Yeah ha. How’s the weather???

 

It’s been snowing.

(On Christmas day!)

 
I don’t think that we’ve had snow in December in more than 10 years.

The last time it snowed in December I took it as a sign to look up a long lost friend.

I was younger then and believed in Fate.

Now I’m older.

Not sure if I believe in the weather being a “sign from Devine Providence” that I should “Do something.”

As I wrote,

“Now I’m older.”

 But.

It is about time that I catch up.

(Someone has come here from my other blog. )

“Hello.”

“How’s it going?”

Ann

.

PS.

Happy New Year.

Who are you?

.

Well it’s been a while…

Hello.

This fall is really flighing by.

Boat out of the water, mast down, and ready to work.

Life is pretty good.

Ann

Very hard work.

I’m about to head back outside to work in the yard. It’s summer and very hot here. It’s very hard work. But as difficult as it is, the work is nothing like the hard work of becoming a writer.

For a long time I wrote everyday. There was no real goal other than to write in the moment of that day. I didn’t write it with the intention of becoming famous. I didn’t write with the intention of getting rich. I was just trying to get into words the thoughts and ideas as clear as possible. Didn’t even realize anyone was reading what I wrote until much later. Slowly after alot of work, I began to find my “voice”. It’s still difficult to write some days but I can alway count on that “voice” to pull me through.

I’m going to post something here about “writer’s voice”. It’s that ability to communicate in a style unique to the person. I’m doing it for a reason. I’m very keen on writer’s having ownership of their words. If they’re writing from their heart the words will ring true and so will their unique “voice”. True, there is a kind of collective subconscious that can have writer’s sound similar. As much as we like to think what we are traveling is “virgin territory” when we write a sentence, it’s possible that someone we don’t know may have had the same idea. This similarity in thought and idea is a consensus but it’s not the same as copying another writer’s style.

I have had problems in the past with someone copying my style and quoting without credit. This was sad. I was writing about people who were friends and relatives in some of my posts. Not only was copying my words putting this copycat in danger of taking credit for other’s lives but worse it was robbing them of the chance to form their own writer’s style. It might have been more difficult but I think that they’d been an excellent writer if they had done the work. It’s a shame that they didn’t.

It’s not easy to write. It’s much more difficult than weeding the flower beds in the middle of a hot July day. Sure I could get someone else to weed my garden or write my stories for me but it wouldn’t be the same out come. You can get someone else to do the work and then call it your own but when you do this you are robbing yourself of your “voice”. You will be denied that feeling you get when you read the a poem or a story and know that those are your words. They didn’t exist in just that way before you wrote them. There is a thrill when someone reads what you write and tells you, “I get it.” Whether you clear the flower bed or you are writing a short story, after all that hard work comes the feeling of a job well done.

If you are truly going to become a writer? You have to do the work.

Hugs,
Author Ann

Writer of the original 12 dogs and a blog ebay.

Note. Unless cited The words for this blog and the ebay blog are original to this writer. Among characters created? Intern Jack, Auntie Slacker, Hannah Murphy, …
The Hannah Murphy character was a turning point. I needed a character to quote but not run into copyright violations. So I made up Hannah Murphy and her quotes.

LOL Please do the work and don’t “poach”. Let me know if you quote what I write. I’ll cite your blog on my blogs. Just don’t quote my hard work as your own.

Regards

Ann

Hello!

…

because you’re hugs have made me into a pragmatic optimist.

(Even while the world is trying to beat me into a raging cynic.LOL)

Thanks

“Songs are like dream stories. They’re the ideas that are important to us told sometimes in snapshots and (if we are lucky) in long, lovely complete (and complex) sentences.”

AuthorAnn

1 July, 2010

Friend, I’m glad to have your kind hugs. They are like rainbows on a rainyday.

Hugs right back and happy holiday to you too.

Starting today is a long weekend holiday.

Will try to post but I might be away from the key board. If so? I’ll see you next week.

Hugs,

AuthorAnn

PS If you are Talooolah, (that would be the person from NZ with the nick and not a literary device),

Read the next post too.

Thanks.

Talooolah

From Talooolah, who isn’t to my knowledge a literary device. Wheither or not she’s a metaphor?
Don’t know.

Her comment.
2010/06/26 at 3:01 pm | In reply to 12dogsblog.
“hahaha
no that is not what you sound like,
it is after all your blog, your domain.
I am pleased that you responded because your words and descriptions of this fictional character, your taloolah, are very similar to me.

Taloolah is my nickname, something i adopted at age 11 whence smoking weed with some school friends when i attended a allgirls catholic school, i was going through my rebel phase…something i still have parts of. I was dubbed this alias and since then (11 years down the track) have continued to write it in alleyways and toilets and sometimes less then respectful places when i have had a few too many and lose my boundaries.

