How Not To Write a Novel, in Ten Easy Steps

Still waiting for my muse… any time now, I know she’s there because I’m waiting for that perfect first sentence and she *always* comes through. Meh.

Nights of Passion

1. Binge watch all of Doctor Who.  Or maybe Downton Abbey, if that’s more your thing. It’s market research, right? And it’s kind of popular, so you want to stay with the times. Very important to be able to relate to your fans. You have to watch at least two episodes per night in order to be able to keep up with it all…which doesn’t leave much room for writing.

2. Sit there and stare at your computer. For hours. Trying to think of the absolute, most PERFECT way to begin your story. Because once those words are down, YOU CAN NEVER CHANGE THEM. Am I right? Huh?

3. Listen to everyone’s writing advice ever, simultaneously. So I should outline. That’s what JR Ward does. Or…maybe I shouldn’t, because Joe Hill says they are the devil. And I need to have an office with a door that closes, because Stephen…

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I thought this was an excellent description of how one would actually USE the hero’s journey. and of course, the Star Wars reference doesn’t hurt! Renee

Echo Chamber of My Mind

Hello, 

Echoes by emptyidentityentity

Is there anybody in there? 
Just nod if you can hear me 
Is there anyone home? 

Come on 
Now 
I hear you’re feeling down 
I can ease your pain 
Get you on your feet again 

Relax 
I’ll need some information first 
Just the basic facts 
Can you show me where it hurts?

~ Comfortably Numb, Pink Floyd

It’s been a rough go the last six weeks or more. A bipolar mixed episode is by far the worst of the worst, and this wasn’t even the worst of the mixed episodes I’ve had. But the upside of the whole event, has been the culmination of learnings I’ve made in the end.

I have what I have come to think of as an echo chamber of a mind. And dare I admit to it? Even the Faux News kind of Echo Chamber…you know the sort, the ‘so-much-spin zone’ where they weave tapestries of drama out of skeins of invisible thread.

That is me.  Give me an irritant. A personal failure. ANOTHER person’s failure…that is always good for a concussion of echoes. Anything to do with my kids. My echo chamber takes one of these, a couple of these, or by golly, let’s have a MIXED EPISODE and throw the whole lot into one big twisted combination and watch as my addled brain turns in on itself. It isn’t unlike the picture to the right. Really.

But this time was different because I knew what was happening. And because it was like watching a person in a not very good movie (my life is full of very simple, stupid, self-destructive drama- not the passion-filled suspense of the theaters today), I was able to take positive actions. Instead of becoming more involved in things to “fix” them in my obsessional ‘rightness’, I just chose out, reducing my stress considerably. I looked for other ways to reduce stress. I withdrew my name for consideration for the Presidency of my local writer’s chapter. I deactivated Facebook for a while. My husband and I decided together that working outside the home for me was not something we should continue to pursue. I became very focused on what was important Right Now–health, family, and writing. And that was all I did. Period.

My husband is my best echo chamber killers. Once I started visualizing this echo chamber of nastiness that my mind wants to play in, I realized that Marc is the anti-echo chamber. Most of my friends are not. They have their own  chambers and we tend to intensify each others personal  dramas. Marc on the other hand, he just stops it cold. It looks something like this.

Renee’s Echo Chamber

And it is awesome. I love him for it.

I hate the idea of being a ‘drama queen.’ It smacks of a narcissistic personality. It screams my mother in all her glory. Maybe, like all terrible addictions, the first step is admitting it. Dealing aggressively with my brain chemistry is first order. But not with yet more drugs that only leave me tired,creatively slow and dull, operating outside of myself, numb, and barely control the disorder as it is. No. I turn fifty in a couple of months. And I’ve been trying this now with limited success since 2006. Four of those years I have no memory of. None. Zilch. I don’t remember my children’s birthdays those years. I don’t remember family vacations or visits by family. It is just blank space, filled in by photographs and stories told by other people.

Now, after an unplanned (LOL) but fortuitous bout with norovirus, I am medication free.  I plan to stay that way, working with my doctor, therapist, and husband to use natural medicine to manage my bipolar disorder using something called Orthomolecular Medicine, along with exercise, DBT,  food and environmental detox. It’s a big change in our way of life.

But more than all of that, I want to surround myself with people who make me want to be a better person, and expect the drama queen to close up her echo chamber and will call my bullshit when the reverb begins. Marc does that. I fell in love with him and married him because of it. I need to have more people around me who will help me be the person I aspire to be, not come wallow with me in the depths of my chamber of judgment and despair.

