First, check out this great contest posted by Amanda over at Ramblings of a Drifting Mind! She's celebrating her 100th, 125th,and 150th followers, plus her 21st birthday to boot!
Also, Justine Dell is having an amazing contest to celebrate her 250th follower, and some of the prizes include: a query critique, a 3 chapter line edit, and a full MS copy edit!! (Seriously people, do you know how much a full MS copy edit costs? Go enter RIGHT NOW!)
Next, WINNERS! After putting your story suggestions for my scar to the test, it turned out to be a close race... but only one caused a friend I haven't seen in a while to get ginger ale up her nose. This was the scenario:
Friend,"Hey, what happened to your hand??" (takes a sip of ginger ale)
Me, "Zombie."
Friend, (snorting laugh) "Ow..."
Me, "Yah, it hurt"
Friend, "No, I totally got ginger ale up my nose-- it hurts!"
So congrats to VALERIE GEARY!
Email me and we'll figure out the prize delivery :-)
And last, I am shamelessy plugging my sister's blog, which is made of AWESOME, particularly if you love Japan.
She regularly posts about life in Japan, from festivals and tradition to raising three kids there, and she has added a couple new features that I love:
"Monday Manglish", in which she outs Japan for its bizarre and unintentionally hilarious usage of english...
and Friday Field Notes, in which she posts photos of interesting bits of nature she has seen whilst walking the kids to school. She started this feature at the request of our mother. Our family, you see, is genetically inclined to notice every plant and bird and living creature within a 50 foot radius, and then rush home to look it up in a book.
We may or may not have been guilty of nearly crashing the car over a clump of daylillies on the side of the road...
But I digress-- go check out my sister's blog and follow her for some cool insights into Japan!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
I Like a Good Scar. Also, a contest!
Seriously, I do!
I know, it's weird. Maybe even a little icky. But as soon as I see an interesting scar on a person, my head is filled with scenarios to explain how it got there. It must be the writer in me, finding inspiration everywhere....
And now, I've got a lovely little piece of inspiration permanently etched onto...ME.
That's right. See the date of my last post? That was exactly one day before...gasp...the accident. Oh OK, it wasn't that dramatic. Like most scars, it was caused by the silliest, most mundane thing you can imagine, and not by an exciting encounter with a bear. I cut the holy crap out of my first finger when I was (drumroll please) washing dishes.
A word of caution now goes out to my dear readers: don't ever, ever, wash a glass by shoving your hand and the sponge down into the glass and twisting. What happens, I learned, is that a giant chunk of the glass breaks off, and your whole hand runs into the sharp edge. YUK.
The funniest thing was trying to explain to well-meaning people with vitamin E oil that I didn't really care if the cut left a scar. "But, it will make for interesting stories!" I said to blank stares. Then they would give me the oil and I'd mumble thanks. Really, the only thing I cared about was that it didn't cripple the finger, since I make my living with my hands. I discovered pretty quickly it's hard to set diamonds with that finger out of commission!
Fortunately, the finger is fine, I just missed the tendon, and all I have left now is a nice, curving scar.... which I am thinking up good stories about, because the glass thing just isn't cool enough. ;-P
For those of you with weak stomachs, look at the big picture below of our new puppy, Ebi, and think happy happy thoughts. For those of you with a high gore tolerance, scroll a little farther for a photo just after I got my 6 stitches.
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I know, yuck, right? But man do I look tough now! Yah, just ask those muggers who's tough, after I wrestled the knife away from them and-- what? Story not believable? Alright, I'll come up with another one. Or better yet, why don't you guys come up with a good story for my new scar, and the one I end up using gets a fancy little silver pendant made by my pitifully scarred hands :-)
UPDATE: I always forget these things.... I suppose I need to put an end date on the contest, huh? So how about Tuesday the 28th at 9AM. Get your stories about my scar in by then, and I'll announce the winner on Wednesday evening, after I've had a chance to try out each story!
I know, it's weird. Maybe even a little icky. But as soon as I see an interesting scar on a person, my head is filled with scenarios to explain how it got there. It must be the writer in me, finding inspiration everywhere....
And now, I've got a lovely little piece of inspiration permanently etched onto...ME.
