Week of January 26, 2014

Sorry No Blog This Weei.

Week of Jan. 19, 2014 - Writing Chocolate

By Joan Whetzel

 

Look up Writing Chocolate on the internet and you find a gazillion entries for a liquid form of chocolate that can be squeezed through a pastry tip. It's used to write chocolate messages on cakes, pastries, and candies. But for me, writing chocolate fulfills my chocolate cravings  - and feeds my muses - while I'm writing..

 

There are a lot of theories about why people - a huge majority of them women - crave chocolate. Some say it has to do with the hormones that are out of whack during "that time of the month" and during menopause. Since I am old enough that I am no longer experiencing these hormonal cravings, I can pretty much count these out as causes.

Some say the cravings are due to an addiction to caffeine (a cousin to chocolate). I can't drink that much coffee. it keeps me up and gives me a headache if I drink too much, which I don't get when consuming mass quantities of chocolate.

 

Some say that cravings indicate that the body needs more magnesium, which chocolate provides in spades. Well, that's a possibility I suppose.

Mostly, though, it is believed that chocolate works on the brain's chemistry, increasing serotonin levels that produce a calming effect. Okay, I'll admit I have noticed this effect.

 

For me, though, it also seems to stimulate my imagination and make it easier to write. That's why I keep a bowl of miniature size chocolates in my office. I do, however, have to keep my bowl of writing chocolate far away from my writing desk. Otherwise, I find I have consumed most of the bowl during the writing of 1 or 3 articles. Doling them out a few at a time keeps my writing muses happy, and the words flowing.

 

Week of Jan. 12, 2014 - Ghost Writing

By Joan Whetzel

 

Whenever I hear the word “ghostwriter” it conjures up images of a wispy specter clacking away at a turn-of-the-century typewriter, creating a novel that would even scare Stephen King. Of course, everyone knows that ghost writing bears no resemblance to this ethereal image. But who really understands the job completely.

 

Definition

Ghostwriting is a verb meaning to work as a ghostwriter. Duh! It is also defined as writing an autobiographical or “true” story/book/article on behalf of someone who will be credited as the author. The ghostwriter disappears and gets no credit whatsoever. He or she will, however, get paid – hopefully well enough to compensate for getting no credit. Ghost written material may be fiction or nonfiction, political, religious, academic, medical, music, visual art, a website, a blog, or a blacklisting countermeasure.

 

Who Hires Ghost Writers?

Ghostwriters are usually hired by celebrities, executives, and political leaders to write the and edit their autobiographies and autobiographical articles for magazines and web content. Musical ghostwriters write song lyrics and songs, similar to what occurred with popular music in the 50s and 60s. Sometimes screenwriters and playwrights hire ghostwriters to rewrite and tweak their scripts so that they read better. At other time, ghost writers are hired to clean up documents that already exist, but were written poorly., so basically they’re more like a ghost editor. Sometimes ghost writers are hired to finish another author's work or to take that writer's place to finish out a series of books if that author dies before the contract for the series has been completed. So I guess the original author dictates from the grave. Gives a whole new take on the term "ghost writing."

 

Ghost Writer's Pay

It can take a ghostwriter anywhere from several months to a year or more to research, write, and edit an piece for his or her client, so the pay had better be decent to make the ghost writing worth the effort. Some ghost writers charge by the word for a completed work (about $4 per word) for articles. Books are another story. Advances for a major publisher to ghost write a book for a major figure (the President), can run, on average, $30,000-100,000, where the average flat fee runs about @12,000-50,000 for books slated to sell less copies, depending on the public figure and the publisher. So I guess if you choose your ghost writing jobs well, it can prove quite lucrative. If you don't mind being invisible.

Week of January 5, 2014 - “Julie and Julia”

By Joan Whetzel

I visited my mother on New Year’s Day and we had a wonderful conversation. We talked about all kinds of things especially the events of last year and how our lives have changed. At some point our conversation turned to movies. And she showed me her “extensive” collection of DVDs (all 10 of them) and she offered me some to take home. I picked “The Music Man” and “Julie and Julia” – a movie I haven’t seen in a while.

 

I’d forgotten how much I loved that movie. It’s about a wannabe author, Julie, who works for an insurance company as a customer service rep. Some of her school friends have high powered jobs and look down on her for her job and her failed attempt to write a novel. Complaining to her husband about this, he suggests she start a blog about her favorite hobby – cooking.

 

Inspired by her admiration for Julia Child, she decides to cook her way Julia’s cookbook “The Art of French Cooking” and writer about the experience. The movie follows Julie’s life as she writes her blog as Julia Child’s life as she attends the Cordon Bleu in France so that she can learn to cook French cuisine and teach it to American cooks.

