Yours Truly

Yours Truly
Janet Fauble at home

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Nanowrimo Tips and Tricks

Final Day of NaNoWriMo

Today is the last day of the writer's attempt to pen a novel, and so I finally checked out the goodies that I have won as result of validating my novel. I did not enter this project with any of that in mind. I just wanted to prove that I could produce 50,000 words with an intent to become a part of a novel that I have wanted to write for some time. I had not done any preparation at all. In fact, I was not sure until the last minute which story I would develop, my novel on Alexander the Great or a story about suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge. I decided the latter to be too depressing so I opted for Alexander and am so happy I did. I learned more about Alexander through this effort than any other I have done so far. Many books are on my shelves, and some are fully read while others remain only partially read.

A good author wants to be read from page one to page last!

I truly appreciate the national novel writer's month program as I did make myself get into it and finish it. I even turned on to my interest in my novel of Alexander. I had to do a lot of what some will call padding and what I call notetaking, which is plainly tediously writing out materials that will be used in ways to frame or buttress the main theme of the book. My book is really interesting and informative as well as educational and entertaining. It has a long ways to go, and first I intend to finish what I have started in the first draft method and keep it up until I reach that last page.

I follow history closely but I also am using common sense,imagination, and fabrication, which is making it up as I go. That is what fiction is all about, but this book is adhering closely to the real history, with imagination and common sense developing the life of the story...some parts are experiences that I have had come to me as a result of my effort to learn of times past in "my" way and in which I believe totally. It is fun at this time!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Unbelievable Match

I had my novel validated today for word count, and my number is totally unreal! It is 53,538 words, and the reason it is so unreal is that it matches an important number of mine that made it something I can never forget. Absolutely unreal! However, my open office word count was a bit more than that, standing at 53, 946 words. So go figure!

I am so relieved, but my novel is first draft status only, not a finished product yet. It is salable, is interesting, and is in need of a lot of work, rewrites, re-editing, etc. One puts out the first draft for the purpose of building a frame, a foundation, and for having the novel essentially flexed out. I compare it to building a house and/or giving birth to a baby. I actually loved working on this except for the tedious places where I had to set up my construction or in metaphor terms build my walls. I have a plan in mind, but in order to do it, I had to do a lot of work in writing out all the groundwork. That was very long, tedious, and tiresome, but in the end,very important in developing the book and making my main points!

Plus, I had to reread several books, poems, and plays. There is a poem I want to use at some point but I did not get it onto this part of the book yet. It will come as I love it, and would use it in the frontispiece.

This novel is following upon my days at Kent State University when I discussed the power of religious beliefs upon our personalities, and it fascinates me this many years later, to see how time passes but in truth, many ideas remain the same despite daily ongoing growth and changes. It has really hit me at how much I have learned in the years since I moved from Colorado back to Arizona. All this is relevant as so many strange things have happened while I have lived in this part of the USA.

So being honest with myself, I do believe that this novel has helped me in many more ways than I would have suspected. I love the creative part of it, and I love my major theme which is obvious without too much discussion. It reenforces many beliefs that I had had as a teenager and adolescent, and I can see how far I have come since writing those thoughts for a philosophy class. Who would have ever believed that I would end up harkening back to the age of Alexander, and those gods and goddesses so important then! Go Greek!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Corinth Greece

Finalizing my book on Alexander

The way that Nanowrimo works is that you have to cut and paste and send your story to them to do a word count. At present, I have 53,600 words or so and will on saturday send it in to the officials to see what their formulator says that I have in terms of word counts. The number of words is not quite so important as the novel itself which in my case needs a lot of work and revisions. I have a lot of repetitions in it due to my trying to decide to use a narrative style or a first person journal style. As it is I am incorporating both. My book is basically trying to prove that the gods and goddesses who are prevalent in Homer's Iliad are also a part of Alexander's own life and travels. I will interject them in my books about Alexander as helping him just as Homer had done with Achilles. I am also proving that the stories, plays, and poetry of the period influenced Alexander so much as a child that he is under its influence all the rest of his life, especially his love and admiration for Achilles.

