Writings by Jotter Scalems

Aha!

2008-07-08T15:13:00.002+02:00

Aha! Yes, I do have time now because it is the sugary honey sweet vacation time now. Huuraaay big time. I'm still waiting for my editor to do my piece of flash fiction to the printer, but they will. They had a little trouble with the artists providing the art (perky artists, lol) and that's why it's postponed.

Good news:

I'm going to start a new blog. Yes, I've decided to start a new blog now that I have time. It's going to be a blog with motivational/de-motivational/funny posters I have created. I'll try to post up three new ones every day. Yeah three a day seems a lot, but if I can create a lot in one day I should be able to keep up to that ratio. I'm not sure which site it will be, but I'll keep you up to date.

Really Busy

2008-06-24T15:22:00.002+02:00

Here is a motivational poster I made.

I'm currently very busy and that's all I have for the moment. I'm really enjoying the making of those posters and may decide to start a blog just for those posters.

Back, Just Regular Back

2008-06-09T12:02:00.002+02:00

I was going to say: "Jotter's back, better than ever, but to be honest I doubt I'm better than ever at the moment." I have a story for you guys, you can go there by following this link:

Click here for a story

It's full of neologisms and actually really hard to read even if your English is fine. Personally I think it's nice, but to be honest most people who tried reading reacted sort of dismissive. Anyway it's not a problem if you don't really like it. Just give it a try. :)

Heyhey

2008-05-30T18:29:00.005+02:00

Yes, I'm still alive. My editor in Aussie keeps quiet, should mail them one of these days.

For the ready people there are some articles I held back for you:

Cute animals

Cocktails

Board Sports and Japan

Children and Reading

Atheists and Agnostics

That should keep you busy for a while. Am not sure if I'll have time to keep posting for the next days so I thought these articles might step in in the meanwhile.

Just another, manic Mon,... wait it's a Sunday

2008-05-25T10:27:00.003+02:00

I'm going to send my author agreement contract today, the coolness. I also wrote an article on google adsense. It can be found here. I keep churning out these articles, that are not really sophisticated. Well if anything they may propagate a different view on things, I'm not really trying to make the super article here. If I ever wrote the killer article, I doubt I'd put it on the internet just like that anyway. :)

First contract!

2008-05-23T13:06:00.002+02:00

Yeey, big cheer this afternoon. I got a mail back from Brascoe Publishing. I'm in the first series of flash fiction. The contract was a bit different than I thought. Instead a a single publishing contract without royalties to which I retain the original rights and get a copy in payment, I got the following. A two year contract (I can't reprint it in that time), I get royalties and three copies. In case of a reprint, reproduced,sold,... I get a huge chunk of the royalties. To be honest, I don't really expect them marketing my case further and spamming best-of-year anthologies. Especially since it will help me more than them. Overall being a piece of flash fiction, this seems like a good deal. I can imagine them not wanting to find this story in a newspaper or their postcards would stop selling. Anyway it will be cool to have my first author's agreement. I'll be a real author as soon as I sign this one :). Not professional author, just real.

Guess Guess ;)

2008-05-22T12:07:00.002+02:00

Yes, another article, I'm sorry. I fear that it's becoming an addiction. I guess writing non-fiction isn't so bad after all. Anyway here it is. It's about the creepy underground groups in our society, moeahaha. Will be back tomorrow with another article. :)

Tired

2008-05-21T10:42:00.002+02:00

For some reason I feel really tired today. I don't say I can't write blogposts when I'm tired, but still it's probably a propagator to mistakes, bad grammar and who knows what? Anyway another article of mine is up, although I doubt it's going to be very popular. They managed to post it on a website, who has two similar articles on the mainsite... Anyway for the interested folks: here it is.

Yes, for some strange reason, I just keep writing articles and then linking to them. It's just that I can track the popularity of the articles and here on this blog, I can only see the number of replies. Anyway so far the most popular article is the one on Japanese temples. It has almost 500 hits in three days, of which 450 or so on the first day, so I guess I shouldn't assume that it will keep going towards the thousand hits anytime soon. I guess it also has something to do with the tags you add to the article. If you add kinkaku-ji or wasabi to your tags, a lot of google searchers will stumble upon your article quicker. And it also helps if your article is featured on top of a main site.

update

2008-05-19T16:10:00.004+02:00

Still haven't heard from the card company yet. In the meanwhile I wrote another article. A serious one again this time. It's about Japanese Temples. If you fancy having a look: here it is.

I find writing these articles to be great fun. I know I should also keep writing fiction and such, but the thing is that writing these articles is something which I can easily stop with. If I stop writing my fiction it usually never gets finished, so I may lay low for a while, until I stumble upon an idea that excites me so that I'm sure I'll finish it.

Good stuff

2008-05-18T15:41:00.002+02:00

My articles keep getting a relative okay number of hits, I don't know if I have to thank you guys or if it's just the regular public. The sushi guide which is featured on the main site of the website it is published on gets about five times more hits than the other one, but overall it could have been worse. I wrote another article which I find extremely funny, but probably people won't notice how funny it is as it got put up on a normal site. It doesn't say anything and yet a women's magazine would pay good money for it. For some strange reason I can easily write stuff directed at women's magazines it's just so... easy. Anyway check it out, how to say the obvious and not get caught. Here it is.

I've also decided to start putting up links to the blogs of my friends. Every time I write something I can also have a look at their blogs and they can do the same with my blog.

The first blog I'll add is the one of Tomomi, a Japanese girl who learns amongst others English and French. Check it out.

