Last night I went to see Flight of the Red Balloon (Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge). It seemed promising, an homage to The Red Balloon, starring Juliette Binoche, directed by someone from Taiwan, and with good ratings and quotes on Rotten Tomatoes.

The movie starts with a reference to The Red Balloon, but quickly the balloon is left behind and it's occasional appearances later in the film have nothing to do with the the rest of the film. Much of the film is set in a small cluttered apartment in which Song (an asian nanny), the boy, his mother, and occasional visitors live moments in their ordinary lives. The characters make meaningless chit-chat in what seems like unedited real-time conversations. There is a small amount of conflict, but it is too slight and peripheral to save this film.

I might have forgiven the movie if I could have enjoyed Paris. However, the shots of the streets of Paris are too few and dreary.

I picked up the coming Schlock Mercenary. I never heard of it before I saw the book at the con, but it's too funny! Almost every strip makes me LOL. And really out loud.

Today was the last day at Ad Astra. I went to a few panels, and in the final session found out the results of yesterday's flash fiction competition.

My entry, Bounty, didn't win (or place), but with a rating of 8.5 (out of 10), I think there's hope for this little story. I also learned a lot from this flash exercise, which I hope will improve my future writing.

We had to write to a theme, and had a list of themes that could be expressed in a single word (and were able to add our own preferred theme to the list). Although other writers have mentioned the importance of theme, it didn't really click with me until this exercise.

What was amazing to me is that by writing to theme (or at least a particular theme), my main character seems more interesting than many of my other characters - even from her 250-word appearance. I think I want to write more stories with her... maybe even a novel.

I had a lot of fun at Ad Astra, but it's late, so I'll keep this post short.

I entered the flash fiction contest. The session about the contest was 2:00 - 3:00. The competition was very open-ended... to write on a theme from a list - but it was a list that all the participants brainstormed, so we were free to add whatever we wanted to write about before 3:00. Stories were due by 6pm and were supposed to be no longer than 250 words - although the judges also said that they were only looking for something approximately 250 words max, and not to worry if we went slightly over.

I didn't have have 3 hours of writing, however, as I went to a panel on developing character before writing the story. On my first attempt, I realized I was way over.... and counted almost 350 words. I edited out words, and then cut out still more as I copied my entry to fresh pages (this was hand-written).

Sunday I'll find out the results.

I know it's been ages since I posted, but at first nothing much was going on, and then, as I got used to not posting, I felt less and less urge to writer an entry.

Finally, I have some small writing news. Last weekend I entered the flash fiction challenge at Liberty Hall. The trigger was fairytales. I wrote "A Huff of Wind" inspired by the three little pigs. I didn't win best flash, but I did tie for first on both best characterization and best hook. :-) I also received good feedback and have ideas on how to improve it for the next draft.

This coming weekend, I'm going to Ad Astra, Toronto's SFF convention. They have a flash fiction competition, which I plan to enter. :-) This will be tough. Liberty Hall's competition is timed, but unlimited word count. Ad Astra's competition is probably timed, but is limited to 250 words. I naturally write terse, but "A Huff of Wind" was over 500 words.

Today I picked up Dancing with the Stars for the PS2.

I was getting a little tired of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), as I've hit a plateau, which means that I can't seem to unlock new songs.

Dancing with the Stars is a bit like DDR. I'm using my DDR mat with it, although there are some minor problems with that setup (more later). I played for almost 2 hours, as the game kept me entertained while helping me work up a sweat. I just played on single-player mode, as this lets me unlock songs to play in the other modes. Also, because I like to feel that I'm making progress.

When the game starts, 2 couple are unlocked, and the rest are locked. Each couple has their own set of four songs and dances. When you play, it's as if you're part of Dancing with the Stars (at least to someone who only watches occasionally). The announcer introduces the couple, you do the dance, the judges make comments, the judges show their ratings, and then you see a breakdown of how you performed on different aspects. If you receive 20 points or more, you can continue. When you succeed on the fourth song/dance, you receive a trophy, and another couple is unlocked.

Dancing is somewhat similar to DDR. However, instead of having arrows coming down from the top, arrows come from the left and right. The intention is for you to use the indicated foot to tap on the appropriate arrow. Sometimes it's best to use the indicated foot (or the next arrow will be super-challenging), but sometimes it's easier to ignore the indicated feet (like when the same foot is indicated for three different arrows when the character is turning).

