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Category Archives: Other Strangeness

Positive Reinforcement

13 Feb

All too often we dwell on the negative. Our families know what buttons to push. Teachers tell us we need to apply ourselves. The media tells us that we are too dumb to know what is best for us. Our writers groups slice our sacred words to ribbons. And sometimes we actually believe them!

Then we take a break and regroup. We come back and open up our site and find the gem that shines as a beacon. A glimmer of hope that says, someone liked a post, someone made a comment that gives us a new idea, or someone like Shannon Howell gives you a Versatile Blogger Award.

No, it’s not like winning the lottery or receiving a six figure advance for a three book deal. However, it is positive reinforcement that indicates that what I do has touched someone else in some small way.

As I step to the podium to accept this award, I am reminded to complete three tasks:

1) Thank you, Shannon for thinking me worthy. Though my site is only a few weeks old, I promise to live up to the letter of this award.

2)  Seven things about myself not otherwise listed:

     a. Master Gardener through the University of Minnesota Extension Office.

     b. Ballroom dancing kept me busy until I decided to use the money spent on lessons to buy a house.

     c. I have built and flown radio-controlled airplanes.

     d. I am an omnivoure by genetic design.

     e. The first book I read cover to cover was, “Where Eagles Dare” by Alistair MacLean.

     f. I spent eight years working on advance life support ambulances.

     g. I am not a touch typist.

3) Fifteen Blogs that deserve this award (Are you kidding me?):

Robotic Rhetoric – Because he was the first to hit my site and he has an interesting sense of humor as he attempts to destroy the english language. 

M J Wright

 From Kathleen’s Desk

 Teschoenborn

 Writers Write Daily

 Compromise and Conceit

 Scribbling in the Storage Room

Michael Radcliffe

Dawn Ross

Making Baby Grand the Novel

Writings of Cassidy Cornblatt

Writing by the Numbers

Be a Novelist

Jake’s Blog

Nicola l Mcdonald

It may take me a while to notify everyone they have been nominated. However, I will get it done as soon as possible.

 
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Posted by on February 13, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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Heros and Villains

06 Feb

Which is harder to create and make real, your hero or your villain? Almost everyone I speak with says that villains are much more fun to write. “You can do anything and get away with it.”  “Let you mean side take over.” You can be despicable and no one gets hurt.” Well, I must be the odd ball. One of my greatest struggles is writing a believable villain. Now, I know that my antagonist must be at least as bad as my protagonist is good.  But, for some reason my bad guys keep coming off as cliché’s. The truth is that getting into the head of a psychopath is just plain scary. I’m not an evil person. I like to think that I’m a pretty nice guy. How in the world can I know what’s going on inside the head of a maniac? To borrow someone else’s quote, “Mean people suck.”

The good news is that over the past couple of months there has been a slight breakthrough. While doing some freewriting, I came upon the Keys that unlocked my antagonists. In one case it was a conversation with his mother-in-law regarding money and the fact that he can’t support her daughter the way he should. In the other case, it was growing up seeing the cleaning crews remove dead bodies of street people from the gutters of the slum each morning and finding out those bodies were taking to a man who was using them for interesting experiments. In each case there was a defining moment caused the individual to begin acting in an “evil” way. NOTE: For the record, I believe that evil is relative and is based on an individuals frame of reference. 

The Key is, what was the set of circumstances that set the antagonist on the path they walk? All of us, no matter how good and pacific we may think we are, if given the right set of circumstances, are capable of horrendous acts. This is the truth. If you do not believe me, watch the evening news or ask anyone who has been in a combat zone, worked in law enforcement, or emergency medicine. So, what is it that can make a nice, sane person turn “evil”? That is the question that I have been asking my characters. I ask them to remember their defining moment and then free write until I have enough material to explain their actions.

So, my friends, I have two questions for you: Do you prefer to write about your hero or your villain? How do you get inside your villain’s head?

 
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Posted by on February 6, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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Next Steps…Online?

30 Jan

<p><span style=”font-family:Arial;”>I related in a previous post that my first short story is in polishing.My primary writer’s group has had two whacks at it and my trusted group of test readers have added their twenty-five cents. The story is where I think it may be ready to start looking for a publishing avenue. Revisions have gone well and feedback, from those I know, is positive. I will be adding a Work In Progress page soon but in the mean time I have been wondering if an additional test sample of readers is in order.</span></p>
<p><strong>I am wondering. What are your views regarding the viability of online workshops/critique groups? If you participate in them and what has been your experience?</strong> </p>
<p>I truly will appreciate all of your thoughts.</p>

 
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Posted by on January 30, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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So many ideas, so little time.

