Ramblings from the 'goblinn

I’m working on an original novel this year, newly composed for the occasion. I’m finding it very instructive in a lot of ways. One thing I’m noticing is how it really helps to know who you’re writing about and to have something like a plot. Fanfic helps, but does not guarantee either one. I have neither for this tale.

I’m going to outline what I do have here and what I think is blocking me, and hope folks on the flist can suggest anything at all.

But first, proud mama hobgoblinn wishes to report Wee Hob’s wordcount: 1572 as of yesterday and 139 more today so far, with another write in scheduled for the afternoon after lunch and a hike in a local park. Knights, witches, King Arthur, the French Foreign Legion— what more could you want in a novel? I’ll post some excerpts if he gives me permission later in the month.

( Hob's ghost story problems. )

Ideas, prompts, observations welcome.

( Monsignor Update First )
( But the main news is-- Nano has started, and Wee Hob got 642 words in the first two days. )
And-- I voted today. So did Wee Hob. I'm off in a minute to go home, await my Beloved, and watch returns together (maybe both of us writing on stuff to pass the time, too.) Good night to all.

Long time readers of this journal know that Wee Hob is a source of considerable distress to his poor mother at times. But not today. I just came back from parent teacher conferences. His grades:



Early US History - 92 - B+
Reading 8 - 88 - B
Writing 8 - 85 - B
Intro Chemistry - 91 - B
Math 8 Basic - 88 - B
Art - 85 - B

Friends, this is Huge. Straight B's I have never seen from him. Ever.

He's also doing better socially, hanging with good kids (even has a girl friend, or so his Assistant Principal thinks), not letting the bullies wind him up so much. He's matured a lot, and seems happier and calmer. I asked him just now if it might have something to do with this new life we're starting to work towards here, my Beloved and I and Wee Hob. He says no. I then asked if it might have anything to do with said girlfriend and he replied, "I will not answer on the on grounds that it might incriminate me."

Strangely, at the moment, I can't bring myself to be distressed about this.

And my Beloved will be here tomorrow night, about an hour from now.

It was a very harrowing, but ultimately good, day. Kind of like the clearing of boxes, I faced some more demons today and found out they had no more power over me.

( Real Life trauma, revisited. )

In other news, it was so cool today not only to get more reviews on "in Loco Parentis," and so many these past few days from new readers/ reviewers, but also to get comments, quite out of the blue, on all parts of "Two Dads"/ "Lost Boys" as they first appeared on my journal. I'm still proud of my work on that and it was nice to get someone reacting as they were reading, wondering what would happen next.

So, thanks to firefly_124 for that. You made my day, Love. Well, you and my Beloved, who always does.

First off, thanks to snarkysneak for her much anticipated box of grooviness. All items arrived safely, and were much appreciated by their respective recipients. Haven't had a chance to listen through the music yet, but I'm looking forward to it. And the Donne poem art is very cool. Donne's one of my favorites, for secular and sacred poetry alike.

And no takers on my beta call. Sigh. I guess I will beta myself and put a note on the next installment when I post it and see what turns up. There are people on the Pit of Voles who get emails when I post a new part, who are not regulars in this forum. Still, if you're thinking about it and wonder what it entails or what you might get out of it, shoot me a note. No obligation, of course. I've found the relationship with betas to be one of the most rewarding things about writing, for the give and take, what you learn from each other, what you see in your own writing after seeing someone else fall into the same traps. And of course, the threats to take away my caps key if I Don't Stop Abusing It are always fun.

But I also have to admit that what I'm trying to build in Real Life is way more important to me than (heresy) any writing I might be inclined to do.

Better get back to redirecting Wee Hob in packing for Peterloon, the big District-wide event this weekend. He was apparently missing some stuff last time.

The tale of where I have been the past couple of weeks is quickly told. Trying to keep my job and find a more stable one. Giving feedback to my Beloved on his resume, which is way so much better than mine. Wee Hobgoblinn has gone almost a week without major mishap. Dr. Wolfe is working with him on harnessing all his creativity and impulsiveness and putting it to work for him. The book she assigned him to read is known more by its variant title "Hunter in a Farmer's World," but it's the same book my Beloved brought with him last visit thinking it might be helpful, as it had shed some light on his younger self and given him some new coping strategies years ago. I'll post more on it if anybody's interested-- it's a fascinating re-framing of ADHD, not as a defect or disorder, but as an evolutionary adaptation that can serve a certain type of society very well indeed.

I've also been rehearsing with the October Festival, a pick-up chorus that pulls up its socks every year and attempts some major work on about 6 rehearsals in a month. This year we did the Vaughn Williams Dona Nobis Pacem and a couple of newly composed shorter works by local composers. One was by my friend Richard Arnest (whose flute concerto 'Liquescence' won the 2004 EPICmusic competition.) Besides that work, most of his stuff is not yet recorded. Here's a link to play that piece. Well worth a listen. Or buy the mp3 here.

The other composer, Rick Sowash, I just discovered through this venture. I was impressed with the piece he wrote for chorus and brass, and he has a website and a number of CDs which can be sampled here. I bought a copy of "Sanctuary at 3 am" and it is exquisite. Go out and take a listen, snag some of the free downloads available and throw some cash at him if you feel so inclined. Tell him one of his pals in the October Festival sent you. He doesn't know my name, real or otherwise, but I'm sure he will be happy I sent you his way.

Anyway, concert was over today by 5 without train wrecks, snacks were consumed afterward at the reception, and we are home, have hiked, and I'm just listening to my new cd and awaiting my Beloved's return online. I believe he is out running errands in his timezone.

