It's snowing!

Big fat flakes. I think most of the rain is gone now, all switched over to snow. We hit our high for the day just after midnight, and now are on a straight plunge to winter. Definitely a day to sit inside and watch the snow! Except that I have many errands to run... But hopefully I'll  get back here and get to write, too. The story's still running along--last night I sat down to figure out a secondary character, and all kinds of things just came together.I love when that happens! It's like it was there in my head all the time, and all I had to do was discover it.

On setting

I couldn't care less about Memphis--not into Elvis, country music, etc.--but I love this song. THIS is what they mean when the say that setting needs to come alive. Because even if I don't ever think about Memphis in real life, when I look through the filter of this song, then I do love it. Details, using all the senses, narrative that interacts with the setting, and finally really nailing the relationship between the character and the place (--Are you a Christian boy? Ma'am, I am tonight!). That's what happens when a writer pulls off setting. You feel like you're actually there, and you feel something for it all.

Photo contest

I know, I need to just shut up today. :) But we had the official opening ceremonies for our library addition today. They'd invited people to enter photos for display, and so today we went to check everything out. And lo and behold, my 5 year old won the blue ribbon for the children's category! Her smile was so big when she saw it (she didn't know beforehand) that it was nearly too big for her face. It's a lovely photo of the inside of a tulip. She wanted to take pictures of flowers and I suggested she get a little further back or the picture wouldn't turn out. She insisted on getting right up inside the flower, and wow, it sure turned out nice! It just goes to show that you should never squelch people's creative ideas.

Here is the photo, entitled "Happy!":