Just random stuff

2008-05-17T11:54:00.003+02:00

Hey, yeah not too much updates today. I put an article about Magic the gathering (trading card game) tactics online. I wrote it a while ago and never really did anything with it and decided to put it up somewhere as to not completely let it go to waste. I'm reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods right now and although it's written very nicely, sometimes I get annoyed by the typical circus style of the guy. Now and then you realize that you're reading a description of a circus and it doesn't really matter all that much for the book. But on the other hand it's nicely written and the dialogues can be brilliant and although the story line is very weird, I do enjoy it.

Story: Randy's Realisation

2008-05-16T16:06:00.002+02:00

The 'winning' flash fiction story anyway more like an idea hastily jolted down, but still...

Randy had always hated his teachers and -although they would never admit it to his parents- they also hated him. They would sigh when they noticed Randy entering class. Some of them still tried, but most had given up hope on Randy. In comparisson the rest of the class seemed perfect. They all studied well, payed attention, they would never complain and they were always clean and healthy. Only Randy spoiled the image of thirty little angels. The odd one out, the slowest learner, the dirtiest, the cruel one, the rotten appel of the bunch. But today, February the first all of this changed. A bird had flown and crashed into the second floor window, where class 2G had been having English. All children had gotten up to open the window to have a look. Randy got up last pushed himself through to the front. Then he heard a scream and next to the dead bird, Randy spotted a dead girl; Rosey.

Suddenly Randy realised that the next test he wouldn’t be number thirty. He’d be number twenty-nine.”Mmmm,” he thought, “At this rate I’ll be first of the class by the end of the month, hahaha.”

Some updates

2008-05-16T15:52:00.003+02:00

Hey people, I'm sorry for being lazy and not updating. Anyway I've got some things to say:

I won a small contest while I was away with one of my stories. I'll post it up here too. I think there were only five entries, so not such a big deal.

Furthermore, I've heard word back from the publisher that will publish one of my flash fictions on postcards in the Aussieland. They told me that they were still alive and would soon be able to tell me, where, when and with which artwork my story will be released into the open. I must say I was sort of starting to worry about them. Will post again when I know more.

Third, I've written a small introduction to sushi on a website, for anyone who is interested, feel free to have a look sushi survival guide. I've decided to write an article now and then online, just for the fun of it, sort of get into the mood. Maybe I can then try to guide people here.

Back in the country of the Belgians

2008-04-20T17:43:00.003+02:00

Hey people, now that I've returned to Europe, all of a sudden I have internet. So I may start writing on a regular basis again. I apologize to the people who frantically checked this blog every day and I would like to say to them that I also was surprised by how hard I could get on the internet while in Japan. Anyway it doesn't matter I'll just continue and see how many people pop in for a comment. ;)

So being back now, I realize how long I've been gone. Things have moved on and I have a hard time catching up, but on the other hand I have the impression that things are still the same. Things have happened but they have followed the usual pattern. It's funny to observe. Anyway about writing:

I haven't written a lot in Japan. Some short stories and an article for the worldcampusblog and that's about it. Being busy now, I have no idea when I'll start with a writing streak, but beware I'll get back into it. Beware, be very aware!

Osaka

2008-03-16T11:59:00.002+01:00

Hey people, I'm now in Osaka (Suita city). I'm staying with a nice and pretty wealthy family. I have started bonding with the local (Kansai University) students and in general things were fun. We got to perform at an event of around 40000 people, really hectic, but great fun. In general I'm getting used to the worldcampus life and drill and I'm just having a good time. I think I have absorbed the basic extra Japanese knowledge I needed now and can start absorbing really other stuff. Like the things I study at university. Additional kanji and additional vocabulary and crazy Japanese pick-up lines. I'm missing deadlines now, a lot of them (talking about my writing now), but the things I do are so many, that I can hardly come up with the energy to type stuff up on my blog. But my internet is pretty stable. A cable through the kitchen, so I don't think that this will be my last message from Osaka. Last night I went to a really expensive onsen (hot springs) and bathed around 11 pm. It was a good by party and I was there with my host family (the lawyer), another lawyer, a dentist and a film producer. Pretty cool. :)

yatta!

2008-03-06T10:28:00.002+01:00

Finally I have a decent way of getting on the internet. Our neighbors have internet and although the connection isn't always 100%, it's a nice change. Anyway That doesn't change the fact that I'm busy, but I can contact you guys some more. I'm starting to adjust to the Japanese life and although some people left the program and others entered, we are forming a tight group now. My host family in the last city was a bit mm weird. We were four people in her house and all she wanted from us is that we teach her son and her friends English in Exchange for food and a place to stay. But now it's different, they are really nice people. I went to Judo practice last night and am really worn out, but in a good way. Today I made Japanese style pottery.

Kumamoto

2008-02-28T09:09:00.003+01:00

I'm in the second city right　ｎoｗ。Ｉ’ｍ　ｈａｖｉｎｇ　ａ　ｈａｒｄ　ｔｉｍｅ　ｇｅｔｔｉｎｇ　ｏｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｎｅｔ　ａｎｄ　ｔｈｅ　ｓｃｈｅｄｕｌｅ　ｉｓ　ｈｅｃｔｉｃ　ｓｏ　ｓｏｒｒｙ　ｔｈａｔ　Ｉ’ｍ　ｎｏｔ　ｔｙｐｉｎｇ　ｕｐ　ｌｏｎｇｅｒ　ｍｅｓｓａｇｅｓ．　Ｉ’ｍ　ｓｔａｙｉｎｇ　ｚｉｔｈ　ａ　ｚｅｉｒｄ　ｆａｍｉｌｙ　ｎｂｏｗ，　ｓｔｒａｎｇｅ　ｂｕｔ　ｉｎｔｅｒｅｓｔｉｎｇ．　：）

Nihon ga Suki (I like Japan)

2008-02-11T01:47:00.000+01:00

Hey people. This is my first post from Japan and I really like it here. Yesterday we (me and Y from Switzerland) went out and had great fun with the Japanese. They listen mostly to English music, but have no clue about the lyrics. But all is great fun. Anyway today the serious stuff starts. We'll go and meet up with the other people from the program and meet our first host families. I'm quite excited. I'll let you know later on how it went.

