The Lousypoet

The King sat upon the throne,
Benevolent, Melevolent,
Dependant upon the day

So I’m currently awful at Twitter. I admit it, I’m a hardcore lurker. I rarely raise my head from the muck to draw any attention. This isn’t such a great idea to get others to follow you, or to show a publisher that you can build some kind of personal hype machine around your book, but seeing as how publication is quite some ways away, I’m not going to stress over it.

That said, Twitter can provide some links with great insight into writing in general, using Twitter, and just generally making yourself known on the web. In that spirit, here’s four links I found interesting today;

Cheryl Klein posted four techniques to get to the emotional heart of your story. It’s quick, to the point, and extremely useful.

Jo-Lynne writes a great article giving seven ways to be worth following on Twitter.

Following this link will give you some great tips on being creative.

Finally, if you want to get more interactive on Twitter, this link will give you some great points.

One of the ideas our great *snicker* government had to help stimulate the economy was to create a new tax deduction for home improvement. It allows you to deduct up to $1400.00 in home renovation costs. Our bathrooms are looking a little shabby, so maybe I’ll visit this site for discount bath fixtures and spruce the place up a bit. I can write off the expense on next year’s taxes, and then when the economy bounces back, I can sell the house for twice what I paid. Hehe, yeah, such grand pipe dreams. In reality, I think I will hold on to my money and my house, cause I’m not making money off real estate for a good long time!

So here’s an interesting rumour. EW.com is floating the story Drew Barrymore will direct Twilight 3. Supposedly they’re looking at a third director because they want the third instalment (Eclipse) to be released all of 6 months after New Moon. This overlapping of production times would mean Chris Weitz, who is directing New Moon, would be unable to do the director duties on the third film. This seems a little off to me. I mean, if Weitz delivers on New Moon, shouldn’t he be given the shot at the third film? I’m guessing that Summit Films is trying to push this series through while people still give a crap. But if they really want a series people will keep coming back to, they should go for quality, not just slap-dash productions. I mean, check out Harry Potter. The films are great movies, regardless of the source material. People keep coming back to the films because they are quality, not just because they’re adaptations of their favourite books. Oh well, I guess it’s a good thing I was never completely in love with this series, cause I predict the films are going to be shite.

Meanwhile, Watchmen continues to get some pretty great reviews. I’m totally pumped for this film. One thing I think is unfair is that it is getting constantly compared to The Dark Knight. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a big Batman fan and I really did like TDK, but really, I don’t think it was as completely perfect as some people make out. Also, remember that Watchmen has the difficult task of being an adaptation. All Dark Knight had to do was be a good Batman story. I know, certain Batman films in the past have proven that it is entirely all too easy to mess up a Batman story, but I still think crafting an original story with a character with such amazingly rich history as Batman is easier than taking something as complex as Watchmen and trying to compress it all into one film.

Some Book News, Neil Gaiman has a new one coming out in March. It is an illustrated kids book with art by Charles Vess. Apparently the words are from something Neil wrote for Tori Amos when she had her baby girl. While I welcome damn near anything new from Mr. Gaiman, I can’t help but think this is Harper striking while the iron’s hot and getting some more kid lit our there under Neil’s name so soon after his Newberry award for The Graveyard Book. Of course, I’ll probably buy it anyway

In some book into movie news, Mania.com wrote this article on a planned Neverending Story remake. Seems Warner Brothers is looking to breath some new life into this series after 25 years. I suppose some spiffy effects and all will be added, but they’re saying that more of the nuances of the book will be explored instead of glossed over like in the first film. Now, I have to admit, I have yet to work my way through the book. With this news, I might just have to see if I can finish the thing.

If there’s one disease that seems to touch virtually everyone you know, it’s cancer. It’s frightening, a body rebelling against its owner. It amazes me that with all the money and research we’ve yet to find a cure. And it is astounding all the things that cause cancer. Did you know that there is a form of cancer, mesothelioma, that is specifically caused by asbestos? How did we miss how toxic this stuff was? How do we continue to make mistakes and allow poisons like melamine and listeriosis into our foods? It just seems so odd in a world as knowledgeable as ours that such things happen. But then, you would think with knowledge would also come the ability to stop warring with one another, but like that is going to end anytime soon.

Hope all have a loving and peaceful holiday season!

I am in awe at the amount of snow that we received yesterday. Honestly, it boggles my mind how so much can fall in an eight hour period. Just when we were happy that some had melted in that brief bit of warmth we had, it’s all back with friends!

So let’s go somewhere warm. Let’s search for a place to make las vegas hotel reservations. Let’s escape from this barren, white tundra and head for the sands of Vegas! LOL, maybe even win big at some gambling and come home rested, tanned, and just a little better off financially when we left. Ahh, to dream the great dreams

So guys, it’s Christmas season. You’re out looking for a gift for your special lady. Why not give her a gift that’s also gonna be a gift to you? You know, something that will make her feel feminine, sexy, and powerful (cause face it, she’s gonna own you when you see her in it!). Ofcourse, I’m talking about women’s lingerie. Oh yeah baby, that’s the ticket. LOL! Seriously though, it’s kind of the gift that just keeps giving to both parties in the relationship. How could you go wrong?!

I found this website called Franchise Gator. If you’re looking for a franchise opportunity, this is a great place to start. It not only allows you to see what franchises are available based on industry and geographic location, it even allows you to search based on the amount of the initial investment.

If you’re looking to open a franchise, this could be very handy. And while some of these types of sites can be fly by night, this one is a Microsoft subsidiary. Which could be good or bad based on your opinion of Microsoft, but at least there’s no denying that it has the money behind it to provide good resources.

So if it’s your goal to escape from being a slave to your boss, go check out Franchise Gator!

A Short Work of Fiction…

I had never been in the bosses office. She had invited me here, though I was at a loss as to why. I was one of those workers, kept my head down, did the best job possible, drew little or no attention to myself. I did the last one so well they had almost forgotten to invite me to the annual Christmas party, but no bother, I hadn’t intended to go anyway. So it was with some surprise that the boss had made her way to my desk and asked me quietly to accompany her to her office.

It was odd to me, that her office was as far removed from our cubicles as it was. Odd too that there appeared to be no secretary, windows, much of anything that screamed successful department manager. But it was here she had led me, her name emblazoned on the gold plate on the door.

I followed her in and she closed the door. It might have been my imagination, but I thought I heard a ‘click’ as it locked be hind her.

She removed her eyeglasses and regarded me with a look that appeared seductive, or maybe hungry.

“John,” she started in a voice that had caught me off guard. It was melodic, hypnotic. “You’ve been here some time, is that right?”

“Yes Ma’am.” I stammered.

“And yet no one here seems to really know you. Why, I don’t know if they’d even notice if you didn’t show for work one day!”

“I like to keep to myself.”

“No family, wife or girlfriend?”

“No. Just me.” Where was this going? With every new word from her mouth, I felt a stupour increasingly come over me. I doubt I could’ve even stood to leave if I had wanted to.

“Oh,” she said, almost merrily. “That is exactly the kind of man I’m looking for…” And with that her eyes went red, her teeth become fierce and sharp, and I suddenly wished I had made far more of a spectacle of myself on a daily basis…