"May you live in interesting times"

The title of this blog post is supposed to be an old Chinese curse; it may be apocryphal but it resonates nonetheless. I like "boring" times; boring translates to peaceful for me, a respite from horror, loss, devastation and sadness. The prospect of "interesting times" is downright chilling. So, right on time, interesting times have arrived with the force of planetary collision in the guise of Covid 19--just when we thought the state of the world was as "interesting" as we could bear.

So much has changed...

...There are people in my writing network who have lost beloved relatives and friends to Covid 19. 

...I've visited my mother once in the past 5 months. It's not safe for me to visit her; she's 84. She forgets the reason we're not visiting and perceives it as neglect. The older we grow, the more sensitive we become to real and imagined slights, so it doesn't matter that my mother and I chat on the phone almost every day. I'm not visiting so it must be that I've thrown her away.

...A germaphobe I've always been, but my paranoia is off the charts now. It would be funny if it weren't so exhausting: the stripping at the door as I come in,  the flinging of said clothes into a bag in the entry, the scrubbing of everything that comes in from the supermarket (I never thought I'd be scrubbing onions with dish soap, ffs!), the struggle to focus on anything, the elevated stress levels--and maybe the uncertainty most of all.

...My blog buddies from 12+ years ago when I started this blog might remember my son--barefoot surfer boy who loved nothing more than a good adventure. Well, a brand new adventure found him when he visited Panama earlier this year on business and found himself stranded there when the country went into lockdown, closed its borders and the airline canceled his flight back. He should have returned at the start of April. Instead he's still there. He's nothing if not resourceful, though, and is fortunate in that he loves the place and has very good friends there. Two weeks ago he started vlogging his journey, with the encouragement of Kaylee and Jordan of The Nomadic Movement, a popular YouTube channel. You can find him at Adventure Rich which is off to a great start. The fact that he's a professional videographer puts him at an advantage; hopefully he will be able to monetize his vlogs soon and this will go a long way toward helping him survive in a very challenging situation.

...And finally, speaking of changes... Facebook has dumped me. 😂😂😂 Seriously. A few months ago I tried to sign in and couldn't: they said I had violated their community guidelines, which is absolute BS unless photos of my spider plants are somehow threatening to the Facebook community. I can get back on if I give them my phone number, they say. Well, my response is Up yours, Mr. Zuckerberg. I can buy a burner phone and use that, but I have other priorities. I lost the gardening page that was helping to preserve my sanity during the lockdown since it was tied to the Liane Spicer account, but my FB author page survived because there are other admins there and I access it through them. Ironic, this divorce, as I've always hated FB and was there only to keep in touch with my writing network. I've wanted to leave FB for years.

I've missed this blog. Some of my old blog buddies are still active on their blogs, I know. I'll try to drop by now and then. I enjoy the peace here. I certainly don't miss the rudeness and crassness and insane politics and sensation-mongering and click-baiting and conspiracy theories and outright lies and malignancy of FB. Now to wean myself off WhatsApp...

Inhale...

Exhale...

Be kind. 

Take care of yourself. 

You're stronger than you know.

Hello world!

No, that's not me. I'm older. And wider. And...
Okay, that's not me. We'll leave it at that.

Hello, Wordtryst, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again...

I started this blog, my first venture into social media, back in 2007, one year after I found a literary agent for my first novel and mere months after she sold it to Dorchester Publishing NY (now defunct). Wordtryst has been on hiatus for most of the 9 years that I've been devoted to coordinating and contributing to the Novel Spaces group blog. That second blog is now on hiatus for a year and my thoughts return, as they often have, to Wordtryst.

The 11+ years since I started this blog have been quite a ride. I published just two romance novels under the pen name Liane Spicer. I've published dozens of short stories, novelettes and novellas in several genres under different pen names. That's what I call my commercial work, the work that consistently brings in royalties.

Then there's 'me art' -- the serious stories in which I explore form and language and the ethos of this Caribbean place I call home. A few stories have been published in journals, and one short story landed me on the shortlist for the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize (2014, under my real name Charmaine Rousseau). I have at least a dozen incomplete works -- both commercial and otherwise. I have eight unpublished literary short stories squatting on my drive; I'm working toward an anthology but I'm inconsistent because I don't write those stories until they 'come' to me (unlike the commercial work that I write much more consistently and intentionally).

