Moving! Again!

Hi guys! Just a quick note to let you all know we're moving today, and life is crazy as usual. I'm also blogging at my website address too, in case you missed some sweet author interviews.

Somehow I can't quite give up this blog, though, nostalgia and all. I can't quit you, Blogger!

So that's the scoop!

What's up with you guys? Ready for the holidays yet? *snicker*

TED talks: Elizabeth Gilbert on Creative Genius

Hi! Still alive! I've got an update post coming, but in the meantime Rena shared this wonderful talk with me, and I in turn need to share it with you lovely people.

You might have already seen it, since it's four years old, but that doesn't make it less awesome. Watch it now and feel empowered and inspired! 

 

Milestones and Setbacks of 2012, Goals for 2013

I'm going to go ahead and say that one of the biggest milestones of 2012 is that the Mayan Apocalypse didn't happen. As someone who has intricately thought through what it would be like in any apocalypse scenario, I can say most of us wouldn't do well. Not well at all. 

It's funny because it's true.

 Aside from that, it's been a very eventful year. Kameron Hurley has an awesome post where she talks about things she wanted to get done this year, and where she succeeded and failed.

Inspired to do the same, I present to you this post.

Milestones, Events, Accomplishments:

*Gave birth to my son
*Did not die of sleep deprivation (yet)
*Managed to not smother my husband in his sleep (placed on list at husband's request)
*Quit job to stay home with my son
*Started rewriting my book, Zombie Road Trip
*Moved into a bigger house
*Bought new computer 
*Organized most of music library and figured out how to fix the messed up songs that WMA messed up
*Went to Dragon*Con and got to spend time with Rena
*Started Pinterest boards to help mind map book ideas. You can see them here. 
*Made new friends via Twitter, Internet stalking, etc
*Read lots of book on the craft of writing, and regular fiction

Set Backs:

*Did not finish rewrite of Zombie Road Trip (I could have pushed through and wrote the last 15K(?) before the New Year, but I needed to stop and brainstorm the last act)
*Neglected this blog something fierce. Sitting at under 80 followers for a long time.
*Did not get website up and running 
*Certain family relationships have deteriorated with no fix for the foreseeable future
*Still beta reading too slow
*House work and other Real Life Stuff piles up to near breaking point, so I manically clean/work on things/run errands
*Barely exercising
*Not reading as much as I would like
*Still not cooking as much as I want to

Goals:

*Finish writing Zombie Road Trip before the end of January
*Edit the pants off Zombie Road Trip
*Query Zombie Road Trip
*Get website attached to blog soon
*Do more active things with blog--contests, give aways, guest posts etc
*Learn how to manage time better for everything--writing, life, friends and family
*Exercise regularly
*Attend James Scott Bell's Next Level fiction writing seminar
*Attend RWA that's being held in Atlanta next year (2013)
*Attend Dragon*Con and spend lots of time with Rena. 
*Make more time for reading
*Attend cousin's wedding in hometown of upstate New York
*Plan meals better, and experiment more
*Maybe start a bento blog? Or post on here about bento adventures?
*Finish ripping giant collection of cds into iTunes and finish music library once and for all

That's my accomplishments and set backs for this year, and my goals for the next.

What are you guys planning for 2013? Feel free to post in the comments section what you're doing!

Jim Butcher Interview

Holy frijoles*!

This is an awesome interview with Jim Butcher. If you're pressed for time and can't watch, allow me to leave you with some take away information:

JIM BUTCHER IS WRITING A STEAMPUNK SERIES. SQUEE!!!

Also, Jim had this advice to impart when asked whether or not he found the rules he made up for his fantasy world constraining (I'm paraphrasing): "No. I use them as a springboard to do something cooler."

That's awesome. I've run up against rules before and often thought I shot myself in the foot. But in reality, the rules will set you free. You make the rules, show them enforced, but then do something totally cool and unexpected!

That's all for me today. I'm off to get some writing done and watch my kid attempt to walk across the room. YES HE'S WALKING NOW HEAVEN HELP ME.
 
