Quote From My Life: See Dick Run

Posted on November 25, 2011 by SloanParker

I was working on a new scene for my serial novel today and was getting frustrated after the first 300 words. I went out to the living room, lay down on the couch, and put my head on my sweetie’s lap. Here’s how the conversation went.

Her: “How’s it going?

Me: “Like crap.”

“Why?”

“Everything I write sucks.”

“Is it a first draft?”

“Yes.”

“Well then, it’s just important to get the ideas down. You can fix the writing later. So you say, ‘See Dick run into Dick’s dick.’ You can rewrite it later. Although I’m not sure why you’d want two characters named Dick.”

That got me laughing. I went back into the office to write some more.

Gotta love these little motivational talks with my sweetie. Thanks, hon!

Video I Love: The Tug Toner

Posted on November 14, 2011 by SloanParker

This one is somewhat “not safe for work.”

For the Love of: Cooperative Games (no more time alone in jail for me)

Posted on October 26, 2011 by SloanParker

Thanks to my fabulous and wickedly smart uncle (Hey T!) I learned how to play Pandemic a few months back. It was my first time playing a cooperative board game where players work together rather than compete against each other. We just got our own copy of Pandemic and have been playing the two player version. I have to say, I love cooperative games like this!

Maybe it’s the romantic in me that prefers the non-competitive nature of the game. I really hate seeing my sweetie get frustrated when I’m kicking her ass in a game. I mean, all we have to do is mention the game Clue and I can see her get all serious like she might actually be able to beat me this time, then her expression falls as she thinks, Nope. She ALWAYS wins that game.

Then there’s the other night when we decided to play Monopoly, something we haven’t played in years. I think I ended up in jail 42 times. My mood was pretty good the first 40 times, but I hit the 41st and it was no longer funny. It was just sad.

At least with Pandemic if we go down, we do it as a couple and have some laughs at ourselves at the same time.

Now if we could just figure out how to always get us a happy ending in Pandemic, all would be right with the world. (I do love my happy, all-is-right-with-the-world endings.)

What’s your favorite board game? I’m a game geek and would love to try out some new ones.

Yes, I’m a dork with my writing. And here’s why…

Posted on October 19, 2011 by SloanParker

I was writing the other day and got stuck with how to describe a fight scene. I needed some strong sensory descriptions. But how do you describe a fist slamming against someone’s body? I started lightly punching my fist into my hand, just pondering the fight scene, thinking about what it would sound like and feel like, really getting into the moment with my characters.

But I was punching my hand. That’s not right. So I proceeded to move my punches (albeit they were light punches) up my arm. Several slaps of fist to skin, I realized what I was doing. Yep, I was punching myself for my art.

I imagined someone seeing bruises all along my arms and asking, “How did you get these?”

“Writing.”

Duh. How else?