Love Letter Blog Fest

Ok I'm not gonna lie...it's kinda hard to write about anything other than Team Jacob/Team Edward (Though I am more of a Switzerland on the subject) after sitting through a 7 hour Twilight Triple Feature (that TOTALLY rocked my socks off) but I signed up for the Love Letter Blog Fest (Frankie always has the best ideas!) and Dernit I'm gonna follow through...

Besides after witnessing the great Edward Nipple FAIL once again, I need to focus my mind on something else...

But who to choose? I mean there's Gale (I'm sorry, but Peeta just isn't manly enough for me) and then there's Cabel from the Wake Trilogy, but seriously...and as much as I'm a tiny bit over done on the whole Edward thing...I can't remember falling in love with a character like I did him. (Minus the one's in my own books...sigh...)

ALTHOUGH...there's always Mr. Darcy... *swoons*

Yep...I think I've found my match. Time to write him about it...

Dear Mr. Darcy,

I'm not sure if you know this or not, but um, we're kinda in love. I say we because I know the moment you meet me you'll ditch Elizabeth. I'm pretty confident it will be my vast collection of Gnomes that will finally win you over.

That being said, please never stop brooding. I don't think my heart could take it if you didn't stand in a corner and say nothing while staring at me in the most stalker-like way possible. Edward Cullen's angst can't hold a candle to your sullen nature!

Just thinking about your intense stare places me in need of a cold shower.

So until we meet at last, I am yours forever,

Poppins

How come they don't have Summer Reading Programs for Adults?

After I read for 20 minutes I totally think I deserve a sticker too!!!! Though if I did get a sticker every time I read 20 minutes I'd probably be covered from head to toe in stickers.

But still!

It's that time of year when all my favorite TV shows are on rerun mode and my nights are reserved for reading. Lots and Lots of reading!

So far this year I have read 23 books.

I want to double this by the end of the summer. I've read one so far. So um....I'm almost there...

Here is what's on my night stand:

Will Grayson Will Grayson (almost done with this one)
The Uglies
The Everafter
Handcuffs
Barry Trotter (The unauthorized Harry Potter Parody)(and actually this one somehow made it's way to the floor. Oops)
The Shack
Shadowed Summer

I also have a slew of research books for my next novel, but I'm not going to count them in. Since I'm mostly skimming through the parts I find important.

So I have these books On Hold at the Library:

Glass House
Insatiable
Tricks
Burned

I'm waiting for these books to come out:

Linger
Mockingjay
Torment
Paranormalcy
Fallout

AND Crescendo, but that doesn't come out till October, so I can't count it. Sigh....

On my to be read list are:

Holes
Catcher in the Rye
When you Reach Me

So that's only 19 Books. I need 4 More!!!

Any Suggestions? Do you wish they had a summer reading program for adults? What do you think they should give away as prizes? Wine? Chocolate? B&N Gift Cards? (swoon!)

What is on your summer reading list?

A New Obsession is Born!

AND...it's all my husband's fault. (Shhhh...don't tell him I said that!)

I just want to state for the record that I am still madly in love with writing. I've just decided that I need a little something on the side to get me through those "rough times" with my novel.

What!?!?!

It's not like I'm cheating on my writing. I mean, we're not engaged or anything. It's more like I'm kinda just dating two hobby's/professions/career prospects aka Obsessions (not to be confused with the Calvin Klein cologne).

Alright fine! I am incapable of Obsession monogamy.

*hangs head in shame*

But my new Obsession is so shiny and sparkly and fun! How can I just commit to one when both are so exciting? I mean that's like telling a kid, "You can only have ONE lollipop honey." as you wave two (or ten) in their face. It's cruel.

*dons her picket sign "Against Obsession Cruelty!"*

So you probably want to know what my new Obsession is eh? (What was that? You think you already know ... Oh hush!)

I am completely and utterly infatuated (I say infatuated cuz I still reserve the 'in love'ness for writing) with web design. I big fat poofy heart all this HTML schtuff! And I can't seem to get enough of it.

This is bad. REALLY bad. So bad in fact my husband yelled at me last night! (Isn't he mean! Ok so maybe he didn't really 'yell', but let's pretend he did for suspense reasons.)

He said to me, "Poppins!" (Cuz he totally always calls me Poppins ... or maybe that was never ...) "You need to turn off that Firebug and unplug for the night!"

It was like he wanted to spend time with me or something. The nerve of him.

"Bu...bu...but..." I whispered as I pulled at my hair and my body convulsed.

The sight of me must have been alarming because Mr. Poppins calmed down and placed his hand on my shoulder as he said, "Ok, let's just gently step away from the Dreamweaver..."

And THEN he had the gall to be all, "It's time to look at vacation destinations honey. You can do this. I know you can."

That was a totally low blow.

And it worked.

