Welcome back to Friday Freeday, where I do pretty much what I want to do, because it's Friday.
Since this was a short work week and a week where I had a meeting and to put together the minutes for said meeting (I love it), it seemed like the days flew right on by. Tuesday was magically short! I dreaded coming to this office, but the day was over before it began.
So, to commemorate, I thought I'd promote two great TV episodes that dealt with the slippage of time. Oddly enough, I also saw these episodes back-to-back, so it creeped me out.
Futurama S3, E4. After being challenged to a game of basketball by the planet of the Globetrotters, Prof. Farnsworth creates a team of mutant, atomic supermen, but the side effects of their rapid growth endangers the universe.
Have I mentioned I'm a huge Futurama fan? After the movies, I sort of wish that they even stopped making episodes because the new ones just don't have the same great feel as the old ones. For example, "Time Keeps on Slipping." This was one of the moments that tied up a storyline from a previous episode, where Prof. Farnsworth discussed his idea of a race of super atomic monsters. Having created them, he needed subatomic particles (or something) to make them grow faster. Unfortunately, plucking those particles from space caused the universe to skip forward through time at random intervals. So jokes are delivered here through seeing the outcomes of what happened to the crew without seeing how they got there in the first place. Frye and Leela even got married, and we don't get to see why until the end! *cue Bender Harlem Globetrotter whistle*
Star Trek: The Next Generation S5, E18 The Enterprise gets caught in a time loop which always has one result: total destruction of the ship, itself.
I'm also a Trekkie. lol But I did have to Google to figure out exactly which time disruption episode of Star Trek I was looking for. I needed the one where every 15 minutes the ship exploded, "Cause and Effect". It isn't until the crew starts having moments of deja vu that they realize they're living the same day over and over, and Dr. Crusher puts a secret message in Data to help them not explode. It's a great episode.
If anyone else has a favorite episode revolving around time (Supernatural had a great one, *hint-hint*), leave a comment and tell me about it. :-D
Greetings
- Debra Renée Byrd
- Delaware, United States
- Deborah Hawkins, penned Debra Renée Byrd, began writing after a blank book project in elementary school and never stopped, fashioning stories based on her favorite TV shows and movies before creating more original works. She studied at the University of the Arts and Florida State University before settling down and graduating from Temple University. She now resides in her hometown of Dover, DE, where she spends most of her time at work or at church. She loves fantasies, superheroes, is a trekkie and a brown coat. She loves television and lives for Final Fantasy video games, having collected most of them. She has read a myriad of authors, and her favorite authors change whenever she finds a new book that changes her life... "When you can't run, you crawl. When you can't crawl...well, you know the rest." -Tracey, Firefly, "The Message"
Friday, May 31, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Thinking
So I've started revising my fantasy WIP Save the Queen again, which feels as taxing as it is adventurous. At this point, I feel I should be able to do it in my sleep, but I also know I need to dig up my query and work on it, too.
I think I posted one here and don't remember how good (or bad) it is. I don't even want to go looking for it. I want a fresh start on this (evil device of Satan) thing. For some reason, I want to try out writing it from the antagonist's perspective...? I'm not sure why, but it's just floating in my head. Another idea I'm thinking on, and it's really more of a point than an idea, is showing some of the cards. I wanted to keep a little of the mystery to myself, but it's ultimately the agent who needs to see it, so I can show them a few a-ha's, right? I know it will at least give the hook a punch, and the agent something to look forward to in regards to see how things got to "that point."
I'm talking very cryptically, but that's what's on my mind at the moment. What say you?
I think I posted one here and don't remember how good (or bad) it is. I don't even want to go looking for it. I want a fresh start on this (evil device of Satan) thing. For some reason, I want to try out writing it from the antagonist's perspective...? I'm not sure why, but it's just floating in my head. Another idea I'm thinking on, and it's really more of a point than an idea, is showing some of the cards. I wanted to keep a little of the mystery to myself, but it's ultimately the agent who needs to see it, so I can show them a few a-ha's, right? I know it will at least give the hook a punch, and the agent something to look forward to in regards to see how things got to "that point."
I'm talking very cryptically, but that's what's on my mind at the moment. What say you?