Rate your rejection slips vl.2

2008-02-07T11:06:00.000+01:00

I know that I told people I was going to blog about Japan, but this came in yesterday and I made an earlier promise to tell you people how it would turn out.

For the ones who haven't read the first entry on 'rate your rejection slips'. Here it is.

Now as I told you, I was going to post how it went.

The bad news:

-My story didn't get accepted and I didn't get an invite to rewrite it so it can be accepted in the future.

The good news is:

My story has been graded and they gave me the impression that if I keep hammering the same nail; one time, I'll hit it right.

Here is what I got:

your story rating was: 3

Of a 100-point maximum, your story scored: 81 points

A story rating of 5, which represents a minimum score of 95 points is required for acceptance.

Unfortunately, your story does not meet our requirements.

Please see how your story scored on each of the ten subjective categories.

Some info for the oldies and the newbies

2008-02-06T09:40:00.000+01:00

-Countdown to trip to Japan=3 days

-I have removed the unique visitors counter because once it went over a 100 it stopped working. This means I have no absolutely no idea if someone visits my blog. So leave comments!

-Today, I got two rejection letters, hey wait no that's not right, one rejection letter. My piece of flash fiction 'Cuteness' has been accepted and will sometime this year be published on Australian postcards. The other one is another rejection for 'In Hell Life is Hell'. I know that it already got rejected somewhere else, so yes I did multiple submissions, so shoot me. Anyway this rejection was from a semi-pro market (5 cents a word) and the good things were:

-It was a personal rejection (yes they did take the time to tell me what was wrong)

-The reason why it got rejected is the same one as I got in the first one. This means that not only are those editors on to something (huuraay I can improve my writing), neither of them has any other problems with the text (for now). Maybe I should rewrite it and send it off again, when I can find the time.

Having read too much?

2008-02-04T22:27:00.000+01:00

Today someone told me that it was possible for a writer to have read too much. He argued that after a while you have too many connections and you'll powder your writings with allusions to stuff you've read.

Personally, I tend to disagree. The thing is, I forget a lot of the things I've read, which means that I'll never be fully influenced by my readings. I may introduce subconscious connections, but in general they will be so faint that I doubt anyone could recognize the writings that influenced me by reading the texts I produced. Furthermore you'll gather information through living too. Can a writer travel too much and is he then bound to only write about travels? I sincerely doubt it. I don't say that some people can't have that problem, but maybe that's because those people absorb everything 100% and therefore it fully occupies their minds. I don't. It may be a disadvantage when studying, but at least I don't have to worry that I've read too much.

Valentine's day (バレンタイン) and White day (ホワイトデイ).

2008-02-01T14:40:00.000+01:00

Valentine in Japan is pretty much blended into the culture. About half of the people participate in it. But the process is a little different from the one we have in the Western world. While here both the men and the women have to give presents on the same day, in Japan only the women give chocolate (or cookies) to the men they like, want to pay some respect. This doesn't mean that the men don't have to return the favour, but they do so a month later. This day is called White day, because of the white chocolate, which is usually returned by the men.

The advantage of the Japanese system is that you'll never have people who don't return the favour. The disadvantage is that only the woman can take the initiative.

I'll be in Japan for a couple of days, when Valentine starts and still be there for White day. I must keep in mind that the amounts of chocolate I see in stores, might not be normal.

Japanese Food!!! 日本の料理 (nihon no ryouri)

2008-01-30T16:33:00.000+01:00

In Japan, I'll be staying with host families, which will also cause me to change my eating habits. Not so much the hours at which I'll be having breakfast, lunch and dinner, but more what those meals will consist off. Say goodbye to bread in the morning! The traditional Japanese breakfast for example consists of fish and rice (leftovers from the night before) and miso soup. Some Japanese may have yet addapted to cereals and bread in the morning, but I doubt if I'll be served cereals a lot. I do look forward to trying all the Japanese food. I'll be sure to let you know when I've tried nato, the so called horror of horrors of Japanese cuisine. I have heard it is absolutely horrendous, so I'll have to try it.

Japan Japan Japan

2008-01-28T15:03:00.000+01:00

Most of you may already heard about it, but for the others:
I'm leaving for Japan in 12 days from this blogpost. I'll be taking part in a program for cultural exchange (www.worldcampus.org). I'll be gone for 9 weeks (2,5 months).
Instead of keeping two blogs, I'll just insert the Japan intermezzo in this one.
In the upcoming days I'll be posting some info about the program and some stuff about Japan in general to get you in the right mood. Once I'm there I suppose my blogposts will come up less frequent, but I'll try to keep you guys informed. You can still mail me and such, so even if the blogposts don't come up regulary, you might check out for yourself and nudge me on how things are going or if I have bought your おみあげ omiage(souvenir) yet.

I'll also adjust the tags, so all entries made in Japan will have that tag, so you can easily find where the blogposts about the trip begin.