 

Although Julie’s replication of Julia’s recipes is always successful, her blog takes off. Julie’s writing earns her many fans, except the one fan she wants the most – Julia Childs. She even loses her husband’s admiration briefly. In the end, no one and nothing was harmed in the making of theism movie, except maybe the lobsters.  This is really a delightful movie about writing – oh, and cooking too. And if you are wondering  if I’ll be cooking my way through “The Art of French Cooking.” the answer is  “not on your life.” I don’t appreciate many of the recipes as much as Julie.

Week of December 29, 2013 - Words of Wisdom - Happy New Year

By Joan Whetzel

 

Words of wisdom come in many forms. They appear everywhere around us from bumper stickers and page-a-day calendars to well written articles and speeches. The best wise words I've heard lately cam in the eulogy my son gave at his father's funeral. I'm reprint it here because the words are so great.

 

 

It can be argued that a human is ultimately the sum of his experiences.-Benjamin Sisco

and my dad had plenty of those... son, student, repair man, programmer, husband, but his greatest achievement was being a father. as a boy I would go to his train club with him I think those were the best times of my life I like to believe that those were his too.. I still remember when I was 4 and I got my first train set.. just as his father had for him.. I remember how happy I was.. I cannot wait till I can do the same for my children.

 

Believing oneself to be perfect is often the sign of a delusional mind-Data and my dad was not perfect just as no one is.. I remember one trip to the beach as a child My dad was grilling some hot dogs for us and the sea gulls were terrorizing him.. these were some brave seagulls.. one actually flew down and swept the hot dog off the flaming grill... My dad was so mad at the sea gulls he picked up the hotdog chased after the seagulls and threw it at them as they flew away.. and it was the most hilarious thing for all of us watching it happen and we still laugh about it today..

 

what is the nature of the universe?-Dr Crusher My dad taught me a lot of things but the best thing he taught me is to explore. I remember using the telescope in the back yard, or at the state park, going to the observatory. I remember the best gift that my dad ever got me it was a telephone for my room but it came in pieces and I had to build it. it taught me to build... fix... ask why which are now may favorite things to do and were his favorite things to do as well.

 

It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life- Picard  My dad taught me so much and always tried his best to have a common interest with me which is the best trait that he could have possibly passed on to me.. and even though he taught me all these things.. I still made a few choices that would lead me down a path that while I was meant to go on it put me and my family through some though times... but was it not for him I would still be on that path.. so he took what could have been a lose and it became a win.. because of him I am a man, I am smart and I will be every bit the great father that he was..

As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of she who is with child, so to you do not know the works of god who makes everything... (Ik-Le-Ze-Ass-Tiees) Ecclesiastes 1:5  God's master plan is mysterious he puts all of these obstacles in our path to steer us in the right direction.. every decision that has been made or will be made leads to an outcome exponentially more intense then the decision that brought us there but each one is important and can bring about the greatest and worst times of your life... I cannot speak for the future but I know for the moment each decision in his life and mine was leading up to his three beautiful granddaughters whom he would give or do anything for…God allowed him to see them, hold them one last time the day before his tragedy… knowing that God can arrange that to happen makes moving forward so much easier...

 

All we can do Is keep moving forward... make the decisions that will lead to the next out come.. dad... I love you so much and thank you for all that you have done for me.. follow your path now... to boldly go where no man has gone before…  Second star to the right...and straight on 'til morning. -Kirk/Peter pan

                                                                        -Captain Mark Whetzel of the USS Enterprise

 

Week of December 15, 2013 - No Blog This Week

Sorry no blog this week. Be back after the first of the year.

Joan.

Week of Dec. 8, 2013 - Making Boring Topics Come to Life

By Joan Whetzel

 

There have been plenty of occasions when I have been assigned a topic to write about which I find utterly boring. My challenge was to make them interesting to myself, so that I could make writing about them equally interesting. There are a few steps any writer can use to wake up a snoozer of a topic.
 

1. Connect the topic to the things people do every day. I’m talking about driving or biking. Exercise, shopping, cooking, family events, holidays and the like Making the topic  a part of everyday life makes  it easier to relate to.
2. Connect it to news, sports, and pop culture. Showing how it relates to current events and the things people enjoy every day is sure to liven up a sleeper of a topic.
3. Use juicy verbs and nouns. That means no verbs that require the “is” form. It also means avoiding adjectives and adverbs, only using them rarely.
4. Writer conversationally rather than lecturing. Conversational writing sounds like you’re talking with your audience on an equal basis. Lecturing sounds condescending or overbearing.
5. Add photos, clip art and diagrams to illustrate what you’re talking about. Don’t forget sidebars to add a few interesting tidbits and factoids  related to the topic.
6. Put yourself into it. Give personal accounts - without naming names - of how you encountered or dealt with a similar set of circumstances, how you learned to enjoy something about the topic, how you learned something from the experience, etc.

 Most of all, have fun with the topic. If you can find the humorous side of it, all the better.