and the Poor Wars.
With our economy sinking into this horrible abyss where 401k's (K nows stands for Knockout, huh?), pensions, and savings huddle in shivers, my husband now wonders how prophetic teh HERITAGE series could be. I hope not very.
If you missed either BOTTOM'S DREAM or SOME TOUCH FIRE, the first two in the four-part series, it's understandable. They haven't found a home with a publisher. Such is the life of a writer. There's always another story...
But anyway...
In my last blog, I waxed eloquent (OK, maybe just "waxed") about layaways. This morning's Wall Street Journal includes a story about the reappearance of such an antiquated device. According to a story by Miguel Bustillo, KMart, Burlington Coat Factory, TJ Maxx, and Marshall's are again offering layaways. Kmart even has Jon and Kate Plus Eight's mommy, Kate Gosselin as its layaway spokeswoman. Of course, there is a charge for taking the merchandise off the showroom floor. Additionally, ELayaway.com supposedly offers some fantastic merchandise for those who prefer online shopping.
Either way, when 2009 rolls around, there will be no hefty bills for all that fun shoved under your kids beds.
Okay, I'm off to my life now...
Best
Judi
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Life Goes On or Denial May Be THE New Virtue!
My brother used to call me "Quarter Judi" because, as he contended, give me a quarter and in a little while I'd own the world.
Of course, he was wrong, but way back then when I wanted something -- clothing, books, presents, etc. -- I wouldn't feel shy about plunking down a quarter to lay something away. Layaways were more than common then. Everybody did it, especially in the months just before Christmas.
I snatched up the very first copy of the Beatles' RUBBER SOUL album at the 5 & 10, securing it away with a whole 25cents. The album sold out before the next Monday at both of the dime stores and the record store. And even if it took me several weeks to earn the money to spring that album free of its bin, I knew it was there, waiting for me.
Back then credit was something rarely used and when it was, payments were made in a timely manner. The little old ladies in our neighborhood had some of their groceries "put on the books" at the corner grocery. Then when their Social Security or pension checks arrived, they'd clean the slate.
I know because besides being the princess of the layaway, I was also a demon on a Schwinn who brazenly dashed the extra "delievery charge" the corner market tacked on. I ran errands for a number of very sweet old ladies and charged nothing. On the other hand, these sweeties were rarely without a freshly baked cookie or two. That seemed more of even trade, and for an aspiring writer, the tales I heard in kitchens ripe with scents of powdered detergent and boiling kale.
Which brings me to the present. I didn't wind up owning the world, and all those quarters my husband and I tucked away for sunsets on a sugary beach have dwindled to a sad stack.
We're hardly alone, I know. There are far too many in our situation. We trusted that there were only two things to do with money: spend it or save it. We trusted the latter meant it would be there for us to do the former someday when jobs weren't as available to us.
But... well, life goes on. Possibly the world can still be had for a quarter. Maybe I can buy a share of Ford Motor Company now. :-)
Don't look for www.judirohrig.com. I couldn't afford the site just now. Maybe later.
+++
Please do vote during this presidential election. Look closely at the candidates for president and other offices. It doesn't cost a dime (or even a precious quarter) to cast your ballot. As an American, it is your right and responsibility to vote. Exercise that or it may up and disappear, too.
Meanwhile, hang in there for as Scarlett O'Hara declared: "Tomorrow is another day!"
Of course, he was wrong, but way back then when I wanted something -- clothing, books, presents, etc. -- I wouldn't feel shy about plunking down a quarter to lay something away. Layaways were more than common then. Everybody did it, especially in the months just before Christmas.
I snatched up the very first copy of the Beatles' RUBBER SOUL album at the 5 & 10, securing it away with a whole 25cents. The album sold out before the next Monday at both of the dime stores and the record store. And even if it took me several weeks to earn the money to spring that album free of its bin, I knew it was there, waiting for me.
Back then credit was something rarely used and when it was, payments were made in a timely manner. The little old ladies in our neighborhood had some of their groceries "put on the books" at the corner grocery. Then when their Social Security or pension checks arrived, they'd clean the slate.
I know because besides being the princess of the layaway, I was also a demon on a Schwinn who brazenly dashed the extra "delievery charge" the corner market tacked on. I ran errands for a number of very sweet old ladies and charged nothing. On the other hand, these sweeties were rarely without a freshly baked cookie or two. That seemed more of even trade, and for an aspiring writer, the tales I heard in kitchens ripe with scents of powdered detergent and boiling kale.
