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Showing posts from May, 2007

Work From Home, Is It Possible?

Work From Home, Is It Possible? Everyone asks this question, and for those of you with this goal, you prob’ly find yourself asking it more than most people. Yes, it is, and not really that hard to start either, though most find it hard to keep going. First you have to ask yourself, what is it you want to do? The most successful work at home jobs are the ones you created yourself. Here are few examples of people I know who work at home: My uncle started working at home in the 1960’s building clay bricks, and building houses for people out of them…today he owns a multi-million-dollar corperation that not only builds houses but also building brick churches, but he still runs the buseness out of his home, and he works longer and harder than the average non-home worker. My mom worked at home too, she was a professional seamstress, sewing fancy dresses for little girls, christening gowns, and cloth dolls. At one point she bought her own brick and mortar store (the house next door to us) and

Pet Food ReCall Update: 100 humans dead?

I was just reading this blog: If I only knew then… (5/29) Head of China’s Food and Drug Agency sentenced to death/Nutra Nuggets recall from there, I was sent to the CBS News report on the execution of the man believed to be responcable for not only the pet food contamination, but also the deaths of 100 humans due to pharmicudical contamination, and suspected of being responcable for as many as 200,000 human deaths in the past 7 years! SHOCKING NEWS!

Quick One Minute Review: Pirates Of The Caribbean 3

Just back from watching Pirates Of The Caribbean 3 with my three brothers. Super cool. Johnny Depp is great, as is Johnny Depp, and so is Johnny Depp, and ohhh look there's Johnny Depp over here and another over there.... how many Johnny Depps can you count? LOL! Funny! Best scene: The Black Pearl cruising full speed and full sail across the desert sand dunes. Amazing! Most amazing special effects: The decent into the maelstrom! Awesome action packed scene! Should win an award for: Best movie wedding in history! Shocker: Crazed fan girls beware: DEATH ALERT ; one of your fave pirates doesn’t make it to the end of the movie! Best quote: “Nobody move! I dropped my brain!” ~ Jack Sparrow or was that Jack Sparrow... oh wait, no, it was Jack Sparrow. Insider advice to those who have yet to see it: Stay until the VERY END … stay in your seat, and watch the words go by. AFTER the words go by, watch for a surprise “second” ending. If you already watched it, and you didn’t stay to see what

What do you look for in a book?

I’ve been reading through the threads on the net, and saw a lot of comments about wither or not certain books are worth reading. Well, that got me thinking, we want to write what people want to read, right? Our goal is to improve our writing so that readers will enjoy what we wright, right? How do we go about improveing our writing? Well, I think the first step is to look at what we ourselves read. So, what is it that you read? Why do you read what you do? What is it that makes certain books enjoyable for you? When you head to the library or the bookstore or even Amazon.com, what do you look for in a book? What makes you choose to buy one book and not the other? Try this excerise and see if it doesn’t help you to become a better writer. Sit down and think about what it is that makes a good book good to you, and write it down. I have just done this, and here is what I came up with: When in the bookstore or library, the first thing that catches my eye is the cover art, I think about half

Self Publish? Vanity Press? Traditonal Publisher? Something Else?

question I see time and time again is: Is name of business here a self publisher, vanity press, or traditional publisher? How do I tell the differance? While there are many branches of the publishing tree, these 3 are the big limbs, from which all the branches shoot off of. Here is how to tell them apart: a self publisher, is an author who gets a business license, buys the ISBN #s, hires a printing press (print shop/printer) to print the books, than sells them themself… the author keeps 100% of the profits, because no one pays royalities; you keep 100% of the copyright (which btw, does not cost a penny)... you market the book and distribute it through local bookstores and Amazon.com a vanity press is a print shop/printer/printing press, that does that for you, they usually ask you to pay money for them to edit your MS, they also chagre you if you want a color cover, (often they charge you for such things as “the right to keep your copyright”, or the ISBN #, in addition to the cost o

Maria in error

Like Dulcee, this pale skinned Parethean shows up as a peach skinned error. Oh well.

