Southern Writing

Resolutions 2009

It's New Year's Eve, so tonight is the perfect night for a post about my resolutions for the coming year.

I was reading Ad Hudler's blog today, and I liked the format his family uses for their resolutions. In fact, I liked the entire post and how flexible his resolutions were and how far they veer from "I want to lose weight in 200-."

So, here are mine:

Career

- Start earning 100 percent of my income from writing, whether it be freelancing, a full time reporting or editing job, or from a sold manuscript

- Attend at least one writing or media conference/ workshop

- Turn in an article to Bitch, Bust, or Curve that is accepted (that means I have to submit to all three magazines!)

- Visit the Missbehave office

Travel

- Get a passport and get it stamped at least once

- Take at least one trip a month

- Visit NY

Personal

- Fix a date for the end of my conversion process

- Get more involved in the Jewish community in Tampa, not just at the 'gogue

- Talk to every person I find intriguing

My 2008 in pictures

I made this slideshow last night using iMovie.

2008 was a good year for me. And, before the day is out, I resolve to post my 2009 resolutions!

2008- A glorious year

It would be easy to do a year-in-recap post and talk about all of the things I didn't get to do. As in, I didn't take a cruise to Cozumel. Or, I didn't get my first novel published. Instead, I will focus on the things I DID get accomplished.

January

I started my last semester of school at the University of South Florida. I focused on finishing up my anthropology minor and weaseled my way into a graduate level multimedia journalism class.

February(ish)

I bought my own domain name (wendylbolm.com, which will lead you right back here) and started a panicky job search for my post-graduation life. I also had an awesome Valentine's party with friends and geeked it up.

March

I started working at TravelVideoStoreas a media specialist. So, I now thankfully have a job when many other people don't. One one of my days off, I attended an Anonymous protest, where I got some great audio of members'conspiracy theories. I never got to use it in my projects, because members of the school's video lab had an impossible time trying to convert the video to digital files. At Megacon, I managed not to spend hundreds of dollars again this year.

April

As the result of a strange April Fool's prank, I told a guy I liked that I liked him, which started my only awkward, slightly rewarding romance of this year. I also decided to keep most of his friends for my own. I also had a few promising job interviews.

May

Yay! It was my birthday (and a friend's horrible Bridezilla wedding on the same day) and graduation all in one month. I also spent a day swimming a few feet away from frolicking dolphins with some of my friends in Clearwater.

June

My romance fizzled, and I amped up attempts to get freelance gigs.

July

I landed a gig with 411, writing events listings and features. This led to me interviewing Hal Sparks and Matt Rothschild. I also landed a part in Busch Gardens's Howl O' Scream.

August

I picked up a few web writing freelance gigs.

September

Rehearsals started for HOS, and with freelancing, my job, and scaring people for money, I felt I might actually make it financially for the first time in my life. So, I made the decision to cut back to part time at work so I could grow my freelancing business. I went to St. Augustine on my first Vacation as a real life grown-up.

October

I attended my mother's wedding and scared people all month. I realized freelancing wouldn't be bringing in as much as I thought, so I looked to branch out once more and got help in blog monetization. I also applied for the A Room of her Own's Gift of Freedom grant.

November

I contacted an editor at the Times about freelancing for the Pasco edition and started my TypePad blog, which I've been tinkering with. I also started networking again. I also started writing for the Gazette and had an article published on the LGBT community and religion and on the rallies held when Amendment 2 and Prop 8 were passed.

December

I had my first article published in the Timesand found out I'm going to be covering some of the city council meetings in Pasco County. So, now I have my own beat!

So, I think it's been a pretty good year, and I'm thinking 2009 will be even better.

Happy Hannukwanzmas!

