I blame the Yarn Harlot.

Back in June, she started a project “Let the Boring Begin,” And though it seemed as though it was/is a sea of garter stitchery, it also looked like it might be a pretty cool blankey to knit.

After many different cast-ons, I opted to go for a larger needle size than the actual pattern called for. I also decided that I wanted to go with a three color schematic rather than the four that the original pattern calls for.

The nice thing about the log cabin pattern is that like the log cabin quilt pattern, it’s open to all sorts of wonderful mutations and modifications.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

The gearing up has begun.

Yesterday, I cleaned up the kitchen…again. The clean linen table cloth–white covers the kitchen table. The basket on the counter is slowly being filled with things chocolate and yummy. There’s a basket of writer’s block knitting nearby.

And I’ve tossed a warm kitteh blankey onto the chair near the window to attract soft and furry support of the feline variety.

Whilst lots of thought has gone into the set up of some scene cards, other relevant writing tools and tricks have fallen by the wayside. But I really need to get them figured out too.

I know I keep repeating myself, but I have a murder victim and a murderer…YAY!!!

There’s even a scene of the crime complete with crime scene investigators…or at least the small town equivalent (e.g. sheriff, deputy, and coroner crew). That is before the news filters out that the victim is someone of “federal interest.” Then we wind up with a whole crew of investigators from the local office.

Other things…

We went on a ghost walk a week or so ago. Why is it that we got the lone “nothing ghostly ever happens to me” tour guide? I mean…seriously. If you’re going to be a guide, you might want to at least get into the “ghostly” mood. The tour was good. It could’ve been great.

I haven’t had a chance to look at the few photos I was able to get.

But I think we’re headed to the Patapsco Women’s Institute for a ghost hunt…if there are reservation openings.

After taking the quiz, I’ve found out:

Take the Quiz here!

Nanowrimo is coming. And I’ve got my murder victim as well as my murderer (any similarities between the murderer and anyone in my life are purely ::cough:: coincidental ::cough::).

I’ve got the town–located in the middle of the Catskills…a conglomeration of several towns that I have lived in or visited.

My amateur sleuth owns and operates a yarn shop. (side note: this is my new dream job. If I could figure out how to do it, I’d be there now…running a shop and having a blast.)

I’ve got this odd ghost hunting thing floating around it. But I’m not too sure where it’s going to fit in to the novel. Perhaps there’s a ghost hunting group hanging out up at the cemetery…

A friend of mine and I are going to the ghost tour up in Ellicott City this weekend. So I get to use some of the information that I’ve been reading about in Fionna Broom’s podcasts and Ghost Hunting class. And the batteries in the digital camera are all charged up…I even have back ups.

w00t!!!

And there are quite a number of different knitting projects in the basket that are “in progress” (I honestly think that’s a euphemism for “I’m a procrastinator”).

So what did I do? Yup…I ordered a drop spindle and a ball of roving:

from copperpot to try my hand at spinning. I’ll be picking up a book on spinning this afternoon after work.

What. The. Hell. Am. I. Thinking???

And what is the shelf-life of a pumpkin?

Why?

Cause I can, I guess…

Top Ten Desert Island Books (in no particular order):

1. Alexandre Dumas The Three Musketeers
2. Arturo Perez Reverte The Club Dumas
3. Katherine Neville The Eight
4. Douglas Adams Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
5. Neal Stephenson Cryptonomicon
6. Charles de Lint Moonheart
7. Charles de Lint Spiritwalk
8. Mark Danilewski House of Leaves
9. H. P. Lovecraft Short Stories
10. Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice

And there’s a whole ‘nother trunk full of different series books that I want on my desert island too…and a case of Saranac’s Pomegranate Wheat (trust me…it’s good). (Note to self: Ask beer store guy to order the Pumpkin Ale.)

This list doesn’t include the packets of spiral notebook and pens that would also be stranded with me as well…cause once I’ve read or re-read all of those books, I’ll have a bunch of novel ideas to knock around.