Which brings me to the present. I didn't wind up owning the world, and all those quarters my husband and I tucked away for sunsets on a sugary beach have dwindled to a sad stack.
We're hardly alone, I know. There are far too many in our situation. We trusted that there were only two things to do with money: spend it or save it. We trusted the latter meant it would be there for us to do the former someday when jobs weren't as available to us.
But... well, life goes on. Possibly the world can still be had for a quarter. Maybe I can buy a share of Ford Motor Company now. :-)
Don't look for www.judirohrig.com. I couldn't afford the site just now. Maybe later.
+++
Please do vote during this presidential election. Look closely at the candidates for president and other offices. It doesn't cost a dime (or even a precious quarter) to cast your ballot. As an American, it is your right and responsibility to vote. Exercise that or it may up and disappear, too.
Meanwhile, hang in there for as Scarlett O'Hara declared: "Tomorrow is another day!"
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away?
"There are some things which practice does not enhance. Thunderstorms never practice. Surf does not take graduate lessons in hydraulics. Deer and rabbits do not measure how high they have jumped and go back and try again. Violinists must work at it and study. And ballerinas. And goalies and shortstops and wingbacks and acrobats. But that business of acquiring expertise in screwing turns it into something it wasn't meant to be." Travis McGee (DRESS HER IN INDIGO by John D. MacDonald)
By coincidence I found the time to sit down and visit my blog today, exactly one year to the day since I last posted. I guess that means my life has been busy. It has.
Q: So how's the writing going?
A: Not as well as I would like.
Q: Do you have excuses?
A: Of course! I'm a writer. Writers have more excuses than finished products. (Well, except if you're Gene Wolfe, Joe Lansdale, or Ed Gorman.)
Q: Then what did you want to blog about today? The economy? Politics? Child rearing? Celebrities? The Olympics?
A: I'd love to comment on any of those subjects. Economy: There's a plot among the rich to put the rest of us in our place. We've ruined designer clothes and handbags and shoes for them because WE'RE wearing them, too. My theory began when I found Crocs on sale by the boatload at the Rural King. Politics: I'd like to see Barak Obama and Evan Bayh paired against John McCain and Condolezza Rice. Yeah. Child Rearing: I'm glad I was a kid in the late 50s and early 60s. Boy, was it fun. And schools need to be smaller. We're driving kids to drugs (kids need to run and jump freely, not be tamed with drugs) and into gangs (smaller schools allow for more cheerleaders and sports teams and leaders which big schools limit). Celebrities: I am not interested, thank you. The Olympics: Boy, did we get ripped off in women's gymnastics! And having said that I would like for the NBC commentators to understand that the other countries have come to the Olympics to drag home metals, too. I doubt any one athlete came to deliberately dash the hopes of any other athlete. Better him/her? Of course. But honestly.
But, that's not really why I'm posting. As usual, I feel compelled to write about writing. Strange, huh?
Nobody I know seems to be reading much these days. Or if they are, they aren't BUYING books. This seems a sad time. But then again, a few of the books I've been struggling through are just that: a struggle. Did we writers kill the written word?
I'm gonna ponder that and try to get back here tomorrow. You see I've just gotten Joe Lansdale's LEATHER MAIDEN and I'm chomping at the bit for some good writin'.
Best
Judi
By coincidence I found the time to sit down and visit my blog today, exactly one year to the day since I last posted. I guess that means my life has been busy. It has.
Q: So how's the writing going?
A: Not as well as I would like.
Q: Do you have excuses?
A: Of course! I'm a writer. Writers have more excuses than finished products. (Well, except if you're Gene Wolfe, Joe Lansdale, or Ed Gorman.)
Q: Then what did you want to blog about today? The economy? Politics? Child rearing? Celebrities? The Olympics?
A: I'd love to comment on any of those subjects. Economy: There's a plot among the rich to put the rest of us in our place. We've ruined designer clothes and handbags and shoes for them because WE'RE wearing them, too. My theory began when I found Crocs on sale by the boatload at the Rural King. Politics: I'd like to see Barak Obama and Evan Bayh paired against John McCain and Condolezza Rice. Yeah. Child Rearing: I'm glad I was a kid in the late 50s and early 60s. Boy, was it fun. And schools need to be smaller. We're driving kids to drugs (kids need to run and jump freely, not be tamed with drugs) and into gangs (smaller schools allow for more cheerleaders and sports teams and leaders which big schools limit). Celebrities: I am not interested, thank you. The Olympics: Boy, did we get ripped off in women's gymnastics! And having said that I would like for the NBC commentators to understand that the other countries have come to the Olympics to drag home metals, too. I doubt any one athlete came to deliberately dash the hopes of any other athlete. Better him/her? Of course. But honestly.
