The New Pocket Watch

My wristwatch is driving me nuts. The little piece that holds down the end of the band broke off.  I’ve been using a twist tie to hold it down, but the ends of that sometimes irritate my skin. So more and more, I’ve been taking it off and setting it aside.  And then sometimes I forget it in a bag or on my nightstand or desk or wherever.

Then I wonder what time or day it is. And I look at my wrist. Oh, right, I don’t have a watch. But I still don’t know what time it is. And instinctively, I look at my wrist again. Yes, I do know the definition of insanity, but I can’t help it. That’s what I do when I want to know the time or date.

When mentioning my watch, there are so many people I know who are shocked that I still wear one.  Why not just use my phone like they do?  But, of course, I love my watch, and I’m used to looking at my wrist for the time and day, rather than reaching into my pocket and pulling out a device to check the time.

And it struck me today.  How funny is it that so many people have returned to pocket watches?  They might look different than before.  They might do so much more.  And they probably aren’t on a chain.  But still.  Pocket watches.  Who knew that technology in all its shininess would take us back a step too.

Lots of love,Sage

Barbershop

So in my spare time, I sing in a barbershop choir–I mean, chorus, as they keep reminding me–as part of the international organization of Sweet Adelines.  My chorus does a concert in the winter or fall and sings for various other events, but we also compete along with other Sweet Adeline choruses and quartets.

You probably think of barbershop as men’s quartets, possibly thinking of the guys in The Music Man, singing “Lida Rose” or “Goodnight, Ladies.”  So did I.  The first time I knew that women could be in barbershop quartets was when I saw MAXX Factor on the show The Sing-Off.  And it wasn’t until I was looking for a choir to join that I found out that there were choruses.

Barbershop is a cappella music, featuring four vocal parts–in order from highest to lowest: tenor, lead, baritone, and bass.  Even with women singers, the parts retain these names.  My part is lead, which means that 90% of the time I have the melody (phew).  This is pretty different from choirs that I grew up with, where the first soprano part–the highest part, which corresponds with the tenor part in barbershop–has the melody.  The tenor sings harmony over the lead, the bass is our foundation, and the baritone completes our chords.  One thing we strive to do is ring a chord so that a fifth note appears to be included, an overtone.

The music we do spans many decades, but traditionally, barbershop sings music from the 40s.  But, for variety, we had a quartet sing us “Poker Face” (the Glee version done for four voices instead of two).  For competition, every chorus and quartet sings a ballad and an upbeat song, and the performances I saw this weekend followed that format.  It’s great because some people get bored during ballads, while others prefer the emotions in them, so you are guaranteed the variety with each chorus/quartet’s performance.

This weekend, my chorus met with others in the region.  Apparently during this convention, there are usually many vocal techniques given to us, but this year they focused on two things: choreography and attracting younger singers.  That was fine by me because I had a sore throat and I miss zumba, so spending a weekend dancing was lots more fun than straining my voice when I could be saving it for rehearsal.

While there I met a high school choir (chorus?) who came to learn along with us, even though they don’t belong to Sweet Adelines.  A group of us had them sing for us, and they were great!  And later on, there was a contest for quartets with younger women (under 25) to see who would be sent to the Rising Star contest. (BTW, here‘s the winner of the most recent competition, if you want to get an idea what that’s like.)  And as I was watching them, I was thinking of the girls’ stories and how unique each one was, and what must have attracted them to barbershop (thanks a lot to those presentations on how to get them interested), and it sparked an idea for a novel!

So I’m sure that I’ll have more on that when I get closer to writing it, but for now I need to do more research.  I’m still really new to barbershop (I’m sure my chorus friends will come on here and laugh at how basic my barbershop info is in this post), and I’d like to get more experience under my belt before I go writing anything about it.  Besides, I have a novel to rewrite and another to start querying again. 🙂

Lots of love,Sage

Workout Wednesday – Sad news

Taking a short break from NaNo (by which, I mean that I haven’t written anything today yet O_O) to do a Workout Wednesday.  It is Wednesday, right?  My sense of time is wacky this week for some reason.

Anyway, if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I was working hard to do the Disney Princess Half-Marathon next February.  Due to financial reasons, I will not be able to do that.  I might do some other local race next year and maybe I’ll be able to do a Disney half-marathon in 2014, but I just can’t justify the trip right now.  It pretty much broke my heart, but I have to do the responsible thing right now.

I’m still running, although I’m not working hard on improving my speed at the moment. A lot of my running was spurred on by imagining the trip, so to avoid relapsing into thoughts of it while running, I’ve started listening to shows I have on my iPod, which means I can’t keep track of my laps at the same time.  So if I’m at the gym, I just run for half an hour and don’t count the laps, which means I can’t keep track of my speed.  But when I ran outdoors the other day, RunKeeper told me that my speed isn’t suffering for this.