Though…with my luck, a rescue ship’ll come by and pick me up just as I start getting down to the noveling part.

I’ve got a ton of things spinning around in my head right now. That’s making it difficult to focus on any one thing or other. So here they are in order of relative importance (in other words…there is no order of importance…really):

1. I’ve signed up for the Hollow Hill Ghost Hunting Course. (I can’t figure out if it’s really because I want to start huntin’ ghosties or if it’s going to wind up in my Nano novel)
2. The New England Ghost Project has finally posted a new podcast. (YIPPEEEE!!!)
3. I’ve been trying to figure out whether I want to whack my Nano novel’s murder victim over the head, trip him up then strangle him, or just have the murderer tackle him to the ground and whack him over the head with a stone from a local construction site. (Oh the thinks that you think when trying to plan the murder backstory to the Nano novel…he’s going to wind up poisoned. But I have to figure out how to get him unconscious in order to do the rest)
4. I’ve learned a new stitch thank ever so to the Yarn Harlot and the patience of a right handed knitter who allowed me to watch as she stitched the stitches a couple three times. (As a south paw knitter, my stitches are backwards…and potentially dizzying…to the right handed world)
5. Last night’s pool match. (I won! But I’m still playing one of those scratch on the 8 ball shots over and over in my head)
6. Replaying the latest Danger Kitty Adventure in which she manages to catch a squirrel by the tail only to wind up chasing the squirrel about the porch until the squirrel defies gravity and makes it to pissed and chattering freedom. DK manages to not fall off the porch railing in the chase. She’s learning.
7. Contemplating the fact that I’ve got like 5 knitting projects going and someone announced that I’ve got 12 weeks left for some of them…a couple are much closer to done than others.
8. Did I mention that I have to write an academic article for an upcoming conference presentation?? (Aaaargh!)
9. Then there’s the root canal. The only positive thing that I can think of with regards to even the idea of “The Root Canal” is:

I’m sure there’s more…but…

So…

A while back I ran across this awesome sweater pattern from Vogue’s Silver Anniversary series.

The cables. The squishiness. The just big warm sweater part of it is compelling.

Never mind that my experience with cable stitches isn’t that in-depth. Never mind that it gets 3 little cubey things on the difficulty scale (intermediate, I think). Never mind that I’m left-handed and the cables are going to wind up backwards.

I’m going to do it.

Indeed, I’ve actually started it.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Isn’t that yarn amazing?

Here’s a close up on the smaller cable:

I know. It’s not the llama/silk the directions suggest. But I have to admit that I went ::gleep:: at the initial price for each skein of that particular yarn. And then I realized that I’d run across the “right” wool last year at a craft festival.

So I waited for the festival to come around again. And lo’ the wonderful yarn merchants from Glennfidich Wool were there. And though they didn’t have enough of my initial pick, I noticed this heathered blue that had these flecks of purple mixed in.

Beautiful…

It’s a bit heavier and thicker than I’d expected. But once I realized that, I’d already cast it on to the needles…squeezing every last stitch onto that set of needles.

Lesson learned: If you’re going to deal with a yarn that’s just a bit thicker, switch over to a set of circular needles. That makes it soooo much easier to work with.

Project completed? Bear is sporting a scarf made out of Manos del Uruguay…

that I picked up over at Wool Winders.

Can you hear the sounds off in the distance?

The rapid cadence of galloping hooves headed in your direction? Or is that your own heart beat as you look at the calendar and realize that all of those character and plot bits you’d planned to do…this time ’round?

The rustle of leaves in the wind? Or maybe that’s the neatly organized stack of papers–the ones with plot and character notes–sliding under the couch as the galloping cat hits the stack and surfs for about 3 feet…into the edge of the couch.

The gurgle of the creek behind you? Or is that the sound of your stomach as you remember you need to stock up on chocolate, crunchy things, and coffee to help move you through the month of November on a caffeine high?

