Le Stylo en Rose

Please check out my new blog on my website. All of the content from here is over there now, including the comments and pages and everything. Huh. Can you tell I’ve been procrastinating on that whole La-No thang? 🙂

The Internet surprises me sometimes. Why is it because we only see a computer screen when we communicate online that we think it gives us permission to act like an ass?

I was really quite shocked to see a post by an author whose books I quite enjoy about how she is being treated in the blogosphere, merely for voicing her opinion. Disagreeing with a person is one thing, but to go on and call her names like bitch and c**t is unacceptable, in my eyes. As a human being (whether she’s a published author or not) would you say things like this to her face? I seriously doubt it. And I don’t really get this whole “well, she’s not nice to me online, so I’m not gonna buy her books.” crap. When I read, I look for an enjoyable, well-written story. I have a few tried and true favourites I read no matter what, and quite frankly, it’s never occurred to me to judge how they behave online to determine whether I’m going to like their book or not. I think the only exception to that would be an author who was posting actual hate messages based on race or religion or was actively scamming readers. But past that? Ppffft. I got better things in life to worry about.

And, yeah, I’ve been in the middle of a few issues myself, where I finally just walked away from the computer to keep from being a little brat and sinking to this level… like my whole lawsuit issue from a month ago. Yes, I could have pointed you all to this author’s website where she has spelling mistakes on the page she’s trying to market herself as an editor, or told you that her book was one of the worst I’ve ever read, and I was only promoting it because of my involvement in it (true or not), but what good would have come of it? It’s my own conscience I have to live with at the end of the day.

So, it upsets me when people get bent out of shape when I honestly try and help. There’s a forum I frequent daily. On it, an author promotes herself as a grammar professor. Only, she’s giving out incorrect information. And THAT pisses me off. But everytime I try and correct her, not saying, hey, you’re wrong, but actually giving citations from style guides and dictionaries, she gets all bent out of shape basically saying that I don’t know what I’m talking about and she doesn’t care. Well. Ok. Fine, don’t care, but if your whole justification is because “SpellChecker” doesn’t catch it? Uh. yeah, there’s a reliable source. I mean, I blame the entire advertising industry for the rampant misuse of the apostrophe, and I’ve seen countless books that misuse of that/which/who, so to say that one copy editor in one publishing house must be right? Yeah, I’d still rather go to the style guides. (which, actually, was my advice.) And, sure I could have been snarky, but what purpose would it serve? I posted the rule. Let other people make the decision for themselves. I don’t see the point in weakening my comments with nasty talk.

Please don’t get me wrong, I can be a bitch with the best of them. Hell, I grew up with three sisters. 🙂 But I try and keep my behaviour online the same as if I were saying these things in person. Because, when you say them, you may not see anything but a computer screen, but there’s still a human being on the other end of that computer screen.

So, I’ve learned a few things.

1. I don’t like people to know I’m writing. I especially have a hard time writing in front of anyone… like Mr. Pink. I *should* be able to pull out the laptop and write away while he’s watching sports (doesn’t matter which one, so long as there’s grown men fighting over a ball or a puck.) Yet, I can’t. It could have something to do with the fact that I know at any given moment a giant head can descend, blocking my view of the screen and getting a little motorboat action. (You did read the post where I said I’m 12, right? 🙂 ) But really, I just have trouble talking about what I’m doing. It’s like writing is something I have to do in secret, then, when I’m done, sneak out and go “Hey! Look what I did.” Yes, I’m wierd. Deal with it.

2. I have way too much shit I should be doing instead of this La-No. Wayyy too much.

3. I don’t care. I want to finish this book.

So, I’m gonna try and give updates, but it doesn’t look likely. I will however keep the word-count meter current, so feel free to keep an eye on that.

And just pretend I’m not writing. I’ll surprise you at the end.

Throughout my career, I’ve edited in all sorts of industries, from tax information to legal manuals to retail flyers to BDSM stories. Right now, I work in telecommunications, and as I’m working on today’s assignment, I keep finding myself giggling at some of the words being used. Mostly, I think, because in an instructional manual, you don’t expect to see words like dongle, plenum, and smurf. I’m convinced that only a twelve-year-old would come up with words like these. And, since I’m 12 too, I giggle.

Heck, at least it’s keeping me interested in what I’m reading… There’s not a whole lot of other excitement in directions on how to install a server. Really.

 And yes, I need a La-No update. Will be posting one later today. With a word counter so y’all can point and laugh.

I allow myself to write crap*.

Ohm.

I allow myself to write crap*.

Ohm.

I allow myself to write crap*.

Ohm

* Crap that is poorly spelled with bad grammar. I can fix it later. (snicker. yeah, right.)

I know I’ve been talking about it, but whether it was actually gonna happen was a whole other story. But today is the day I’d planned on starting La-No-Wri-Mo (Lara’s Novel Writing Month). And, today is the day I found a jump drive that had been missing for many months that has the first chapter and some sketched out dialogue bits and a synopsis of Losin’ It, which is the story I’d planned on working on for this La-No-Wri-Mo…. It’s a sign.

Now, Losin’ It has evolved considerably since I first saved it to the elusive jump drive… for one, I’m gonna switch it from third to first person. For two, my hero has gone through some serious character changes. And for three.. I’m determined to actually finish it this time.

So, I think a chick-lit, which is what Losin’ It is about to become, is at least 80K. Don’t know that I’d be able to write 80K in one month, so my target is a rough first draft of about 50K, which works out to 6 pages a day, every day for the next month.

Can I do it? Well, we’ll see. I’m gonna publically humiliate myself here and post my daily totals. Feel free to bitch me out if I’m don’t or I’m not succeeding. Maybe public flogging is exactly what I need. *grin*

Wanna join me? Post your daily totals in here too… If there’s enough of us, maybe I’ll start a yahoogroup or something.

Ok. *deep breath* here goes.