 *By the way, "frijoles" is Spanish for beans. So yes, I just said "holy beans"!

The Magic Wakes by Charity Bradford

Talia has a secret, one that will save her world and yet rip it apart. Only she can decide if the price is worth it.

Scientist Talia Zaryn has always had visions of an alien invasion and of her own death. She’s kept it a secret, hoping they are nothing more than childish nightmares. But when her face in the mirror matches that of her dreams, she fears the dreams are prophetic. Talia must prove that life exists beyond their planet, Sendek; perhaps then people will prepare to fight.

Talia's work at the Space Exploration Foundation leaves no time for personal relationships, but Major Landry Sutton isn’t looking for a friend. He is looking for a traitor. His ability to sense emotions convinces him Talia is that traitor until a touch sizzles between them. In an instant their minds are connected and they can communicate telepathically. Just as the two begin to trust each other, the invading force arrives.

Talia and Landry must uncover the secrets of Sendek’s past if they hope to defeat these terrifying creatures. And Talia is the key—if only she can learn to trust the magic coursing through her veins.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

That is the blurb for my good friend Charity's book. Gripping, isn't it? And what a gorgeous cover!

I've been friends with Charity almost as long as I've been blogging. To say I am excited her book is finally being published (WiDo Publishing) is the understatement of the year, right up there with "Chocolate is okay."

You can get this book in your hot little hands on February 19th, 2013. Charity has a beautiful website here if you want to do some poking around. When the release date gets closer we'll have some fun giveaways, but in the mean time I wanted to put this book on your radar.

I'm off to continue to stare at that pretty cover and maybe get some work done. 

Best Commercial Ever

Okay people, so this just happened:

I KNOW, RIGHT?

My life is now complete. 

Non Sequiter Girl Strikes Again

It's time for some more spam that reads like strange poetry!

The new season again come

No matter you are tide males or beauties

or ordinary people

Choose came in!

And with beautiful shoe tide packets

Make a new you! Begin from here!

Recently everyone bought full 200 dollar in their company

And then had the present to see off

Vietnam, which buys delivers are more

Service is our lift

This place must be very helpful to you!

Quality is our dignity

Once again I am having a hard time picking out a favorite line. Is it "no matter you are tide males or beauties"? Perhaps the last, another coup de grace to your senses, "quality is our dignity"?

Or "begin from here!" which should be an uplifting slogan, but then you say it out loud and it sounds like one of those eerie word plays that Stephan King is so very fond of.

What about you? Any recent run ins with some awesome spam? 

Blackbirds Release Date!

There are some books you mark your calender to remind yourself of the release date. BLACKBIRDS by Chuck Wendig is one of them.

I've read Chuck's blog for a while now, and ever since I heard him talk about the premise for the book I've been frothing at the mouth to read it. Here's the blurb:

Miriam Black knows when you will die.

Still in her early twenties, she's foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, suicides, and slow deaths by cancer. But when Miriam hitches a ride with truck driver Louis Darling and shakes his hand, she sees that in thirty days Louis will be gruesomely murdered while he calls her name.

Miriam has given up trying to save people; that only makes their deaths happen. But Louis will die because he met her, and she will be the next victim. No matter what she does she can't save Louis. But if she wants to stay alive, she'll have to try.


So yeah...frothing at the mouth. I've always loved the idea of someone seeing the future and being unable to stop it (I actually have a book in the making about just that), and I love the twist that Wendig's put on it.

 You know you're intrigued too! Run, don't walk to your nearest bookstore or bookstore web page and order the book now!

On The Night You Were Born

Either the postpartum hormones are hitting me harder than I thought, or having a baby has instantly turned me into a much sappier person.

My husband and I went out and about this past Sunday, the first time I'd been out of the house (save for two doctor's appointments) since I had the baby. We were getting some pictures developed and while we waited, we killed some time in the shopping center.

