Naps

At what age do we switch from screaming "I'm not tired! I don't need a nap!" to being willing to pay cash for a chance to lie down for 20 minutes and close our eyes?

I love naps. Always have. But I don't often let myself indulge.  Part of the reason is that I become addicted quicker than if you stuck a cigarette between my lips. Two days of lying down at noon and my body decides that's the new pattern for life and goes into a slump and pouts if I don't allow it to hit the bed.

But lately I've been dragging. Really dragging. Like, sitting at the computer and finding myself doing the almost-asleep head bop.  I let myself lay down a couple of times and crashed hard, for 2 hours. But then I was foggy and fussy when I woke up, so that didn't really help.

I'm getting 6-7 hours of sleep a night. Not my ideal eight, but enough that I shouldn't be falling asleep in front of my desk.  I was ready to go to the doctor when my yoga instructor asked how long I'd been feeling this way. "About a month or so," I said. She pointed out the time frame coincides with when I started running.

"But I've always exercised," I said. "Besides, isn't exercise supposed to energize you for the day?"

She agreed, but noted that since I've been running longer and harder than usual, my body may just be going through an adjustment period. She also suggested I make sure to eat healthy and take vitamins.

Man! Isn't one of the benefits of exercise supposed to be you can indulge in ice-cream for dinner on a more regular basis because you know you'll work it off?  They always find a way to screw you in the end. But I think she's right. I need to pay better attention to my diet. I'd eat cereal, ice-cream and South Beach Diet Chocolate Snack Bars 24/7 if left to my own devices. A vegetable now and again might not be a bad idea.

I'm also encouraged because one of my good friends who works from home and who I admire told me she tries to take a nap every day after lunch. I was surprised because she's very disciplined and I didn't see her allowing herself that luxury. But she's made it part of her day and if she has to stay a little later at her desk at night to make up the time, so be it.

I admit I've already napped today and it's only 10 am. I was up at 5, went to yoga at 6, home by 7, and crashed from 8-9. (My mom is going to kill me as just last night I was yelling at her for going back to bed in the mornings!) But I feel great! Awake, alert and looking forward to work. One of those three projects I mentioned came through this morning so I'm going to get a jump on that.

My wish for all of you on this sweltering Friday is that you find time today for a nap. =)

Workflow

I'm in limbo this week. At the end of last week I had three different people contact me and tell me to "get ready" as each had a "rush" project they needed my help with. 

Money, money, money! I completed my other work and now I sit, hands poised over my keyboard, waiting for the "Go" signal. But the phone remains silent and no e-mails appear. Where is the work?

That's the nature of freelancing. Sometimes the promised work comes in, sometimes it doesn't.  I remain confident these three projects will materialize and I'm willing to bet they'll show up on the same day with almost identical deadlines. Never say the Universe doesn't have a sense of humor. But that's okay. While I don't necessarily like working under pressure, I thrive on it. Put an emergency in front of me and I am on it. It's when I have 5 weeks to complete a project and feel no sense of urgency that I lollygag around and do less than my best work.

They're fun projects too, fun meaning different. One is editing web site content for a local business, one is editing an inspirational book and one is writing "message on hold" phone text for a vet.

Meanwhile, I'm working on my public speaking book, writing some really bad picture book text (but I'm having fun with it) and setting up interviews for upcoming articles. Yesterday, for the first time in the 3 years I've been freelancing, I had someone decline an interview with me. I'd e-mailed a jewelry workshop teacher in NY and he very politely said he would prefer to pass on the interview. Well! My curious (read: nosy) nature makes me wonder why he passed but no harm done. I e-mailed someone else and now wait to hear back.

It's 98 degrees here today with a heat index of 105. Our AC at home can't keep up and upstairs it's reading 88 degrees and 77 downstairs. At least we have AC.  I can't imagine withstanding this heat without it.

Everyone keep cool.

Monster House & Writing Advice

I mentioned in my blog about my niece's visit that we saw--and despised--Monster House. The motion-capture technology they use is cool but the majority of the plot (such that it is) is a huge snore.

 This is too bad, as I think the idea of a house that eats children holds huge entertainment potential. Where did Monster House go wrong?

 They went wrong in that they had an idea but didn't follow through with it.  What's below is copied from my friend Ed's blog  at Side-Show Freaks and is a quote from Gene Wolf:

“When you write a story of your own, you start with a good idea. You work hard because you notice the harder you work, the better the story gets. Then you discovered the story doesn’t have the effect on others that you know it should and you don’t know why. I’m going to tell you – watch my lips.

You didn’t do much with your idea. You unconsciously assumed that because it was such a fine strong, sleek and even potentially dangerous idea, it could run the story by itself.

If I could give you one piece of advice…, it would be this: Think of yourself as a wild beast trainer, and your idea as a big cat in a show; walking out onto stage and saying, “Hey, look at my lion,” isn’t going to cut it. Is your idea going to jump through a hoop of flame? Is it going to climb onto the shoulders of two other ideas and roar?

You’ve got an idea…, and that’s good; now let’s see you put your head in the idea’s mouth.”

In a nutshell, that's what's wrong with Monster House. They had a good idea and thought the story would run itself. It didn't.  

In my writer's group (or any writer's group, for that matter) there's a lot of attention paid to dialogue. Too many writers, me included, get caught up in the details of life. It's like having a phone ring in your novel and your character goes to answer it and the following dialogue ensues:

"Hello?"

"Hi, is this Sally?"

"Yes, this is Sally. Who's speaking?"

"Hi Sally, this is Jim. I met you at the party on Friday night..."

"Oh yes. Jim. I remember. Hi, how are you?"

"I'm fine. Listen, I was wondering..."

Okay, now how boring is that to read? Much better to simply say, "Sally was thrilled when Jim called to ask her out." Now we're moving along. But the above is what Monster House did. They TOLD every bit of boring dialogue that yes, does occur in everyday life but which even novice writers know has no place in an actual book or movie. I can't imagine how this film got past the writers/editors/directors/etc. Isn't Spielberg involved in this??

To be fair, while I didn't like the movie as a whole, I did like the characters in it--Chowder's a hoot. And my friend Trisha's son Max who is almost 9 loved it.  I think the movie can appeal to younger kids but it missed the mark at crossing the line and appealing to both kids and adults.

My work translated into Czech

I just received an e-mail from the editor of the Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul book that they've sold foreign rights to the Czech Republic.  So my two stories, "Can You See Me?" and "Morning Revelry" will be translated into Czech! How cool is that? Don't know if I'll be able to lay my hands on a translated copy but I'm going to try.