I did go back through a lot of it last night to try to clean it up and to make a few changes in the way of typos and spelling as well as a few faulty sentence structure problems.

I get tired of it a lot that way, but I found that this is one of the better stories about Alexander, least boring,and certainly closest to historical data and bios as I followed the history pretty nearly exactly. I take liberties of course where the historians cannot but I often find them to be utterly devoid of putting 2 and 2 together at times to realize what actually happened.I could figure it out. Why couldn't they? At least, my interpretation makes it a more interesting story but I still need to beef it up a lot.

I won't cite examples yet where I think biographers goofed but I did use my story to insert what I believe really happened.

My book is a bit more cohesive than most are. It will all make a lot of sense when and if someone wants to really come to know Alexander as I have come to know him.

Believe it or not, I find myself going back in time a lot as I get vivid pictures now and then. It is exciting for me that way too. Some would say active imagination...ha...don't they know better yet than to think that. So I checked it out. I could see Corinth so easily, and so I looked it up. Fascinating to me at how true my picture has proved to be. I love the place! Guess that means I will put a video of Corinth to follow this...if I find a good one, it will be posted.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Re: "NIBIRU ALERT" - REALTIME OUT MY FRONTDOOR - From Carneyart's Channel

"NIBIRU ALERT" - REALTIME OUT MY FRONTDOOR - From Carneyart's Channel

Katrina

I have been writing about Alexander, thus, the Greek gods and goddesses play an important role in his life which I am developing in my storyline. Oddly, I have learned all kinds of strange facts regarding these gods and goddesses of yore, which has helped me to understand today even.

My aunt and uncle became members of a spiritualist camp years ago, and so when I was in Florida in 1974, a lot of information about some of these camps which are based in Florida was made public through the Miami Herald. I have had psychic abilities since I was young, and I have also come to believe in spirits making themselves known to me at various times in my life.

Thanks to writing this project for NaNoWriMo, I learned something in the Iliad that fascinated me. I have something in common with Achilles besides heels it turns out.

When I was in Ft. Lauderdale, years ago, I was visited by the children of a neighbor who liked to play in my apartment when their parent and her boyfriend were not home. They needed adult companionship and a home away from home, so a little girl whose name was Eva would come to visit me. One day, she was playing and I was getting a shoe of mine back that she had taken from me when she began to cry. I told her then that it was crocodile tears and to stop crying. At that moment, I felt a tug on my hair from the back, and knew that some spirit had reached out and tugged at my hair so that I stopped teasing Eva then. While writing my book about Alexander, I happened upon a passage in the Iliad which tells of Athena pulling on Achille's red hair when he is getting angry at Agamemnon. I thought how strange! It made me sit up and take notice.

I still ponder that now.

But anyway, I began to wonder about spirits and gods and goddesses who let only certain mortals hear or see them. So it is with Katrina.

I had been told about one week before Katrina, through a spiritual voice which I heard clearly, that New Orleans would be hurting badly. That was when some hurricane threatened gulfside Florida and so I said it aloud, and that way I know that those who listen in to me heard me, but it was not for that hurricane but the one that followed which is Katrina. They had fair warning, one or two weeks early, is the way I felt about it. I have had a keen interest in hurricanes since years before that while in Michigan and another had threatened Florida.

At any rate, seeing this video of an abandoned six flags amusement park reminded me of my being able to hear not only the inner voice from within but also the voices of spirits around me. To my surprise, I was astounded to learn of Athena's admonition to Achilles which made me remember when I was in Ft. Lauderdale with Little Eva.

I may elaborate on this later but for now, that is all I will say. I have certainly learned of Alexander, Louis XIV, and others only through spiritual inner voices as well, and this has caught my fancy. My nephew posted this thanks to his interest in art. He was also responsible for my getting involved in the NaNoWriMo thing which has finally brought my book on Alexander to its genesis! Interesting at how life works sometimes,isn't it ?

Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans Tour

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Nearly finished with Novel

I have reached 49,240 words when my last entry was about Hippolytes, a play by Euripides. This play would have an impact on anyone, especially an impressionable young Alexander. I placed the dirge music which is the end of the story about a young man falsely accused by his mother of wrongdoing. A very touching story and I also placed a scene by a young actor playing Heracles in the play Alcestis, a story making one think of Jesus Christ. A wee bit different, but nevertheless makes one wonder.

Hallelujah! I am nearing the end for the NaNoWriMo group. I am shouting it out!

Alcestis - Tom Slot

"Dirge Song" from Hippolytus and Phaedra

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Finally at the Finish Line

We are approaching the end of this 30 day effort to write a 50,000 novel and turn it in to get credit for the time spent and words lighting up the blank spaces of paper. Wrestling with the devil is what some people call it. I have over 46,000 words written, and it has been a heck of a time writing all this material on just the childhood developmental period of Alexander. I will consider it a framework about which I will somehow or other turn it into a finished product ready to be published sometime after I get this much done.

It did me some good to tackle this project as I learned so much more from this effort than I had thought I would. In truth, most of the histories are just legendary materials probably better suited for some epic poem than to be taken literally as the way in which things actually happened.

You know this experience has taught me a lot about Alexander and Homer as I have had to read and recount the Iliad more than once, as it is a major part of this story. I intend to use a paragraph from each chapter as the heading of Alexander's journals, but the problem in writing all that is that it became very tedious and boring. The journals themselves are difficult enough but to try to condense a chapter into a single paragraph and then to include a paragraph for stylistic purposes made this a very interesting but time consuming and at times tedious effort.

I was very surprised when I began to reread the Iliad at how much I had not noticed at the first reading, and that turns out to be the same with some of the history books as well. How I wish I would have noted the author, title, and date of each and every book I had read when I first began the study of Alexander, but alas,alack, I did not, and while I bought many so that I am using those for reference, I remember reading pieces that have stuck in my mind, but can't remember who, what, and why now.

I will soon be finished. When I reach the end, I will send it to NaNoWriMo and see what happens next. It is certainly a worthwhile effort but very time consuming. Everything else is on hold for awhile.

When finished, I will briefly describe the book. It is quite interesting really but is being written in chunks and bits and pieces. I wrote the narrative first, and am now filling it all in with a variety of means. That is why it is all a first draft. A lot of rewrites and editing to be done. But it has been fun!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Ancient Greek Music - Fragment by Homer!

Wordcounts and Cut and Paste

I admit that I am the worst student in the world of the computer, especially these laptops. I had taken a word processing class years ago where I learned how to use codes for a specialized business type of computer program. It was quite interesting and taught me a lot, not only about the computer system itself, but also about the people who operated the school where I took the class.

So thanks to going to an Evalwrimo session on Saturday, I found a very nice young woman who helped me to understand the word processing unit that I added to my computer so that I can write this novel in a word processor and thus be able to deliver it to the people at the site where we tabulate the number of words that we actually wrote. I finally learned how to cut and paste, something that I did not understand until now. Cannot say that I totally understand it, but like with the first class that I took, I know what to do now at least on that job.

I also learned how to find my word count as I was doing it at approximately 17 words per line and counting lines. Totally wrong thing to do.

I have been reading all kinds of books relative to my subject, The Iliad, and a few plays by Euripides. Very interesting to understand the character of my book that way.

The Iliad is very amusing to me, and while I wonder at Alexander for taking to Achilles so much, it is said that his family tree descends from him, and that Lysimachos had compared him to Achilles, so it would be an ego thing that way, and some other authors maintain that he believed he was the reincarnation of Achilles.

