Ranting and Raving...and Resting

First of all, I guess I should apologize (to myself of course; nobody reads this. Except my fangirl Zibby. Yea for fangirls.) for not posting yesterday. I was around, but I was tired and I just didn't post. I know, I know. Anyway, some good news--I'm about a third of the way (or maybe less, as it keeps getting longer and longer) through my Current Project and have given the first six chapters to my first readers, namely my mom (who has always been the first to read all my writing since time immemorial) and, again, Zibby, my loyal fangirl. : ) In the last two days I wrote a total of only 2,798 words, most of them today. Today was a good day, writing-wise, and I would like to do a little bit more, but knowing me, I won't. The weather was gorgeous: sixties I expect--I wore a t-shirt all day and was very warm on my walk. The violet-green swallows are everywhere all of a sudden and flickers are displaying (and dying, unfortunately) outside (and on) my windows. I can see the wood pile on the North side of the house for the first time since January! It has collapsed under the weight of the snow.

A couple of things...first, my favorite blogger on Blogger has a nice post today on a topic I have wondered about ever since I first read Harry Potter. I also had fun reading about her childhood pronunciation of a certain Belgian detective's name, as I had literally just been talking about the same thing with my brother (and also my mom). Which of course reminds of a movie quote (so many things do...): "I'm a Belgie, not a Frenchie!" (From Murder By Death) It really made me think about the way I spell unusual words, actually. I agree with Lynneguist on yeah and yea (though Zibby, for example, does it differently), though eh has always been a source of confusion for me. I've only seen "eh" as in "how's it going, eh?" spelled, obviously, e-h. But how does one spell that sound that goes along with a shrug? I've seen "meh" which would rhyme with that word, and not sound like May. Hmmm...So, picture a recent invalid answering the question "how do you feel?" Eh, right? It's not uh, exactly, and certainly doesn't rhyme with day. It's a single-syllable equivalent of "come si, come ca" (except ca would be spelled correctly in an ideal world...), or even "it comes and goes," or "some days are diamonds, some days are stones." : ) Who knows?

And now, a little rant. So, I entered Amazon.com's "Beedle the Bard Ballad Writing Contest." I am a poet. I know what a ballad is, so I thought it an exceedingly stupid name for the contest whose rules (OK, actually it was in the FAQ) explicitly stated that the entries did NOT have to be poems, but simply had to be in English and less that 100 words long. I know. I checked, because I was concerned, because, obviously, I wanted to win, darn it. So, I was rather surprised when almost all of the semi-finalists consisted of unmetered doggeral rhymed couplets. Yeah. Now, I don't mean to sound like a bad loser. I just mean that, in the words of another commenter, I feel "misled." I really enjoyed writing my entry, however, and I still would love to share it with the world, simply because I take joy and pride in my work. Really. As for the entries, I voted for the ones I liked, like a good sport, and I wish them both the best of luck. In the adult category, I thought only Laura H.'s entry was passable at all, and I rather liked it. The teen group was much better by far. I enjoyed several, but I chose Rhiannon of Australia's because it was sweet, it read very well, and it made me smile. So, good luck, ladies! I hope one of you gets to read this one-of-a-kind book! Actually, I'm not jealous about not getting to see the book (seriously!). I knew my chances there were miniscule. I had, however, started fantasizing about all the books I'd buy with that second prize! : D

So, here's what I wrote, and some background, through a link, because my posts are too long anyway...

( What song do wizards use to celebrate birthdays? )

So much more to say, as usual and so little time to say it. Anyway...back for more tomorrow I expect! Good night!

--Susie

P.S. I also found the livejournals of two old friends, who will either be happy I finally have a web presence so they can catch up with what I'm doing, or they will run away screaming and changing their online personae because I'm a crazy stalker... ; )