But, that's not really why I'm posting. As usual, I feel compelled to write about writing. Strange, huh?
Nobody I know seems to be reading much these days. Or if they are, they aren't BUYING books. This seems a sad time. But then again, a few of the books I've been struggling through are just that: a struggle. Did we writers kill the written word?
I'm gonna ponder that and try to get back here tomorrow. You see I've just gotten Joe Lansdale's LEATHER MAIDEN and I'm chomping at the bit for some good writin'.
Best
Judi
Sunday, August 19, 2007
After the bite, there is no cure...
"I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter." James Michener
Every writer has inside her the vast ocean of words she has gulped down during her descent into the deep. Which writers' words are yours?
The first writer whose words I truly fell in love with is James Michener. No, not his TALES FROM THE SOUTH PACIFIC, but THE FIRES OF SPRING and his enormous THE SOURCE. While the former offered an eloquent tale of one man's journey into adulthood, the latter pitched historical truths that let me wrap my head around the fact that real people have left their footprints in the dusts of the aging Earth and the rest of us who stumble along behind manage to mimic those footfalls.
Yet just as nothing really changes, it is at once altogether different. Michener had his own tales to tell just as every writer has.
One of the saddest interviews I ever did was with a man who followed the career of another of my favorite Storytellers: John D. MacDonald. This man related that he, too, had been a writer, but after reading so much of John D.'s stories, he knew he could never achieve that standard of storytelling, so he just quit writing. I'm certain John D. would never have wanted that.
The best writers I know are also some of the most supportive. Joe R. Lansdale, who is probably closest to being this generation's Mark Twain in storytelling, offered his congratulations to me when I had my very first story published. "Now take the next step," he wrote. "Write another story."
Ed Gorman, one of the most prolific and soul-seering writers I am honored to know, is also one of the most giving and encouraging booster to young (or even old) writers. But, like all the others named above, his written words teach more than he could ever tell. No one puts the slush and crunch into describing snow quite like Ed.
I might not have stumbled upon John D., Joe R., or Ed if it hadn't been for Dean Koontz. I was writing a story that involved brainwashing. Not having any first-hand experiences with brainwashing, I did research. Under "subject" came "fiction," listing a title by this Koontz guy, whose work I had never touched because he wrote -- spit, spit -- horror! (I was very into Melville, Conrad, James, Twain, and Crane.) I bit the nail and fell madly in love with his storytelling abilities. I had to know more which led to more of his books as well as his biography and a companion book. In his biography, he noted how he fell madly in love with the Travis McGee novels and especially the Gold Medal paperbacks of John D. MacDonald. Besides digging into the McGee books and the rest, I also found an Introduction Koontz had written for some Texas writer who could have been a Tator King if he hadn't decided he just had to write (Joe R. Lansdale) and a story of a visit to that companion Koontz volume editor who lived in Cedar Rapids, IA (Ed Gorman).
There's a pattern here, isn't there?
The next thing I knew I was knee-deep in the horror community, still writing what I write: dark fantasy. More writers came my way: Brian A. Hopkins (one of the most gifted storytellers I know), Jean Rabe (I sooooo would like to be in her mind for just a day just to see those amazing worlds of hers!), Dave Silva (write MORE, please!), and the master of all living storytellers: Gene Wolfe.
I'd be remiss to not mention Ray Bradbury. I've been reading this master's work since I was young. And Flannery O'Connor, Shirley Jackson, James Morrow, and...
My point is that to write one has to sit down on the chair and WRITE. But first, and most importantly, one has to read. And read. And read.
And then write and write and write.
Best
Judi
Every writer has inside her the vast ocean of words she has gulped down during her descent into the deep. Which writers' words are yours?
The first writer whose words I truly fell in love with is James Michener. No, not his TALES FROM THE SOUTH PACIFIC, but THE FIRES OF SPRING and his enormous THE SOURCE. While the former offered an eloquent tale of one man's journey into adulthood, the latter pitched historical truths that let me wrap my head around the fact that real people have left their footprints in the dusts of the aging Earth and the rest of us who stumble along behind manage to mimic those footfalls.
Yet just as nothing really changes, it is at once altogether different. Michener had his own tales to tell just as every writer has.
One of the saddest interviews I ever did was with a man who followed the career of another of my favorite Storytellers: John D. MacDonald. This man related that he, too, had been a writer, but after reading so much of John D.'s stories, he knew he could never achieve that standard of storytelling, so he just quit writing. I'm certain John D. would never have wanted that.