Dulcee with error

Well, this was supposed to be Dulcee, but as you can see, there was an error in the layers, because, when you post the code, a "peach" skintone shows up instead of the blue skin that the preview showed.

Search Under Way

Getting calls on the ad in the paper. Well, we got one call, two days after the ad went in, so, that’s good… the ad read: “Wanted: 5 or more acres anywhere in Maine.” followed by the phone number. As you can see, there is no mention of coves or upstate Maine. Just plain and simple, let fate take it’s corese. Well, want to guess what we got for an answer to that ad? A cove in upstate Maine, 80 acres of forest with the stipulation that you must leave it as it is, only thing allowed is a home built for yourself to live in. Is that a dream come true or what? The guy (a real eastate agent calling on behalf of the owner) just called 5 mins ago. I looked on the map to see where the land was… it’s about an hours drive from the Thunder Hole! OMG ! OMG! OMG ! That is my absolute favorite spot on the planet! I guess the next thing to do is go take a look at the land and see what it looks like. See more progress on: move to a cove in upstate Maine

Writing Career

Writing is what I do more than anything else. I’ve got one novel complete, several started (some near completon, some just started, others at points in between.), and I’ve got about a hundred short stories (some finished, some not). Writing is my passion, but so far, I’ve not been paid in money/cash to do it. My goal is to change that and not only get paid to write, but get paid to write on a steady basis so that I can make a living with my creativity. See more progress on: Make a living with my creativity

much better than 2 years ago!

Two years ago my spelling boardered on illegable at best. I didn’t realize my spelling was as bad as it was, until I started spell checking everything I wrote on MSWorks. I knew my spelling was bad, but what I didn’t know was that not only was I spelling words wrong, I was often spelling words backwards. Spelling has been a major problem for me, throughout my life, as has math. I knew I was writing (and saying) numbers in reverse... I knew this because everyone was always pointing it out to me... like the answer to a math problem would be 123 and I'd write 321 instead, or if you asked the time I'd say 1:15, than someone would say, "no it's 1:45"... but I had no idea that I was writing my words in reverse as well. People b*tched at me all the time that my spelling was "inferior", "juvinel", "like a retard wrote it", I heard these things every time some one tried to read my handwriting, but not once did anyone ever point out that my wor

What is the Twighlight Manor series?

This post is coming soon to a blog near you… The Twighlight Manor series… some 900+ pages, with that covers the life of an alien family trapped on earth in the 1500’s, and following the life of each generation right on past our time and into the future. more info to be added at a later date…

About Me or Who is EelKat REALLY?

Captain John Smith, sent 2 of his ship mates, Rogers and Goggins, ashore to the newly discovered Mainland. This land was given to them in 1657, by the King of England, at that time it was at total of about 3,000 acres of rose bushes, dense pine forest, wilf grapes, and wild apple orchards. As the years went by the Rogers and Googins families divided the land among their children, who in turn divided it among their children, and so on and so on, for the next 200 years. In the late 1800’s the original 3,000 acres had been divided among descendants of the Rogers and Googins families so many times, that this tiny spot of land was now populated enough to become a township. In 1898 a mile long Pier was built out from the land across the ocean, and the land was named The Town of the Old Orchard. In the years since, raging hurricanes ripped off the end of the Pier, leaving behind, only the small section of it which still stands today. And 2 massive fires wiped out nearly all of the very old b

What is Space Dock 13?

Other than my web site you mean? The name Space Dock 13, like everything else, comes from the Twighlight Manor stories. As I said before, the Twighlight Manor is some what of a base camp for the aliens who live there. The #13 figures in strongly with the Manor’s history. Constuction for the Manor began in 1313, after a space craft was sent off course and crashed on Earth. During it’s construction 13 workers were killed when one of the walls crumbled. The Manor was abandoned and went unfinished. Years later, construction resumed, and it was the first Emporor Swanzen, who officaly made the Manor the space dock of planet Earth. His son Vielder added to the Manor, what would become one of the key elements behind the Manor’s curse…a giant floor clock. The clock sits in the front parlor, and at eight feet tall, it towers forbodingly over all who enter the front doors. The clock was said to fore tell doom, predicting the deaths of those who had at some point set foot in the Manor. Vielder, wa

Why can’t I visit The Manor’s Library?