That's right. See the date of my last post? That was exactly one day before...gasp...the accident. Oh OK, it wasn't that dramatic. Like most scars, it was caused by the silliest, most mundane thing you can imagine, and not by an exciting encounter with a bear. I cut the holy crap out of my first finger when I was (drumroll please) washing dishes.
A word of caution now goes out to my dear readers: don't ever, ever, wash a glass by shoving your hand and the sponge down into the glass and twisting. What happens, I learned, is that a giant chunk of the glass breaks off, and your whole hand runs into the sharp edge. YUK.
The funniest thing was trying to explain to well-meaning people with vitamin E oil that I didn't really care if the cut left a scar. "But, it will make for interesting stories!" I said to blank stares. Then they would give me the oil and I'd mumble thanks. Really, the only thing I cared about was that it didn't cripple the finger, since I make my living with my hands. I discovered pretty quickly it's hard to set diamonds with that finger out of commission!
Fortunately, the finger is fine, I just missed the tendon, and all I have left now is a nice, curving scar.... which I am thinking up good stories about, because the glass thing just isn't cool enough. ;-P
For those of you with weak stomachs, look at the big picture below of our new puppy, Ebi, and think happy happy thoughts. For those of you with a high gore tolerance, scroll a little farther for a photo just after I got my 6 stitches.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
I know, yuck, right? But man do I look tough now! Yah, just ask those muggers who's tough, after I wrestled the knife away from them and-- what? Story not believable? Alright, I'll come up with another one. Or better yet, why don't you guys come up with a good story for my new scar, and the one I end up using gets a fancy little silver pendant made by my pitifully scarred hands :-)
UPDATE: I always forget these things.... I suppose I need to put an end date on the contest, huh? So how about Tuesday the 28th at 9AM. Get your stories about my scar in by then, and I'll announce the winner on Wednesday evening, after I've had a chance to try out each story!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
My Favorite Summer Song
Cleaning out the basement and the garage today, and just thought I would share my favorite summer song ever. It's a Japanese 'golden oldie' from the 70's ! Miki Hirayama is the singer, and I found it thanks to my all-time favorite Japanese movie-- Adrenaline Drive. There's just nothing better than a movie about two shy young people who steal some gangsters' money, then overcome their shy natures and fall in love while on the run!
Imagine the bumbling gangsters, packed into a tiny, tiny car, chasing the couple... then they turn on the radio and start singing along to this tune.
OK, you don't have to imagine because I just found that on youtube as well.
And for those of you who thought the main 'good guy' in the back of the truck looked familiar... he is Masanobu Ando, of Battle Royale (and a lot of other movies) fame. I love that guy-- seriously the Japanese Johnny Depp.
That's it for today... sorry about the lack of writing relevance, but I thought everyone needed to enjoy my FAVORITE SUMMER SONG!
Imagine the bumbling gangsters, packed into a tiny, tiny car, chasing the couple... then they turn on the radio and start singing along to this tune.
OK, you don't have to imagine because I just found that on youtube as well.
And for those of you who thought the main 'good guy' in the back of the truck looked familiar... he is Masanobu Ando, of Battle Royale (and a lot of other movies) fame. I love that guy-- seriously the Japanese Johnny Depp.
That's it for today... sorry about the lack of writing relevance, but I thought everyone needed to enjoy my FAVORITE SUMMER SONG!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Slutty New Idea......
Yep. The dreaded (but seductive) Slutty New Idea. I've got one, and it's driving me completely, totally batty. So batty, in fact, that I had to put down my tools at work last week and spend 2 hours scribbling it all out in pencil on a series of post-it notes.
I know, it's been ages since I've been here, and you probably think, "She's ignored her blog for so long that she must have gotten a huge amount of editing done in the meantime... a few hours on a Slutty New Idea can't hurt!" Ummm............no? In fact, I haven't edited a single word in the last month thanks to a sniveling little voice in my head telling me that the editing is just too much-- too much of a tangle, too much work, too overwhelming, too difficult. Yet that same little voice is telling me that this lovely little new idea would be sooo easy. I should just quit agonizing over every word of Old WIP, it tells me, and work on New Idea for a while.