But he's gone now. Away at work. So um ... yeah ... I'm just gonna go ahead and spend a little quality time with my friend WordPress. But let's just keep that between you and me. Mmmkay?

So! Who wants a website. LOL No seriously...I'm kinda cheap...not to be confused with easy...just sayin... (Is this shameless promotion? Because I am TOTALLY against shameless promotion! ... or is that for it? I'm confused!)

Of Epic Random Proportions

Once again I have accomplished a regularly scheduled blog post FAIL. That in my book makes me the master of awesome. I have yet to find anyone who can post as randomly as me.

So my dad bought me a lucky gnome. I'm too lazy t

o take a picture of it though. So you'll have to see it at another time.

I'm also to lazy to get up from my computer and fold laundry. Although it could include a really good House marathon...so it's still being considered.

And on another random note... ***Warning! This may come as a shock and may hurt people's feelings, but I'm totally ok with that!***... I started to reread Twilight last night cuz I need to make a trip to the library since I've read all my books.

Um yeah...I just couldn't get into it. The whole flipping time all I could hear was Kristen Stewar

ts voice narrating the whole dang thing. I dunno bout you, but I'm so not a fan of K Stew. She may or may not have ruined the series for me forever.

And on that note, Only 7 more days till my Eclipse Triple Feature!!!! YAY!!! (How's that for not only random but completely contradictory and hypocritical! WIN)

So I've gone into web design. That's right, I can now right basic HTML code AND totally understand what I'm doing. I rock!

I'd like to share one more random fact before I leave you ... I bought new flip flops. They have owls on the soles. I love Target! (Crap that's three random facts! But hey, bonus for you!)

So who has something random they'd like to share with me? Oh come on....don't hold back. Bring on your epic moment of randomosity!

Contests...My unlucky Misfortune...Kinda

There have been a LOAD of contests out there lately. And by load I mean like 534!!! (or something like that)

And like half of them are giving away super fantastic ARCs like Paranormalcy and Linger (and um...it wouldn't hurt for someone to give away Mockingjay. Just Saying....oh and I'm totally cool if someone wants to talk to Becca about throwing a contest out there for Crescendo too!) Anyways...

I keep losing. Every time. (Okay, except for the contest where I won a query and synopsis critique from Suzie Townsend...which may or may not be a tiny bit better than an ARC. It's a big toss up!)

So I've decided something must happen to up my luck. Apparently all my gnomes aren't cutting the mustard!

Maybe I just haven't found that "Lucky" Gnome yet....you know..."The One"...sigh...

So what shall I do in the meantime?

Rabbit's Foot? Yeah that's kinda gross...just saying...

Horse Shoe? Yeah I hung one of those up in the first house I bought...then I lost the house. I'm not a big fan of Horse Shoes.

Lady bug? Well I have quite a few of those crawling around on the windows...so far...still no ARC.

Rainbow? Still trying to find one of those...I think it's hiding next to the ponies...or possibly behind the butterflies.

Falling Star? Dang it!!! All the freaking contests happen during the day. That's not going to happen!

Sigh. I'm not sure I want to go using up my 'Deal with The Universe' on an ARC ... as I'm saving that for something a little more exciting (Possibly an Agent??? Deal w/ Universe may or may not be on the roster for next weeks blog posts)

So what's a girl in need of some killer ARCs to do???

Break out the Umbrella, I'm having a Brain Storm!

I've hit a wall ... OUCH! (That reminds me of a good joke. A guy walks int a bar ... Ouch! ... Oh come on...my dad loves that one!)

Ok, so this wall that I've hit is made of all sorts of "You've done what you could on this book, now you must sit back and wait for what others think." Not my favorite kind of wall, I think I'd rather come into contact with a big fat brick wall.

So now what do I do?

Time to find a new idea!!!

*cowers into a corner*

But none of my ideas have sounded good enough yet!

*gets dragged out of corner*

FINE! I suppose I'll brainstorm.

*thunder*

*lightning*

So I've been looking up tactics online, as well as creating a few of my own. Still haven't come up with the next best seller though.

So you tell me, what are your best brainstorming techniques? How do you get your juices going? (Does anyone have a brain juicer? ... oh dear ... mental picture ... I take that request back!)

How did you think up your latest idea? Share your secrets with me. I'm nice, I won't spread them around! I promise!

What my kids and The Hunger Games have in common...and a super cool announcement!

Do you have kids? Have you ever been around kids? (More than one...one doesn't have the same effect.) Well if you have, you KNOW how loud they can be. And when you are trying to finish up your super awesome Epic Edit, loud = BAD!

Yesterday was made of lot's of loud. So in attempt to get a break from all this loud I decided to send the monsters outside.

FAIL!

We have a wonderful new fenced in backyard that I entirely adore with every little speck of my "Oh my god I'm a mother in need of silence, let's lock the kids outdoors" being. (Not that I actually lock them out, but I may or may not have considered it at one time or another.)