On amateur mode (how I've been playing, to start), the footwork is simpler than DDR, but most of the songs are high-energy. I can complete most of the dance routines, and only have problems with the slower dance routines.

Dancing with the Stars is intended to be used with it's own dance mat, but can be used with a DDR mat with one small issue. The problem is that Dancing with the Stars includes shapes in 4 corners, and uses the triangle to back out (not for canceling or quitting, but for backing out of the current mode or out of options). From what I've seen, you can play through a mode with no problems on the DDR mat, as you only need to step on Star, the arrows, or X. When you complete a dance routine, a dialog box has selections to continue (on success), retry, or quit, and the following screens give you yes or no choices. However, to get out of the current mode, you must tap the triangle. I'm not sure if having a controller plugged in to player 2 would help. When I got stuck in Options, I reset the box. Fortunately, you can save whenever you successfully complete a set of dance routines, so the lack of the triangle on the DDR pad seems like a minor annoyance.

Originally posted on mmarques.vox.com

If you're considering a writing workshop, you might want to check Fantasy & Science Fiction editor johnjosephadams's article listing writing workshops.

I've been revising my writing group exercises on paper (with the Digimemo) and uploading them. The OCR software seems to work better for non-fiction. It's not the individual words, because the errors are on words in the dictionary, but perhaps there's some smarts about context that doesn't work for fiction.... at least for the stuff I was trying out. Or else, my handwriting is different for fiction. But there's nothing I can do to improve the recognition training, because the training is with a writing sample that it provides.

Still, in a short piece, it is easier to make a few corrections than to type the whole thing. And I have been writing almost daily.

With the new year, it's time to set goals for the coming year. I'm still experimenting with how to establish a regular fiction writing habit. My other goals are all centered around getting work into submissions. I'm trying to keep my goals to something I can accomplish - but which will require effort on my part.

• Write every day. Technical writing doesn't count, but the following writing does: revisions of fiction, new fiction, writing exercises, and blog entries for Write On (corporate blog) or Writing after dark (mostly book reviews).
  
• Enter 6 challenges at Liberty Hall. This is the same number of challenges I completed in 2007, and is reasonable for 2008.
  
• Revise and submit at least 5 works of fiction. Poetry submissions with multiple poems count as one submission.
  
• Do not let the number of pieces submitted drop for more than one month. This means that any time a piece is rejected or accepted, something must go out. Right now I have one piece out (a couple of poems). Ideally, I will have 5 pieces out for consideration at year end.
  
• Complete and send out one of the versions of Mysterious Paris. This could be the novel, the novella, or the short story.
  

An optional goal is to participate in Nanowrimo this year. It's something I'd like to do, but not at the cost of my other goals for this year.

Clearly, I should have looked at my resolutions more often, because I'm feeling off-track.

* Write 3,000 words per week (or revise an equivalent amount. Regular writing has to become a habit. - I don't think I ever met this goal, but even worse, I have done very little fiction writing in the second half of the year. I definitely have to make regular writing a habit!

* Send out five short stories for submission, and keep sending them out until they find homes. This includes: "Blonde Bimbos on the Moon" (currently out), "I am Brave" (about to undergo further revisions), the to-be-named story I'm working on for the Liberty Hall contest, and two yet unwritten stories. I did quite a number of submissions, but mostly "Blonde Bimbos on the Moon." I finished the Liberty Hall contest, but did not re-submit ("Lily") yet. "I am Brave" only went out once. I submitted a couple of poems (as one submission), but am one shy of my goal. And I had really planned to have stories that were ready to send out repeatedly.

* Complete draft of Starved by the end of February (end of January is now unrealistic). I'm trunking Starved, at least for now.

* Enter one "flash fiction" contest at Liberty Hall each month.I didn't enter every month, but there was a month in which I entered several weeks. In the end I wrote 6, which is half the number I planned.

* Complete my next draft of Mysterious Paris by September 1. I did some revision on Mysterious Paris, but didn't really complete the draft.

* Write another novel (or a rewrite of A Science Fiction Fantasy) in November. I didn't write any fiction in November, except for exercises with my writing group.

