re-purpose

Re-purpose Your Household Items

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Reduce, reuse, recycle, re-purpose.

It seems to be a requirement for human beings that we re-purpose things. For instance, my paper clip jar is a re-purposed orange blossom honey jar. I like it because even though I washed the jar out thoroughly before I filled it with paperclips, for years the lid gave off the faint smell of orange blossom honey every time I reached for a paperclip. Now, even though the scent is gone, I have a pleasant sense of anticipation every time I fumble for a paperclip.

The solution works well, I think. My paperclips are prevented from scrabbling around my desk at night. They can’t poke fun at the pencils or form extensive chains. Nor can they escape onto the carpet to lie in wait for unsuspecting bare feet. Paperclips can get in all sorts of trouble if they aren’t properly stored. Plus the label on the jar is cute.

You can re-purpose plastic quart size yogurt containers.

These containers are incredibly useful, and not just for holding yogurt. They are my go-to container for small amounts of paint. I’ve used them as flower pots in a pinch.

But best of all is making magic with them. First, find a box cutter and slice off the bottom forming a saucer with an inch high rim. Then, fill it with water and stick a leftover inch long lettuce stump in it. A few days later, a miracle will happen. Spoiler alert: It involves lettuce.

Using items in ways they were never intended for can be unexpectedly satisfying, primarily because it makes you feel both clever and inventive. Then, you can post an account of your project on HomeTalk, a website with which I have developed an unhealthy fascination. Although I have never actually posted anything to the site myself, I stand in awe of some of the folks who have. I had no idea you could do so many things with plastic cups and paper towel tubes.

Reusing items one might ordinarily throw out is not only ecologically sound it’s good for the ego.

So I am considering what else in my life might be re-purposed. Oh, dear. That sounds dark.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

Formatting

Formatting Your E-Book Requires Wine

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Indie publishing involves formatting. Ugh.

I was planning to write an erudite assessment of Anne Tyler’s Vinegar Girl, because I have always disliked The Taming of the Shrew. Tyler came up with a charming “doesn’t make you want to throw up” version. But I am not feeling intellectual today. Because I spent the day formatting.

No. Today is a day for glorying in having uploaded three short stories and a revision onto Amazon. While not exactly a philosophical challenge, the process has certainly tested my ability to not hit the laptop with the printer. Until now, I always considered patience one of my strong suits. That was before I met e-book formatting.

If e-book formatting were a man, he would never have a second date with the same woman.

Even the first date would be horrible since he would insist on restarting every five minutes.

“No, no,” he would scold. “Go back to the door and try entering again. This time, swirl your skirt clockwise and try to smile in twelve point font. And for heaven’s sake, make sure you don’t bleed into the gutter.”

Imagine open mike night in front of a sparse crowd of dejected ebook formatters. The bar is dingy, the floor sticky with spilled drinks. Fly paper hangs from the eaves and the glasses of beer are cloudy because the dishwasher is too depressed to rinse thoroughly. And in front, a comedian in stained khaki trousers which reach halfway up his fraying plaid shirt spits out one joke after another.

“Knock, knock. Who’s there? Times. Times who? Times New. Roman.”

“Where’s the best place to find widows and orphans? At the ends of paragraphs.”

“I’ve got a million of them. A million of them, I tell you.”

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

self employment

Self Employment Perks and Negatives

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Collecting Benefits from Self Employment.

I bet you woke up this morning thinking, “What exactly is the difference between an axiom and an idiom?” I know I did. Being able to take time to explore questions like this is one of the benefits of self employment.

Actually, I was wondering specifically whether “a day late and a dollar short” is an axiom, an idiom or simply an excellent description of me.

Some days feel behind from the moment they begin, and today is one of those. The pile of papers on my desk, although exactly the same height as it was when I said goodnight to it, has burrowed into what it clearly believes is a tenured position.

The worst offender is the punch list, neatly categorized by topic, which I made the mistake of printing out yesterday so I could feel virtuous when I checked items off. Never do this. Or if you do print it out, shred it before going to bed. That will take the smug look off its face.

The thing is, I should be feeling pretty self righteous because I sent out a dozen queries yesterday – a personal record. But this is the problem when you are the boss as well as the sole employee.

My self employment employee incentive system leaves something to be desired.

No one writes up a commendation when I finish one thousand words. On the upside, no one writes up complaints to put in my permanent file if I am late to work or fail to provide the boss with a cup of coffee. Tea, in my case.

Maybe I should plan an employee retreat with team building exercises and fun activities. I could schedule an office party replete with loud music, wine spritzers and embarrassing photocopies done on my printer. I could even institute casual Fridays which would allow me to wear less formal clothing to work. Oh. Wait.

*Apparently it is an idiom. An axiom is something entirely different involving math, philosophy and basic truths. Clearly not appropriate to this blog.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

fiction

Fiction and Truth; Non-Fiction and Your Imagination

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“Fiction is a story someone made up.” Miss Wood tapped her desk for emphasis.

“Non-fiction is fact. You find non-fiction in an encyclopedia or in a newspaper so you know it is true.”

This is how my sixth grade teacher Miss Wood once explained the difference between fiction and non-fiction.

I’m going to pause now until you stop laughing (or crying). Nowadays the line between truth and untruth is painfully blurred. But when you are in sixth grade, you don’t feel that way.

To be fair, I should explain the context. The class was assigned to write reports about animals for science class. I’m sure Miss Wood didn’t want me using Wind in the Willows as a resource.

But now I am about the age Miss Wood was when she made this pronouncement, so I feel justified in my rebuttal.

Encyclopedias and newspapers may or may not be factual, but good fiction is true.

Non-fiction writers generally try to preserve the illusion of detached reasoning. But no fact operates in a vacuum and authors of non-fiction often get away with ignoring inconvenient aspects of their theories. They have to do this because the world is full of unexpected quirky facts which get in the way of theories.

A writer of romance novels, cannot afford to be as random as real life. In a sense, the whole point of a good story is its reassuring predictability. Because when fiction begins with fully fleshed out internally consistent characters, the paths of those characters and their interactions must be, if not predictable, at least inevitable.

The result of that inevitability is a kind of truth. Maybe the closest we get to it.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

finishing

Finishing a Novel and Letting It Go

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Finishing and Letting Go are Not the Same Things.

So much of writing a novel is about beginning it – plotting, character exploration. Beginnings are optimism incarnate. But finishing has a distinct flavor too, a bittersweet tang.

Today I finished novel number three. Really finished. Drafting, spelling and grammar checking, fixing sequence errors, sending it to the editor, fixing all the sequence, grammar and spelling errors I missed the first time, the second time, the third time.

I knew I needed an editor but until I worked with one, I had no idea how sharp eyed and persistent editors have to be. Or maybe they aren’t all sharp eyed, but mine is.

Waiting For You is the best writing I have done so far. And now that the story is complete, I feel like I should be celebrating but somehow I’m not there yet.

Because part of finishing a manuscript is saying goodbye to your characters – letting them go.

It’s true Aidy and Max may return as side characters in a subsequent novel, but the part of their journey which I was the first to witness is concluded. Which leaves a kind of emptiness in a place they filled. As though one heard a voice, turned around, and found no one there.

I feel this same sense of wistfulness, sometimes, when I finish reading someone else’s writing. And if I do, I know those characters will stay with me, will speak their minds when I least expect it, not so much a haunting as a comfortable inner presence. I think that defines good writing.

So as I set my own characters free to roam about the world of fiction, I wish the same for them – that they should live on in the hearts and minds of their readers, distinct voices and distinct personas. I’m not sure an author can ask for more or better than that.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.