James R.'s Comments
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Dec 29, 2009 | recommended: 4 | comments: 51
in reply to a comment by James R.
James R. Dec 29, 2009, 6:24pm EST
Laurie, my youngest got an Ipod Touch and seems to like it a lot. Neither a Mac or another PC is in next year's budget for me, at least not yet.
Dec 29, 2009 | recommended: 4 | comments: 51
James R. Dec 29, 2009, 6:21pm EST
Greetings to Candice and Perle. Our own Sia has provided a useful intro to the Writin' Wombats in this post, but I'm sure you'll hear much more as the different wombats weigh in on this thread. But Sia has hit upon the central point; the wombats are a writing group that works.

Like many here, I was drawn in as a result of the Gather writing contests that were all held in 2007. I entered the original First Chapters contest (which we call FC1) and lived through two weeks of the contest without having a network of like-minded people who could help me out. In the later stages of the contest, I met people like Judi and Steve Prosapio, reviewed their chapters and cheered them on. As the contest drew to a close, Lisa let go with her famous original rant and I participated in a small way, finding that here was a group of people who were serious about writing, but really ticked off about the poor way the contest had been run. I'd already been following Dale's analysis of the results and was pleased to see that he was also in on the discussion. So I dipped in for a couple of the early threads and participated actively in a group writing exercise about a "sweaty guy" that had been borrowed and re-purposed by Ty T. from a rewrite of my FC1 chapter.

Then I disappeared for a while into my normal summer activities such as a vacation in New Hampshire, but posted the occasional article on Gather. Around that time, I heard about the next contest, First Chapters Romance, and decided I could also enter that one, if I did a lot of editing on my manuscript. I'd liked the chance to get feedback in the earlier contest and its aftermath, so I decided to take the plunge.

After getting back from vacation, I decided to check in on my friends the wombats to see what was happening. Well, I'd discovered Steve had removed me from the wombats nickname list (after all, I had disappeared for a while) and that a few more wombats had joined in the fun, including newbies who like me were gearing up to enter FCR. So the lure of FCR drew me back into the wombats and a couple of weeks later, I authored my first wombat thread and was hooked.

It turns out that being in a contest with support from the wombats is MUCH better than being on your own, but it's not for the faint of heart either. This time, I got nearly 100 comments on my chapter and the quality of feedback from the wombats was both fair and insightful, the kind of tough love we all need to get better as writers. I still don't consider myself a romance writer, but I learned a ton from the feedback and got enough positive comments to see that my writing worked for many of the readers.

In the time since, the wombats have become an important part of my life, a special place I can go to where the people care for each other, share triumphs and heartaches and continue to help all of us achieve our dreams as writers. It's been a special treat to meet many of the wombats in person and we find that in our face to face meetings, we already know each other and the conversation we share online is at least as much fun in real life.

So, the wombats? Yeah, I know those guys and lady guys, and am proud to be part of this collective entity we sometimes call the wisdom.
Dec 29, 2009 | recommended: 4 | comments: 51
James R. Dec 29, 2009, 5:38pm EST
Hi wombats. Oh, the delights of having a few days off. My computer had slowed to a crawl, so I bit the bullet, backed up everything (two different ways to my large USB portable HD) and did the total reformat of the hard drive. I'm now getting on the other side of that and I'm sure it will be well worth the trouble in terms of greatly enhanced productivity. This post is being done on my work laptop, while I'm continuing the loads of service packs and getting things up to a point where I can turn on my antivirus SW and work safely.

If you ever decide to do this, my main tips are: 1) back up everything, ideally to an external HD 2) Make sure the CDs with the software are clean (I had to load the Dell version of XP twice due to this, but the second time, I used the cool Repair in place feature) 3) Make sure you've got easy access to the drivers you need (I was missing a couple of things like wifi and Ethernet, which shut me down until I found THE DISK). But I can already tell this is going to help a lot until my budget tells me I can buy a new PC.

On the fun side, my wife and I got to work out at the Y today; it's very rare that we can do that together during regular work weeks. Outside, the weather is brutally cold and the wind is whipping around to make it worse. However, it's supposed to get better by New Year's Eve.
Dec 24, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 300
James R. Dec 28, 2009, 12:03pm EST
Pat, lifting up best wishes for the road trip. Godspeed.

