Little By Little

test

2011-02-02T22:42:00.001-05:00

updating website test

2011-01-10T21:44:00.001-05:00

I love cooking. I love that thrill of trying some new recipe, something you've never made before. I'm always a little disappointed when it doesn't turn out or it's just not to my tastes. But! When something new turns out well, when you take that first bite and you know this a new favorite, and OMG! how did I not know about this, I made something great today. That, my friends, is one of the best feelings in the world. I bring this up because A: I made this last night. It was AMAZING! I've never had the dish at all, let alone made it at home. And, even though chicken and pasta are far from Oliver's favorites (he complains loudly whenever I announce I'm making one or the other, let alone both), he was blown away by it. We stuffed our faces with it the last two nights. That's how good it was, he ate leftovers without complaining. He still talked about how great it was. Go forth, make yourself some. Now. Well, not now, because it's 9:30 at night now, but soon. You will not regret it. Unless you're vegetarian. Then go make it with some eggplant slices dredged in egg and coated with panko (japanese bread crumbs). You'll still thank me. And, finally, B: Because I've come to realize how similar writing and cooking are. Bear with me. You have a recipe for either. I know, I know, everyone hates formulaic fiction. But there's still a recipe that's followed in good fiction. You need characterization. Enough to make your characters feel real. And part of that is making sure their motivation is visible and understandable, even if the reader wouldn't react in the same way. You need worldbuilding. Enough to suck the reader in and make them feel like they're living in the pages of your book. You need a plot. Even if it's about a person changing, there still has to be a plot. You need conflict to drive that plot, lest it fizzle out. Proper grammar allows the story you are trying to tell to be understood. There are a dozen more things. Just like cooking, they can be combined in different quantities for different effects, but there is still a base formula to follow. And just like cooking, when you write something new and it falls flat there is the disappointment. Maybe you can fix it with a few tweaks, maybe the dish needs to be dumped out and remade from scratch (hello, completely rewriting the book), but at least you probably know where you went wrong and have an idea of how to fix it this time. You might not. It might take four or five tries. You might never get it right, or vow never to make it again. Much like me and pork chops until this last year. But in both writing and cooking, maybe you should give it another shot later on. Don't give up on something forever. Just because you don't have the skill to make something now, doesn't mean you'll never have the skill needed. In the last five years both my writing and my cooking skills have steadily grown. Every time I do either of them a lot, when I get to the end of a big push I can look back and see how much better I am than I was before. And just like cooking, when you get it right there's that stupendous thrill when you take a bite/reread a section and realize, not only did it turn out, but it turned out really well. Especially when it's something new, some new experiment you have tried before. Fried rice when you've never made asian food, or a science fiction short story when you've written few short stories and no sci-fi. Man, that feeling really is the best. So off I go, with a belly full of a delicious new recipe, to work on that sci-fi short story that's turning out better than I ever would have expected.

2011, so far we've had the good and the bad. Must we have the ugly?

2011-01-04T18:03:00.001-05:00

I jinxed my kitty by talking about him. The day after my post he ate my roommate's peace lily. Which is apparently highly toxic to critters. But, after a scary stay at the vet's, he just came home. He may also now be the most expensive thing in said house. ;) That was the bad. What was the good? My new nephew was born this morning! Landon was this morning, bumping Oliver and I into the double digits for nieces and nephews, though he is the first on my side of the family. We got to stop by the hospital this afternoon and see him before we had to go pick Baal up from the vet. He is so cute and tiny. Also he has super long fingers. I wonder if my newest nephew is destined to be a pianist. Personally, 2011, I'd be perfectly happy if you'd skip on the ugly. So, I mean, feel free to save yourself some time and just skip it. I'll bask in the good.

2010/2011

2011-01-01T22:14:00.001-05:00

What a crazy year. Lots of unexpected family stuff. My kitty nearly died. But we saved him. It was a very frightening month or two. We were worried we might lose my grandfather, and after a few scary months things are looking up. I got married! Didn't see that one coming, even though Oliver and I had been together 9 years. My little brother got married. My little sister got pregnant and is due any day now. Our house was broken into. Our neighbor's was broken into and Oliver and I called 911 and chased the burglars. We adopted a dog. Like I said, a crazy year. So, my resolutions/to do list for 2010:

revise Queen of Freaks Done! Approximately 7 times.
write Queen of Freaks synopsis
revise Queen of Freaks synopsis
draft Courting Death
revise Courting Death
submit Courting Death Only to Writer's of the Future, but I think it counts. It needs some editing before I submit again.
send Queen of Freaks to betas
revise Queen of Freaks for feedback Trunked Queen of Freaks instead of moving forward with it. It was the right move. Maybe I'll come back to the idea some day, but I would need to rewrite the entire thing from scratch, and I just don't have it in me currently.
query Queen of Freaks
draft adult urban fantasy Began working on Feral instead. Have not completed Feral, but I have made good progress...after scrapping everything three times and starting over until I found the right story and the right starting place.
draft 12 short stories Just 1 completed. A half a dozen more started. I have hopes of coming back to a few of them this year.
read 100 books Nope. Only 34 this year. I had trouble finding things that I really fell in love with this year. My tastes were changing and it was hard to pin down what I needed in books afterwards.
blog 200 times Ha! Try 51, plus drafts for 12 more that were about topics that it was difficult to articulate my thoughts on in a way that I was satisfied, and thus need to be revised and polished before they could be posted. Plus 2 more about Doctor Who, and 1 for the Vampire Diaries that I never posted because they felt a little too fan-girlish.

I'm not going to list all of the books I read in 2010. I'm not sure I even remember what they all are, I only wrote 34 of them down. But! I do have a few I want to gush over. I still adore Ilona Andrews, Richelle Mead, Devon Monk, Kim Harrison, Gail Carriger, Caitlin Kittredge, CE Murphy, and Patricia Briggs. There are others I really love too, but each of those writers has a series which is a guaranteed pick-me-up, even when I feel like I'm in a reading slump, and they surely didn't let me down this year. New to my author/book love list this year: Kristin Cashore: Graceling was amazing. I've been holding off on reading Fire until I know when Bitterblue will be out because I know I won't be able to hold back once I start reading and will gobble it up, leaving me desperate for the next. Robin McKinley: Don't know how I went so long without reading her books, but started with Beauty this year and am working my way through everything else. This is pure love. I longed for these sorts of books when I was young. I really wish a librarian had put them in my hands back then. Diana Wynne Jones: Ditto. For the number of times I've watched Howl's you'd think her books would have been devoured long ago, but no. Oh, Howl, how I love thee. I'm in the middle of Fire and Hemlock. Melina Marchetta: Saving Francesca had been sitting on my shelves for the longest time before I finally read it. Should have picked it up when I first bought it. Suzanne Collins: Didn't read The Hunger Games until this week. Burned through the entire trilogy in 2 days while I was sick. The Hunger Games was definitely my fave of the three. And, to finish up, my resolutions for 2011:

write at least 250 words per day and keep bumping up the word count as the weeks pass until I find the comfortable daily output to aim for that stretches what I can do without the quality suffering because I'm pushing for a higher word count
read 100 books
at least 10 of them nonfiction
at least 1o of them classics
at least 15 of them not YA or fantasy
finish drafting Feral
draft sekrit project YA
write at least 6 short stories
blog 3 times/week
walk at least 5 hours/week
make a budget
sort through all of Oliver and I's stuff and throw out/donate anything we no longer need
organize what's left
buy some plastic drawers and organize all my different craft supplies in them
make a point of getting together with my family at least once a month
make a point of getting together with Oliver's family at least once a month
sort/sell/giveaway our comic collection. just do SOMETHING with them.

And now I'm off to finish cleaning our bedroom and organizing the clothes and all the belongings in it. I'm already well on my way towards the getting rid of what we don't need and organizing what's left. I hope to be done by the end of the week. And it will certainly make moving easier in a couple months.

Link Salad

2010-10-03T20:54:00.001-05:00

After the last post I'm a little emotionally drained of new material. Thus: link salad. This is in the oven right now. If you haven't tried it, go do so. Your taste buds will thank you. It has quickly become one of my favorites. This post is a month old, but rereading it in my starred folder of google reader, it held extra weight this month. Aspiring writer? Aspiring anything, really? Go read it. Sometimes you think it would make everything better if you just had an idea of what's waiting, but this is a good reminder why you really shouldn't know. I've been floundering a bit with my writing lately. It's a mini crisis of sorts. It feels like I've been pounded with back to back stuff from life for so long that I've reached this point of exhaustion. Sometimes I get so caught up in making sure everyone around me is taken care of that I tend to forget about me and the things that I want for myself. Sometimes I forget the cost of writing. Or the cost to me of not writing. So I need to just take Lilith Saintcrow's advice, take care of my needs, sit my ass in the chair, and write. And if I can't seem to do it, Jenna Black has some good advice at keeping my ass there. So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go devour my enchiladas, watch an episode on my dvr, finish a good book, and get some sleep so I can get up in the morning and start chipping away at the WIP.

Speaking Loudly About Banned Books

2010-10-01T07:57:00.001-05:00

I've started typing this post three times so far this week. Every time I chickened out and deleted what I had typed. Not this time. This is going to be a hard post. If you're squeamish about rough subjects, if you know me and don't want to hear it, if you know what's coming from the title and don't want to know: stop reading now. There's a man in Missouri named Wesley Scroggins. Perhaps you've read articles or blog posts about what he's trying to do. In case you have not, he is pushing for a book ban on Laurie Halse Anderson's novel Speak. He wants it removed because he says it is "soft pornography". The sex scenes he considers pornographic? The rape of a teenage girl. 1 in 6 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. 60% of those assaults will never be reported to the police. And that man wants to silence a book about surviving and speaking up. A book that has helped more people than most will ever realize. People like me. I've considered writing this post before. There have been other stories in the news, awareness months, etc that have made me consider it. In the end I never did. When I was growing up, what had happened to me was public knowledge. Everyone around me was aware of what had happened. I didn't have the choice of hiding it from the people in my life. As an adult I've had that choice for the first time in my life. It's hard to let go of that. To put my story on the internet, for anyone to read. Where it will never go away. But the things I've been through, the others who have come to me with their stories...I cannot stay quiet. I must speak loudly. For those who can't, or haven't, and might be helped by knowing they are not alone. I was sexually assaulted by my older cousin when I was a child. I could not even begin to give more details than that because, frankly, I don't know them. I know it started probably around the time I was 6. The things that happened my brain has locked away from me and I can never be sure of what it lurking in there. I have a few memories that I am certain of. And a vast amount of things I used to think were just nightmares my brain had concocted. Until several of them were confirmed to me by family members to be things that actually happened to me. Which makes me fear that they are all memories. I will never have any way of knowing. I didn't speak up as a child. Fear. Shame. Not truly knowing how wrong what was happening to me was. There are a lot of reasons why child me kept quiet. I sat through a week long class about it every year through the sixth grade without ever connecting the terrible things we were learning about with the terrible things that happened to me. They had stopped. I never knew why. I'm not sure I cared. And then a family member revealed why. Because my cousin had moved onto her. I hadn't spoken up, and he'd had the opportunity to hurt her because of it. I spent the next eight years of my life struggling with that fact every day. Every night as I lied awake, afraid to close my eyes because of what I knew would be waiting for me. I had to speak up about what had happened to me. It just took a little girl, 4 years younger than me, and infinitely braver, to show me it was okay. Despite the things that happened to me, I am very fortunate. My parents went straight to the police, though my aunt and uncle asked them not to, to "let them handle it as a 'family'". I remember the state police coming to interview me around Christmas during sixth grade. I remember the giant teddy bear they brought me to try and make up for the reason they were there. I remember being taken to the state appointed psychiatrist every week for months. I remember our testimony being recorded so we would not have to appear in court. Not have to see the person who had done these things to us. I remember him being sent to prison. That's where my luck ran out. The woman I was assigned to was appallingly bad at her job. She told me I would never trust men again. That it was okay to not trust my father, brother, or any of my male friends (ie, all my friends). It had never occurred to me to relate what had happened to any other men in my life. Still hasn't. I remember going to parole hearings to keep him in prison. I remember writing a letter to the parole board asking he be kept there because what if it had been their children. Wouldn't they want that man locked up? I remember being told he'd never be able to contact or get near me again. I remember the day I removed a letter from him to my mother from the mailbox. I remember the day he called collect from prison while I was home alone. I remember being afraid constantly until I was 22 years old. I also remember the police questioning every other child in my neighborhood to be sure nobody else had been assaulted. Which led to a boy in my grade, a boy I had considered my best friend for most of my life, telling everybody he could what had happened to me. Everybody. Not a thing most 6th graders can be trusted to handle maturely. From that day on there would be people around me for the next seven years who felt the need to tell me what a slut I was because of what had happened to me. Except, stupid redneck children they were, it wasn't what had happened to me, in their opinions, it was what I had done. But that was also the beginning of something else. An unexpected consequence of having my secrets shared with everyone around me for the next seven years of school. Every year, somewhere in the school, I would get cornered by kids wanting to tell me what had happened to them. Kids who had never uttered their secret to another soul, kids who often barely knew me, wanted to blurt out everything that had happened to them because they knew everything that had happened to me. Kids who had never had courage to speak out, found that courage in me. Which is simultaneously an amazing thing and an unbearable weight. To know you've helped someone by giving them someone to talk to about something that will eat you up from inside out, like acid etching away at stone until there's nothing left of you. But I could barely get through life carrying the weight of the things that had happened to me. I struggled with severe depression all through middle and high school as it was. Being a secret bearer for everyone else in my school district that had been sexually assaulted nearly made it impossible to carry on. And yet, I never turned a single person away. I always knew, before they even began to tell me their story, why they were there. Whenever I was cornered, alone, and the person had that look in their eye, I knew what was coming. I could have made excuses to leave. To not have to hear. To not carry that weight for them. But I didn't. I had been one of those people, who would have carried the secret their whole lives, if it hadn't been for one brave little girl who got me to speak up. It was my turn. To listen. And to always suggest they speak up. I don't think any of them ever did, but I suggested it every time and then added their secret to my burden. Looking back on it, I'm sure carrying that weight was partly penance for not having spoken up sooner and protecting somebody else. The only penance I could find to pay. I've lost count of the number of people who have confided in me. It is large. Frighteningly large. Girls, boys, rich, poor. There was no common thread other than the pain they'd all experienced. The flow of people who have shared that secret with me has not slowed as an adult. I know most survivors don't broadcast what happened to them. I'm a little different. I never had the luxury of keeping it a secret. Not after that day when my mother asked if it had happened to me too. So, as an adult, I'm very lenient with that information about myself. It's not who I am, but what happened to me played a large role in shaping who I would become. So I admit to it, freely and often. (Just never before as freely as on the internet.) And the number continues to grow as more people I have met as adults tell me their stories. Worse than the occasional asshat calling me a slut growing up, was when I started dating. It was okay at first, because during my freshman and sophomore years of high school, I mostly dated guys from other schools. When the guy wasn't there to hear the guy in the hall call me a slut and laugh, it wasn't so bad. I shudder to think what it would have been like if the boy I had been absolutely head over heels in love with through most of high school had still gone to our school. He moved away before it all came out, before my cousin was sent to jail, and I think being able to keep him separate from all that, having a friend who didn't look at me and think only of what had been done to me/see that as who I was, was one of the only things that kept me going back then. Then I got my first serious boyfriend from my own school. Worse, he lived in my neighborhood, and his brother had been one of the guys who made sure word of what had happened to me spread not just through my grade, but of those higher than me too. We had been dating for less than three months when, excuse my language, his brother began asking very loudly in front of others, if my boyfriend was "going to give it to [me] like [my] cousin did". The slut comments got worse after that. Sometimes I don't know how I made it through. But I did. Not only did I make it through everything, but I found the man I would marry during all that. Granted, I didn't start dating him until a few years later, at the start of my senior year of high school, but I found him. I won't lie and say that once we were together I was suddenly all better. But, BIG but here, I am now. Partly because of the stability he gave me, the unconditional love, the healing he helped me through. But, even more than that, because of me. I will forever have a very big, very visible scar. But every year it fades a little more. It nearly tore open, in fear and panic, the year my cousin was released from prison. But it did not take long before I confronted that fear and tamed it. I am no longer afraid. I am no longer ashamed. Something terrible happened to me and I LIVED. I survived. I've been a rock for more people than I can count. I've found a rock of my own. And if you're still reading this, if something similar has happened to you, you can too. If nothing has, consider finding ways to be that rock for someone else. But mostly, please, speak loudly. Do not let little men, afraid of who knows what, silence anyone else. We have enough silence. Silence will never make the problem go away. Speak loudly in every way you can think. Personally, I'll be donating a copy of speak to a local library this weekend. One copy of that book will be able to speak more loudly than I ever will. I wish I had had a copy when I n eeded it most. Post by Laurie Halse Anderson regarding the banning The Rape Abuse and Incest National Network website An amazing post by agent Janet Reid Author Jeaniene Frost speaking loudly Author Jim Hines's page on rape. Awesome guy who has gathered a lot of links for people who need them. Another survivor/writer speaking loudly And several more posts in support of Speak

Banned Books (Day 2)

2010-09-28T05:54:00.001-05:00

Shorter post today with much less ranting. I had a rough childhood. My teenage years in specific. So I say with experience, if you take away a single book that a child would have turned to as a safe haven, you are doing the world a disservice. It doesn't matter if that book held some fundamental truth about something terrible, making that child realize they were not alone in the world and others had dealt with it, or if it was a matter of simple escapism for a few hours. There are so many kids out there who need it. If you take even one book away, and it could have been helping even one child, the world is a worse place for it. There were few things that helped me hold on through those years. Books were one of them. It's why I write. It's, specifically, why I write for teens. Because that's when books mattered most to me. They helped save my life. And I fear those banned books, missing from the shelves, won't be there to save someone else.