Language usage

2008-01-23T21:45:00.000+01:00

By now, you've probably noticed how flawed my English is. I don't run these posts through a spelling or grammar checking program, so they come up just the way I type them down. I do reread them, but it's beyond certain that a lot of mistakes still remain in the finalised posts. Although I always appreciate people pointing out spelling mistakes and especially faulty grammar usage, it is not my goal to perfect my English through blogging. If there are recurring mistakes, don't hesitate to point them out, but there is no need to bother me with messaging me that I made a typo in post 11 (for example). I hope that most readers can just ignore those slight oversights and can just appreciate the posts despite of them. (I can edit posts, so if there is something that really needs correcting, mail or reply)

On other notes:

If your English skill doesn't suffice to type down your reply to a blogpost, then there are some options.

-Do it anyway; you live, you learn

-Mail me or tell me through mail in another language and if necessary I'll translate and post it up.

-I'd appreciate if you could not post in other languages or run your replies through online translators, without supervising. Thanks.

How conservative are you?

2008-01-22T10:45:00.000+01:00

I'm not talking about politics now. I'm talking about life.

-Do you fear travelling abroad? (don't want to go to certain (non conflict) areas?)

-Do you fear eating certain foodstuffs? (you've never tried them before and aren't allergic, think snakes, grashoppers and so on)

-Do you fear certain actions that aren't all that dangerous (bungee jumping (without back problems), skydiving, ...)

I'm not saying that there should not be anything conservative left in you, but some people should try and get out of their couch now and then. I don't mean literally, for a person who doesn't read, you can just go and grab a good book and try it for example.

Anyway just some random thoughts, but maybe people agree and it inspires them.

Webcomics

2008-01-20T23:28:00.000+01:00

I'm not really in the mood to write much, so I'll just link to a brilliant online comic. (I think it's brilliant, the actual experience may differ).

It's a comic about gaming, so if you hate computers and hate games, you may want to skip on this one.

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20021023

This is the first comic. It's from 2002, but in general both the comic drawing and the fun increases.

On peanuts and audio

2008-01-19T19:02:00.000+01:00

Despite the effort of two people, who wholeheartedly agree that I should blog about peanuts today (It's all a big plan to take over the world, don't ask), I 'm going to talk to you about podcasts and audionovels. For the people who have no idea what I am talking about:

-podcasts are audio messages, which are spread through the internet. In general it comes down listening to someone talking. You can listen to them on your computer or on your MP3 player.

-Audionovels are novels in audio format.

I like podcasts. They teach you something and are general entertainment. A bit like books and short stories for lazy people. Which brings me to the following thought: why don't people audiocast more short stories? Although I understand audionovels, I feel like they are just too long to listen to just like that. But how about short stories? I usually read one short story on the train and it just fits perfectly. An audiostory should be even better.

Rate your rejection slips

2008-01-18T23:59:00.000+01:00

I found an interesting site today. It's a website which is looking for short stories that are easily adapted into movies. They have quite specific guidelines and I fear they seldom accept stories (They pay quite well). Now that in all isn't all that new. But their rejection system is!

They actually grade your short story. They have 10 different cathegories, each worth 10 points. If your story scores between 0 and 50, you get no reply. If you score between 51 and 69, you get your total grades. If you score between 70 and 94, you can either get a rejection and you'll get your grades on each category, or you can get an invitation to resubmit and comments on what to change. 95 to 100 is accepted. I think I'll rewrite my short story 'What Goes Around Comes Around' and submit it to wrongworld. I'll let you know if I should score above 50.

Writing Research

2008-01-18T10:26:00.000+01:00

Okay I started writing something today and as always it is something weird. I'm not going to tell you much about it. You'd find it either fascinating or totally boring. But the weird thing about this novel (I think novel length is best suited) is that I'll need research. I wrote one page and I'm fairly happy with it, but then I realised that I had absolutely no idea what I would write about. What sort of examples I would use, how the story would develop. So for the first time in my life I'll have to go and do more research than the regular google search or the asking a friend. I have no idea what effect it is going to impose on my writings. Let's hope it has a good effect.

Bubbles

2008-01-16T23:04:00.000+01:00

It is dark outside and to be honest, apart from the light, shed by my computer screen, it's pretty dark here too. I'm lying on my bed, typing just a last blog message before I go to sleep. In a way it takes away my loneliness, preserves my fighting spirit. It supports me. At night I can sleep with the thought maybe someone out there is reading this and thinks of me. I do know that you have parents and mine are nice and they love me very much, but somehow I also need the love of strangers. The contact and judgement of the people outside. Do they like me? Do they hate me? Do they change their minds when they realise they could use me to obtain something? In this society we are ignored more and more. The people on the streets just walk straight past you. They don't really want to ignore you, but somehow it is not common to stop and say hi. The society forces us to keep to ourselves, to turn inwards. It locks us inside a bubble. Sometimes you just need to get out of the bubble, expose yourself. Sometimes you want to be judged, to escape rather than remain in the capsule of your own anonymity, like I did with this post.

On blogs and fairies

2008-01-15T11:44:00.001+01:00

Okay today, I'm going to write a traditional blog message.

You might have noticed that the site's outfit has changed to a slightly more interesting, but still quite sober, template. I think it adds a little more feel to the blog. On other notes, I was reminded of my old file with writings today and as I skimmed through them, I noticed the diversity in style and well just general coolness of the texts. I have selected about 4 pages that are still usable when thoroughly edited. But it did strike me as weird. After all some of those 'great' pages were really old. It was as if it didn't matter how bad my english was back then, I still managed to write quite well at some given points. While at other (later) points, I just wrote outright rubbish. This probably also applies to my blog. Some posts will be rubbish, some wont be, I apologize for the massive amount of rubbish posts. I'm sorry.

