DWTS Week Eight: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Tonight, there were only five stars left on “Dancing with the Stars” to battle it out for spots in the semi-finals next week. These stars are Nancy Grace with pro partner Tristan MacManus, Rob Kardashian with pro partner Cheryl Burke, Ricki Lake with pro partner Derek Hough, Hope Solo with pro partner Maksim Chmerikovskiy, and last but not least, J.R. Martinez with pro partner Karina Smirnoff. The dance levels varied widely, and so did the performances, but everyone did as well as they possibly could.
That said, it’s time for some serious critiquing.
Best of the night: J.R. Martinez/Karina Smirnoff. I’ve said this before, but Martinez is so good that he often looks like a male pro until he makes a mistake, or has his body in a position a male pro would not take. Martinez is the class of this field, and he had an outstanding night tonight.
Prediction for tomorrow: Safe. (Easily.)
Second best of the night: Rob Kardashian/Cheryl Burke. Kardashian moves stiffly and doesn’t pick his feet up off the floor very often, but he’s shown the most improvement. Both dances tonight were good.
Prediction for tomorrow: Probably safe. (Should be, but may not be depending on the strength of his fan base.) If he hits the B2, he’ll go home.
Third best of the night (tie): Ricki Lake/Derek Hough. As always, Hough’s choreography was outstanding, but Lake is hurt and it’s very easy to tell. She was good, but not outstanding; Kardashian was actually a little better, and he has far less talent than does Lake.
Prediction for tomorrow: Bottom 2, will be retained for semi-finals. (Once again, if Kardashian hits the B2, he’s gone.)
Third best of night (tie): Hope Solo/Maksim Chmerikovskiy. They danced better than I’ve ever seen them in both dances. They received the “kiss and make up” edit, and the “most improved dancer” type of remarks; they’re not going anywhere.
Prediction for tomorrow: Safe.
Fifth and last: Nancy Grace/Tristan MacManus. I really like MacManus, as I’ve said before; he is a consummate professional, and he has done the best job he — or anyone else — could’ve done with Grace. Ms. Grace is stiff and does not move well, and by this point she is badly outclassed by the competition. This is not merely due to her age (she over 50) or how short she is, or that she’s a fuller-figured woman. (I am a big, beautiful woman myself, so I don’t really care about that.)
Nope, it’s none of that.
Purely and simply, it’s a combination of two things:
1) I don’t like her attitude toward her pro — she seems to be blaming MacManus for why she hasn’t improved, not realizing that at some point natural talent (or the lack of it) has to apply. Maybe Grace would do better at some of these dances if she had more time to study it — that’s almost surely the case — but her complaining about her busy schedule and then saying that MacManus “doesn’t have a full-time job” was just wrong. (Doesn’t Grace realize that teaching her anything has to be the toughest full-time job MacManus has ever had?)
2) Her tango was, at best, tepid. She was given better scores than she deserved, and better comments, too, in her first dance, probably because the judges had seen Grace do the jive last week and knew she was terrible. Her second dance, the “instant jive” (all of the couples had to do this), was awful despite the best efforts of MacManus to showcase her in a positive light; it was so bad that head judge Len Goodman actually told Grace that her time at DWTS was just about up. (I kept expecting him to add the words that usually follow those, “Don’t let the door hit you in the rear on the way out.” But he didn’t; he left those words unsaid.)
Prediction: B2. Will go home. MacManus will breathe a sigh of relief, and so will those of us who watch DWTS.
But my predictions are just that . . . I’m not omniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent, either, so it’s possible that someone else will go home instead.
What do you think, America?
Life, the Universe, and the Unexpected
Sometimes, life throws you something you really didn’t expect.
Take my good friend Jeff, for example. About a month ago, he felt ill but had no idea what was going on; he was taken to the hospital, where he was found to have a massive infection. He nearly died, as he had to have open-heart surgery due to the infection being too well-rooted in his heart (the antibiotics started to kill it everywhere else, but not in his heart); at the age of only forty-seven, he came way too close to death.
