Wordless Wednesday (This is How My Christmas Went Down & IT Was Freakin’ Awesome!)
Janna Hill
Author
The Long, long Night
The Winter solstice and the longest night has now past. The occasion brings to mind one of my favorite poems:
The Long, long Night
He would sculpt and I would write
to get us through this thing called life and
what seemed to be an aimless plight
The long, long night
I used pen and he used clay
to cope with all the pain filled days
which lived within our slow decay of
The long, long night
But in between the words and mud
we found the art of making love
and pacified the angst and blood of
The long, long night
Forsaken pages ripped and torn,
spattered earth across the floor,
graphite tales of love and war and
The long, long night
Come into my bed sweet angry lover,
your tender calloused hands beneath the cover.
Find the place where none has been,
beneath the ink and turning pin,
get us through yet once again
The long, long night
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Is it Enough to Just Show Up?
Is it Enough to Just Show Up?
We all need to do a little soul searching from time to time but you should do a little self-searching too.
Don’t just google yourself.
Sure Google is probably the most widely used search engine in the USA but it is not the only one.
Take a swing at Bing and Ask yourself; Yahoo you and waddle over to DuckDuckGo.
Hopefully you are showing up somewhere on the first page of each search provider.
I have to admit I was quite happy to see that Janna Hill (that’s me) was easily discoverable and was going to talk more about discoverability until the husband’s grumbling caught my attention. You see, he was helping by browsing “images”.
So the focus veered off track.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Hmm.” He said as he shook his head, “Um-um-um. This is not good.”
I spun around and nearly broke my neck, tripped over a chair getting up and I’m sure I had an arrhythmia too.
“You took those ridiculous pictures!” I griped as I hobbled closer. “And now you’ve made me break my foot!”
Sometimes I think the husband is trying to rain on my parade and wreck my crazy train.
“Oh, it’ll be okay.” He grinned at the feet he has no sympathy for before he assumed a more serious tone, “Have you ever heard of Dogpile?”
“Nope — never heard of`em.” I truly wanted to reply with a festering, “Yes. I stepped in something like that when I married you” but I didn’t because: A. that is not true, and B. I noticed some of the images were… well they weren’t bad but…
Example: this post from 2015, Winter Makes Me CRaZy also makes me look crazy. It (and a few other things we found in searching Janna Hill) left me pondering…
I had to ask myself, “Self, is it enough to just show up on the first page of these search engines? Should you reconsider the books/material you have published as well as the images that pop up on page 1? Maybe clean up your act?”
And then I answered myself as honestly as I could, “Self – suck it up. Heck yeah it’s enough! It’s not an arrest record or nude photos so go with it.”
Whoo-whoo all aboard! Even the husband concurred.
After all, I am just living out loud and flinging cake against the wall.
- This should not be construed as advice to be reckless with your career or your future but to hopefully find you are present in your career and future.
- Photos compliments of Pixabay.com
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Thoughts on Writing (The Requirements of an Author)
Am I still so harsh? It appears so.
Excerpt from Getting Me Back
Thoughts on Writing (The Requirements of an Author)
Desire: A congenital need to tell the story.
Determination: It is not enough to walk a couple of blocks or run five miles on a treadmill, come prepared to hike the Himalayas and explore the abyss.
An exoskeleton: A thick skin will not suffice — no indeed. Colleagues and critics are apt in the sadistic art of shaving and burning the thickest of flesh; their tireless wheel of pumice leaving the toughest callouses raw and bleeding. They will thin your skin; get beneath it and prove your vulnerabilities. Like a flesh eating bacteria they will consume you — kill you if you let them.
A poker face: Never let them see you sweat.
Gratitude: Because no one owes you anything!
Grace: For the rise and the inevitable fall.
Pills and booze and smoke: Because it is a hard and hateful world and you are not a god-damned ant.
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Behind Door Number Four (And Where the Heck is Donald Crowley?)
I would like to think Donald Crowley would be impressed with this new cover but he (for whatever reason) is not returning my calls.
Encase you don’t know Don, here’s a little bit about him — or rather his past.
Donald S. Crowley was a CPA by day; a bean counter; a number cruncher and a certified bore. By night he was as stimulating as the hero in his latest read with all the social skills of a brick and to make matters worse he was in love with a door. Not just any door, number four was special. Her alluring smile had caught Donald’s eye when he was just a boy and she called him by name. Despite years of therapy and medications she still called to him. Now he would risk his life to see her again and to finally know what lay behind
Door Number IIII.
Available wherever e-books are sold.
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Mad Monday (Break the Rules)
You know I mentioned going to Benton Arkansas last Friday.
It was a nice break. We shopped a little, ate too much, chattered like magpies and — well, I just had to see the old sanitarium/asylum aka “nervous hospital” where Karl spent most of his life.
Thank goodness my family is as adventurous and crazy as me.
There were no observable signs that forbade us from entering, so…
We considered going in a window but oddly enough we did not have to.
The doors seemed to beckon and willingly opened without the slightest resistance and ta-da, we were in.
Exploring the dilapidated history in search of answers and ghosts and what-ifs.
And possibly inheriting a demon or a deadly disease. 
What does this story have to do with writing?
This: Every now and then you have to break the rules to spice things up.
Of course you need to know the rules before you break them and sometimes the rules are not obvious.
Write On!!
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Friday’s Free-for-all (Genres & Tools & Fried Taters. Mhm)
It will be necessary to choose a genre (or a narrow list of genres) when you get ready to submit/publish but don’t let that annoying detail inhibit your writing.