I’m still doing my PT routines and other workouts as I can fit them in (on top of losing the half-marathon, my work schedule changed so that I can’t do my midday classes), and I haven’t really let up on how many workouts a week I do.

Still, it was very disappointing to lose the Disney trip.

I hope you are doing well with all your exercising endeavors and that if you’re participating in NaNo, you haven’t gone completely sedentary, as sometimes happens to obsessed writers.

Lots of love,
Sage

Making Time (#NaNoPrep)

One important part of preparing for NaNo is clearing time in your schedule to write.  Of course, some non-writing events have to exist.  If you have a day job, you’ll have to work it unless you are lucky enough to have some time-off to spare.  If you have kids, I suppose you might have to take care of them in November too.  And maybe there’s that TV show or sport you just can’t miss.

I have choir on Monday nights, several scheduled (and unscheduled) work outs, plus work, though I did manipulate my schedule to have that first day off by working the preceding Sunday.  But, overall, I’m going to have times when I can’t write.

But there are some ways to clear your schedule around those things, and you can prepare them now in this last week before November.

• Chores: Laundry, cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming.  The more of these you can get done at the end of October, the less you’ll have that nagging feeling that you need to do them.
• Cooking: It’s pretty hard to cook ahead for 30 days, but if you make something on Halloween (in between the candy) that has a lot of leftovers, you’ll get a good start on the month, at least.  Then you can decide if you’re going to spend the rest of the month eating pizza, ramen, and Panera or not.  That decision leads us to…
• Shopping.  Know that you’re going to need something later in November?  Buy it now, if you can.  Christmas shopping can be started in October, and then with that head start, you won’t feel so panicked about leaving the rest for December.  Plan your groceries for things that are easy to make and that sit well for the month
• Clearing the air:  If you’re like me, nothing puts a bigger damper on your writing high than being mad about real life issues.  If something’s been building, November is not the time for it to explode.  It may be scary, but working out real world problems in this last week of October–as much as they can be anyway–could save your November concentration.
• Voting:  Why would they put the election right at the beginning of National Novel Writing Month?  What were they thinking?  Well, there’s always writing while in line (I did that in 2008), but some states have early voting, so I took advantage of that this time around.

That’s all the prep I can think of for now.  Do you have any things you do in advance to avoid real life distractions in November?

Lots of love,
Sage

Researching (#NaNoPrep)

Researching?  What is this researching thing?  We don’t need no stinkin’ research before NaNoWriMo.

Okay, I’ll admit it.  I tend to do my real research when I come across a need for it mid-book.  Very rarely do I say, “I’m writing a book set at a ranch, let me do all my research on horses in the months preceding it.”  I use horses because I did some recent horse research for a chapter book I wrote a few months ago.  It was very minimal, as I was just refreshing myself on some terms I already knew.  In that case, it didn’t take too much time away from my writing.

But in NaNo, having to do even a little research can detract from that all-important word count, so it’s good to get it in October or before, if you know what you need.  (Let’s not forget that pantsers might not even know what they could possibly research)

This year I was planning to do a different novel from A Paranormal Bromance, and it was going to require heavy research.  I searched for books, I watched documentaries, I looked for credible information and personal accounts on the internet.  Then I changed novels, so that research will have to hold for another time. But I certainly know people who do the heavy research where they read non-fiction about most of their novels, even interview people for them.  I really admire those people and their dedication, not to mention their creativity to make a novel out of this research.

But here’s how I usually research in October.  I read fiction in the genre I’m writing or about the same subject or for the same age group.  Last year when I was writing my chapter books, I read a lot of chapter books (and low MG to see the difference) to prepare myself for writing for that reading level.

This year I’m writing that paranormal bromance.  And I haven’t decided if it’s a paranormal romance but without lust between the mains or if it’s simply a contemporary fantasy with a humorous title.  Because these are two totally different things.  Even if I go the contemporary fantasy route, I still might use some tropes from PR.  So here I am reading ghost stories (because one of the mains is a ghost).  Oh, darn, ghost stories in October.  But I’m also reading paranormal romances, which are totally not my usual thing, as research.  What tropes do I want? Do I want any? Should I have a similar tone to PRs? Is there a certain formula that I can either follow or parody? Should I stay far far away from anything PR at all?  So that’s the kind of research I’m doing now.  But that’s generally the kind of research I do the most, and no matter whether you’re a planner or a pantser, whether you’re someone who does heavy research about the subject or not, I suggest reading books like yours (or potentially like yours)

What kind of research do you do leading up to NaNo or any other books you write?  Do you do any at all?  Do you find yourself researching mid-book like I sometimes do (or even during edits)?  Have you ever wished you had researched something before you started?

