On Lost in a Little World:

Yesterday I was doing a rewrite on one of the books I’m writing for the dolls and I was at it until the wee hours of the morning. I surprised myself at how the time flew by.

You see, at first there was only one house and one story. Then when I made the other house I felt that whoever got each house after I’m gone should have the story that went with the dolls living there. So I pulled the story apart and did a dove tail thing with them and made it two stories.

The problem was that the story to the house with the older young women was, well I’ll say it, duller. It needed punching up a bit. That was what the rewrite was all about.















And today I was making more doll house stuff. Namely kitchen things. Wooden boxes like you get produce in. Finding old fashion labels on the internet small enough to print, cut out, and paste on the little glass jars and boxes of food stuff. I fixed a handle on a pot that hangs in the one kitchen fire place. And made plans to make a dry sink.



























Let me just say that the inventory list for all this stuff is over 20 typed pages and growing. Yes, even I can’t keep it all straight without a list and most all of it came from my head and hands.

I am felling really good about getting back at this project. Too long left to collect dust.

Not that I lacked enthusiasm. It was more of a over whelmed feeling. Kinda’ like ‘Too big to ever accomplish, and that is scary.’ kind of thing.

I mean, who makes the dolls, all their clothing, houses and makes and collects all their stuff… Writes books about their lives… And stages all the illustrations… Plus takes all the pictures for it over fifteen years?

A bit of a dizzy lady that has too much time on her hands and likes to be creative and to keep busy. That’s who!

On My Story Blog:

Today I posted a story over on my Story Blog ‘Thrill or Shiver’.

I hope you enjoy it. I went with a Halloween appropriate theme as this is October.

Let me know what you think. Comment here or there.

On A New Story:

Hi everyone. I have posted a new story called "The Redneck's Car" on my Thrill or Shiver story blog page.

Let me know if you liked it. Or even if it needs something. I'm open to learning how to make my stories better.

On Writing Again:

It has been a while, but I have put another short story up on my story blog Thrill or Shiver.

It is ‘The Castle Tour Guide.’

About the story: Ruth Bradford is a tour guide that looks a lot like one of the ladies that use to rule in the castle. Ruth’s plans are to use the money earned to go to college and get a history degree.

Read it and see if her dreams come true or if fate plays a hand in Ruth’s life.

Let me know if you like it or if it needs improvement and where. I’m always up for improving my writing skills.

On Just a Quick Message:

There is a new story up on my ‘Thrill or Shiver’ story blog. It is a Halloween tale called ‘Halloween Pizza’.

I put it up early so I don’t miss the chance depending on when the new grandchild arrives. Enjoy, or should I say, Enjoy the Shiver.

On Writing Stories Again:

I have a new story on Thrill or Shiver called ‘Autumn Afternoons.’

It is in two parts and I posted the second one first and the first one last so they read straight through when you go there.

Feel free to let me know what you think of it. I’m always up for learning from my feedback.

On One Down, Two to Go:

I posted the short story I wrote called ‘The Good Girl’ over at my ‘Thrill or Shiver’ blog. And I am hoping for comments so that I can improve my writing skills. (And I do believe that there is always room for improvement in everyone.) No one is perfect.

If you have the time check it out and let me know what you think. You can’t hurt my feelings, because I’m aware that not all things appeal to all people. Still, I hope you enjoy it. My stories are meant to entertain.

I’m back to the writing of the other two stories. One at the ending stages and the other still at the beginnings.

On Hanging by a Muse:

I have been typing franticly away for days now. Coming up for air and food and a little sleep from time to time. Three stories alternately. Yes, I said working on three totally different stories at the same time.

One is the story that came to me the other day.

Two is a story that didn’t have an ending for, let me see… about seven years now. That is until some character in the story I was working on got to talking and gave me the idea, or I should say permission to use his story, for it‘s ending. (At least I had a hard copy and a disk of that one.)

Three is a story for my ‘Thrill or Shiver’ short story blog. As the others are not short stories and not for that venue. And, I have been neglecting it shamefully. (Most all my stories are on Rupert, the dead computer, at the moment and I had to start over with another short story. Until, I get a new computer and can move all my ‘works in progress.’)

