Eric Witchey-Five Minutes on Fiction

Eric Witchey, Five Minutes on Fiction

In the video (part of Willamette Writers’ Five Minutes on Fiction) he talks about a common problem aspiring writers have and how to overcome the obstacle. He gives some good solid advice and it’s worth your time if you want to improve your writing.

Eric Witchey has published science fiction, fantasy, horror, literary, romance, erotica, outdoor adventure, young-adult, and true crime stories. According to his bio, “[w]hen not teaching or writing, he restores antique HO locomotives or tosses bits of feather and pointy wire at laughing trout.”

In the video he mentions a story he sold titled Batbaby and Bigfoot vs. The Blood Trucking Vampire. You can find it here at Fortean Bureau.

I saw Eric at this year’s Willamette Writers’ Conference and he alone made it worth my while (if you’re interested, next year’s conference is August 7-9, 2009).

Wiring Your Story

Lynn Viehl (39 novels in 5 genres) is fast becoming my favorite blogger. Her Paperback Writer blog of July 28, 2008 is terrific. It’s titled VW#1: Power Plotting (I think VW = Virtual Workshop). I’ve heard of stories compared to building before, but her use of electricity as the power and the wiring as how it moves through the story, and is delivered, just works for me.

William Shatner should demand a recount

A poll of musical experts has said that Celine Dion is responsible for the worst cover song ever. Six years ago in Las Vegas, Dion performed AC/Dc’s You Shook Me All Night Long. See the BBC story.

Hear a clip of Celine Dion singing You Shook Me All Night Long.

William Shatner did not make even the bottom five. As you can see (at 1:32 into the video), he was robbed.

Shatner Singing to George Lucas

Football (soccer) Koan?

Perhaps German striker Lukas Podolski meant to psyche the opposition at the 2008 European Football (soccer here in the US) Championship, when he provided a koan–a puzzling statement used in Zen Buddhism to meditate on. Or, perhaps, it came from one too many headers.

“Make haste slowly” while you meditate on this one:

‘Football is like chess, only without the dice.’

Going Green

Here in the US, gas is above $4 a gallon and on its way to $5. Everyone is looking to save gas and lower their carbon footprint as well. Time to consider a hybrid? Read Who are you kidding? in Britain’s Telegraph first. “However much fuel it does or doesn’t save, the Toyota Prius has become a byword for fatuous lip-service to environmentalism…”

Certainly we need to lower our consumption of hydrocarbons. First steps ought to include driving less and at lowered speeds with fewer jackrabbit takeoffs from stops. Using those simple techniques can save 10-15% without any layout of money for a new car.

Nightlife in Lake County

We got up and had coffee this morning. I needed it. I was groggy (and probably Mary was too) from a visit by a raccoon in the wee hours.

Around 1:10 this morning, Peaches ran down the bedroom and office stairs alerting us to the critter’s presence. I had closed the basement door around 7 or 8PM so. The basement is where the cats hang out and eat their cat food. How he got in is a mystery.

But in he was. I turned on the office’s light, went partway down stairs, and opened the basement door. He scrabbled in the opposite direction for the porch’s screen door and bounced back like a vertical trampoline. That flummoxed him. Next, he tried to climb up the office bookcase or perhaps he was looking for a book on how to escape by opening doors; Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer didn’t do it for him.

Mary held the barking Peaches. She’s eleven and shouldn’t bound down stairs recklessly. She probably knows this too, but now that she was restrained, she told us she wanted a piece of him.



Despite the adorable little mask, raccoons are not cute, especially when they’re scared. They are wild animals, with sharp teeth and claws to match and will use them if cornered.


And this fellow felt cornered (well, not this fellow, he’s from the Wikipedia page on raccoons).

I grabbed Peaches’ blanket to use as a matador’s cape and try and finagle the little beast out of the house.

He scurried clockwise around the perimeter of the office, past Mary’s desk into the office closet area and finally out the open door to the basement and door the stairs and presumably out the cat’s opening back to the lake’s shore where he belongs.

And I Thought Stinging Nettles Were Bad

Stinging nettle (Urtica spp.) can sting and hurt for a few minutes but it’s completely benign when compared with Gympie Gympie (Dendrocnide moroides). According to Neil blogging on jennifermarhasy.com, “[c]ontact with human skin can cause extreme pain, starting as a rapidly intensifying burning sensation. The pain may persist for days, but upon exposure to cold air, water or when rubbed, the pain can be reinvigorated for up to two months or more, beyond the original sting.” Crikeys. I have a new found respect for Australian foresters.