The Twighlight Manor Library collection, is a private collection. The books are not loaned out to the public. I am very protective of my books, no one handles them without the strictest of permission. The misshandleing, damage, and defacment of books is looked on as a grave sin. In my experiance with the many public libraries in this area, the average person is not capable of taken care of a book, that is not their own. Library books are routinly returned written on, soiled, pages torn, pages missing, pictures cut out, covere removed, and otherwise baddly damaged. In view of the fact that most book in public circulation must be replaced or discarded after a few short years, I have chosen not to allow this collection to have public access. It is possible that in the future I may change this, but for now it remains a private library with no public access. No book ever leaves to collection, once it is here, it is here for life, we never sell, discard, or give away any of the books in our

You have said that The Twighlight Manor Library is real. If The Twighlight Manor is a fictional place, how can The Twighlight Manor Library exist?

Ever since I first designed the Manor it has been my dream to see it built. A project of such magnitude would cost billions. As such, until I’m a rich as Scrooge McDuck, the Manor remains plans on paper. However, my favorit room in the Manor, is of course it’s giant library. When I was ten years old, I decided, that if I can’t build the entire Manor, I’ll build it’s library instead. It is my goal to recreate in it’s entierty, The Twighlight Manor Library. While the giant round room, full of mind boggleing spiraling stairs, is itself a dream that may never become reality, the collection does exist. I set out to collect a copy of every antique book I could find, as a teenager I became known as the best customer at every booksale at every library in Southern Maine…today those library’s look for me to be the first at every sale, every year, they even provide boxes, knowing that I won’t be leaveing their sale with until there is absolutly no space left in our car…trunk, seats and floor, pac

What is The Twighlight Manor Library?

The Twighlight Manor is a vast mansion, in it’s glory it had over 500 rooms, all funished with artifacts from Sir Roderic’s travels around the world. Al~Keem later added his own extensive collection of Egyptian artifacts. Etiole and finally EelKat would continue to add to the Manor. The Library, sits at the heart of the Manor on the second floor, and is a vast round room 3 stories tall, lined with twisting stairwys and thousands upon thousands of books. The original collection belonged to Roderic’s first wife Melneeva. Al~Keem’s collection of anceint scrolls, papyre, and old documents, was later added, along with Dr. Vangonees’ large collection. As large as The Manor’s collection had become, it was to nearly double in size when Micha moved into the house. Micha was the youngest son of the planet’s current Emporor Swanzen, and an avid book collector. The Manor’s collection was passed on to him. Micha now resides in the room along side the Library, and continues to add to the collection.

What Is The Twighlighlight Manor?

What Is The Twighlighlight Manor? Where is The Twighlight Manor? Can I visit The Twighlight Manor? The Twighlight Manor is a house that I designed but never built, so no you can’t visit it. The Manor is a stone castle-like fortress, 4 stories tall, with a triple level basement, and dungeon below them. The dungeon itself, is built into a series of catacombs and caves, which exit in the side of Crystal Gorge.However, since it is in a series of books, therefor it must be somewhere, so, where is it? According to the story, it was built in the late 1300’s in a dense forest off the coast of North America. One of the characters after not seeing the Manor in nearly 200 years, set out to find it in the 20th century, armed only with the knowlege that it was hidden in a forest along the coast. Finding the Manor proved less than easy, as in the 200 years that had past, cities had built up and the forest was no more. So where had the forest in the book, once been? Once upon a time there was a vast

Who Is EelKat?

