A Novel Written on Twitter

An absolutely fascinating writing project is going on right now--on Twitter. Adam Palmer is writing a novel called Space Available for Marcher Lord Press this year, which will be composed completely on Twitter. He isn't writing it in Word and copy-pasting it into the status bar. No, he is actually composing every line in Twitter, within the parameters of 140 characters per post.

This is going to call for some seriously tight writing--of which I am a huge fan. I read through the entirety of his novel-in-progress tonight. It's a science fiction, and right off the bat, an Artificial Intelligence lifeform is a part of the dialogue. Oh my. Could it get any better?

I'm going to have a lot of fun following this project through the year. What a novel idea! If you want to follow Adam Palmer's Space Available as it is being composed, you can do so as well @AdamAuthor.

Change of Seasons: Winter to Spring

You may have noticed the shiny new graphic header at the top of my blog, yes? Spiffy, no? (Don't answer that if the answer is no.)

Due to some recent nudging from the Holy Spirit and a downright kick in the pants from the Father Himself, I am going to begin developing a freelance clientele to both add variety to my work experience and bring additional income for our family. The new business is called MangyCat Creative Design or MCCD. Oh, for the love acronyms!

I'll post later on about what specific services I will provide, what they entail, and general rates, but to give you an idea, here's a short list:

• General Graphic Design (Web & Print)
• Writing & Editing (Fiction/Nonfiction)
• Photo Editing & Manipulation
• One-on-One Mentoring for Young Writers
• Blog Design & Other Webmastery
• Writing & Design Workshops/Seminars

I will most likely be charging a flat hourly rate for most types of services, which is actually a lot more affordable for the client (and much easier for me to calculate). That's how I have worked in the past, and it seems to be a good model that people can understand.

Now to presumptuously answer a few questions:

Is your blog going to become some boring, business-related blog?
Never fear! I plan on continuing to post creative work here so long as it spouts from my fingertips.

Can you do creative services for anyone in the world?
Yes! Well, anyone with an email address anyway.

What will you be charging?
That's for me to know and you to find out. :ninja: It is an affordable hourly rate, but it is different for different kinds of services.

What's this One-on-One Mentoring for Young Writers thing you mentioned? Don't you do that on Cleanplace?
Actually, I haven't been able to keep up on CleanPlace as much as I have in the past. Though the teens on CP are like my adopted nieces and nephews, my focus right now is on my family at home. I thank God for Nia, our invaluable, incomparable lead admin on CP, for she is steering the ship with incredible acumen and a sincere love for the CP teens. I have the utmost confidence and trust in her ability to do so.

What I am offering here is a deliberate, purposeful, and personal mentoring program that focuses on raising a young writer's skill level and help her work toward publication. This would be a weekly meeting (in person or through Skype/IM) that includes critiques, instruction, and Q & A time.

You're not going to shamelessly plug your design services, are you?
Now that you mention it...

[shameless plug] If you happen to know of anyone who is interested in hiring a creative person, please pass on my name and contact info. I would love to get in touch with them. [/shameless plug]

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Thank you, friends, for walking through this with me! And thank you for your support of my creative endeavors.

Upcoming Project 365: 2010

In 2008, I learned about this thing called Project 365. It is basically a challenge to take a photo every day for a year so that you can look back on your life that year and remember all those little things that were important to you. A little note from the info page:

Imagine being able to look back at any day of your year and recall what you did, who you met, what you learned… (Often we find it hard to remember what we did just yesterday or even last night, let alone a whole year ago!)

Your year-long photo album will be an amazing way to document your travels and accomplishments, your haircuts and relationships. Time moves surprisingly fast.

I completed the project in 2008 and found it an excellent challenge. Not only was it a great discipline (taking a picture/blogging everyday) and a super way to widen my photographic prowess, it has been so much to fun to look at all the pictures from 2008 and remember moments that usually disappear through the transom of our minds.

Because 2008 was such a great experience, I tried to do it again in 2009. However, I found that two years in a row of this demanding project was too much to bear and fizzled out after 50 days. This is definitely an every-other-year type of thing for me. (Though a few Project 365ers I started following in 2008 are still going strong--you go, guys!)

Once again, I'm going to try not to post pictures of my kids here because I am always posting pictures of them on my personal blog. But I'm not going to say I never will because, well, they're a big part of my life, so they are bound to appear here at some point.

I'll do my best to update at least every couple days (if not every day) with new pictures. Feel free to comment because that's what keeps me going! Thanks!

And if you're doing Project 365, please let me know--I would love to follow your progress as well.

2/365 On their last leg

These are the Valentine's Day flowers my husband got for me and my daughter. This was their last day on display.

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By the way, I just imported all my NaNoWriMo blogs to this one (2005-2008), so if you're interested, there are links to them in the sidebar. :o) Ah, it's so nice to have everything in one blog!

Project 365 Resumes

I am currently in the process of back-posting the last two months' worth of images from my 2008 Project 365. Due to the loss of our handy camera at the end of October, I had to resort to using the old standby camera or my cell phone's camera to continue this endeavor.

Unfortunately, the mountain of weight added to my purse from the old camera and the inconvenience of having to upload, then download pictures from my cell phone, not to mention NaNoWriMo in November and a month of holiday fun in December, caused my poor Project 365 to suffer for two months.

I didn't take a picture every single day, but I did make a good effort at it. In an attempt to finish out all 365 images before I try to do this again (consecutively this time!), starting on the 11/6/08 entry, I've named them by #/365 as I've seen on some other blogs.

I had 307 images so far by 11/5/08, so we begin at 308/365.

This is the Point

I've created this new blog in order to combine all my various blog-worthy creative projects into one place. This is going to help me keep up a lot better (I hope) and will just plain make life easier.

I'll be posting various short stories (always under 1,000 words), photography, poetry, and other creative stuff that comes to mind. In November, you can follow my journey through National Novel Writing Month here as well. All that MangyCat-ness, all in one place. Huzzah!

If you had subscriptions or following through my other creative blogs, please switch over to this one at http://mangycat.blogspot.com. Thank you kindly!