Fortunately, he has survived that. And he sounds like he’s on the mend, though the road back from this is likely to be a long and difficult one. But I have hope that he will fully recover, as his mind, voice, and most of his memories are intact. (More about this below.)
A health crisis like this was completely unexpected — who would ever think something like this would happen? And having gone through something like this, except worse, with my late husband’s Michael’s sudden passing seven years ago didn’t make this any easier from my perspective; I really wanted to be there for Jeff as I care very much about him, I wasn’t able to get there (he lives several states away), and he nearly died.
I’m very glad he survived. (This is an extremely basic way to put it, of course, and I wish I had a better one. But sometimes, the plainest words speak best.) I will do whatever I can to help him in the difficult journey that lies ahead . . . wishing I had better words than this to explain what’s going on, but that’s the best I can do.
Jeff’s near-brush with death has shaken my own faith rather badly. I realize that in no valid religion or spiritual practice will it ever say that good people should survive such terrible things; Michael didn’t survive, though he fought harder than anyone I’ve ever seen to do so, and he was by far the best person I have ever known. (I’m sure he went to the Good Place (TM), too, or wherever it is wonderful people go after this life ends.) But for Jeff to first suffer the vagaries of this horrible economy, then have this happen to him and me having no way to get to him to even try to help, seems to add insult to injury. (Not to me. To my friend.) And that he’s going to have to work like the dickens just to get back to where he was . . . well, that he has the chance to do so is what I’d prayed for, so I’m glad of that. But it seems . . . unjust, at best.
Of course, no one ever promised that life would be fair, even to good people like my friend. But does life have to be this unfair?
I know, I know. We don’t have all the answers. Sometimes we can’t even ask the right questions. Being able to persevere is what makes the difference, to my mind, between a successful person and an unsuccessful one. And I know Jeff will persevere, because I view him as a successful person (I always have), no matter what’s going on all around him externally.
Jeff’s mind has returned to him, thankfully, but not all of his memories have. I’m happy he remembered I am a saxophonist; when I told him that I’ve been playing, and am now in a symphonic band, he was very congratulatory and he meant it. But he’s forgotten all about his favorite of my unfinished novels, CHANGING FACES — the one I’m working on for NaNo right now — though he remembers the Elfyverse (the completed and looking for a home novel ELFY, the in-progress AN ELFY ABROAD and the prequel, KEISHA’S VOW), which I found out when I mentioned the latter novel.
When I told him that he’s been asking me for the past two-plus years to please finish CHANGING FACES and be done with it, I got no reaction from him; then I explained how long I’ve been working on it, and that I’d written 6000-plus words into chapter 20 and have 600-plus in chapter 21 after it being stalled out for nearly one and a half years. He recognized that as an achievement, and congratulated me on it, but it didn’t really mean much to him because he can’t remember the plotline, at all.
That the main reason I started working on CHANGING FACES as my NaNo project is because I wanted to do something, no matter how tangential, that I felt Jeff would appreciate as my way to honor him and what he was going through. Maybe it sounds silly that this was my motivation for re-opening this MSS, but there it is.
I wanted to write something that I felt Jeff would like to read down the road, when he’s again capable of reading well (right now, he isn’t, and this is a skill he’ll have to work hard to regain). So writing this newest chapter of CHANGING FACES was my way to express to my friend Jeff, without words, “I believe you have a future, and I want you to read this in that future.” But I wasn’t able to explain this well to him tonight. At all. (Though of course I’ll try again tomorrow, providing I’m able to reach him.)
Jeff is a very spiritual person, with a strong grasp of what’s going on in this world; to my mind, he nearly personifies the phrase “down to Earth.” He’s an intelligent, funny, interesting person with a great many gifts and talents, who’s been hampered by a pitiful economy and a less than stellar personal situation that was all of a sudden made much worse due to his health crisis. Jeff is a writer, a Webmaster, and is very hard-working in his own idiosyncratic way; I’m very grateful that he’s doing so much better, and I believe his strong will and deep faith will sustain him over time.
