What's in your Writer's Toolbox?

by Amanda Sugden guest author

You want to be a real writer. Or maybe you just want better grades. But you don’t know where to start. It’s ok. I didn’t either. But I can tell you now one great way to start: build your toolbox.

Great writing doesn’t come naturally. It’s an art, a skill to be learned and refined. Every great writer has his own tools. Even if you just want to make it through college papers, you’ll need your own tools. You can pick up any of these cheaply at your nearest used bookstore, or at websites like half.com. Here are my suggestions:

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Reprinted by permission from Amanda Sugden, author of My Writing Help

New kitchen floor: Our To-Do list got shorter!

This was a very busy weekend, with work scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday. Of course, that means that it turned into a Perfect Camping Weekend -- a distinctly rare and priceless commodity that is NEVER spent camping.

Since we had the boys for Sunday evening, my wife and I decided to just keep on working. (No, we're really not like that; that's just how it worked out.) My sweetie had found a great bargain on laminate flooring in the color and woodgrain we wanted, at Wal-Mart, of all places. Short version: we spent HALF what we'd figured, and that made the decision easy.

Few ordinary things in life feel quite as good as checking a major "to-do" off the big list. And so, despite the fact that I was still cutting new pieces of flooring out in the driveway at 11 pm last night, we were very happy and quite proud of ourselves. The picture shown above is "before," taken yesterday late afternoon. The picture below is "after," taken about three hours ago. Quite an improvement, wouldn't you say?

PS: The title link goes right over to the original posting for this project, on my "business" blog, which will soon be edited to a new template like this one. I'll have Helium how-to articles, and job project updates posted there later this week.

Updating Perfect Camping Nights of 2008

I've talked a couple times about "perfect camping nights." (Just click the headline, above, to see the original post.) Tonight is another: still air, no rain, no wind, and at least sixty degrees. All of these facets used to matter very much when we were tent camping. I still keep track despite the fact that owning a camper (with a furnace!) makes perfection less important.

We joke in New York, as people do nearly everywhere, "if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes." This summer has been no exception to that quip. We've had remarkable hot weather in early April, and record-setting cooler days in August -- and everything in between.

Here's where we stand on PCN's, according to my white-board records:

• April: 6 (!)
• May: 15 (amazing)
• June: 11 (not too shabby)
• July: 12 (what??)
• August, halfway: 11 (not bad)

We've had three trips so far. It's possible that one or two of those "perfect" nights occurred DURING those trips. Possible, but not very likely! Good thing our camper has an awning!

Not camping,but what a campfire we had tonight!

Tonight's campfire was a big one! We attended a Sweet 16 birthday party at a friend's house, and the weather was perfect! Barely a whisper of a breeze, and still seventy degrees after dark. A beautiful night.

Where in the world is our Camper??

We got up early Saturday morning to hustle our aging camper down to the auto repair shop for its annual inspection. We were on a birthday party deadline, so time was of the essence. I knew the shop would be extra busy on a weekend morning, but that's the time we had.

I was a little worried, because we've had problems off and on (literally) with the left brake light. Lights are important with campers, since people love to tailgate you while you're towing, sometimes so close that you can't see them back there until they swing out to pass.

We got lucky. My mechanic, Steve, was eating a donut when we arrived. This was a good sign -- how busy can you be if you're munching a snack? No problem, Steve says. A few minutes later one of the other techs strolls out to "have a look." The past couple years this has been a formality. They check the lights, make sure your hitch is set-up right, and we prove out the electric brakes for the inspector. Grab my sticker and go. Not this time.

We need four new tires. Man, it would've been better if the brake-light failed! Who wants to shell out for a quartet of trailer tires? There goes the price of a whole vacation in one shot. The camper's still down there at the shop, by the way. They couldn't get the tires in time that day, so we left the camper there to await its new road rubber. I haven't had time to go back and pick it up since then. Nothing's ever as easy as you hope it'll be, is it?