Will you follow me into the unfamiliar?

The new year makes most of us take stock of what is working and what isn't. For the most part, this "building a platform" thing is working great for me. I've enjoyed meeting so many new and interesting people. I've been challenged - in a good way - by the need to come up with content, and I'm writing more days than not.

A while back, I made a video, which required me to learn YouTube. Just lately, I've branched out to Twitter - which still feels alien to me, but I'm getting the hang of it. Besides that, I've joined a 366-day photo challenge at FLickr, and I will be starting a creepy / eerie / sometimes melancholy-themed Pinterest board soon.

I've worked out some guidelines for myself in relation to social media. My plan:

• post video as needed for paranormal investigation work (maybe once a month or so)
• blog 2-4 times per week (unless it's one of my seasonal NaBloPoMonths)
• do a quick bit o' creepiness update to my Facebook pages and Tumblr once a day (most days)
• check in with Twitter 3-4 times a day, when I take SHORT breaks from my other work
• add content to Pinterest as I find (or--fingers crossed--make) great images & links

I had to devise a structure for platforming - now that the worst of the learning-new-things stage is past - so that I can get back to spending the majority of my available time doing paranormal investigations and actually writing. (And revising, and critiquing others, so they will critique my work in turn.)

Thus ends the nervous preamble leading up to this announcement: I will be doing my blogging, from now on, at Wordpress. Mirroring the kind of content I like to post (which is usually full of links) is too time-consuming ... and trying to keep all the slightly-varying control systems straight will soon make my brain explode. 

After a good two month trial of blogging here, as well as at LiveJournal, Tumblr and Wordpress, I find that I am most comfortable at Wordpress. 

I subscribe to you Blogger-folks via Google reader, so I will be able to continue to follow your blogs, just as I have been. 

Good God, when I read that over, my head throbs. That's a LOT of technology, isn't it? I hope you'll understand why I'm abandoning Blogger.

This is my invitation for you to follow me over to my now one and only blog address. Those of you who don't use a reader, please consider liking my Facebook page - I always post a link to my new posts there. (Besides, the little stuff I share there is kinda fun.) All my contact information is listed below.

Thanks, 

Renae

blog ~ www.theparanormalist.wordpress.com

FB ~  http://www.facebook.com/TheParanormalist

YouTube ~ http://www.youtube.com/user/RRudeParanormalist

Tumblr ~ http://theparanormalist.tumblr.com/

Twitter ~ @RRudeParanormal

Pinterest ~ pending (It will be posted at Wordpress when I get it set up.)

An invitation to consider a writerly resolution. (Which is the only one that matters to many of us.)

Hey, fellow writers. (Yeah, I know that's pretty much all of you.) Are you missing NaNoWriMo or another of its ilk? Have you wanted to do something like it, but realized that the all out, balls-to-the-wall approach isn't ideal when you're serious about building a writing career? Do you know, in your heart, that getting published requires small steps, taken every day? Would you like to start the new year with an accountability project / support resource in place?

Click on the writer-lady photo below. It will take you to a place where I've made some notes about what I would find useful. I'm still not quite sure how it could work. I'd be interested in your thoughts. Does anyone have experience with these things?

If you don't mind, add your link - so I can see what happens. At this point, you aren't really signing up for anything. This is only a test :)

(My plan is to make a button from a collage of pictures, including this one, which would take us to the linky.)

On a related note, remember that Diana at dianaprichard.com will be hosting a monthly, virtual writers' meeting, on the first Tuesday of each month at 9 pm EST, starting in January. I'll be familiarizing myself with Skype over the Christmas break.

Paranormal Research: adapting to intimidating apparatus & grasping a new gizmo.

I’ve been a busy beginner-paranormalist these last couple of days. On Sunday afternoon, I gathered my ghost investigation equipment before heading out to Anoka’s Oakwood Cemetery. There, I practiced using all of my tools … except the digital voice recorder – which I forgot I had with me. The laser thermometer and the EMF meter are simple, seemingly foolproof, tools; I didn’t spend much time fussing with them during this dry run. I concentrated, instead, on overcoming my fear of my husband’s expensive camera. Once I tamed that, learning my son’s cheap digital video camera was a cinch.