Banned Books Week (Day 1)

2010-09-27T16:27:00.001-05:00

So, to start out banned books week posts, link roundup: The ALA Banned Books website. Where better to go for info on banned books than the American Library Association, people? A website dedicated to getting people to read banned books. *Love* How well do you know your banned books? Turns out I only know it 6/12 questions well. More reading for me. An interesting article on banned books and censorship of another kind. A vlog on book banning by the ever-amusing Jackson Pearce. Love her videos. She's hilarious. Banning books irritates the crap out of me. Not the I want to grind my teeth and try to pretend it's not happening kind of way, but the I want to throttle people and shout kind of way. Even more than I hate being told what I *must* read, I LOATHE being told what I cannot read. Not only do I generally find book banners to be ridiculous, repugnant little people, but I have yet to meet a book banner whose reasons for having a book banned I agree with in any way. The closest I've come is 'I don't want my kids reading this.' Great. So don't let your kids read it. I think you're probably making a mistake. I personally love Lilith Saintcrow's policy for her children.

We have a reach-and-read-it policy in our household. "If you can reach it, you can read it, and if you cannot reach it, get a stool!" I am not in the habit of censoring books for my children. If I find something objectionable, I discuss it with the child reading it. We talk about how I feel, how the kid feels about it, and the kid is free to read it as long as we've discussed it.

The entirety of that post can be found here. Suffice it to say, if/when I become a parent, that will be my policy. But, regardless of whether or not I think you're just not letting your kid read it because you're too lazy to talk about the content with them (though not too busy to make a fuss and get the book banned) what gives you the right to take away another parent's right to let their children read it? What makes you, you book burning piece of trash (yes, I'm a little touchy on the subject) the end all of what's good and right and should be allowed for other people? I think that's my biggest problem with book banners and burners. Aside from generally being pretty dumb (and Jackson Pearce is right, who doesn't hate dumb people) they are so arrogant and conceited that they believe their beliefs and ideas are right to the exclusion of letting anyone else choose for themselves or their children. If you disagree with them, you just don't know any better and they must protect you and your children. And that, folks, makes me want to throttle people. It boils down to book banners being arrogant, conceited ass-wipes so full of themselves they believe they should get to decide what you can and cannot do because they know the truth and you do not. Not. Cool. More thoughts on book banning tomorrow. But focusing on the banned books instead of the book-banners.

OMG!!

2010-09-22T15:03:00.001-05:00

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/ I've been waiting for this for years. *SQUEE*

9/11

2010-09-11T14:54:00.001-05:00

So many were lost that day. So many more have been lost in the 9 years following. It's terrible, and I am off to go spend the day with my family. On today of all days there is nowhere else I would rather be. A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. Winston Churchill

And the days go on without me

2010-09-03T10:22:00.001-05:00

I, like a favored supernatural creature, have become nocturnal. Not by choice, mind you. My entire schedule has been thrown off terribly. I have spent weeks now finally going to bed around ten in the morning and getting up around 6 in the evening. This does not work for me anymore. I do not know when I turned into an adult who couldn't live like that. I spent years living on a similar sleeping pattern due to my work schedules. Years. Now, I feel like even when I've had a whole night's sleep--or day's, as it were--I'm still running on empty. I get almost nothing done. Some house work here and there. A few hundred words written if I'm lucky, but concentrating on anything takes massive effort. I even know when this habit started. And why. Back at the end of June I slowly started to fall into this pattern as all the changes in my life started settling into place. I blame my husband. I tried pretty hard to stick to my normal schedule, but after 8+ years of living together, my body has been trained not to be able to sleep without him in bed with me. So as he started slowly staying up a little later each day, so did I. I've tried resetting my schedule a couple times, but it just hasn't stuck. Today's the day, folks. No sleep until at least 9 or 10 tonight. It will require me to have been awake for about 26-27 hours before I finally go to sleep, but I think I can do it. I NEED to do it. Because I'm tired of feeling like a zombie. Only 10 or 11 hours until I can fall into bed. God, I miss the days when I was able to stay up for days on end with little effort. My high school days when I lived on 3-5 hours sleep every night. I'm not even 26 until the 26th of the month. Why/when did I get so old?

Interrupting Previously Scheduled Post

2010-08-26T16:03:00.001-05:00

I was going to post more about the wedding planning today, but it is imperative that I interrupt your regularly scheduled post for the most amazing pizza recipe ever. It will require a grill, a stand mixer or some fierce dedication to great pizza, and some planning on your part since you will need to make the pizza dough a day ahead of time, but it's worth it! Step One: Pizza Dough (otherwise known as: You Are About to Hate Me If You Don't Have a Stand Mixer) In bowl or stand mixer combine: 2 tblsp sugar, 1 tblsp kosher salt, 1 tblsp olive oil, 3/4 cup water, 1 cup bread flour, and 1 tsp yeast. Mix on low until combined. Slowly pour in 1 more cup of bread flour. Once everything comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl (if it doesn't add a little bit of flour and mix for 30 seconds, repeating as necessary), stop mixing. Dough should be tacky, but not wet. Add 1 tsp garlic powder and 1 tsp dried basil. Now here comes the hard part if you don't own a stand mixer. Lightly coat hands or dough hook with olive oil. Knead (by hand if you don't have mixer with dough hook) on medium for 15 minutes. Once done kneading remove from bowl. It should remove from hook and bowl easily, barely sticking. Place in glass bowl. Let rest five minutes. When you come back the dough should be smooth, very soft and not sticking to your finger if you run it lightly over the top. Pour two tblsps olive oil over the top and flip dough, coating the ball in olive oil. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours. Step Two: The Next Day Make or purchase your favorite alfredo sauce. Two and a half hours before dinner remove the dough from the fridge. If you'd like two smaller round pizzas, split dough in half. For one larger rectangular pizza, leave as is. Sprinkle clean counter top with cornmeal. Place dough on cornmeal and cover with damp kitchen towel. Let rise one hour. Boil 2 split chicken breast in just enough water to cover. When done remove and cool. When cooled remove skin and bones, cube meat. If you'd like to skip the skin and bones part just cook up 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts (bake or boil so they're nice and soft on your pizza) and cube. Fry up some bacon. Let drain, then crumble. Set aside. Come back and punch down dough. Get towel moist again and cover dough. Let dough rise one more hour. Brush a red pepper with olive oil and place on plate. Cut the top and bottom off an onion, remove skin, slice and place on large piece of aluminum foil. Brush slices with olive oil, sprinkle lightly with kosher salt, and fold foil into packet, leaving small crack at top to vent steam. Wash and slice several roma tomatoes, brush both sides with olive, sprinkle lightly with kosher salt, and set aside on red pepper plate. Cut top off head of garlic (two if you really like garlic), so tops of cloves are visible. Place on foil, drizzle with oil, sprinkle lightly with salt, and fold foil into packet. Bring all your veggies outside to the grill. Spray grill with olive oil. Place packets, tomato slices, and red pepper on grill. Turn tomato slices as first side is nicely grilled, then remove when other is done. Place red pepper over hottest section, turning occasionally and letting each side blacken. When everything is done remove, set aside. Put pepper in paper or ziploc bag to steam. Wait 5 minutes, remove pepper from bag, peel off skin. Slice the pepper open, remove seeds, then slice into strips. Set aside. Remove garlic cloves from skin, mash with fork, set aside. Punch dough down again. Rub your hands with a little bit of olive oil and begin stretching dough out. Once you can't get it any further put it back down on the counter and let it stand for 15 minutes. Come back and finish stretching it the rest of the way into shape. Brush one side of dough with olive oil, place that side down on the grill. It will begin to puff up quickly. Once that side is almost browned to your liking brush top with olive oil. Use tongs to flip. Here's the catch to grilling the pizza dough. If the grill is hot enough the pizza dough will grill very quickly, solidifying before it sags through the spaces between the bars. It will however burn easily if you don't watch it VERY carefully. If it does burn it tends to be easily scraped off the bottom with a knife or fork. If the grill isn't that hot you are less likely to burn, but the dough will cook around the bars and it can be difficult to remove. If you'd like to take extra precautions you can cook the dough on a cookie sheet placed directly on the grill. It will take longer, but be more forgiving. If you do this I suggest when it's mostly done placing it directly on the grill for 15-30 seconds on each side before moving on to the next steps. Once second side is browned, remove to cookie sheet. While letting grill cool down to medium heat, spread your mashed garlic onto the crust. Spread the alfredo sauce over top of it. Cover with the best quality mozzarella you can find/afford (the better it is the better it will taste, but it's still great with basic shredded mozz). Do NOT use water packed mozzarella. Your pizza will thank you for it. Place fresh basil leaves over the mozzarella. Sprinkle with parmesan. Place grilled tomato slices, roasted red pepper slices, and caramelized onions on pizza. Add cubed chicken and crumbled bacon. I also add sliced kalamata olives because I'm an olive fiend. Place back on medium heat grill. Cover and cook until cheese it melted and bubbly. Remove pizza carefully. Sprinkle with parmesan. Serve. Enjoy the most orgasmic pizza ever.

Update

2010-08-18T23:31:00.001-05:00

It has been about a month and a half since I was updating with any sort of regularity. Since late June so much has changed around here that it's just been difficult to make the time to blog. I knew I should, but some days it was a struggling to make any time for myself or my writing after everything else that was going on. Luckily, I think things are finally settling back to normal. I'm pretty sure I have a ton of things to write entries about if I just sit down and am able to gather my thoughts about them. Certainly have at least a few posts worth of advice and how-to on planning a wedding in a month or less and creating something lovely without spending too much.

In the mean time, wedding/party pics!

Oliver and I on the way into the courthouse.

As we waited for the magistrate.

First kiss as husband and wife.

Version one of our centerpieces.

Version two. We had one of half the tables for the party and two on the other half.

The hanging candle holders I made to hang from the edges of the tent. I wish I had a pic to post of them lit at night.

You can't quite tell from this picture, but the strands attached to the ring holding the candle are beaded with glass crystals. We staggered them at different heights along the edge of the tent. It turned out gorgeous.

The white lights my mom hung from the center of the tent. Aren't they pretty?

Our cake. The base layer was carrot cake with white chocolate cream cheese filling. Yum...

The extra sheet cake. The lady we ordered it from did an amazing job. Especially since it was a rush order.

Tribute candle for my grandfather.

Everything turned out great! I'm so glad everything came to together so well and so quickly. And super glad that my parents were such a big help. We gave them a month's notice and they pulled off something fantastic!

Almost Home

2010-07-21T23:21:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow--or later today, now that it is after midnight--I will resume posting with some regularity. The wedding and party are over, thank you cards are in the mail, and shortly all the paperwork that comes with getting married will be completed. But for now I waned to share a link. http://jenniferlawler.com/wordpress/?p=747 It will shatter your heart to read it. I cried through most of it. But it is worth a read, and not just because her voice is amazing and her writing wonderful. I would definitely read her memoir. I would cry like a baby, but I would definitely read it.

Not a real update

2010-07-15T13:19:00.001-05:00

I promise a more substantial blog post after this weekend. I have a few in mind. In the mean time, I am married. Ceremony went great on Monday. Now we're just rushing to get everything finished for the party on Saturday. See you then.

It is disconcerting...

2010-07-03T23:35:00.001-05:00

to have the police knock on your door at 12:30 at night (in the morning?).

Where did the hours go?

2010-06-30T22:13:00.001-05:00

I am attempting to stick to a daily writing schedule. It seems the harder I try to stick to it, the crazier my life gets. Between wedding stuff, O's job loss/figuring out what to do next, family obligations, and normal life it feels like there is less time than ever to get any writing time in. But I'm trying, if only for a little bit, to find some time each day no matter how short. So instead of a normal post I went through my starred google reader entries and you get two links to posts on getting writing done, even when the world is going to hell in a hand basket. http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com/159357.html http://lilithsaintcrow.livejournal.com/399924.html Maggie Stiefvater and Lilith Saintcrow give some of the most insightful, helpful, and downright hilarious writing advice I've found on the web. I highly suggest adding their blogs to your RSS feed if you have an interest in writing. And, really, even if you don't, because they're both intelligent, witty, and f'ing hilarious. Go, join their legions of fans. And now I am going back to plugging away at the WIP. Goodbye.

What Sarah Said

2010-06-25T23:09:00.001-05:00

I planned to do a post about my new walking habit and how it changed things in my life, in me, and in my writing. That post will have to wait another day or two. Life has thrown me another curveball. This song has come to mean a number of things to me over time. It changed after my grandfather died. It evolved into something else as I learned to cope with that loss. It continued to morph as other family members got sick and recovered. But today, its relevance has less to do with death and more to do with those first two lines. And it came to me then That every plan is a tiny prayer to Father Time That really resonates with me right now. You can make all the plans in the world, but you can't control external circumstances. Despite all the plan we'd made for our life and the things we were going to do in the next few years, life happened recently. O's work decided to shut down his department and permanently lay off everyone in it. We had worried before that this might happen, but were told not to worry, it wouldn't. Things had been looking good. O had been working a ton of overtime in preparation for all those plans. We didn't see this coming. We'll be fine. We'll make it through. And there's a good chance we can make it work to our advantage. It will require some hard work and sacrifice, but it's possible. Still, it's a punch in the gut. And a reminder that no matter what you plan, you never know what life has waiting for you. Or what's lurking around the next corner.

Feral Update

2010-06-23T00:12:00.001-05:00

I had a post planned for today about walking and my writing. It still needs a bit more work, and every spare moment today was spent on drafting Feral since the words are flowing now that I've fixed the problem with it. So instead you get a word meter. Maybe a real post tomorrow, but if the words keep springing from my head to the keyboard, I make no promises. :) http://wordmeter.heroku.com/picometer/words=3124&target=85000>

Ladies, do yourselves a favor...

2010-06-21T14:41:00.001-05:00

Go get fitted for a bra. If you've never been professionally fitted, if you've lost or gained weight, if you have a special occasion coming up and you need a new bra for the outfit you are going to wear...go get a professional fitting for a bra! I know it can feel silly or embarrassing, but you'll thank yourself. I needed a plunge bra in a different color to wear under my wedding dress, so I went to Lane Bryant Friday morning. They were having a sale on, buy 2 bras get 2 free. Great, I thought, I'll spend a little more than what I was planning and get 4 times as much! So I got my normal size. But when I went to put one on before my fitting I realized that all the walking I've been doing (more on the walking tomorrow)has started to show, and my bra size had changed. Thankfully, I was able to exchange the bras, and the lovely ladies at Lane Bryant did a sizing for me, and found the perfect fit for me. And I couldn't be more thankful. It makes a huge difference. After 5 minutes in their fitting rooms listening to other women struggle to figure out what size they needed, I am completely convinced every woman should take the time to have it done. The B cup of a 32 band is not the same size as the B cup of 36. Let a professional help you, and make sure you pass the advice on to the other women in your life. They'll thank you. ;)

Wedding Dress

2010-06-21T14:33:00.001-05:00

After scouring the internet and not being able to find a slightly dressy, but casual dress that I liked which came in a color I liked and my size, I began searching through sewing patterns. And fell in love with the pattern for this dress.