I've moved twice over this period. My son has grown up from the barefoot surfer boy my old visitors remember -- but that carefree surfer with the passionate love of nature and green spaces is still his core identity. I'm so glad. My son is my soul-brother. We understand each other like no one else, I think. And he's brought angels into my people-averse existence in the form of his offspring and his partner. The memoir about our journey through his childhood is written, has been written for years. It needs a final polish, and a publisher. I hope the world gets to read it some day soon.

Coming back to Wordtryst feels like coming home. Hello, world! I've missed you! And like Cynara's lover in that old poem, I've been faithful to you, Wordtryst, in my fashion. I've blogged elsewhere, but my heart never left you. I've dallied with Facebook, but I hate it more than I love it. And I abhor Twitter, that sometimes-entertaining, sometimes-brilliant, but dreadfully noisy place. I've met some truly lovely people on this quiet blog. Maybe I'll meet a few more, or renew old blog friendships that fell by the wayside. Or maybe it'll be just me, my musings and my photos. A quiet space. A Zen room in this chaotic world.

I'll just close my eyes and rest here for a bit. Mmmmm.

Happy anniversary, Novel Spaces!

July 1 will mark the 6th anniversary of the Novel Spaces blog, and the beginning of our 7th year.

We're a different kind of writing group. Whereas most author blogs focus on a particular genre, Novel Spaces authors come in every stripe, from romance to historical, sci-fi to horror, literary to erotica, mainstream to fantasy graphic books, young adult to paranormal, crime fiction to poetry, media tie-in games to mystery. Yikes! That pretty much covers every major genre out there. Our writers are as diverse as their output, coming from backgrounds that range from biomedical research to information technology, the military to education, archaeology to law enforcement, health administration to broadcast media, graphic art and more. They are dotted around the planet, from Asia to the Caribbean and the US. So what on earth do we all have in common?

We love books. We love to read good stories, and to write them. We love the creative impulse, the idea that comes screaming through the ether begging: "Write me! Write me!" We love the research, the actual act of writing, of fingers flashing over keyboard or picking hesitantly at keys, of the swash and backwash of words forming into images. We really love words--all those sounds, shapes, and shades of meaning. We agonize over them, chuckle at them, cry over them. And perhaps most importantly, we love interacting with people who understand all of this and who feel the way we do about stories, about books, about writing.

To the 22 wonderful authors, past and present, who have stepped aboard the Novel Spaces ship, we thank you all. We appreciate the unique perspectives you have brought to the group, as well as your discipline and commitment over the years. To the new members waiting in the wings to join us July 1, welcome! We look forward to the new flavors you will bring to Novel Spaces as we embark upon our newest odyssey. And to our guest authors, readers and followers over the years, a heartfelt 'Thank you!' You're a lovely bunch. Never once have we had to deal with unpleasantness on our threads. That is something rare and beautiful.

Happy anniversary to the Novelnaut community! Off we go again.

I'm the language police and you're under arrest!

Back in 2007 when I was still new to blogging I was unceremoniously pulled over by a helmeted laptop cop, a regular visitor to my blog, who cited me for misspelling ad nauseam. I Googled the expression and discovered that my version, ad nauseum, did not exist. Duh, I told myself. The expression is derived from nausea, so where on earth did I get that second u? I did a quick search of the blog and found I had misspelled the word not just in the current article, but in another I had posted a few months earlier.

My gratitude for that citation was profound. I had always been a little--okay, a lot--impatient with writers who inadvertently break the rules of the language in their Internet scribblings (and, needless to say, in their books). Yet I had made this egregious spelling error on my own blog, not once, but twice. I was mortified, but thankful for the directness of the language cop. I admired her seeming inability to shrink from what some might consider a sensitive issue. I imagine that all writers are sensitive about errors in their work; I know I am, which is why, unlike my blog friend, I rarely point out glaring errors in the writing of authors I know--the exception being friends who ask me to edit their work and clients who pay me to do so.

