Gearing Up For A Sea Change (RMFW 2011)

Those who follow this blog regularly (and now those of you who don’t) know that I’m speaking at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Conference* in Denver over the weekend of September 9-11. I love writing conferences for many reasons, whether I’m speaking or just going as a writer-attendee. First and foremost, nothing replaces three days of geeking out with the tribe. If you write, and haven’t done this, I highly recommend the experience. The educational resource is fantastic, and the social interaction is good for you. (Normally I’m as introverted as they come, so trust me when I say –

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Red, the Buddy Shrimp

Emperor Maximus the Disapproving has a buddy. His name is Red (short for Big Red Spot), and despite Max’s tendency to dislike just about everything, Red has found his soft spot. Apparently, it lies behind the gills. In the wild, watchman gobies often find and pair up with a pistol or fire shrimp, to mutual benefit and advantage. The goby provides a cave or other secluded home and protects the shrimp from predators, and the shrimp keeps the goby free from parasites. It took our fire shrimp, Red, about three months to convince Emperor Maximus that this arrangement had merit,

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More Herbs, Less Salt

August 29, 2011 is apparently official “More Herbs, Less Salt” day. I’m not sure why more Herbs means less salt, but extrapolating from the result, it suggests each Herb is using more than his share. This is a problem because I like salt very much (especially this kind, which I get from Trader Joe’s). If your name is Herb, enjoy the day, but as of tomorrow … please stop bogarting the salt and leave some for the rest of us.

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At the Risk of Insensitivity…

May I ask why telemarketers refuse to cooperate with the request to remove my name and contact information from their call lists? I am on the do not call list. I am not interested in purchasing additional advertising for my business. (Actually, I don’t buy any advertising. My client list grows through referrals now.) I am definitely not interested in interrupting useful work to listen to someone describe the various ways of transferring my hard-earned dollars to someone else’s pockets. (I am quite skilled, and well practiced, in depriving myself of money without assistance.) It would be bad enough if

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I Am, Indeed, A Delicate Flower

While I was growing up, my father had a descriptive phrase for people who need a little extra sensitivity and care. He called them “delicate flowers.” This was not a complimentary term. I remember whining about something (doubtless critically important in my seven year-old mind, though long forgotten now) and looking up as Dad fixed me with that look. “Are you a delicate flower?” Whatever the problem was, I handled it. As I grew older, the question became something of a joke. I even turned it back around. (Sorry, I can’t wash the car today. It’s hot, and I am

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Shiny Dinglehoppers: Medieval Japanese Police

It’s Monday morning. Let’s talk about police. I recently researched medieval Japanese law enforcement for a fiction work-in-progress. As it turns out, the Japanese police force has existed since the days of the Shogunate. By the sixteenth century (and even before), Japan had a three-tiered justice system – though generally it was commoners who felt the brunt of used it. At the lowest level, the dōshin fulfilled many of the roles we now associate with the “beat cop.” They patrolled streets, broke up fights, and arrested miscreants. They carried a jitte, or hooked stick, which served as both a weapon

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And to Think, We Could Have Been Talking About Hydrangeas

I sat down to write a post about hydrangeas and the way that flowers mean different things depending on the cultural lens that views them. As it turns out, we’ll just be talking about stinkweeds. In particular, a type of blooming stinker that’s growing Internationally, in the form of a new telephone scam. A cousin alerted me to this via e-mail after receiving one of the scammers’ calls this week. The caller identified himself as a representative of “Windows Operating System” calling to investigate a potential hacking of my cousin’s computer, which Windows discovered because the computer was being used

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Looking for a Conference? Try RMFW!

The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Association’s annual Colorado Gold Conference is taking place next month in Denver, CO. I attended for the first time last year, as a last-minute (July registrant) writer attendee with no prior experience at the conference or with RMFW. I could not have been more pleased. Not only are the RMFW members friendly, helpful and eager to make everyone feel equally welcome (members and non-members alike) but I met a number of fantastic writers, some of whom remain my friends to this day. I cannot wait to return next month, see the Tribe and enjoy another

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The Best of Friends

I am a lucky person. I have friends. This isn’t necessarily as simple as it seems, particularly for those of us whose personalities prickle and whose habits lock us in private rooms with only the voices in our head for company. (I am told The Voices In My Head do not count as “friends,” as we’re not always on speaking terms.) Introverts often prefer a few very special friends to multitudes of lesser ones, and I fit that mold to a tee. It’s not that I don’t enjoy meeting people, or spending time with friends. I just find it difficult,

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Courting Good Habits…and Bad Ones

My desk looks like a filing cabinet threw up. Granted, I’m getting ready for a (very rare) court appearance and it’s necessary to get the files in order. Unfortunately, this isn’t the only time my desk has more than its share of wandering papers in play. This confuses (and alternately amuses and frustrates) me because I’m ordinarily quite an organized person. I like everything in its place. Some people can focus in chaos, but I’m not one of them. Not that you’d know it from looking at my desk. There are piles, though everything is “in its place” from my

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