When I was working for pay, companies compared themselves to others to  find out what was working for others and what we could adapt for ourselves. So I started looking  around me at people I admire and checked out their best practices. One ‘friend’ on Facebook volunteers at the Washington D.C. Mall, giving tours, works at the humane shelter, runs marathons, and is all about car racing. Plus she works full time. I’d say she has a well-rounded life. And she is interesting. Unbeknownst to her, she is the one who has inspired me to look into volunteering beyond the school/boy scout thing. Best practices, right? Another friend has a daughter my son’s age. She’s busy with her business, her daughter and husband, and yet she still manages to have a life for and of herself. It’s hard to describe, but she has interests beyond her business (massage) and her child. I admire how she finds so much peace in her life, despite the very real challenges she faces every day, but she is comfortable in her skin and her beliefs, and her interests and friends are manifold.  I’ve applied to volunteer  in organizations that aren’t related to my kids and that are focused in the much larger community. I’m focused on writing my book like never before. I’m reading history and biography again (romance books will rot your brain, have you heard? LOL).  Getting beyond my own echo chamber and learning from others’ best practices seems a great way for me to be the person I aspire to become.

So bottom line? I want to leave my little narcissistic circle of concern where my echo chamber resides. I want to surround myself with people who will hold me accountable to be a better person, to live in the present, to let go of the little stuff, to realize that in view of the world, it’s all little stuff. (Note: My new personal benchmark is Mali. When I start to think something is fucked up, I just think about Mali and that puts it ALL in perspective. I’m very visual, so this sort of thing helps me.) I want to find friends who are interested in art museums and books, writing and creating, exercising and relaxing. People with challenging ideas who are unafraid of challenging discussions. I want to become a person these kinds of people would be interested in being friends with.

Any takers?

Writers and Their Workspace

Courtesy TeacherWriter.net

Another interesting Opinionator blog in the New York Times today, The Lure of the Writer’s Cabin, by David Wood. Mr. Wood speaks eloquently to where writer’s write, the places where writers can be at their most creative, be it in the middle of the woods in a minimalist cabin, or as he claims Sartre did,  where the busyness of cafe white noise gave him the silence he required for his own Muse to speak.

I read of writers who ‘close the door’ when they write, and when their day is complete they are able to walk away from their creative endeavors. One woman I was speaking with on Saturday said that when it was time for her to write as opposed to work on marketing her book, she merely slid down to another computer in another part of her office and switched gears. Oh! To be able to do just that!

The Author’s Workspace

Alas, my workspace is also the family calendaring space, the family organizing space, the boy scout space, the place for all lost papers/items….  Post weekend, my desk right now is covered in express scripts forms, boy scout book, projects and calendar, receipts and coupons, return labels, pictures, books, romance writer’s group workshops, doctor’s information, Scrivener how-to, and even a stray earring my son found and proudly returned to me. Ack!  I’m pretty organized and by this afternoon it will be cleared off. But my writing space is so much more than just a space for writing. It is the communication hub of our family as well.

I like to think I would love to be blessed with a cabin in the woods with no internet connection, left alone to only write. Wake up to the birds singing outside my window, walk in the woods and think out my plot, and talk to my characters. Yes, that does sound like a dream.

But my reality is that I live in a house with two active boys and a busy husband. My writing space is what it is, and is unlikely to become some separate room that is only mine, where I don’t share it with a kitchen, a television, and a busy family room. So I have a computer, noise cancelling headphones, my music, and a rather fussy Muse.

No, my big challenge is not my workspace, but battling Resistance, with a capital ‘R.’

More about Resistance in my next post.

What is your writing workspace like? Do you need seclusion? Do you even want seclusion? Or are noise cancelling headphones enough?

Renee

Related articles

• The Lure of the Writer’s Cabin (opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Amy’s One Smart Pop Tart Writing Space – Workspace Tour (apartmenttherapy.com)
• Ways Successful People Start Their Mornings (patwoodblogging.wordpress.com)
• 8 Signs That You Were Meant to Be a Writer (judithmcguinness.wordpress.com)
• Getting Started: Where’s my Muse? (freelancewriter1020.wordpress.com)

E.L. James ‘Publishing Person of the Year’ by Publisher’s Weekly

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, completely off the grid, you’ve heard of  The ’50 Shades of Grey’ Trilogy. It made gazillions of dollars this year. This so-called mommy porn was hailed on morning talk shows and book clubs around America. It did wonders for opening up the erotica/romance market. E.L. James sold her self-pubbed book to Random House and the movie rights to Hollywood as well. Speculation has been ripe as to who will play Christian Grey (my hopes are on Alexander Skarsgard– the only way I’ll see the movie, even on cable! Think Eric’s basement in True Blood)

And most authors I know, or have read who commented on it, consider it nothing more than trash.