On the flash fiction 'fairy-chan'. It started off as a request by one of the readers, but somehow it didn't really become the story that I (and probably she) had expected. I posted it up anyway, but maybe one day I'll write a version which is closer to what I promissed. For one thing, there's no funny camel in the story, yes, that's right, a funny camel, don't ask.

Since the blog is still pretty young, I'm taking requests on what posts you people like. You can contact me on the forms right below. Do note that I can write other things than flash fiction. I can provide booklists, write about sports, about games, about Japanese culture and so on. Even though I really like putting up flash fiction, I also realise that the things which were put online, can't be submitted to magazines (when I decide to edit them thoroughly). Therefore I try to keep at least some parts of my writings offline.

Fairy-chan

2008-01-14T21:17:00.000+01:00

It had been two days. No food and more importantly, no water. Oh and did I mention, I was lost in the desert? How did it happen? Well you might expect a really interesting story, but sadly that is not the case. But on the contrary, what follows shall tickle your interest, so let's just shorten the previous happenings to: I was robbed. So I staggered on without any hope and even less sense of direction. I stumbled upon something which I thought was a trick, which my mind was playing with me. Yet it was an oasis. Yeah, I do realise that there is not a lot of description here, but as the fantastic thing is yet to come, I'd like not to waste my time with describing an oasis. We all know what I mean. Some trees in the middle of the desert, a small lake in between. The whole Sheherazade traditional oasis thing. So I was saved and I enjoyed myself. The water tasted sweet in my mouth, there were even banana trees which of course were carrying bananas otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned them in the first place. It was absolutely fabulous. As you might imagine, I decided to stay there for a while. The oasis was slightly preferable to the miles of dry surrounding desert of death. So I slept under a tree, trying to keep warm. The robbers had left me some clothes, but the desert nights are colder than you think. But I still slept better than the nights before. At least this time I knew I'd be alive in the morning. I woke up at seven. Okay, I admit it, I had no idea how late it was. Bandits who steal your food and supplies seldom forget to take the watch of your wrist. Anyhow it doesn't matter. I saw something marvellous, flabbergasting, astounding, heavenly and yes, a little bit disturbing. A fairy! How did I know she was a fairy, you might wonder. Well, even though she human size, she had wings, a bit like butterfly wings. Yes, she was a female and her body was shaped quite well at that. The colours which covered her gentle anatomy shifted as the sun reflected on her scaly hide. She was drinking from the pool and flapping her wings gently as she drank. Really cute. Then I made a sound by accident and she glanced and my gaze met hers. Her deep eyes taking me in, petryfying me forever. I am a salt statue now and can move no more. But as the wind plays along my shape, it whispers my longing words, my ode to fairy-chan.

Engrish!

2008-01-13T17:38:00.000+01:00

Since I don't really have all that much time to blog, I'm going to do something short on "Engrish".

I'll be doing some more of these in the next couple of weeks prior to my departure to Japan. To sort of get you readers into the Japanese mood.

A common misconception is that all Japanese people can speak English really well. I'm not denying that there is a portion which does. But absolutely not all of them. The misconception is rooted in the fact that usually the only Japanese people, who are met by foreigners, are the ones who have studied at fairly well known Universities and speak English. The same is true for the impression of the regular Japanese job. For example the main portion of Japanese people works in a company of less than 40 people. But I realise I'm probably boring you people anyway.

So, Engrish are funny mistakes made by Japanese people, when they try to literally translate Japanese to English. To read a whole lot of 'Engrish', I refer you to the following site.

Have fun.

A Gentle Breeze of Friendship is Always Welcome

2008-01-12T16:42:00.000+01:00

Today I feel like writing something just from scratch. But I won't write something that I'm going to edit, I'll just post it on my blog.

I looked out my window and noticed that the clouds were particulary blue today. The light blue of the clouds added a surrealist feeling to the view. I felt as if I was watching at a moving painting. A bird disturbed the image momentarily, only to be absorbed into the moving image as if the author had planned its entrance all along. Wind played both the trees and the clouds hovering above. It carried the magpie as it hopped a few times and then left the picture. The wind supports all, yet it remains unseen. Its beauty can only be displayed through its effect on others.

Just like friendship's beauty.

Mummy Muses

2008-01-10T22:54:00.000+01:00

I wrote the flash fiction story 'Grief' for a contest on a website and it came in third.

The contest's theme was "picture and sound". I added both the given sound and the image to the story. I did an awful lot of rewriting on this one(note: the rewriting didn't take that long, but there was an awful lot of it, when compared to the story's length). The main problem is that I had to stay under 200 words (contest rules). My initial idea of a mummy ghost being set free from his cocoon by the salt of his tears prooved to be a little too long. So it turned into the 199 word long flash fiction story 'Grief'. The original version had 'Sadness' as it's title, but I changed it to 'Grief' after a friend suggested me to.

Grief

2008-01-10T22:34:00.000+01:00

Play this sound before/while reading (put it on repeat)

He had lived a good life, yet felt incredibly sad. It had been custom in the Egyptian society to focus life on the afterlife. Little did people know it was a lie. He was the living, or rather dead, proof of it. Lying here, his body on a table, his entrails, eyes and brains in jars. Unable to move, unable to hear, feel, smell or notice his surroundings. He wasn’t sad because of his own misery. After all he had experienced and died and now he would slowly perish as his body faded into dust; the normal way of things. But he transformed into sadness, when he reflected on what had happened to his children. They had been buried in the pharao’s pyramid at the age of five and seven. His children; taken of their most valuable gift, something which he had agreed to. A great honour, he had thought then. It had been pointless murder. He remembered the song the mother of his children had sung at his funeral, the last thing he had sensed, before all senses had dulled. He could still faintly recall the melody, softly repeating itself. Over and over... Grief.