It sounds a bit obsessive when I say it that way, but really it is more like; working hard at a job you love, playing hard at the tennis club, and then stopping to relax by working on a craft project.

Next to no knitting has been getting done. The house is getting buried in dust and laundry. I’m getting fatter with lack of exercise. But I’m having too much fun to stop right now.

Such is life, when one is willing to dance with a muse. If you don’t watch out, you are hanging by your toes in said muses web. At least I’m already dressed for a funeral, if it is for my own.

No, not that bad. Just having some fun, before I get back to work. This Muse shall pass and I’ll be back and boring once again.

But for now, I dance on a string.

On The Writing of a Story Today:

I spent yesterday in bed. I nursed an earache I gave myself by falling asleep with the fan blowing on my head all night.

I did have a stroke of story writing while stuck in bed and have been typing away at it all day today. So far I like my characters and they have a good set up. I’m moving into the second chapter, and have a good idea where it is going. I’m still not sure who will turn out to be the one to let my main character down and who will willingly or reluctantly save the day.

I like to leave that open and let the story evolve. I don’t like forcing a character into a less then good situation only because I have predestine them. I learn as much about my characters as everyone else when I’m writing them.

Like most of my stories, it all starts with a character that pops into the consciousness of my head and doesn‘t want to be brushed aside for other thoughts.

I watch them as they interact with other characters in there. And once an interesting conversation or situation gets going. I watch to see if a story starts to build around that. I pull in other characters to fill in information and complete the scenes. I help to nurture them as I place them in houses, terrain, neighborhoods, or situations as needed. I’m always asking questions of them, finding out things about them I didn‘t know before.

The information I need for the story I reveal, and the other bits I keep as secrets for another time or situation. Few things they say to me goes to waste. Like putting together a giant puzzle I pull out the pieces that fit best, matching the seams to reveal the picture. A picture I have yet to see clearly until it is done.

I’m enjoying the process, the discovery, and the new entertainment. I watch them play before me and write down the parts that work.

I may never get a book on a library shelf. But having fun writing stories is all I need right now.

I hope you can find such fun in your days too.

On Broken Glass Houses:

I humbly apologize to all out there in blog land. I have hoisted myself on my own petard. I have no less then two blogs which I have left fallow, yet are still up on my blog link list.
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It started with the less then stellar début of my charity blog called Kevin’s Mittens. I started it as a remembrance of my son who died over ten years ago, leaving a gap in the community for helping the homeless and needy.

The friends and family I got verbal backing for, did not physically materialize. (They left me high and dry, folks.) Added to that the lack of finding places that excepted my offerings. (Fancy a charity not wanting mittens unless they were in bulk.) I lost heart, people. How could I ask others to make mittens and give them to others in their own community, if I couldn’t do the same?
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And my writing blog Thrill or Shiver has had so few comments and feed back, I felt almost totally ignored and more then a bit dissed. (Yes, a few very good people helped me out with one or two stories.) But there are, what, ten stories on there? Does no one read and have a comment?

The whole point of that blog was to improve my writing skills by having people tell me what they liked and did not like about the stories there. I wanted feedback, and still do, good and/or bad.
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So yes, I too have a few fairly dead blogs, of my own authorship, on my blog link list.

I’ll just have to do something about that. As soon as I get back from the computer store. My computer Rupert, his disk drive broke over the week end. (It don’t go round no more.) Rupert is sick about it. (Those are his inner workings, you know.)
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In the mean time I’ll just get going on knitting a new pair of mittens. I’ll give them out on a street corner myself if I have to next winter. But I’m not going to let the Kevin’s Mittens charity go down in flames.

On Rewrite of 'The Gravedigger'

Fuzzarelly was nice enough to help me out as proof reader for one of my stories and I have rewritten it. I posted the Rewrite of 'The Gravedigger' on 'Thrill or Shiver'.

On Busy, Busy, Fuzzy, Busy:

Fuzzarelly, of the blog with the same name, heard my cries for help and proof read my story ‘The Gravedigger.’

