She paints, she dances and acts, she has an alter-ego named Zoe LaPage, and she’s a published horror novelist. Let’s give a warm IMJ welcome to September’s Geek Girl of the Month…
Sally on Writing
Writing has been an obsession for me for most of my life. I’ve been a lifetime reader of anything from Ray Bradbury’s R is for Rocket to Laurence Durrell’s Justine. I started out writing (really bad) science fiction stories and getting rejected by such legendary magazines as Azimov’s and Analog. I had a brief flirtation with meta-fiction and had several bizarre and bizarrely formatted stories published in literary magazines. After reading Anne Rice’s Vampire Lestat I fell in love with horror. Not violent or slasher horror, but more in the area of The Uncanny. Somewhere along the line, I picked up a love of young adult literature. My writing now is a combination of the two.
The turning point in my writing came when I attended the Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction Program and received an MFA. The program opened me up to a whole new world and increased my writing skills exponentially. I’d highly recommend it.
My published novels include: AltDeath.com, Shadow Cat (written as Zoe LaPage, my adult alter-ego), and The Werecat Chronicles. I also had an article published in Many Genres, One Craft and a story published in Hazard Yet Forward.
My writing process is to create a detailed outline, using Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat format. I do character sketches, start a story bible so I can keep track of everything, and write the first chapter. After that, I set aside three days to binge-write as much as I can. This gives me a good start and I go on from there. I’m a firm believer that putting some constraints on your writing increases creativity, and the three-day-binge seems to do that for me.
As far as keeping up a standard writing routine goes, this is what works for me lately: I go to the gym in the afternoon, then go to someplace like Panera, have something to eat and work on my current project for several hours. For a long time I tried to get up in the morning and write, but that was fighting my own inner clock, so I decided to try writing at night, and that worked better for me. Also, the background noise of a coffee shop works well for me.
Sally on Being an Artist
I’ve always been an artist. Practically from the time I could walk, I had a brush in my hand. I remember that before I even started school, there was a PBS show on Japanese brush painting, and I’d sit there with my paint set and follow along, creating flowers, fauna and goldfish. This led to my being an Art Major and later having a career in graphic design. I also got interested in miniature painting, because they encapsulated their own little worlds.
Shown here are panels I painted (along with my friend Leslie Bevis) of a dystopian cityscape
At an early age, I developed a love of Ballet. I took lessons in grammar school and totally loved it. This led to being a Dance Major for several years before I switched to art. I was in various dance companies and later did musical theater. I also acted in dramatic plays.
Kyoto Miniature by Sally
Somewhere in there, I also played guitar and saxophone, but those interests were short-lived.
To me, all of the arts work together. Whether it’s writing, painting, dancing or acting, it’s all telling a story, creating an expression that goes out into the world and lives beyond yourself. I couldn’t live if I wasn’t expressing myself somehow. I truly believe that if a person doesn’t create, s/he will eventually get sick, because there’s no outflow.
Sally on Health and Spiritual Development
From an early age I’ve had the feeling that I was going to live for a long time, so I’ve always taken great care of myself. It’s important to me to eat well, exercise and work on my spiritual development.
I’m a vegetarian, though I do eat some fish, and I have a regimen of vitamins and herbals that I take. I’ve always done some form of exercise, be it ballet, tap, jazz, yoga or running. Lately, I go to the gym and do weights and cardio. I don’t feel well unless I’m moving daily.
Again, from an early age I’ve been interested in spiritualism and meditation. As a kid this took the form of an interest in astral projection and psychic phenomenon (which plays into my writing now.) Later I got into Zen and other forms of spiritual development, which made me go more deeply into myself. I meditate daily, because I think that puts your inner being into a kind of neutral zone that lets the goodness of the universe flow in. I’m a big believer in creative visualization, manifesting your destiny and the fact that you do create your own reality.
To find out more about me, check out my web page at SallyBosco.com
Click on the Book Images to go to Sally’s Amazon.com Page!
Thanks for being Ms. September, Sally!! You embody the Geek Girl ideal well. 😉
Heidi,
Thanks for another great column for the IMJ Nation. Geek Girls rock!
You know it!! 🙂
I don’t know how Sally does everything, there must be 27 hours in the day where she is!
You’ve got me wrong. I’m a confirmed slacker. 🙂
Hello Fine Lady, A real pleasure to meet you! You have some interesting (and positive) world views, & make sure you get enough of those proteins @ Panera ! Aint nothing to it but to do it baby, I quit smoking 5 months ago (after smoking for 16 years straight)…i am tired of feeling weak ;-).
You read like you’ve been smoking SOMETHING ELSE, Hack/Slash. I know all about those liberal European societies. 🙂
I quit smoking 12 years ago and my thyroid went HAYWIRE shortly thereafter. I went from being in the BEST SHAPE of my life to MY WORST.
I half-wish I had never stopped. But I stopped for my cats. It wasn’t fair for me to smoke around them.
“liberal European societies.” 😀
I’d like to find out where these liberal european societies are 😛
Hah, if an IMJ store existed, it’d be found there. I can’t imagine how chill Ian’s office would be !
And I would be living above said store with my Chewbacca glass pipe.
Hahah, nice.
