Hope Darby Writings

I made a post last night and now it’s gone! Gah!

Today has been spent in the car. I had to take my little girl cat, Genie, to the vet. Poor thing has dreadful inhalant allergies, and had to have another steroid shot. Ouch! She was rewarded with a small mountain of treats when we got home, though, so I think she’ll manage

My good friend Sarah and her lovely husband Brennen helped me design a business card a few weeks ago. Those finally came in, along with refrigerator magnets of the same design, and a bunch of glossy flyers, return address labels, etc. So I’ll be spending the next little while hoofing it to the local university, companies that distribute newsletters, the library, etc, to hang flyers and pass out cards. Have to drum up business!

I need an updated version of The Writer’s Market. I have 2007′s edition, and I know that a lot of the information is outdated. But geeze, those things are expensive.

By the way, is it flyers, or fliers? I never can remember…

Today is Saturday, and in the southern states that means one thing and one thing only: football.

More specifically, college football.

Even more specifically, SEC college football.

The world stops, the housework goes unnoticed, the finger-foods go down the gullet faster than Tom Cruise goes through glib comments, and ardent SEC fans whoop and holler at thousands of television screens in stereo. Armchair coaches, sofa-bound defensive coordinators, and backyard quarterbacks cheer, curse, and hotly debate each penalty as it is called, by refs who are obviously biased toward one team or the other. Instant replays are demanded, DVRs rewound, and each commercial break is hailed with frenetic channel changing to see what’s going on at another game.

Roll Tide, Hail State, and Go Backs

Earlier today, I was reminded of something that happened when I was a kid. We lived on an Air Force Base, so it was not at all uncommon for kids to get together and take off playing, not to return home until the streetlights came on. It was safe. We would play hide-and-seek games that spanned two or three blocks, and our parents never worried.

One summer evening, the streetlights came on and my parents hadn’t seen me anywhere outside. They started looking for me. They went outside, yelled my name, asked my friends if they knew where I was, knocked on neighbors’ doors, everything. Right before my dad organized an impromptu search posse of neighborhood dads, my mother happened to ask, “Um, Reggie? Did we look in her bedroom?”

Sure enough, they thundered into the house, down the hall, and flung open my bedroom door. There I was, lying on my bed and writing in my journal. I’d been there for hours, no wonder they never saw me come in. I’d never gone out!

They can laugh about the story now, and it certainly taught them the lesson of checking my bedroom first, but I have to say that the memory made me a bit sad today. Why?

Well, back then I would write for hours. I filled notebook after notebook with poetry, stories, and thoughts. Sure, I watched my favorite cartoons and television shows, and I played outside a lot, but I was constantly writing. Constantly imagining. Constantly pretending.

Nowadays, though, I find myself struggling for ideas at times. For inspiration. For something to make me open my imagination. What happened?

Computers. DVRs. Whenever I get bored now, I can flip on the monitor or open my laptop, and immediately be entertained, without making the slightest effort. I don’t have to exercise my imagination, because thousands of other people do the imagining for me. I can get lost in their worlds, and never need to leave mine.

So how do we build our imaginations in this unconscious time? Leave the television off? Utilize some willpower and not click the Firefox button whenever I’m writing in MSWord? Or learn to blend the new with the old?

Hmmmm.

What with spook-season being just around the corner (not to mention my favorite time of year), I present to thee, Noctem Aeternus:

It was a one-off horror magazine published in .PDF format, downloadable and free. Its first, and to my knowledge only, issue was in January 2008, and available here.

Far from your typically tame horror tales, the stories told in this magazine really do their job. Goosebumps, prickly skin, staccato heartbeats, and the occasional, “What was that??” jump when the cat crosses your peripheral vision, are all side-effects of indulging in the horror-bly superb pages.

Just don’t be a chicken. Turn off the lights, save one lone lamp for reading, and do it right. After all, what’s the point in reading something scary if you aren’t prepared to be scared?

I realized today that Eva Shaw is one of the most influential writing professors in my life. I was stuck, you see, and absolutely could not figure out how to get my heroine from where she was to where she was supposed to wind up. So I pulled out a massive sheet of newsprint and started drawing circles all over it, in a brainstorming technique called “Bubbling,” also known as “Mind Mapping.” Mid-way through my Bubbling, I glanced up and saw three of Eva’s books sitting on my desk, and realized that I was doing precisely what she’d always instructed.

Get stuck? Bubble.
Stay stuck? Bubble.
Still stuck? Take a break, come back later with fresh eyes. And then Bubble.

Heh.
See, Eva? I was paying attention!

Want to learn more about Bubbling / Mind Mapping? Try these sites:

Wiki

Mind-Mapping.co.uk

Mind-Map Directory

How to Make a Mind Map in 8 Steps

To name a few =)

In order to better organize my writing (and my thoughts!) I have decided to create a political blog in conjunction with this one.

This way, anyone who doesn’t agree with my political views can still come, read, and visit, without having to wade through posts that may ruffle their feathers. I thought the most diplomatic way to keep my opinions out there, but not shoved in anyone’s face was to create the new blog.

SO!

I have removed the political posts from this site and moved them to their new home at www.hopedarbywritings.com/politics

You’ll have to bear with me a bit, I’m still working the kinks out of the system and doing more upgrades to all pages of my site.

Hope you enjoy!

Apparently, I have a “condition” known as Thygeson’s Superficial Punctate Keratitis. Which really is just a fancy-schmany name for severe, chronic dry eye. It sounds a lot scarier than it is! The main annoyance is that it causes my vision to go to pot, as if I’m wearing contacts or glasses three powers too weak. Fun times!

I tell you, I cannot wait until I am able to get LASIK. Hopefully I’ll be able to swing it next year. I’ve worn glasses since the first grade, contacts since I was 10, and quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of it. Having to pay extra for glasses because the strength is so high, special-ordering contacts because so few places keep them in stock; thank goodness for the internet, else we’d be broke by now just keeping my eyes vaguely operational.

Off I go to hydrate the peepers. Ever heard of Soothe XP? If you ever use this nectar of the eye-moistening gods, don’t be like me. I freaked out after the first drop, because I neglected to read the fine print on the box. Heck, let’s be honest, I couldn’t even see the LARGE print on the box, so at least I have an excuse. Anyway, I didn’t realize that the drops are white, and make your eye go milky/hazy for a few moments.

There’s a terror for you. Drop something in your eye just to have it white-out your vision. Egads.