Lots of love,
Sage
P.S. Less than two weeks left to enter the Trick-or-Treat Love Sucks Giveaway.  This also means less than two weeks to Halloween and NaNo!

Lots of Love Thursday – 6/28/12

So as I sit here, waiting for the A/C guy, I thought I would write a blog post.  If you squint real hard at my last title and this one, you might think that I wrote two days in a row (Workout Wednesday and Lots of Love Thursday).  But, no, I was my usual lazy blogging self and neglected the blog for like a month and a half.  It’s hard to get motivation to write (anything) when I’m baking in the oven that is my house these days.

I am cursed.  This is my ninth summer in Ohio, and for eight of them, I have had a broken A/C.   This spans three different places I’ve lived and five different A/C units.  Last year was the only year I didn’t have to get the A/C unit fixed or replaced (it had been replaced the year before…for free, but apparently with a broken model that started leaking coolant…last year).  It’s been a hot spring and summer, but today is supposed to get into the 100s, so I start off LoLT with:

• My A/C is getting fixed!
• Which also means that our windows won’t have to be open all the time, which means fewer bugs and fewer allergens in the house
• I went to check out a choir (for joining) and had a great time
• I rediscovered what a joy it is to read on my Kindle
• I read THE SELECTION like I was addicted to it, which is pretty exciting since I never feel that need to read books by people I don’t know anymore.  I’m not saying it’s great literature or anything, but I could not put it down.
• My parents got back from their cruise and I wowed my dad with his Father’s Day gift
• My Dear Teen Me letter is up.  You can find it here
• My friend Suz’s book, A WANT SO WICKED, is available (our indie bookstore should have it in today or tomorrow).

Since I last was on here, tons of stuff has happened, but this was just the love for this past week (which was pretty nice).

Writing stuff:

I’m working on my Trouble kidlit, although I’m having trouble (haha) deciding where to start the series.  I thought Trouble at School was logical, but it makes the timeline of the series awkward.  I did, however, print out Trouble with Pets, which I wrote in November, and I’m highly enjoying editing that.

I wrote the Dear Teen Me letter.  Dear Teen Me is also doing an anthology, in which the lovely Hannah Moskowitz participated.  Her letter is a tear-jerker, trust me.

I’m waiting on betas for Taylor-Made, but my first beta gave me lots to think about already.

Anyway, that’s all the love for now.

Lots of love,

Sage

Workout Wednesday – 5/9/12

This week I did:

Thursday: Aqua fitness, followed immediately by jogging three miles (this, btw, led to my best times ever, whether it was due to a great warm up or because I was wearing my wet swimsuit and was cooled off as I ran)

Friday: Last week’s PT routine – weight lifting

Saturday: I decided to rest due to the heat

Sunday: Jogged 4 miles

Monday: Last week’s PT routine – weight lifting.  Then after work I did 35 minutes of Zumba on the PS3

Tuesday: I was out all day and had planned to stop at the gym on the way home, but I had forgotten my sneakers, so I did nothing.

Wednesday: New PT routine – more weights this week

—

So I had this crazy idea of doing one of the Disney half-marathons this winter.  Crazy because I just started this running thing recently.  But I think it would be kinda fun.  My only concern these days is who would be able to go with me.  I could do the one at Disneyland, near my family, but it happens right after Christmas, which makes it tough to schedule.  Still I’m excited by the prospect.  I keep expecting someone to tell me that it would be crazy for me to do it.  I mean, like a month ago, I didn’t even know I could run one mile, much less 13.1 miles.  I think back to all those mile runs in middle and high school and what torture they were.  What a difference an inhaler (and 3 years of strength and cardio training) can make.

Anyway, so that’s my crazy thought for now.

Lots of love,

Sage

Sixth-Year Potions Class at Work

Today I did one of my favorite things at work.  I got to do potions class.  Here’s how I took ordinary tap water, made Felix Filicis, the Draught of Living Death, and then back to water.

(Note: the real ingredients and end product are actually very dangerous and should not be touched with your bare hands or drunk)

So first I started with plain old water, which must be rushing from the tap when you fill the bottle.

I added some powdered moonstone (Manganous sulfate) and crushed scarab (alkaline iodide-azide reagent). This turns the water into an orange floc which settles eventually.

To finish the Felix Felicis spell, you must add the dust of a fallen star (sulfamic acid powder) to the floc.

Ta-dah! Felix!

But the magic isn’t over.  Next up was to make the Daught of Living Death, a potion you certainly don’t want to mess with.