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Express Yourself: What he said.
Good morning, and Happy (belated) Memorial Day! I hope everyone stopped for a moment to reflect on the men and women who lose their lives for us.
This week's Express Yourself asks what our favorite author quotes are, and mine is actually the signature on my Agent Query profile. It is from Robert Olen Butler, and he says it as an introduction to a video series he did as he wrote one of the short stories for his collection: Had A Good Time. Unfortunately, I don't think I know the whole thing off the top of my head and can't look it up because my job blocks videos, but I'll try to remember.
"Art doesn't come from the mind. Art comes from the place where you dream. So in a sense, I am welcoming you into my dream."
He also has a book on writing based on this theory, and I, being someone who does pull ideas from dreams I've had, totally understand it.
Visit http://jackiefelger.blogspot.com and http://danibertrand.blogspot.com for the other participants of this weekly bloghop.
This week's Express Yourself asks what our favorite author quotes are, and mine is actually the signature on my Agent Query profile. It is from Robert Olen Butler, and he says it as an introduction to a video series he did as he wrote one of the short stories for his collection: Had A Good Time. Unfortunately, I don't think I know the whole thing off the top of my head and can't look it up because my job blocks videos, but I'll try to remember.
"Art doesn't come from the mind. Art comes from the place where you dream. So in a sense, I am welcoming you into my dream."
He also has a book on writing based on this theory, and I, being someone who does pull ideas from dreams I've had, totally understand it.
Visit http://jackiefelger.blogspot.com and http://danibertrand.blogspot.com for the other participants of this weekly bloghop.
Friday, May 24, 2013
Friday Freeday: 3 Hours to Go!
Welcome back to Friday, everyone!
I had been thinking about taking off the Friday before Memorial Day probably since February, but since money is tight, I decided not to. Then Monday came around and literally drove me to drink. Tuesday did the exact same thing. Rumchata has a formula I didn't perfect Monday night but did better Tuesday night. My throat was aflame Wednesday morning, though.
I work at a job that I've realized this week I don't want to be in. I only look forward to the last two Wednesdays of the month, where I get out of the office to go to another office for peer reviews of behavioral intervention strategies. I really like that circle of people, and Wednesday made my week WONDERFUL. And that was when I decided I'm taking half of today off, so my 3-day weekend starts in 3 hours. \o/
I'm almost 29, and I've managed to skirt and nomad my way through these clerical-type positions since I graduated college, but I'm at that point now where I want to not do it anymore. I don't have much choice right now, but I really need to buckle down and figure out what I want to do with my editing business (will be broadcasting my website to the state soon). I also need to/will jump back into another editing phase on my fantasy WIP because I have so many more ideas to flesh out the story, and I'm getting anxious to do them!
So after I critique the shorts in my inbox for Critters.org and finish with my beta, I will be striving to do what I want to do with my life.
Have a happy Memorial Day everyone! And if you're in the Tri-state Area (PA/NJ/DE), 102.9 WMGK's Top 500 Classic Rock songs starts at 3pm! Knowing the #1 song will get you a chance to win a trip to MGK's Beach House!
I had been thinking about taking off the Friday before Memorial Day probably since February, but since money is tight, I decided not to. Then Monday came around and literally drove me to drink. Tuesday did the exact same thing. Rumchata has a formula I didn't perfect Monday night but did better Tuesday night. My throat was aflame Wednesday morning, though.
I work at a job that I've realized this week I don't want to be in. I only look forward to the last two Wednesdays of the month, where I get out of the office to go to another office for peer reviews of behavioral intervention strategies. I really like that circle of people, and Wednesday made my week WONDERFUL. And that was when I decided I'm taking half of today off, so my 3-day weekend starts in 3 hours. \o/
I'm almost 29, and I've managed to skirt and nomad my way through these clerical-type positions since I graduated college, but I'm at that point now where I want to not do it anymore. I don't have much choice right now, but I really need to buckle down and figure out what I want to do with my editing business (will be broadcasting my website to the state soon). I also need to/will jump back into another editing phase on my fantasy WIP because I have so many more ideas to flesh out the story, and I'm getting anxious to do them!
