The New Job

On Monday I start a new job. I'm a little panicky about giving up my indolent artist's life. I never expected to love it as much as I did, and I will miss it. I'll miss the huge stretches of time for indulging in creativity. I'll miss the time I've had for poking away at household projects. I'll miss being relaxed and contented on a daily basis, and I have no doubt my husband and daughter will miss that too.

On the other hand, it's a pretty cool little company I'm going to work for. It's a tech-based start-up. I've never worked for a start-up before, and I'm guessing it's going to be an interesting experience. The company is owned by some of the most brilliant and idealistic people I've ever met. Those two characteristics don't always go together, but it's nice when they do.

The interview wasn't anything like I'd expected. They never asked any of the usual questions, and never asked for references or transcripts. One thing they did ask, though, was whether I can sing, because periodically they're apt to break out in song. I don't think the job depended on my answer to that question, but I'm not absolutely sure.

I really think I'm going to be happy there.

Candy Heart Conversation

Brenda Davis

I just spent a wonderful morning at a meeting of the Wisconsin Romance Writers of America. This month's meeting included a workshop given by Brenda Davis on "How to Fire Up Your Muse," which was wonderful.

Brenda talked about the "Butt in the Chair" approach to meeting your writing goals, which is as straightforward as it sounds - get your butt in your chair and write. But once you've sat your butt down, it helps to engage your imagination, which is not as easy to sit in front of a keyboard as your butt is. So she presented a couple of exercises that were simple, creative, and effective.

I got the biggest kick out of the Candy Heart Conversation exercise. Brenda gave each member a baggy full of those candy hearts that have words printed on them. Then she gave us 4 possible dialog scenarios: a couple having an argument, flirting, reminiscing, or joking around. The exercise was to pick a scenario, and using your candy hearts (and other words too,) write a dialog.


Here's what my hearts said:

• get real
• awesome
• yes
• first kiss
• love you
• love me
• soul mate
• kiss me
• u go girl
• yes
• dare you
• xoxo
• just one
• you rock

At first the exercise seemed ridiculous and impossible. Then it started to seem like fun. There was a huge variety in the resulting dialogs, from the steamy to the silly.  Here's the dialog I finally came up with. It's a little argument.

"I'm going to teach you a lesson!"
"Get real!"
"You know I love you."
"Yes."
"And I know that you love me."
"Yes."
"So, kiss me."
"What?"
"I said kiss me."
"Why?"
"Would you just do it?"
xoxo
"Now, don't speak yet. Just let yourself feel. And then tell me one thing that you're feeling. Just one."
"You rock."
"That's not a feeling. Try harder. This is important."
"That was awesome."
"You can do better than that. You claim to be my soul mate, so prove it. I dare you."
"OK. OK. You want to know what I really feel? I'll tell you. Even after all this time, every time I kiss you, it takes me back to our very first kiss."
"Really?"
"Yes."
xoxo

Now wasn't that fun?