BLOGIVERSARY! Or... A Tart Faces Her Blog

I'm not sure why I am feeling so accusatory toward it at the moment, but it seems to be taunting me. Oh wait... I've got it... I just passed my anniversary and I forgot to throw a party. So why not today? I have a winner to announce for VR's book giveaway. It is summer (if stormy) and I have a four-day weekend on the horizon. So let's have a party!!!

Cheers!

So What Are We Celebrating?

SIX YEARS!!! That is a pretty long time, ne? I've grown in a lot of ways. This blog really helped me find my voice. I think writing as yourself is a different sort of exercise from writing as narrator—you learn what you sound like without the story filter and I think it makes the story voice truer, too.



So CHEERS to perseverance and voice!

I've made a TON of fabulous friends. This is a wonderfully supportive community and surely would have gone insane somewhere between then and now without you. Many many of you have become real friends, not just blog friends, and I will always be grateful.

So CHEERS to FRIENDS!

Time for a group hug...

This blog has also sometimes given me reality checks I totally didn't want but probably needed. I can't really give a toast to that because I really can't endorse reality, but I do comprehend its necessity at times.

And this blog supported me through going from being a writer with a single first draft to my name, to a published author. I've written... I think 18 books now (20 if I count the Shot in the Light as a trilogy) and have traditionally published three and self published the trilogy. I have a lot of work to go here. I'm not convinced I know how to really make a book shine. I want to write hard back best sellers and I'm not there yet. But if any support system can get me there, this one can.

Have a truffle... good for good times and bad...

So CHEERS to author careers! May I yet have one!


So all that said, I am still in my slump... Thought I was coming out of it, but I am struggling like crazy. The fact that I've delayed my first blog of the week until Thursday is never a good sign. Not only could I not get out story words, I couldn't eve seem to get out blog words.

Part of this is the GAP. It was so long that I really didn't write. Inertia is real.

Part of it is my ridiculous Game of Thrones obsession, so what I WANT to write is all my theories about what it going to happen and why. I have been through this with Harry Potter and I am totallya junkie for this stuff—looking at what is written and writing what comes next. If you both watch and read, I posted my Jon season 6 predictions yesterday. I will do all the major characters (Dany next)

I have managed about 21K words on the WiP. I also got EXCELLENT feedback on Also Appearing from Johanna Garth (THANK YOU) that I actually think I know how to address, so that will be my July project.

It is all still just my shaken confidence. But I think that place where we know we need to improve, while painful, is critical to doing the work to grow. When we get confident, and for a while there I think I sort of was, we can stagnate. Let's just hope this doesn't make me physically grow. Writing has already been bad enough where that is concerned...

Blood, Boobs, Carnage? Sounds like Game of Thrones to me

I have to admit to you that normally I can take or leave ALL these things. I don't object to them. I am not squeemish or prudish. I just also don't really NEED them. They don't necessarily add for me.

Why then, is my very favorite TV show ever so full of all three? [I read these books, too, but these descriptors in the books have far lower prominence, though they are there--how graphically depending largely on the PoV character at the time and how much they understand and would care to describe.]

[Minor spoilers included, though kept to a minimum other than the first episode and the one I think most of the world knows about]

Jaime pushing Bran out the window

The very first episode doesn't have ACTUAL blood--oh wait... there IS a beheading of a deserter of the Night's Watch--but what it lacks in blood it makes up for with two different incestuous scenes, which I think we will call a draw. Besides that, MOST episodes have blood. And there are boobs... I think Danaerys gets the first full boobal scene (yes that's a word—it means “all about boobs” though it might be Roz—a whore, so her boobage can be forgiven. And carnage? An eight year old boy is thrown out a window of a high tower for stumbling across one of those incest scenes mentioned. And there are hints that someone (John Arryn) was murdered.

It isn't the blood itself, but the implications

Favorite Blood in the Series

Oh, sure, there is gory death and battle blood. Lots of it. But I think the BLOOD MAGIC ("Only death can pay for life" and "There is Power in a King's Blood") has a lot more appeal to me. Also, there is a scene where Sansa wakes up from a dream of being raped (after she nearly was—it is a PTSD dream) to find she has “flowered” (moon's blood, aka: started her period)--this puts her in imminent danger as it means she is old enough to marry the sadistic young king.

