Tag Archives: Pictures

Writing Retreat

August 4, 2009 R. Parrish 2 Comments

My critique group is holding our first (of many, we hope) writing retreat next weekend. I’m very excited about it, but I have a problem. I don’ t know what to write on it.

My first pick would be the re-write of Shadows, but I won a critique of the first 100 pages of Shadows by Deena Fisher from Drollerie Press and she hasn’t finished the critique yet. I don’t want to start the rewrite based on the critique of the first chaper I got from Jim C. Hines and then have to re-rewrite it once I get the one from Ms. Fisher. If that makes any sense. So Shadows is still on hold. *sigh*

There is a paranormal drama/mystery novel bouncing about in my head, but I’m going to be taking a novel writing course this fall (mostly to have deadlines. I NEED deadlines in order to have focus. More about this later) and I was going to use that plot as the novel I’d work on for the course. I got the impression the course was going to have a specific novel writing system it wanted to teach, so if I’m going to give it a fair try, starting the novel ahead of time seems like a bad idea.

The collaborative project I’m working on will take up some of my time on the retreat, but because of the nature of the project, it won’t fill the weekend. Not even close.

That leaves ‘See The Sky Again’ which is a fantasy novel set in Aphanasia that I am looking forward to writing. I was going to do it for my NaNo novel last year but decided against it because I hadn’t sorted out enough of the details yet. I think I know enough to write it now…my only hesitation is that I’ll be starting this novel on my retreat, then starting the other one for my course in October. Think I can get the first draft of See The Sky Again done before then?

I guess we’ll find out…

In other, picture-related news, I think I’m going to put the bulk of the rest of my vacation photos up on My Facebook Page rather than taking this blog over with them.

Except for this picture I took at Alcatraz that I love.

And maybe a few more inserted one at a time into blog posts.

🙂

Personal, Pictures

More Peekchures

July 23, 2009 R. Parrish Leave a comment

I’m in the awkward position of having “big news” but it’s not official yet…and my psuedo-secret project is sort of connected to it (sort of) so I can’t talk about it yet either. Soon, I hope, but not yet. So that leaves me with pictures. I have lots of vacation pictures so I’m going to share a few more. I appreciate that you’d likely enjoy more writing and less photos, but I’m bound by superstition and pragmatism from discussing the exciting things in my writing career right now. Please, bear with me.

I think it was our third day in San Francisco that we had lunch with S.G. Browne and then walked by the Palace of Fine Arts on our way to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a longish walk, and I ended up with a sunburn, but still a lovely way to spend the day.

Plus, I got cool shots. Like these two of the Palace of Fine Arts:

This one of the Golden Gate Bridge:

Continue reading More Peekchures →

Personal, Pictures

Birds! :)

July 20, 2009 R. Parrish Leave a comment

I have more pictures. Are you tired of pictures? I hope not because there are loads more where these came from.

These are all bird pictures I took at Pier 39. After we’d finished walking around and such we stopped to have soft pretzels (I think it may have been my first big pretzel ever in life…which is weird since I love pretzels) on the grass. Let me tell you about this grass, it was the springiest grass I’ve ever felt in my life. It felt so good under my sore feet, and my butt. There were loads of birds all around us…most of which we didn’t bribe over with food.

Mostly.

I know some people hate pigeons, but I love them. When I was a kid we lived on a farm and had pigs, chickens, turkeys and geese. One day a pigeon came to live with them. He was totally tame and would hang out on us kids’ heads and shoulders, and is famous for sitting on my mom’s head and pulling her hairs out one by one. We loved him and named him Coo. Ever since then I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for these rats with wings 🙂

I don’t know what most of these birds are, actually. Mostly they are just little feathered beings that I think are intriguing, beautiful and pretty darn smart.

Continue reading Birds! 🙂 →

Personal, Pictures

Belated Newsletter, but…

July 15, 2009 R. Parrish 1 Comment

There is just no way I’m going to be able to get my newsletter done today. I have two clients who need rush work done and I had to take my daughter to the orthodontist, that means my time is at an even bigger premium than it usually is today. However, I snuck some time in between jobs to pick some of my favorite pictures from our second day in San Francisco and resize the pics to share here. I hope that makes up for it — I mean really, I have sea lions. Sea lions rock!

This is Alcatraz as seen from Pier 39, which is where we went on day two in San Francisco. Looking at it now, I think I should have adjusted the colors on it before sharing but then we run into that lack of time thing again LOL

I don’t think it would be inaccurate to say that the sea lions where the highlight of the trip for me. I <3 them. I’ve seen them in the zoo, of course, and at West Edmonton Mall, but seeing them ‘in the wild’ was incredible. I don’t know what exactly it is about them that I adore so much. I love their noise, their cute little faces, the way they pile on one another, how obviously intelligent they are. How they bend their heads all the way back, how they fight and play. I just love them. Thus…there were a lot of sea lion pictures taken that day 🙂

Continue reading Belated Newsletter, but… →

Personal, Pictures

Vacation Photos

July 14, 2009 R. Parrish 2 Comments

I’m back.

If other people’s vacation photos bore you, you may want to skip this entry…and the next couple that follow it 🙂

We had a fabulous time in San Francisco. The highlights included a visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Alcatraz, Pier 39 and the Golden Gate Bridge. Now we begin the task of settling back into the routine at home and, if you’re me, getting back to work (Jo and Dani still have some time off). In the meantime, I’m going to cling to my vacation a little longer by sharing some of my favorite pictures with you guys over the next few days. Don’t hate me.

I love birds. I also love photographing birds, so you’ll see a lot of bird pictures LOL. This seagull was sitting atop the waterfall that you walked under to see the Martin Luther King memorial in Yerba Buena park (at least, I think that’s the name of the park).

This bird is too. I really like his reflection in this picture 🙂 Continue reading Vacation Photos →

Pictures

I Haz PeekChures

May 31, 2009 R. Parrish 4 Comments

I’ve wanted to get a decent camera for a very long time now. I finally did it. I bought a Nikon d60 this weekend. I’m told it’s a pretty good camera for a photography newbie, and I definitely fall into that category since I haven’t used an SLR camera since photo class in junior high. I picked up an extra lens for it (haven’t started playing with it yet) and also an inexpensive digital camera for Danica to use. We’d been talking about getting her a camera for a while now so we could stop buying disposable ones for all the times we wanted her to be able to take pictures and hearing Jay Lake mention an urban photo safari with his daughter spurred me to action.

It was kinda yucky out today so Dani and I had to change our planned expedition to a neighbourhood park and just hang out in the backyard. It worked out pretty well though, we each got to get to know our cameras a bit better and take a few shots. I’m very, very pleased with my camera and I have a few shots to share.

The obligatory dog picture. I was going to start with a shot I took of Dani, but I figured a good ‘Wow! Dog!’ response would grab your attention and hold it while I showed off my beautiful little girl and a bit of our backyard. So this is Atreyu, my dog. We call him Tre. I love him.

Danica, who I also love. Even more than I love Tre, but don’t tell him that. It would make him sad. Dani’s eleven. Maybe it’s just my parental fear talking but she looks older than eleven to me in this picture…and, quite often, just in general.

Continue reading I Haz PeekChures →

Rhonda Parrish

Tag Archives: Pictures

Writing Retreat

More Peekchures

Birds! :)

Belated Newsletter, but…

Vacation Photos

I Haz PeekChures

I write, I edit and I take a lot of naps.