I was lucky enough to find a seamstress who could make it and get it done on your short notice. Much to my soon-t0-be Mother-in-law's dismay, I am not going to be wearing white. I have chosen green chiffon. What can I say, I really like green. :D

I'm scheduled for my fitting on Monday. As soon as the dress is done I'll post pictures. I think I'm going to adore it.

Bad Blogger

2010-06-19T00:17:00.002-05:00

I admit it, I have been a bad, bad blogger. It has been almost two months since my last real post. It has been a roller coaster of a two months though.

My cat, Baal, got very sick because of a bad veterinarian and nearly died. After everything we've been through with our cat in the last two months, I cannot stress enough, check out a vet you're considering and find reviews before you take your pets to them. Everything with that veterinarian was a horror show. The man has lost his license four times and been suspended for five of the last ten years, which we didn't find out until Baal had been in his care for three day. How the man is still able to practice any sort of medicine I will never know.

We have reason to believe that when he did a procedure on Baal and did not use sterile surgical utensils. Afterwards when Baal got sick it took three days of him saying "no, he'll be just fine give it time" before he started treating Baal. After which he promptly misdiagnosed Baal, gave him insulin repeatedly without checking his glucose levels, and kept a cat who wasn't eating hospitalized for FOUR days without giving him a feeding tube. Then insisted we put Baal down because it was a lost cause and there was nothing to be done for him.

We pulled Baal out of there and took him to a different vet--who was able to get Baal fixed up in three days, so much for lost cause--and had to fight him every step of the way. And just before he left he gave Baal a large dose of insulin without testing him. Which nearly killed Baal. Would have if the new vets weren't so damned good at their jobs. Turns out all that time without eating and no feeding tube had sent Baal into liver failure because his body had started breaking itself down for energy. Also, Baal had somehow managed to get an infection while hospitalized at the first animal hospital!

The vet who treated him originally was either insanely incompetent, lazy, or a monster. I can't reiterate enough, throughly check out any vet before taking your vet there. We certainly wish we had. As it is, getting this whole mess sorted out has been a hassle and a half. And expensive. What should have cost about a hundred dollars if done correctly escalated into thousands of dollars.

Aside from all that I managed to get Queen of Freaks edited and sent out to some readers. One of whom helped me really focus in on the problems I was already starting to see. I'm going to let it sit for awhile and draft something else, and will shred it when Feral is done.

The last two weeks have been the most hectic of the last two months. My grandfather had a heart attack and was in the hospital for two weeks. He was sent home yesterday and we're hoping everything's going to be okay. But it spurred a last minute decision...Oliver and I are now getting married next month! *happy dance*

It won't be anything big, we're just going to the justice of the peace on our anniversary and then having a pig roast at my parents' the following Saturday so we can get together with our family and friends. Even though it's small and informal, I have so much to do in the next month, but I'll try to be a better blogger. On that happy note, I'll call an end to this update post. Hard to believe in 23 days I'll be married.

x-post test 2

2010-05-30T10:14:00.001-05:00

final test, sorry

Testing CrossPost

2010-05-30T09:59:00.001-05:00

TEST

Saving Francesca

2010-04-28T12:00:00.000-05:00

Maggie Stiefvater and Tessa Gratton have both talked about how much they loved this book, so when I ran across it at my local Bargain Books I figured I'd give it a try. I bought it with Nobody's Princess and Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. The stack of them have been sitting on the mantle since I came home with them five weeks ago. In the meantime I purchased a copy of Gail Carriger's second parasol protectorate book, Changeless and Patricia Briggs's Silver Borne.
It took me several weeks to get through Changeless (which is a whole other post waiting to be written). There was nothing wrong with the book; I highly enjoyed it. I just get into these reading slumps. They seem to be happening more and more in the last year and half than they ever did before. Each time it happens I fear I've lost my love of reading. I'm just apathetic about it, even when I'm enjoying something. But eventually a book like Saving Francesca comes along, and that apathy dissipates.
I finished Changeless yesterday afternoon just before I left to meet O for lunch, so as I was running out the door I went to grab my copy of Silver Borne. I don't like to go anywhere without a book, in case I get caught just sitting around waiting. Normally I have at least one backup book stashed in the car, but we'd just cleaned it out this weekend and I needed something. Silver Borne has disappeared, however. A roommate must have moved it, because I searched high and low and can't find it anywhere. So, in a rush I grabbed a book off the mantle and left.
Wow. Thank goodness I did. This is one of those books that just blows you away, refilling the well/recharging your batteries. Not only did I want to reread this book right away, studying it, but it left me ravenous, wanting to burn through my TBR list. The characters in this were so expertly crafted, I'm in awe. It sucked me in and wouldn't let go. I read it in less than a day, the way I used to read everything. I couldn't put it down. And I get the feeling that the subtlety of the characterization is going to haunt me for weeks.

It makes me want to go through my WIP and perfect the characterization now that I've seen it done. It lit a fire making me want to read and write so much more. I can see why this one was an award winner.

The Never Ending Cycle of Edits

2010-04-18T11:36:00.001-05:00

I finished the final solo edit of Queen of Freaks on Thursday. After this it's just typing up the changes I made to my printed manuscript and then getting feedback from betas. Which I will incorporate and then send queries. That was the plan. Except I keep hitting a snag.

Every time I read a page to enter the changes I made to the hard copy, I find more things that need to be changed. Things I can't believe I didn't fix on the hard copy. It took twenty pages of this and whining to O to realize, this book is unfixable.

No, I don't think this book is bad, broken, etc. I rather like this book. I can look it over and see how much I've grown as a writer. Even how much I've grown since I started this book. There are entire sections of the book that I had to excise and rewrite because they were the first things I wrote when I began puttering around with this idea, and they just didn't hold up to where I was as a writer when I finished the book. I'm confident that this book is good.

The problem is whether or not it is good enough. I knew, intellectually, that no writer would ever think one of their books was good enough. That there would always be something you would have done differently, something you think you could make better. The problem with knowing that type of thing intellectually, as a concept, if you will, is that you don't really know it. It doesn't fully register until you're sitting there quibbling over one word, one comma, period, whatever. It's not until the changes you are making stop making the book stronger, they just move things around, that you get it. That's when you really know what they mean when they talk about a writer never being satisfied with their work. And that's when you have to let go. It's time to put the work in someone else's hands and see if it holds up.

I just need to finish these changes and send this thing out into the world.

Sherlock Holmes

2010-04-12T10:36:00.001-05:00

When I first saw the trailer for the new Sherlock Holmes movie, I was disinterested to say the least. Sometimes a trailer is just made for you, it hits everything that makes you sit up and say, "I HAVE to see this movie." Sometimes, apparently, it doesn't. Which leads to a squabble with your significant other about whether or not you are "getting dragged to see that piece of crap movie."

By the time Christmas rolled around he had worn me down. I still didn't *want* to see the movie, but I figured I'd go, watch some explosions, and munch on some popcorn. Not a bad way to spend a Christmas afternoon.

HOLY VICTORIAN BATMAN, WAS I WRONG! This movie grabbed me by the throat and didn't let go until the end. Yes, I knew what was going to happen in a lot of places. There is a reason why my friends and family calling spoiling a movie/book/tv show by guessing how it will end 5 minutes into the thing 'Hazen'ing it.' But it didn't matter. Yes, there are a few niggling plot points, and some things I'd change. But, still. It was like Star Trek, I was loving every minute of it enough that those few things didn't matter.

This movie ended up being easily one of my favorites of 2009. It is, in fact, the only non-Pixar movie I have paid to see more than once. Not only did we go see it again with some other friends, but when it showed up in the second run theater we had a date night and payed to see it a third time.

I wish the women in the movie had been a bit stronger, mostly that they had held up to Holmes and Watson, but I think part of the reason they couldn't was because Holmes and Watson were so stellar. This movie just brings out the total fangirl in me and makes me squee every time I talk about it. If you haven't watched it yet, give it a try. If you have, seriously, go watch it again. I know I will be.

Good Day

2010-04-06T10:05:00.001-05:00

After a really bad day yesterday where everything seemed to go wrong (car problems, death of my roommate's ferret, etc) I am having a really good day. It's raining, which is automatically boosts the day up a few notches. There's sporadic thunder and lightning, which ups it some more. And random old lady at the grocery store smiled at me while I was walking around listening to my ipod. Plus I have nectarine white ice tea. And a lunchable.
All the makings of a good day. Now it's time to pound out some words.

Failure

2010-04-01T21:16:00.000-05:00

There's such a stigma associated with failing that I think we often hold back, for fear of failing. You hesitate to try because you might fail. You don't set a goal, or you set it low so you won't fail. And I can't help but wonder, what's the point?

Yeah, failing sucks. But if you don't try, if you don't push yourself at whatever you're doing, why bother at all? I've come to realize lately, that as much as it sucks to try something and have it go wrong, to set a big goal and not meet it, it's worth it for the times when you set that goal way out of reach, and then do manage to make it.

Now, I'm not saying you should have unrealistic expectations of yourself or the world around you. Something more along the lines of: Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars. -Les Brown

I set some pretty lofty goals for myself in March. I had a lot of work I wanted to complete, and I would have had to push really hard to complete it all. I failed. But, because I set that goal, I completed far more than I normally would have. And crossing those things off my to do list, even if I didn't cross them all off , felt pretty damn good. It's a new month, what goals can you set for yourself, what can you strive for if you just set aside that fear of failure?

3/31/2010 WIP

2010-03-30T19:01:00.000-05:00

I had started a post about doubt for today, but that one's going to take a but more work before it's ready to be published. Instead I'll just do a little snippet of dialogue from the short story I finished this week. I wrote the beginning of Courting Death about a year ago, but set it aside for quite a long time, not finishing it until last Sunday. I'll be submitting it to Writers of the Future later today, so just a little piece, but I really enjoyed it.

“You stole my cat?”

“He was lonely.”

“My mother would have taken care of him.”

I looked down at him and smiled. “I was lonely."

Bookmark #1

2010-03-29T19:01:00.000-05:00

Taking a break from the mugs today. I didn't have a camera handy so I did some searching and it turned out Kaleb Nation had a picture of one of my favorite bookmarks on his website. Yay!

So, combining both my need to collect bookmarks and my absolute fondness for garden gnomes, I give you the garden gnome bookmark!

How to Train Your Dragon

2010-03-28T19:01:00.000-05:00

I went to see this movie with my family on Saturday. I wasn't expecting much, just a fun movie that I figured everyone in the family would enjoy at least a little bit. I left the theater blown away. This caught me by surprise much the same way Sherlock Holmes did this past Christmas (which I couldn't resist seeing one last time at our second run theater Friday night). I had originally planned to recommend Sherlock Holmes today, since it will be out on DVD tomorrow, but that will have to wait until next week because I want to get this out while it's fresh.

As a writer, there are certain things I consume for entertainment (books, movies, certain tv episodes) that make me wish I had written them. They're not all that common, I have so many ideas of my own that I'll never get through them all, but some things just leaving me saying 'wow' in jealousy. The flip side of that coin is, as a writer, there's almost always something I would have done differently. How to Train Your Dragon is not only one of the rare things that makes me jealous, but I wouldn't change a thing.

The movie is gorgeous and fun, and would have been worth the admission price for those two things alone. But the perfect pacing, the characterization, and the way everything comes full circle make this a move to remember, in my opinion. There is much more I have to say about this movie, so many things I want to geek out over, but I'll have to do it with O, because I don't want to spoil a single thing about this movie.

I can't recommend this movie enough. I wasn't expecting much when I walked in on Saturday, but I'm certainly glad I went.

Pork Chops

2010-03-27T19:01:00.000-05:00

Pork chops are one of those things I grew up just never liking. No matter how they were cooked or who cooked them they always seemed dry to me. Which always lead to me drowning them in applesauce just to get through the meal. Unfortunately, despite my distaste for them, I couldn't see to avoid them, my father and O love them. Hence the search for a pork chop recipe I could live with. Turns out it's really simple to make succulent pork chops that melt in your mouth.

Pork Chops

1 pack pork chops

1 can apple pie filling for every 2-4 pork chops, depending on your preference

1 box Stove Top

Pull out a frying pan, a nice cast iron one if you have it. Add a teaspoon or two of oil and place over medium heat. While you pan is heating up, pull out your pork chops. Pat them dry and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Frying one at a time, place one in the frying pan. Sear for 1-2 minutes on both sides, until each side has gotten a little golden brown. Place pork chop on a plate and add another to the pan in a different spot. Do this for each pork chop.

Once your pork chops are done, open up you can of apple pie filling and add to frying pan over low heat. Don't let the sugar in the pie filling scorch. Use a spatula to get all the tasty pits from searing the chops. Once you've heated the apple pie filling through and gotten as much of the scraps as possible, pout pie filling into a rectangular casserole dish, spread evenly. Place the pork chops evenly across the pie filling.

Make the Stove Top accroding to the directions. When finsihed spread on top of the pork chops.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes.

YA vs. Adult Literature

2010-03-25T19:01:00.000-05:00

So, now that we've gotten through my thoughts on snobby readers, onto my actual thoughts on YA vs. Adult literature.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I am a 25 year old who reads YA. I'd say about half of my reading is YA. However, I didn't really start reading YA until I was 19-20. When I was in middle school and high school there was very little MG or YA that I was exposed to that I was interested in. I don't even remember the Barnes and Noble I frequented in high school having a YA section, just one that contained picture books and chapter books for younger readers.

I think YA now is a very different beast than it was even ten years ago. And I think a lot of people make assumptions about the genre based on the days of Sweet Valley High. I think those who haven't been exposed to the breadth and depth of the current genre are missing out.

The objection most heard tends to be, I'm not reading that, it was written for kids, as if the person thinks it must be lesser than books for adults. The quality of the genre as a whole is extraordinary. YA is not a dumbed down or watered down read, like some adults expect. Teens are smart. Smarter than a lot of adults give them credit for. And they want robust, well written books just as smart as they are.

The other complaint tends to be, but I want a book about things that matter. YA these days don't shy away from anything. Sex, drugs, and alcohol aren't taboo. Teens will more than likely encounter them and YA reflects that without always turning it into a lesson on how only terrible tings will happen to you if you do them. Which isn't to say that they're glorified in YA, just that they're portrayed realistically.

There are great YA books out there addressing every type of child abuse, rape, addiction, poverty, pregnancy, suicide, loss of a loved one, abusive relationships, stalking, every type of sexuality, etc. There's a book out there for every teen to relate to, no matter what they're going through. And even if they're problems most adults wouldn't consider as severe as those listed above, they still seem like everything to that teen going through it, and they can find books that treat it that way.

Which isn't to say only teens can enjoy these books, because every YA has one commonality at it's center, a coming of age story. And no matter how old you're gotten, we can all still relate to that experience. We all go through it, and it's the core of every YA story.

3/24/2010 WIP

2010-03-23T19:01:00.000-05:00

I've been working on a short story to submit to John Joseph Adams's Way of the Wizard Anthology. I had an idea I wanted to try out, but when I got started on it something didn't feel right. So I played with another idea. I liked it, but after a page or two it didn't seem like it would be a good fit for the anthology. So I sat staring at a blank page until something came to me. Something did, a beginning I liked, but it took four false starts with that beginning to find the right story.

This won't be a long clip, both because it's still very much in progress and also because I don't want to exclude myself from the anthology by posting too large a piece, but I still wanted to share. It just goes to show that sometimes the right story can be elusive, but if you keep digging you'll find it.

Lesson 1: There are three type of magic: blood, sex, and death.

Lesson 2: Never mix all three.

He wasn't moving. All the lightbulbs in the room had been shattered; the only light came from a dying lantern that hung in the corner. It flickered, causing his blood gleam in the shadows. He lay sprawled across the concrete floor, his arm crossing the circle he'd cast with salt and iron dust. His silver athame was buried to the hilt in his chest, his white tshirt nearly black with blood. Liam had cast without me and something had gone horribly wrong.

Mug #9

2010-03-22T19:01:00.000-05:00

This is another big mug like the snowman mug. I love how big these things are. I've had this mug for almost ten years now and it is probably my most used mug.

Come to think of it, it may also be responsible for my caffeine addiction. Double cups of tea every time I have one, yeah, that could do it.