She sent me a paragraph by paragraph run down of the story and I had fun seeing my story through someone else’s eyes.

I have been busy rewriting the story and I will putting it up on ‘Thrill and Shiver’ when it is done.

Thanks also to Dorlana of Supernatural Fairy Tales. She said I needed some dialog.

Thank you to the other people who have commented on this and my other stories. It is always good to get feedback.

On Oh No! Not Again!:

I thought I finally had a proof reader. A long ago friend I had lost touch with, over twenty years ago, and I were reacquainted. They had since become a college English Lit. prof.

They offered to look at my work and help me out in the places I was deficient. They loved my writing and called it wonderful and inventive, but they didn’t want to spend their time on horror fiction. (Frankly, it scared them.)

This is both good and bad. Good because now I know I ‘can’ write horror fiction in more than the short story form, but bad because I still ‘need’ a proof reader for my books and stories.

So, I am back to looking for an English teacher, for those years I missed out on in grade school in English lessons when I didn‘t know how to read. (Long story.) I know my sentence structure is bad. I get by here on the blog, because I can write like I talk. But you just can’t do that and get by in fiction writing.

I have been busy struggling along for the passed few weeks trying to fix my stories by myself again.

Anyone who wants a stab at it can comment on my stories over at Thrill and Shiver. But don’t do it if you don’t like horror. I really do want constructive comments I can learn from. You know like, ‘The sentence in the third paragraph is backward and it reads like the bird is talking to the boy instead of the boy talking to the bird.’ kind of thing. Or, ‘you used the wrong spelling for ‘blew’, you have the color.’

I have the trouble of knowing what I want it to say and seeing it, even if it is not there on the page, when I try to proof read my own work. A lot of writers have the same problem.

I may try to get a college student to work for me again. But I really don’t want to go that route after a bad experience with theft of my work some years ago. (I wasn’t paying them so they could turn in my work as their homework.) I just can’t bear to go through that again. It set me back years and years in my writing and my trust issues.

I try to entertain over at Thrill or Shiver while holding back my better stuff for the day I can get published and paid for it.

It is hard to ask for help like this. But I am on my knees here.

“Please help me become a better writer! I’m begging you.”
Sincerely, Lady Euphoria

On Writing Better Stories:

I am Ignoring the date, so this isn’t a Fools Day blog.

I put a new story on my Thrill or Shiver blog page yesterday. 'The Guillotine' is a longer short story so I put it in the blog in two parts. I put it in first part last and second part first so that you can read it from top to bottom of the page and not have to move around in the middle of the story.

As always, I hope to learn more about writing with each story I put out there. Feel free to point out any mistakes or discrepancies in my writing.

I am trying to become a better proof reader of my own fiction. But I find I still need a proof reader that doesn’t have the story already in their head. It is so very hard to proof read when you already know what is going to happen. It is just harder to find the mistakes when you mind is rushing ahead because you already know what comes next.

I had 'The Guillotine' Part 1 and Part 2 laid out on paper some time ago, and I didn’t stray far from my old writing style when I filled in the blanks and connected the dots.

I have been told to write more dialogue into my stories and I’m trying to break away from the story telling style I’ve been used to relying on. When I tried to add dialogue into this story it got so long I deleted it and went right back to the old story telling style. In my heart I think I am more of a sitting around a camp fire story teller and not a fiction writer as such.

I like to be challenged in my writing thou. So I will try harder in the next story to beef up the dialogue.

I do have a dialogue driven story in the works for over a year now, but I have yet to come up with an ending for it. So it sits un-birthed in the vat of stewing goo called my brain. Maybe it needs a collaborative effort. Who knows?

It will come together when it does and not before.

Until then, I hope you like what I’ve written so far. Tell me what you didn’t like so I can improve the next story. And spread the word so I can get more input. I’d like to improve this writing thing I’m doing.

On Stories, Dogs and Knitting: And Tea

I posted a new story on my ‘Thrill or Shiver’ blog last night. Like some of my stories, ‘Mack’s Room’ is a fabrication based on an experience I once had. I hope you like it.
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My knitting of unfinished objects, UFO’s, is coming along again. ‘Interruptions’ seem to be the call of the day. Among other things the dog, Sir Laidback, had an allergic reaction to something and his face swelled up. Meds and fussing on him fixed the troubles, but it took time away from the things I wanted to get done like my knitting yesterday.