A shopping center that just so happened to have a Babies R Us. After picking up an "abc dog" (as my husband calls it) and some more onsies, I found the book section and my chosen prey: On the Night You Were Born. When I rejoined my husband though, the conversation went like this:

Husband: A book? The kid's going to have an ereader before too long. Paper books are obsolete. We might as well buy him a VHS tape.

Me: But I want to sit in my glider and read him a book! With paper!

Husband: You just got a kindle for Christmas. Download it on there.

Me: But it won't be in color. The entire time I was in labor, I kept thinking about this book.

*husband wordlessly puts book in shopping cart*

BOOM! And that's how you play the game, people. 

Seriously, I wasn't lying. Despite not having read the book, I had the title stuck in my head, because I kept thinking about how I'd look back on the pain and discomfort of labor and it would be worth it, because it would be the night that my son was born (which turned out to be totally true).

So Sunday night I sit in the glider to read him this book. 

It starts:

"On the night you were born,
the moon smiled with such wonder
that the stars peeked in to see you
and the night wind whispered.
“Life will never be the same.”

Yes folks, that's how the book starts. It only gets more sentimental from there. I could hardly read the book to him, I was crying so much. I blame the hormones. 

Also, the pain meds. I had a root canal yesterday and I am still somewhat loopy (ergo why I think this is amusing enough to blog about it). Yes, a root canal. My filling fell OUT of my tooth last Wednesday, so I had to have some dental work I was carefully avoiding taken care of yesterday.

Yes, between the root canal and my c section almost three weeks ago, life's just been a barrel of laughs. I say that to be sarcastic, but I am also serious. Because when you pick up the baby to burp him, and he spits up ALL OVER the front of your shirt, or when you just get finished changing him and he immediately poops in his diaper SMILING the ENTIRE time, you have to laugh.

Laugh, because if not you'd cry. 

As my friend Liz says about the baby, "he has this look like he's smarter than everyone in the room...and he's waiting for them to figure it out."

Flexibility Matters

I smile because I am holding my son. Also? IV pain meds.

 It's impossible to say how much my life has already changed, and what more is to still come.

I was supposed to be induced for labor on Thursday, February 23rd. I was. I spent the entire day in labor, walking back and forth between a 3 foot space. I was hooked up to an IV with pictocin and minerals in one arm, and a fetal heartbeat monitor and a monitor for my contractions around my stomach. But I walked within the space I had, because it would help me dilate. 

Around six that night the midwife checked me, and found I was 3 cms dilated. Hooray! So I kept walking. I would sit on occasion, but that was very uncomfortable. The contractions were getting stronger and stronger as they upped the pictocin drip. It wasn't until 2 in the morning that I realized my legs hurt too badly to walk on, that they were swollen purple. So it was time for the epidural. They broke my water and set me up on some awesome IV pain meds.

I was told to get some rest, which I would have loved to, but people were checking on me often, and I had a blood pressure cuff that went off every 30 minutes or so. I named it Eeyore because of the sad noise it made after it finished deflating. I was 5 cms by this point.

A few hours later, very early on Friday, the midwife came in to check me again. I was only 6 cms for some reason. Breaking my water should have sped up the contractions, but instead my body just plateaued out. They started talking about a c section, but said we could try taking me off the pictocin for an hour and then starting it back up again.

We tried that. It didn't work. I actually went back to 5 cms dilated. I could have waited until later on in the day to see if I would dilate further, but it was a numbers game at this point. Once they break your water, you have a high chance of infection. My body was showing no signs of dilating further, and the longer we waited, the better chance there would be that they would move me from an unscheduled c section to an emergency c section where they are worried about me and or the baby.

So I decided on the c section, and less than 10 minute later they started prepping me. They gave me this nasty tasting stuff to prevent heartburn, which I promptly threw up (I would have rather had heartburn). They put pressure garments on my legs so I wouldn't clot. They wheeled me into this large, cold OR, and upped my epidural so I couldn't feel anything from the waist down. A thin blue curtain draped across my chest separated me from the doctors. My husband sat with me, holding my hand and looking funny in the hospital gown they gave him. 