Bulk Sauce

2010-03-22T10:12:00.000-05:00

Scott Pilgrim

2010-03-21T19:01:00.000-05:00

Sometime last year O found this canadian manga written and drawn by Bryan Lee O'Malley called Scott Pilgrim about a young man who falls in love and must battle his new girlfriend's seven evil ex's before they can live happily ever after. He blazed through the first four volumes (all that had been released at the time) and wouldn't shut up about the stupid thing. He yammered on an on about how great it was and how I had to read it. I refused. I often refuse to read things O wants me to unless he agrees to read something I want him to. This is how he ended up reading Twilight. I don't remember what the trade was for, but I do know that he gobbled up Twilight and demanded we immediately go buy a copy of New Moon because while I had read it I only had copies of Twilight and Eclipse.

And then volume five of Scott Pilgrim came out. The whining got worse. After months of endless whining about how much I needed to read Scott Pilgrim and how nobody he knew had read it and he HAD to talk to somebody about it, I relented. Not that I told him that. One night while I couldn't sleep I got up and read the first five volumes. Straight through. They sucked me in. I didn't climb into bed until two hours before the alarm was about to go off. It was worth it.

Of course, I'm a terrible person. O had spent months talking about this series. I had known the characters' names, the premise, even some plot points before I ever picked it up. But now that I had details I could make offhand comments that only made sense if I had read the books, which he thought I still had not. I was pretty good about it. It was driving him crazy. And just when he couldn't take it anymore, I lied. I told him instead of reading it I had wikipedia'ed it and gotten spoilers. He was so mad. I even let him stew for ten minutes before I told him the truth. (We do this to each other, pick fights that aren't a big deal and are easily resolved. He's been known to start fights with me just because he's bored and "enjoys arguing with [me]." We're strange people.)

I probably should have read the books earlier. They were great. So I was super excited when they recently released the cover of the final volume and a release date: July 20, 2010.

I can't wait. Especially since the movie (covering the first three volumes) is set to release a few weeks later on August 12, 2010. The casting for this movie is spectacular. They have found the perfect person for each character, with one exception. I was thoroughly disappointed to see them cast Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim. I feel that it's a horrible match and that the world would be better off if Michael Cera didn't play every awkward boy between the ages of 17 and 25. But with Jason Schwartzman as main baddy Gideon Gordan Graves, I'm sure the movie will more than make up for it.

If you haven't read Scott Pilgrim yet, you should definitely check it out. And you're just in time for the last volume and the movie.

Easy and Delicious Lasagna

2010-03-20T19:01:00.000-05:00

I love lasagna. It's one of my favorite foods. It will never quite top good mac 'n' cheese, but still, yum. So today I made my Easy and Delicious Lasagna.

Over the years I've tried a lot of lasagna recipes. A lot. In the end I've spackled together all my favorite parts of the recipes I liked and come up with this beauty. Very simple, easy to throw together, you just have to have a little but of time. And boy is it good.

Lasagna

2 pounds ground beef

1 pound sausage (I prefer sage but usually use italian or mild because of others' preferences)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup onion, minced

lasagna noodles, 10 or so

4 cups canned whole tomatoes, give or take depending on can size

2 cups tomatoe paste, give or take depending on can size

1 cup water

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons dried oregano

2 tablespoons dried basil

1 teaspoon salt, I prefer to cook with kosher

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

4 cups cottage cheese

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup parmesan cheese, divided in half

1 more teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 1/2 pounds low-moisture mozzarella cheese, sliced or shredded

Start by putting your ground beef, sausage, garlic, and onion in a pan. A large pan.

We cheat in my house, we buy the big jars of minced garlic. For the amount we go through it saves a lot of time. I also cheated and used a half of cup of dry minced onion from a jar. Feel to chop up an onion if you prefer, I was feeling lazy. :)

Brown your meat. When it's finished remove most of the fat/grease, leaving just a little behind for flavor.

While you meat is browning, get out a medium to large bowl. Into the bowl pour 2 cups tomato paste and 4 cups whole tomatoes, with liquid.

I like to smush the whole tomatoes with a potato masher so that I still get nice big chunks of them, but not an entire tomato in one bite.

Next, add to the tomatoes: 2 tblsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 2 tblsp dried basil, 2 tblsp dried oregano, and 1 tsp fennel seeds.

Give it a good stir.

When the meat is browned and you've removed the excess fat, pour the tomato sauce into the pan.

Add one cup of water, stir to combine, simmer for 30-90 minutes. It's all a matter of what you have time/patience for and personal preference, here.

While the meat sauce is simmering, get out a stock pot, fill with water, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tblsp olive oil, set to boil.

When the water's boiling, add lasagna noodle. Cook according the directions on the package. You want to cook these to al dente so they still have a little bit of a bite, we're still going to pop this thing in the oven.

When the noodles are done drain them, rinse with cold water, and set them aside.

Now get out another medium-large bowl.

To the bowl add: 4 cups cottage cheese (I prefer this to ricotta in my lasagna just because I've found it to dry out less then the ricotta while baking), 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground nutmeg.

Give it a good stir.

If you're like me and forgot the ground nutmeg, add it now and give it another stir.

I often forget things in the kitchen and remember to add them later. Sometimes it's too late, but normally they're little things that don't effect the dish too much. Don't stress too much if you forget something little. Most dishes are at least a little forgiving. I've learned to kind of wing it in the kitchen (maybe I spent too much time watching my father cook. He never makes something the same way twice. But it's always delicious, so whatever works)

Once the cottage cheese mixture and noodles are ready check on your meat sauce. If it's not ready, throw your cottage cheese mix in the fridge until it is and throw a damp kitchen towel directly over the noodles. If it is ready pull out your biggest pan. I like my giant roaster for doing lasagna, but have used a big glass casserole or cake pan in a pinch.

In the pan put down half the lasagna noodles. In my roaster I like to do 4 lengthwise and 1 perpendicular to them at the end. On top of the noodles spread half the cottage cheese mixture. Over the cottage cheese add a half pound of mozzarella cheese. I LOVE fresh mozzarella, but I've found that because it's kept in brine too much of the water comes out in the baking and you end up with water-logged lasagna. That's no good for anyone. It's just better to use the low-moisture stuff. You can use shredded or slices, I've found no real difference. On top of the cheese add half your meat sauce. Repeat once more. On top of the second layer of meat sauce sprinkle 1/2 cup of grated parmesan and then the last 1/2 pound of mozzarella.

You now have a giant pan of delicious.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil.

I like to make this up the night before and pop it into the fridge until it's time to bake it. If you'd rather this can go straight into the fridge after assembly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. If you refrigerated this before cooking it could require an extra 5-10 minutes. Pull up the foil and see if everything's starting to look bubbly. If not, give it the extra time. Remove foil and let bake for 5 minutes or until the cheese on top if browning nicely. If the cheese isn't browning up enough I like to turn the broiler on for a few minutes. Make sure you keep a close eye on it though, things can burn quite quickly under the broiler if forgotten.

Remove from oven, let sit for 10 minutes before serving. When you remove the lasagna from the oven, put it on potholders on the counter, never remove an item from the oven and place on the stove top, the stove top will still be quite warm and the dish will keep cooking.

Voila! Easy and Delicious Lasagna!

Book Snobbery

2010-03-19T12:01:00.000-05:00

There's something that's been really bugging me lately. It's happened around me so many times in the last month that I took the time to sit down and put my thoughts on it into words. I have to say, book snobbery really angers me. There's little that annoys me more.

I don't care what you read, it doesn't make you better than people who read books you don't like. No type of book is inherently better or worse than another, you just like it more or less. Not every book that you didn't enjoy is bad. I will admit there are books out there that may be so poorly written that you may not like them for that reason, but most books weren't bad, they just didn't match your personal tastes. And even when it was writing that turned you off, most of the time it still wasn't bad, it just wasn't a style of writing you enjoy. There are almost 7 billion people on the planet, it's pretty conceited to assume your personal taste is the barometer for quality.

Even if your taste was so amazing that it defined good and bad, there's going to be a variety of quality in any genre. You're going to have a few stellar books, a few stinkers, and a whole lot of stuff in between.

Reading 1-5 books/series in a genre does not make you an expert on the genre. It's not even a good sampling, given how many books are published each year. Do not complain that you read: Harry Potter, Twilight, whatever, and YA sucks. Don't tell me you read one of your mother's romance novels when you were twelve and you're just not into that crap. And for God's sake, don't be one of those people who says I've never read one of those books, but I don't need to. If you haven't read one of those books (no matter which books those refers to), keep your mouth shut, you have nothing to add to the conversation about that genre.

You want the right to talk about it? Look up a list of the best books in the genre and go read at least a dozen, focusing on trying to find ones with stories/writing styles that suit your tastes. If you're not willing to put the time in learning about a genre you haven't earned the right to talk about it derisively. If you do put in the time and after all that reading you still haven't found anything you like, by all means, tell people you're not a fan. Just don't call it crap because it isn't your cup of tea.

Mug #8

2010-03-15T19:01:00.000-05:00

I picked up this mug and a matching blue one on clearance at World Market. I love the watercolor painted look on these mugs.

Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Cookies

2010-03-13T19:01:00.000-05:00

My father doesn't like oatmeal raisin cookies. So I set out to come up with a recipe for oatmeal cookies that used something other than raisins. Luckily, he and I both LOVE cinnamon apple oatmeal, so I had an idea of what I should make. There are a couple different way to make these cookies. They can be made with cinnamon apple instant oatmeal packets or plain oatmeal and chopped up bits of apple.

Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Cookies

1/4 cup butter if using instant packets, 1/2 cup divided in half if using oatmeal and apples

1 cup applesauce

1 cup brown sugar

2 egss

2 tablespoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt (I prefer kosher)

10 packets apple cinnamon oatmeal or 2 cups plain oatmeal

2 cups apples

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

If you're using oatmeal and apples, peel your apples, dice them and put them in a pot with half the butter, cooking until soft. If using instant packets, skip this step.

Mix 1/4 cup butter, applesauce, b rown sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

Mix in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.

Mix in oatmeal and apples, or packets. Sometimes at this step I like to chop up a cup or so of dried apple pieces and mix them in for extra apple, but it's not necessary.

Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray and drop tablespoons of batter onto it. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool.

I've made these a number of times now, and I think I might actually prefer them with the instant oatmeal packets. Make sure you've got a big glass of milk ready to enjoy these with!

Mug #7

2010-03-08T19:01:00.000-05:00

I picked up this mug and a matching olive green one on clearance at World Market. I love the watercolor painted look on these mugs.

Carrot Cake

2010-03-06T19:01:00.000-05:00

I didn't used to be a big of a fan of carrot cake. Then I got O a delicious carrot cake for his birthday and I've been sold ever since. Which lead to me coming up with this recipe, which, much like others I've written, is an amalgam of several recipes I've found.

Carrot Cake

4 eggs

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (I prefer kosher)

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1/2 cup grated carrot

3 4 ounce jars of carrot baby food

3/4 cup canola oil

1/2 applesauce

8 ounces crushed pineapple

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup raisins (I prefer golden raisins)

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour cake pan.

Put raisins in a bowl of warm water.

Grate carrots (or throw them in a food processor, if you have one), combine with sugar.

Beats eggs, oil, applesauce, vanilla extract, almond extract, and baby food.

Mix in carrots and sugar.

Mix in flour, soda, powder, cinnamon, nutmeg.

Drain pineapple and raisins. Fold in pineapple, raisins, and pecans.

Pour into cake pan.

Bake 40-50 minutes.

Let cool 10 minutes, turn out on wire rack, let cool completely.

Icing

1/2 cup butter, softened

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons vanilla

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and almond extract until smooth.

Frost cake.

Sprinkle with nuts.

And enjoy carrot cake. Mmmm, carrot cake. I love me some carrot cake.

Mug #6

2010-03-01T19:01:00.000-05:00

This mug is the perfect shade of green for spring. It gets used most often near the end of winter when I miss green growing things. This is another mug with the visible brush strokes I love so much.

Pizza Casserole

2010-02-27T19:01:00.000-05:00

I found this recipe at Allrecipes. I've made it a few times and it's been a nice go to dish when I'm looking for something easy. There are a few changes I've made from the original, but all in all I'd say it's a good dish.

Pizza Casserole

16 ounces uncooked pizza noodles

1/2 pound ground beef

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

2 cups pepperoni, sliced

32 ounces pizza sauce

8 tablespoons milk

1 cup shredded mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook noodles according to package. Drain.

In medium skillet brown ground beef with onion, and garlic, peppers.

Drain excess fat. Stir in noodles, pepperoni, pizza sauce, and milk.

Pour into 2 quart casserole dish. Bake for 20 minutes.

Top with cheese. Bake 5 minutes longer.

Mug #5

2010-02-22T19:01:00.000-05:00

I love all shades of green, but this one is a favorite. It reminds me of the color my parents' kitchen used to to be painted.

I love the visible brush strokes on the mug. It just adds a nice aesthetic to the mug.

Pot Roast

2010-02-20T19:01:00.000-05:00

Some pot roasts can be dry and gross. But a good, moist roast can be the simplest dish in the world.

Pot Roast

a 5 pound roast

2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

1 packet dry onion soup mix

1 1/4 cup water

several tablespoons of flour

Put the roast in a crock pot. Add cream of mushroom soup, onion soup mix, and water. Stir to combine.

Set to low, cook 7-9 hours.

Fifteen to twenty minutes before you're ready to serve dinner, remove roast to platter. Whisk in flour 1 tablespoon at a time until gravy is thickened.

Serve.

Mug #4

2010-02-15T19:01:00.000-05:00

This mug I don't use nearly as often because it's small, but it's so cute! I really am a sucker for greens and blues.

This one just makes me want to throw the tea parties that I never did as a little girl.

Mac 'n' Cheese

2010-02-13T19:01:00.000-05:00

My favorite food ever. I've been told I'd grow out of it as an adult, start to like more complex things. And, yeah, I've learned to like a lot more foods as an adult, but nothing will ever replace my beloved mac n cheese. There are a lot of recipes for it that I like, but this is my fallback recipe. The recipe I use when nothing else will do and I just want that delicious creamy familiar comfort food.

Mac 'n' Cheese

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) package elbow macaroni

9 tablespoons butter

4 cups shredded cheese, I like to combine a few (often cheddar, smoked gouda, parmesan, and some monterrey jack)

2 cups cream

8 ounces cubed velveta

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 pound bacon

1/2 pound sausage (I prefer sage, as always)

Optional

1/2 cup crushed potato chip crumbs

1 tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cook the sausage and bacon, set aside on paper towel to soak up as much extra grease as possible.

Bring a pot of water to boil, lightly salted and with 1 tablespoon of butter. Cook the macaroni according to the directions on the package, drain well, and return to pot.

In a saucepan combine the cream and cubed velveta, stirring until the velveta's entirely melted. Continue to let this cook until it begins to boil, making sure to stir often so it doesn't scorch. Once it begins to boil, remove from heat.

Melt 8 tablespoons of butter in the microwave, pour over macaroni, stir.

Pour the shredded cheese into a large bowl and mix until well combined with each type being spread throughout.

Crumble the bacon and sausage.

Pour the cream and velveta mixture over the noodles. Add the shredded cheese, the meats, and the salt, stir thoroughly. Pour into lightly buttered 3 quart casserole dish.

Optional: Crush potato chips, combine 1/2 cups chip crumbs with 1 tablespoon melted butter and sprinkle over the top of the macaroni and cheese.

Bake for 35 minutes or until the top has gotten a little crispy and the cheese is bubbling.

Mug #3

2010-02-08T19:01:00.000-05:00

This one's a pretty basic mug but I'm like the way the red vines stand out against the white. I've always been fond of vine and leaf patterns and this one is no exception.

Strawberry Pie

2010-02-06T19:01:00.000-05:00

This one's a delicious pie that's perfect for spring. An excellent accompaniment to Easter dinner.

Strawberry Pie

Crust:

1 1/2 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs (in my experience this ends up being one packet of graham crackers)

1/3 cup white sugar

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Filling:

2 quarts fresh strawberries

1 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup boiling water

1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin

Crush the graham crackers as finely as possible. If you have a food processor, this is perfect for it. If not, just get them cruched as well as you can. I often put them in a ziploc baggie then crush them with a rolling pin.

Mix the crumbs with the sugar, melted butter, and cinnamon until well blended and then press into pie pan. If you use a smaller pie pan you may have some leftover crumb mixture, that's okay.