Right now, I can guarantee that somewhere, someone is at the gas station or drug store, or maybe a supermarket open on Christmas, buying extremely last minute Christmas presents. Maybe they're settling for an ashtray for their mother or a matchbox car for their son. Heck, I'd go so far as to say there are a few hundred people out there buying the last Christmas dregs up for their families, and a couple of them are in Tampa. I was the getaway driver for one of these procrastination operations a few years back and ended up with a tree ornament as my loot.

I've been lighting candles on my menorah, and last night I spent Christmas Eve with my family. The best gifts I received were a beautiful necklace made by a local artisan and the laptop computer desk I'm using now. No more back aches from five hour marathons computer use with my laptop propped up on my breasts or stomach with me hunched over it.

I have a new obsession: ball jointed dolls. So, if anyone wants to throw down a couple hundred dollars to assuage my greed, feel free to head to the Sleeping Elf Etsy shop.

There are two things about the shop I just love. The first is that they have overweight ball jointed dolls, so I could own a doll that actually looked like me! The second is that I've been looking for a doll version of my Vampire: The Masquerade character, and their human Mina doll would be perfect.

Giver her a blond wig and cold, grey eyes and that would be Evelyn. Then, I could carry her around while playing Evelyn and be even more creepy, plus it would make a great character reference. So, yes. Buy this $175 doll so I can stop obsessing.

Today my plans are to eat Chinese food and catch a movie with friends. I have no idea what I want to see, but I've heard good things about Slumdog Millionaire and have read Twilight (I actually have high hopes for the movie, since there seems to be more action in it.)

I'm about to start eating cookies and fudge for breakfast and continue watching Neo Ned, which is about a white supremacist who falls in love with a black woman who thinks she's Hitler. Netflix really knows how to spread the holiday joy.

Soon, I'll post about my accomplishments in 2008 and my resolution for 2009. Until then, I hope everyone enjoys special family time and works towards making the world a better place.

Published article

This morning I was published in the St. Petersburg Times. The story is about a holiday tradition a park foundation is trying to start in Land O'Lakes, Florida.

Writing contest

I entered a contest tonight, and I thought I would share my entry:

     In some ways, stalking the abomination was like stalking any other prey. Once he caught her scent, he was off, the whispers of his mother’s mind never far from his own. He could feel his heart quicken and his breath spurt out in short bursts. The city was not as he expected. There was more noise and less green space, but if he imagined the tall buildings as trees and the vehicles whizzing through the busy streets as a herd following its own rhythm, the experience was not altogether unpleasant.

The contest is for the first paragraph of a work in progress, so I entered the beginning of the novel I'm working on. Thanks to Catherine J Gardner for once again sucking me into a writing opportunity.

The prize up for grabs is a little help provided by a professional literary agent. You can check out the contest and his site here.

I'm back!

I was pretty busy this weekend, so I haven't had the time to post. But, here's what I've been up to:

Thursday I managed to install GIMP onto my Mac, so I'm going to start playing around with photos again. If I don't like it, I'll probably go for free trial downloads to compare some other photo editing software.

Friday I went to my Sabbat One World by Night Live Action Role Play game for Vampire: The Masquerade. Hilarity ensued. My character is pretty dense and manages to get herself into trouble wherever she goes. This game she wandered into the shadow realm, there were possible water spirits and ghost ships, and other members of the Sabbat to contend with. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about and are intrigued, email me. I'll tell you everything you never wanted to know about LARPing and why it's awesome.)

I also went to a campout which turned into a sleepover at my friend Nuri's (even though it was a beautiful night to sleep under the Florida stars) and really had a relaxing and enjoyable night.

Saturday I woke up after about four hours sleep, drove to a friend's house, and played with his daughter for hours and had a tranquil morning talking to his family. I drank a lot of tea and crashed for a couple hours before heading off to the main OWbN game in Tampa. There was a huge new player turnout, and the staff held a workshop and character creation marathon. Game last night was probably one of the most fun games I've played since I started LARPing.

