Can I tell you a story? I asked my friend Jeannie, the Character Therapist, about phobias and it reminded me of my bird phobia. I know this isn’t really a care, concern, or celebration, but humor me so I can humor you….
What I am about to tell you is not a joke. This is a true story. But I give you permission to laugh.
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When I lived in Wisconsin, I went on my morning jogs with a tennis racket. And it wasn’t to go play tennis either.
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Here’s why. At the exact same spot on my route, a psychotic blackbird would dive at my head like a Kamikaze pilot. Screeching. Loud. And visions of Alfred Hitchcock’s, The Birds, would flash through my mind. Picture driving by a jogger waving a tennis racket in the air, while a rabid bird swooped at her head. This was me. And after a couple attacks, I started encountering psychotic birds everywhere. I even heard on the news that a hawk was attacking bikers somewhere in Washington.
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Finally, my husband, who didn’t want our dinner conversation to revolve around birds anymore, decided to ride his bike along with me while I jogged, determined to take the thing down. But guess what? When we go to the spot, somebody had already killed the blackbird. It was dead on the sidewalk. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an animal lover. But this bird had it coming.
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You’d think that would be the end of my phobia. But no. I lived a year of my life in perpetual fear of birds. I’m talking, I would jump into oncoming traffic to get away from a tweet that sounded even remotely close to my ear. My husband did not like this. He told me my fear of birds was going to get me killed. Thankfully, I didn’t need therapy. And I am relatively calm around birds now….. relatively.
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Cares:
I care that I am no longer afraid of blackbirds.
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Concerns:
What do you do when you have an idea for a novel, but the idea won’t cooperate? I can’t figure it out. I have a great premise and I’m excited about the two main characters, but I cannot pin down their GMC’s. This part of novel writing always freaks me out…
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Celebrations:
I’ve already exceeded one of my summer goals, which was to read two books on the craft of writing. Well, I just finished my third yesterday. Now I’m rereading Plot and Structure. And I just ordered Finding Your Writer’s Voice and Techniques of a Selling Writer off Amazon. I’ll make sure to share the goods in my future posts.
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I ate the BEST ice cream last night. Mmmm… it was a celebration in my mouth.
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Question to ponder: What are your cares, concerns, and celebrations on this HOT Friday morning?
Katie, I feel your pain over the whole bird thing. And although I laughed heartily, I have to admit I had a flash back to an incident involving a rather large cockroach. Where we live here in sunny, humid Queensland, Australia, these bugs can grow to the length of a child's hand. I just hate the things! AND they fly!
When I was first dating my husband he had this old car with more rust and holes in the floor than metal. I think a whole family of cockroaches had moved in and so I told him I was not going anywhere in that car until he sprayed for them. He told me he had so I bravely got in the car. We were happily driving along when out of the corner of my eye I see one of these large creatures do a tap dance across the dashboard of the car right over to my side. Boyfriend barely had time to pull car over to sidewalk before I jumped out screaming hysterically. There I was on the side of a busy road screaming and demanding that boyfriend kill the bug immediately. Trouble was it had crawled into the carpet lining of the floor. So my man is there with his shoe off beating the hell out of the floor of his car, pleading for me to just get back it. I wanted to see the dead bug body before I would get back in! I can only imagine what people driving by were thinking!
I never did get to see the bug body. But boyfriend did decided to marry me anyway, despite my phobia. I still hate cockroaches. I am thankful though that the crappy car is long gone!
This isn't really a great advert for visiting Australia is it?!
MS Quixote – The Raven. Nice! I'm glad you like my blog. I will be talking to my character a lot these next few months. I will definitely ask them what's up with their GMCs. 🙂
`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting –
`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! – quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
Hey Katie,
By accident, if there is such a thing, I believe I received an email from you in my inbox through the ACFW. So, I clicked on the link and here I am– probably because I'm not all there.
Here's my solution to the GMC problem: talk to your characters. They'll tell you all about it. Then, hide and watch them go about their business. That'll fill in the parts they didn't tell you about, and you can catch them in lies sometimes, or know things about them they're not aware of, or are suppressing. My thoughts on the GMC, anyway…
Nice blog.
Jill – that's actually a really, really great idea! Thanks! And I used to be afraid of spiders… but something changed recently. Not too long ago I killed one in my shower, and I felt bad. How ridiculous is that?
Oh, the phobias! I'm so sorry that bird made your life miserable. I HATE spiders. I can be in the same room with one without shaking, but it hasn't always been this way.
Clowns freak me out, too.
The GMC thing is tough, but I've found if I start thinking about their careers, their parents, their friends, their residence, all these little details reveal their GMC's eventually. Try it!