Sigh......
I really want to work on the new one because it's fun and it's a good, fully-formed idea, but then I feel guilty, horribly horribly guilty. Oh, my poor Old WIP, bandaged and sitting in the corner, wondering why I don't love it anymore. Oh, my poor readers who have stuck with me and Old WIP over so many incarnations...don't they deserve some resolution? Don't they deserve a complete story with a proper ending after reading my revisions a million times? Hell, don't I deserve a complete story with a proper ending after writing a million revisions?
Sigh...... but Slutty New Idea is just so pretty....
OK. The guilt level has just bested the appeal of the slutty new idea.
I'm gonna go try to change the bandages on Old WIP again. Maybe this time it will quit festering!
I know, it's been ages since I've been here, and you probably think, "She's ignored her blog for so long that she must have gotten a huge amount of editing done in the meantime... a few hours on a Slutty New Idea can't hurt!" Ummm............no? In fact, I haven't edited a single word in the last month thanks to a sniveling little voice in my head telling me that the editing is just too much-- too much of a tangle, too much work, too overwhelming, too difficult. Yet that same little voice is telling me that this lovely little new idea would be sooo easy. I should just quit agonizing over every word of Old WIP, it tells me, and work on New Idea for a while.
Sigh......
I really want to work on the new one because it's fun and it's a good, fully-formed idea, but then I feel guilty, horribly horribly guilty. Oh, my poor Old WIP, bandaged and sitting in the corner, wondering why I don't love it anymore. Oh, my poor readers who have stuck with me and Old WIP over so many incarnations...don't they deserve some resolution? Don't they deserve a complete story with a proper ending after reading my revisions a million times? Hell, don't I deserve a complete story with a proper ending after writing a million revisions?
Sigh...... but Slutty New Idea is just so pretty....
OK. The guilt level has just bested the appeal of the slutty new idea.
I'm gonna go try to change the bandages on Old WIP again. Maybe this time it will quit festering!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Speaking of Egg Salad Sandwiches...
...and I'm totally not joking: I am in the Land of the Egg Salad Sandwich right now. Seriously, NO ONE makes an egg salad sandwich like a Japanese convenience store. You've never had eggs so perfectly cooked, mayo so creamy, or bread so fluffy. And it's from a convenience store, which means when you're drunk and walking home at 3AM, you can stop and get the world's best sandwich!
For those of us used to filthy, horrible, American convenience stores, the Japanese 'Konbini' is like heaven. And those egg salad sandwiches...
Sorry, I promise I'll quit talking about them and give you guys a real post soon :-)
Gonna see YokohamaMama on Tuesday, too!
For those of us used to filthy, horrible, American convenience stores, the Japanese 'Konbini' is like heaven. And those egg salad sandwiches...
Sorry, I promise I'll quit talking about them and give you guys a real post soon :-)
Gonna see YokohamaMama on Tuesday, too!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
A Lovely Egg Salad Sandwich
First, I must tell you about an amazing contest over at Editorial Ass! Moonrat is celebrating the 500,000th blogviewing, by giving away a 20-page critique of your WIP! Go there! Now!
OK, back to my post...
I have this little joke that I make, about an egg salad sandwich. I think it is the height of hilarity, but then I remember that no one really has any idea what I'm talking about or why I'm cracking up. The problem is, it's an inside joke-- one that came about from a real circumstance, got blown up into a joke among friends, and then I forget that not everyone was there. And without the backstory, it just isn't as funny.
(Keep in mind that this may actually be funnier if you were there...)
One day, many years ago, hubby Matt was telling someone about the egg salad sandwich he ate for lunch. It wasn't exciting, it wasn't anything special, and he was as bored talking about it as the other person was listening to him prattle on about egg salad sandwiches. So he stopped. In the middle of the sentence, he just stopped and wondered out loud why the @#)! he was talking about egg salad sandwiches. The other person agreed.
So these days, whenever someone is talking our ears off about THE most boring subject ever, we just say, "I had an egg salad sandwich..." (and sometimes we mention the creamy mayonnaise, or the fluffy bread, or another boring detail)
Hilarious to us, but probably confusing to others.