Writing Skills, a Peculiar Thing

2008-01-09T12:05:00.000+01:00

This is one of the posts, where I have absolutely no clue what I'm going to post up before I reach the end of the first sentence. This brings me to one of the skills I have in writing. I think a lot of writers, if not all of them have developped that skill. The ability to just start writing and while you churn out meaningless words, the story/blogpost/essay idea develops in your head. And after some editing, no one realised that you didn't follow the usual route. No one asks you: "hey, you didn't come up with that idea until you were a chapter into it, now did you?" Frankly that's because it doesn't really matter. But it does mean that in general a writer shouldn't suffer from writer's block. I can understand writer's block on certain projects. When you have woven layer above layer of horribly plotted writing, while not rudimentary editing your prose and in fact don't know where the story is going. Well, then all of a sudden a week later, starting a new piece suddenly seems a lot more fun.

But not being able to write is a myth. Maybe you don't feel like writing fantasy and this project really needs to be finished. So you sit in front of your desk, wondering about the next sentence, complaining why it doesn't come. Well, how about rewriting the last say five sentences and then just keep going like you were?

Writer's block is easily dodged; just write something else. Start copying a novel and all of a sudden, you'll get bored of turning your head and you'll start your own stuff.

The problem remains though, what to do if you get stuck and starting something new isn't an option? (as in you wrote around a 100k (the k is for kilo=1000, I use it a lot) words and used up a whole year to do it.) To be honest, I don't know the answer, if I did I'd have a novel finished. I started writing short stories, just because of that. I think it's a matter of skill and a matter of allowing yourself to make mistakes. Julliet E. McKenna always says: "don't get it right, get it written. So it's just a matter of ignoring that little voice, which says: "that doesn't really fit." Furthermore, I think it's a matter of skill. If you can churn out 6000 words short stories without effort, you can just lengthen it and you'll get there. After all if you look at Clive Barker's repertoire, that's exactly what he did: 'books of blood', 'Hellbound Heart' they are not too long. Of course that doesn't mean that you'll get your short stuff easily published. But that's another story.

The Rejection Slips are Lengthening

2008-01-08T10:34:00.000+01:00

I received a rejection (e-mail) for a short story today. I had submitted the story to an online magazine, which promotes writers. While it only pays $5 per story, the writer retains the full rights to the manuscript (which means you can still sell the story to an anthology, for example). Furthermore, your story also gets archived in library e-archives, which is also pretty cool. Now normally, I would keep this quiet. After all what use is there in telling someone that you received a "Thanks for submitting, but I'm afraid your story isn't what we are looking for at the moment"?

But this one was different. It actually stated why (fellow writers will know this isn't common, even for a full size manuscript, let alone for a short story). Here is what I got (I removed names and such, because I like to respect people's privacy. If someone is really interested in submitting to the same magazine, you can mail me and I'll say you where to go)

Dear Jotter:

Thanks for submitting 'In Hell Life is Hell' to *********. We're going to

pass.

There's a good story here, with an amusing ending, but the piece is too

short for it to be fully realized, I think. Judging by the protagonist's

race (as well as the story title), we're certainly not dealing with the

real world, and I think it might benefit the tale if we're given a better

glimpse into the environment as it pertains to the central character.

Additionally, I think that mere escape is not enough in this case, and I

had hoped this story would expand upon why the character is escaping ...

moreso than he hates his job. You should add an opening scene that triggers

his escape to better clarify the conflict in the tale. It might also be

beneficial for the physical pain inflicted to somehow tie into the

character's motives for fleeing.

I do realize this piece is largely in the satirical/absurdest vein, but the

details that are not provided ultimately hinder the story in this case,

rather than help it.

Do try us again.

This does tell me why it was rejected:

A straight storyline. The trouble was that this story was under a thousand words, which means that I decided to just give a daggerstroke type storyline. Most of the stories on the magazine's website are at least five times as long as this one. The next time I'll be submitting there, my story won't be as short and I'll have time to insert subplots/background. If I can keep up the same type of writing and insert some more, I'll have a chance.

The thing which makes me smile is: There is no comment on weaknesses in my prose. When I submitted my draft of this story to proof readers, they picked on spelling and grammar, but it seemed to lack the other writing mistakes, like 'repetitive words', 'repetitive sentence structures' 'too much telling, not showing' and so on. This was confirmed yet again. It gets my hopes up that one day I'll get to the level, where I have my rejection percentage up to a decent level.

Free, but how free?

2008-01-07T14:29:00.000+01:00

Okay, today something philosophically inspired, but in the end I decided to make it not too deep. (I'm still trying to find a real audience, but if you liked/disliked posts, then giving me feedback on them might steer me towards writing the posts you like. As for now I'm trying some things out.)

Today, I saw my cat catch a bird and wondered once more if birds had the ability to think. Do they also ponder upon life's great questions? Do they also worry? Do they realise that one day they are going to die, just like all others living things?

One says: "Free as a bird."

But does not a bird also has to search for food, shelter, watch out for predators and so on? If he realises that he will be caught if he lands on the nose of a cat, does this also not limit his freedom? This means that the more we think, the more we need, the less free we will be. So if you really want to feel free, you should limit your needs, you should not long for something, but just endure.

Hence today I invented the new expression: "Free as a stone."

It represents the freedom of apathy.

Maybe I have underestimated a lot of Americans in their strive for freedom. The dad, lying on the couch, watching television, while drinking a beer is beyond doubt almost as free as a stone.

(I'm not anti-American at all, I'm just anti-stupidity. So if you're offended by this blog post it can mean only one thing.)