Yes, I enjoyed spending the afternoon wandering the graveyard. No, nothing even vaguely paranormal occurred.

On Sunday night, I figured out how to transfer all the digital data I’d collected to the computer … and how to organize it in a way that makes sense to me. I went to bed pondering what I could do with it.

I spent the daylight hours of Monday learning Twitter … well, getting started in Twitter – I’m sure I have much more to learn. Tweet me: @RRudeParanormal, if you are so inclined :)

Monday evening, I settled in at the computer with a program called Windows Live Movie Maker. Determined to figure out how to make a slideshow, I took a deep breath and dived in. Seven hours later, I surfaced with this one minute and forty-seven second “movie”.

Yep, it has a typo. I would like to fine-tune the title. And there are a couple of time adjustments I’d like to make. (I don’t know how I failed to notice those problems in any one of the dozens of times I reviewed and tweaked the damn thing before hitting save – but I did.) I am, however, valiantly resisting the urge to go back in to make the fixes. Sometimes it’s best to just let. it. go. I am going to have to be very careful – I can’t afford to spend too many hours playing with this wonderful new toy if I intend to maintain a healthy writing practice.

Still, I can’t wait to go get more footage (maybe even of something interesting) so I can make better, stronger, longer movies.

Zombies at the dog park.

A well-worn path runs around the circumference of the five-plus acre dog park we visit on Thursdays. From the  dog-lock (double gate), my boxer-cross sighted his kind at the north end of the park. I unsnapped his leash and released him from his impatient heel. His paws kicked up a low cloud of gravel dust as he raced toward them. The pack he joined was ranging over the tussocks and slopes that bordered the path but, from my vantage point, I could see they never left the orbit of the cluster of owners who were trudging anti-clockwise around the perimeter of the park.

At first, I hurried along in my dog’s wake, trying to catch up to the cluster. The biting north wind stole my breath. When I paused to tug the hood of my sweatshirt from under my coat collar, a radical thought struck me: I didn’t have to follow the path. I could instead cut across the frozen but snow-less meadow, and meet the group after they swung southward again.

The dogs noticed me immediately, of course. For just a heartbeat, I swear, they considered. Then – led by my dog and a sleek German Shepard – they came leaping into the un-trampled grass. Even the smallest dog – a beagle I think – plunged in. He bayed as he chased his long-legged companions.

The canines didn’t come to me. They investigated an iced-over puddle, a prickly-looking bush and a big stick – which inspired an enthusiastic game of keep away.

Not a single human left the path.

It wasn’t long before the calling and whistling began. One by one, the dogs returned to their owners. Having crossed the meadow, I fell into line with my dog.

Tonight, I’m wondering why I did that.

This photo was actually taken the night 

our very good, very strong, dog learned to pull a sled.

Patience Worth brings a whole new meaning to ghost writing.

I just finished reading Into the Shadows – America’s Unsolved Mysteries and Tales of the Unexpected, by Troy Taylor. As a veteran reader of books on the paranormal, I can say this collection of stories is the best I’ve discovered. Often the actual writing in such books is barely tolerable, but Mr. Taylor’s work is clean, his voice is personable, and his tone is not overwrought. One story, in particular, fascinated me.

In Missouri, in 1913, a childless, 30 year old housewife named Pearl Curren regularly met for afternoon tea with her mother and a neighbor. On July 18th the women decided to experiment with a Ouija board – a gadget that was all the rage in the spiritualism-friendly era. A presence which introduced itself as Patience Worth came through. Over the next weeks, Patience showed a particular affinity for Pearl. Eventually, Pearl was able to dispense with the slow Ouija board, and simply recite and/or write that which Patience wanted to share.

And Patience wanted to share a lot – over the course of the next twenty-five years, she dictated personal communications, essays, a play, several novels and over 5,000 poems. Much of her work was critically acclaimed.