Jill, enjoy the day off. I did my daily email checkin with work, but it was really quiet.

Dale, good to hear you worked out a viable tradeoff on writing time vs. family needs. Truly this is a delicate balance.
Dec 24, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 300
James R. Dec 28, 2009, 11:59am EST
Lisa and Dana, my thoughts and prayers are with both of you. As Dana said on Facebook, cherish the time with family and friends, because you never know when that might come to an end.
Dec 24, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 300
James R. Dec 27, 2009, 10:28pm EST
Hi Pat B. Good to have you drop in. We resolve to do things, then sometimes we do them. Sounds familiar. If you're hitting more than 50% on the good days, more power to you.
Dec 24, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 300
in reply to a comment by Rand Phares
James R. Dec 27, 2009, 9:59pm EST
Bravo, Rand. You've picked the perfect solution to Laurie's dilemma.
Dec 24, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 300
James R. Dec 27, 2009, 9:57pm EST
Hi wombats. Back from a Christmas visit with my folks. Given their health and energy levels, the celebration is downsized, but still heartfelt. When we got back here, the cats seemed very glad to see us; my wife too. :-)

Rand, glad to hear you've slipped out to your own homestead. Those strep germs can be nasty.

Pat, safe travels on your long trip. Don't you just love the sudden storms that the weather guys somehow manage to miss?

Judi, the tiara is just right for you and I bet you'll like the iphone too. My son is having a great time with his ipod touch, even if Panera's wifi didn't seem to work properly today.

Laurie, being around the elderly can create all kinds of snarls for the rest of us. It sounds to me like your host was out of line in ordering you to give the gift back. Since it was personally given to you by the woman in question, my sense is that you are well within your rights to keep the gift.

Jill, I'm with you -- I'm looking forward to being off for the holidays. I'll peek in by email to keep revenue related items flowing, but I look forward to setting my own schedule, with a big emphasis on getting in workouts, writing time and other fun stuff.
Dec 24, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 300
James R. Dec 25, 2009, 9:36pm EST
Hi wombats. We had a fine day. My youngest son got an Ipod Touch, so we spent an hour or so getting it set up. His music collection immediately killed the 8 GB of the device, but he'll be editing it from here. Very cool device, simply powered by a USB connection during synch time.

My wife, son Jason and I played Christmas music on guitars, flute and clarinet before dinner. The dinner, a roast, was splendid, and neatly complemented by a primo Kenwood Pinot Noir. Afterwards, we all cleaned up, then sat down to watch a DVD of our family 2009 photos set to music played by my son and I. The photos were the evidence; 2009 has been an amazing year as we've discovered Asheville, North Carolina and so many places along the way. We have many blessings for which to be thankful.

Jason bought Asheville gifts for all of us. In my case, he decided, with help of a store owner, that I needed a sculpted brass Buddha. I'll bring it to work as a reminder that I have a life outside the office. I can still smell the scent of incense from its former home.

Tomorrow, the boys and I will head down to my parents' house in Connecticut to celebrate the holiday with them. We'll do our best to avoid the wintry mix that's due tonight, but is supposed to turn to rain during the day.

Rand, I hope tomorrow is the day. Sounds like your spirits are in good shape, which is half the battle.

Jamie, great news that you made it to the family house okay; the midwest weather reports were sounding scary.
Dec 24, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 300
James R. Dec 24, 2009, 10:51pm EST
The choir songs have been sung, presents wrapped and lots of goodies nestling under a tree. Sounds of holiday cheer and laughter soon to come.

Wanda, a fine wish for all of us. I'll join in saying Amen to that.

Rand, we're keeping you in our thoughts and hope you'll be able to go home soon. Thanks for sharing the photos of the wedding.
Dec 24, 2009 | recommended: 3 | comments: 8
James R. Dec 24, 2009, 10:50pm EST
A beautiful setting and love is in the air. Great photo.
Dec 24, 2009 | comments: 7
James R. Dec 24, 2009, 10:48pm EST
The warmth of these smiles carries way beyond North Carolina. Thanks for sharing these photos with us Rand.
Dec 24, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 300
James R. Dec 24, 2009, 5:41pm EST
The boys and I went cross country skiing. With a foot of snow on the ground, the trails were in great shape. My youngest had never done this on a trail before, but he hung in there and did fine. My oldest prefers to push the envelope, so he worked on his downhill skiing and crashing skills. He got a lot better in about 25 minutes of practice. We all got a bit snowy before heading back to the house. My wife has now cooked up a lot of pasta, so time to make sure I get my share.