All that being said, I wish this hadn’t happened to him. Because he truly doesn’t deserve it.
Just Reviewed Julia Quinn’s “Just Like Heaven” at SBR
Folks, if you like historical romances with farcical elements, you will enjoy JUST LIKE HEAVEN by Julia Quinn. I called it “solid, funny, and smart” in my review, which was just posted at Shiny Book Review . . . anyway, please go to this link:
http://shinybookreview.wordpress.com/2011/11/05/julia-quinns-just-like-heaven-solid-funny-and-smart/
Enjoy!
Occupy Writers: Articulate Speakers for the Bottom 99%
Tonight, via MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” I found out about the Website Occupy Writers because Maddow had author Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) on to discuss his recent post at that site. A few of Lemony Snicket’s salient points from his post at Occupy Writers follow:
6. Nobody wants to fall into a safety net, because it means the structure in which they’ve been living is in a state of collapse and they have no choice but to tumble downwards. However, it beats the alternative.
and
11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.
(Good words. I can’t top them.)
Note that OccupyWriters.com is where many of my favorite authors have signed up in support of the Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Everything Else movement that’s going on right now. A few of my favorite science fiction and fantasy authors who’ve signed their names in support at that site include Rosemary Edghill, Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce, Melinda Snodgrass, Laura Resnick, Laura Anne Gilman, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Neil Gaiman — I’m sure there were more, but those were the ones I noted right away. There are many, many writers on that list, some who are extremely well-known (like Salman Rushdie), some who are well-known to SF/F readers like myself (see above) and some who aren’t known — including some editors of various magazines, including Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar. (I’d gladly sign my name to the list, too, but I don’t have a novel published yet. Otherwise, I’d have done this as soon as I knew the site was available.)
What I think is great about OccupyWriters.com is that it shows that people who are creative understand what’s going on in this world. Our economy is not just bad; it’s truly terrible, and it’s something that all Americans — not just the “bottom 99%” — should care about. These writers get that, which is great.
Now, it’s time for the top 1%, like those who sit in the United States Congress, to realize that without the “bottom 99%,” nothing gets done in this country. Period.
Speaking of that, CNN’s Jack Cafferty has an excellent blog about why the Congress doesn’t seem to care at all about the “bottom 99%”. This is because they, themselves, benefitted from the horrible policies they instituted — greatly.
During the height of the recession, Congress actually became 25% richer. Meaning they were “feathering their own nests” while the rest of us got the shaft — as disgusting as this is, there’s more to the story.
From Cafferty’s blog post:
“Roll Call” reports that members of Congress had a collective net worth of more than $2 billion in 2010.
That was up about 25 percent from 2008, during the height of the recession.
And these wealth totals likely underestimate how rich Congress really is. That’s because they don’t include homes and other non-income generating property, which could come out to hundreds of millions in additional dollars.
This wealth is split fairly evenly between both Democrats and Republicans.
Overall, about 200 members of Congress are millionaires. Once again, this doesn’t include the value of their homes.
So did you catch all that? As bad as this is that the Congress is so much wealthier, overall, than the rest of the country — including the vast majority of their own constituents — this doesn’t even include the value of their homes or other property, which anyone else would have to claim as a matter of course as part of his or her overall wealth.
Cafferty continues a bit lower with:
Another expert suggests members of Congress do better with their investments than the average American because they are privy to inside information.
Really? Seriously? They would take advantage of that… something that is clearly illegal for the rest of us?
The bottom line is this body of lawmakers has next to nothing in common with the average American. Yet we keep sending most of the same rat pack back year after year.
Here’s my question to you: What does it say when members of Congress got 25% richer during the height of the recession?
I don’t know about anyone else, but what it says to me is that Congress is behaving in an unethical, immoral, blatantly dishonest manner. And it once again reminds me why we must be vigilant, watch what our representatives do (not just what they say), and perhaps most importantly of all, keep an eye on who — and what — is financing their campaigns.