I’ll admit when I first read it, before I knew it was ‘only-the-names-have-been-changed’ Twi-hard fan-fic I enjoyed it thoroughly. I suppose I have grown inured to self-published books that are poorly written, edited, and full of typos. I just enjoyed the relationship between Christian and Anna. I even wrote the rare 5 star review. So sue me.

Then I learned of it’s origins as fan fiction and my tuned changed. When I saw Dear Author‘s comparison of Master of the Universe (the original fan fic) and 50SofG and saw the 89% sameness, my disgust only grew. Shame on the author, and shame on Random House that bought the rights, claiming it was ‘new’ work.

But, whether one loves or hates the trilogy, or its origins, I don’t suppose one can really argue that the impact on the romance/erotic industry can be ignored. But that this drivel is the one that makes the breakthrough when so many others standout (Sylvia Day comes to mind), well that is a blot on the industry.

Here is the article from LitReactor.

What are your thoughts?

Renee

Related articles

• EL James wins ‘publishing person of the year’ for making erotic fiction ‘hot’ (guardian.co.uk)
• ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Sales Spark ‘Twilight’ Fan-Fic Book Deal, ‘Beautiful Bastard’ (booksnreview.com)
• Should ‘Fifty Shades’ Writer E.L. James Be TIME’s Person Of The Year? (preprod.cbslocal.com)
• ‘Twilight’ Fanfic: Is ‘Beautiful Bastard’ The New ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’? (mix965houston.cbslocal.com)
• The New Wave of Writing? (cultofajracewood.wordpress.com)
• ‘Reflected in You’ Author Sylvia Day Denies ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ Her Books Created Erotica Trend (booksnreview.com)
• Universal files lawsuit against ‘Fifty Shades’ porn ‘rip-off’ (sfluxe.com)
• ‘Reflected in You,’ By Sylvia Day Tops ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ on Bestseller Lists (booksnreview.com)
• http://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/f-reviews/review-fifty-shades-of-grey-by-e-l-james/
  

Life is So Much More Interesting In My Head

I haven’t put a word to page in a while. But I have words in my head all the time. I have plots and characters and conversations with those characters every day. I wander around like a fool with a silly smile on my face or a grimace or actually with my lips moving as my characters talk to each other working things out.

This NY Times Opinionator blog,  The Art of Being Still by Silas House,  is an excellent comment on just this style of writing. And when Silas House says he was once embarrassed to say that he didn’t write every day, afraid he might be caught out as some sort of fraud, well… I have to say, he just made my day.

Your Thoughts?

Renee

NaNoWriMo- Wow! What a Challenge!

I’m trying the NaNoWriMo this year. For those who don’t know what it is, writers around the world take the month of November to focus on writing that novel they’ve always wanted to write. The goal is to write 50,000 words, 1667 words a day.

This is day 5. My learnings so far: 1) don’t schedule so much into my day, 2)writing something every day isn’t so hard and 3) let go of my inner critic.

I have a 6th and 8th grader in my house. I cook dinner most weeknights and our weekends are packed full as are almost every afternoon. And for health reasons I insist on working out every morning. Somewhere in there I get to write.

Hitting 1667 words in a day is tough and I’ve only done it twice in 5 days. But I’ve written at least 800 words every day except Sunday. Not so bad I figure.

And then there is my inner critic, that little voice that screams at me “You haven’t got the voice right!” “Where is the scene description?” “What happened to the heat?” The writer in me wants it to all go down with wonderful deep third and hit all the marks on intimacy, all while sorting out the plot. The pragmatist in me is happy that I’m getting plot and dialogue out. It’s a rough draft that no one else will see. One thing at a time critic!

So NaNo is good practice for me. I’m learning time management, to write every day, and to let go of that perfectionism that keeps me frozen in place.