I’ve been online since August of 1997. I travel and post on more than 100 differant forums and message boards, most of them ProBoards sites. Those who know me, know that I also go by the name of EelKat. Thus, I am often asked why. Why is a simple yet complex answer. The more appropriate question should be who. Who is EelKat? EelKat is a character from an epic book that I started writing in 1980 when I was 5 years old. Miss Kitten the EelKat, as she was originally called in 1978, is a black bobcat~like creature based on the tailless cat beast from mythology, known as Tailypoe. The name EelKat, came from my love of eels and the fact that she was a bobcat. As the EelKat story expanded she went on to become the co-owner of The Twighlight Manor an ancient stone 500+ room haunted mansion situated deep in the heart of The Twighlight Forest, owned by Sir Roderic Lincandoia Swanzen. EelKat is also part owner of White Rock former haunted mansion turned asylum for the criminally insane. The Twigh

Character Killing Basics or Why did I kill him?

during IceStorm ‘98 when we were snowbound and I had nothing to do, cause our electricity went out, I staied up all night long writing a short story (by flashlight) about a character I use alot in my other stories. It started out as me being bored and just writing ramdom events for their lives… about 20 or so pages later I was totally enthrolled with this story and it had taken on a life all it’s own, I think I was half asleep, kind of sleep-writing, you know like sleep walking? So I wasn’t really paying attention to what I wrote. In the morning we had to chop our car out of the ice, and get fallen tree linms off our roof, and stuff like that… fighting with the storm and all. It was a few days before I went back and read my story I’d written the night of the storm. In what I wrote, I had killed off not one, but two of my fave characters!... I did a quick rewite to keep one of them alive, but to this day I could never find a way to re-write it so the other one could stay alive… so I cha

Character Killing Basics or Why did I killl him?

ng IceStorm ‘98 when we were snowbound and I had nothing to do, cause our electricity went out, I staied up all night long writing a short story (by flashlight) about a character I use alot in my other stories. It started out as me being bored and just writing ramdom events for their lives… about 20 or so pages later I was totally enthrolled with this story and it had taken on a life all it’s own, I think I was half asleep, kind of sleep-writing, you know like sleep walking? So I wasn’t really paying attention to what I wrote. In the morning we had to chop our car out of the ice, and get fallen tree limbs off our roof, and stuff like that… fighting with the storm and all. It was a few days before I went back and read my story I’d written the night of the storm. In what I wrote, I had killed off not one, but two of my fave characters!... I did a quick rewite to keep one of them alive, but to this day I could never find a way to re-write it so the other one could stay alive… so I changed

Anyone got any ghostly advice?

well, I came on here today, because I am working on my novel… the one for this chalenge this time! it’s a ghost story, about a haunted house with several assorted ghosts living in it. the “prime ghost” is the ghost of a black cat the secondary ghost is a spirit possessed tree in the front yard other ghosts include a hell hound, a bride, and a group of “little people” (not yet sure what to call these guys, they are somewhat like drawves or gnomes or leprechuans) basicly I’m looking for any ideas, anyone might have, that they think would be useful in writing a ghost story; I’m looking for ghost cliches, urban ghost stories, how ghosts came to be, why do they haunt the places they haunt, how did they become ghosts, how can they escape from being a ghost, why might they haunt one person and not another, why are some ghosts goos while others are bad, how do ghosts kill people and why, and just about any ghostly idea you can come up with. thanks for your help. See more progress on: write and

orange

orane is my color: my car is orange, my room is orange, my bookshelves are orane, most of my clothes are orange, my recliner chair is orange, my blankets are orange, my atv is orang metalflake… I even have an orange cat See more progress on: have a signature color

Too Many Ideas!