This is why I, for one, intend to vote out as many wealthy incumbents who are in Congress as I possibly can. In this case, there’s one name who tops my list — my long-time Representative, Paul Ryan (R-Janesville), who clearly has forgotten that most of his constituents make far less money than he does. Ryan has done himself no favors, either, as he’s shown little to no understanding of the whole “Occupy” movement, nor any compassion as to how difficult it is nowadays to find work in America — even for our honored military veterans, some of whom have gone out in support at various “Occupy” protests and have been hurt badly by police, most especially in Oakland, California.
And I’m sorry; I cannot support anyone who doesn’t want to help promote job growth in this country. Rep. Ryan’s been in office for twelve whole years; he’s had twelve years to try to improve the economy, and he’s done very little about it. Ryan has obviously lost touch with the people of his district, and more importantly, the people of this country. If he can’t even figure out that the economy is in the tank, so the House of Representatives should have better things to do with their time than re-affirm “In God We Trust” as the official motto of the United States (as they did earlier this week) rather than take up any measure that could possibly help create employment in this country (see previous post for details), I know that just about anyone would do a better job as my US Rep. than Paul Ryan.
Worse yet, he’s said several times that he doesn’t understand the “Occupy” movement; he doesn’t believe it’s helpful. Yet military veterans, who Ryan claims to appreciate, are coming home to no jobs and a 12% unemployment rate, which is why some are going to “Occupy” protests across the US of A in order to ask, “Where are the jobs, and why doesn’t anybody in Washington, DC, or in the halls of power seem to care?”
I’m sorry; if you can’t be bothered to understand why people are upset because there’s a high unemployment rate overall, including a very high unemployment rate for returning military vets who’ve fought the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, it’s time for you to go.
So please, Mr. Ryan — don’t let the door hit you in the rear on the way out.
————–
I, indeed, am an “Occupy Writer” even if I never am able to sign that petition — and I hope that I’ve done my level best to speak for the bottom 99% this evening, even if I did originally say “top 99%” because I was thinking about our morals, manners, and ethics — where we are, indeed, the top 99%, and those who don’t get it have to be the bottom 1% in these areas.
Cell Phone Etiquette, Redux
Folks, a while back I wrote a post about cell phone etiquette, and I’d hoped that I’d exhausted that subject. However, I’ve noticed two more problems lately and I wanted to discuss them.
First, if you are in a business meeting, please stay off your cell phone even if all you’re doing is sending text messages. Texting people during meetings is rude and disrespectful to those who are giving business presentations; it’s also rude and disrespectful to your colleagues, who are there to listen and/or speak . . . how can you possibly be learning or speaking if you’re spending your whole time in the business meeting texting someone else?
Second, if you are in a music lesson or in a music rehearsal, stay off your cell phone! Whether you’re texting someone or actually taking a phone call, this isn’t just rude and disrespectful — it’s also extremely annoying. The rest of us are trying to learn something in that lesson or rehearsal; we’re listening to the instructor (in the case of a lesson) or are watching the conductor and/or listening to the conductor’s instructions (in the case of a rehearsal). If someone’s madly texting away, or worse yet, talking on a cell phone, it’s nearly impossible to concentrate on the lesson or rehearsal — so again, do not do this.**
I keep trying to figure out why someone might want to do this, but keep failing; even if there’s a family emergency, you should not be repeatedly texting anyone in a meeting, or in a band rehearsal, or in a music lesson. (In that case, you should acknowledge the message, politely excuse yourself, then get to the person who’s in crisis immediately.) And as for taking a cell phone call during any of these activities? Why do it?
I don’t have a clue why there are people in this world who are so pig-ignorant that they don’t understand this, but let me say it loud and clear for these individuals, so they’ll never forget their manners again:
DO NOT text people during meetings, lessons, or rehearsals, because it is extremely offensive and obnoxious.
Texting other people when you should be concentrating on what’s going on around you also actively hurts those of us who are trying hard to learn something.
There’s no excuse for this behavior, SO JUST DON’T DO IT.
Got it? (Good.)