They showed this from both angles, but in the interest of PG...

Favorite Boobs in the Series

Erm... this show has coined a phrase. “Sexposition”--when someone has to SAY something that can't be shown, then somebody in the scene is inevitably having sex to make it visually interesting... or something. I guess though, I forgive the boobage as it is one of few shows to not shy from full male nudity, too. The best scene this way is Hodor because it is largely so innocent. Hodor is believed to be part giant with great strength, but the wits and temperament of a sweet three year old. He comes out of a pool to find Bran, Osha and Rickon and Osha raises an eyebrow, “Now there's a big man” and Bran tells Hodor to put his clothes on. Hodor has no clue he's been inappropriate (and in a better world, neither would anybody else--it's just nakedness). It just is this sweet, comedic nakedness.

Nobody is safe. Nobody.

My Favorite Carnage

Man, this show is so full of it. And my favorite scenes this way are favorites not because they were “good” but because they were full on wrenches to the gut. The first is in season one and even people totally unfamiliar probably know: killing the person we all thought was the MC. Then there is the George RR Martin Wedding Planner thing... and the trials by combat... In short, I like the carnage in this show because it has proven to have such power as a game changer. Anyone is expendable, which increases the tension all the time. And tables can turn in an instant. This series took a lot of inspiration from War of the Roses, which is actual history, and I think this piece is where that is most powerfully displayed.



So I encourage you to go check out the other participants. And what about you? Do you like violence? Nudity? What is your favorite book, TV show or movie that is heavy on these?

And So My Break is Ended

I had two glorious weeks off. And now all that's over...

It's funny. I am normally a person who really loves beginnings. And there are THINGS I like about starting a new year... mostly the resolutions and plans, but ending something I like (break) to start something I don't (the daily grind—which come to think of it would be much better if there were more grinding involved) doesn't quite qualify. January is my least favorite month.

I think this is Michigan's fault. I used to hate February most because “come on already spring”, but January's average high in Michigan is 14. It is just the merciless cold. That simple. That at the inevitable diet, but that is my own darn fault. I think I'll like January a lot when I finally retire, as I plan to spend it somewhere warm, and will start the diet when I get home... But as it it, yesterday (Saturday) was freezing rain and today (Sunday) it is snowing and if I have to go outside I need to wear a lot of clothes... You KNOW my opinion on clothes...

But since it can't be avoided, maybe it is time to just embrace the fabulous...

My Oregon Ducks Won the Rose Bowl!

This means Saturday they play in the National Championship game against Ohio State who I have A LOT of practice hating from living in Ann Arbor and having the Wolverines be my #2 team (Go Blue!).


My cleanse and diet:

You want to hear all the details about this, don't you? You are dying to dig into the calorie and sit-up minutiae that is my life... No? Okay, won't bore you... well maybe once a month, but it is too soon. Suffice it to say I think this was the sort of kick in the butt I needed. Hopefully in due course there will be less butt to kick.

Downton Abbey is Back!!!

I finally managed to find the Christmas Special in parts on YouTube. Frustrating that On Demand doesn't have it, but I'm sure there was some decision behind that... But the Sunday night show watching with my Couch to Keg peeps is one of the things I really look forward to. Downton Abbey, and then when that ends, the wait for Game of Thrones isn't too long (and we will start Outlander about that same time—that was our fall one this year, but the season continues in April)


Speaking of Game of Thrones

It is finally near enough (a mere 3 months) that I can start freaking out there, too. If you are a book reader, I've discovered a YouTube channel that does a lot of 'predicting from text': Radio Westeros. I think they do a great job and I think they've uncovered several likely things, mostly identities of people who seem to be bit players at the moment. It is too spoilery (or possibly irrelevant) for show watchers, but I recommend it if you've read the books twice or once but want huge surprises (I don't think one read of these books can possibly be remembered well enough to have all this be “AHA!”--it would be more “wait, what?”


But my writing, as predicted with my need for fitness obsession, is in the back seat... I will meet my ABNA goal, but I am not sure how much else... Ah well... baby steps, eh?


So how is YOUR beginning going? Productive? Spinning your wheels? Or a bit of a mix?