Yesterday I wrote above and beyound my daily 1000 – 2000 words a day. Only problem is, what I wrote was not for my current book project! I had this idea for an older project I was working on a few years back, and just sat down and wrote and wrote and rote. I got a lot done, but for the wrong project for this challenge! eek! Than today rolls in and I find my self writeing away, and making good time… on a third project! If I keep going like this I’ll never get to the end of any of them! I need motination to stick to just one book at a time! See more progress on: write and publish a book

A Few of My Favorite Things

My favorite color is orange. My second favorite color is blue. I also like pink. My favorite city is Old Orchard Beach. My favorite place to walk is The Ross Forest. My favorite view is the rocky coast of Maine. My favorite Disney character is Scrooge McDuck. My favorite super hero is Darkwing Duck. My favorite Disney villain is NegaDuck. My second favorite Disney villain is SteeleBeak. My favorite super villain is the Joker. My favorite Disney non-duck character is Tigger. My favorite trees are white pines. My favorite flowers are purple iris & blue roses. My favorite animals are eels & bobcat & roosters. My favorite flavor ice cream is French Vanilla. My favorite food is veggie & rice stir fry. My favorite pizza is black olive, mushroom, spinach, cheese, dill pickle, & lima bean, with no sauce. My favorite book is Retief and the Warlords My favorite series of books is The Retief Series by Keith Laumer. Here is a list of my favorite books, of books I own. You can

love it!

got mine off eBay for only $200!!!! (that’s very cheap for a REAL one)... it’s made of brushed beaver-shin and dates from the 1850’s, I wear it every chance I can get, I love it! See more progress on: buy a top hat

Did it again!

Last week my Buff Cocker Spainal (Buddy) and my mom’s Old English Sheepdog (Toby), both had a blue stripe added to their hair. See more progress on: Dye my dog's hair blue

The Twighlight Manor Press

I DID IT !!! WOO _HOO!!!! I own my own publishing house! *Running back and forth doing Snoopy dances on the ceiling! * Actually, I did this, years and years ago, but have been treating it as a hobby thing… in 2005 I set out the make it my home business, and that is where I’m going now. So far we are only publishing books written by me, but we are hoping to expand to a fiction magazine. Right now I am building our web site . Getting this going is a lot of work, but it’s great fun too! See more progress on: start a publishing house

A Blue Dog

In 1997 I dyed the white on my black and white Bearded Collie (Junior) blue to match my hair, which at that time was blue See more progress on: Dye my dog's hair blue

Best thing for any writer!

Joining an online writer’s group was the best thing I ever did to boost my self esteem as a writer. I ended up joining about 20 differant online writing groups, I visit most of them only once every 4 or 5 months, however NaNoWriMo.org is one that I am on almost every week. The folks there are great, we share ideas, set writing goals, and of course there’s the NaNoWriMo 50k writing challange each November. My advice for anyone looking to join an online writer’s group is that they must check out NaNoWriMo.org . ~~EK See more progress on: join a writing group

Pirates + JD =

POTC : A movie about pirates. Johnny Depp is in it. Johnny Depp is a pirate. Need I say more? See more progress on: Watch Pirates of the Caribbean "At World's End"

started... I think

I’ve started, right now I am trying out various online sources of extra (suplimental)income. Here is what I’ve added to my list so far: 84 shops on CafePress 3 Zazzle Galleries added AdSence to my blogs joined Suidoo/created a few lenses I have a publishing house, which I am just starting to get “online” (it’s been around since the ‘70’s but I treated it like a hobby, not a bussiness, now I’m treating it like a business) I am continueing my pursuit of a retail career, and still doing the whole job interview thing around localy, but so far no job offers See more progress on: Become Financially Independent

F.O.W.L.

As a devoted fan of F.O.W.L. (Feindish Organization of World Larceny), I join in in this goal of having an evil lair, in hopes that NegaDuck, SteelBeak, and the Fearsome Five choose it for their next secret hideout. :D See more progress on: have an evil lair for my evil organization

Update on My progress

Well, I’m 2 weeks into May, and not sticking to my schedual very well. I’m getting about 700 words a day, done at a rate of one in every 3 days! I need to at least try to write more often or maybe write more when I do write. I did so much better during NaNo 06. Well, my long-term goal for this project is to have it in print via LuLu before October, so I guess I can let it continue the way I’m going, cause at this rate I’ll still get finished in time. I may have to give myself 2 months to write instead of one. How’s every one else doing? See more progress on: write and publish a book