———–
** And yes, I’ve observed these very things in recent days. How anyone can be texting away during a music rehearsal is beyond me. (Apparently this person has no social skills, or manners, either.)
DWTS Non-Shocker: David Arquette Goes Home
Is it just me, or did the fact that David Arquette went home tonight on “Dancing with the Stars” rather than Nancy Grace seem like a total anticlimax?
Last night, I predicted that if Arquette hit the bottom two (called the B2, for short), he’d go home because I believed his fan base was most likely lower than either Grace or Hope Solo. Arquette danced better, in my opinion, than either Grace or Solo, but in a reality show competition, how many people are willing to vote for you is the major thing that either keeps you in or sends you home (that’s what I mean by a fan base).
Consider that Solo is one of the best-known female athletes in the world as she’s the goalie for the United States of America’s national soccer team. So you’d figure she probably has a much bigger fan base than Arquette and Grace, as she did not hit the B2 tonight.
As for Grace, while she’s really not a good dancer, she has two things on her side: her partner, Tristan MacManus, who many DWTS fans have taken to as he’s a delightfully low-key presence, and her own show on HLN (formerly CNN Headline news), where she’s actually called in to her show and asked her viewers to text her number to keep her in.
This week, we were told who was definitely in the B2 — sometimes, they only say “one of these two really is in the B2, while the other may or may not be” — and it was definitely Arquette and Grace. This means that Grace’s huge fan base probably won’t be enough to save her next week, considering by any objective measure, Solo’s should be far higher — and the other three dancers (including Rob Kardashian, of all people) are all much better than Grace, so are likely to outscore her by plenty.
What I know from watching DWTS for years is this: when a good dancer who’s improving is booted “too soon” by the viewers (this was Arquette’s role tonight), the judges get tough the next week on the undeserving person (or people) who stayed instead of him. Grace’s time should’ve been up several weeks ago but she’s outlasted several better dancers, now including Arquette; watch for the judges to be in an uproar next week and give Grace the extremely low scores she’s likely to deserve no matter how much the judges approve of her pro.
Totally Unnecessary: House Will Vote on “In God We Trust” as Official US Motto
I’m sorry; I thought I’d seen it all from this bunch of do-nothings we currently have in the United States Congress, but now they’ve topped themselves.
Tomorrow, they will be voting to “re-affirm” the “In God We Trust” motto in the United States House of Representatives. Really.
Which begs the following question: do we really need to have this vote, considering all the real problems that this Congress isn’t facing?
See this article from Raw Story, if you don’t believe me . . . this is just absolutely, totally nonsensical, and probably the worst action I’ve yet seen out of this bunch of yahoos that are currently wasting our money and time in the House of Reps.
How can Speaker of the House John Boehner have the nerve to schedule a vote on “In God We Trust,” of all things? “In God We Trust” has been our official motto since 1956, so this vote isn’t even original legislation — so what on Earth is the justification for it, except for the Republicans to point out to voters the many Democrats out there who will vote “no” on it (as they should as it’s an unnecessary time-waster). Then these self-same Rs will tell voters, “Oh, no! Those Dems don’t believe in God! See? They voted against ‘In God We Trust’ — aren’t they bad, evil, and vicious people? They must go!”
There are people who are genuinely hurting in this country — many, many people. Yet this is the best the House can do for anyone?
I’d not care about this sort of petty-politicking so much except we have genuine anger out here, for good reason. (See the “Occupy” movement for further details.) We have a national unemployment figure standing firm at 9% or more, with some areas (including my own) way above that. There are many real problems in the United States that this Congress won’t do anything about. Instead, they’d rather waste our time with garbage like this.
No wonder so many of us are in a “throw the bums out” mood, considering our elected leaders (starting with Boehner and moving on down) would rather play stupid power-games than actually legislate and do their jobs.
My Take on Hallowe’en DWTS Episode
Well, Chaz Bono is gone, but in my opinion, “Dancing with the Stars” could’ve used him and his partner, Lacey Schwimmer tonight during their Hallowe’en episode. They would’ve been a great help, as they always brought the entertainment first, last, and always.