Renee  

Related articles

• Participating in NaNoWriMo? (ctwesting.com)
• NaNoWriMo Day Five (writingfictionblog.com)
• No NaNoWriMo For Me (thewearywriter.com)
• NaNoWriMo Day 3 (aelizabethwest.wordpress.com)

The War on Critical Thinking

Thinking For Ourselves

Critical Thinking skills are the most important skill we must have as intelligent adults, and what we must be teaching our children today. As we enter this voting season, regardless of our individual politics, we must be educating ourselves on the issues at hand. For example, what does the Romney-Ryan Budget plan as roughly laid out REALLY mean for the current US situation as well as for our future? The Obama plan has been laid out in detail. What does it mean? What about gun control? What IS the issue and how do we deal with it? What about Israel and Iran? What is the history there and how does the US fit into the current situation? What about the ongoing situation in Afghanistan? Thirty-two coalition soldiers have been killed by those we considered Afghanistan allies, and many ask why we are still there. All of these issues are emotionally charged issues. But using critical thinking skills take the emotion out of equation and allow us to think about the bigger picture, use the data at hand, and formulate an opinion based on the DATA, not the rhetoric or propaganda that is so easily at hand.

Two articles have recently caught my eye regarding the War on Critical Thinking. The Texas GOP Platform directly addresses critical thinking skills and it’s plan to NOT teach these skills in school because it might “challeng[e] the student’s fixed beliefs and undermin[e] parental authority.” It also directly attacks the teaching of evolution, forbids the teaching of anything but abstinence before marriage, emphasizes Judeo-Christian belief systems in schools, and “believes the current teaching of a multicultural curriculum is divisive.”  In our household, we welcome the challenge of belief systems. This goes for politics, religions, anything is up for grabs. My children are 11 and 14. If they have formed an opinion i.e. “Rick Santorum is an idiot” we make them justify that opinion. After years of research and thinking, my 14 year old has decided he is an agnostic at this point in his life. And he can tell you why, able to defend in detail his reasoning. Our children must be able to do this to be successful. Otherwise, they will end up being sheep, following the person with the slickest ads, perhaps the best looking or most charismatic, following the Pied Piper right off a cliff. Imagine a very multi-cultural world where Americanism is the only way. Where does that leave us?

Today, Soraya Chemaly posted a terrific article in response to Akin’s remarks yesterday about ‘legitimate rape’ and abortion. She doesn’t take on abortion as much as the ignorance of the many,  i.e. their lack of critical thinking skills, who are speaking against women,. These are the men and women who are leading our country. They are responsible for voting to go to war, for raising or lowering our debt ceiling (which dropped our credit rating in the world), for defining what weapons are legal or illegal, or what rights a woman has to her own body. All of these issues require critical thinking skills. Instead, all the attention these issues receive is circular rhetoric and ignorant statements. No decision is still a decision. And a decision made based in emotional extremism instead of common sense using critical thinking is a bad decision and terrible for our country and unworthy of our legislature.

Todd Akin: It’s Not a War on Women, It’s a War on Critical Thinking and Democracy

Posted: 08/20/2012 12:17 pm

Soraya Chemaly

Feminist, Satirist and Media Critic

In case you’ve been deep-sea diving in the Mariana Trench, yet another Republican Congressman unwittingly revealed his party’s contempt for anddistrust of women. And he did it by illustrating how the “war on women” is part of a larger issue. What Todd Akin said and believes doesn’t just play into a media-catchy, election year “war on women” narrative. It’s part of a reactionary, fundamentalist backlash to modernity. It’s a war on science. It’s a war on facts. It’s a war on critical thinking. But, really, consider it a war on democracy. Statements like Akin’s reflect the degree to which some men, steeped in all sorts of dangerous denialism, will go to protect their power and how they undermine equality and democracy to do it. Mitt Romney’s smart, he gets how Akin made this obvious, which is why he’s distancing himself so fast and furiously from this incident. But, Romney deep down inside agrees with the ideas that reside under the surface of such an obvious mistake. That’s why he will not renounce his rights-stripping-for-women-personhood-for-fetuses happy running mate Paul Ryan, who shares the ideas expressed by Akin, even if he expresses himself less offensively.

When asked about exceptions for abortions of pregnancies resulting from rape Missouri Representative Todd Akin of the Primacy of the Father Cult (formerly known as the GOP) had this to say:

” First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”

The amount that this man doesn’t understand is staggering. He shouldn’t even try putting the words “doctors” and “understand” in the same sentence. It just confuses him. But, the problem is, he’s not an exception.