Through reading the book,I finally realized a lot of things about the legend of Alexander that finally make some sense to me.

I will try to incorporate them in my book. There is no doubt that the dream that Olympias had about a thunderbolt entering her womb implies that Zeus has impregnated her with his son, Alexander.

I had intended to end my book with either the battle of Chaeroneia or Philip's death. I am doing Philip's death, and now have to beef up my skeleton frame. That will take some doing as I am thinking about it all today. I had to take my first three entries which I wrote on email and put them on the word processor so that they are included in my word count.

This is all new. I just learned about Lulu selfpublishing from Mme. Guillotine and a place called Create Space which is with Amazon.

Once I get the book finished, it will make those who have read the Iliad realize that it is definitely a Homeric effort. I intend to use his novel as the model upon which I will try to Homerize Alexander a bit, my way!

That is all for now.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

2010 Breeders' Cup Classic

Zenyatta and the Breeder's Cup

I have waited a few days before finally making any kind of statement. I did tweet that I believed that it is probably best for the world of horseracing that Zenyatta won second place in the way that she did, just a wee bit short!

I feel this way because too much expectation was made on this horse, and way too much publicity was given to her, making her the target for those who wished ill upon her to have their way.

I did respond to one facebook discussion of her that involved her being a horse instead of a superstar. As a horse, she is a phenomena for this time period. There is still no horse that approaches Man of War, who actually had to carry the extravagant 130 pound weight to slow him down a bit. It certainly would have put pressure on his heart with that much extra weight. He lost one race also which is the real reason I believe that 90 years later it is only right that Zenyatta maintain the same kind of record...He raced 21 races, lost one; she raced 20 races, lost one.

I do believe had she been put up nearer the front immediately that she would have won! All that dirt in her face did not help her situation. The jockey should have at least made it more comfortable for her by keeping her steady in the center of the back instead of at the back of the pack. But whether jockey or trainer did that to her, one or both will have to live that one repeatedly to consider whether they did right or wrong. I believe they did wrong. She was an easy winner if given the right ride.

So it goes. That is horseracing luck. We, who play the game, understand that very well.

I bet lightly that day! I have no one to blame but myself for my decisions. I was just hoping and praying that she would win. It didn't happen. I realized that it might not happen, but I had hoped otherwise.

I wish she could continue to race. She is certainly well and healthy enough, but breeding it seems is what the game becomes after some years. Guess the owners know what they are doing. After all, it is only MONEY!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Iliad by Homer/Music by Posit

I am nearly finished with my reading of The Iliad by Homer. I had read it a long time ago and have seen many versions of this same sad story, but this particular book is absolutely so fascinating I can hardly put it down. It is bloody awful to say the least. Heads go rolling right and left, and I am forever astounded when I think that this is Alexander's favorite book.

The fact that the gods and goddesses are in combat with one another amuses me a bit, but I honestly can see how I must incorporate their interference with Alexander's successes as I am confident that he believed that they were backing him all the way to the very final act.

I needed some music tonight and I discovered the song Ete d'Amour, which is one of the most beautiful songs that I have heard recently. There are two other versions, equally beautiful, but this one is the one I like the most so I shared it at both fb and my blogspot. It is so relaxing, and there is a relaxing piano version by Xianning also. That is very nice also.

It is a necessary break from spearing men right and left, cutting off their heads, their hands,and removing their corselets and armor from their bodies. Whee! That kid Alexander really cut his teeth on the worst of life: war! He did believe he was Achilles reborn so it is said. Whether he did or not in reality is purely conjecture. He certainly tried to emulate his character as much as is possible it would appear. I am sure that when he stared reality in the face, he realized that a piece of fiction by Homer was only a fragmented mirror of real life!

I am having my fun. I am remembering that I have an inside track in this life of Alexander and I intend to use it in this novel. I want to see where it goes from here on out...I am thinking to when I was in the Louvre and some god or goddess stopped me to make certain that I saw the portrait of Alexander there. They are still all around us. I am laughing that one of them deliberately tripped Philip when he was so drunkenly murderous! I will use that in my novel my way!

