research?

I was able to get the submission guidelines for one of the two magazines I was looking for.....so now, working on 500 words about a bear show that I attended/participated in.....

Meantime, thinking about the long spoken of novel, or story, or whatever it is going to become. I stumbled on to a web site (ok, not exactly true, there was a wonderful article in the USA Today that talked about civil war locations and Shiloh was one of them), there is a lot of background information on this site that may be useful.

So, what does it mean that I seem to write in parathetical phrases? Maybe I just like the look of those cute symbols ([{<>}]) or is it because I can't focus on just one thought....everything being a cue to some other random rambling?

Today's exercise for writing: what kind of writing do I want to do?

1) Well, I'd really like to get the civil war story on paper (now if I can just let go of trying to be absolutely sure of what REALLY happened, and just let the story happen!)

2) the cookbook -- this sounds easy on the surface, but it also includes stories about the people the recipes came from -- and perhaps because of that, an easy place to start?

3) some kind of "how to" -- not sure what here, just that I think I know about a lot of stuff, and maybe someone else would be interested in what it is .... now to figure out which thing

4) something that earns me a little money ..... okay, this is probably the WORST reason to write, or maybe not, at least it provides some motive to continue and finish something....here I think the magazine articles are the best place to start

Ok, that's my list for today! Now to get some work done on something!