A few Japanese video games, some German beer, and a few Blur CDs to accompany that pipe and you’d have an epic evening 8)
That’d be nice. 🙂
Oh and for some reason wordpress no longer lets us use the “Sunglass” emoticon. Lame.
Ha ha ha!! How about the kissie face? :*
Same thing happened to me. I stopped smoking and put on 20 pounds. If I could afford to pay the $9 a pack I would totally still be smoking.
That is so like you to be worried about your cats. Precious.
The pregnant Mama Cat ADOPTED ME when I was just a kid myself. She insisted on moving into my apartment and she was only about 10 months old. (I kept her 2 kids… Had them all spayed and neutered, of course.) If I was home, they were all over me 20 hours a day.
When the Mama wasn’t on me she was sleeping right above me on my old bulky CRT monitor. Humans can walk away from second-hand smoke. The Mama Cat would wash my face at least once every day… And she wouldn’t take “No” for an answer. I knew why she was doing it. She had no clue what I was doing to her.
So I just stopped one day and never started again. And I LOVED to smoke. More than anybody you’ve ever met. But I loved my cats more.
Must have made the right decision. The Mama Cat lived to be almost 20. Her daughters 20 and 22.
Insideman: That shows that you are truly a wonderful and caring person. Not only that you adopted the preggo cat, but you cared enough about her to give up smoking. Special karma points for that. Awesome!
Yes! Extra Karma for you!
Aah yes Dutch Vegetables 😛
Camberwell carrots?
I never smoked long enough (cigarettes, that is 😉 ) to make it an intense habit, so thankfully I didn’t have an adverse reaction to quitting…But I’ve heard enough stories from many people that did have troubled-times after quitting.
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=1768
I started smoking at 25 and only did so on a regular basis for like 7 or 8 years. Even then I only smoked about a pack a week, sometimes 2 depending on how often I went out. I stopped a few times and it was always easy for me to do so. Still, I kinda miss it.
To make it easier on yourself you have to fully understand that you are not sacrificing anything when you quit smoking..in fact you make all kinds of gains 🙂
Like the gains around your middle. 😉
Seriously, there was a great TV advert here in the States with a woman, dying of cancer, saying she never stopped smoking because she wanted to be thin.
Of course, the blatant irony was/is the cancer. She states in the ad she can’t even eat anymore because of her illness. Powerful stuff and words/rules to live by.
But did that advert help you quit smoking? Probably not..
Besides there is NO connection between weight gain and smoking 😛 That only happens with those who treat quitting smoking as a sacrifice and then seek a substitute…right? What helped you? XD
No, the advert didn’t stop me. I quit because I didn’t want my Cats to breathe in second hand smoke… But the ad did tackle a BIG MISCONCEPTION at the time– especially if you lived in an image conscious place like Hollywood… That smoking keeps you thin. In a sense, that’s true. If you’re busy inhaling smoke 95 percent of your waking hours, you’re usually not eating. I don’t know a lot of people who smoke, for instance, while they’re trying to eat a hamburger or a steak.
The ad was attempting to say… Sure, smoking can keep you thin… But it could very well kill you in the process. In essence, the ad was trying to get people to understand what you said– that there does NOT have to be a correlation between smoking and being under or over weight. (Hell, I know plenty of overweight people who still smoke two packs a day.)
What helped me after I quit? Nicotine gum. I chewed it for six months and then I stopped that and never looked back. About six months later, I started gaining weight inexplicably. Finally found out it was my thyroid dying. Been battling that ever since… But it’s always the same answer… Want to stay at a reasonable weight? Eat reasonably and exercise. There’s no other way out.
Thanks, HackSlash! Congrats on giving up smoking! If you’re still feeling weak 5 months after you quit, try this: meditate daily, cut out (or at least minimize) processed foods, get enough sleep, exercise daily, spend some time outdoors every day, and minimize computer usage. Easier said than done, right? (You probably want to slap me now.)
Aww Thanks Sally..I will try not to dissapoint..Since I quit smoking I think I got a taste for a healthier lifestyle..Slowly I am changing more of my bad habits..The most difficult part for me is a clean diet.. My experience is that clean food equals lots of food! But I try..Because I also learn that what we eat has a major influence on how we feel
Wow, Hackslash! I’m impressed! Yes, a clean diet does make you feel better.
Meditation is a great thing. A calculated godsend, and can not only filter your thoughts, but the slow-paced breathing truly saves the body, laying waste to all forms of inflammation.
I try to add more meditation to my daily yoga, but admit to cutting it short b/c I’m thinking about all the things I need to get done. Counter-productive I am. (And apparently a little like Yoda in my speech!)
Hahah, Yoga good still for soul.
I do love both yoga and meditation. In fact, I think doing yoga first, opening up the body, makes meditating even more enjoyable. But, I too, have times when I can’t focus and end up thinking too much during my sessions…. That’s the best part though, with each day comes a new chance to strengthen the skills of concentration 🙂
“with each day comes a new chance” — I try to live by this!
Thanks for all the comments! I’ve never smoked in my life, and I hardly drink. Inside Man, it’s nice that you quit for the cats. I’d do anything for my cats. I had a sluggish thyroid so I went to a naturopath and he fixed me right up. As for the meditation, yes, very important because it puts your body and mind into neutral and allows them to heal.
Very cool!
Thanks for stopping by, Ed!