I was scared and cold and nervous something would go wrong. But I was lucky. The baby came out no problem. He was perfectly healthy. And while I am still sore from the labor and operation, I am healing well. 

I would have rather not be induced. And then, I would have rather not had a c section. Nothing about my son's birth went how I'd planned, except the most important part about both of us being healthy.

On our way to see the doctor. He sleeps blissfully unaware.

Writing is a lot like that. You have all these ideas and expectations. It comes with the territory. We're imaginative people. Why wouldn't we imagine what it's going to be like to get published, to get an agent, to reach any milestone we have our heart set on?

But it's important to remember that life has other plans. Being flexibile can completely change your experience of an event. I could have gotten really upset and pissed off about how the birth of my son turned out. I could have been mad that I also have to recover from major surgery after being in labor for a day and a half while taking care of a newborn. 

But why? Why get all caught up on how you wanted things to be? Why not plan for every outcome and just know that things are going to change, things are going to be different, and that's okay?

If you get too upset about the curve balls life throws you, just look at this picture. I dare you not to laugh: 

Sausage baby! To the rescue!

  

New Year's Resolutions (with Zombies!)

I know there are a million people posting their New Years Resolutions, but you should read mine because there are zombies involved. And then you should post your goals in the comments section! It could be like a little party of resolve!

Also, there's something about stating your goals in public for everyone to see. Guilt and shame are great motivators, let me tell you.

So here are my resolutions for 2012:

1. Finish my book and query agents
The whole she-bang. Finish the first draft, edit it into awesomeness, and then pester query agents for representation. Last year was sort of a growing year for me. I wrote two books, but I also broke what I wrote too. But you know, that's okay. I firmly believe that trying, failing, and trying again is an important part of this process. Both books I wrote, not to mention the complete rewrite, taught me a lot.


2. Start a new book
While I am waiting on queries, crits, and other assorted writing things, I want to get another book written.


3. Stretch more
Everyone has some variation of this on list, I am sure, but I prefer to be more specific. "Exercise more" never works out for me, so I am going with stretching. I like the activities you do while stretching (Pilates and Yoga, get your mind out of the gutter), so that's what I am going with.


4. Get my website together
Before I start querying, I'd like to have some semblance of a website up. Mostly I keep forgetting about it, but this year I will make sure it gets going. 


5. Fix up the blog
I don't really have any ideas yet, but it's been almost two years and it seems like it's time for a change. Anyone have any suggestions?


I was going to put something baby related on the resolution list, but I figured that would be cheating since I am already there. 


Without further ado, here's your zombies!

And while you're listening to the song, pop down in the comments section and tell me what your resolutions are.

The Hobbit: Instant Nostalgia

I am sure most of you have seen this trailer already, but if you haven't, take a moment to fulfill your life and watch it.

I must admit, when I first found out they were making a Hobbit movie, I was skeptical. They had done an amazing job with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Better than I had hoped. I remember sitting on the couch and my friend telling me they were making the entire trilogy in live action, and thinking it was going to be terrible. I had first read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when I was in elementary school and fallen in love. Those books are part of the reason why I evolved into a fantasy writer.

By the time the trilogy came out, I was excited, but reserved. My friends and I made a thing of it, and went to see the Fellowship of the Ring opening night. Hours later my mind was blown away. Again, I felt swept away to Middle-earth and longed to go back the minute the movie ended. 

For the next three years I was obsessed. I had the movie posters, the action figures (still safely tucked away in my closet unopened), the soundtracks, the movie guide, and stalked the Internet for news like a lion on the prowl. We saw each movie opening night, and regularly made long weekends of watching all three extended editions back to back.

Now that I've gotten to see the actual trailer for the Hobbit, my hopes are once again raised. The music sounds the same, as is the attention to detail on the setting, not to mention actors reprising their roles.

One last time it seems like we'll be able to view Middle-earth through Peter Jackson's eyes, and I personally cannot wait.  