And that dark, shadowy mountain looming in the distance? Y’know… The one that’s higher than the lighter, less shadowy mountain standing next to you (aka the pile of laundry)?

That’s definitely my desk. And yup…it needs to be cleaned off and organized. There’s plenty of stuff in there that I should’ve probably dealt with ages ago…and some stuff that could easily be tossed into the recycling box…if only…

The changing leaves? The crisp and cold wind? The knot in my stomach? Those are all signs of one thing…something that even Paul Revere couldn’t have anticipated that night he looked up to see the lights in the Old North Church (which btw, is a really cool church…if you get to Boston, it’s a must see.)

Besides…as has been noted over at Paperback Writer:

15. What else are you going to do for the entire month of November?

Nano is coming!!! Nano is coming!!!

w00t!!

So now is the time to start thinking about all the things you planned to think about…months ago. And thus, I’ve started to think about my Nano playlist…and lust after the new ipod nano…darn it.

I’m working on a cozy mystery. I’ve got the murderee. I’ve got maybe the murderer. I’ve got the method. And I’ve got tons of motives and suspects…maybe too many. I have the amateur sleuth. And I’ve got the grumbly love interest who also happens to be with the FBI.

But…none of them are clearly defined…nor are they well organized. But Aimee Mann and The Corrs seem to be part of the playlist.

Have joined the Book and Writers Community over @ compuserve. Thus far it seems pretty cool.

Though I have not yet made the jump into the Writer’s Workshop that it’s connected to.

The BIAM challenge went down the tubes with the arrival of a stack of papers that needed to be graded. Nothing like grading papers to halt all creative thought . Students are great…but their work is focused on non-fiction. (Maybe someday I’ll get to teach a fiction workshop style class ::fingers crossed::)

Anyhow, ScriptFrenzy is still going on. But that too seems to have been shelved.

All that being said, Jenny over at the compuserv group has set up the Muse Exercise for April. But since I dove in there at the end of March, I figured I might give the March exercise a go.

Right now…the thing that scares me the most is the Unknown…and that’s a big one as I try to figure out what to do with my life and career and this odd vibe of wanderlust that’s been bugging the crap out of me lately (I’m feeling a lot like Vianne from Chocolat when she starts to hear the winds blowing and calling).

So much for Exercise 2. How ’bout 1?

Borrowing the sentence from Caleb Carr’s The Italian Secretary:

Looking down, both my friend and I saw the ominous form of a small homemade bomb.

Staring down at the device, I felt this cold chill start at the base of my neck and spread throughout my body. First, the cold crept up to my scalp and set every strand of hair on edge with the tingling…not a good tingling mind you. That was quickly followed by the chill scrolling down my spine and out to my finger tips. Those fingers…they’d been warm earlier. Now? Now they just felt like skin colored icicles. And I couldn’t feel them. Finally, the cold shivered down past the base of my spine to my legs…and those weren’t very helpful as I just stood and stared at the small box that contained the possibility of our end.

And I swear…the first thing, the first thought that scampered across the blank screen that was my brain on bomb was “Nice shoes.” Y’know what? That was it. The very absurdity of that thought was just enough to make me move my still frozen legs towards her…sitting there, her wrists and ankles duct taped together…with that damn box sitting on her lap.

And that’s when I heard the voice behind me shout, “Stop!!!”

So there you go…

Flip through a book you haven’t read yet. Find a single sentence and write it down. Then go off on your own tangent for 10 minutes. See where you go…

Thinking that it would drop kick me back into noveling action, I thought that I would step into the Book in a Month challenge set forward by Victoria Lynn Schmidt.

So off I went and joined the Yahoo e-group connected to the book (VBIAMClub), which seems to have garnered quite a number of members. While the current challenge is running from 15 March to 15 April, there appear to be any number of different challenges going on simultaneously. Or at least a couple seem to be couple different challenges going on…or starting.

