Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Wednesday Weird: MV Joyita

In lieu of the missing/vanished Malaysian flight this weekend, I thought it would be a good time or post another disappearance.

I already tackled the Valentich Disappearance and I'm way too lazy today to even begin to write up all the info there is on Amelia Earhart so instead I'm going to talk about the MV Joyita.

MV Joyita was a merchant vessel that set sail from Samoa for a two day voyage to the Tokleau Islands October 3rd, 1955. MV Joyita carried 25 people (16 crew and 9 passengers (including a doctor, a government official and two children)) and medical supplies, timber and empty oil jugs.

Four days later, its destination port sent out a message that the Joyita never arrived as expected.

Immediately a large search effort was organized, even thought the Joyita had never sent out any sort of distress signal or contact to anyone. Even with the extended search (over 100,000 square miles), though, the Joyita wasn't found until over a month later.

The Joyita was listing and flooded to the point of being partially submerged. It was found 6000 miles from Samoa. And also there was nobody on board.





Besides the missing crew, the navigation equipment, the ship's logbook, three lifeboats, a dinghy and all the food were also missing. The radio, however, was still on board, and in perfect working order. It was even set to the emergency frequency, but, due to some mismanaged wiring, the radio only had a range of about 2 miles.

So, yeah, it seems like everyone abandoned ship for some reason. Not that crazy.

But, the ship was completely seaworthy. It did have a large hole in in it's structure, showing that there had been some sort of collision with something, but the hull itself had not been breached. In fact, the little bit of water that was actually inside the boat was due to it bobbing along for a month.

And what happened to the crew and lifeboats? One lifeboat vanishing? Okay. three and a dinghy? Little more weird.

Also, the windows on the boar were all smashed. Only one of the engines was working and the other one was covered in mattresses. One of the passengers was a doctor, but his doctor's bag was found abandoned on the ship, instead of taken like the food and equipment. The bag was missing several tools, and was also stuffed with bloody rags. And, because let's up the creep factor a bit, all the clocks on the ship had stopped at 10:25 pm.

None of the crew or passengers were ever recovered and it remains a mystery today.

Thoughts, theories?

 

Monday, March 10, 2014

In Which Things Slow Down (A Bit)

HerpaDerp!!

I've been meaning to include this link for the last few weeks and I keep forgetting.

But here's the link for my Success Story Interview on QueryTracker.

I always love reading QT Success Stories, because they're a lot like "how I got my agent" blog posts, which we all know are awesome

Last week was the first week I've had in a long time where things slowed down and went a little easier. And it was awesome. I doubt it will last (seriously doubt it, in fact) so I was able to enjoy it even more, since I knew it was probably just a temporary state of being.

I got a bunch of beta and CP reading done and I managed to get in 12 new pages on the WIP.

They were kind of crappy 12 pages, but 12 pages are better than 0 and I will happily take them. I'm just hoping I can keep up the pace over the next few weeks. My next MFA packet is due in early April.

I also went out to meet with some local writer peeps for drinks one night and had lunch on another day with some of my local MFA classmates. Both were a lot of fun! I love hanging out with fellow writers.

Also, going out gave me a reason to wear the new earrings Twin got my for our B-day:


I lurrrrve them

How about you? Have things been crazy busy for you, or are you living at a more sedate pace?

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Insecure Writer's Support Group

First Wednesday of the month (can you believe it's March already??) which means it's time for Insecure Writer's Support Group!




So. I generally like to keep things close to the chest. I don't really know why. I think there's a touch of superstition involved, like I don't want to jinx something, but outside of that, I dunno. I just was never a person who liked to talk about fulls I got when querying, or rejections or anything like that.

But I thought I'd be a bit truthful today about something I've been keeping my mouth shut about.

As of Valentine's day, ALL THAT REMAINS has been officially on sub.

I did a round of revisions (fast fast fast) and then BAM! It suddenly happened.

And it was exciting right away.

And then it was stressful right away.

And then it was super stressful right away.

And then it got a little less stressful.

And then it went back to being super stressful again.

As you can see, there's a bit of a pattern.

Like, listen, I knew being on sub would be tough. Everyone talks about how hard it is. And I expected it. I knew it would be hard.

But I guess I thought it would be hard in a different way? I don't know. I hear so many people talking about how being on sub can take a long time. Months and months. And so I had prepared myself for it being hard because of that. I'm actually a pretty patient person, so long sub time wasn't all that scary for me (especially since I have the MFA stuff going on at the same time to distract me).

But it turns out it's hard for like a bajillion different reasons. Like ALL THE REASONS. Which, combined, makes total sense as to why pretty much everyone says being on sub is just so, so hard.

So, yeah. Here's another person saying the same thing.

Being on sub is hard, guys. Being a writer is hard, guys. Who knew? 

 

Monday, March 3, 2014

In Which I Miss QueryTracker

One of the things I didn't anticipate about having an agent was the fact that I would be done using QueryTracker.

(Not QueryTracker forum, though, I still hang out there)

I love QueryTracker. When querying, I would check it multiple times a day, to see if there were any comments on the agents I was querying.

Now, though, all of that is done. There's no reason for me to check QueryTracker a few times a day. Not even once a day.

It's been such a part of my daily routine that it's kind of sad. And I feel kind of dumb, feeling sad about it, because obviously reaching a point where I no longer need to track my queries was the goal all along.

But still, it's a bit bittersweet.




Am I crazy? Or does that make sense?

Friday, February 28, 2014

Friday Fun

Friday, Friday, FRIDAY!!

The beginning of the weekend is here and so am I, Yvie, to usher in some fun to get us through one more day.

Now, if only we can get through this weather


backyard
 
 

one of our drain spouts


But let's get to it!

 
 
 

replace liquor pictures with cats
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 



 
 
 


 
 
 

 

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Wednesday Weird: Honey Island Swamp Monster

In 1963 Louisiana native Harlan Ford saw a creature in the swamp he had never seen before.

Ford was a retired air traffic controller who had taken up wildlife photography when he claimed to see a creature now dubbed the Honey Island Swamp Monster.

The creature was purported to be bi-pedal, with gray hair or fur, yellow or red eyes and about seven feet tall. It also supposedly stank, much like skunk-ape (which, I realize, is a post I'll need to do in the future)

Sightings have been rare, but footprints have ben found.  These differ from the usual bigfoot/sasquatch footprints in that they only have three toes and are webbed.


 
 

 
 



In 1974 Ford and a friend claimed to find footprints in the area of his first sighting and supposedly found the body of a boar with a torn out throat.

After Ford's death in 1980, a super 8 film was found among his belongings that showed the creature in the wild.

 






So, the Honey Island Swamp Monster. thoughts? Theories?
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