Non Sequiter Girl

I was killing time while waiting for my mother in law to pick me up yesterday by reading this article: 5-tiny-computer-glitches-that-caused-huge-disasters

It was still early in the morning, so there weren't that many comments. Out of habit I scrolled down to skim. There were the usual comments regarding the author of the article's lack of sexual prowess, his mother, the typos he made, etc, but then I came across this beauty:

Trout_Mask:

?Once "said a inequivocal truck endorsing some (walnutt stench)bed through the congress of hidden identities" I arrived. To quench / satisfy my tumbling = aching (fall for salt( of 50 % sugar and no tea( met had the falter the faltering..and the interruption began silent into the evening & struck with @telephone line yes, i do ? desire such! Seven corpses shatter on my wake of teeth at & the sommersault of the hours raped the kitchen. The cat also woke up rather (ahhhhhhhhhhhh cats, me afraid! I despise such @caller yes, you do! / no salt please. How many hours till the rocococoo hits its grave» hello and goodbye dear friends! I missed Shirley the most perhaps beyond the ammount! To and be fed and eat! Oh Shirley! Oh World! Oh much have (the Empire called, they want their fish. Bring him wet and still unconscious of his fate. and unconscious too since the king must not wai=hello? Dou you still remain the carp? lewd, sour and scour? Blinded flods and floods and fools... I am the Trout!!!!!!!!!? #it has been delivered rough, like bolts upon the quivering.( The deed was bitten( all hail the carp.


And the trout lied faltering its mask.

To my further joy, someone commented on Trout_Mask's bit of poetry with this:

minitune:

Clear water trout makes good sashimi, much better than carp. A good chef with a SHARP knife can cut, de-bone, and slice the flesh before the fish even knows it's dead. It is best eaten with bit of sprinkled pepper and Cayenne powder and dipped in vinegared soy-sauce.

I kinda of love the Internet guys, and this is one of the many, many reasons why. 

First, in case you didn't bother to read the article, this comment has NOTHING to do with the article. It's about simple mistakes made that had bigger consequences, like when a tec at a power company turned off an alarm and failed to turn it back on after fixing the problem, resulting in the upper east of the United States and parts of Canada having a blackout.

Second, I love the poetry of this comment. It's both hilarious and absurd. It's like e.e. cummings had a love child with Kurt Vonnegut (is that less creepy to think about since they are both dead? Or more?). 

At first glance, Trout_Mask's comment looks like gibberish, but read it. Seriously, go ahead. Read it out loud. It's not gibberish. It actually makes a strange, melodic sort of sense. I tried to pick out a favorite passage, but I can't. A few gems:

"How many hours till the rocococoo hits its grave» hello and goodbye dear friends!"

"the Empire called, they want their fish. Bring him wet and still unconscious of his fate."

Somehow the last two lines tie the entire nonsense together, like a coup de grace to your senses:

"I am the Trout!!!!!!!!!? #it has been delivered rough, like bolts upon the quivering.( The deed was bitten( all hail the carp.

And the trout lied faltering its mask."

All hail the carp indeed.  And then, to make things better, someone comes along and talks about how trout makes worse sashimi than carp. Seriously. I could not make this up, guys.

Perhaps I am the only one so delighted by Trout_Mask's accidental poetry. I do have a fond place in my heart for absurd humor, hence my deep love of Kurt Vonnegut. Perhaps I have broken my brain from writing so much.

You tell me: Am I crazy or does this seem like a little poem? Am I the only one so amused?

A Hyper Post

I am posting today because I am super hyper! I just got back from my OB's office wherein I drank a super sugary orange flavored drink in about two minutes! This is a real test, and not conducted for my doctor's amusement! They took my blood an hour later to see how my body is processing sugar, to make sure I haven't developed gestational diabetes.


I will get the results in two weeks, but as far as I can tell, my body is processing sugar JUST FINE. Me and the baby are both bouncing off the walls.


WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*throws glittery sparkles everywhere*

(If I had a way, I would add those glittery, seizure-inducing blinkies you see on MySpace profiles right here. But I do not, so just image the most glittery thing you can.)


Another reason behind my great joy is I am listening to the new Florence and the Machine CD Ceremonials and it's AMAZING. Her first CD Lungs was simply wonderful. I've listened to the entire CD over and over, and it's haunting and beautiful and innovative. So when she announced her newest CD I was excited but a little bit nervous. There's times where an artist puts out a CD or book and it's wonderful, and you wait for the second one only to feel a little disappointed. 


But ladies and germs, Ceremonials is not disappointing in the least. She somehow managed to keep the same sounds that I loved in Lungs but also progressing forward with her music.

This may sound like a paltry reason to some for me to be happyhappyhappy, but you underestimate how much I love music and Florence and the Machine specificly. Music is a book to sound as far as I am concerned and it plays a huge role in my writing. The Ghosts Between Us, a book about a medium trying to stop the ghost of a serial killer I wrote a few months ago, would not be the same if it wasn't for Lungs. It's weird to think about, but sometimes finding the right ambient music can make or break a scene for me (I would go into a long explanation about how I think music is one of the primary ways my subconscious communicates ideas to me, but this post is rambling ENOUGH).

Speaking of my writing, Zombie Road Trip is still coming slowly, but I am pushing through the suck. You guys were great and wonderfully helpful on Tuesday, and I feel like there's hope for me after all. :D

About the writing...I *might* be using this post to procrastinate working on my book...so I guess it's time to get back to work, huh? Yeah, I think so too.


*searches the Internet for pointless timewasters*


What? I thought we agreed I was procrastinating?


Okay, you're right. I am getting back to work now. 


So time to chime in! How's the day going? Have you had any happy surprises this week?

ARC Giveaway: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

I have been in love with "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" by Lani Taylor ever since she vaguely mentioned it on her blog. YES, it's been that long. 

I am slowly counting the days when it's released, but for now, allow me to direct your attention to this ARC giveaway of....yes, you guessed it, "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" (I just never get tired of saying that title.)

Claire Legrand, a magnanimous human being, is holding a super-easy contest. So go now. Check it out. You'll thank me.

Second Trimester: A Wonderful Thing

Today I am officially in my second trimester! This means I am 13 weeks pregnant.

It feels like this pregnancy is going very slowly when I stop to think about it, but on the other hand, I can't believe it's already been 13 weeks. 4 months. That's a long time. 

By all accounts this is the "fun" trimester. You don't have the morning sickness and fatigue in the first trimester, but you're not as huge as a alien mothership yet. Everyone assured me that when I hit my second trimester the morning sickness would go away, but I was sort of worried they were just lying so I didn't throw up on them. 

Apparently this is actually true, since I am feeling better. I also have less anxiety because the chance of miscarriage decreases drastically. The first trimester feels like the valley of the shadow of death in some ways. Maybe it was just because we found out so soon we were pregnant. We started trying to have a baby, and bamn, next month I miss my period. So I have plenty of time to try and not worry about all the things that could happen.

I didn't want to start planning things too soon. I haven't researched the different birth method (like what sort of drugs I want present at the birth of my baby :D), I haven't registered yet, I haven't bought maternity clothes yet. Now I feel like I can start thinking about these things. 

But that's when I realized that this vague anxiety I feel for my baby will never actually go away. There's never going to be an "all clear" guarantee that say everything is going to be okay. I'll still worry when the baby is a toddler, a child, and heaven help me, a teenager. When I say worry, I don't mean I am staying up at night losing sleep. But it's humbling in a way, to know that my life has been so changed already and the baby isn't even here yet to keep me up at night.

Another cause for my excellent mood is I am very, very close to the end of my rewrite. I started outlining the climax yesterday using this article of Jim Butcher's. I know it sounds weird to outline the climax, but sometimes they intimidate me. There's so many moving parts, so many loose threads being wrapped up that my mind just draws a blank. I use the article to figure out what character is where, and doing what, before I plunge into the scene. 