In early 2008, I'll post my resolutions for 2008. I have ideas, but have to ponder. I want to set up goals that will help get me back on track. I felt like I did pretty well in 2006, but slipped in 2007.

on my new Digimemo, check out this entry on my talk.bmc blog, and then click the link, which shows a picture of the same post hand-written. I did fix the few errors, which were:

• Interpreting the crossed out words
  
• Wrong guesses for 2 words not in its dictionary ("blog," which I added to the dictionary, and "favorite," because I was using the UK English instead of US English profile
  
• Misread one period as a comma
  
  That's quite impressive, especially when you see the quality of my hand-writing! I did go through the training exercise, but I didn't expect the OCR to work this well when I wasn't writing neatly.

maryrobinette recently posted a link to a free online utility that generates music from text. You type in a bunch of text, and the program maps each letter to a bunch of notes. You can see the sheet music (and print it), and can hear an instrument (you pick the midi instrument) playing your piece.

It's pretty funny. I had fun figuring out how to get more melodic pieces.

Why couldn't the Liberty Hall Writers end-of-year challenge take place during the final week of the year? Or be two weeks long?

Despite it being a super-busy week for me, I was thinking about the trigger. And it made me think of Mysterious Paris, except with the alternate way of telling the story that I once considered. I'm not sure if I could keep it at 1000 words, but it could definitely be a short story. But I don't have time to finish this... not if I also finish a couple of chores and get to bed at a reasonable hour.

But at least I've started it. And now I'm loving the short story version and thinking I should finish it. Because it would be good to get down to the essence of Mysterious Paris. And, also, it's helpful to explore Georgia's point-of-view. Will I want to go back to the novel?

Oh, and the short story has a different name. But perhaps that's just the trigger giving it a temporary name.

And when I'm not writing manuals, I'm doing chores or relaxing. I'm hoping that things settle down at work soon, so I don't feel so tired in the evening, and get back into the swing of writing fiction.

At least I have my local writing group. Recently, I've taken a different turn in our writing exercises, and have switched to poetry. Ironically, the very same day that a new member joined our group - and in our introductions I said that I don't really write poetry. hmmm.

"Blonde Bimbos on the Moon" hasn't found its home yet, but the most recent rejection included suggestions on how to improve it, along with encouragement to keep writing and submitting.

I have to think about the suggested improvements. But in the meantime, I should polish another story and get it out. I'm thinking of a rewrite of one of my Liberty Hall flashes ("Lizards and Blonde Ambition"). If I rewrite and polish soon, I can get it in the polish challenge, and get some feedback before sending it out.

This evening I've been going on a short story binge.

I just finished reading las's In the Shadow of the Fryolater at The Town Drunk and couldn't help laughing.

The complete absorption of Emma's boyfriend Benny in his multi-player computer game reminds me a bit of one of the main characters of "Save Me Plz," which I heard today courtesy of EscpaePOD, after having read it recently in Realms of Fantasy. The reading was well-done, but having read the story so recently, the ending was still fresh in my mind. "Save Me Plz" is a cute story, but it only partially worked the second time.

I also listened to "Neils Bohr and the Sleeping Dane," (also on EscapePOD)a really unusual story about World War II, golem, and Neils Bohr. My only surprise was that this wasn't held for the upcoming PODCastle, their sister fantasy site. Although there was some discussion of science in this story, it didn't seem to be a science fiction story - at least to me.

No, I'm not suddenly becoming a party girl. On my talk.bmc blog, I started writing what I thought would be a short post on what documentation might look like using the Facebook platform. But it turned out I had a lot of ideas!

You can read the article here.

And if you have any ideas about how Social Media could shape documentation, blog about it, then let me know. I'm hoping to read other people's thoughts and post a round-up.

I made a typing error in a mark-up tag a few days ago. I didn't notice this, as Firefox is forgiving - but yesterday I found out that my entry wasn't displaying fully in Internet Explorer.

If you use IE, you can now fully read this entry about my writing "Not a Fairy Tale." In other browsers, the fix means that the links will work.

I recently realized that my Liberty Hall Writers flash "Forgotten Fairytale" would make a good start to the earlier flash "Solstice." I had also written a couple of expansions to Solstice as exercises with my local writing group. (To my LH friends - the local writing exercises are usually only 15 - 20 minutes.)

Yesterday I applied the LH revision comments to Forgotten Fairy Tale, and today I merged it with my other Solstice pieces, wrote some new scenes, and notes for additional scenes. OK. Maybe it's not really a first draft of the longer story, as it's incomplete. I'm hoping that tomorrow or on the weekend I can complete the draft.

I'm toying with a new title: "Not a Fairy Tale"