23 Jan

<p>Recently, I have seen several posts relating to writer’s groups or critique groups. I do believe they are a necessary tool for any author. So much so that I recently joined my second group. During my first meeting with this group, they asked to see a selection my work. So, I submitted excerpts from four different projects which are in various stages of completion. They were the beginning 4 pages of a short story that I’m polishing, the opening scene to my first attempt at a novel, the opening scene to an urban fantasy idea that is rattling around in my head, and an opening scene to a character study I was playing around with to help flush out part of my World. </p>
<p>One of the group was kind enough to send me some feedback prior to our next meeting. Her comments were kind, accurate, and useful as I expected they would be. What really struck me was not what she said but rather, why in the world did I have so many different projects. </p>
<p>It really should not have surprised me. I have a four drawer file cabinet full of characters, cities, castles, monsters, plot lines, and potential backstory. Coming up with ideas is not the problem. It’s taking those ideas and developing a cohesive, entertaining story.</p>
<p>Well, over the weekend, I came to some decisions. One, I will continue to polish the short story and submit it for publishing. Second, I will focus on a novel-length piece that I story-boared during a class I took last December. Third, everything else will remian on the back burner until further notice.</p>
<p>There, I put it in writing for the world to see. Look for updates and excerpts in the future. If you don’t see something soon, let me know that you will hold me to it.</p>

 
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Posted by on January 23, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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Long Drives and Great Ideas

17 Jan

While taking a writing class a few months ago the subject of the writing habit came up. In particular, the instructor asked the class,  When are we most creative? I had to think about it for a while. I am most productive at work during the early morning hours before the rest of the office comes in. These days I do most of my writing on my lunch hour. However, my best ideas come to me when I’m on a long drive, preferably late at night.

For example: It was the summer of 1997 and I was driving from Illinois to Iowa, about five and a half hours. I left my twenty year high school reunion at about midnight and headed up into Wisconsin following a route I had taken to get to college. It took me through the country for a while and then pick-ed up the interstate to Madison. Once I bypassed Madison it was a winding two-lane from there to the Iowa border. I knew the drive quite well.

There is something about travelling a road you are familiar with in the dark of night with little traffic that allowed my mind to drift. The previous week, I had written a character background that included a strange elf named, Hare. Yes. that is where the name of this blog comes from. Anyway, I started to noodle on why Hare had befriended the character in question. This lead me to work through Hare’s personality and motives. In turn, Hare’s family and background started to come together. Finally, his profession as a border scout was decided upon, “Wow,” I told myself. “This is a cool character.” I settled back and let my mind wander.

In the darkness, I could see trees flashing by. One minute I was Dennis, driving along Highway 18 at 65 miles and hour. The next I was an elf running through the trees desperately trying to escape a band of mercenaries. They were attacking my village and killing everyone. Wounded and scared, I ran as fast as I could but stumbled into one of my own traps. The mercenaries were looking for someone in particular because, when the leader saw me, he told his men that I was not the one and they should kill me.

My eyes came back to the road and I realized my heart was pounding. Now before you panic and scramble to get off the road when I’m driving, let me explain that the whole time the scene was playing in my head, I was fully awake and cognizant of the road and my surroundings.

The rest of the drive flew by as I began working on the details of the scene. The material that came from this strange episode became a dream sequence in a novel project that I’m working on. The problem with getting ideas while driving is it’s hard to write and drive at the same time. Good thing I have a good memory.

 
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Posted by on January 17, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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Welcome to Hare’s Tales

16 Jan

Hello and well met. You have entered a world where my life experiences, spirit, and imagination are the clay that are molded into stories that I hope you will find entertaining. At the very least, you will get a chance to see some of the trials, tribulations, angst, and ecstacy that this writer experiences while he wades through the process of developing stories. As the process moves along, together we will share exceprts from said stories and I look forward to your comments.

I have always enjoyed good stores told well. Whether it was my mother reading Mary Poppins books to me as a child, watching Family Classics movies on the old Zenith, or listening to an old storyteller recite Jack London’s, “To Build a Fire”, while sitting around a summer campfire, a good story always captured me and opened my own imagination to endless possibilities. My stories are not classics yet. However, every great author started by writing a single word.

Please, join me on my journey. It should be an interesting trip.

 
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Posted by on January 16, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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