*Lullaby – Patience Worth

Dream, dream thou flesh of me!

Dream thou next my breast.

Dream, dream and coax the stars

To light thee at thy rest.

Sleep, sleep, thou breath of Him

Who watcheth thee and me.

Dream, dream and dreaming,

Coax that He shall see.

Rest, rest thou fairy form

That presseth soft my breat.

Rest, rest and nestle warm,

And rest and rest and rest.

The story becomes particularly interesting when the pre-Patience life of Pearl Curren is examined. By all accounts, she was an “indifferent student”, with no particular knowledge of history nor attraction to spiritualism or writing.

Of course I’ve been all over the web, but I would say the best source for more information and further details is over at Smithsonian.com.

By the way, I would never touch a Oujia board. I hesitated to even post a picture. ‘Too many horror novels & movies for me, I guess.

*I found the text of this poem at Google Books. It was in the public domain title Antholgy of magazine verse.

Join The Sisterhood of Cultivated Writers (Boys ARE allowed!)

In recent days, I have been struggling against a depression spiral, complicated by a nasty cold. (Which may be probably is a manifestation of my mood swing – yes, I can make myself physically sick.)  I’m actually drafting a post about the experience, but tonight I just wanted to pop in, reconnect and share an invitation.

While I’ve been moping about, sneezing, sleeping, and having vivid nightmares about being forced to be become a captive superhero, Diana at dianaprichard.com has been turning a shared, writerly dream into a reality. Check it out (by clicking the picture.)

Join us.

The Paranormalist gets cozy.

Originally posted at main blog on December 3rd.

Last night, instead of watching another great horror flick, I settled onto the sofa – properly equipped with a cup of tea and my knitting – to enjoy a Miss Marple mystery. As my cats passive-aggressively dueled for my lap-space, and my dog warmed my feet, I added another 2-3 inches to the baby blanket I’m hoping to finish before Solstice eve. (One of my goals is to knit an item for charity each season. This one, I think, will be dropped off at the hospital with a request that it be given to the next baby born to a young single mother.) When the movie finished, I went to sleep. It was not yet three o’clock in the morning.

Last night was a portent of things to come. My blog is likely to … soften a bit in the next month – for two reasons:

1) Despite my general dislike of the yuletide season, I am not entirely immune to the warm fuzziness of Christmastime, with its sentimental music, uplifting movies, and incessant good cheer.

2) My autumnal bout of hypomania has all but faded away. Coming to this realization so quietly is a good thing. By acknowledging and accepting what is happening, I am less likely to spiral into a depression. With luck, I will simply shift gears and become more domestic for a little while.

This month I will cook and putter more. I will stay home as much as possible. I will dote on and pet my menfolk as much as they will allow. I will make a point of taking the dog for a walk in the brightest part of the day. When the real cold comes, I will fret about the chickens and the feral cats, and make warm meals for them. (A grain and veggie mash for the hens, a kibble and gravy mush for the felines.) Despite my resolution to not fuss over the holiday, I will probably decorate something with twinkle lights. I will listen to classic standards by the likes of Mel Tormé and Bing Crosby. I will watch White Christmas. Probably more than once. Because it features the incomparable song and dance man, Danny Kaye.

But I will also re-read Stephen King’s It, as I have done, during winter break, for the past 25 years. And, if I follow my pattern, I will spend more time in my closet-office, with the door closed, wearing my headphones, listening to Midnight Syndicate, writing about witches and ghosts, pretending it is whatever season my characters are living in.

Here in the blog, I might not write about haunts and horror as much, but my interests will remain skewed toward the mysterious and the magical. In that vein, let me point you to a wonderful web find: Edinburgh’s mysterious book sculptures.

Watch a news clip about the sculptures by clicking HERE.

I’d recommend that you search the web yourself for more information. I poked around enough to learn that a total of ten sculptures were gifted to libraries in Edinburgh, and that the artist has indicated she is female. I don’t really want to know any more than that – I prefer that some mystery remains.