Have a fab weekend!
MeganRebekah – okay, that really had me laughing out loud. I'm sure it was terrifying at the time, but you sprinting across your lawn with your little dog clutched to your chest while your roomie swung a broom at the bird really creates the BEST visual. Thanks for sharing!
Jeannie – did you call the lady about your job? By the way – I got Julie's book. I just read the first chapter. She's really a phenomenal writer! Sweeps you right into the story. Exactly what I was looking for. 🙂 You're such a bird killer. 😉
T. Anne – what is up with annoying/psychotic birds? Thanks for sharing! I hope none of your other holiday decorations get invested with evil winged creatures.
Eileen – yay! Have an excellent summer with your girls!!
I'm an animal lover too, but you're right, that bird had it coming!!!
Too funny!
Celebrations: First day of summer break for my girls–and it's awesome pool weather for them.
Every year the same pair of birds come to nest on a wreath in my front door. You know, the one that gets opened and closed at least a million times a day? Well after a few not to friendly encounters I decided to stop hanging up my traditional spring wreath. And they stopped coming. Thank goodness! So, I can totally relate!
i think it's way funny you got hubby in on this. i actually have a similar story of using my husband to kill one of god's little sparrows. but this sparrow had it coming, too. it would tweet absolutely ALL day long and WAY early in the morning. i'm one who covets my sleep (yes, having the baby was hard, which is why there might not be another one) and i told my husband the bird had to go. so we got a bb gun, pumped it in the house, and then i held open the screen door so my husband could pelt this little bird! and we were in the land of PETA and nature lovers at the time! glad no one saw us, but i did a facebook note about it here. funny stuff.
cares: my job
concerns: my job
celebrations: loving the socks off julie lessman's books
I had evil birds who used to live at my apartment complex in college. They were the tall birds (about four feet) and they had no fear. They used to attack my mini-dachshund when she went out to pee. One time I had to run and grab the dog like a football while the birds chased both of us and my roommate came out with a broom to scare them away. To this day when I see those breed of birds I cringe and give them the side-eye.
Jody – I'm glad I'm not the only one strugglng with this. For me, this is the hardest part of writing. Pinning down the GMCs and establishing my idea into something that could be a novel. It always scares the livin' daylights outta me!
Marybeth – I feel ya girl! Fantasy Football is just around the corner and my hubby and I are going to be getting into some cage matches over comp. time.
Sherrinda… oh my! I actually got very sad about that story. Baby birds are like kittens. I don't like cats (sorry to all you cat lovers out there), but I love kittens. I might not like birds, but a baby bird! I think I would have been very disturbed by that picture! And I agree – there is definitely NOT enough time in the day. I have about a gazillion books on my to be read pile!
Wendy – agh, my pms leaks over into my m too! No fun! And I echo your concern… seeking God's guidance is SO important. The ice cream was chocoloate with caramel swirls and choc. covered caramel bits in it! Oh my, it was awesome. I am resisting the urge to have a bowl for breakfast. I LOVE your blog idea for Fridays, by the way. 🙂
Hi Katie,
You left us hangin'–what kind of ice cream? I love the blackbird phobia…that would make a great character trait in a book!
Cares: Spending quality times with each of my children this weekend.
Concerns: I need to be more prayerful about God's direction over my life and I really need to stop PMSing since I'm Ming. 😀
Celebrations: My husband and I had a good talk last night and I think we are going to do something adventurous this weekend.
Hope you feel loved this weekend, Katie!
~ Wendy
You did good! Your story made me laugh. It reminded me of one time when I was out for a morning walk and heard this awful clamoring of birds start up behind me. I turned around and watched a huge hawk coming down the middle of the street, with a baby bluejay in its claws. It was flying about 4 feet off the ground and came within 3 feet of me as it passed by. Actually, it was an awesome sight to behold, but I felt for the distressed parents of the baby bird who kept following the hawk, crying out for their little one. So sad.
Good for you reading your craft books. I have that goal as well and have 3 sitting by my chair here, but I keep getting distracted by the stack of new fiction books I have won. So many books…so little time!
Care – I care that my husband has the next 10 days off
Concern – I am concerned that this will conflict with my computer time
Celebration – I'm celebrating that he FINALLY wants to go see a movie and that we are taking the kids to one today! YAY (Can we say "Central Air")
Hope you have a lovely weekend!
Too funny, Katie! Thanks for the laugh this morning! And congrats on reading through two writing craft books! You are motivating me! And I'm in the same spot with my GMC's for my MC's. I'm working hard to fill out my character worksheets and bring those MC's to life! Have a great weekend!