SEND to READER for Kindle & Other Tidbits

“…I want to say that any system that helps you understand the world around you is valuable to you as a writer: natural history, biology, ethnology, physics, geology…You must have knowledge to make the nets in which other knowledge is caught” (Pg. 17).

—Damon Knight
From Creating Short Fiction


I believe I’ve shared the SEND to READER website before and it may be old news to many and there are other options, but I wanted to share it again because for anyone in the U.S. (not sure if it’s available for Kindle U.K. readers) who would like to send information from the web to your Kindle with the push of a button, for free, it’s quite useful. When I’ve had any questions, Sergey, was prompt and helpful.

http://sendtoreader.com/

Every now and again, there may be a page that does not work, but for the most part I’ve had success with it. One recent example is I wanted to read Eugene O’Neill’s play, Beyond the Horizon. When I checked the library it was available as part of a collection of his work, but I did not see the play by itself. Not wanting to hold up a heavy book for a short play, and not wanting to purchase it, I looked online again. I saw that Bartleby.com had the full version. I clicked on scene I of Act I, clicked my SEND to READER button, turned on my Kindle, and there it was. Since I had plays on my mind, I also checked out A Street Car Named Desire from the library. I have always remembered an old friend’s aunt saying how it was her favorite play. I may have seen the movie version with Marlon Brando a long time ago. It’s a fuzzy memory. After I finish reading the play, I want to watch the movie again.

Short story writing class begins soon and I am very excited. I have read through the syllabus after fumbling through getting setup and logged into the online course site. I’m glad I did this a week in advance because I was having problems, but the problems were my own— user error. I’ve used CourseCompass which is now MyLab before and luckily I didn’t have to purchase another access code because it seems that I’m still in the system from a previous course.

I bought another writing book on Amazon: Creating Short Fiction: The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction by Damon Knight. It’s an older book originally written in 1983; the third edition was written in 1997. I like writing books because I feel that I’m having a conversation with the author and when a writing book makes me laugh as this one has several times, it makes the conversation that much better. I appreciate the author’s ideas and the examples he shares from his life as a writer. I came across a sentence he wrote, which brought me back to what Ayn Rand was saying in her lectures on writing about collecting and holding a wide range of information in our subconscious and how when we need that information, as writers, it surfaces. I’m not as strong a synthesizer as I’d like to be, but I’m aware of patterns and I love ideas and information. I’ve always been curious—sometimes too curious. Knight’s statement—the image he created—added a layer and meaning to what Rand said in her way. His quote has become the epigraph of this blog.

Yesterday I worked on my writing submission for the writer’s group. I took my netbook and myself to the coffee shop to work on the piece that I had made some scribbled comments on. It was great working in the coffee shop. I left home a little earlier than usual to write and then off to work. I felt energized. I still have editing and refining to do and I’m almost out of time.

One issue that has come up in the writer’s group on my past submissions is that I have to keep an eye on my point of view (POV). It’s so easy to slip in and out. I also have to watch my tenses. Sometimes I’ll switch between past and present. When I’m reading other people’s work, the more complicated tenses sometimes throw me. I ask myself if they need to have so many instances of past perfect, etc. There is a time when it’s necessary, but then if there are too many successive cases, it bogs the writing down. In one of my pieces, it was suggested to watch my sentence variety and repetition of words or sentences. I have noticed that I do have a tendency to repeat. Sometimes it’s intentional; other times, I don’t catch it until I read my work aloud. And there are so many other little things that I notice and causes me to keep going back and back.

I will polish my current submission as best I can before I send it to the group. I’d like to catch the technical errors so that the group can read through without those distractions. I’m almost there! We have all gotten in the habit of stating what our piece is: Part of a novel, a short story, non-fiction, etc. I will classify the piece I’m working on as a creative non-fiction travel piece.

