Genuine Inspiration - A Rush Of Writing.

It's strange in those weird days, somehow my mind seems kind of overproductive. Currently I work on various projects:

1. A-Z Apocalypse. 
2. Dream Diary. 
3. My novel 'Neighborhood Cats: The Secret of the Moonstone'. 
4. ArtJournaling incl. WTJ. 
5. Writing letters to my dearest friends.

Actually you can add a No. 6 with extra blogposts like this one here!

This time I want to report about a phenomenon I experienced with No. 3 of my list. Last weekend I finished the prologue, how everything in the year 1346 had started. Well, I've heard other authors saying about this, but this was my first own experience.

Quite early I knew how the scene should be, but when I actually wrote it, something strange happened: Suddenly I felt no longer as the person, who just is inventing the story, instead I felt like really being there, like a silent observer reporting about the events. There were suddenly details and actions I've never had thought of before! It was sooo strange! Like a rush. My biro couldn't write fast enough like the scene revealed itself. I was drawn back in time, down into that chamber. I felt shivery goosebumps. Simply amazing!

Just have to think on that quote from the movie 'Inception':

'Imagine your designing a building. You consciously create every aspect, but sometimes it feels like it's creating itself (...) Genuine inspiration!'

Does this mean to be an author?
If 'yes', wish me luck to continue this way! The more I can write the earlier I can start translating into English and the earlier you'll get the story as blog serial novel to read.

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Some drum rolls, please!
I'm so very proud to announce the release of The Old Sofa, third issue of the Rattles Flash Fiction anthology collection!

Me and seven other authors expose the secrets hidden in an old sofa, including ghosts of days gone by, help for those in need, and sometimes even special gifts, though the price may be too much to ask. Go ahead, sit down and get comfy. What will the old sofa say to you?

Collection includes:
Whispers by Carol R. Ward
Locking Up by Lisamarie Lamb
French Creek Cabin by Heather Horton
A New Sofa by Michael Jackson
Loose Change by Jo-Anne Russell
The Old Sofa by Karin Eider
The Love Seat by Ann Partridge
Shelter by Jamie DeBree

The Old Sofa is available now for the introductory price of 99 cents at Brazen Snake Books, Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble. The print version will be available later this year.

P.S. I was so free to borrow this text from the Brazen Snake Books announcement and slightly changed it for my purpose!

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And I Thought I'm Quite Familiar With That Topic!

For 10 years my two cats Sheela and Amira share my home with me. Sure, my family had cats before, but those two are special. They are my first own pets and it's in my responsibility to take care for them.
I was a student back then when they entered my life. A student with boring computer classes and a free internet access. Only logical that I landed sooner or later in a forum discussing all the cats' maters.

In about two, maybe three years I left almost 1.000 entries in the Fressnapf Forum. I discussed everything ... nutrition, toys, accommodation, behavior and diseases, wrote about funny events and posted pictures ... in short, everything a dediCATed owner is interested in.

In those times I also developed a favor for cats' literature. As student with a small budget I used eBay to satisfy my need for books. Have you ever registered how many novels about cats are out there?

To come to the point: I considered myself as a person with a broad knowledge of cats. As long as I just wrote short stories there was no doubt about it. But now ... how shocking is that! ... I have to face my lack of knowledge!

Even more - I want to publish this particular story as serial novel on my blog. Means, there's the need to write/translate in English. It's advantageous to have a basic cat vocabulary from the musical Cats, but more on first sight easy words become a problem, because my regular dictionary doesn't know them!

Cats seem to be just a minor problem, easy compared to topics like the law or the middle ages or the deep sea. Topics some of my favorite books deal with!

Now it's my own turn to combine fiction with facts, I learn to respect the importance of research and I learn to appreciate the hard research work of other writers - more than ever before!

Let's face it, research belongs to an author's most important tools!

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Does What We Write Limit Our Vocabulary?

I'm currently editing a friend's novel. My focus lies on the story, because as foreign speaker - the story is written in English - I can hardly argue anything on the grammar and vocabulary front. But then in chapter 2 a single, little word has caught my eye and interest:

"He made the mistake of looking into her eyes. They were large in her elfin face, pale blue with a thick fringe of lashes, full of emotion that he was unable to keep himself distant from."

Elfin - a lovely word in a wonderful sentence in a fantastic story!

Only that this story is located in space. There are different species on various planets, there are space ships and laser weapons ... and I simply wondered: 'Are elfs known in this world?' I had a feeling like Captain Jean Luc Picard (from the U.S.S. Enterprise/Star Trek) would come to Hobbiton and share some smoke with Gandalf and Bilbo! Very weird!

What I'm talking about: Does What We Write Limit Our Vocabulary?

How far can I go with the words I use to describe things, people and places? Similar thought in contemporary writing: Comparisons with movies, music tracks, singers, living or dead VIPs, etc. Do I run danger to lose my readers because they might have no glue what I'm talking about?

Well, I should keep an eye on that question while editing!

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Thoughts About Editing And English Grammar.

Recently I wrote a story for Rattles Flash Fiction. Like the title says only a short story. As English is not my mother tongue I really needed some help with editing.

To my surprise there weren't so many problems with words and vocabulary, but my poor beta reader Carol had other bigger issues to deal with:

HOW TO FORMAT THE TEXT
When my story was done I had the required 800-1000 words, but only two paragraphs, well three if you count the sentence to lead from first part of the story over to the second.

Honestly, I've never given much thought about the importance of text formatting. But in the end my story was about a third longer, not because of more words, but more paragraphs ... and I tell you, the effect was amazing!

Not to mention that the story was easier to read with some air to breathe between the lines, but it also gave the whole story or maybe better said some particular scenes more significance!

A part of me thinks that I really have to learn quite a lot more about editing. Another, lazier part, argues with 'Is that really an author's job? What are editors for?' Anyway, for now I better leave it at that.

No German Rules for English Grammar
On the grammar front my poor beta reader revealed my favor for commas. Very obviously I transfer the German punctuation rules to English with the effect that I have much too many commas! A random example (not from the story):

Jack sagt,	dass Jill die Frau ist,	die er liebt.
Jack says	(that) Jill is the woman	(who) he loves.

Correct me if I'm wrong, no commas in both cases and the English sentence is even more simple in its construction!

Frankly speaking, when reading English books I've never paid much attention to punctuation. But this new cognition awoke the need to deal more with English grammar. So, I don't know after how many years dusting in my bookshelf I took my English Grammar In Use.

Unfortunately there were no explicit rules for punctuation, but 136 units that concentrate on a particular point of grammar. Somehow a boring and tedious imagination to study one unit after the other. Fortunately there's a study guide helping you decide which units you need to study. There were sentences to be completed using one or more given alternatives.

Okay, the book is for intermediate students, but first good experience was that I didn't need the dictionary for missing vocabulary, not a single time! Yeah!

After checking my answers the study guide suggested 27 units. No surprise that I really need some exercise with Prepositions, I know I'm weak here. My other big gaps were with Present Perfect & past and -ing & the infinitive. The other chapters included just minor problems.

Well, that's not too bad. I mean 27 out of 136 units, that's what ... *calculating* ... 19,85%. Quite acceptable for a foreign speaker. Or should I expect more from myself, considering that I deal with English for more than 20 years? When I see it that way, it sounds rather bad. What do you think?

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