Right now I’m working on a purple and gray stripped scarf I started back in May. I didn’t have the mojo for knitting a scarf in the late spring, even though I was loving the yarn. So it sat in my UFO box until now.

The Yarn is Reynolds’ Odyssey 100% Merino Wool 50 g. balls. I picked it up when I went to Boston last spring to visit my daughter. The color in the picture doesn’t do it justice. No color name, but it is a variegated gray and variegated purple, and the pinks and blues really stand out in the purple. It is a lot more colorful then it looks in the picture here. In the daylight you can see the striping contrast so much better.

And the softness of the yarn is like melted butter, a cloud… When I first touched it I didn’t know it was wool. I thought it was some kind of non fluffy angora.
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Some people will be having their Thankfulness Tea Parties tomorrow and I will be having mine on Sunday. (Mountain Man has a prior commitment on Saturday and I want to include him in my Tea Party.) I have collected and readied all the things I will need including the flowers for the table.

Have a good time with your parties and remember the small things you are thankful for too.

On Silent Poetry Reading for 2010

Today is the Silent Poetry reading. More info here.

This is my offering:

At the Window Watching

By Lady Euphoria Deathwatch 01-30-10

He stood in shadow
Moonlight pouring over his arm.
I heard his breathing
Melding with the night time breeze.

I smelled his aroma
On the sheets and pillow next to mine.
I sensed his restlessness
As he looked out over the moonlit world.

My lover, my man, my heart.
Why do you need more?

His hair moved softly
As a breath of air came through the window.
He shifted his weight
And leaned against the window frame.

I wished he would look
At me with such intensity and longing.
I felt forgotten and alone
In a room full of our wedding bed.

My lover, my man, my soul.
Why do you look away from me?

He sighed and shivered
Naked in his body and his thoughts.
I daren’t disturb him
Wrapped up in his own privet view.

He coughed and sniffled
Wiping what could only be a tear.
He turns towards me
a smile curls his lips, yet still a tear remains.

My lover, my man, my breath.
What has pierced your heart?

“Oh, You’re awake,
I thought you sleeping.
I woke and found
the moonlight calling me away.”

“I had to look
And see the ‘tween world.
But it did not have
Its former charm to me, My Love.

“My lover, my woman, my life.
You have replaced all wonders in my heart.”

On Rupert is Coming Home:

Rupert the computer is fixed. The call came too late to get him last night, but today he is coming home. I don’t know yet in what condition he’ll be in, but whether or not he still knows me or has had his memory wiped clean, I will be able to have pictures on the blog again. Whoo hoo!

I have been having a lot of fun with the old gaming system (Gamecube) again. I even bought some more used games for it. My thumbs have gotten stronger so I just might take the time to keep playing those games too.

Still, I have to say that I really want to get back to my writing. I miss attacking the keyboard when the muse hits. Pen and paper take far too long for me now. I have index cards with ideas on them from the past week, but not the pages I had been able to put out on a regular basis before.

The other down side of Rupert being gone has been that I haven’t been using the exerbike nearly as much, so my weight loss has slowed too. Or has that been Holiday prep and the extra special cooking going on around here. A little of both I suspect.

After a small celebration on his return I will dump the pictures I’ve been taking this past week into him, and get the Epitaph contest ready for tomorrow. But after that I will be deep into my writing again. My characters are clamoring for attention again and I can’t wait to get back at it.

Let me see, how did it go again… Mysteriously, a beautifully carved wooden box arrives at the house in the arms of a bald man with a scar on his left hand and cheek. The main character (Un-named as yet.) wonders at its meaning. Is there more to the seemingly empty box? And what is the secret of its heavy weight?… I can’t wait to find out. How about you?

On Writing Re-Writes:

I have been writing my daily blog here for over 300 days. I only missed a few days since I‘ve started. I have discovered that writing a blog and writing fiction stories to be a very different experience.

