Month: October 2019

New Journal

~ amusing2write

I recently finished my journal that came with my cover. So excitedly I went new journal hunting. I found out that the refills I used to use in my old journal cover will fit the new cover. They are produced for Barnes & Noble in Italy and come in the 6×8 size.

The pages are a smooth cream color and resist fountain pen ink bleed through admirally. The lines are the right distance apart, neither too wide or too narrow. That was one complaint I had about the notebook received with my cover. The line widths were huge, in my humble opinon. And I have lots more pages for writing. My previous notebook was 200 pages. This monster is, I believe, 240 pages with a ribbon page marker. Which makes the cover look stuffed, but that is okay, leather is forgiving and will adjust. (I hope)

Owl Story Trivia

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I have been working on a project called Owl Story for the last 4 or 5 years. I posted about it when I was writing on it pretty regularly. Then I kinda wrote myself into a corner and I left it alone to work on other projects. The other day my mom asked me how it was going and when she would be able to read it. It is one of my stories that really grabbed her interest.

I wrote most of the story by hand on legal pads from the dollar store. (Dollar Tree Rocks!) And I kept all the pages together in one place. However since we have been moving, I don’t know where I put it for safe keeping and I had typed most of it on a thumb drive. There again I don’t know where that is either. So for the moment the story is lost except for the first part.

I recently read over the introduction and its good. It isn’t perfect, but it is a good start. I am thinking maybe I should start over keeping the introduction, but taking it down a different path. That may help me in several ways, either show me how to get out of the corner I wrote myself into or open up a completely different story.

One problem I had was too many main characters. I can see that now looking back on what I remember. I was trying to keep up with ten (10) characters that would be classed as main characters. Ambitious I know and overwhelming trying to keep that many spinning plates. I think I would focus on maybe three and a possible fourth as a wild card character.

Stay tuned for future updates on Owl Story and I might even try for a proper working title. And let this serve as a lesson to you. Just because you have a back up copy of your writtings. It serves no purpose if you can’t find it. Also it means when you move make sure All the writing stuff goes in one safe and Findable location.

Cheers, james

Update: I thought I found it but it was a regular old legal pad with a bunch scribbles. Practice, notes about life in general, and lots of self doubting angst. Too cliche I’ m afraid, but true.

Owl’s Fancy: Storm

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Gobby hanging out at the dinette.

Tonight is Sunday, October 13th and we are having a thunderstorm. Ordinaraily that wouldn’t be anything to write about other than the joy I get from watching and writing during storms. Miss having a front porch to sit and watch from. (A post for another time)

This is the beginning of our third week living a camper lifestyle. And this is the first storm we have had since we bought Owl’s Fancy, much less moved in. I have checked and I don’t see any water seeping in from outside. Yay! The sound of the rain, wind and thunder are magnified. But comforting.

I am hoping Hurricane Season is over and done for us. I don’t think I have enough zen calm to weather a hurricane in an untied down camper. Of course the weather and emergency folks will tell you to seek shelter in a permanent shelter. But luckily enough this isn’t one of those.

Our landlady/campground host had a tree removed from behind us because it was in bad shape. Tonight I am glad we aren’t worrying about it. The tree was hollow in the base and filled with the big black ants the size of your thumb knuckle. (Yucky hate those things)

Thunder is rumbling. Rain has softened. Dogs have been acting clingy all afternoon. They have been sensing the changes in the atmosphere. Gobby is currently hugging my husband. He is more panicky than Roxie. She is curled up in the blankets snoozing. He is having a panic attack, poor baby. He has never been that good with storms.

Well I think I have spent enough time writing this that the storm has passed over. Cheers, james

Why Do We Journal?

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I just saw a Facebook post by Soho Spark Journals. (Linked to it here) About why we choose a physical dialog method over a tech method.

I responded that it is a journey. You begin with an empty blank page and then you fill that page in with ink. In the filling you see there is a life that has been lived within that space. A journal is a time capsule that captures snippets of time. If you look at the journals of a single person, you will see how they lived, how they grew, how they changed to become the person in the last journal. Frankenstein is written in journal format. Mary Shelby knew the impact of seeing the changes over the course of the book would affect her audience.

A few years ago in one of my journaling groups, a lady posted a picture of a journal written by a guardsmen from the 1600s. I couldn’t read the language, I believe it was German or Austrian. I don’t know what a guardsman from the 1600s wrote about. What is important to me is that he wrote and that his journal survived to 2019. 400 years his words have survived. Let that sink in 400 years. The US wasn’t born yet and wouldn’t be for another 176 years. I would say that for someone who could read it, that journal would have been a time machine. The tech hasn’t been invented yet (I apologize in advance if I am wrong) that can last even a fraction of that time. So pen and paper are my go to journaling tools.

Okay enough ranting, I am hopping down from my soapbox. Moral of the story is journaling matters, regardless of form. However a physical book and a pen will connect you to the page. The page will connect you to the past, present and future and any reader of your journal.

Cheers, james