Bake at 375 degrees for 7 minutes.

Wash the strawberries, cut off tops and slice.

In saucepan mix together the sugar and cornstarch, blending thoroughly. Add the boiling water, cook over medium heat until it thickens. Remove from heat, stir in gelatin. Let cool to room temperature.

Pile the strawberry slices in the pie crust evenly. When the gelatin mixture has cooled poor over the strawberry slices. Place in the fridge to set.

Serve with whipped cream.

Mug #2

2010-02-01T19:01:00.000-05:00

Another mug I love.

I have a thing for snowmen, always have. O has a rule, I am only allowed so many snowmen, then one of them has to "die" before I'm allowed another one. Generally this just means one of the christmas decorations has to break, but generally I'm able to get him to agree to one or two new snowmen each year without getting rid of the others.

Got this mug a few years back. It remains one of my favorite mugs and I use it year round. Big mugs like this always end up being used most often by me. Not only does it mean I have to refill my tea and water less often, but it's also great for cereal, soup, etc.

Blog title...

2010-02-01T17:36:00.001-05:00

Celebrate Jeaniene Frost's new release: tinyurl.com/yksbq7k
Read a preview: tinyurl.com/yjyuflq
Watch a trailer: tinyurl.com/yc2s6t3

Books Read

2010-01-31T05:50:00.001-05:00

3. Soulless - Gail Carriger
Read: 1/29/2010

4. Graceling - Kristin Cashore
Read: 1/31/2010

Books Read

2010-01-27T12:40:00.001-05:00

2010 version

1. My Soul to Save - Rachel Vincent
Read: 1/24/2010

2. On the Edge - Ilona Andrews
Read: 1/27/2010

Mug #1

2010-01-25T19:01:00.000-05:00

I don't collect many things, but there are a few. Mugs, bookmarks, socks, and garden gnomes.

Don't ask my why mugs or garden gnomes, I just like them. Socks and bookmarks are a bit more practical.

This is one of my favorite mugs. I tend to gravitate towards greens and a few blues, but I loved red and orange in this one.

2009-12-31T21:10:00.002-05:00

Time for the obligatory end of the year post. It's been a tough year. My family home burned down in April and that takes some recovery. That's the house we built ourselves when I was a kid. My childhood was spent half there and half at my grandparents' house next door. But my parents bought a new house and we just had our first thanksgiving and Christmas there, and it was good. it makes it easier to have spent the holidays there, but I still miss the old house where I grew up.

On a happier note; I completed my first novel this year. I've always been very poor at finishing things, but this is proof that I can. And I will continue to do so. I'm finishing my last round of edits now, and then it will go to my betas. I'll edit for their feedback and then it will be time to query. 2010, the year of the query. *Crosses her fingers*

I'm sure I failed most of my goals for 2009 spectacularly, but, as I said, it was a rough year. Between the fire and family health scares, and moving not once, but twice, it's bee hectic, but life is. So here's to achieving more goals in 2010 than I did in 2009. I'll have to compile my list tomorrow. For now, it is time for a run down of my favorites from the year.

Books:

I did a very poor job of tracking the books I read in 2009. I will keep a log for 2010. But here are my favorite books read for the first time in '09. My top 12 authors in no particular order:

1. Ilona Andrews- Magic Strikes
I can't get enough of Kate & Curran. Just saying. Ilona and Gordon, if you could put out two dozen books a year I'd read them all. My Christmas gift card will be promptly spent on your new series as soon as I can get to the bookstore.

2. Lilith St. Crow- Strange Angels/Betrayals
If I wasn't hooked before Betrayals, which I was, I most certainly was afterward.

3. Jim C Hines- The Stepsister Scheme/The Mermaid's Madness
A new author to me. Saw he had a signing at my local indie, and was on my TBR list so I picked up the first two in this series. With a blurb like: These princesses will give Charlie’s Angels a serious run for the money, and leave ‘em in the dust. How could I not pick it up? Well worth it. Can't wait for more. Plus Hines is a riot at signings. You can bet I'll be picking up his Goblin series.

4.Caitlin Kittridge- Street Magic/Demon Bound
ZOMG!!! I've been following this author since her first book came out. I enoy her Nocturne series. I LOVE her Black London series. She's taken her writing to a new level with these books, and it shows. LOVE LOVE LOVE this series. Enough said?

5. Justine Larbalestier- Liar
I don't have many words for this, just wow.

6. Richelle Mead- Thorn Queen/Blood Promise/Succubus Heat
Keep 'em coming, please!

7.Devon Monk-Magic in the Blood/Magic in the Shadows
Fell in love with this series after winning a copy of book 1 and the series hasn't let up.

8. CE Murphy- Walking Dead
I am a dedicated CE Murphy fan. Much along the lines of my love for Kate & Curran, I love me some Jo & Morrison. More, please.

9. Bryan Lee O'Malley- Scott Pilgrim Volumes 1-5
A canadian manga my significant other begged me to read for months. I am certainly glad I conceded. Good stuff. Can't wait for Vol. 6 and the movie, though I'm terribly disappointed that they cast Michael Cera at Scott.

10. Maggie Stiefvater- Shiver
Lyrically beautiful teenage werewolf angst.

11. Sherry Thomas- Private Arrangements/Delicious
I don't seek out much straight romance, typically. Though I do have a soft spot for historicals. But this. THIS. It's like historical romance crack. Try it, but don't shoot me when you have to have more.

12. Rachel Vincent- Pride/Prey/My Soul to Take
Faythe is certainly coming into her own as a heroine and I'm glad I've stuck with her. Can't wait for the last two books in the Shifter series.
I loved the debut to her YA series. Great new take on paranormal YA.

Movies
also in no particular order

1. Julie & Julia
Love Meryl Streep. Plus, food porn. Always love me some food porn.

2. Up
I have never bawled in the first 15 minutes of a movie. Pixar, I don't know whether I should thank you or tell you to screw yourselves.

3.Coraline
Loved the book, loved the movie.

4. Whip It
Saw it for my birthday, and I can't think of a better movie to have seen for it. Amazing women. Roller derby. The way friendship and boys were handled. Could someone please go back in time and show this movie to 15-16 year old me?

5. Fanboys
I'm infatuated with Kristen Bell and this movie just encouraged that. Thoroughly enjoyable.

6. Star Trek
Perfect movie to follow up Fanboys, right? :)
Great moving. Visually stunning. Few plot holes, but they can be forgiven for sucking me into the story and not letting me go til the credits.

7. Sunshine Cleaning
Depressing as hell and yet slightly hopeful at the same time.

8. Where the Wild Things Are
Also depressing as hell. Also slightly hopeful. Made me so glad I'm not a kid anymore. Also made me determined to remember how infuriating it can be to be a kid and have nobody listen or understand for when I have kids. Someday. In the very distant future. Very. Distant.

9. Fantastic Mr. Fox
Cheesy, I know, but, Fantastic.

10. Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes=victorian batman=F'ING AMAZING
Can't say enough good things about this. I know some people believe they're disrespecting the source material, but seriously, have those people read the source material? This movie was written by someone with series Holmes love who sprinkled easter eggs everywhere. Went a little light on the addiction, but I can see why, would be easy for the movie to get bogged down if that was explored too much. Must see this movie again. Plus, RDJ dad House-face. Good stuff.

TV
Haven't watched much this year, but:

1. Firefly
Yes, I know I am REALLY behind the times, but I just watched it all this month. WOW! Will be watching that season over and over. It is now up there with Veronica Mars for my all time favorites.

2. Castle
Because I can't get me enough Nathan Fillion. And I love their chemistry.

3. Bones
Because I also love their chemistry.

4. House
Still loving it.

5. Glee
*squee*

6.True Blood
Haven't read the series, but I will be. Enjoying this quite a bit.

And that is the year for me. Happy New Year's all!

2009-12-27T20:42:00.001-05:00

Sherlock Holmes=Victorian Batman=Awesome!!! *Love*

2009-11-17T14:41:00.001-05:00

Feeling slightly better. Still need soup and lots of sleep. This week can't end soon enough. Just two more days until I can hibernate.

2009-11-16T10:20:00.001-05:00

Ugh. Need to curl up on a couch with soup, crackers, and orange sherbet until I stop feeling like I'm dying. From fine to dying overnight.

2009-11-15T00:37:00.001-05:00

Had a blast at the hockey game. Schuster sprung for sushi after. Turns out I love it and the last 2 places were mediocre. Must do it again.

2009-11-11T11:53:00.001-05:00

There's just not enough time in the day to get everything done. I just need to pause it for 5 or 6 hours to catch up.

2009-11-10T18:25:00.001-05:00

Need some reading time. Spent the day doing technical/programming stuff and now my brain needs something in no way related to my computer.

2009-11-10T15:04:00.001-05:00

Signed a new lease last night, will be moving on the 27th. Time to get packing.

ZOMG, Done! Sort of.

2009-06-05T04:36:00.001-05:00

I finished the zero draft of my first book. Later than I wanted to thanks to the fire, the moving thing, and all the other crap that's happened already this year, but I did it. I DID IT!!! I still have to tear the thing to shreds and make it good. But I built my Frankenstein's monster. There's lots of plastic surgery coming to make it all nice and pretty, but I can't get over how great it feels to have something complete. This story has gone through a couple of iterations in the last year and half. I stopped halfway and changed a lot, trying to find the right direction because I was sure I'd lost course, but I've finally made it to port. *Peanuts dance*

I will stop with the bad metaphors now (they're all my brain can give since I put it through the wringer trying to finish) and go to sleep. But seriously, this feeling of having finished a book, I'm addicted. Must have more.

Hope and Dreams

2009-01-20T21:55:00.000-05:00

The last two months have seemed like a dream. A nice dream, but a dream. I had trouble believing something could happen to make me hopeful, for the first time in my adult life, not just for my future, but for the future of my country. Today it has been solidly cemented as reality. I can stop pinching myself. I do not have to wake up from this dream. And my tears say more today than my words ever could.

Writing Projects

2009-01-19T06:11:00.003-05:00

YA Urban Fantasy:
Queen of Freaks
Walk In

Adult Urban Fantasy:
Heartache
Fallen

Fallen

2009-01-19T06:11:00.001-05:00

Born with an immunity to the powers of angels and demons, Perrin Caras has made a career for herself as a bounty hunter for both heaven and hell. Whether the target left of their own accord or someone else's, an armed to the teeth Rin will find them and drag them back. For a fee.

Just like the cartoons she watched as a kid, Rin has a demon and an angel to tell her what to do. Though, based on their advice, if they were her conscience they'd both have horns pointed tails. While neither her liaison to heaven or hell would fit on her shoulder, they do fit quite nicely in her bed. But choosing between men is the least of her problems.

When Rin gets dragged into a millenia old dispute between heaven and hell she learns there's a lot more going on than ever mentioned in the dusty Bible in her nightstand drawer. Fearing she's in over her head, Rin tries to get out, but the machinations of heaven and hell are like quicksand, the harder you fight to extract yourself the deeper and faster they pull you in.

Walk In

2009-01-19T06:10:00.004-05:00

Renee Lewis had the life she wanted; good grades, awesome friends, an amazing boyfriend. Until Stacia Carter clobbered Renee's Yaris with her ginormous pickup truck and Renee woke up in the hospital with Stacia's life. Stacia's body, Stacia's dorky boyfriend, and Stacia's crazy witch mothers; Renee's got it all. And doesn't want any of it. Renee Lewis is officially dead, and so is any hope she had of a normal life.

Determined to figure out what happened and how she walked into Stacia's life, Renee does a séance, hoping Stacia has some answers. What Renee gets instead is a dead girl haunting her and warning that there's a warlock soul stealer out there. And he's after both of theirs.

Renee can't ever go back to her old life, but if she's not careful Stacia's will be taken from her too. But adjusting to a new life and new friends has Renee a little distracted. Not to mention she's not ready to give up Garrett, her old boyfriend; even though she's falling for Stacia's boyfriend, Clark, a little more every day—something Stacia's not exactly happy about. In the end, Renee's going to have to fight for the life she's walked into or she might be torn back out.

Heartache

2009-01-19T06:10:00.003-05:00

The Verhey Detective Agency specializes in the weird. Have a crazy problem you can't go to the cops about? Finnegan Verhey and Alexandra Whitaker can help. They've solved hundreds of paranormal cases in the greater Seattle area. There's no supernatural problem they can't handle. At least not one they've come across, yet...

Alex and Finn have been working together since Alex won the the down-and-out Finn's detective agency in a poker game. Alex has promised to sign it all back over to Finn as soon as he helps her find out who, or what, murdered her little sister six years ago. But Finn might not have time to find the killer any time soon because dozens of people are going missing in Seattle, leaving no trace. And the police chief wants Alex and Finn's paranormal expertise.

When corpses of missing people start showing up, covered in strange marks and missing their hearts, the search for those responsible becomes frantic. Whispers in the paranormal community point to a cult trying to summon Quetzalcoatl to save the world from his twin in 2012. Alex and Finn can't seem to get an real leads on the cult, though.

After a group of children go missing, they think it can't get any worse. Until Alex goes missing. Terrified for his partner, Finn is prepared to scour every inch of the city to find Alex. But will he find her before she's returned as a heartless corpse?

Queen of Freaks

2009-01-19T06:09:00.001-05:00

People think Lily Gardner is a freak because of her dyed hair and combat boots, but what really makes her freaky are the superpowers she's hiding. When she loses control of them during a breakdown at the mall, the headmaster of the Great Lakes School for Exceptional Young People comes calling. GLS is secretly a haven for the supernatural. What Lily finds there is very little acceptance and a whole lot of rivalry. Her life was never normal, but now it's complicated by super-powered cat fights, a best friend who has complete access to her mind, and a crush on the hottest werewolf in school. In a place where everybody else strives to stand out, Lily just wants to fit in.

Just when things are going well, Lily and her friends find the body of a dead classmate. The death links the school to a string of murdered teens in nearby towns. As everyone wonders who did it and who will be next, rumors fly about GLS closing before the investigation reveals the school's secrets. Unwilling to give up her new home, Lily bands together with her classmates to catch the killer. What use are superpowers if they can't catch one bad guy?

Writing Schedule

2009-01-03T14:01:00.003-05:00

Novels:
January 1-March 31: PDA1
April 1-June 30: King of Wolves
July 1-September 30: PDA2
October 1-December 31: Jack of Memories

Short Stories:
January: Courting Death
February: The Wolf Moon
March: PDA origin story

2009

2009-01-03T14:01:00.001-05:00

Only two days left until Oliver starts the new job and our lives get back to normal. I'm glad that we'll have that source of income, but after spending 3 months of being with the one I love all day long every day, I'm going to miss him. On the other hand, I'm the type of person that needs space/alone time, so maybe it will be good for us. :)

I spent the last few weeks of 2008 playing around with some tentative writing schedules for 2009, as well as my resolutions for the new year. I think with some touch-ups yesterday I got things more or less figured out.

In an effort to treat my writing more like a job and less like a hobby I've created a set up to treat it more like a 9-5.
My plan is:

* Write 2,500 words/weekday.
* Weekends and holidays (New Year's, February 2, March 20, Oliver's birthday, Easter, May 1, Memorial Day, June 21, July 4, our anniversary, August 2, Labor Day, September 22, my birthday, October 31, Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, December 21, Christmas Eve, Christmas, Boxing Day, and New Year's Eve) off.
* For every 5,000 words I write I accumulate 1 vacation hour and 1 sick hour to be used as I like. 8 sick or 8 vacation hours may be redeemed for a day off in which I am not obliged to write, edit, or do anything involving my writing.

I know it seems like an awfully complicated system for something I should just do, but I figured if I treated it like this, gave it a concrete system, it would be easier to keep myself accountable to my writing. Making myself accountable for what I do or do not do is a large part of what I'm trying to work on this year.

2009 Goals:
write 12 short stories
write 4 novels
program my placeholder website
submit short stories at least 20 times
send out at least 150 queries
blog at least 3 times/week
type all the longhand writing in storage
write a short synopsis for each idea
keep notebook on me at all times
develop an idea for a comic
read at least 100 books
walk 1000 miles
drink less than 3 glasses of soda/week
drink 64 oz. water/day
stop using plastic bags
stop using plastic water jugs
stop using incandescent lightbulbs in my home
start recycling once I have a car
get an oil change every 3,000 miles
check tire inflation at least once/month
say at least one nice thing/day
stop and think about the thing I'm about to say before I let myself say it
put 5 cents in a jar for each time I swear

I have a few things to finish up on Queen of Freaks, then I'm going to do a round of edits for the things I already know need to be fixed. After that it will be all set to finally go out to the betas. I'm thinking that will be about the 16th or so. When I get it back from then I'll do a round of edits to fix any problems they catch, then it's going in a drawer for a month before I do my final edits. When the final edits are done I'll send out my queries.