Although the six term Congressman, who is running against Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill in the November 6 election, won’t apologize, he has graciously come forward to join a long line of rape apologists who “misspoke.” He did not “misspeak.” Misspeaking is defined as “Express oneself imperfectly or inaccurately.” He was very clear: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

He wittingly regurgitated common misogynistic lies about women, their bodies, rape, pregnancy and abortion. Like Chloe Angel, at Feministing who wrote a thank you note to Akin earlier today, I am loathe to engage in uncivil discourse. I, too, believe that people who disagree should be able to do so with respect and without resorting to personal assault. However, these lies are so blatant and result in so much harm that they have to be named for what they are and challenged loudly and repeatedly and persistently.

His statements reveal several ideas about women, who bear the immediate and obvious brunt of this type of assault on reason:

1. That women lie about their rapes — those would be, I assume, “illegitimate rapes.” Either that, or he implied like other conservative Republican legislators, that women don’t actually understand when they have been raped. Or better yet, that they are sluts and somehow “want it.” OR, not to be ignored, that women who are raped by their husbands aren’t “really” raped. OR… yes… there is another one… that women will claim they’ve been raped to gain the upper hand in divorce. These ideas are really important to Akin and others, like Paul Ryan, both of whom co-sponsored a bill to change the word “rape” to “forcible rape” in legislation about federal funding to abortion.

1. That even if women do get raped their bodies somehow “take care of it.” Akin’s comments reveal the shocking level of scientific illiteracy and denialism embraced by Republican legislators when they deal with “women’s issues.” Even if some benighted predatory rapist repeated “I have legitimately raped you” three times while waving their weaponized dicks in the air, women do not emit some mystical, magical hormone “to shut that whole thing down.” Is it too much to ask that people suggesting, making and enforcing our laws know how to spell “biology”?

1. That women who are raped don’t get pregnant much so we shouldn’t worry our pretty heads about maybe getting pregnant and needing an abortion. It turns out that some women’s bodies don’t take care of it. The Washington Post cited a study that revealed that at least 5 percent of rape victims end up pregnant. Mr. Akin, who has explained that he is empathetic to their plights, might want to personally explain to one of the 32,000 women forced to be pregnant against their will that it is “rare.”

Akin’s “gaff” is not harmless. It is not just “out of touch.” It’s DANGEROUS AND CAUSES PAIN and OPPRESSION. And, it’s not a “November” issue. It’s a “just world” issue. It’s a “think for yourself” issue. These people aren’t pro-life. They’re pro-pain. Pain central to redemption.

Which is why this is also a prime example of how religious privileging in education and public discourse overtakes reason and results in debilitating ignorance and real and tangible harm for children and women. And men. Ideas like Akin’s are why rape tragedies like what happened at Penn State and the ongoing Catholic abuse nightmare happen. Ideas like Akin’s and friends’, grounded in misconceived ideas about sexuality and women’s inherent sinfulness, their shame, their laboring for their wrongs, their sacrifice, their punishment, deny the reality of male victims of rape. These religiously vectored ideas are central to their political and legislative agendas as evidenced by these abortion and rape statements. Akin’s statement and philosophy are consistent with conservative’s deep mistrust of women and reflect the perverse contempt with which they simultaneously glorify sacrificial motherhood as the pinnacle of a woman’s existence — a long standing theme in Christian culture, while denigrating actual women though lies like these. Women, long portrayed as sub-human by culture, do not have to earn their abortions (or the contraception for that matter) through pain — illness, incest, rape. Women, in theory, have the right to bodily autonomy, privacy and equal protection under the law. It is really interesting to consider his language: he refers to “the rapist” and “the child” but never to “the girl” or “the woman. ” Instead, the girl or woman — the actual person who is raped and seeking to end her unwilling, non-consensual, insemination — is “the female body” — like some kind of machine or useful tool. And, I know, it’s not just men. But, the women who support these arguments will die knowing that they contributed to the infinite harm done to children and other women by their support of these policies.

Say what you will about men like Paul Ryan and Rick Santorum — both good examples of how red hat-envy can bend bright men’s minds towards incoherence and inhumanity — at least they have the courage to take their convictions to their logical conclusions — even if they result in sentences like “Rape is a gift from God” and in the consignment of 9 year old girls to eternal hell while their rapists get to pass through the pearly gates. But, many people like Akin, rather than deal with the illogic of exceptions, find ways to downplay the instance, validity, painful reality, post-traumatic effects and pregnancy that result from rape.