The best writers I know are also some of the most supportive. Joe R. Lansdale, who is probably closest to being this generation's Mark Twain in storytelling, offered his congratulations to me when I had my very first story published. "Now take the next step," he wrote. "Write another story."
Ed Gorman, one of the most prolific and soul-seering writers I am honored to know, is also one of the most giving and encouraging booster to young (or even old) writers. But, like all the others named above, his written words teach more than he could ever tell. No one puts the slush and crunch into describing snow quite like Ed.
I might not have stumbled upon John D., Joe R., or Ed if it hadn't been for Dean Koontz. I was writing a story that involved brainwashing. Not having any first-hand experiences with brainwashing, I did research. Under "subject" came "fiction," listing a title by this Koontz guy, whose work I had never touched because he wrote -- spit, spit -- horror! (I was very into Melville, Conrad, James, Twain, and Crane.) I bit the nail and fell madly in love with his storytelling abilities. I had to know more which led to more of his books as well as his biography and a companion book. In his biography, he noted how he fell madly in love with the Travis McGee novels and especially the Gold Medal paperbacks of John D. MacDonald. Besides digging into the McGee books and the rest, I also found an Introduction Koontz had written for some Texas writer who could have been a Tator King if he hadn't decided he just had to write (Joe R. Lansdale) and a story of a visit to that companion Koontz volume editor who lived in Cedar Rapids, IA (Ed Gorman).
There's a pattern here, isn't there?
The next thing I knew I was knee-deep in the horror community, still writing what I write: dark fantasy. More writers came my way: Brian A. Hopkins (one of the most gifted storytellers I know), Jean Rabe (I sooooo would like to be in her mind for just a day just to see those amazing worlds of hers!), Dave Silva (write MORE, please!), and the master of all living storytellers: Gene Wolfe.
I'd be remiss to not mention Ray Bradbury. I've been reading this master's work since I was young. And Flannery O'Connor, Shirley Jackson, James Morrow, and...
My point is that to write one has to sit down on the chair and WRITE. But first, and most importantly, one has to read. And read. And read.
And then write and write and write.
Best
Judi
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Pandora's Closet has been released!
What author wouldn't be excited when her story finally appears in print? I know nothing gives me more incentive to get my butt on the chair to write more than to hold in my hot little hands one of my stories in big fat print.
PNADORA'S CLOSET, edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg and published by Daw, has been released a tad early. Inside the covers of this fine anthology rests "Revolution: Number 9," my story.
Within the hour I will indeed clutch a copy, no doubt sharing my glee with all the librarians at the Oaklyn branch of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library.
The local bookstores don't have copies yet and my contributor's copy hasn't yet arrived, so I will settle for the temporary possession of the library's copy. In fact, I will place a wish on the copy that it may be read by many and enjoyed. Even the stories by Timothy Zahn, Nancy and Belle Holder, Elizabeth Vaughan, and others.
Just a note here: Authors do NOT receive tons a free copies. We buy extra copies (and rarely at any kind of discount). So if you have an author friend, please consider buying a copy from her or him. You'll no doubt get a free inscription and lots and lots of gratitude.
It's interesting that the Wall Street Journal has an article that ties into my story (in a way that you'll understand when you read "Revolution: Number 9"), and I invite you to take a look at it: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118601703096585591.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone
Off to Oaklyn now...
Happy writing!
Best
Judi
PNADORA'S CLOSET, edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg and published by Daw, has been released a tad early. Inside the covers of this fine anthology rests "Revolution: Number 9," my story.
Within the hour I will indeed clutch a copy, no doubt sharing my glee with all the librarians at the Oaklyn branch of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library.
The local bookstores don't have copies yet and my contributor's copy hasn't yet arrived, so I will settle for the temporary possession of the library's copy. In fact, I will place a wish on the copy that it may be read by many and enjoyed. Even the stories by Timothy Zahn, Nancy and Belle Holder, Elizabeth Vaughan, and others.
Just a note here: Authors do NOT receive tons a free copies. We buy extra copies (and rarely at any kind of discount). So if you have an author friend, please consider buying a copy from her or him. You'll no doubt get a free inscription and lots and lots of gratitude.
It's interesting that the Wall Street Journal has an article that ties into my story (in a way that you'll understand when you read "Revolution: Number 9"), and I invite you to take a look at it: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118601703096585591.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone
Off to Oaklyn now...