Cappuccino Flavours

2008-01-06T11:44:00.000+01:00

It's fun to write down how stories originated in my mind and when and how I wrote them down. If you readers think so too, or just read the stories and skip this, then that's fine. Maybe you could let me know which one.

This blog post is an explanation of how the cappuccino story originated. I thought of the idea and wrote the first draft on vacation in Cairns (Queensland-Australia), while waiting for the girls to return. Me, my sister and her boyfriend had met Chrissy, this German girl and the four of us had gone to town and split up, as the girls wanted to go shopping. My sister's boyfriend was reading a book and as I had nothing to do, I decided to start a story. As I took a package of sugar, to pour into my ice cappuccino, I remembered the funny text I'd read on another package of sugar. It read: "with your luck, it's probably salt." I started writing the story and changed the girl's name to Krissy. When we went to have dinner together, I handed the draft to Chrissy (yes, with 'ch', it turned out). She thought it was fun and I told her she could keep the draft. Needless to say, instead of keeping in touch, we forgot to keep contact and the first draft is still out there somewhere. When I got back, I decided to rewrite the story and post it on Chronicles (again linkage on the bottom of your right-hand side). It mainly received praise for the content and was gunned down for its horrible prose. I decided to patch up the prose a bit before posting it up, but it still might feel a bit 'forced'.

Happy reading.

p.s. : wouldn't it be fun if Chrissy read this and the story could bring us back together? You can make it happen, invite people to my blog! (sorry for the shameless advertising) :)

A Seasoned Cappucino

2008-01-06T10:48:00.000+01:00

You poured salt into it. You bloody idiot.
I twisted the empty paper package towards me and reread the four letters. As soon as I'd passed the s and the a, all hope to read 'sugar' faded. I'd unmistakenly poured NaCl into my cappucino. Supressing my anger, I scrapped the paper between my right hand. The normal way of things would be to call the waiter and explain him what had happened, hoping that he would get me a new cup.
But this was different. I wasn't sitting alone. Next to me at the table, sat a girl, her eyes hidden behind large sunglasses and her lips slightly curled upwards. Why does something like this happen when you're on a first date? I reconsidered my options: either just drink the horrible liquid created by my own stupidity, but not lose face in front of Chrissy. Or explain things to the waiter and hope she wouldn't care. Before I could decide either way, I noticed the waiter making his way towards our table at the side of the tea-room. It was a matter of seconds before he would be standing next to me, uttering the standard expression: "Is everything in order?"

Of course everything is not in order. I poured salt into my cup and now I have to choose between admitting to stupidity in front of my date or drinking this horrible liquid. The last thing I need is you, pouring salt into my wounds. Yeah, salt that's right!

But this was not what happened at all. In the mere seconds it took the waiter to cross the distance to our table, Chrissy had pulled out her handbag and had put it on the table. When the waiter opened his mouth to speak, Chrissy, as if she was surprised from his sudden appearance stretched her arms who were digging into the handbag. Chrissy's bag hit my cup, knocking it over with a clatter; the horrible liquid poured over the tablecloth. Even though the waiter, trying to apologize and absorbing the spilled pool with paper hankies, made a lot of noise exclaiming he would get me a new cup right away, my vision focused on Chrissy. She tipped her chin down and looking over the top of her sunglasses, she displayed a mischievous wink.

My Meditation on Middle-Earth

2008-01-05T10:29:00.000+01:00

Some of you may have read the anthology: 'Meditations on Middle-Earth' others may have not (yet). It's an anthology by a large number post-Tolkien fantasy writers. In the anthology they described how Tolkien affected their lives and writing. It's a fun novel for starting fantasy readers, who don't know where to start. As Raymond E. Feist was signing my copy, he was telling me and his agent how much he liked writing his part. So now I've decided that I want to do the same. I'm going to write my own meditation and I hope I can enjoy it as much as Feist did.

My first contact with fantasy literature was Tolkien's 'The Hobbit'. My friend David DS. had talked to me about the story of this world and told me Tolkien's books were really fun to read. I had read other books (children's novels from the library, from my sister's shelves, gifts for my birthday), but it was the first time that someone of my friends actually came up to me and admitted he read for pleasure and not for book reports for school. It must have triggered something in me, as when the next week we were going Christmas shopping and I had told my father that there was a book, which I really liked to read. So we got to a bookshop and asked where we could find 'The Hobbit'. They guided us to the fantasy section and my dad found it for me. It was a Dutch translation (as it was a Dutch bookshop and my English skills wouldn't have allowed me to read the original version anyway) and it appeared to me as strange. The version had no cover illustration, it was just a sort of blue and in yellow letters, it said: 'The Hobbit' and underneath posed a slender character in the language of elves.

Strangely enough, I wasn't disappointed because there was no cover illustration. It appeared to me as a 'real' book and I felt older, just because I had bought it and would read it later on. I remember getting home and immediately starting to read. Two days later, I was finished. Which really astounded me, as I wasn't a real reader back then. The tale had grabbed me and didn't let go. I wanted to read more. I wanted more fantasy, but at that time, it just appeared as if I wanted more Tolkien. So I lended 'The Lord of the Rings' (Dutch version, one massive book with a brown cover and a ring as sole illustration) from the same friend and I started reading it. I must say that by half the book, I was experienceing some difficulties (It was about four times as thick as the thickest book I'd read until then), but I got to the end and had still enjoyed it. Even though afterwards I read 'The Silmarillion' and the Unfinished Tales, they didn't really grab like the other two did.

But by then it was too late, I had enjoyed reading fantasy and I would go to the library for something other than comics. I think it was George RR Martin, who finally turned me over towards writing, but Tolkien initiated it all. I think the books are still fabulous, but the movie has taken away a lot of their magic. I would advice to read 'The Hobbit' before they turn it into a movie, if you haven't already.

