Flattery of the Highest Order

Yesterday afternoon I received the loveliest email from a friend I've made via facebook. Apparently, for my birthday I shall be given a pencil drawing portrait. In the meantime, he sketched this:

with profound apologies because he feels it doesn't much look like me. I'm flattered all the same, and am very grateful.

What a great afternoon I had yesterday because of this!

That great afternoon was replaced by a great evening, as I spent it at training. Three hours of training, and the final hour was pretty intense. I'm tired and achy now, but won't complain overmuch as 1) I brought it on myself and 2) It was frikkin' awesome and this is a good tired and achy... if there can be such a thing.

For a while yesterday, I was debating on whether I should write my script now, or wait until Script Frenzy next April to start the actual writing. I'm pretty much ready to write the thing, but I've decided to wait. Next year's Script Frenzy will be my first, so I don't want to ruin it.

In other news, I am completely addicted to HBO's Game of Thrones. It's actually very close to the book (from what I remember) and very, very, very well done. Also, it has Sean Bean, so it can't really go wrong. If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend it. It's television that won't rot your brain.

Right, I'm off to do nothing in particular. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Yoke-Mating

Marriage; from yoke-mate, a yoke-fellow.

- Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1918.

Can anyone tell me what the hell a yoke-fellow is?

This Has Nothing to do with My Book

Today is my little brother's birthday. One year older and loved just as much.

Happy Birthday Christian!

Your loving sister.

Shameless Friend Promotion

No, this isn't a post about Wicca, though that would be entertaining.... This is a post about a good friend of mine from High School, Leonie Allan.

Leonie is just one of those people who are amazing souls. The kind of soul who uplifts you, supports you, nurtures you and puts the shine in sunshine. I mightn't have made it through High School without her.

Leonie is an artist as well and she's been blogging since before I can remember. You can check out her blog here:

http://www.goddessguidebook.com/

She has since, by popular demand, turned her attention towards helping people reach fulfilment by helping them explore their creative side, something that, I think, has been largely abandoned by most people in favour of money-making drudgery.

I am in constant awe of her talents and positive attitude. For that reason, I have volunteered to help her out and have her reach a broader audience. I might be able to, since she's all the way in Australia and I'm here in Canada, although I understand that she already has an international audience.

Check out what she has to offer by clicking on the link (Goddess Guidebook) that is on the right hand side of the screen, or on the link above.

Love you Leonie,
Your friend and fan.

The Dragger-Down

I know I wrote yesterday about the importance of good friends. Well, now I want to write about the disappointing friends. Not all my friends seemed pleased that I had finished my project. Not everyone was especially supportive. I suppose in any group of friends there is always at least one negative force. I like to call this person "The Dragger-Down."

The person who turned out to be the Dragger-Down was something of a surprise, really. I was aware that he could be quite negative a times, but I didn't expect he would be about this. It was a disappointment, and let me tell you, it really stung to read his email. He did congratulate me, to be sure. But he did so in only one sentence that read:

It's done, hooray.

Then he wrote:

I don't want to put a dampener on the achievement of finishing a whole book, but I think you should hold off on the whole bottle of red just for now... a review is a review, I've had lots of friends over the years go through reviews only to have rejections later on in the game, When the book goes to the printer, that's when the whole bottle is well deserved.

Now perhaps it is just an ego thing, but this hurt. To me, it was tantamount to being told I will fail. That finishing a manuscript that is the equivalent of four complete novels is not worthy of even a small celebration like a nice bottle of red wine. So what did I do with it?

I laughed at it. I didn't get mad at him. I didn't even email him back to let him know how disappointed I was that he didn't think that finishing four novels was worth celebrating. I emailed him to let him know that I am not an idiot. I am completely aware of how difficult it is to get published, particularly in this economic climate. I told him that the news was most certainly worth celebrating, and that I was going to have my wine regardless of what he thought, because, let's face it, 407 429 words and 789 pages of solid, single-spaced typing is absolutely worth celebrating, regardless of whether it gets published or not!

And you know what? I did have my wine and I did celebrate and it was fabulous! And even better than that, several of my friends jumped immediately to my defence (M.M. and K.W., you guys are awesome!), which made me feel better.

Now, he and I are still good friends and I won't hold this against him. It was probably in all truth just a clumsy attempt at trying to protect me from the inevitable disappointment of rejection letters, of which I am probably going to receive many.

From this I have learnt three things:

First, good friends (and family), as said yesterday, are an absolute must in any endeavour.

Secondly, and I'm very sorry to say this, choose what you say to which of your friends wisely. This doesn't mean abandon the friends that aren't as excited about your project as you are, just be careful what you say around them. Some people are just waiting for a chance to bring you down. I don't know why, so don't ask.

Lastly and certainly not least, celebrate even the smallest victories. If you finish a project, celebrate! Think of how many people never do finish a project they've started. Finishing is something incredibly special and so are you for doing so!

The Importance of Friends

I was going to write about something else today, but having spoken with friends and reviewed the comments on my last post today, I thought this topic would be better.

Friends are incredibly important in anyone's quest to do anything in their lives. A strong network of support and encouragement is absolutely necessary. I could not have done what I have done in life if it weren't for that support network (and family is included here). My friends, it goes without saying (but still begs to be said), are awesome.

Some friends I've known since High School (love you A.J.). Other friends I only met in my final year of university. The latter group of people belong to the same Kung Fu school as I do and, it was discovered on a Kung Fu trip, we all shared a common passion - writing. In the spirit of new found friendship and a large dollop of fun, we started a small writer's group. These people are, without a doubt some of the most talented, imaginative and wonderful people I think I will ever know.

They are also incredibly supportive, knowing intimately, as they do, the desire to write and be read. When I told them I had finished my first ever, full-length, turned-out-to-be-four-books manuscript, the support just flowed in. I cannot find words adequate enough to explain to you what that means to me.

My first and most important piece of advice to people who want to be authors. Find yourselves a good circle of friends. There is nothing better than that. My friends have been with me through some very trying times. They have been there with me through some really amazing times. They have just always been there. My current circle of friends are now my unofficial editors and my official cheering squad.

Thank-you so much guys.