I do have to congratulate Valerie Geary for getting the joke when I used it to describe my feelings toward most Twitter posts, but for the most part, it confuses people.
Which brings me to my writing-related point: making sure there is nothing in my WIP that is an inside joke.
When you cut and paste and rework and rewrite as much as we all do, a lot of wordy backstory gets edited out. BUT BEWARE! If you cut all that backstory, you may do it at the expense of clarity. This is probably the best reason to use Betas (or at least have other eyes reading your WIP), because they can spot things you can't-- namely, when you've removed a chunk of backstory which has left your character doing something that doesn't make sense. You don't notice it yourself because it is like the egg salad sandwich. You have all the context and backstory in your head, but remember, your reader wasn't there. So drop the inside jokes! Or for crying out loud, at least explain them!
OK, back to my post...
I have this little joke that I make, about an egg salad sandwich. I think it is the height of hilarity, but then I remember that no one really has any idea what I'm talking about or why I'm cracking up. The problem is, it's an inside joke-- one that came about from a real circumstance, got blown up into a joke among friends, and then I forget that not everyone was there. And without the backstory, it just isn't as funny.
(Keep in mind that this may actually be funnier if you were there...)
One day, many years ago, hubby Matt was telling someone about the egg salad sandwich he ate for lunch. It wasn't exciting, it wasn't anything special, and he was as bored talking about it as the other person was listening to him prattle on about egg salad sandwiches. So he stopped. In the middle of the sentence, he just stopped and wondered out loud why the @#)! he was talking about egg salad sandwiches. The other person agreed.
So these days, whenever someone is talking our ears off about THE most boring subject ever, we just say, "I had an egg salad sandwich..." (and sometimes we mention the creamy mayonnaise, or the fluffy bread, or another boring detail)
Hilarious to us, but probably confusing to others.
I do have to congratulate Valerie Geary for getting the joke when I used it to describe my feelings toward most Twitter posts, but for the most part, it confuses people.
Which brings me to my writing-related point: making sure there is nothing in my WIP that is an inside joke.
When you cut and paste and rework and rewrite as much as we all do, a lot of wordy backstory gets edited out. BUT BEWARE! If you cut all that backstory, you may do it at the expense of clarity. This is probably the best reason to use Betas (or at least have other eyes reading your WIP), because they can spot things you can't-- namely, when you've removed a chunk of backstory which has left your character doing something that doesn't make sense. You don't notice it yourself because it is like the egg salad sandwich. You have all the context and backstory in your head, but remember, your reader wasn't there. So drop the inside jokes! Or for crying out loud, at least explain them!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Art that Makes Me Wanna Write a Book!
Yes, it's finally time for another installment of Art that Makes Ann Wanna Write a Book!
It seems to be the only thing I get around to blogging about these days, but I feel some 'real' blog posts coming soon! I am going to be hanging out with YokohamaMama in the land of the rising sun next week, and two sisters+cherry blossom festivals= a good, old-fashioned blog post!
So anyway... This week's art is from Lani Imre, an artist originally from British Columbia, Canada. Her work makes me think 'book covers'. I see so much emotion in the eyes of her painted characters-- it really could fill a book!
And while much of the art I have previously posted is of a specific scene, and I spend time daydreaming about that scene and the story on either side of it... Lani's characters are solitary, lonely, almost existing in a vacuum.
There are no clues about what is happening to them, and yet it makes me yearn to know who they are... and that makes me wanna write a book!
It seems to be the only thing I get around to blogging about these days, but I feel some 'real' blog posts coming soon! I am going to be hanging out with YokohamaMama in the land of the rising sun next week, and two sisters+cherry blossom festivals= a good, old-fashioned blog post!
So anyway... This week's art is from Lani Imre, an artist originally from British Columbia, Canada. Her work makes me think 'book covers'. I see so much emotion in the eyes of her painted characters-- it really could fill a book!
And while much of the art I have previously posted is of a specific scene, and I spend time daydreaming about that scene and the story on either side of it... Lani's characters are solitary, lonely, almost existing in a vacuum.
There are no clues about what is happening to them, and yet it makes me yearn to know who they are... and that makes me wanna write a book!
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