Okay I'll leave it at this, I'm tired of writing about it and I assume that you're more than tired of reading about it. :)

Concerning the Ant and also the Pudding

2008-01-04T13:11:00.000+01:00

Concerning my piece of flash fiction, 'The Ant and the Pudding', there are some things that you should know.

First of all, it is not a piece that is supposed to promote capital punishment. Without further going into detail about my opinion on the matter, I'll state that I have an awkwardly agnostic feeling towards whether or not capital punishment should be used. Which means that so far I haven't wished anyone to die, but who knows in the future. Therefore you won't hear me screaming that I'm against it.

About how and why it was written:

I wrote it in the critiques section of the website of the chronicles network (there's linkage in your right hand corner). This means that it was both a practice piece and that it was not and never will be submitted for publishing. Its sole purpose was for my skill to be judged and my mistakes to be pointed out and so on and so on.

About how it was written:

I just started writing and my feeling of the story changed from the vision of a self-pitying person, to the viewpoint that is expressed now. The last part and the title for that matter are a small wink to the short story by O. Henry: 'The Proof of the Pudding'.

Now I was surprised by how few replies I got to the story. I only got two. This being for a short piece and as was indicated, I got 90 views for the page (average of the website).

One reply was by a person who worked for a newspaper, she stated that she liked it. That it was simple and okay. The other was by a freelance writer for magazines, she stated that although she liked it very much, she would have loved it even more if the psychological section had lasted longer.

That last reply makes me wonder:

I have gotten more replies like this; that people liked the psychological parts of my stories, the thoughts in characters' minds and so on. The horrible thing is that I'm not really too fond of writing those parts myself. I once started a psychological novel and got bored with my own writing as nothing really happened.

But anyway I'll stop here.

Jotter

The Ant and the Pudding

2008-01-04T10:39:00.000+01:00

It was then that I realised my place in society. I realised that, in this vast blob of matter, I was but a servant. Not totally as in the servant way, but more as in being like an ant. Yes, an ant on a tree, working and working for no clear reason. He does serve a bigger purpose, but doesn’t live to enjoy it. In fact you could indeed consider him a bit of a servant. Then again even the queen of the colony can only try to breed a new generation of ants and will wither away in the end. But that queen has ants working below her. Just like some people in this world posses the power to place themselves above others. They are the people who can persuade you to work for their sake, to suffer for their sake, to swallow emotions and sacrifice yourself for their well being.

Sadly a power I do not posses.

So they used me. A kind word here, a threat there, some manipulated reasoning, they just played me like a ball. I dwindled on, accepting all their reasons and performing their tasks. They knew what was best for me, they could help me. I was happy to know them. I could become someone, if only I let them walk over me so they could get out of the mud first. It was not even that I believed it that much, but it was more some sort of general lacking of a goal of my own. I thought: “if I don’t have a dream myself, then I can wait for it while I help others to accomplish theirs.” But sadly by doing that, I was pushed down a bottomless hole of submission. As I was labelled a servant, I was not allowed to dream anymore. I existed to fulfill other people’s dreams, to submit to other people’s desires and to act like the monkey they had trained me to be. But like I said, this I only then realised, with the blood on my hands, the police sirens sounding, the lifeless body of a young girl on my lap...

People shouted to me to get back, to step away from her. As if they could still reanimate her. I didn’t obey. For the first time in my life, I refused to play along. I was an individual and I would not be a servant again. Sadly it was too late. I had followed too many orders from the wrong people and had done a despicable act. But I beg you, please, let this individual not suffer for the acts while he was just a mere tool for others.

John Mc Rane; when I notice an ant in my pudding, I squash it, no matter whether it just serves its queen or not. I hereby sentence you to death.

Let's get started like Gaiman.

2008-01-03T13:18:00.000+01:00

In fact this blog has been inspired by Neil Gaiman. He started his blog and if you ask him how it comes his blog has so many hits, then he answers something like:

Well you start a blog in 2000 and you blog every day (of course he tells this to other writers, but still).

Okay it even goes further, for those of you, who haven't fled to Neil Gaiman's blog and aren't googling his name either, it was actually his repetitive new year suggestion/wish which made me tumble over to the blog side of life.

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

Simple, effective, brilliant. As for now we can use the neologism 'Neil Gaiman'. The only adjective consisting of two words written with a capital. For the correct use, I refer to the sentence: "That is so Neil Gaiman, dude"

But I'm drifting off again. This blog should be about me. So after all this I decided that I should start a blog of my own and gather regulars, I started composing this message. Fingers crossed that I don't press the delete button and this gets eaten by the posty monster. (always copy

posts before you post them)

Anyway I'll try to keep this up and blog every day. Which isn't Neil Gaiman, but like Neil Gaiman. (as it probably won't be simple and brilliant and we can only hope it will be as effective)

Anyway maybe I should describe what you can expect in this blog:

-Miscellaneous writings (flash fiction, short stories), which have received multiple rejection slips and therefore I can use them to awe people who have not yet realised that they could do better themselves.

-General facts about my life. (I'll try to keep those as low as possible, no one is interested in why my cat has the flue, I know. If I'm going to Japan for 9 weeks(which I am), you might hear from it though).

-Random stuff, like events, info about writing, rejections, acceptions, tutorials, cool websites and so on.

-Funny things, minor political viewpoints, my view on things that have happened and all. Or a combination of those two.

-Blue aliens, empires, chainsaws, fantasy spoof, ...

Okay that should be it. Have fun reading.

Jotter