Shiver

My new book (Shiver) is well underway: summary and outlines have been written up; the plot is semi-worked out; the cover has already been made and approved; the first chapter is going along good I’m striving to write 1000 to 2000 words a day. I figure that I can do that, cause I’ve done it before through NaNoWriMo; in that case the group’s goal was for it’s members to write 1667 words per day for 30 days ending with a short novel 50,000 words long or approx. 175 printed pages. In the end I had just under 200,000 words and almost 250 pages. I set that book aside though, and have yet to publish it. My NaNo entry was more of a “private book”, a personal challange to myself to see if I could push myself to write each and every day. I did and proved to myself that I could do it if I put my mind to it. And so now I’m working on a book, using the same writing methods used by NaNoWriMo. This time I’m going at it with the goal of writing a publishable book, and to do it in three months or less,

Sheilds or no?

Have you ever watched Star Trek and heard Kirk tell Sulu to raise the deflector shields? I was reading a sci-fi writers forum today, and found a debat on wither or not a writer should use shields on their ships, and if so what are those shields like, how to they work, etc.? Of course I had to join in the debate. You know me. Well anyways, what follows here, is the answer I had to the debate: In my stories the ships (most notably the VISION~D8) are built out of a "space age material" as us humans would call it. It is a silver colored metal-like substance. The ships are very smooth, with such a high polish that they have a slippery, almost wet feel to them. The material is very strong, and very sturdy, and withstands the tiny particals that would rip other hulls apart. Additionally, there is the shape of the ship, which is somewhat "football" shaped; the shape itself deflects things away from it; should anything actualy hit the ship, the material is so slippery, th

Internet today: What for tommorrow?

I've been writing sci-fi since 1978; in my early stories (1978-1982 era) was a man with an intelect beyound anything imaginable, he found talking with others (esp humans) boring, and so created a machine, about the size of a lage book (12x14"), that when opened had a screen on the top and a typepad/keyboard on the bottom. Into this machine he type everything... and I do mean everything, his mind was like an encyclopidia; he than choice a few others whom he deemed worthy of communicating with, and gave each of them identical machines. The man and his friends could communicate useing thse machines, the screen acting like a slpit screen tv, on one side showing the person talking and on the other the files stored in the machine that the person was veiewing at the time. The machines had an earpiece so that you could hear each other, without being heard by those around you. Likewise you could type your words to each other. I remember at the time I had written this, that people told

Space Ship vs Star Ship

What is the differance between a space ship and a star ship? I don't know if this is considered "cannon" to the general sci-fi genre or not; or how it compares to other writers and what they do, but I write sci-fi and this is what I do for my own stories: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ shuttle crafts: can only be used for short distance travel, much like an airplane, they carry at most maybe 30 people; they can leave the atmosphere to reach an orbiting ship; they can leave an orbiting ship to land on a planet; they can travel like a plane from one continent to another on a planet; ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ spaceships: large ships, can have a large crew of hundreds, but if need be could be run with only a handful of crew members; they may or may not have shuttle crafts on board; their travel abilities varies depending on the type of ship; small ones act much like large compacity shuttle crafts, while the large ones can orbit planets, and travel from one pl

A Biological Disaster--But What?

Are you writing a Science Fiction story that has an armagedon bought about by a Biological Disaster, but you have no idea what that disaster could have been? Maybe I can help. In "The Epidemic" (Part of the Twighlight Manor series, written 1993), I had such an event. In "The Epidemic", I used a scientist (a minor character mentioned in passing) working on experaments with variouse diseases. No one knew for sure what his intentions were, some speculated that he was seeking a cure for these illnesses, while others said he was creating a "super virus" for an enemy nation to use as an act of war. In any case, his true intentions played no role in the story, because the result was the same either way: one of his assistants, had a brain storm and set out to prove his theory, by taking samples home and running his own tests on rats, which in turn got lose and infected the local public. The disease started out with physical contact, but later gets into the lungs a