Correcting minor errors in articles submitted by guests of Novel Spaces is something I do routinely. As a blog administrator, I also correct typos, incorrect formatting, and sometimes language errors in members' posts, not routinely, but now and then when I stumble across them. What I never do is send an e-mail to the author citing him or her for the mistakes.

I know, I know. I'm a craven coward who dreads causing offense or embarrassment. I've seen the reactions of writers across the web to having their errors pointed out, heard the screams of "Spelling police!" and "Grammar Nazi". I also have time constraints like everyone else; it's more efficient all around to just make a quick edit and move on. But I never do this without a little pang of remorse. The spelling-cop (who became a good friend) ensured that I'd never again embarrass myself on the world wide web or anywhere else by writing ad nauseum instead of ad nauseam.

What do you do? Do you point out language errors to writers as you find them in the knowledge that every word we write, even informally on the Internet, reflects on us professionally? Or do you just you move along knowing that we all err at times?

Fair warning

Dear Diary,

I've neglected you of late, haven't I? The odd article here, the pointer to my posts over on Novel Spaces there, and not much else in between. Well, that's life for you: it ebbs and it flows; the focus changes; other interests usurp.

Much has been happening off the page: additions to the family, crises, sickness (not me, thank God), achievements and disappointments, publisher woes, changing landscapes and people-scapes, the soap opera that passes for local politics...

Some things don't change, though, like the beauty of this here island, the supporting rock that is my family, the comfort of close friendships, the ongoing challenges of living life, growing up and growing older. My part-time day job is now half of a part-time job. The silver lining is that I now have more time to repair to my psychic bamboo grove to be quiet, to listen to the rustle of the leaves and the song of the birds, to think, to read, and very importantly, to write. My languishing WIPs must languish no more.

I'm giving you fair warning that I'll be visiting regularly, Dear Diary, my cyber-bamboo-grove in this blogosphere-jungle. There are books to be read and reviewed, authors to be interviewed, tales to be told, issues to be explored. Today I'm sharing one of my favourite things: Blue Nude by Pablo Picasso, a painting from his blue period. Of all his masterpieces I love this one best; I used to have a print on my bedroom wall years ago. It's all in the lines, and blue is my colour - cool, to balance the tropical and ancestral heat in my blood. Enjoy!

wordtryst

Novel Spaces: Blogging: Dead or alive?

Novel Spaces: Blogging: Dead or alive?: "When I got hooked on the blogging phenomenon back in 2005, this new (to me) toy was the smartest, hippest, most exciting thing around. Over ..."

Today on Novel Spaces I'm wondering whether the blogging phenomenon is on its way out. You're welcome to join me - and don't forget to share your opinion on this issue by taking the poll!

Of transfixing call girl diaries

I know I'm extremely late to the party and my UK acquaintances will point and hoot at this, but I've only just discovered Belle de Jour, Diary of a London Call Girl. How did I happen on it? By the circuitous route of: reading a Times Online article about Zadie Smith, her father, and British comedy, and following a side link to an article and video clip with the innocuous caption: I Miss the Game - Belle De Jour author misses pride of "doing a job well". It was one of those times when you click a random link out of idle curiosity, or because your attention span is short and getting through the Zadie Smith (or whichever) article is taking more perseverance than you thought it would.

Anyway, I clicked the link, read the article, and discovered that Belle de Jour is the pseudonym which Dr. Brooke Magnanti used to write the online journal about her adventures as a highly paid London call girl. I did a Google search for the blog, naturally, and have been reading through the archives to find out what exactly started the Belle de Jour phenomenon. Because that's what it's become, what with the blog winning a Guardian prize for best-written British blog back in the early days, followed by the book offers, a TV drama, and Dr. Magnanti's coming out from behind the veil of anonymity. There've been follow-up books, of course, and some degree of celebrity for the writer.

So, yes, I've been reading Belle's journal. I've already learned a couple things - no, not those things, you! Things like the name of a shade of nail polish that I suspect is the one I saw on a woman's exquisitely manicured digits a few years ago in Miami and have been searching for - and attempting to replicate myself - since. (Chanel Le Vernis beige, which has been discontinued, but which can still be had via eBay.) I've also discovered additional sources of one of my guilty, secret indulgences: fabulous underwear. The sources tend to be UK-centric, though, which would make shipping charges a bit beyond what I'm willing to, ah, put out.