First I transferred my Felix Felicis to a new flask.  Then, of course, I need to add some valerian roots and the juice of the sopophorous bean (starch indicator).  By now your Draught should be pretty dark.

This is all pretty cool, but my favorite part comes next.  Now’s when we take this deadly Draught and turn it back into water.

To do that, you need the liquid from a phoenix egg (sodium thiosulfate in liquid form).  You drip this slowly into the flask until it turns blue…

…and lighter blue…

…and then, finally, until it turns clear as water once more.

Hooray, you have done magic!

And in real life, this will tell you the dissolve oxygen in your water.  The magic trick as a whole is called the Winkler titration.

Hope you enjoyed today’s potions class.  Tomorrow, perhaps, I will teach you how to find the antidote to an unknown poison  (We call this a Toxicity Identification Evaluation in the lab).

Lots of love,

Sage

Haustor/Haustoria

So way back when I was writing Love Sucks (a million years ago, I think), I was looking for a name for my love/lust/inhibition drainers.  If it had just been love, I probably would have been find with “love drainer” or something, but for some reason “drainer” or “sucker” didn’t really appeal to me as an all-encompassing title for these demons.  This was before vampires were impossible to sell, but “vampire” didn’t quite seem to fit.

I turned to my writing buddies and asked for suggestions.  One had been taking Latin, and together we came up with “Haustor” or “someone who drains.”

Today I was working on a report that summarized major threats to different species.  Imagine my surprise when I came across the word, “Haustoria.”  Obviously, I couldn’t let that go without looking it up.  It turns out that the haustoria (haustorium = singular) are the part of a parasitic plant or fungus that draws nutrients from the plant.

Of course, it makes perfect sense that Haustores and haustoria have similar names and do basically the same thing–drain food from a host with a touch.  They were both named with the same Latin root (“to drain”). But it was cool to have my work and writing worlds collide with the chance encounter with a word I basically consider to be mine.

Do you ever have your writing world intersect with the real world in a weird way like this?

Lots of love,

Sage

Workout Wednesday – New *Mile*stones

It’s been a long time, Workout Wednesday, but I haven’t forgotten you.

Today I hit a new milestone, and I thought, “wish it was Wednesday so I had an excuse to write about it” before realizing itis Wednesday, lol.

A little background, my workout schedule looks a lot different from what it looked like when I used to post these.  My PT is different, we meet on a different day, and I’m more likely to skip a class to do something on my own.  I’m also less likely to do a double workout, although I did one today.

So here’s this week’s workout.

Thursday: Aqua fitness class

Friday: Circuit: spinning at different speeds for certain intervals; arm weight exercises–bicep curls, high row, and shoulder press; ab work–leg raises and knee tucks

Saturday: Off

Sunday: Same as Friday

Monday: 50 minutes of Zumba Fitness on my PS3

Tuesday: 2 miles jogging

Wednesday:

• Circuit: One minute each x3 sets: Jump squats, “driving the bus” (arm exercise with 10-lb plate), sumo high row (squat then stand into a high row with 10-lb plate)
• 4(!) miles jogging

—

About the jogging.  A few weeks ago, I didn’t know that I could actually jog more than a mile.  The pool was closed one Thursday, but I had my gym clothes with me and had already taken my inhaler, so I decided to use the track.  I wasn’t planning on working out long, since I didn’t have my iPhone for music or a book (which I could have read on the treadmill).  After walking a few laps, I decided to jog a few more, then leave.

I did 3 laps, which is a quarter of a mile, and thought, “Huh, why don’t I try for a mile, and just see how far I get?”  So I did.  Without music, I didn’t have a beat, and my pace was set by how fast I felt like going, not by how fast my music is going (which usually leads to me wheezing too much to go at a slower pace later).  I finished the mile.

And then I did another.

Since then, I’ve started using the track more and more on cardio days.  Since I’ve done the 2 miles, I refuse to quit before I reach that far.  Instead of music, I listen to an audiobook to keep me entertained.  And today I bought a counter for my iPhone so that I don’t have to keep track of the 12 laps/mile on my fingers, which causes them to cramp and causes me to stop at 2 miles even if I thought I could go further.  Obviously, this was a great plan, as I doubled my mile count today.

I’m going to see if I can build up my endurance and convince myself to sacrifice more time out of the day (I do about 10-11-minute miles) and see if I can work up to a 5K/10K/half-marathon level (not expecting myself to be able to do 26 miles, like, ever, but 13 maybe?).  It gives me a new excuse to return to WWs too, if I have new progress to chart.

Anyway, that’s my progress this week.  Any good workouts you’ve done lately?

Lots of love,
Sage