In the interim I'll be working on PDA1, which really needs a title, but I can't think of anything. Maybe while I'm working on the zero draft I'll think of something. I think the zero draft will go quite quickly, since I've taken the time to plot the whole book in advance, unlike Queen of Freaks. It's also had time to simmer and develop. The last three months have been very unproductive as far as word count, only about 10,000 words, but PDA1 has developed nicely. Now I just have to ship Oliver off to work and get back to work myself.

2008

2008-12-31T13:56:00.001-05:00

Last day of the year. I have little to say about 2008. It was a harder year than I've had in awhile, escpecially the last three or four months. Lots of stress, friends feuding, family issues, job loss, etc. Fun fun. Anywho, books read from 2008 under the cut. Made a list of goals for 2009, let's hope life is a little less hectic this year and I complete some of them.

1.Urban Shaman - CE Murphy
2.Thunderbird Falls - CE Murphy
3.Coyote Dreams - CE Murphy
4.Heart of Stone - CE Murphy
5.House of Cards - CE Murphy
6.Hand of Flames - CE Murphy
7.The Queen's Bastard - CE Murphy
8.City of Bones - Cassandra Clare
9.Greywalker - Kat Richardson
10.Midnight Alley -Rachel Caine
11.Feast of Fools -Rachel Caine
12.Dead Witch Walking - Kim Harrison
13.The Good, The Bad, and The Undead - Kim Harrison
14.Every Which Way But Dead - Kim Harrison
15.A Fistful of Charms - Kim Harrison
16.For a Few Demons More - Kim Harrison
17.The Outlaw Demon Wails - Kim Harrison
18.Night Life -Caitlin Kittredge
19.Pure Blood -Caitlin Kittrdge
20.One Foot in the Grave -Jeaniene Frost
21.Ink Exchange -Melissa Marr
22.Marked - PC&Kristin Cast
23.Betrayed - PC&Kristin Cast
24.Chosen - PC&Kristin Cast
25.Untamed - PC&Kristin Cast
26.Magic Burns - Ilona Andrews
27.Rogue - Rachel Vincent
28.The Touch of Twilight - Vicki Pettersson
29.Rites of Spring Break - Diana Peterfreund
30.Cry Wolf - Patricia Briggs
31.Iron Kissed - Patricia Briggs
32.Devil You Know -Jenna Black
33.The Devil's Due -Jenna Black
34.Frostbite -Richelle Mead
35.Shadow Kiss -Richelle Mead
36.Storm Born -Richelle Mead
37.Succubus Dreams -Richelle Mead
38.Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer
39.Nightwalker - Jocelynn Drake
40.To Hell and Back - Lilith Saitcrow
41.Kitty Takes A Holiday - Carrie Vaughn
42.Kitty and the Silver Bullet - Carrie Vaughn
43.The Sweet Far Thing - Libba Bray
44.Prom Dates From Hell - Rosemary Clement Moore
45.Hell Week - Rosemary Clement Moore

It is entirely possible that I have mispelled author names or possibly even gotten the name of the book wrong. I put this list together pretty quickly and off the top of my head. I slacked off this year and didn't keep track of the books I read properly. I'm certain I missed a few.

Update

2008-08-28T08:40:00.000-05:00

I've been a bad, bad blogger. It's been 5-6 months since my last real post. But, but, but--I have an excuse! A good one too.

I tore my book apart. I sliced it up into itty bitty threads, mangled my outline, and stitched it all back together into something that gives me a great deal of hope. Oh, yeah, and that word count listed in the last real post? More than doubled, despite the large chunks I decimated.

My characters can't behave. I had a nice, neat little plan for them, for where I wanted the book to go. I tried to write it. They just wouldn't let me. And, in the end, that's a good thing. It meant scrapping a big chunk of my book, tossing out everything but the general direction of the plot, and letting them go at it as fitting to their characters. It was all well and good to plot the book out before I wrote it, but I didn't know my characters then. Not well enough to know what they'd really do when the situation went to crap. It's better this way. Now I'm confident that I know them well enough to plot the rest of the series without having to scrap everything part way through the book. I'm sure they'll still take me for a few unexpected twists and turns, but nothing that should throw me very far of course.

I think my biggest problems came down to the fact that they're a little more grown up than I expected them to be. Also one character in specific is not willing to quietly pine when I planned for him to pine. Also I think I may have to take heavy hand in editing it, because I probably need to reign in my terrible potty mouth. It's not so bad that it would too much in an adult book, but, while I spoke that way as a teen, I'm not sure editors or parents would be thrilled with how often I swear. I'm guessing I might be able to get away with dropping the f-bomb once. Maybe twice. But it's at 6 uses so far. Though, I suppose once per 10,000 words isn't that bad.

Apart from misbehaving characters and reworking the plot I had three big time sucks. The first one was, due to a lack of working computer for a period of time and my physical location while writing, I wrote approximately 40,000-50,000 words long hand. I'm incapable of turning off my internal editor while typing up my work, so it took quite awhile.

But the even bigger time suck was finding out we would not be staying in the house we were renting. It was a two month long dash to find a new place, move out of the old one, and move into the new one. Made all the more complicated by mediating disputes between angry roommates and trying to clean up after the ones who just took what they wanted and left everything else in heaps around the house. *Sigh* Even on the few occasions in those two months when I had time to work on the book I was too drained physically, mentally, and emotionally to work on it. I had nothing extra of myself to give it. When our living situation fell apart it was really more of a blowing up in our faces. But when 8 people live together you run that risk.

It is finally done with, and after giving myself a week or so to recoup I have typed everything up and looking to finish the first draft. The only thing to take up my time now is the third thing, my little sister's wedding. I've been helping my mom and sister as much as I can. I can't believe how much there is to do/how much time it takes. But the shower will be over after the 7th of September. Then it's just the wedding on October 4th and my schedule's completely free.

I'm hoping the book will be done before then. After putting the book back together it's looking like the first draft will be closer to 80,000-85,000 words, not the 70,000 I originally estimated. But that's fine. I've seen plenty of YA urban fantasy of that length and I'll chop at least 10% from that so I'll be closer to my original goal anyway. So that puts me at about 22,000 words to go. Final push. Woo!

Interview with Jeaniene Frost

2008-08-18T13:57:00.001-05:00

Check out this new interview with Jeaniene Frost.

Trailer for an Upcoming Book

2008-07-22T11:12:00.003-05:00

Update

2008-03-07T03:52:00.001-05:00

New: 5,790
Total: 28,547
Random bit of text: "Thomas will do what's right for his family."
"News flash, I am his family."
"Yes, sometimes people make mistakes that just won't go away."
Research: Electromagnetic phenomenon, Egyptian history/mythology, Website design

Reading: Urban Shaman - CE Murphy
Watching: nothing, my cable box sucks

40% plus my never-ending pile of pages to be typed. Damn me and my writing longhand.
I had a plot crisis this week. I couldn't stop waffling between whether my choices for the plot were contrite and convenient or if the were necessary for the story. After much whining to Oliver talking it out with Oliver, I have decided it is necessary. Though I am still wracking my brain for another option to fulfill the necessary and be more...well, just more.

Last night I began coding a website for myself so that when I start querying agents I will have a site up for them to look at if they google me/read the first 10 pages on if they don't allow them to be included with the query. It looks pretty good for being coded by me, and is well over half done now. If nothing screws up horribly when I set up the hosting and get it posted I will be rather satisfied with it. At least as a placeholder until I sell my book someday and have one designed for me with my cover art. Now if only I could manage to convert the CSS to something usable for my blogs. Stupid lack of ability in CSS. Must fix that. Perhaps I'll save the Kim Harrison, CE Murphy, PC/Kristen Cast, and Caitlin Kittredge books I'm buying tomorrow whenever I wake up today as a reward for learning enough CSS to fix the few site problems I'm having and setup the blog. Nah. I want to read them far too badly for that.

Yawn. Must go sleep now so I can wake up early and knock out my WIP pages for the day so I can do some work on the couple of short stories I'm writing/fixing up. I figured I might as well submit them to a couple of mags. Publishing credits/SFWA membership to tack onto the bottom of my query couldn't hurt, so it's worth giving it a try.

2008 Books

2008-02-06T03:13:00.002-05:00

Thought I'd do a quick reading/books update before I'm off to bed.

Books read so far in 2008:

1. Iron Kissed- Patricia Briggs
2. Midnight Alley-Rachel Caine
3. To Hell and Back- Lilith Saintcrow
4. Kitty Takes A Holiday- Carrie Vaughn
5. Kitty and the Silver Bullet- Carrie Vaughn
6. Heart of Stone- CE Murphy
7. Dead Witch Walking- Kim Harrison
8. The Good, the Bad, and the Undead- Kim Harrison

Currently Reading: Every Which Way But Dead- Kim Harrison

Recently Purchased and To Be Read:

* A Fistful of Charms- Kim Harrison
* For Few Demons More- Kim Harrison
* Marked- PC Cast & Kristen Cast
* Betrayed- PC Cast & Kristen Cast
* City of Bones- Cassandra Clare
* Greywalker- Kat Richardson
* Poltergeist- Kat Richardson
* The Sweet Far Thing- Libba Bray
* Hell's Belles- Jackie Kessler
* The Road to Hell- Jackie Kessler
* Thunderbird Falls- CE Murphy
* Coyote Dreams- CE Murphy
* Black Magic Woman- Justin Gustainis

Books to Be Purchased:

* Urban Shaman- CE Murphy
* The Dresden Files series- Jim Butcher
* The Weather Warden series- Rachel Caine
* The Anna Strong Chronicles series- Jeanne Stein
* a whole ton of books that haven't come out yet but are marked on my calendar

If you can't tell by the recently purchased, I had $125 in gift certificates to spend on Amazon. :D I should have enough to read for. oh, about 2-4 weeks. I'm usually limited in the amount I read by how much I have to spend,/how many books I have to read, not by my time to read them.
My goal for the year was supposed to be 75, but as I'm already over 10% and have recently taken a look at my to be read list, I'm thinking I may aim for 100.

( Tentative 2008 Reading List )

1. Midnight Alley
2. Iron Kissed
3. To Hell and Back
4. Kitty Takes a Holiday
5. Kitty and the Silver Bullet
6. Heart of Stone
7. Dead Witch Walking
8. The Good, The Bad, and the Undead
9. Wizard’s First Rule
10. Stone of Tears
11. Blood of the Fold
12. Temple of the Winds
13. Soul of the Fire
14. Faith of the Fallen
15. Pillars of Creation
16. Naked Empire
17. Chainfire
18. Phantom
19. Confessor
20. Green Rider
21. First Rider’s Call
22. The High King’s Tomb
23. Princess on the Brink
24. Princess Mia
25. The Sweet Far Thing
26. Every Which Way but Dead
27. A Fistful of Charms
28. For A Few Demons More
29. The Outlaw Demon Wails
30. Urban Shaman
31. Thunderbird Falls
32. Coyote Dreams
33. Hell’s Belles
34. The Road to Hell
35. Greywalker
36. Poltergeist
37. City of Bones
38. Marked
39. Betrayed
40. Wraith
41. Spectre
42. Enchanted, Inc.
43. Once Upon Stilettos
44. Damsel Under Stress
45. Don’t Hex With Texas
46. The Queen’s Bastard
47. City of Ashes
48. Underground
49. Ill Wind
50. Chill Factor
51. Heat Stroke
52. Fire Storm
53. Windfall
54. Thin Air
55. Gale Force
56. Feast of Fools
57. Storm Front
58. Fool Moon
59. Grave Peril
60. Summer Knight
61. Death Masks
62. Blood Rites
63. Dead Beat
64. Proven Guilty
65. White Knight
66. Night Life
67. One Foot in the Grave
68. Ink Exchange
69. Chosen
70. Divine By Mistake
71. Divine By Choice
72. Divine By Blood
73. Girl at Sea
74. Devilish
75. Suite Scarlett
76. The Keys to the Golden Firebird
77. Bermudez Triangle
78. The Becoming
79. Blood Drive
80. The Watcher
81. One Bitten Twice Shy
82. Another One Bites the Dust
83. Biting the Bullet
84. Bitten to Death
85. Happy Hour of the Damned
86. Touch the Dark
87. Claimed by Shadow
88. Embrace the Night
89. On the Prowl
90. Magic Burns
91. Rogue
92. The Touch of Twilight
93. Night Shift
94. Rites of Spring Break
95. Kushiel’s Mercy
96. Cry Wolf
97. Hotter Than Hell
98. The Devil You Know
99. The Host
100. House of Cards
101. Personal Demons
102. Frostbite

red= I already own a copy
italics=I've already read

A Slow Start

2008-02-06T03:13:00.001-05:00

New: 1,491
Total: 22,757
Random bit of text: I discreetly snapped a picture with my cellphone and tried not to smile as I admired my handiwork, a hideous green hue to her once golden locks. "Oh my."
Research: The best way to stuff sardines in the heating vents of someone's car and other such horrible revenge.

Reading: Every Which Way But Dead - Kim Harrison
Watching: Venture Brothers, random On Demand episodes

I had been hoping to start the year off with a bang but in January I did almost no writing. It was a bad month. There were family issues, there were personal issues. There were just issues.
We lost a great-nephew. His name was Isaiah. That hit both of us a lot harder than we could have ever expected. Afterwards his work tried to write him up for leaving early the day of the funeral because they would let him take the vacation time he's earned. We fought it, and I put my writing skills to use writing a nice long letter for him to his supervisor, department leader, and the human resources department. It made no difference other than to give us a scare where we thought he might get fired for it. He hasn't been, but he was transfered to a different team, presumably because of the problems it caused with his supervisor. That's a good thing though, his new supervisor treats him like a human being.
I feel like after everything that's happened already this year I'm starting to get my footing again. Which is nice. I think it's helped that the weekend before last we spent our 3-day weekend with my brother, his girlfriend, and a friend, just vegging out and having fun. It was relaxing. I felt more like me afterwards. And then, this past weekend, a bunch of friends came over and I cooked for everyone. Good times. Afterwards I got some writing done. See above. I think I'm getting back into the swing of things now. We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

Goodbye 2007

2007-12-31T23:56:00.000-05:00

With less than an hour left of this year I figured now was probably an appropriate time for a post reflecting on the year and listing my resolutions for 2008.

2007 was an interesting year. 2006 ended/2007 began with a blowout roommate wise and one of our worst roommates ever leaving. We began the year with her replacement, who was also pretty bad, but not quite as bad. He lived with us for only a couple months because he lost his job and OD'ed the night before rent was due. We had to call an ambulance for the first time, but he His replacement turned out to be pretty great. Today is an especially fine time to reflect upon that roommate as today was his last day living with us. This afternoon he got on a plane and moved to Washington. In the last two and a half years with have lived with a lot of people (that tends to happen when you rent a 5-6 bedroom house); one family member, three friends, three acquaintances, and a handful of random people we found on Craig'sList. Of all the random people we've lived with I never expected to find someone like Sean. We have parted ways with most our roommates amicably, living with 5 or 6 other people is not everyone's ideal situation, and while cheaper people do tend to get tired of it over time. We have parted ways with a few in fights that were loud and quite unpleasant. Sean is the first we are truly sad to see go. He went from being just some guy living down the hall to being close friends with most of us. He will be greatly missed. I hope that, despite the distance, he remains a friend.

Midway through January one of the close friends we live with moved away for several months, needing some time away. He returned to us in the summer, and we are glad to have him back home. Shortly after he moved back or lease was up and we had to begin looking for a new home. Originally we planned to move out of the house we were in and find something with just the significant other, good friend, and I. Soon after we realized how hard it was to find a place for just the three of us that we liked and wasn't insanely expensive. Luckily our landlord showed us four or five other houses and while it lacked the central air we had grown accustomed to in the last house, we fell in love with our current house. It's a beautiful brick house that was previously a parsonage. The selling point? A large library with built in bookcases with beautiful glass doors. That was all we needed to see. We have lived here happily for over 5 months, and it was the right choice, I'm sure.