In the background, I'm cutting a DVD of the past year in pictures together with a collage of background music. The first song is Calico Jack, which still sounds great to my ears -- perfect accompaniment to a collection of family and travel pictures.

Rand, do take care. I'll keep you in my prayers and hope for a swift recovery.
Dec 24, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 300
James R. Dec 24, 2009, 4:22pm EST
Laurie, good topic. Our own experiences do leak into our stories and I'd expect into the characters as well. In my first novel, my MC has elements of my character, particularly in his younger stages, exhibiting an idealistic naivete which gets bruised considerably while he takes in a few life lessons. Some readers totally misread the character, saying nobody could be this naive in their youth, but we live in a much more cynical age than the one in which the book was set and information moves much more quickly.

My own kids know all kinds of things which I didn't learn until later on. However, my oldest son Jason and I have wonderful talks about art, writing and the creative process; he's way ahead of where I was at his age with respect to an artistic sensibility, but our different experiences offer fertile ground for mutual learning.
Dec 21, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 306
James R. Dec 24, 2009, 12:26pm EST
Wendy, thanks for hosting and getting us into that holiday mood.
Dec 24, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 300
James R. Dec 24, 2009, 12:25pm EST
Third! ;-)

I posted a link to my blog at the end of the last thread, but discovered we'd moved on in the company of our new media maveness extraordinaire.

Re-post here:

I've just written a new post in my blog talking about the season and writing tools. In the coda, I mention one of my best resources, the Writing Wombats. Come on by and help me celebrate the season at:

Writer's Notebook: 'Tis The Season

. . . As I look back on my writing this year, I filled up over half of a three subject notebook that I purchased last summer. Just a couple of days ago, I stopped in at the local Staples and bought another notebook, the third one for this particular novel. I'm past the halfway point, so I expect I'll fill this one and perhaps get one more for the final chapters.
Dec 21, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 306
James R. Dec 24, 2009, 12:19pm EST
I've just written a new post in my blog talking about the season and writing tools. In the coda, I mention one of my best resources, the Writing Wombats. Come on by and help me celebrate the season at:

Writer's Notebook: 'Tis The Season

. . . As I look back on my writing this year, I filled up over half of a three subject notebook that I purchased last summer. Just a couple of days ago, I stopped in at the local Staples and bought another notebook, the third one for this particular novel. I'm past the halfway point, so I expect I'll fill this one and perhaps get one more for the final chapters.
Dec 21, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 306
James R. Dec 24, 2009, 11:11am EST
Pat, great news. Here's hoping the partial and synopsis lead to a request for a full. Smart idea to have hubs check in given his history. Quite amazing the power of dreams, Herr Jung says.

Laurie, I love the song In the Bleak Midwinter; it's the perfect lift when you're feeling down in a season of short days and long nights.

I'm reading Three Cups of Tea, which is about the quest by Greg Mortensen to build schools in Pakistan in the aftermath of a failed attempt to climb the mountain K2. The prose feels a bit unwieldy to me -- even with the help of seasoned journalist David Oliver Relin as co-writer -- but the story is remarkable. An interview on NPR where Mortensen offered a reasoned critique of the new Obama policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan inspired me to find and read this book. I'll have more to say when I've completed the book.
Dec 21, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 306
James R. Dec 23, 2009, 7:40pm EST
Hi 'bats. I had a relaxing lunch today, as two of us from work enjoyed pre-holiday comfort foods at Bertucci's. Lots of people took the day off, so I just pushed ahead on a couple of projects and finished getting booked for my mid-January trip to Miami Beach. Alas, I only get to stay 2 days before returning up north, then heading out to Singapore.

Back home, my in-laws have arrived, so we'll be celebrating with them over the next couple of days.

Judi, yes, let the wrapping commence. That's my next task in the holiday marathon.

I'm hoping Jamie made a clean getaway before the predicted storms hit.
Dec 21, 2009 | recommended: 5 | comments: 306
James R. Dec 23, 2009, 1:21pm EST
Hi Ann. Great to see you 'round the holidays as part of the missing wombat roundup. Your Saints are having a fabulous year.
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