May the Saints preserve us all, and honor to all the gods and goddesses in reality and fiction.

Jean Pierre Posit - Été D'Amour (1977)

More on my novel

I spent a lot of hours today continuing in my effort to write a novel in 30 days time. Actually, I adjust my thinking about this novel as I write it. It is very interesting to me now that I have started it. A friend of mine is also doing the same project and published her first chapter on facebook. I cannot do that. I can only save it and recheck it so that I will wait til I get help on knowing how to upload it for the NaNoWriMo group to have.

I had wondered if I could write it on a blog site, but I would not do that. That way I could send it to facebook too. So far, I have written the story of Alexander's childhood. I have much to add to it but since I finished the part that I had originally believed would be my novel, I find that I have time and room to get into the beginning of Alexander's long journey into Asia himself. So I will see how it goes...That is all for now.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Breeder's Cup

I was really sorry to see Zenyatta come in a close second at the time that it happened. I had thought that she acted a bit strangely when the cameras were sticking so closely to her. I think it annoyed her. I did ask at the time "what's the matter? Don't you think you can win."

I did not insure my small bet on her. I did not even bet her to win but bet a pick four with her and Goldikova as singles. I did not catch the second part of that bet since a real longshot came in to upset the apple cart. The next horse was also a longshot. So it probably paid well.

I did see blame as the best horse next to her, and had him in my small superfecta. I did not win that day though. Bad day for me.

Today,I realized that the best thing is that she came in as she did, because she did prove herself. There is no doubt that the jockey did miscalculate. The horse could have and should have won, but probably for the sake of racing, it may be better that she did not set a mindboggling 20 for 20 perfect win races.

It hurt though I will admit.

I will be back to blogging as soon as I get my work on my novel finished. Right now, I am spending most of my time trying to write this novel about Alexander.

I have some ideas to try, and this is at least getting me started. I have a lot of weaknesses, and I am realizing them. But I am actually learning a lot as well as enjoying myself a bit.

All for now.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

UPDATE on NANWRIMO

This was day 4 in my effort to take on this challenge that NANOWRIMO gives to crazy authors. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November from the first to the 30th to win. Anyone who joins and completes the challenge is considered a winner for simply putting out 50,000 words a month, amounting to 1666 a day.

I do approximate word counts and have probably exceeded my goal for day 4 but I did finally get day 4 in earlier this evening. It is quite challenging and I admit I am not fully satisfied but I have made some gains and am coming along. I know that once finished it will be rewrites and edits, as I am heeding advice from others on how to do this.

I have noticed that intent and actually doing it are two different things.

It will be interesting, to say the least.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

NANOWRIMO Project

At the very last minute I decided to try the NANOWRIMO writing project which is to write a novel with 50,000 words through the month of November.I had read about it last year but had forgotten it until Live Journal mentioned it again, and my nephew then posted its logo on his facebook post and asked what it is. I then decided without thinking it through to try to do it.

So here I am on day two, writing about it at LiveJournal and here too. I am writing my novel for this crazy monthlong effort enjoyed by writers all over the world.

And I am actually having fun. I found a good word processor,not ever having used anything but emails,and discussion groups at yahoo to write all my pithy thoughts.

I debated between a story and novel about suicides in SF off the goldengate bridge. I had seen a movie which made a strong statement and impact and I considered that, but then I have been discussing, living,and breathing Alexander for so long I decided to do a novel that children could read without too much undue trauma and am in stage one of his life, studying his childhood.

So I am kneedeep in Alexander history and fiction now that I am using historical fiction as the genre.

I have written the required number of words so far as I wanted to develop the battle of Charonea. I will see what happens. He has finally reached his 12th year and has tamed Bucephalus. I have much more to do, and am doing what they advocate, writing,writing,writing.