Happy writing!
Best
Judi
Saturday, July 21, 2007
The Good and Lazy Days of Summer!
Yesterday was my husband's birthday. The gift he wanted most was the arrival of Aerith Eden Owen, our first grandchild. Though our daughter looks ready to pop, L'il Socks didn't come. Poor Byron had to settle for music DVDs and a gift card from Home Depot.
The day brought good news for me though. My poem, "A Love Song from the Sea," which I read at the SUMMER CHILLS event at Willard Library a couple of weeks ago, has found a home in the upcoming anthology "POEtry: without apologies," edited by Stephen M. Wilson. Other poets whose works will appear are Joe Haldeman, Jane Yolen, Brian Aldiss, Michael Bishop, Bruce Boston, Marge Simon, Patrick O'Leary, Linda Addison, Elizabeth Hand, Michael A. Arnzen, Charlee Jacob, David Niall Wilson, Corine deWinter, Claire Cooney, and others. I'm humbled and thrilled. Though I have been writing poetry since I was 8 or 9, this is my first sale.
Finding homes for my writing is the best affirmation I know. It also provides the very best kick in the ass for writing more!
In fact, I'm going to write now...
Best
Judi
The day brought good news for me though. My poem, "A Love Song from the Sea," which I read at the SUMMER CHILLS event at Willard Library a couple of weeks ago, has found a home in the upcoming anthology "POEtry: without apologies," edited by Stephen M. Wilson. Other poets whose works will appear are Joe Haldeman, Jane Yolen, Brian Aldiss, Michael Bishop, Bruce Boston, Marge Simon, Patrick O'Leary, Linda Addison, Elizabeth Hand, Michael A. Arnzen, Charlee Jacob, David Niall Wilson, Corine deWinter, Claire Cooney, and others. I'm humbled and thrilled. Though I have been writing poetry since I was 8 or 9, this is my first sale.
Finding homes for my writing is the best affirmation I know. It also provides the very best kick in the ass for writing more!
In fact, I'm going to write now...
Best
Judi
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Research means RE Search
On the sidebar, I've noted that PANDORA'S CLOSET, a new anthology coming from Daw next month, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Jean Rabe, will contain a story of mine. "Revolution: Number 9" was a convergence (like most stories) of a number of ideas, though most particularly from two stories I read in the WALL STREET JOURNAL.
When Jean Rabe invited me to sublit a story, she asked for a tale that elaborated in some way about someTHING that could pop out or be dragged of a closet, Pandora's closet, no less.
Those familiar with Pandora and her box might recall how all manner of horrible things were released when she lifted the lid. In this new anthology, 19 writers allow her to render additional damage from a closet.
What came to my mind first was Johnny Cash's black shirt. I mulled the implications of where that story could go. That's when two different stories from the WSJ struck me. One involved the military use of Brain Ports (C) while the other considered how history had been rewritten by artists through placing spectacles on famous people who lived before glasses had come into use.
That's when John Lennon entered the mix.
And just how does all this gel? Heh heh. You'll have to read my story. PANDORA'S CLOSET will be available at all the online booksellers and through their brick 'n mortar stores, too, though you may have to ask them to order you a copy. (Please ask!)
At any rate, Rabe was kind enough to send me a link to an MSNBC story about Lennon's glasses. I invite you to take a look: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19796465/from/ET/.
PANDORA'S CLOSET will be released on August 7. You can't wait, right? Neither can I.
Best
Judi
When Jean Rabe invited me to sublit a story, she asked for a tale that elaborated in some way about someTHING that could pop out or be dragged of a closet, Pandora's closet, no less.
Those familiar with Pandora and her box might recall how all manner of horrible things were released when she lifted the lid. In this new anthology, 19 writers allow her to render additional damage from a closet.
What came to my mind first was Johnny Cash's black shirt. I mulled the implications of where that story could go. That's when two different stories from the WSJ struck me. One involved the military use of Brain Ports (C) while the other considered how history had been rewritten by artists through placing spectacles on famous people who lived before glasses had come into use.
That's when John Lennon entered the mix.
And just how does all this gel? Heh heh. You'll have to read my story. PANDORA'S CLOSET will be available at all the online booksellers and through their brick 'n mortar stores, too, though you may have to ask them to order you a copy. (Please ask!)
At any rate, Rabe was kind enough to send me a link to an MSNBC story about Lennon's glasses. I invite you to take a look: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19796465/from/ET/.
PANDORA'S CLOSET will be released on August 7. You can't wait, right? Neither can I.
Best
Judi
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