Soon I will be able to write the post proclaiming that I am done, but in the meantime I will say that I am making excellent progress. 

So how is everyone doing? How are your works in progress? 

A New Reality TV Show: Writing a Novel

Reality TV show given to people who just had lots of kids. My show is in the bag.

Guys, I just had the greatest idea.

Reality TV is here to stay. We all know that. They will give anyone a reality TV show if they do something halfway interesting. Sometimes not even then.

But I've thought about an untapped market in the reality TV realm.

Writers. Writing books.

Imagine how gripping it would be to watch a writer furiously typing away at the keyboard. Imagine the tension as the writer pounds his head against his (or her) desk trying to remember the name of those boxes built into the wall that hold firewood indoors.

You'll watch day by day as the writer gets the brilliant idea for their next book. You'll see the sweat pour from their veins as they try to figure out how to make a romance/space western/historical fiction with a hamster as a main character and a velociraptor sidekick work.

This show would follow the writer as they go through rough draft blues. When they want to throw away their book because the edits are eating them alive. The show will document the query process.

Face it folks. Writers are a bunch of crazy people. We're nutty than a bunch of squirrels eating peanut butter on a bed of macadamia nuts. You know it. I know it. Following a writer through their daily routine of typing the words out on the computer? That is high quality drama right there. 

There could be guest agents, sort of like Celebrity Apprentice. The agents could judge the query/book and say things like "This guy has real talent. He's someone to watch." Or they could get an agent like Simon Powell on American Idol who could be all tough love: "I'm not loving it. The words are there, but there's no heart."

One of the guest agents should have fabulous hair, like Donald Trump's.

And then towards the end of every episode, the writer could be all, "I can't do it! I'm a fraud! I DON'T WHERE THE WORDS COME FROM!" And then the writer pulls out his hair like a modern day Van Gogh.

They could get several different writers and follow their career. They could have write offs, contests, specials on pantsers versus plotters.

I will await an email from the major TV networks in order to bring this plan into fruition.

My New Goal: House Giraffe

Some of you might not know, but there's this sport called basketball. And this is a time of the year called "March Madness". I found this out yesterday when my husband came home, turned on the TV, and starting yelling at the tiny people running around.

When I went into the living room to inform him that the tiny people couldn't hear him, and the game wasn't live anyway, so he's trying to yell through time and space, I saw this commercial instead.

There are many amusing things about this commercial--dogs playing poker in the background, the obligatory Swedish models, Twilight is the movie playing in the background--but I would like to focus your attention on the House Giraffe.

Isn't he just adorable? I saw another commercial that had him running on a little treadmill. Since I already have a house buffalo, I thought maybe a new addition to the family would be in order. My husband and I talked about it last night, and we've decided to go ahead and get one.

I am so excited! They are just so cute, don't you think?

Gentle reminder: I am having a blogfest! Yay! It's to celebrate reaching 50 followers, and also my new ones! Hi new followers! Thanks for joining us! So everyone go sign up because it's going to be lots of fun!

Happy Friday everyone! I am off to go pick up a mini-treadmill for our House Giraffe.

A Neccessary Evil

Yesterday I had so much fun, and it wasn't even writing related. Weird, I know. I did something revolutionary, something I never do, and while I regret it later, it was fun at the time.

I watched The Grudge with my best friend Melissa and Joe (who is Melissa's boyfriend). It was his birthday this past Sunday and we celebrated it yesterday. I told Joe he was allowed to pick the movie we watched, yes even a horror movie. I normally stay away from horror movies like they carried the plague. Because I am a sissy and when I watch them I scream and jump, and usually have a nightmare or two afterward. I am just a little too imaginative for my own good sometimes.

But there's must be something seriously wrong with Melissa and Joe, for they LOVE horror movies. They've watched tons of them, and are considers "buffs" in the genre. They really don't discriminate either, and will watch something big budget or what they found in the dollar bin at the supermarket. 