For now just write; your story can be catalogued later.
Here is a brief overview of primary genres. Glance at them and move on.
Action/Adventure: fast paced exploration with conflict.
Erotica: focuses on the sex, not the romance.
Fantasy: Magic other worldly, mystical and mythological.
Horror: anything that invokes fear/dread.
Literary Fiction: focus on the quality of writing style/prose over the narrative/plot.
Mystery: involves solving some sort of crime.
Thriller/Suspense: creates tension which can involve action or mystery.
Romance: love and intimacy without the down and dirty details of said intimacy.
Science fiction: think aliens, alternative worlds and high tech
Westerns: usually taking place in America’s ‘Old West’; cowboys, etc…
Women’s fiction: all about the woman e.g. growth and hope.
I just finished packing to head to Benton Arkansas for the weekend and I thought about the movie Sling Blade.
Sling Blade is a drama. No, there is not a drama category listed above because drama is written for performance. The paperback copy is categorized as screenplay. As a screenplay it is listed on Amazon as follows:
#1100 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Movies > Screenwriting
#5851 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Television
#26979 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts
Now allow me to detour a moment because I do love me some Billy Bob Thornton. I am also excited about visiting Two Peas in a Pod Flea Market and some dear kinfolks in Benton where Sling Blade was filmed.
Ahhh. I still cackle when my [adult] kids slip into character and quip, “fried taters, Mhm.” “With mustard and biscuits. Mhm.”
If you are familiar with the movie Sling Blade you’ll be familiar with this line, “Some folks call it a sling blade; I call it a Kaiser blade.” Yeah, I heard some of you saying, Mhm.
Well I have a sling blade too (along with a few other tools) but I call it a limb-chopper. 
People can call it what they want but that will not alter the way I use my limb-chopper. I use it to chop limbs — all sorts of limbs.
I call it what I want to; I use it however I please BUT if I decide to sale my tool… my merchandise, I will need to identify it properly and list it in an appropriate category.
See what I mean? Mhm?
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Don’t Quit (Misery Loves Company & Asshats)
NaNoWriMo has barley started and you’re giving up? If you quit at the starting line how the heck are you going to reach the finish line?
Okay. I understand the pressure and the frustration and the fear and the time crunch you have to contend with [really, I do] but don’t quit. Take a deep breath. Let your shoulders drop (it is okay if the world has to float on it’s own for a minute or two) and remind yourself why you took the challenge to begin with.
The above was my partial response to an aspiring author I sometimes guide (guide sounds less hoity-toity than mentor). She continually strives to improve her skill and decided to challenge herself this year with NaNoWriMo. I was so excited for her.
When she said she was throwing in the towel one week into the 30 day challenge my heart sank.
I had to remind myself of two things: #1 this is HER journey. #2 despondency is common among authors, young and old, aspiring and established alike.
The exchange ended with us both feeling more optimistic. For now.
Another handful of emails followed (not participants in WriMo) mostly venting about criticisms which they said too often feels like bullying.
I read some of the criticisms. Honestly, I considered most of the comments as constructive – a little blunt and crude but valid observations. Constructive criticism is valuable.
There were a few however that did have a malicious feel about them. Asshats!
It is not always easy doing what you love… what you feel driven to do… following your passion. Self-doubt is relentless and Asshats… don’t get me started?!!
Insecurity fluctuates; it lessens with experience as the skin thickens but don’t expect Asshats to turn into compassionate humanoids. Why? Because misery loves company.
I cannot count the number of times I have heard/felt, “I’m too old”, “I’m afraid”, “I am not good enough” or “I’ve been ridiculed/rejected”. Self-doubt
Nor can I count the times I have heard of/read/experienced pointless insults that serve no purpose other than to humiliate a person. Asshats
So it seems Asshats and uncertainty will always be a part of life; a thing we all have to contend with. “But how?” some ask. Don’t quit.
You can’t lie down and quit. I guess you could but then you would be in a coma. Being comatose is not the answer.
You can’t throat-punch or cuss everyone who hates on you. Well, you can but the fines start racking up and…
Before I confess digress I think I’ll just send you to a more inspiring, graceful article.
Oops, a quick tip: Embrace your feelings (pain, anger, fear, etc.) and use them in your writing. Assign your feelings of defeat and grief to a character and then show the character how to overcome. It can be very healing.
Write on!!
Now check out the post by Joan Hall over at Story Empire and be sure to read the comments.
If you are not already following Story Empire you should.
Why?
Because they offer countless resources for writers (especially new writers) and they are a great group of people. They don’t allow Asshats and trolls to hang out there.
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Alzheimer’s is a Cruel Stealthy Cat
November is (among many other things) National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month.
Go Purple with a Purpose
Alzheimer’s is a cruel stealthy cat that lurks in the shadows. It leisurely pulls its prey into the darkness, steals their reasoning, their memories and eventually their life. The only kindness this disease provides is a cocoon that leaves the victim in a state of oblivion. However it shows no compassion to loved ones and caregivers left to witness the slow death and decay.
Let’s not give up on finding a cure.
If you know someone touched by Alzheimer’s take a moment to make a difference no matter how small. A hug, a helping hand or just acknowledging a caregiver’s struggle can mean so much.
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Grammar Humor (Be Drunk )
All little humor [especially for you NaNoWrimo-ers]
You all have probably heard the phrase, “Write drunk, edit sober.” Well now is the time to be drunk my friends. Write with abandon.
There will be plenty of time for editing when you sober up.
The Real Janna Hill in 