I've read through about seven months worth of Belle's blog entries and I'm not bored yet. The writing isn't bad - no, that's not true. It's pretty good. Then there's the voyeuristic thrill of the whole thing. But would I buy the books? That's an easy no. Would I read one if it came my way by some other means? I doubt it. There are limits to my appetite for voyeurism. I also have to admit that there are some aspects of the work, and the lady's lifestyle, that make me cringe. I'm not a prude, and I try not to be judgmental, but I'm squeamish about some things. Um, fisting? Threesomes? Oral sex with strangers with no latex in between? That's stretching my comfort zone a bit too far.

When I'm tired of the blog, which should be sometime over the next couple of days, that would be it for me. No further Belle de Jour titillation necessary.

Blog vacation

The blog is tired. I'm tired. Over the past three months my part-time, low-stress day job has morphed into something else altogether with long hours and triple the responsibility.

Hopefully, things will revert to normal within two to three weeks and I'll have the time and mindset once again to take care of my writing and my blog. Right now it's a struggle to balance all the facets of my daily life, so for the next few weeks I won't be blogging unless something spectacular happens that I just have to share with the cyberworld. I'll still be posting over at Novel Spaces when my turn comes around, and I'll still drop by your blogs to see what you're up to now and then.

And now for some good news. The house wrens, our tiny, animated coco rachelles, returned after a prolonged absence and have been making happy sounds around the eaves on mornings. One even paid me a visit, hopping and chirping along the rafters in my bedroom. And the manicou (opossum) family has also reappeared; I hear their sounds at night and even spotted one making its way along the back fence. I take the flourishing of the wildlife as a good omen for, oh, life in general.

Blessings, all!

Two years and counting

My second blogiversary came and went in June - and I was so busy I didn't even notice. I believe one should never pass up an opportunity to celebrate, so...

To all who visited, commented, stuck around, became my blog buddies and friends, shared their thoughts, opinions, and wit, empathized, commiserated and celebrated along with me, and whose thoughts, adventures and misadventures I've followed on their own blogs, here's a great, big,

YOU'VE BEEN WONDERFUL, AND MADE IT ALL WORTHWHILE. IT'S BEEN ALL GOOD...
THANK YOU!

Blogging vs. Life

A recent post by a blogger pal, his birthday post, and another by one of the Novel Racers awhile ago, both made me stop and think. Both, without going into specifics, referred to setbacks and problems in their lives, or in the lives of those closest to them, and each made me re-examine my assumptions.

When we come on here we're all upbeat, in total control. Even when we blog about imperfections in our lives it's done with humor, or at least wry self-deprecation. Yet every now and then I get a glimpse behind the veil: in the case of the second blogger, an indication that her life was in turmoil; the other, that everyone that he cared about had undergone some kind of disappointment or setback recently.

When I come on here I put on my public face, and I tend to forget that's what most of us do. When I'm grappling with tough realities, I assume that I'm alone with them, that everyone else is a-ok. I don't blog much about the fact that a close relative of my mother was shot by unknown gunmen and succumbed to her injuries a few days ago, never having regained consciousness. That neighbours of an in-law were robbed and slaughtered in their home yesterday. That everyone I know lives in terror of being the next victim of some sort of senseless violence, that I feel my heart squeeze and my breath shorten even as I type this.

And that's just the major stuff. There's the rest: the bad things that happen not just to good people, but to good people we love. The bad things that happen, or have happened, to us. Our internal struggles. Our failures and shortcomings. Our ongoing troubles and challenges.

Clicking around the blogs I enjoy never fails to lift my spirits: there's humour, sharing and camaraderie, support and encouragement everywhere. And that's great, that's the way it should be. But every now and then I get a glimpse behind the scenes and it reminds me: I'm not alone with my challenges; we all have them. Behind the light touch we're coping with birth, death, sickness, divorce, breakups, betrayal, debts, aging, tortured relationships, painful memories, raw fear - the whole gamut. For a moment I put aside my assumption that everyone else is leading a charmed life.