Anyhow, I joined and set up my goals…or rather goal–continue/finish the novel I’d started during Nanowrimo this past November. I’d finished the 50K words. But I soooo wasn’t done with the novel. So I got down to brass tacks and read through chunks of the book to figure out what it was that I was supposed to be doing according to the book, which is great I suppose. After all, there are lots of things that I know my Nano novel was missing…including some more in-depth character development and such. (I’ve been wandering confused…back and forth re: character sketches).

Work, as usual, got in the way. But I figured that I’d catch up over the weekend. I wrote up the Log Line as well as the back cover description. I got the basics of the outline figured out. I even got the Story Idea Map going for Chapter 1 as a way of getting back into the story. And then I ran into the challenge…scene cards.

Schmidt mentions that there ought to be 10 core scene cards. One for the beginning…one for the end. The rest of the scene cards fill out the middle ground between the middle and the end. Some of them are related to the various plot points embedded within the three acts.

But that’s where my confusion begins. Where she advises that there not be that many actual scene shifts, I’m trying to figure out whether or not those scenes are changes in locations or more overarching re: a particular story point that starts in one location and ends up in another.

The folks over at Scriptfrenzy (an idea I’m toying around with) have set up a scene worksheet that has a series of questions that might be helpful in developing the ins and outs of those scenes…once I figure out what is and isn’t considered a scene .

So I scanned that, and it looks very helpful. But it still leaves me with questions about what is considered a scene. Still confused, I found this article “Writing a Screenplay with a Full Deck.” In this article, there’s a discussion about how the storyline is divided up into about 40 different scene cards…some of which appear to deal with the Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell rears his head ).

Defining a scene would help…

The purpose of a scene helps achieve coherence in a short story or novel. The fiction writer should have a goal to accomplish with each scene. A scene lets the reader know that the setting has changed too. Common purposes of a scene include:

• Advance story – The scene must move the story forward. This could mean introducing a problem or making a problem worse for the characters.
• Show conflict – The conflict could be between two characters, a character and nature, a character and time, and so on.
• Introduce character – The reader needs to meet each character at some point. A careful writer does not introduce too many characters in one scene. This could confuse the reader.
• Develop character – Along with introducing a character, a writer can use a scene to show the character’s good and bad points.
• Create suspense – Suspense keeps the reader’s interest going, perhaps more than any other element of fiction
• Give information – The writer can weave information into a scene so the reader knows the needed background of the story.
• Create atmosphere – Using conventions such as setting, weather, and time, the writer can create a certain mood in a scene.
• Develop theme – A piece of fiction should have a theme. Each scene should bring out the theme to the reader.

Scenes that are memorable, the ones the reader remembers, will attempt to achieve as many of the previously mentioned purposes as possible. If the scene has no purpose — or even has a purpose, but not a sufficient one to justify the space it takes up — the writer should cut that scene out of the story.

Sometimes the scene is followed by a sequel…or aftermath…the fallout of what happened in the last scene:

The Sequel has the three parts Reaction, Dilemma, and Decision. Again, each of these is critical to a successful Sequel. Remove any of them and the Sequel fails to work. Let me add one important point here. The purpose of a Sequel is to follow after a Scene. A Scene ends on a Disaster, and you can’t immediately follow that up with a new Scene, which begins with a Goal. Why? Because when you’ve just been slugged with a serious setback, you can’t just rush out and try something new. You’ve got to recover. That’s basic psychology.

And that led me into the whole thing about writing the “perfect” scene:

As we said, the Scene has the three parts Goal, Conflict, and Disaster. Each of these is supremely important. I am going to define each of these pieces and then explain why each is critical to the structure of the Scene. I assume that you have selected one character to be your Point Of View character. In what follows, I’ll refer to this character as your POV character. Your goal is to convincingly show your POV character experiencing the scene. You must do this so powerfully that your reader experiences the scene as if she were the POV character.

Also found this: How to Avoid Chasing Paper As A Writer

So now I’m off to work out this part of the puzzle…hopefully, I can get that figured out.