I drove to another friend's house to attend a party for my friend Liat only to find out the party was over, but there was more spending quality time with friends to be had, so it was all good. Driving home, some guy kept pulling up to my car and honking at me and trying to get my attention. I ignored him, because it was around three in the morning, and was relieved when I couldn't find anything wrong with my car when I checked it out this morning. No hooks dangling from my car door or dead animals being dragged behind me, and he didn't follow me home and murder me, so it all worked itself out.

After another five hours of sleep it was off to work this morning. I spent the rest of the day at my mother's. Now I can get back into the writing and cleaning groove and enjoy the first quiet night I've had at home in a while.

Writing tip- the importance of contact information

This is more of an addendum to my previous post about writing emails than a true post.

After sending out an email to a potential source, I realized it's important to mention that every time you send out a professional email your contact information should be included.

While it might seem a little obsessive and/or redundant, making sure pretty much everyone in the universe has your contact information is pretty important, even if it's only your email address or a way to find your Myspace page.

Here are some real world examples of why it's a good idea.

If you send in a query to a magazine or publisher and include your phone number, email address, and address, they'll be able to contact you if they're reading a hard copy of the your email without having to go back to their inbox.

If you email an article to an editor and include your phone number, they can easily call you to discuss changes you need to make.

If you email your phone number to an interview source, you may receive a call, sometimes even within minutes of your original email.

It's a smart move to make yourself as accessible as possible to all of the people you need to talk to. If you make yourself hard to contact, people will be less likely to contact you which might cost you time and money you can't afford.

Writers' flaws- clutter

I don't drink. I don't do drugs, even drugs I don't think are harmful like the good old Mary Jane. I don't like to party, I don't sky dive, I don't drive too fast for my own good. My life is pretty boring; I definitely don't subscribe to the Hemingway school of writing.

That's not to say I don't have flaws. One of my biggest is that I'm a mess. As in, I make them constantly. Even if I go down to the local coffee shop to write, I have to bring my laptop, some notebooks, a couple books to read, whatever projects I'm working on (as in writing and research) and will probably include knitting projects or other crafting projects. Soon, I'm taking over an entire couch with the debris of my life. (This may be why my attempts at flirting at the coffee shop with cute musicians have failed. Or maybe it's my persistent social awkwardness.)

Anywho, when it comes to my messiness, I am somewhat dumbfounded. I don't know how to get my act together when it comes to cleaning and organizing my personal space (even though I'm very good at cleaning and organizing work spaces) and was just reminded by this fact when I rifled through an old rubber bin filled with the remains of when I last cleaned my car sometime before October.

Inside, I found a fondue pot, the corset I had custom made as a graduation gift to myself, a workbook I bought to help me get through NaNoWriMo this year, a bunch of socks, quite a bit of clothes, colorful yarn hair extensions, and much, much more. Some of the things I found I've been trying to find for months, always overlooking the bin as I tore my apartment apart.

Is this a normal part of the unhinged qualities of being a writer? Am I messy because I'm a writer? Am I a writer because my mind is somewhat messy? Do other reader/writers out there have the same problem? Or, is it just because I'm your average American undomesticated young woman who is one intervention away from being the absent-minded professor?

Author Profile- AD Hudler

I just finished reading the novel Southern Living by AD Hudler, which actually inspired the new name for this blog. I did a little research and found out Hudler is an author living in Fort Myers, Florida. Not too far away from my own neck of the woods.

If you like Southern comedy, or chick lit with a bit of feminist bite, or just to read about Southern debutantes trying to keep up with their fashionable neighbors, then this is the book for you. And the author for you.

Hudler provides a lot of insight packed into his books, probably because being a Colorado boy he's been able to see the South from fresh eyes. A lot of his observations remind me of my own dealings in The South from living in North Carolina and rural Florida.

I have a feeling I'll be reading his other three books in short order. For more information on Hudler and his books, check out his website.

His blog is also filled with witty snippets of sourthern living.