Writing is easy

The story is already written, it's my job to find it.

With my new story (started Aug. 1, 86 pages complete) I'm uncovering it layer by layer.  Like all things layered (cabbages, lettuce) not every leaf is perfect.  Sometimes, there are holes.  Sometimes, a nasty surprise.  Sometimes, perfection.

I usually write clean first drafts.  But, as they say, each story is different, and this one is messy.  My heroine is reactive, my hero doesn't have enough motivation.  Until this weekend, which I spent with most of my writing group at a wonderful retreat, I didn't see these flaws.  Or the non-mention of eye & hair color of my two main protagonists.  Or. . .well, you get the idea.  So now I'm regrouping, beefing up the weak areas and thinking whole picture instead of what the next scene will be.  It will be better, stronger and tighter.  I even found the perfect place for the first sex scene, which has been a problem in the past.

And I was reminded of an old story, which, after a cursory read-through last night, reminded me of how good it is.  It's time for it to make the rounds again.  It's time for a good, old pirate/virgin mother story to be heard.

Writing is easy.

Getting out of Dodge and the Real skinny on raw diet

Getting out of Dodge.  City, that is.  That's where we are today, my friends, in the heartland of feedlots and meat packing plants.  Not a great place for two gals who just spent three days avoiding the taste of slaughtered animals.

From what I gathered, and bear in mind I attended less than 5% of the six hundred workshops given (somewhat) raw food is the tip of the iceberg.  It is a portal to a healthier lifestyle.  There are many thoughts on the raw diet, from supplements to dehydration to raw only to colon cleanses.   The main idea is that anything cooked destroys the natural enzymes and nutrition of the food.  Which makes great sense.  The further from the soil the food is eaten, the more it is stripped of its nutrients.

Example stories I heard but cannot confirm:

One vegetarian meal a week saves 1160 miles of driving

Beef is considered protein, but nutritionally has only 15% protein, 85% fat

Seeds and nuts are considered fat, but have only 15% fat

Blue-green algae is one of the most nutritious foods around (I cannot tolerate it by itself by it's great in a protein bar)

Going raw is difficult for some people because of they use food as an emotional crutch.  If they can't find comfort in the refrigerator, they're forced to look inward, and to many that is scary beyond belief.  So going raw is not just the food choices, but coming to terms with old demons and vanquishing them.

As for curing common and uncommon ills, check out just one website for inspiration:

 www.mycrazysexylife.com

Off the soapbox.  I'm going to start incorporating some of this stuff when I get home, and have even now, on the road.  I can't promise I'll never eat cooked again (rice!  bread!) but life is a journey.

Road Trip Day ? Somewhere in the Southwest

Ha, ha, kidding about that last part. We're in Santa Fe after having spent five wonderful days in Sedona. I'm moving there. For real.  Just not this year.  2009?  What the heck.

Raw Fest was and wasn't what I had thought.  Like any sub-cultural, it has its kooks and fanatics.  And serious, funny, wonderful, warm people who want to do right with their lives and bodies.  I can't judge any of them.  Nor should anyone else.  I mean, really, the people not on this lifestyle?  Sick.  Overweight.  Tired.  Blimpy.  Barely able to drag themselves out of bed and exist every day.  The raw fooders?  From what I've seen - thin.  Healthy.  Energetic.  Able to cure cancer, heart disease, diabetes and asthma with nothing but what grows in the ground.  Hoo-rah for them.

Road Trip Day 4

We're in the Colorado Rockies, having put almost five hundred miles on today.  Two touristy stops - a buffalo made of barbed wire, and the Cathedral Rocks in Kansas, which were the highlight of the day.  Not very touristy, as we had to wind down a dirt road for seven miles before we found them.  Nothing around for miles.  No other cars, no people, just the wind and some cows.  

Then across some lonely roads in dark, dreary Kansas, not meeting another car for miles and alternating between flat, flat lands and long, low hills.  The minute we hit Colorado, the sun came out and we started climbing.  And climbing.  Fifty miles away, we saw Pike's Peak.  Dinner was in Colorado Springs inside a beached fighter jet turned restaurant.  Pretty cool.  So that makes three touristy things, though I'm not going to count the rocks.

Tomorrow, the Grand Canyon then Sedona.

Road Trip Day 2

Abilene, Kansas, the end of the Chisholm Trail and the home of our 34th president, Dwight "I Like Ike" Eisenhower.  

We spent last night east of St. Louis, rose, took our walk  then drove to the waterfront to ride to the top of the Gateway Arch.  Picture five people knee to knee in a giant egg rocking back and forth.  Four minutes up, three down.  Ten at the top.

Tomorrow we explore the finer points of the sunflower state (giant ball of twine, a buffalo made of barbed wire, etc) before meeting a friend of my daughter's who now lives in Garden City in the west side of the state.  Tuesday is her birthday, so she gets a birthday dinner from familiar people.

Off now to plot the big adventure.

More signs

Spotted license plate:  GOIN2AZ

check out this website: www.roadsideamerica.com

5 in 2, I get the picture

Sedona messages keep wandering into my life.  On Wednesday and Thursday, I talked to five people who have visited Sedona.  One man went there for the first time in 1959.  I received advice to a) ride a hot air balloon b) take a train ride c) go to the airport for a fabulous view.  For a little town of 11,00, it sure has a lot of visitors, at least within my sphere.

My daughter is temporarily home, and we've touched on different aspects of the trip.  St. Louis for sure, Santa Fe (which was featured on Rachel Ray less than ten minutes after she mentioned it - did I mention the psychic powers floating around here?)

On a secondary note, I am waaaay too dependent on the internet.  We lost it Saturday and I was forced to call Comcast and schedule a tech visit.  Fortunately, DH wiggled some cables, and we're back in business.  

Writing wise, I've super-duper cleaned Tall, Dark and Slayer, and it is finished.  I've started The Princess Rescuer, which has been renamed  The Dark Ages Detective Agency.  The rule is - there are no rules.  It is a total medieval farce, and I'm enjoying the first few pages written - a talk between two minions, one of whom is pushing the other to join the henchmen's union.  See?  No rules.