This was a Hallowe’en episode, so the hair and make-up and song choices all reflected that, with the song choices actually hindering several couples. Still, it was a show that mostly entertained, with a few really low spots.
Here we go, first with the “solo” dances (as two group dances followed at the end of the show):
David Arquette and Kym Johnson: He did OK. Arquette is a bit manic for my tastes and he got ahead of his choreography; if he were a musician, I’d tell him he was rushing and to stay behind the beat rather than in front of it. (Johnson, of course, was great, as she always is.) ** Edited to add: Score was a 24.
Rob Kardashian and Cheryl Burke: Surprisingly good tango, though they drew a fairly easy song for it, the theme song for “The Addams’ Family.” Kardashian’s form was good and he stayed in character. (Burke, of course, was wonderful, as she always is.) They scored a 25.
Derek Hough and Ricki Lake: They danced a paso doble to the song “Dream (or a Beautiful Nightmare),” and the choreography was excellent. (Hough’s always is.) Lake is hurt, and it showed; Hough did a lot of dancing around her. They were given a 27, the best score of the night for the solo dances, which probably was deserved as no one really danced up to his or her potential.
Maksim Chmerikovskiy and Hope Solo: Danced a samba, of all things, to “Werewolves of London.” Decent samba. Solo looked more relaxed this week; she was helped in rehearsal by one of the “Troupe” dancers, Teddy (he often dances on Tuesday evenings with other pro dancers) because Chmerikovskiy has a broken toe. (Note that I enjoyed Bono and Schwimmer’s samba much better than this, and yet this got a better score.) They scored a 24.
Nancy Grace and Tristan MacManus: They drew an impossible song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” They had to try to do a jive. Grace is OK with a slower tempo in most disciplines, but her jive was really awful. It scored a 21, which was far too high; really, it deserved something like a 15. (MacManus was cute, and competent, and I enjoyed watching him. He does not out-dance his partner and tries hard to showcase her. May he be back next season with someone who has more dancing talent than Grace.)
J.R. Martinez and Karina Smirnoff: They had the nearly impossible task of dancing a tango, of all things, to the “Ghostbusters” theme. Smirnoff’s choreography was inventive, but Martinez didn’t look right as he danced — his back was out of position, I think, and his legs were too bent. That said, he still danced better than any of the non-pros this evening and did more actual work than anyone else, too . . . they scored a 25, and were underscored.
Next, it was time for the team dances. First, they had to pick teams; “Team Tango,” which featured Martinez and Smirnoff, picked Grace/Rogers and Arquette/Johnson. The team choreography here was really good — better than I’ve seen in many a season for these team dances — but every solo was a bit off. (Martinez, again, was the best of the three, by a lot.) Arquette rushed, again, and was visibly ahead of Johnson most of the way. Grace looked better at this than she did in the jive even though she’s not yet danced a tango, and may not if she goes home tomorrow as she should (being the weakest celebrity dancer left). They scored a 23, which was added to the individual scores for all three couples.
Then, there was “Team Paso,” which was led by Lake and Hough. Hough actually did the picking here, and chose Solo/Chmerikovskiy (to avoid Chmerikovskiy having to dance with Smirnoff, his ex-fiancée) and Kardashian/Burke. Solo, predictably, had trouble learning the choreography, and Hough stepped in to help her learn it when Chmerikovskiy was too frustrated to teach it to her. (This was one of the few times in quite a number of seasons that I’ve seen Hough do anything of the sort. Solo learned it when Hough taught it to her; this makes me think at least some of why Hough has such a high opinion of himself is due to knowing he has great skill in teaching and choreographing — which indeed is the case, though I wish he could be a little humbler about it.) The individual routines here were the highlight; all three couples did their best in those (Kardashian looked a bit lost, but up against two pros like Hough and Chmerikovkiy, that means Kardashian actually did very well and the judges knew it; they even said so), though to be fair, I don’t think these dances between the pairs were as difficult for both partners (in the tango, both partners must dance well or it looks awful; in the paso, only one partner — the male — must dance well or it looks awful). This dance scored a 26, which was added to each individual dance team’s total.