So I'm all, "Hey kids, you should go play outside!"

Kids, "YAY!! Mom is great! She is the most fabulous mom made of spectacularsauce EVER." (I may or may not have added some (or at least 13) of those words myself.)

They go outside and I crack open my window so I can hear them and keep an eye on them. And I kid you not, it was like I'd been placed in front of my TV in District Nine and I was watching The Hunger Games Yo!

My deck was the Cornucopia and my kids were all fighting over which weapons (and when I say weapons I mean walking sticks, pop can cases, and dodge balls) they were going to get and beating each other off to get what they wanted first. I could almost picture my little Bean (my daughter) as Katniss diving for her bow and arrows. (AKA Nerf Darts)

So I yell out the window to them. "Put that stick away." and "Stop hitting your brother with that box!"

But the games continue. They race around the yard like 3 little starving tributes fighting over who will be the first to leave the island. (Oh wait...that's Survivor isn't it...well, same difference) I just shake my head in defeat. There is no getting rid of loud for me.

"Mom, I'm hungry," my youngest calls out.

I consider tossing a few packs of fruit snacks out there. Kinda like my 'peace offering', but then I picture all The Hunger Games tributes killing each other over a loaf of bread and decide maybe that's not a good idea.

So I yell out to him, "I think there are some wild mushrooms in the yard. Maybe you can shoot that squirrel over there? But you're totally on your own kid!"

Some or all of this story may or may not be made of complete facts. But that does not disparage the fact that it FELT like it happened like this...

In other news. If you are a KidLit writer (a writer of a book with an MC 18 or younger) you MUST check out this Epic News!!!!

AWESOME ONLINE CONFERENCE MADE OF COMPLETE WIN!

These girls have just announced a FREE online conference they have put together. Check out the website and all their blogs. They are giving away TONS of prizes. I like prizes.

Elana's Blog

Jamie's Blog

Shannon's Blog

Lisa & Laura's Blog

Casey's Blog

So yeah, maybe I'm a little late...

OMG Not THAT kind of late!!! How dare you even suggest it!

No, I'm actually a bit late in posting this week. Duh!!!

But do not fear! I've had a brilliant week. I say brilliant because my brilliance has reached new levels. So amazing in fact, I've been asked to bottle it up and sell it on the black market.

Unfortunately the request came from a group of zombified gypsies, and what they really wanted was to distract me so they could feast on my brains...apparently when they said bottle up my brilliance they really meant my gray matter...and I was super disappointed when I found it out it had nothing to do with my intelligence.

Well, I used my swift ninja moves and took them down, keeping my brilliance in tact as well as my precious dignity. It's all good though, I totally didn't want to share my brilliance anyways!

I mean why would I want to take away from my wicked creativity and mad editing skillz?

So I've spent the week working on a MAJOR rewrite(as in, hey....why not just cut out a few characters, redo one of the major plot lines, and maybe make a small character a huge part of the book? What? That involves ripping out scenes and creating new ones? Well doesn't that just sound like a basket full of puppies!)

The outcome ... spectacularsauce! (eat that awesomesauce!!!)

And just so I didn't look like a boring old writer, I decided to learn how to code some HTML on the side. Just a little "hobby" of mine. I mean who doesn't want to dive into the depths of p tags and style sheets!?!?

Aren't you jealous? What have you been doing this week?

Journey to the Center of My Insanity

I know I promised a post on Tuesday, but life kinda got in the way. There is a good amount of my personal life that I do not share on this blog. But it goes without saying that it is CRAZY!!!

Still, here, although I may have lost my sanity somewhere in the last two weeks (or years ago, hard to pin point the actual moment) we stay positive!

So I thought I would share with you the HAPPY parts of my insanity!

1. 1. Wine - I like wine. And lately I have plenty of excuses to drink it. I like excuses to drink wine.


2. 2. Ice cream - I really like ice cream. During the week, when I'm avoiding the wine, I have numerous excuses to eat ice cream. This is working well for me, not so much for my mid section.


3. 3. I've gone floofy, yet I'm still able to keep my house clean, critique and stress about my impending doom of a manuscript. That makes me a super hero....or something like that!


4. 4. I've been able to start most of my summer vacationness a week and a half early. YAY for no more inconvenient trips to school. *does the happy dance*


5. 5. Now that I have less trips to school I can focus more on my MASSIVE rewrite. *grabs a bowl of ice cream*

So not everything that lacks the sparkly luster is necessarily bad.

Example:

Hi! My name is Sexy McHotPirate. I don't sparkle...

But I do look good with a sword!

Needless to say, happy is in the eye of the beholder. Just a reminder that even when life, your manuscript, or your dinner sucks, there is always something good to be found!

(What? If your dinner sucks you can count it as a small step towards the diet...and/or another reason to eat ice cream!)