Spent the weekend in Chicago

On Thursday, rain pelted the roof and wind rocked the casbah, resulting in mass power failure for many of the local states. 2/3, possibly 3/4 of Kalamazoo County was without power, including yours truly.

Luckily, my parents have a generator and while I bravely perservered through no A/C, sweat on my brow and determination in my stance, I opted out of suffering and hitched a ride to Chicago with one of my college friends.

Much conversation and traffic later, we arrived at our other friend's condo, a super cute, hi-tech place in Boystown. While there, we jazzed around town, spending too much money and eating great food.

Portillo's http://www.portillos.com/ - A Chicago favorite, I recommend their burgers and the onion rings weren't half bad either.

Pasta Bowl http://www.pastabowl.com/ - Truly a must for Fettucini Alfredo lovers. Mmm Mmm Good.

Lincoln Square is a quaint area for shopping, including a fun little bookstore called the Book Cellar. http://www.bookcellarinc.com/ I love book super stores where I can find almost anything, but this little place made me wonder what it would be like to own a small store, consciously hemming and hawing over every little book you picked to stock. What fun!

A great little store with a little of everything is Eclecticity http://www.eclec.com/ - Where I bought a writing game to help with those trouble spots. I look forward to cracking it open and letting the juices flow.

My girls and I played a game called Moods, where it isn't what you say, but how you say it. Anyone who is a fan of improv or acting, or just likes a case of the sillies, try this game. Truly a Zany experience.

My hitched ride stayed an extra day and then continued their trip cross country, so I bopped onto and train and with the help of a mellow massage therapist from San Diego, enjoyed the slightly prolonged 2.5 hours back to Kalamazoo.

Writing pet peeves

I'm reading Stephen King's On Writing and he lists his writing pet peeves as does Mr. Strunk from the famous little writing book Elements of Style.

Here are a few of mine...

I concur on the horrors passive writing, however I write passively more than I should.

The word "suddenly" bothers me. In a movie, suddenly works because all of the sudden there is something there, but in books, things just don't suddenly happen. The reader reads at the same pace and to use the word suddenly seems rather silly. Just say what happened and then how surprised people's reactions were.

I dislike headhopping, switching between different perspectives often. I caution writers to be especially careful when people of the same gender are involved. When so many "shes" or "hes" are involved it becomes confusing and sometimes overuse of creative pronouns can be irritating as well. I personally like when each scene is written from a different perspective, much clearer to read and understand.

Too many names. Only name the characters that warrant a name. Too many names is confusing, especially if they start with the same letter or sound. To elaborate on this, only give really important characters last names.

I'm sure I will come up with more for later but that's it for now.

Sad news is the reason I've been gone for so long

I'm getting a divorce. I'm sorry for my inconsisent posting. I'd like to be able to promise that it will get better but frankly, I have no idea what is ahead of me in life.

We set plans in motion and think to the future, but occasionally, a random meteor flies in from Chaosville and lambastes us. Well that's where I am folks.

I'd like to think of this as an adventure and that I will put one brave foot in front of the other, but I'll be honest... I'm scared. I don't know what looms in front of me. This is a scary time of the unknown, but it is also a time of the what could be, and possibly what should be. The world is my oyster,and while I've never liked seafood, perhaps it's time I gave new things a try.

Any positive mojo sent my way would be most welcome.

Thanks for sticking around. It means a lot.