My predictions for definitely safe: Martinez and Lake
Probably safe: Kardashian and Arquette
My predictions for bottom two: Grace and Solo, though Arquette, if he lands in the B2, probably goes home as it seems to me he has a lesser fanbase than either Grace or Solo.
The Writing Life — and a “Changing Faces” Update
Folks, once again, I had a promising story bounce out of a market. I have tried this particular story, “Sounds of Nightfall,” at every major market and most of the minor markets . . . sometimes it gets good comments, and other times, it has drawn a “huh?” reaction.
Anyway, I’d found a jazz magazine that does a short fiction contest, so I decided to try “Sounds” there, as it’s about a jazz musician who’s been helped by the spirits of two deceased saxophonists — Charlie Parker and Art Pepper — and I hoped for the best.
Unfortunately, it didn’t win a prize there — they have first, second, and third prizes available — and it bounced out after about a month and a half.
I write urban fantasy, mostly. (Every once in a while, I surprise myself and write space opera. Or even hard SF, when I can wrap my mind around the concepts.) This was a story that was in the queue for the magazine Dreams of Decadence when it suddenly went under about a year ago; that’s probably as close as “Sounds” has been to actually getting published.
I’m starting to think that I should put together a bunch of my short stories that have drawn good comments, or, “I nearly bought this, but . . . ” types of things, and put them at SmashWords and at Amazon.com. I don’t know how well they’d sell, of course, but at least they’d be out there and off my computer.
See, this is how the economy affects writers. Mainstream magazines, even in the SF/F genre, have to be cognizant of the “bottom line” — how much profit, or at least as little of a loss as possible, can they make during this economic downturn? With the digital realm affecting print magazines in various ways, that means there are more markets available than before — but most do not pay very much. And all of them want to find people who have sales, and a following, and/or have gifts of self-promotion if at all possible, all in order to drive sales and page-views.
Now, this is perfectly understandable from an economic perspective, but it hurts newer writers — or unknown ones, like me — because we don’t necessarily have names. We don’t necessarily have enough of a Web presence to drive page-views. All we have are good stories that we want people to read, and sometimes, that doesn’t seem to be enough. (But I shall persevere.)
So that’s about it, as far as a short story update; a few stories and one poem are out at various markets — and I did get a story into the Writers of the Future contest last quarter, for whatever that’s worth — but my main strengths as a writer tend to come out when I’m writing novels, not short fiction. That’s why I work on my novels more, even though they take more time and thought to write . . . but I also work on the shorter forms (short story, novelette, novella) because I want to master them, too. (We’ll see how long that takes, or if I ever get there.)
My general advice for other writers is this: go out there and write whatever you can. Then try to sell it — ralan.com is one of the best places to go to find markets, while duotrope.com is another good one (both are free, but take donations if you’re able to help them out) — however you can. Some of my fellow writers have discussed how they use spreadsheets; they mark off which magazines they’ve tried, and when, and where, so if you find this a useful tool, go for it. And don’t let rejection get you down; just keep trying, because you never know when someone’s going to like your work.
As for the “Changing Faces” update, I’m happy to report I managed about 1800 words (the first words written on this project, at all, since last year sometime) and believe I have a good starting point for chapter 20. We’ll see how it goes, but I’m cautiously optimistic at this time.
Figure it this way: if I get any words in during this time of great stress (with the bad economy, many personal issues including the ill health of my very good friend Jeff, and other things), I’m ahead of the game. Which is why when I turn on my computer later tonight, and see what else I can get with regards to this MSS, I hope to be able to better develop the nascent “I think I know what’s next” feeling and get it actually down on the page. (Here’s hoping.)
Who Cares About the Friends and Family?, or, How to Stay Strong during a Family Health Crisis
Right off the bat, I want to say that I’m not a health care professional. I’m just a person who’s observed many people in crises and believe that caregivers, or family members, or those who are trying hard to support someone who is in the hospital, or has a serious chronic illness that impacts every part of his or her life, need to be supported.