Hence why i googled it as i have been a bit of a tornado lately (my new nickname) and done a few silly tags in silly places so was searching the web to see if there were any haters.
Alas i stumbled upon this (aptly named as i am a huge fan of dogs) blog and read your words in awe.

As a fellow fan of folk and guitars and tears and despairs and nautical shanty vibes i couldn’t help but wonder if you had seen some of my posts on other social networking sites under the fictional character that is our taloolah/talooolah.

Seems she is pretty worldwide.
I am from new zealand.
Where are you from?
Sorry for the confusion..lets be friends “

My reply.

Hey.

Can’t always get the comment moderating thing to work. Might have to communicate in this lopsided fashion. Do you mind?

First, Hello.

Would love to get to know you but must warn you that I might be boring. Most of my life has been spent in the rural deep south. I’ve been lucky to travel both here in the US and overseas. Never been to the Pacific Rim. Would love to but it’s out of my budget and too far for my boat to travel. I really do have a boat but it’s very small. A day sailer. Plus I have pups who aren’t interested in becoming boat dogs. Would have to find them a (temporary) home before I could sail to such a faraway place as NZ. Maybe someday.

I don’t think that we’ve ever crossed paths. I have chatted with two people who were nicknamed Taloolah. Neither lived in NZ or Austrailian. The good news is that they were both well liked. So you’re nick is safe. Perhaps the similarities are the fault of cosmic coincidence or maybe Carl Jung.

Well that’s a start. I won’t hold you to your query about us being friends. As I said, you might find me boring. Then maybe not. I’ve had online friends who were very much different. We seemed to get along okay. Let’s give it time. See what happens.

So what is your life like in NZ. Here it’s in the middle of summer so we’re trying to stay cool. It’s a rural area so folks are busy harvesting and bailing hay. The peaches and blue berries are coming in now. So are the — lol I”m sorry. Sounds like I’m giving you the farm to market report. Let’s just say that life here is hot and consumed with vegetation. And maybe politics too. And the BP oil spill. Meanwhile I’m keeping my head down and trying to write.

LOL See. Told you. Boring. I’m thinking that’s why I love to write. Keeps my imagination out of trouble yet busy.

I hope that you’ll also understand if I’m not so quick to tell details of my life here at the farm. I will tell you that I’m not a criminal or anything. Not to worry.

Welcome.

AuthorAnn

Dear 12dogs,

Got this comment/query from Talooolah. Since it’s been a while since I’ve written on WordPress, I thought I’d answer the question here instead of in comments.

Talooolah asks

“author ann,
who are ye?
I am a talooolah we speak the same language it seems but perhaps you have more soul.
hollah at a playah
x”

My reply:

Hi ya.

I’m a logger.

LOL no wait – that’s Ray Steven’s The Haircut song..

The truth is?

I’m a blogger.

A writer.

I used to write a blog over on another bloghost before it closed. Now I write here. Sometimes.

If you are the Taloolah that I wrote about you’d be a metaphor. Now it’s true that a metaphor can do amazing human-looking things, but those actions only look like the activities of a real person. In reality it’s a made up world by some writer. Not the actions of a real person. I don’t think that’s what you mean. I’m thinking that you’re talking about a tangible Taloolah. A real person. In that case, well I’d be mighty surprised if you were the person who I was referring too.

The only case that I know of where a metaphor comes to life is in a story is in the mythological story, Pygmallion.

Now it’s possible that you mean that after reading what I wrote you feel as if we are kindred spirits. Can’t agree with or disagree if that’s true. Writing is an imperfect passion. As much as you or I hope to write the perfect words to express what we believe? There is alway the chance to be misunderstood. I’d have to know you before I could agree or disagree.

The only thing I know for sure is that the posts that you’ve read are incomplete. The words however are original. I am the author unless noted. I write fiction and poetry. Some essays on politics.

Please note.
This is 12 dogs and a blog.
Fact and fiction co exist here.
If you don’t know which is which.
Never assume.
Ask.

Thank you for asking, Taloolah.

Have been busy else where. Sorry I missed you.

I’m not sure who the person is that’s saying hello and asking about Taloolah.

Seems like you were busy reading my blog posts from the past. I don’t think that we know each other but I’m always glad to have new readers.

The post that you were reading represent much work but they are incomplete from the original. It’s like reading a book with pages missing. While I keep a copy of the original blog, I don’t make it public. Which is sad because I was happy for folks to not just read it but also experience it.

Now then, the answer to your question “Who am I?” is simple enough.
I’m the author of this blog and the words that you’ve been reading.

The question I’d like to have answered is not so easy,

“Who are you?”

Regards,

AuthorAnn

Author of the original 12 dogs and a blog and the Interactive Blog Stories.