As Garance Franke-Ruta pointed out yesterday in The Atlantic, these conservative rape memes have a long life. Take this doozy which she cites from 1995 when 71-year-old North Carolina state Rep. Henry Aldridge said: “The facts show that people who are raped — who are truly raped — the juices don’t flow, the body functions don’t work and they don’t get pregnant. Medical authorities agree that this is a rarity, if ever.” I highly recommend passing her piece along to anyone who doubts the long standing (at least in 20th century American political, versus loooonng standing classical Greek and Christian thought terms) use of these confused and ignorant statements by people responsible for distributing rights and justice in the country.

Related articles

• GOP Condemns Akin for Rape Remarks (abcnews.go.com)
• What Does Todd Akin Think “Legitimate Rape” Is? (newyorker.com)
• With Todd Akin’s rape comments, abortion is back in the campaign spotlight – Washington Post (washingtonpost.com)
• Romney Rebukes Akin For Rape Comments (huffingtonpost.com)

United States, We have a Problem

We The People Have a Problem

In light of the recent Aurora Colorado travesty, gun control is once again in the spot light and the subject remains highly contentious. From a GOP senator defending a person’s right to buy high-capacity magazines to Mayor Bloomberg calling for the government to finally start taking gun control seriously, everyone in between has an opinion.

I am not anti-gun. If one wants to own a hand-gun or rifle for hobby shooting or to protect oneself and knows how to use it as well as takes appropriate precautions, great. I don’t own one, but would like to learn to shoot in case I ever have a need.

Regardless of which side of the issue you stand on, regardless of what argument you use to defend your position, some important facts remain true and must be considered.

In 2003, the World Health Organization assembled data from high income countries (Australia, Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom (England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland) and the United States) of firearm deaths. And article published in 2011 took that data and came up with the following statistics:  Journal of Trauma-Injury Infection & Critical Care: January 2011 – Volume 70 – Issue 1 – pp 238-243      

• US firearm homicide rates are 19.5 higher than the other high-income countries
• For 15-24 year olds firearm homicide rates were 42.7 times higher
• For US males, firearm homicide rates were 22.0 higher
• For US females 11.4 times higher
• US firearm suicides were 5.8 times higher
• US firearm unintentional deaths were 5.2 times higher
• 80% of all firearm deaths occurred in the US
• 86% of women killed by firearms were US women
• 87% of all children aged 0-14 killed by firearms were US children

Data on firearm deaths has been collected since the early 1900’s and it shows the same trend. This chart represents firearms deaths for one year between 1990 and 1995. The US leads these countries, even over such violent countries like Brazil and Mexico.

Firearms Death Rate (per 100,000, age adjusted) for Selected Countries in one year between 1990 and 1995.International Journal of Epidemiology, 1988

The United States has a problem.  We lead THE WORLD in firearm related deaths. We have the most LAX GUN PURCHASE laws in the world. We, the people, must get engaged and expect our lawmakers to engage in honest and respectful problem solving on this issue. Rhetoric isn’t helping. Entrenchment doesn’t help. People keep dying. Every day. Do people REALLY want this to go on, unstoppable, until we all live in such fear we no longer delight in the basic joys of life like going to a movie, shopping in a mall, learning at school? Step up. Do something. Help stop the killing.

Related articles

• Richard S. Brown | Let’s find common ground on guns (kansascity.com)
• The Booming United States Firearm Industry (homesecuritysystems.net)
• Weekly Republican Address: Speaker Boehner on the Tragedy in Aurora, Colorado (speaker.gov)
• http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-20/obama-joins-romney-in-reticence-on-gun-control-after-shootings.html
• http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2012/07/bloomberg-on-gun-control-we-dont-need-more-laws-we-129702.html

Lemon Jam Update + New Look and Feel!

Creativity
Aku Mimpi

For those of you who have been asking, the entire Lemon Jam story to date is now published here on my site. Each chapter has a picture to go with it that I hope adds to the content of the story.

Over the next few weeks, all of my stories will be moved to this site and over time will be updated and edited. I’ll be making blog posts and updating stories here. Update notifications will go out via new blog posts.

Within the next few weeks, this story, along with all of my own stories will be removed from ffnet. I’m just getting up my nerve LOL. I hate to lose all the wonderful reviews, but I have saved all the statistics.

I’d love to know what you think of the new layout, the addition of the photos and the overall look and feel of my new blog! Please leave comments. Thank you for your continued interest in this story. I am humbled by your willingness to follow the story anywhere!

Thank you,

CavalierQueen