I have been trying very hard to improve my writing skills. My typing has improved and that has helped limit extra mistakes but not eliminate them. I still have to proof read everything I send out. This has helped my proof reading skills but I still see what I want it to say instead of what is on the page more then I like.

I hate to read my older blogs. The mistakes jump out at me and make me feel foolish. How could I be so arrogant to believe that I could write a post card let alone a daily blog.

To me, my older stories are such a joke. I have ideas, yes. New, good, and interesting ideas. But I still have trouble translating them to the paper.

My sentences come out backwards at times leaving the wrong thing described. Like; instead of an orange ball bouncing around a room, I have a ball in a bouncing orange room. When I read it back to myself I have to laugh but it really isn’t funny in the end.

Mountain Man has been helping me with my story re-writing this past week. In getting my story ‘The Playroom’ ready for the Thrill or Shiver blog we have had some less then stellar moments. Mountain Man and I have very different likes in reading material. He doesn’t like fiction much at all and I like the endless possibilities there.

He is good at finding and pointing out my mistakes but he doesn’t like the story line. I hate asking him to help me with a subject he doesn’t like to even think about.

I’d love to find a good proof reader and have asked others to point out my mistakes on my blog until I do, but I haven’t had much feed back. I even put out a badly written story last time in hopes of finding a Simon out there that couldn’t contain themselves and would let me have it. I would at least have a starting point on where to concentrate on my skills building.

So without any takers I’m back to torturing Mountain Man with my subject matter. I hope you like the story we worked on this past week.

On Silent Poetry Day:

Today is the silent poetry reading day and I was invited to join by Knotty Mouse this year. The mogs blog is hosting this year I think. But even if it is not feel free to join in today and post poetry today. And when you are done leave a comment on here or Knotty Mouse or The Mogs and let one of us know so we can all find your poem and read it.

Here is my bit of poetry:

Box of Memories and Dreams

By Lady Euphoria Deathwatch


There is a box inside my house,
that’s full of this and that.
A sweater chain, small knight on horse,
a pin made for a hat.

A fan, a screw, a safety pin,
A picture of a dog,
It has a few old bits and bobs,
a penny and a frog.

Some rings and things, a garter hook,
a red fish and a shell,
A long forgotten dream of things,
and needed things as well.

To fix a shirt, mend a coat
or pretty up a skirt.
A bit of color, pomp or dash,
and maybe even flirt.

My mom or grandma had these things,
collection of old stuff.
There still are hopes and new ideas,
all hiding in the fluff.

I pull out one or more if need,
the little things inside.
The bits and bobs of lifetimes past,
Now here they do abide.

A bathroom token, set of dice,
And keys that have no locks,
But mostly there are buttons there
inside my button box.

Edit:
Mouse got back to me and said The Mog is where you want to make a comment letting them know you have posted a poem.

On Fixing the Past and Presenting the New:

I re-wrote and replaced the first story, ’Trouble in the Closet’ that I published on Thrill or Shiver a few weeks ago. I had wanted to have it done earlier but that migraine set me back. And now it is Tuesday the twentieth and time for the next story ‘Molly’s Train.’

I am still looking for a good proofreader. I look on my stories a bit like children in my care. In my stories I find flaws and I’m always combing their hair and telling them to stand up straight, right through to the end and even after. Like a good caretaker I want them to look their best but when I turn around and look again I see scabby knees and hair out of place and think to myself how did I let them out of the house that way. My liking for them gets in the way of seeing them for what they are until they are out there and I take a fresh look at them.

That said I am trying to be a better proofreader of my own stories and I am feeling like the effort is paying off. But a good proofreader is someone outside of ones self that can be more objective. And no matter how long I live I will always need other peoples perspective and input to finding the flaws I just can’t see for myself. I’m getting to be a better writer the more I do it but since ‘life is correcting the flaws in ones self’ I know some flaws will always be part of the whole. I am not perfect yet.

Still, I’m marching forward and sending the next story out into the world. ‘Molly’s Train’ has been polished a bit more then the last one and I‘m hoping for just a tweaking if at all.