So yesterday after apartment hunting (I am moving in about a month) I went over to their apartment and we cleaned up a bit, and got some Chinese food (YUM), and then settled in to play some Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.


A brief digression into my nerdiness: Warriors of Rock is so unbelievably awesome. You can give your avatar red glowing eyes, and all kinds of rock paraphernalia. It's like the dark fantasy version of the game, complete with zombie make up. I managed to unlock myself a set of angel wings to compliment my red demon glowing eyes and Egyptian eye make up. I am still working on my succubus horns, but those are really high level, and I play infrequently at best. 

We had loads of fun, hopped up on strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting and Monster energy drinks, which curiously like alcohol, taste terrible the first few sips until you numb your taste buds. Then it was time for the movie. Joe picked out The Grudge, which Melissa hadn't even seen yet. We watched the remake, the one with Buffy in it. I know, I know. Purists would shoot me, because the Japenese original, named Ju-on, is supposed to be waaay scarier. Well, if that's the case, I don't think I could watch the original. The remake nearly killed me. By the end of the movie Melissa and I had shifted towards Joe until we were in a tiny clump of unbridled terror.

Thank you Wikimedia for setting the mood for this post.

Overall, there was something cathartic being that terrified for an hour an a half. Afterward I felt a giddy sense of euphoria. I just have to not think about the movie AT ALL if I ever want to sleep again. I think the concept of a hungry ghost is really cool, and I even have a few in my WIP so that helped keep my interest in the movie. I think sometimes watching a movie outside of my comfort zone is a necessary evil. Cathartic, at the least. The last outside of my comfort zone movie was We Were Soldiers, which had me balling my eyes out through half the movie.


Today I feel refreshed and energetic, ready to take on the world, or at least my plot outline. But that could be the leftover cake talking.


I would like to thank my new followers! Hi new followers! It's nice to still be acquiring followers. I've stayed between the 30-40 mark for a while now, and I wondered if my breath stank or something. But that's how blogs go, and I know a massive legion of followers will come in time. Just as soon as I learn how to make zombies...


Anyway! Have a great day everyone, and maybe try something new? Something you think you won't like. You never know how it will make you feel.

Blogging About Blogging

Good afternoon/evening/morning everyone!

Sorry I haven’t been blogging regularly as of late. I really try to blog on a regular basis, and every day that passes without a post I always give myself a horrible guilt trip for. It sort of spirals out of control until I am left staring at the computer screen with a voice in my head screaming, “You must write SOMETHING!”

But then I freeze up and I don’t know what to write, and I hope something will come to me, but nothing does, and it gets late, so I think I will write something tomorrow.

Lather rinse repeat until the guilt builds and I think I will just post: gkhdfgkjhsgkjrshgtkjgnfkjbghoitydklh,senke just to say I posted something.

But my friend Lena and I have brainstormed some topics for blogging, so never fear, I am now armed with blogging topics galore.

I think my main problem with blogging is I always want to write these long, informative posts. Which can be problematic, because most people don’t want to read long posts, and I don’t always have the time/energy to write long posts. So I think I should write something shorter, but in case you’re new to me, I am very long winded. I rarely say something in ten words that I can say in ten words, plus an interesting aside.

My other problem is I think what I have to say should be brand new and interesting. Even if I do have insights in characters and plot, I think to myself that it’s not exactly new information, so why bore my blog readers (whom I love very much and would never want to bore)?

It was pointed out to me that even if the subject itself has been done to death, it still doesn’t mean that I don’t have a different way of explaining it that could help someone else. Personally, I still read blog posts on character development and plotting, and all the staples of a writer, not because I don’t know, but because I am curious about that person’s process and take. If for no other reason, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of the basics.

So armed with ideas and knowledge, I now feel more confident about being able to blog on a regular basis. I think I will shoot for three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but I might be able to do more. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I wondered how in the world you guys come up with stuff to blog about. How? Do you just sit down and write? Do you always have a subject in mind? Secret blogging genie? If so, where can I get one?