Weekly Holiday Recap

Mon Aug 6th brought us National Fresh Breath Day.  I chose to celebrate by offering some of my favorite gum--Shaun White Stride Mint--to everyone I encountered.  You would be surprised how many takers you can find when you are giving away something for free, even if it IS just gum.  Unfortunately, Freeman was out of the office doing work stuff all day.  Wherever he was, I hope his breath was minty fresh!  I told him that is step one to catching a wife.

Tue Aug 7th was National Lighthouse Day.  A few fun facts about lighthouses: The oldest active lighthouse in the US is the Sandy Hook Light in New Jersey.  The first lighthouse in the US to use electricity was the Statue of Liberty.  Who knew!?  Seriously, pretty near impossible for me to truly celebrate this one, given that I live in the middle of a state with no nearby major body of water requiring the use of a lighthouse.  But I thought about them a lot on Tuesday.  And at lunch I drove by this nearby house that I have always thought looked like a lighthouse and took a picture.  That will have to do.

Wed Aug 8th was National Sneak a Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night.  Seriously, I can't make this up!  Unfortunately, I did not have any zucchini at home, mainly because I don't eat it and thus never buy it.  But I DID have some peppers and bananas.  So those would have to work.  I certainly hope Ashley enjoyed her tasty treat the next morning.

Thu Aug 9th brings us to the International Day of the World's Indigenous People.  Yeah, um... So first off, I had to look up what that actually meant.  10 minutes on Wikipedia later, I still had no idea how one might celebrate it or how to "show respect for Indigenous people, their unique cultures and contributions to societies" like Wikipedia told me I should be doing.  The first thing that popped into my head was 'Native Americans' and how can I show my support for them?  Naturally, being the poker addict that I am, 'casinos' was the next thing that popped into my head.  And while I couldn't exactly leave work to go gamble for the day, I could change my screensaver to a picture of a casino I have been to before.  (Let's just say they got a lot of support from me that day.)

Fri Aug 10th, National S'mores Day!  Do I really have to mention that we looked forward to this one all week?  Only one way to celebrate this one, really.

Luck be a Lady

Time and time again, I get the advice to "write what you know."  It's good advice.  I find that when I follow that golden rule, I enjoy writing more and overall am happier with the end results.  That being said, it's hard to to if you don't "know," first hand, what you are trying to write.  When that happens, I try to get that experience first hand when at all possible.  Point in case:  A very crucial part of my story takes place in New Orleans.  So I took my first trip there last summer--a trip which I will be repeating in a few short weeks.  What I was imagining and planning to write was no where near the experiences I actually had.  It was so much easier to incorporate what I actually knew, places I actually saw, people I actually encountered.  While there, I made my first trip to a casino, which also plays a crucial part of not only the current book I'm working on, but those to follow as well.  I recently made another trip to a casino in Mississippi--strictly for research purposes, not at all to feed my addiction to Texas Hold 'Em (cough, cough).  What I found when comparing the two, is I made some pretty serious errors in writing that portion of the story that I'm pretty sure anyone who has ever set foot in a casino would pick up on pretty quickly.  While I am sticking to my vow NOT to go back and rewrite anything else until I finish the entire story, I know that there are definitely some things I'm going to go back later and correct.  

And the last important lesson that I learned while "researching" is that although I can think of few things I would enjoy more, I probably do NOT have a promising career as a professional poker player, so I better stick to writing!  But hey, who says you can't have a little fun in the process, right?