Our collection of books, which before was sprawling and could not be contained in our measly shelves looked tiny in our library, filling not even a quarter of it. This is until my grandparents decided to move about four months ago, and all my aunt's books that were boxed up in their attic needed a home. Fifteen boxes of books later I would say our library is now 80-90% full. It's a beautiful, glorious thing. Which brings me to my next book point.

In 2007 it was my goal to read 50 books. I know to a lot of avid readers it seems like not that much, but from the age of about 8 or 9 to 14 or 15 I didn't read. I loved to read, but had trouble finishing books. I hadn't found what I loved yet and would get to the middle of each book and lose interest. This all changed when Oliver handed me my first fantasy book, and I've been horribly addicted since then. Each book I've read since then seems like an accomplishment to me, even if a small one. So, without further ado, the books I read in 2007:
*=my first time reading that particular author

1.) *Coraline - Neil Gaiman 01/03/2007
2.) Party Princess (Princess Diaries 7) - Meg Cabot 01/03/2007
3.) Shadowland (The Mediator 1) - Meg Cabot 01/04/2007
4.) Ninth Key (The Mediator 2) - Meg Cabot 01/04/2007
5.) Reunion (The Mediator 3) - Meg Cabot 01/04/2007
6.) Darkest Hour (The Mediator 4) - Meg Cabot 01/11/2007
7.) Haunted (The Mediator 5) - Meg Cabot 01/24/2007
8.) Twilight (The Mediator 6) - Meg Cabot 01/24/2007
9.) Queen of Babble - Meg Cabot 01/25/2007
10.) Size 12 Is Not Fat - Meg Cabot 01/27/2007
11.) Size 14 IS Not Fat Either - Meg Cabot 01/30/2007
12.) Project Princess - Meg Cabot 01/03/2007
13.) *I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You - Ally Carter 02/13/2007
14.) *Twilight - Stephenie Meyer 02/17/2007
15.) New Moon - Stephenie Meyer 02/25/2007
16.) *13 Little Blue Envelopes - Maureen Johnson 03/12/2007
17.) *Goodnight Nobody - Jennifer Weiner 03/25/2007
18.) *She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders - Jennifer Finney Boylan 04/07/2007
20.) *Secret Society Girl: An Ivy League Novel - Diana Peterfreund 05/06/2007
21.) *A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray 05/27/2007
22.) *Don’t Look Down - Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer 05/29/2007
23.) *One for the Money (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 05/31/2007
24.) When Lightning Strikes (1-800-Where-R-You) - Meg Cabot 06/01/2007
25.) Two for the Dough (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/03/2007
26.) Kushiel’s Justice - Jacqueline Carey 06/08/2007
27.) Three to Get Deadly (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/13/2007
28.) *Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr 06/17/2007
29.) Four to Score (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/18/2007
30.) High Five (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/19/2007
31.) Hot Six (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/19/2007
32.) *Stray - Rachel Vincent 06/20/2007
33.) Seven Up (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/21/2007
34.) Hard Eight (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/26/2007
35.) To the Nines (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/26/2007
36.) Under the Rose - Diana Peterfreund 06/27/2007
37.) Magic or Madness - Justine Larbelestier 07/03/2007
38.) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - JK Rowling 07/08/2007 (reread it)
39.) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling 07/22/2007
40.) Queen of Babble in the Big City - Meg Cabot 07/24/2007
41.) *Moon Called - Patricia Briggs 07/30/2007
42.) Blood Bound - Patricia Briggs 07/31/2007
43.) Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer 08/07/2007
44.) Rebel Angels - Libba Bray 08/19/2007
45.) *Working for the Devil (A Dante Valentine Novel) - Lilith Saintcrow 08/25/2007
46.) Ten Big Ones (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 08/27/2007
47.) Dead Man Rising (A Dante Valentine Novel) - Lilith Saintcrow 08/27/2007
48.) Eleven on Top (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 08/28/2007
49.) Twelve Sharp (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 08/29/2007
50.) *The Silver Kiss - Annette Curtis Klause 09/02/2007
51.) *If Angels Burn - Lynn Viehl 09/02/2007
52.) *Succubus Blues - Richelle Mead 09/07/2007
53.) The Devil's Right Hand (A Dante Valentine Novel) - Lilith Saintcrow 09/08/2007
54.) Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead 09/09/2007
55.) *Magic Bites - Ilona Andrews 09/13/2007
56.) *Kitty and the Midnight Hour - Carrie Vaughn 09/16/2007
57.) *Tithe - Holly Black 09/18/2007
58.) Valiant - Holly Black 09/27/2007
59.) Kitty Goes to Washington - Carrie Vaughn 10/02/2007
60.) Ironside - Holly Black 10/09/2007
61.) *Glass Houses - Rachel Caine 10/17/2007
62.) Dead Girls' Dance - Rachel Caine 10/20/2007
63.) *Vampire Kisses - Ellen Schreiber 10/26/2007
64.) Saint City Sinners (A Dante Valentine Novel) - Lilith Saintcrow 11/10/2007
65.) *Halfway to the Grave - Jeaniene Frost 11/11/2007
66.) Big Boned - Meg Cabot 11/30/2007
67.) *The Scent of Shadows - Vicki Pettersson 12/03/2007
68.) The Taste of Night - Vicki Pettersson 12/22/2007
69.) Succubus on Top - Richelle Mead 12/24/2007
70.) *The Devil Inside - Jenna Black 12/26/2007

Using Amazon.com and Renlearn.com as well as estimating on a handful of books it looks like I've read approximately 5,730,286 words this year. Seems like a huge number. Makes me smile. :D I most certainly met my 50 book goal. Lots of YA. Lots of Urban Fantasy. My goal this year is 75, and to diversify my reading a bit more.

I feel like I've taken huge strides in my writing this year. I know I have a lot more to learn, but it feels more refined. I learned to write a query letter this year. I tried my hand at a hook for the first time in December 2006 with Miss Snark's Crapometer. In the following year I tried my hand at it several more times, writing 3 more practice letters and refining each. The latest is for my current WIP. I think it's the letter I will end up using when the time comes. I wrote 55,632 words that I've typed and probably 20,000 written longhand sitting in various folders for future projects. I can't help myself, when I came up with each idea this year if I had a piece of it in my head I wrote it so I wouldn't lose it.

I didn't finish writing any books in 2007, but I am going to change that this year. I spent the first 9 months of 2007 working on my practice book. I knew it wasn't *the* book, but I thought writing it would be good practice so I wouldn't waste any great ideas on books I wasn't good enough to write yet. The problem with continuing to write a book that is flawed and my heart wasn't in is it dragged horribly and I just couldn't make it work, since, you know, it was fatally flawed. In the end of September or October I realized that forcing myself to trudge away at it wasn't doing me any good and I let myself quit and begin work on a new book, with an idea and characters I loved and a story that I was sure I could make work if I just kept at it. The first draft of Queen of Freaks is now approximately 25% complete (ignore my meter on the side, it doesn't like me and doesn't want to update) and I'm loving it. This book will be finished. Assuming this whole being sick thing resolves itself soon (what a great way to begin the new year, huh) I hope to be finished by Jan. 27th. It will be great to finish my first book.

In the last month or so I began something new, cutting out pictures that remind me of characters or scenes from my books and posting them over my desk. Since I started doing this everything in my stories seems so much more vivid. I spent hours at length searching for pictures that suited my characters. Being able to look up at them when I look away from the screen is such a comforting thing. When I get the chance I may post a picture of my wall.

So, writing goals for the year to come...

* Write 520,000 words. I'm aiming for 2,000 each day with weekends off to spend with the significant other.
* Finish first drafts of four books.
* Write a proposal for each series I intend to pursue eventually so I have a proposal for each on file.
* Query aggressively once I am ready.
* Do not let myself query before the book is well and truly ready.

Other goals for 2008:

* Walk at least 366 miles.
* Eat healthier.
* Cook more instead of going out so much.
* Create my placeholder website for my domain. Nothing complicated, just a clean cut, simple (but nice looking) page with my contact information, a little about myself, and the first three chapters of Queen of Freaks.
* Keep my house cleaner (though this is excruciatingly difficult when 7 people live in your house)

Well, I think that's it for my long-ass post. Happy New Year all.

Celebration

2007-10-26T09:48:00.001-05:00

It's been more than 2 months since I updated. Since then I have given up on the first Seventy Days of Sweat, turned 23, had my house start to fall apart (yay for renting and to fix *all* of it myself) and had my family fall apart (medically). I am still 23, my house is still falling apart but on it's way to being fixed, and my family s no longer falling apart. Yay for recovering from medical ailments and serious surgeries. It's a whole lot less stressful when everyone's healthy. More recently I have committed myself to Seventy Days of Sweat: Round Two & NaNoWriMo, made a couple writing breakthroughs, and written the most amazing recipe ever (at least that's what I like to tell myself).

So, first, 70 Days of Sweat/NaNoWriMo. I decided after getting caught up during the first one and failing miserably that I would try again this time since I have scrapped the book I was working on and started something viable and with marketability. I'm glad I have. I think having something I know has marketability is helping me to write it. Before, with the old book, I knew it wasn't and I kept plugging away at it as practice. I thought I could bring myself to finish it even though I knew it would go nowhere. I was wrong. I think I need the hope of knowing this could be the book that gets me my first contract in order to keep writing it. Problem solved, just had to move on to the next thing.
As far as NaNoWriMo goes, Rachel asked me to do it. I've already committed to 70 Days of Sweat, so I may as well, just count my word count towards each. I had trouble deciding which book to work on, because it is considered highly against the rules to work on something you've already written stuff for and just write 50,000 more words. Rachel and I decided the rules don't apply to me however, because I have way more free time than most people doing it and the whole point is to get me writing more (or that should be the point, otherwise it's just to churn out unusable slush) so I should write whatever is best for me. Which is Queen of Freaks. It was titled Queen of the Freaks, but I think I like it better without 'the'. It's more playing-card-esque.
About the book and writing in general: YAY!!!! Going great. I mean, *really* great. Switching to the new project was definitely the right choice because it's infusing my work with a life Sticks and Stones never had, even 40,000 words in. I love the new story, the characters, and best of all...I MANAGED TO WRITE MY QUERY LETTER!!!! I can't possibly describe how great that is. I've struggled and struggled and while my efforts have come out just fine they hadn't been good enough. Then a week or two ago I wrote a new draft of the letter. It was getting there, I could tell I had something, but the hooks alone was around 450 words. Way too long. So I cut a bunch out and reworked every word with the significant other last night. What we ended up with was pretty good, but still the hook was around 350 words. Long, but still easily met the 1 page query letter standard since I don't have much in the way of bio. I liked it, I felt it was close to capturing my voice well enough in a professional sounding letter, but all the successful queries I'd read were short. Like 200 word hooks or less. I was getting ready to climb into bed and then it hit me. I sat down and wrote a hook, and a letter coming in at less than 350 words total. My entire letter is now less than the previous hook. There's so much more I could put in, but I think this is it. With a little tightening and a few word changes I think this is the letter I will end up sending out, and *crosses fingers* I think I might even get a few requests for partials. I hope, anyway.
It's such a great feeling to know it's written. I have confidence in the book I'm writing, in my words to carry the weight, it's just so nerve-wracking to know that one stupid piece of paper and trying to perfectly hook my novel in just a paragraph or two while being professional and still letting my voice to shine through determines whether or not my work will even be seen. I understand why it has to be that way, it's just...well, nerve wracking and damn hard. My hat is off to anyone who writes query letters well and with little effort. If someone had a knack for it I bet they could make a killing reading people's manuscripts and writing their queries for them. It's a pain and something I bet a lot of aspiring authors would invest money in to have done for them and done well. I might consider it if I weren't dirt broke and needing a new car, lol. But yeah, there's just a general bliss that it's done. I feel free to work on the book with little hindrance now. Except that not having a synopsis written is bugging me. ;)

So, onto my last update: my recipe. We went out to Denny's late one night last weekend and there was discussion of a theoretical dish called bacon pie, something that sounds disgusting to me, but it sparked an idea. While we were there I jotted down a few ideas for a breakfast dish similar to quiche, but, in the end, is not quiche. Sunday I got up and headed to the store, bought a bunch of things I needed to make it, and went for it. It turned out really well. I made another one Wednesday night implementing a few tweaks, and that one came out even better. I now have a recipe that I wrote completely on my own. That is the most amazing thing. It's such a different high than writing a novel. The next chance to enter a recipe in the Pillsbury Bake-Off won't be until 2009 for the 2010 contest, but look out Pillsbury, because in 2010 I'll be winning that million dollars. :D

Okay, now that my long ass update is done I'm off to write more because my brain is still in overdrive from the high of finishing a good query letter. I'll try not to make it another 2 months next time.

Seventy Days of Sweat

2007-07-06T15:46:00.001-05:00

Starting Sunday I will be participating in the Seventy Days of Sweat.
The goal is to make your word count every day, if you miss a day make those words up on another day, and in the end to finish your book in 70 days (75 if you don't take days off for RWA Nationals).
I'm very excited. I'll be starting off with Sticks and Stones, the contemporary YA I've been working on. After that's finished up I'll be moving on to Walk-In, the urban fantasy YA I'm currently plotting (and very anxious to write. It's been so hard not to drop Sticks and Stones and start on Walk-In, but after my Sticks and Stones revelation yesterday I'm glad I stuck with it).
Come and join us, there will be prizes and you never know when you might meet a new critique partner. I could certainly use a few myself. :D

Eureka!

2007-07-05T16:25:00.000-05:00

I got it!!! How can I have been so daft? I realized exactly why I hated my query letter so much. I kept focusing on something big that happens in the story. The story wouldn't be a story at all without it, but it's still not the focus of the book, the two main characters and their relationship is. So freakin' blind.

This entire time I've been focusing on that thing that happened and I'm like, this is what the book is about, but it's not even in there until a third of the way through the book or more, this plot is stupid and doesn't work, good thing this piece of shit is a practice book and I didn't come up with the really great idea for the next one until I was already determined to finish this one before starting anything new. (Sidenote: yeah right, I've been planning the next one like crazy cuz I just can't keep my brain off it.) But now, I see, with the focus on the characters, this book might be salvageable with a little reworking. I was beginning to question whether or not I would ever really query this book or just dismiss it completely as practice and practice queries on the next book, but now I think it might be worth query practice before retiring it to the box under my bed.

I fell asleep working on a chapter where there's some banter between the two main characters and I woke up from my little nap and the query was in my head screaming. The cat was terrified as I shoved him off my stomach and began rummaging around the bed for the notebook and pen I had before falling asleep, squealing like a madwoman. He ran to the other side of the room, watching me write and when I was done wouldn't let me get near him for a good 5-10 minutes. Poor Baal. (Heh, for those that don't know we named our cat after the Lord of Destruction from a video game, we are, in fact, that geeky)

Off to go sit in a park and write like mad because I'm so freakin' excited. Maybe stop by the bookstore for tea and a blueberry scone first. Yum, scone.

Breaking Down Barriers

2007-06-13T19:19:00.000-05:00

Words Written This Week: 3,715
Word Written Today: 2,595
Total words for novel draft: 30,108
Favorite Thing I Wrote Today: “If by ‘it’ you mean going back to the way things were, our vaguely veiled disdain for each other, sure.”
Things that inspired me today: Being so close to 30,000 and unable to write much so far this week because of non-writing obligations spurred a furious writing fit after I got home today.
What's am I watching/listening to: My writing playlist, really enjoying Augustana, Imogen Heap, and Regina Spektor today.

30,108 / 70,000
(43.0%)

30,000 words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After all the trouble I've had concentrating on this WIP for the last month or so I'm so glad to be getting some serious work done. I've had so many great new ides bouncing around in my head, and they're really enticing. I'm so excited to work on them that it's been really hard not to put this WIP aside and start working on one of the new ideas. However I have refused to let myself do it. This is my practice novel, I need to finish it. I love it, it's something that's so intrinsically mine and nobody else's. I can point to it and say, "look, this is mine, I did this." But I know the new one will be so much better. I can't let myself go work on it though. This is an exercise in finishing this novel. The next one won't ever be better if I can't finish this one and learn from my mistakes. I just wish I could make the ideas for new stuff quiet for just a little bit so I can get there, you know? Damn muse, striking when it's most inconvenient. :)
This week is incredibly full of prior engagements so my only free time for writing this week is today and maybe a little tomorrow, so I shall now go write more to try and keep my word count for the week from being too low. Well, and do a little celebratory 30,000 words dance.