It was that time of year for another dental cleaning. I love going to my dentist’s office. Dr. D. has a strong sense of beauty and balance evident in the artwork throughout her office. In the waiting room, I had to sit in a different chair this time because the others were taken. I pulled out my iPod Touch to catch thoughts that were whirring around in my head. I needed to tap them out. I wrote and wrote with my fingers tapping those letters out. The receptionist apologized for the delay. I told her no problem. What I should have said was, thank you for the time and space to get my thoughts out. I was done after five to ten minutes and turned my attention to the reading material on the table near my chair. I hadn’t noticed this book before. Dentistry: An Illustrated History by Malvin E. Ring. I picked up the heavy book and turned the pages. The pictures were fantastic. I hadn’t gotten past the first few images and it was my turn for a cleaning. Rats! I needed more time. A picture that caught my imagination was the two teeth pictured here—tooth worms, I think. I’ll have to read about it. The library didn’t have this particular book, but I did find another title: Tooth Worms & Spider Juice: An Illustrated History of Dentistry by Loretta Frances Ichord. It’s meant for young readers. I’m going to check it out.

Tooth image accessed from here.

Being pulled in many directions, just like those Dandelions that Ray Bradbury has written about…I see myself as a dandelion—floating about on the wings of the breeze under warm rays of light.

Morning page – Oatmeal, apple slices & Peanut butter, and a Cute Dog

This morning I had oatmeal. I like that it has health benefits. That’s not why I’m drawn to it, but it’s a nice bonus. But then I feel guilty; am I not reaping the benefits when I add a pat of butter and a good dollop of brown sugar and so much milk that I can drink it? It’s mostly the butter that I question. I love that added creamy flavor that it adds. I like that oatmeal is warm and satisfies my belly. I used to talk myself out of preparing it because I would have to dirty a pan, a stirring spoon, a bowl, and an eating spoon. I think I’ve gotten past that, unless there are too many dishes in the sink, and then I revert to drinking a cup of milk to get me going. I also like Malt-O-Meal. It’s much messier and requires more time to sit and stir those granules, so they don’t stick and spit all over the stove. Malt-O-Meal has a tendency to seem angry as it boils away having a tantrum inside the little pan and making a mess.

I also have a memory associated with Malt-O-Meal. I don’t think it affects me too much, except that I can’t help but think about it and maybe even chuckle a little when I make Oatmeal. The memory is of me as a child, enjoying my bowl of Malt-O-Meal in my little plastic blue bowl that was made with ridges to appear like a turtle’s shell. Next thing I know I’ve got the stuff in my hair and it was thick, not watered down with milk the way I like my Oatmeal. Well, I knew my mother wasn’t going to be happy and she wasn’t. She had to get me to school. So after a few damnits, she was able to get most of it out of my hair. She didn’t always have a lot of patience. I don’t hold it against her. But I really do prefer Oatmeal now.

I got tired of peanut butter and honey sandwiches. They were my mainstay for a while there; apples were never my favorite fruit. I didn’t enjoy eating them with my hand and that’s unusual for me because I like eating anything I can directly from my hand if I don’t need a fork. I also didn’t like how I seemed to almost always choke on the apple peel. Somehow, though, I decided to give apples another try. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy their sweet taste and juiciness; it’s just that they seemed too much trouble to eat. Now that has changed and only within the past six months or so. Most mornings when I pack my snack bag for work, I cut apples slices and put them in a container with peanut butter. When I get to work, it’s usually one of the first snacks I will tackle. When the juice of the apple eases into my mouth, the smooth peanut butter creating a barrier making the tough peel more digestible, my senses delight.

I saw a cute dog the other day and I couldn’t help but take a photo of him. I was diagonally across the street. His owner went to have lunch and tied him to the parking meter. He kept looking in to find his owner and then he would turn to the street; and then he stepped off the curb onto the street. He was safe from traffic and his cord wasn’t so long that he would eventually go in the middle of the street. He seemed more interested in the traffic than looking into the restaurant window. I sure wonder what it must all look like from a dog’s perspective.

Endnote on dishes in the sink—you know I think sometimes the amount of dishes left in the sink from the previous day, can greatly determine my mood and enthusiasm for coming back to that sink of dishes. There’s nothing like a fresh start for any task—like a blank page.