Dandelyon's Worlds

Also, at 8:00 p.m. central time, #sfwrtcht, for those who tweet.

But in the spirit of Weblit day, why don't we try a meme?

I'll start a story with one line. In the comments, people add to the story one line at a time.

Rules:

1. Copy the story, so far, into your response (unless it gets really long).
2. You can add more than one line, but you cannot follow your own line.
3. Aw, who am I kidding? Two rules is enough. Have fun.

Thanks to Jennyevergreen for the idea

Here is your first line:

Mai looked happily out at the beautiful sparkling ocean, then up at her new husband--but he wasn't smiling. Donal was looking at the sea in alarm, and yelled out, "Look to starboard!"

Because what memes are really about, usually, are communication and secret ways of knowing:

yuki_onna  said a friend of hers asked why the world doesn't have a meme where everyone leaves screened comments with what they want to say to to the poster but haven't yet for whatever reason -- and so she created this meme:

So! Tell me anything you want me to know - about me, about us, about you, about your mom, whatever you like.

Anonymous comments are enabled, and everything is screened. Tell me something you want to tell me, anonymously or not. If you say you want me to leave it screened, I will, happily. Keep in mind I can't reply without unscreening your comment.

Then do the same, and I will tell you something!

[Error: unknown template qotd]
Even being on the low end of "rich" looks pretty good from here! So the average end of "rich" would be just fine.

It's just too tempting to let a 'bot analyze a bit of your writing to see who you write like. I tried a number of different bits, and got a number of different results.

The Old Fashioned Way, Feather Blessed


Blade of the Battleflute, We Shape our Lives Like Clay


Monster Teeth and Art Glass


Fireborn excerpt


Stream of Consciousness post


DEMM Wizard excerpt



And a few others too! It took a while before I got a few duplicates. And I didn't try poetry or songs. There's only so much time in a day, and there's other things I should be doing.

But it leaves me with a new curiosity: Do I really have that many different writing styles?

Now I'm really curious as to what things in a writing sample triggers the results.

yuki_onna  has a plan, and I'd like to join in. 

I can't promise 30 straight days of engaging blogging -- I'm working full time and have other commitments, I know I have limits, and I am not willing to court burn-out -- but please comment here and tell me what you'd like to see in my journal, and I'll see what I can do.

What would you like to see here over the next month?  Fiction?  Poetry?  Art?  Photos?  Stream-of-consciousness meanderings?

Do you have questions you'd like me to answer about Torn World, my other creative work, or life in general?

Do you want me to write about how to do something I know how to do (or something I don't)?

Or something completely different?

I tell you three times:  I'm listening!

1. My username is wyld_dandelyon because... Well, when I started this journal, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, and I thought I would want a place that was somewhat private. But what I've actually come to value about it is having a way to connect to people and share my creative life with people. But that's why I picked a name that sounds obscure.

Dandelions have always been one of my favorite flowers, flourishing wherever they are, strong and vital and stubborn. And wyld--well, I wanted a place to live as large as I can. Wyld reminds me that most of the limits people would have you believe are firm really are not firm at all. The breadth of my imagination and the strength of my will matter a lot more than all the people who think it's not worth trying.

1a. I like the name well enough that I've used it elsewhere, Twitter, NaNoWriMo, and Torn World, for instance. If you can't find me under my mundane name somewhere, try this one.

2. My name is Deirdre because my parents wanted a pretty name of Irish heritage. Happily they chose an unusual name, since I like it that way.

Moira because my mother had to choose between her given middle name and her maiden name when she got married; if the first letter was the same then a girl wouldn't have to make that choice, she could have the best of both worlds.

And Murphy because I came to see that my ex was consistently acting as if it was more important that I was "Mrs. X" than that I was me. And I went along with it for too long, losing touch with many things that are very important to me. When I got divorced, I took my original last name back, promising myself to keep it as a reminder that I must never again allow someone in an intimate relationship to treat the me as if the role I fill in their life is more important than my health, my dreams, my life.

3. My journal is titled Dandelyon's Worlds because it has become the showcase for many of my creative efforts, from the very real world of my garden to all the worlds of my imagination.

By the way, I'll answer to Wyld or to Dandelyon, but Dandelyon is really the primary part of this name, for me.

4. My friends page is called Clearly the Butterfly Effect Rules Here because I never know what I will find there. I love having friends who write, who draw, who make music, who are interested in space, in making their own glazes or dyes, even in growing the fungus that they found on their neglected pumpkin pie. I love having friends who share pictures and comics, science experiments and recipes. I love having friends who live very different lives than I do as well as friends who live similar lives. But mostly I love having friends who are passionate, who are interested in living life fully.

5. My default userpic is a picture of me taken at the pirate-themed Capricon by beige_alert . I use it because I love purple, because I REALLY appreciate seeing actual pictures of the people I correspond with (I have to cudgel faces into my brain repeatedly before it sticks and I know some of the other people I correspond with also have that difficulty), and mostly because the picture is one of the best anyone has taken of me recently.

The userpic I use most often after that is the wonderful wildcat-wizard djinni drew for me. He didn't really plan it to be a user icon, but it's just too cool not to show off regularly. And it also reminds me of the me I want to be, creative and strong and powerful.

In other news--writing: for people keeping track, I had another productive writing day, and am now a whole ten words past where the NaNoWriMo website thinks I should be (today's cumulative goal is 40,000 words). I wanted be much farther along by now, but I think I've finally gotten past the most frustrating stage, where I kept having to stop and grope around for threads that I just didn't have in hand yet. I sure hope so, anyway! I know every story is different, and only a very few flow out the fingertips almost like I'm reading the story. And I know that I learn more from the stories that I have to stretch myself for. But when you're in the middle of a hard stretch, you keep wishing for the other!

Oh, and I'm still Google-ing odd things; the most recent search was: "What does a frustrated skunk sound like?"

Today was productive, though it could have been better. Got 3286 words in on a new short story, which is now essentially finished in first draft.

Also got a bunch of Clockwork Dragon done, though somehow a couple thousand words didn't save properly the first time and I had to retype them. Ugh. No fair having my work vanish like that when I'm behind. But I'm now past the halfway mark.

Thinking of alliterative titles to help me post regularly; FridayFlash is obvious, and I wanted Whimsical Wednesday, but won't complaint too much about a Writing Wednesday with over 5000 words in it, especially with the stupid "where did all my work go" stumble in the middle.

P.S. Silly flash drive, I KNOW that if I had a newer computer, with a USB2 port, you could go faster. Do you have to taunt me every single time I plug you in?

Right now I have a photo of my gorgeous daughter getting her 8th grade diploma.  She's now a Junior in HS and doing very well, but likes her privacy, so I'm not going to publish the picture.  Sorry.  But she's wearing a gorgeous (and way-grown-up--I don't think my high-school graduation dress looked that grown-up) blue dress and is wering her cords from being in the National Junior Honor Society, and a huge smile.  So is the Principal.

So were her parents and other assorted family members, though we're not in the photo.

In the past, I've had various Susan Seddon Boulet paintings, and my habit at work was to find a landscape-type picture of something that I hadn't been satisfied with my results when I tried to paint it to stare at for a while.  The one that was my desktop when I was laid off was a very rocky stream, with rocky banks, in sunlight, so I spent at least a few moments every day looking at how sun and shade and water and moss all affect how rocks (sharp rocks, smooth rocks, wet rocks, dry rocks) look.

THE ANONYMOUS WRITING FEEDBACK MEME

For my lurkers...and anyone else.