Then I get back into gear and try, like my fellow bloggers, to follow the advice of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians (thanks D, for first showing this to me):

"Finally, bretheren,
Whatsoever things are true,
Whatsoever things are honest,
Whatsoever things are just,
Whatsoever things are pure,
Whatsoever things are lovely,
Whatsoever things are of good report;
If there be any virtue,
And if there be any praise,
Think on these things."

One Year!

Today marks one whole year since I started this blog, and how the time has flown! I created Wordtryst on June 24th 2007 but did not make it public until around two weeks later. I added the ClustrMap widget late in August and it now stands at more than 17,000 hits, with close to 1,600 views of my Blogger profile page! Cool, even if you discount the fact that many of those hits/views were... ahem... mine. :)

It's been great. Thank you to all who visited, all who commented, all who edified and entertained me, who have been walking beside me on my journey to publication, and all who just dropped by to say hi. Your support has been wonderful! With the release of Café au Lait just two and a half months away, I'll continue to post about the ups and downs of this odyssey - with maybe the occasional rant thrown in!

Cheers!

Me, Myself & I

With the publication date for my first novel drawing closer, I've been preparing to go into promotions mode, mostly by reading as much as I can on the subject and making notes. I have to be honest here: the idea of going out and promoting myself or my product used to freak me out massively. When I first began this blog it was with trepidation and trembling at the mere idea of putting myself 'out there'. It was so bad that I didn't make the blog public for several weeks while I tried to find the nerve to engage the world wide web. Suppose it was a disaster? Suppose nobody came? Suppose people did come but turned out to be awful purveyors of negativity like I've seen in other places?

Wordtryst is almost a year old and it has been nothing but good. Never, not once, has any visitor been anything but positive and supportive. I now have a sense of community that I didn't have before. The interaction with other bloggers has brightened my days and lifted my spirits. It has entertained and informed me way, way beyond my expectations. I credit this positive experience with the startling realization that I no longer dread the promotion process; on the contrary, I look forward to it. People have been kind. Surely they will continue to be thus, and if I should encounter the dark side it'll be with the knowledge that negativity is the exception rather than the norm.

I found a really helpful page on writer Sheila M. Goss's website that I decided to print out. It's based on a workshop she offers, I gather: Promoting Your Finished Book on a Budget. The budget part caught my attention; 'on a budget' is actually a euphemism for 'with little or no money' where I'm concerned, as it must be for most beginning authors out there. Ms. Goss discusses the following points:

Website
Niche
Contests
Advertisements
Interviews
Reviews
Press releases
Word of mouth
Cross promoting
Newsletters
Blogging
Myspace
Cybertour
Book signings
Promotional items (bookmarks, flyers, postcards, business cards...)
Taglines

She also includes a number of useful links on the page, many related to promoting multicultural/African American books, which is great for me, but others, such as those for sourcing free websites, can be useful to writers of any genre.

Published and about-to-be-published writers who've done their homework will be familiar with all or most of the topics covered. What I like about this page is that it brings all of the bits and pieces I've garnered elsewhere together in one place. Some of the link are to places I'm familiar with, but others aren't, so I've been able to expand my resource base. The page also contains the article How to Do a Website on a Budget, another on blogging, links to examples of author blogs and more.

Sheila M. Goss is the Essence Magazine bestselling author of My Invisible Husband, Roses are Thorns, Violets are True, Paige's Web, and Double Platinum. Her articles and short stories have appeared in national magazines.

Who are you?

I'm going to give in to curiosity like a blog pal of mine did a couple times, and ask: Who are all these people who visit my blog?

I don't mean the people I know from the Novel Racers, or the ones who've been dropping by here for awhile and adding to the quality of my writing life - hell, my life - with their kind comments. No, I mean the others.

The ClustrMap widget has been showing an average of a hundred visitors a day for a couple months now, and I've been seeng those fascinating red dots popping up in all sorts of intriguing places. Click on the little map in the sidebar and you'll see what I mean. When the big map comes up, click on the "Map with Smaller Clustrs" link and get an even better idea.