A Geekisborg, Just for You...

Shun-SHENG duh gao-WAHN! It has been WAY to long since I just indulged you in a good old time, so I have a few treats for you. Most of these came to me through Facebook shares. There are some perks to having a reputation as a nut. People share vast silliness with me all the time. First... your tutorial on what the above phrase...

Fifteen Best Firefly Chinese Phrases: 

Any of you who have not yet watched Firefly really should get on that. It's fabulous. And until then, Holy Testicle Tuesday to you!!!




ALSO in the meantime... Let's revive some old phrases, shall we?

20's Phrases that need Reviving:

And HEY Game of Thrones Geeks!!!

The Season 4 Trailer is OUT!!!:

And when My buddy Joshua shared the above, Matthew McNish shared the first Complete History and Lore For Game of Thrones:

There are two of these, more than an hour a piece, but an EXCELLENT education for those of you who haven't read, and reminder for those of us who have.


And HEY, because I can be useful too... this video could save a life (watch to the end for specifics) but it's delivered beautiful:


So there!

Squirrels, Song and Smith's Shoes

SQUIRRELS!!!

Squirrels may be very commonplace, but they still make me happy. Michigan squirrels are quite fat. I think it is the 'in case it's a bad winter' thing. Squirrels in places with mostly mild winters don't need to store enough fat to survive a long spell with nothing to eat, but here they are mostly pretty good sized. The Red Fox Squirrels are most common. Like this little fellow here.


Song of Ice and Fire

Source

OH, to be obsessed... SERIOUSLY obsessed. I love when literature mercilessly does this to me. I think about this world and these characters ALL the time... I want to talk to like-minded others about them... I submitted to the more expensive cable for it... Anybody who knows how cheap I am knows this is a very big deal.

The Starks are OF COURSE my favorite, my VERY most favorite being Arya, whose journey is fascinating, terrifying and amazing. But Martin does an amazing job ESPECIALLY of writing PoV characters who are NOT the heroes—of infusing delusion so even as the reader knows it for what it is, it's clear the character doesn't get it. It's some seriously brilliant writing.

I especially love, that on the re-read, I am spotting all this support for favorite theories. There is symbolism, symmetry, foreshadowing... Just freaking AMAZING.

And... ONE WEEK, until my buddy and fellow Burrower Tara (aka: Amber T Smith) Releases 
If the Shoe Fits

The blurb: There’s nothing wrong with Ella Gibson’s life— it just isn’t very exciting, despite being surrounded by lingerie. Working for Cardiff’s top modelling agency should have been glamorous, but most of the time Ella is running around with memos and cups of coffee. It’s a far cry from living the dream, but skirting the edge of her fantasy life is enough.

Then comes the day when her cat starts to talk, claiming to be Ella’s fairy godmother. As if that weren’t crazy enough, the pesky puss becomes a fashion advisor and behavioral expert, too. Add an evil ex-stepmother, a hunk called Charming, plus a looming party-cum-ball, and you have all the elements of a classical fairy tale. There's even a couple of ugly sisters—the fact that they are two gorgeous gay men being neither here nor there.

Ella’s not your typical fairy-tale princess though, and it will take more than a discarded glass slipper to get her man. It’s quite possible she may have to curb her enthusiasm for cursing a wee bit, not to mention her love of vodka. And can Muse, her surprisingly straight-laced feline friend, overcome her prudishness long enough for Ella to sneak a kiss or three with her intended beau?

My Review:
I had the good fortune to be a pre-release reader on this book. This fun twist on the Cinderella tale was just right for my slightly twisted sense of humor. It was laugh-out-loud funny, and I gave it the full five snorts on the laugh-o-meter.

Ella is a common receptionist for a lingerie company with a penchant for swearing and underwear mishaps, but she is good-hearted and easy to like--just ask her sisters--a pair of gay male models who double as her best friends.

Enter Muse... a cat... and a new sort of Furry Godmother... Muse has decided Ella needs a little bit of a makeover if she is ever to catch a suitable match. A manners makeover, in addition to the other sort. The Cat's prudery, the 'sister's' helping on this makeover project... it all is just REALLY fun and hysterically funny.