Sniff or Snort

I'm doing a fiction writing workshop with A. Catherine Noon through the Writer's Retreat Forum. It's been slow-starting because my slackerific ass has been virtually non-existent online the past month. But, I have been reading. We're on to chapter three: Characters.

Why is this relevant? One of my fleeting thoughts was wondering how to show and not tell things about characters. For some reason, I made the leap to integrating all the senses. And THAT got me thinking . . . what smells might affect a certain character in a certain way? Basically, the idea is that each person has a catalog of smells that have certain meanings to them, that evoke strong memories or emotions.

Here are thirteen scents that get a strong reaction out of me . . .

Thirteen of Gwen's Sniff and Snort Worthy Scents 1. Lilacs. Where I grew up, there were huge lilac trees everywhere. Not only is this my favorite flower and my favorite floral scent, but it takes me back to age five - lime popsicles and running through the sprinkler. 2. Spaghetti sauce. Nothing says you're home like walking in the door to the infusion of basil, garlic and tomato . . . 3. That stale smell of the box that has all the holiday decorations in it. The decorating is my favorite part, so this smell always gets me excited for the holiday season. 4. Ralph Lauren Polo Sport. Hubby's eau de choice when he first swept me off my feet, still makes my heart flutter. I can hone in on it in a crowd from fifty yards away. 5. Sea air. The first hint of chilled salt that comes miles before you can actually see the ocean. It just makes me feel free. 6. The great white belly. I love to nuzzle my cat Oliver's tummy. He smells like popcorn flavored Jelly Bellies. No joke. 7. Banana fragrance of any kind. If you want to see me gag - bring out a whif of this stuff. When I was little, my mom put this nasty stuff on my fingernails to keep me from chewing them. It was very close to Banana. I gagged and hacked, but I still chewed. 8. Airplanes. There are two many wrong smells here to mention. Just about any one of them can get my body pumping adrenaline. 9. Cinnabon. Even if I'm not hungry, this smell can make my mouth water. 10. Patchouli incense. Not my favorite scent, but it is my mom's, so it's comforting by default. 11. Fresh Mint. Naturally refreshing and invigorating, but it reminds me of a HUGE garden we had once. I spent the whole summer grazing. Or it also makes me think of Mojitos, which are also good. *grin* 12. Cigarette smoke. I don't care if it's rude, I hack all over anyone who dares to smoke anywhere near me. I can smell it on breath, clothes, furniture. I have to wash my clothes and shower immediately if I'm anywhere where there's smoke. Just yuck. Srsly. 13. Wood smoke. Funny, but this has the opposite effect of that *cough*other*cough* kind. I love to camp, or to have a fire blazing for any reason. This smell just makes me want to snuggle up. What scents do you love/hate and why?

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Leave a comment, and I'll link back to you here:

Debbie Mumford
Adelle Laudan
Lia Morgan
Tempest Knight
Nina Pierce
Paige Tyler
Alice Audrey
Word Trix
A. Catherine Noon
Susan Helene Gottfried
Shelley Munro
Unhinged
Ms. Menozzi
Eaton Bennett

Motivation Schmotivation

I put up a lengthy post of a two-part series on motivation and goals over on the Writer's Retreat Blog today. Check it out here.

And for frick's sake . . . I just realized it's June. *bugeyes*

Did it sneak up on anyone else?

I should be doing something productive right now . . .

Ever had one of those weeks? You're busy, the time is flying, and yet - you get absolutely nothing done.

Big. Fat. Zero.

Well, okay - that's not exactly through. I've got 18.5K words on a 15K limit novella that's only 90% done. But, I think that qualifies as counter productive. Since now, I have more editing work. I've gone through it twice, and I think . . .

I think I've got too much story for 15K words. But how the heck do I pick a thread of my story to cut out. I love them all! And they make such a pretty pattern. *sigh*

Other than the novella - like I said - nothing doing. Just counting down to the weekend.

Back in the Blog Saddle

The past two weeks have just been nuts, and it wasn't until I got back from a recent business trip that the 'I'm away from my Blog' post I thought I had left was apparently eaten by Scribefire, along with one for the WRB.

Anyhoo - a quick rundown:

I finished the Sweat with Sven challenge. It was the third round, though the first time for me. I think I could have gotten more out of it if I hadn't had so much on my plate otherwise. I went into it with big plans to be the ultimate cheerleader and fell woefully short of that goal. BUT I did at least complete the challenge - rather early too. From that aspect, it was a good motivator.