Note that this particular post has been prompted due to the health of my good friend Jeff, who remains ill in a Fort Collins hospital at this time. Jeff’s been in the hospital now for approximately three weeks; two weeks ago, he had open-heart surgery, and there have been a number of people at his bedside ever since (along with the doctors and medical personnel that you’d expect).
I know that I’m far away from where “the action is” with regards to my friend; he is ill, and I am very concerned about him. I have talked with his family members, I have talked with his good friend (and medical POA), and for the most part, my focus has been on how to get Jeff better rather than how all these people, who’ve been around Jeff and his illness now for three solid weeks, can hang in there and remember their own needs at such a difficult and distressing time.
But they, too, are suffering. They see Jeff in that hospital bed, and he’s not well. They’ve been there for weeks now, and that’s extremely distressing; further, there’s no timetable as to when he’ll get better and be able to go home or to a rehab facility — which is why I thought to post this at all, in the hopes that it might do some good, and that it probably won’t do any harm. (“First, do no harm,” that’s the Hippocratic Oath. And while I’m not a medical person by any stretch of the imagination, self-care is still a medical function, right? So it seems like that Oath applies.)
What I’ve learned is this: if you take some time for yourself — providing you’re in a long-term situation, where someone is ill for a long period of time (either at home, or in the hospital, or in a hospice, or whatever), you are actually better able to deal with your ill family member or friend.
I know this sounds nonsensical; you want to be there every minute, to show that you care, and to do all you possibly can to aid the health care professionals to get your loved one well, or at least keep him or her as well as possible.
But we’re human beings, and we need to take at least some care of ourselves during a health crisis. We have to remember that if we don’t take care of ourselves, we’re not going to be able to do all we can for our ill family member or friend.
Now, what I mean by “take care of yourself” is this: make sure you eat. Make sure you get adequate rest. Do something nice for yourself, even if it’s as simple as buying yourself a small piece of candy, or talking a walk outside in the sun.
Don’t neglect yourself, whatever you do. Because focusing all your attention on your ill family member is actually counterproductive, unless it’s such an urgent crisis (life-or-death, with immediacy, something like I faced on my husband Michael’s final day of life) that you have no choice but to do so. (Even then, the health care people told me I should make sure to eat something; I managed a banana, I think. To go wash my face; to have water; to talk a walk inside the hospital to clear my head. And they told me to take my regular medicines on schedule, too; I had to stay strong in case my husband was able to survive.)
For Jeff’s family and friends who are there in Colorado with him — and for those of us who care for Jeff very much, but do not live in Colorado and haven’t been able to get there — we have to remember to do what we can to take care of ourselves in addition to whatever we can do for Jeff. (What I can do right now is pray. That’s about it. But I am assuredly doing that.)
Taking care of ourselves is not selfish; instead, it’s our way of staying ready to help.
So if taking in a movie helps to clear your head, you should go do it.
If going out to eat is what you need — go do it. (If you can’t stand the hospital food, briefly leaving the hospital for an hour or whatever isn’t going to change things for your loved one — and it may really help you, which indirectly helps your loved one.)
In other words — self-sacrifice to excess is a vice. So please, do something nice for yourself every day — even if it’s just to luxuriate in the shower an extra minute, or take a walk, or eat a candy bar, or read a few pages in a book that makes you laugh . . . these are good things to do, and you should make a point of doing them for your own mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
Taking care of yourself should help you be better able to deal with your extremely sick loved one. So please, keep this in mind; I know it feels wrong to take care of yourself at such a stressful time, but if you won’t, who will? (And if something happens to you, how will that help your sick friend or family member any?)
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Note: I’ve walked this path, and I know how bad it feels to be there but not be able to affect the outcome at all. I think being there at your loved one’s bedside is the right move — of course it’s the right move! But you have to remember that in a long-term illness, you need to take care of you in addition to your loved one . . . also, if the person in question wasn’t so very ill, he or she would want you to take care of yourself.
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