Random Thoughts

1. Remember the contest I told you about last week where you had a chance to win a free book cover design? Well, I was one of the winners. I'm pretty excited about it, but now I have to decide which book to use. I originally planned to use Across Two Universes, but now I think the prequel to that story would be a better choice. Good thing I have a year to decide.

2. Lately, I'm having a hard time deciding what book to read next on my Kindle. I'll start a sample, lose interest, then try another one. I wonder if having so many choices (I'm now up to 82 books in my "To Read" collection) is making me pickier than usual.

3. I could choose one of my paper books to read, only I already have two non-fiction books I'm working on. If I add a novel to that, i know I'll choose the fun read over the research ones.


Anyone else have some random thoughts to add?

Midweek Randomness

1. I finally managed to upload my copy of Across Two Universes to my Kindle. I had a couple of technical problems with it; I needed to add an e-mail address to my Kindle so it would accept attachments, and since my Kindle isn't on our home wireless network (allow me to spare you the explanation why I can't add it; it's rather stupid), I had to use the cord. I thought that by putting my story in a different format, it would help me with editing. This was actually going to be my entire topic for today, actually. But the horrible line breaks were so distracting I went back to the computer instead. At least it motivated me to start editing ATU again!

2. Paul doesn't always come across as sympathetic. I wonder if I need to make his motivations and thoughts more evident.

3. I promised myself I'd buy myself one of these Vera Bradley Tea for One sets if I won NaNoWriMo:


I did so on Monday -- and of course, the next day, I get a Barnes & Noble coupon via e-mail. Figures.

4. I'm also treating myself to a Beatles marathon since I'm home on vacation. I'm playing all of their official albums in order. I'm just finishing up Revolver as I'm typing. You'd think as a fan, I'd play the albums more often instead of listening to other CDs or Pandora. But it's good to hear some of my favorites that don't get much radio airplay.

White Space and Creativity

White space (or negative space) is the part of the page that's left blank. It's necessary not just to group text and graphic elements, but to give the eyes a rest. Similarly, our minds need downtime to learn and come up with new ideas. But as this article in the New York Times points out, our electronic gadgets provide temptation to fill all our downtime with distractions. If we ceaselessly shovel content into our brains, we will never have enough quiet time to be creative.

I have to admit there are times when I don't give myself enough quiet time--instead of relaxing during my lunch hour, I surf the Net or write. But there are other times, such as when I'm at the park with Alex, that I try to take time to relax, look at the clouds, and try to clear my head. It isn't easy, especially when I get earworms from Alex's shows stuck in my brain. But I've also found that when I set aside some time to be creative--for example, setting aside time to develop a plot or an alien race--several ideas may pile on top of each other.

Do you give yourself mental downtime? If so, is it just walking away from the Internet for a while, or do you take more drastic measures? Do you think more should be done to promote the importance of downtime? I wonder if some future culture will mandate everyone unplug every so often, and what affect that would have on people.

Ten Word Tuesday: Relaxation

Sometimes one needs to stop, lay back, and watch clouds.

Five Random Things

Christina Fonseca posted this meme on her blog, and it looked interesting enough for me to follow suit. If you'd like to play along too, please feel free to do so in either a comment below or on your own blog. If you post it on your blog, please link to it so I can see what you said.

1) Most unusual or interesting job I’ve had…

My previous job in Research and Development for an enzyme company (I was transferred to QC last year). I had the opportunity to choose some of my own projects. Sometimes I'd go shopping at the grocery store and bring back different types of food to experiment on. Of course, that meant I had to taste-test the results, and they weren't always good!

2) Childhood Memory related to writing…

When I was in middle school, I studied German. It wasn't very popular, so when we held our Foreign Language Fair, we didn't get to perform the way the French and Spanish students did. I tried to change that by writing a short play called "A Little Demonstration of German." It was a couple of short scenes with German phrases. Nothing too fancy, as my German wasn't up to much--and I've forgotten a lot of it since! We didn't get to perform it, but my teacher gave me a special certificate that year.

3) Things I collect

I collect postcards whenever I travel. It started when I visited Germany as a teenager. I even taped them to the wall of my dorm room in undergrad. I don't display them any more, but I still buy them.

I also like to collect books and magazines about the Beatles. For a while, I used to buy Time's special Year in Review issue, but I've let that slide.

4) Obsessions

My pet dragons on Facebook. Sometimes if I wake up in the middle of the night, I'll log in to check on a battle. Heck, perhaps they're why I can no longer sleep more than six hours at a stretch. Yes, I'm strange.

5) Unusual “talents”

I'm not sure what to put here. I can crochet. There's nothing unusual about that--except I do it with my "weak" hand. I'm left-handed, but crochet patterns are written for right-handed people. It was easier to learn to crochet right-handed than to keep reversing the directions.