My first draft of Cloak of Deceit, is finished and being edited and slowly re-worked and re-written with the assistance of The ABC. I've sent off a submission package to a contest and am planning to possibly enter a few others this summer.

I'm still chugging along (albeit slowly) on my mentorship with the fabulously inspiring Debbie Mumford, whom I'm sure will be a very successful YA author soon, and on my Fiction Writing Workshop with A. Catherine Noon on the Writer's Retreat Forum. I'm not giving either of these as much attention as I would like, but c'est la vie - for now.

My next goal is to tackle a Nocturne Bite submission. I have plans to write and submit at least three possibilities for this. I'm 3K words into the first one and finding it challenging, but am very excited about the premise for the story. It's set in my Zyne Legacy universe - the one from my second novel project, Witch Hunt.

Two more weeks left of school and I can safely say I am completely crazy for thinking I could do all of this at once. I should manage to pull okay grades, but just by the skin of my teeth. I'm looking forward to having the summer off in order to focus on writing and maybe enjoy a bit of leisure time.

I have a stack of book reviews to do, and some already written. I'll be posting them over the next month rather frequently. Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series is one of my new favorites. I breezed through three of them on my trip and liked each one better than the last.

We've hosted a shrunken down version of the Flash Fiction Carnival on the Writer's Retreat Blog. I'm not sure if it is my fault because I didn't actively recruit enough, or if it is a mix-up because of the admin change - but in any event - major kudos to those who submitted - Catherine, Susan and Unhinged. I will have the posts up with a link hopefully tonight.

That is May in a nutshell so far. What have you been up to?

May Flash Fiction Carnival

If you are looking for the Flash Fiction Carnival theme/instructions for May, you can find them here. Happy Flashing!

Thursday Fly-By

I tried, I really did - but I'm getting over the mutant flu from hell (yes, again), had a midterm on Monday (which I nailed, btw) and missed 3 days of work a week before THE big trade show, so things are a leetle ... um . . . hectic. Yeah, hectic. That's it.

No Thursday Thirteen for me, unless you want 13 cellular pathways that cancer can affect.

Ah. I didn't think so.

What's everyone else up to?

A Secret in the Cellar

A good friend of mine has a short story published in the Membra Disjecta e-Zine by Drollerie Press.

It's a touching story with a bittersweet ending, and I'm a sucker for those. I can't say too much because I don't want to spoil the secret. Just trust me - it's good!

A Secret in the Cellar

I may be slightly biased, but I think I could take up house inside Eden's imagination and live quite happily there. And she's just getting started.

I Didn't Say It . . .

But I still think it's true.

I don't know about you guys/gals, but I *LOVE* Google. So much that I've decided to do an 'Ode to Google'. But don't worry - that's not what this is. That will get tossed on my ever-growing WIP pile.

Instead, I'll share something that Google helps me with. I'm a student of philosophy. So, I'm always on the lookout for quotes. You never know when you can use something someone else said to back you up. And, truth be told, there are many billions of people more eloquent than I that have come before - so why not stand on the shoulders of genius, right? Heh.

That's why I love Google. I have 28 Google Notebooks - various collections of things, but one of them is a list of quotes I encounter that strike me. I've dug up thirteen of them for you this week. =)

1. "Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ Louis Pasteur 2. "A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives - of approving of some and disapproving of others." ~ Charles Darwin 3. "Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech." ~ Martin Fraquhar Tupper 4. "A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other." ~ Charles Dickens 5. "The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well." ~ Horace Walpole 6. "There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures." ~ James Thurber 7. "Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric." ~ Bertrand Russell 8. "The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 9. “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” ~ Kahlil Gibran 10. "The longest journey of any person is the journey inward." ~ Dag Hammerskjvld 11. "Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives." ~ C.S. Lewis 12. "An absolutely new idea is one of the rarest things known to man." ~ Thomas More 13. "Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere." ~ Carl Sagan

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Leave a comment, and I'll link back to you here:

Kathleen Oxley
Shelley Munro
Ms. Menozzi
Gina Ardito
Morgan St. John
Adelle Lauden
Tempest Knight
~Liz~
Tara S. Nichols
Brenda ND
Alice Audrey
Jennifer McKenzie
Jennifer Bianco
Kaige (Impulsive Hearts)
R. G. Alexander
Paige Tyler
A. Catherine Noon
Robin L. Rotham
Unhinged
Eaton Bennett
Dana Belfry
Chloe Devlin
Nicholas
Susan Helene Gottfried
Word Trix