2007-06-03T19:08:00.000-05:00

Word Written Yesterday: 1,430
Total words for novel draft: 26,285
Favorite Thing I Wrote Yesterday: "Please, elucidate, Jack."
Things that inspired me Yesterday: Just general urge to write/my playlist.
What's am I watching/listening to: Random stuff from my playlist, which is just songs I like with no rhyme or reason or even similarity.

So, 1,430 yesterday. Not bad. I just had the strong urge to write. I put on headphones, turned the music up really loud to block out the other people I live with, and wrote. Wrote an entire new chapter.
Tangent: Let me just say, living in a house with 7 people and where there's always someone visiting is NOT conducive to getting any writing done. Hence the headphones on and the music up REALLY loud. I would really like to get a hammock and sit outside with my headphones and write.

I'm really stoked about getting so much done yesterday. It's inspired me to really keep it up. It feels good to be adding so much meat to the book. It's been this really emaciated story, but it's really started to take form. It's no longer the Paris Hilton of books. Still a bit twiggy, but you couldn't play the xylophone on it's ribcage. :)

Off to write more while I'm still giddy from my recent progress.

Update

2007-05-30T21:26:00.000-05:00

So...I kind of stalled out on the YA I'm writing. I've got so many others ideas bouncing around in my head that I kind of lost momentum on the one I've been working on. Apparently my muse has gotten bored with it but I won't move on. I feel like I need to finish this. So after yet another long pause in the writing of this book, I buckled down. My muse may not want to do anything with this book, but I get the feeling if I just keep plugging away she'll eventually give in and give me something good once it's clear that I won't be working on something else. It's this or nothing, sweetie. You think you're bored now? Imagine having nothing, 'cause that's what you're gonna get if you refuse to touch this story, nothing.
Alright, so crazy writer rambling is done now. I swear I'm sane. :)

Thus far my writing is spastic and random. I've written the scenes as they come to me, very out of order. With renewed dedication to finishing this story I sat down and filled in tentative chapters and a brief outline of what happens in them. Through the WHOLE FREAKING THING. Every chapter of the book, written or not, now has a spot in my word document. Now I just need to go in and write the missing scenes.
I'm more of a rewriter than a writer, so once I get through this I think the work will be infinitely better. I'm still thinking of it as a practice book, but still it hurts a little to know how bad it is right now. I think they only people that will ever see this draft are myself and the boyfriend. I've heard I shouldn't even show him, but I can never resist. I trust him implicitly. His input shapes my stories a great deal, it's important to me that I have that. My writing is far better for his input.

So here's the update from fixing things up.

24,926 / 70,000
(35.6%)

Now I must write new scenes with renewed vigor. Off I go.

2007-04-23T15:36:00.000-05:00

I have come to the conclusion that the wonderful authors running the Fangs, Fur, Fey hook contest don't like me. They must hate. This is obvious by the way they are so determined to drive me absolutely insane. Clearly they want me to lose all mental faculties, being driven mad by my wait for feedback. I am number 40. One would think this would mean out of 250 people I would get mine pretty early. Unless feedback is posted randomly as it comes back. Which is they case. Only 70 people's hooks left to be posted and mine is among them. I think mine will be posted very last.

(For those who don't me, this is not meant to be a slight to them at all, I am just goofing around while taking a 3 minute break from constantly refreshing their page, lol)

I need to go clean my house and keep myself occupied for the rest of the night while I wait for it.

2007-04-16T23:41:00.000-05:00

I haven't managed to do any writing today...but I did manage to do our taxes. Myself. Using stupid forms with little to no explanation. I rock. I can now take on the world. :D
I e-filed our taxes and then couldn't find any place that didn't want to charge me an arm and leg to do just our state taxes since they weren't doing both. I find this to be incredibly stupid. So I did them myself. If took many hours to track down the forms and figure out what they meant then find the extra forms I needed to attach, but I did it.

If I can finish my taxes I can finish my novel. So I shall go write now. :D

BTW, Kristin Nelson has been posting about how you should find a writing mentor. If anyone knows how one should go about doing this feel free to let me know. ;) I would love to find an author with a contract to impart their wisdom upon me. Especially if it's one who's writing I greatly admire. lol
Seems like an unlikely thing to happen. Maybe if you frequent conventions you're more likely to meet someone and have the friendship develop into a mentorship. Seems like a lot of published authors would be scared that you just wanted them to review your writing or give you an "in" to the industry and thus be reluctant to develop a mentor-type relationship with new writers. I bet a lot of new writers are actually looking for that in a mentor. Personally, I don't want that. There are critique groups for the reviews of my work. As far as an "in" goes, I want to find my agent. I want to know that I got there by the strength of my writing alone, not because of who I know. I can't imagine wanting to skip that part. It seems to me that it would feel like cheating. Or, at the very least, like I was depriving myself of the pride and joy of finding an agent who wants me after a long, arduous search. I want that feeling of accomplishment.
But I would love to find a mentor to have the chance to pick their brain, to find out what they learned and what has helped them get there. To have someone there to drop an email asking some stupid question and get an answer without having to look like an idiot to half the internet to find my answer. Ya know? So, yeah, any know where to find someone like that? I didn't think so. In the meantime I'll go plug away at my novel some more.
Goodnight folks!

Writing

2007-04-12T17:31:00.000-05:00

Not much writing going to lately. At least not this story. Been working on something else a little bit. Unless I get past stage one in the hook contest I think it's back to this story. I want the experience of finishing this one before i start work in earnest on that one. But typed up some of the stuff I had just sitting around on the original story and now I'm working on it again. Almost a third of the way done. Woot!!

20,927 / 70,000
(29.9%)

Kurt Vonnegut

2007-04-11T23:06:00.000-05:00

They just reported on the news that Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday. I keep trying to think of something poignant to say about him or his writing, or how it affected me. I can't think of anything. My boyfriend and I both heard it and just kind of stared at each other. I had the sudden urge to read Slaughterhouse-Five as a farewell from this world sort of thing. Then I said it out loud to my boyfriend and just felt silly.

Hooking Again

2007-04-06T13:28:00.000-05:00

Words Written Today: ~500, revised down to a 300 word hook.

Fangs, Fur, & fey is having a hook competition. I've decided it's a great opportunity to try out the story idea that's been bouncing around inside of my head. I worked up a hook for it this morning. Still needs some revisions, but I'm working on it. Next I just have to work up the first 3 chapters an a synopsis. Normally I wouldn't do this with something I hadn't written anything for, but since I sat down and thought about the hook last night the story has started to really fill itself in. I don't know that I'll do anything with it any time soon after the contest, but this is a good chance to try it out, so I'll take my chances.

Hiatus

2007-04-04T11:26:00.000-05:00

I've been really busy lately and realized I haven't really posted anything lately. I feel like I've been swamped with all sorts of real life, non-writing stuff lately. So much that I feel like I'm neglecting my writing, not only here, but actual productive I'm-writing-a-novel type writing. I've been poking but my word count has come to a faltering crawl instead of the steady strides I had been making. *Sigh*

This time of year is hard for me and I've had all sorts of unnecessary stuff piling up on top of it. I lost my Grandfather on April 15, 2005. My family and I lived with my grandparents for 8 years when I was young and after that they lived only two houses down the street. My grandparents helped my parents to raise us. It's not like it was for a lot of people, just some people you didn't really relate to and barely saw. I had problems with them that made the relationship difficult, but they raised me. They helped to shape me into who I am, had a very active role in it. Also it was my first real experience with death. I lost two great grandmothers as I child, but that was different. We knew it was coming, it was strange, but as a child it didn't really phase me. Not like this. Losing my grandfather was hard. Especially after watching him battle lung cancer. When I was in high school one of my closest friends had cancer. Watching some go through it again was REALLY hard. Especially since they took out a lung. He had trouble breathing so often. I won't ever forget the sound of him struggling to breath as he died.

So with all of that having to deal with replacing a roommate or owing an extra share of rent, a job hunt, trying to find a new car, etc. I just feel like everything is piling up on me and that even when I have the time to write I'm so emotionally drained that it wouldn't be any good anyway. Not to mention a crisis of faith in myself and my ability to write anything even remotely close to readable.

So after that lovely tirade I shall now get to my intended point of this post. I found a page that reminded me that I made a commitment to read at least 26 banned books before June 30th, 2007. I haven't read any yet. Well, that's not strictly true. I have read 15 from the 2007 list in the past. I just haven't read any since I signed up for the challenge. I own 21 books from the 2007 list that I haven't read and are on my other reading lists, so I shall start with those and then possibly later, in June, go buy the rest I need. Either way, with feeling drained and having a crisis doing all this reading seems like a good chance to recharge my batteries. It may detract from writing time now, but maybe it will help me overall. I seriously had a breakdown the other day and part of it was I swore I was never going to write again. This didn't last long and my boyfriend yelled at me for it, told me I was good and I would go write. But it happened. I think I need a break. Too much nonwriting stuff is getting in the way of writing.

Update

2007-03-18T13:48:00.000-05:00

Words Written This Week: ~4,500 (I don't have an exact word count, but this should be about right based on how many words I average per page, damn me and my needing to write it out longhand)
Word Written Today: 0 (I haven't started any writing for the day)
Total words for novel draft: 19,560
Things that inspired me today: I walked through 2 bookstores yesterday. I think just being around so many books gives me a little high and makes me want to write. Also I just plugged my current word count into this html progress meter and realized I am almost a third of the way done with my first draft. That has really give me a little boost. Plus yesterday, when we were out, I told my mother that I've been writing it. She's always been encouraging, but I haven't told her about anything I've written since middle school. It's all added up to give me this great feeling that I can finish it. I mean, I've told my mom, now I *have* to finish it. :D

So, only 4,500 for the two weeks since my last update. Not very good, but I was really sick for about a week (in which I got bored and curled up with a blanket and watched all of brotherhood 2.0, I must say, I love the Green brothers. they made me smile while I was convinced I was going to die because I wasn't sure I was going to be able to breathe the next time I tried to take a breath. I HATE being sick). Then after finally getting better I had some trouble with ovarian cysts tis week. Too much pain and discomfort for a two week span. I'm going to crack the whip and try to make up for the last two weeks. So, off I go.

19,560 / 70,000
(27.9%)

Progress Update

2007-03-04T03:43:00.000-05:00

Words Written This Week: about 9,000
Word Written Today: about 1,000
Total words for novel draft: 15,060
Favorite Thing I Wrote Today: my grocery list ;-P
Things that inspired me today: feedback from Agent X/talking to the friend who inspired the first version of the story (the icky one I started in highschool)
What's am I watching/listening to: Muse/Augustana/OAR/Regina Spektor/Imogen Heap

I think the story is really starting to shape up. I would imagine they tend to do that when you're about a quarter of the way through with them, hehe. So far I like where it's going. I think the determining factor of whether or not I'll like what I've done with the book when I'm done is whether or not I can pull all the parts I have now together in something that doesn't resemble a patchwork doll.

I'm really excited to finish it up and get started on revisions. I'm just so excited to send it out when it's ready. I know it probably won't get me an agent or a publishing contract, Kristen Nelson just posted a thing about how most authors don't make it until their 3rd, 4th, 5th book. I have to have a little bit of hope though, or I don't think I could bring myself to send out those queries when the time comes. I'm not excited about the idea of this book being my "big break" or anything like that so much as I want to see what sort of response I get from my query letters and if on my first try I can get any partials. Also, if I can, whether or not I can get any fulls out from those partials.

My secret way too optimistic hopes are to get requests for at least 5 partials and 1 full on my first query letter for my first book. *Crosses fingers and won't uncross them for several months until the book is done and I'm getting responses to the queries.*

Query Feedback From An Agent

2007-03-02T22:09:00.000-05:00

I sent my hook to Rachel Vater for her Got Hook reader hook review. She had some nice stuff to say. She also had some nice advice on where to go with it.

I have to say, between the response from Agent X and the comments from Miss Snark, I'm really starting to feel like I'm doing something right. It may not be right on yet, but I think, even though I'm pretty new to this, I'm doing it right. Miss Snark said my first hook "[wasn't] bad as far as hooks go." About my new hook for my YA book Agent X had said "there's something there." Not perfect yet, but when compared to the response a lot of other hooks entered got, it's definitely a good sign. I think I can definitely get where I want to go.

I just can't help but feel really optimistic right now. I think my career as a writer might stand a chance if I keep working at it.

When Life Gets In The Way

2007-03-02T15:04:00.000-05:00

How often does life get in the way of your writing? It seems every time I'm on a roll, I've been getting lots done and still feel like I can do more, something in the real world happens.

I share a rented 5 bedroom house. Last month one of our roommates got a job somewhere else and gave us notice that he was moving. I spent the month trying to find a replacement and things weren't looking so great. It seemed we were going to have to pay 2 portions of rent. Not something we looked forward to. I found somebody on the last day of the month. It was great, we were out of the hole. Then one of our other roommates tried to commit suicide.

It was all very strange. He OD'ed on his medication and we found him wandering around the house completely out of it. He went into someone else's room and sat down on the floor in the middle of the room and just sat there with the lights off. Oliver tried to get him to bed and then we went to talk to Nick. We were quite sure what to do, it's not something any of us has any experience in. We went to talk to him and after asking him about 12 times what he took he finally fished a bottle of pills out of a pile of his stuff. He couldn't remember how many he took so we called an ambulance.

They took him to the hospital down the street and I looked for his phone and called his mother. That was a fun call to make. She had him transferred to an in care facility and came to get his stuff last night. She only wanted to get some clothes for him, but it turns out that neither he nor she would be paying for rent, and he wouldn't be moving back in. So i got to be the cold-hearted bitch and tell her we needed to get his stuff out of the room as soon as possible then so we could show the room and try to get someone to replace him so we wouldn't be stuck paying rent on a room for his stuff to sit in there. It couldn't be shown the way it was, very messy and littered with porn. So we moved all his stuff yesterday, helped his mom pack it all up into her van.

Now I've gotten a new roommate and have to start looking again anyway. At least the new guy seems really nice and clean cut. I don't expect any problems from him, which is great. The roommate who we packed up yesterday caused the whole house to smell like smoke and it turned out he was smoking in his closest when we had made it very clear to him that he needed to smoke outside. *Sigh* Whenever I think everything has sorted itself out something else has to come up.

So it looks like I'm going to have to work very hard to make up for the time I lost this week. Next week I have jury duty. Real life just keeps getting in the way.

Query Hopes

2007-03-01T00:04:00.000-05:00

Last night I when I was checking the blogs I read I saw an agent who's doing a hook reading similar to Miss Snark's Crapometer.

I did the Crapometer, but it was for a different book than I'm working on now. I've been having trouble writing the first draft of the query for my current book. It seems that this would the perfect chance to try out my crappy attempt at a hook for this book. The query I used for the Crapometer came so easily. Miss Snark even said it was a good hook. Now I can't seem to get anything done that I like.

I redid the draft I had of my query and worked through revisions with my boyfriend when he got home. I sent it out at 12:01, we'll see how it goes.

Freedom To Read Week

2007-02-27T13:56:00.000-05:00

I love the blogging community. I get to read about authors, agents, editors (all the blogs I read are book related) and I get to find out about awesome things I normally wouldn't have. Things like Freedom to Read Week. It's a Canadian thing, but I think it should be promoted everywhere. It's a week to support the reading of banned and challenged books. I don't know if you've ever looked at the books that are being challenged in our country or others, but it's ridiculous.

There are great pieces of literature that every kid should get the chance to to grow up with being challenged all the time. My favorite book, Bridge to Terabithia has been banned in Canada. As a kid I loved to read, but I never finished books. I got bored about halfway through and stopped. I was just the kind of kid who had trouble letting somebody else's imagination take over. I wanted to finish the story for myself and had little interest in letting somebody else do it for me. I've been asked how I could possibly want to be an author when I couldn't even finish a book as a kid. The answer is simple. I can now. I have been since high school. I haven't stopped doing it since high school, I read a lot. Plus the original reason I didn't finish them is because I wanted to finish the story myself. I have trouble containing my imagination. I can't think of a better thing for me to do than write. :D

So back to the original point of the post. Check out:
http://www.freedomtoread.ca/
and the Pellham Library Banned Books Challenge http://www.pelhamlibrary.blogspot.com/2007/02/take-banned-book-challenge.html

I have decided to read 26 or more banned/challenged books before the end of June. How many will you do?