And I have the next chapter of ILP in the hands of betas, but I'm not sure if they'll have time or the inclination to get to it for a bit. But I am starting to carve out a little writing time now that life is starting to settle back down and we have some plans in place to move towards where we all want to be. So hopefully I should have something post-able before the next visit by my Beloved.

Thanks to everyone for kind wishes and all that. Also, I have not forgotten my two box recipients. Just taking longer than I'd thought to get time to do it.

Didn't occur to me until reading secondalto's journal tonight that someone might want to know Wee Hob and I are okay after the storms. In fact we are amongst the 1/10 or so Ft. Thomas customers who actually have power. Wee Hob's favorite climbing tree was a lot shorter when we got home last night, and the apartment complex completed the job today. But we got off relatively unscathed. Lucky we were working the Ladies' Society Bingo for the church when it all started.

The damage all over is pretty impressive, though. I was bummed that my work had electricity, when so many other worthier places, like several of my friends' and cow orkers' houses, did not.

Wee Hob's school called at 5 am on their nifty automated phone bank system to tell me they were calling off school due to most buildings having no power. I think the ancient Greeks did fine holding class outside, and that the Ft. Thomas ISD could and should make do in a similar fashion. I also think they could have waited until my alarm went off at 6 to bother me with the news. But I did get a laugh later when Wee Hob called, all out of breath, to tell me he had overslept and run halfway to school before a passing car told him school had been cancelled.... I said, "Yes dear. I told you that this morning when I gave you your meds...."

Hope everyone is safe wherever you are. And that if you have power out, the people in your area know that when traffic lights are dead, you treat them as A Four Way Stop. Dude. I am a safe driver, which is why the ticket I got a couple of days ago during a traffic sweep makes me so angry. I was slowing and getting ready to exit, and the cop got me and the guy in front of me for not shifting lanes to give them proper right of way where they had some other poor bastard pulled over by the side of the highway. Or something. I'm sure I'll rant more about it in the days to come, when Campbell County District Court is actually answering its phone again.

3 days, 4 hours, 5 minutes..... Not that I'm counting or anything.

Administrative matters first-- I just made a Friends List Cut. Mostly communities, or people who had never friended me back, or people I hadn't read or heard from in a long while. Or that I thought fell into one of those categories. However, my beloved and I have pretty well established that early onset Alzheimer's is a possibility where I am concerned. So if I de-friended you and you feel strongly about it, let me know. I just am not keeping up with reading these days and am getting pretty overwhelmed.

( Work, and Resume )
( Finally, things are going pretty well in hobgoblinn's life at the moment. )

Hope everyone else is doing well. I need to go start dinner, and write some application letters.

Some months back, willowgreen and nwhepcat posted memes on their journals, offering anyone who responded and agreed to post a similar meme on their own journal their very own box of obscure grooviness. For those who don't remember the exact terms, it doesn't matter, because I have filled two boxes with interesting and groovy things I do not want to pitch. So-- if you reply to this entry and private message me with your mailing address, you will get something cool, no strings attached. Post a similar meme or not on your journal, as you like. PMs, for newer lj-ers, can be sent by visiting my profile and clicking on the link "Send this user a message."

How much loot you score depends on how many responses I get. I'm hoping removing the requirement to make the same offer will boost response here.

I have 2 more boxes to go through, and then to clean up and organize what's left. I never would have had the courage to do this on my own, or the motivation. But it feels Really Good, clearing a space in my life like this. Long overdue, letting some of this go. And finding that some of the memories don't hurt like they did. It still hurts that I won't see some of my kids again, and that I will have missed all of their childhoods if they do come looking for me later. But my kids were and are beautiful gifts, and I'm not sorry for my part in bringing them into the world, whatever else happened after. And making some of the hard choices I made gave them a chance at good lives, and freed me up for Wee Hob, who really does need me most. Not only is the sadness tempered by that realization, but-- I had avoided looking through this stuff for so long, and-- it didn't kill me.

I don't know if I can really explain that. But it's really a lot like how I got over stage fright in college. My Senior Recital, and I was almost at the end when I took a sip of water between numbers and had it go down wrong-- and Bruce had already started the intro to the last song. It was an embarrassing few seconds of choking on stage in front of friends and family and everyone I knew, and then-- I got it back, and I sang to the end. And I didn't die. I had the worst possible thing that could have happened happen, and I survived it. Takes the terror out of the whole thing, knowing that. The worst has already happened, and I survived it.

I haven't given up on writing, by the way, and my friend is very much encouraging me to keep writing. But a lot of my writing was avoiding Real Life, I see now, and I need to actually take care of a little more of that. But I will be chipping away at stuff and bugging betas soon and the like. I also have half a Christmas sequel to Lost Boys written, and I am going to shoot for getting it postable during the season.

Thanks to all of you for kind words of encouragement in my fan and Real Life endeavors.

A New Order: Hot Newes on Blazinge Fellow

( Some excerpts: )

Another winner, folkes, even if Chaucer himselfe beeth yet in Los Vegas. Or perhaps he's one of the revelers at Burning Man-- it's quite a crowd, from this report. Thanks to my work buddy Beth for making my day chatting me with the link.

And thanks to All of you, for your kind words and wishes. Things with my friend continue to progress as well as they can given the distance. But video chats rock. We're really getting to know each other, and he continues to surprise me with the man he's grown into.

And he'll be here in the Queen City with me in just a few weeks. I have a countdown calendar on my igoogle page, and my cow orkers delight in teasing me about it. But I Do Not Care.

I do care for all of you though, even if I'm keeping quiet just now. Be well, friends. And Enjoy the blog.

Go England! It ys Rad!