I know who some of those people are: JJ in Bankok, Liz in Dubai, Pacha in Trieste (sadly no longer blogging - huh, get it? Trieste = sad in French, right? Or is it triste? Whatever! I'm killing myself here... but I know where to find you, Pacha! **spoken like a true stalker buddy! I mean buddy! :), Kaz in Singapore, Patricia in Hawaii... and so on.

So who are all those people from South America? From fascinating places like Brazil, Argentina, and the rest? I know Chennette visits from Guyana, but all those others baffle me.

And central America? And the Caribbean? Africa? China? Russia? The Canary Islands (I think)? And is that Easter Island way out there in the Pacific? Whoever you are, how about giving me a holler? What about Mauritius? India, hello! Who are you, my Indian visitors? Do you have any idea that almost half of the population of my country is descended from Indians who came here to work on sugar cane plantations after the emancipation of the African slaves, and that many aspects of Indian culture are now a vital ingredient in the potpourri we call Trinidad culture?

Who are you, you visitors from New Zealand? Australia? Indonesia? The Middle East? Greenland! Hullo, Europe and North America: I know some of you, but those I don't far - far - outnumber the ones I do.

Did you stumble on here while searching for something else? Searching for what?
Are you writers? Readers? Both? Neither?
Do you hang around for a minute and read a post or two? Or do you roll your eyes and move on to the next search result?
Are there lurkers* among you? If so, please delurk! You are always welcome to comment, or simply introduce yourself!

Come on out!

*In case anyone doesn't know what a lurker is: a lurker is a person who reads discussions on a blog or other interactive system like chat room or forum , but rarely participates by contributing their comments.

Join Bloggers Unite on December 17!

From the folks over at BlogCatalog:

Thousands of bloggers from around the world are performing acts of kindness right now so they can post their stories on December 17. Will you be one of them?

BlogCatalog members hope so!

On Monday, December 17th, post about some act of kindness you performed — making a donation, helping someone move, volunteering your time, or even something as simple as paying someone an unexpected compliment — and then share your story with a post, photo, or video on your blog.

It's easy to do good so please join us. This is our chance to show the world that bloggers have heart online and off. Perform just a single act of kindness and then share your Bloggers Unite "Acts of Kindness" story on December 17. Every post will count!

The numbers game

Since I put the ClustrMap on the blog two months ago I've been fascinated by the unfolding of the story that it tells. Back then I was averaging about four posts a week, and the map showed fifty to sixty hits a day - which included those racked up by my own compulsive checking of the blog, of course. Then I had problems with my computer, began posting less frequently, and hits dropped to under ten some days.

Overall (of the times that I checked) the highest number of hits in any one day was in the high seventies. The last time I checked the stats was almost a week ago. Tonight I checked again and my eyes bugged: Visits on previous day = 309.

Huh? Wha... When I glanced at the map itself I noticed little red dots in quite a few new locations.

This is an anomaly, I'm sure. Maybe the map - um - malfunctions at times? I'd really like some blog-canny person to explain this inexplicable surge in visits on a particular day. I've done nothing out of the ordinary, haven't visited the blog in six days, and I can't begin to come up with an explanation.

Three and counting...

This blog is now three months old, and I'm celebrating! It's been a great run.

What made it really special is knowing that I'm not blogging in a vacuum, that people, both friends and strangers, take time out of their busy lives to come here, read, comment, and offer encouragement. Thank you all! I'm constantly amazed by the kindness of total strangers. You'd never think it from watching the news, but the world is just full of goodness.

When I click on the little visitor map on the right I get a warm feeling of connectedness to people all over the world, people who have one thing (at least) in common: love for the written word. No wonder I'm hooked on this blogging thing...

Is it me or what?

Since I'm new to this blogging business, I automatically assume that when anything goes amiss with the blog it's my fault. Like when the pages take forever to load. Is the Blogger service slow sometimes? I mean, v-e-r-y slow? Or is it a problem on my end, maybe with my dial-up internet account which is slow by definition, but usually works quite adequately?

The other problem is the profile photo. Every now and then only a strip of it loads. I refresh the page but it makes no difference. I assumed at first it was a problem with the URL, so I changed the pic. After a day or so, same problem. Changed the photo again. Perfect for awhile, then ditto. Went back to the first URL and it worked perfectly - for a day. Now all I'm getting is a strip.