So after I critique the shorts in my inbox for Critters.org and finish with my beta, I will be striving to do what I want to do with my life.
Have a happy Memorial Day everyone! And if you're in the Tri-state Area (PA/NJ/DE), 102.9 WMGK's Top 500 Classic Rock songs starts at 3pm! Knowing the #1 song will get you a chance to win a trip to MGK's Beach House!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Throwback Thursday: Fitzgiven
Welcome to another most likely sporadic day-specific post. lol
Throwback Thursday is a hashtag on Twitter where people post old pics of themselves. There are rules about this, such as: you can't post a pic that you took about a month ago. It has to be at least a year. It also has to be posted on Thursday. But since this is a blog about writing (mostly), I decided to post pieces of the first story I wrote during my first writer's convention when I was 9 years old. It's going to literally be pieces, more like what I see in my head from the meat of the story because that was almost 20 years ago. I do, however, still remember my mom expressing the hesitation of the teacher who was reading the story out loud. lol
Sara Conrad was 13 years old when she became an orphan. She was coming home from school that day. Her bus let her off at the long, winding dirt road that led her to the log cabin where she lived with her parents and two sisters. Her older sister was away at college, fortunately. Sara smelled the smoke before she saw it. She ran down the rest of the road and came to a halt in front of her home engulfed in flames. Her heart raced. Her parents and kid sister would have been home by then. Without another thought, she ran inside and looked around, screaming for her family. She couldn't go too far inside, for the flames had swallowed almost everything, but she got far enough inside to see the three skeletons hanging from the ceiling of the living room. Written in blood on the wall behind them was one name: Fitzgiven. Sara hurried back out of the house before the smoke could suffocate her, and she knew she had to avenge her family.
I imagine she cried in the original, but I don't remember all that. I also am aware that unless her family was flayed first, they wouldn't be burned down to just their skeletons so quickly, but I was 9.
Sara was one of the recurring mutants in my [insert bad adjective] Hearts series I wrote for 7 years. She had the plasma ability like Jubilee. She was blonde with blue eyes and allergic to cherries (for some reason). Her family was locked in a violent feud with the Fitzgiven family, who had the ability to create and manipulate fire. I never tapped into WHY they were fighting. If I go on to revamp these stories like I said before, I will definitely work on making this whole piece make sense.
Throwback Thursday is a hashtag on Twitter where people post old pics of themselves. There are rules about this, such as: you can't post a pic that you took about a month ago. It has to be at least a year. It also has to be posted on Thursday. But since this is a blog about writing (mostly), I decided to post pieces of the first story I wrote during my first writer's convention when I was 9 years old. It's going to literally be pieces, more like what I see in my head from the meat of the story because that was almost 20 years ago. I do, however, still remember my mom expressing the hesitation of the teacher who was reading the story out loud. lol
Sara Conrad was 13 years old when she became an orphan. She was coming home from school that day. Her bus let her off at the long, winding dirt road that led her to the log cabin where she lived with her parents and two sisters. Her older sister was away at college, fortunately. Sara smelled the smoke before she saw it. She ran down the rest of the road and came to a halt in front of her home engulfed in flames. Her heart raced. Her parents and kid sister would have been home by then. Without another thought, she ran inside and looked around, screaming for her family. She couldn't go too far inside, for the flames had swallowed almost everything, but she got far enough inside to see the three skeletons hanging from the ceiling of the living room. Written in blood on the wall behind them was one name: Fitzgiven. Sara hurried back out of the house before the smoke could suffocate her, and she knew she had to avenge her family.
I imagine she cried in the original, but I don't remember all that. I also am aware that unless her family was flayed first, they wouldn't be burned down to just their skeletons so quickly, but I was 9.
Sara was one of the recurring mutants in my [insert bad adjective] Hearts series I wrote for 7 years. She had the plasma ability like Jubilee. She was blonde with blue eyes and allergic to cherries (for some reason). Her family was locked in a violent feud with the Fitzgiven family, who had the ability to create and manipulate fire. I never tapped into WHY they were fighting. If I go on to revamp these stories like I said before, I will definitely work on making this whole piece make sense.
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