Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Big Trouble in Little China

Published on August 4, 2010 in Uncategorized and Writing Tags: , , . ______________________________________
source: www.dangerousuniverse.com

Have you seen that movie?

It’s like my old pal, Jack Burton used to say…

Yes, sir, the check is in the mail…

Son of a b*tch must pay…

When I was younger, I loved that movie. It had this crazy antihero, girls with green eyes, a subterranean mansion/world, magic, and monsters. What’s not to like…?

Well, after Kissyface and I spent weeks convincing my family that it was the best movie ever, we decided to bring it over for some fun family entertainment.

I was embarassed.

I mean, it’s still cool. Kinda.

I didn’t like the characters so much. The special effects were cheesy. I didn’t understand half the motivations in the plot.

This brought me to three conclusions:

  1. I must strive to flesh out my story so it never feels like a hollow, good idea that never got fully developed.
  2. I must keep my story innovative and fresh, so people don’t read it twenty years from now and think, that’s so cheesy.
  3. Sometimes you just have to love bad movies even though you secretly know they’re really bad.

Your thoughts?

-M♥lly

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Writers’ Conference Success Story and Tips!

Published on April 16, 2010 in Uncategorized ______________________________________

There is an awesome story on the DFW conference’s website about agented author Candace Isenhower.  She thought she blew her agent pitch, but it worked out well for her.

  • So don’t be shy and don’t be afraid to screw up.  Even if you think you look like an idiot, you may have actually made a decent impression.  So what if you do make a bad impression?  You’re a writer, it’s okay to look a little crazy eccentric…right?

Per her interview on the GLA blog, author Vicky Dreiling accidentally met her agent at a conference event.  It looked like all hope was lost because she missed out on the agent appointments, arrived late to the keynote speech, and no one saved her a seat.  Alas, she was forced to take the only open chair NEXT TO HER FUTURE AGENT.

  • You never know who you’re rubbing elbows with, and attending conferences increases your chances of meeting a contact that may be valuable down the road.

And here’s another GLA blog success story, this time from a conversation about slacks in the elevator at a conference!

  • Don’t throw yourself at agents, no matter how much you read about and love love love them.  Talk about something normal people talk about. Like pants. If an agent wants to know about your work, they will ask. And lots of times they do.

Do you have any interesting conference stories and/or tips?

peace♥

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Failure is not an option

Published on April 2, 2010 in Uncategorized ______________________________________
Image by Lyubomir Ivanov via Wikimedia Commons

I stumbled across the most interesting correspondence the other day, and I thought it was so wonderfully applicable to The Writing Life that I would post it here:

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Dear Not Actually There, But Otherwise Perfect Agent (NATBOPA), Continue reading ‘Failure is not an option’

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um

Published on March 31, 2010 in Uncategorized ______________________________________

I keep changing my header. I can’t commit.

Also, this struck me as kinda funny.

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So…

Published on February 21, 2010 in Uncategorized ______________________________________

Why isn’t the Guide to Literary Agents website working!!!!?????

AHHHHHH! Must submit to contest before midnight or story will turn into…pumpkin. :(

booo technology.

Confessions: I just read the real (not the abridged JFiction library version) Alice in Wonderland and am wrapping up Through the Looking Glass tonight. I always liked the storyline, and now I know what it really is instead of the Disney synopsis.

Also. I apologize in advance, after my recent diet of JK Rowling and now Lewis Carroll/ Charles Dodgson/ crazy guy I was having to frankly admit that I honestly adore adverbs, and I was also slowly realizing that I even like passive voice every once in a while. It’s so homey it’s comforting. *Shields head from critique group and every other writing blog on the internet*

G’night.

1 Comment

Published on February 16, 2010 in Uncategorized ______________________________________

Okay, so the first step of revision is DONE. Finally. Grammar has been checked. Sentences have been smoothed. For now.
I’m sure I’ll catch more issues later. I’m into the second step of tying up loose ends in the plot and characters. Boy, you can come up with tons of loose ends if you try!
I’m transferring my handwritten corrections to the word processor tonight. That will be fun. I’ll also add a little more text to tie those loose ends in the next couple of days.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am burnt out! I’m looking for revision advice to help spur me to victory. Here is a nice article full of revision advice based on James Scott Bell’s book, Revision & Self-Editing.

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apologies…and CONTEST

Published on February 10, 2010 in Uncategorized Tags: , , , . ______________________________________

oh, silly, silly me. Did you catch the typo in my earlier post? The one about getting the grammar revision done by…what was it? Oh, 2/6/10. Why didn’t I catch that? I meant 2/13/10. Sometimes I hit my goals, and sometimes I don’t. Especially when I leave the printed copy of my manuscript at work over the weekend. Oh the genius!

Speaking of genius…Another contest is coming up! I just need to enter by Feb 21st!

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Ha ha ha

Published on February 5, 2010 in Uncategorized ______________________________________

Time to laugh…it’s Friday. On my next novel, Autocorrect will be my friend, thank you Gary Corby.

Also, (suddenly, she was nodding knowingly to her critique group…come on, it’s a joke) I just read the following paragraph from Wuthering Heights:

“Nelly,” he said, “we’s hae a crowner’s ‘quest enow, at ahr folks’. One on ‘em ‘s a’most getten his finger cut off wi’ hauding t’ other fro’ stickin’ hisseln loike a cawlf. That’s maister, yeah knaw, ‘at ‘s soa up o’ going tuh t’ grand ‘sizes. He’s noan feared o’ t’ bench o’ judges, norther Paul, nur Peter, nur John, nur Matthew, nor noan on ‘em, not he! He fair likes – he langs to set his brazened face agean ‘em! And yon bonny lad Heathcliff, yah mind, he’s a rare ‘un. He can girn a laugh as well ‘s onybody at a raight divil’s jest. Does he niver say nowt of his fine living amang us, when he goes to t’ Grange? This is t’ way on ‘t:- up at sun-down: dice, brandy, cloised shutters, und can’le-light till next day at noon: then, t’fooil gangs banning und raving to his cham’er, makking dacent fowks dig thur fingers i’ thur lugs fur varry shame; un’ the knave, why he can caint his brass, un’ ate, un’ sleep, un’ off to his neighbour’s to gossip wi’ t’ wife. I’ course, he tells Dame Catherine how her fathur’s goold runs into his pocket, and her fathur’s son gallops down t’ broad road, while he flees afore to oppen t’ pikes!”

Please tell me what this is saying and why her critique group let this pass? As Barry Lyga writes in his blog, “The job of dialogue is not to replicate the SOUNDS of speech. The job of dialogue is communicate character and information in an entertaining and realistic fashion.”

Have a great weekend!

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No More Posts about e-books

Published on February 3, 2010 in Uncategorized Tags: , , , . ______________________________________

Sooo…since the beginning of the week, I’ve tried to read some of my good old favorite blogs only to find that they are all inundated with the same crap about the e-book drama. Sure it’s crazy stuff, but I’m so over hearing about it already. Kiss and make up and listen to the consumer not your corporate wallet.

Long live paperbacks…until I’m rich and have an actual room called “the library,” then long live hardbacks. E-books will be a fun distraction, but can never completely annihilate the real books.

Crud. Now I just did a post about them, too.

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Contest

Published on January 31, 2010 in Uncategorized ______________________________________

Gulp, so today I will be entering one of my stories in a contest!

I’m going to plan on this as one rejection in the mountainous pile I will someday climb as an established author.

*Also* In the coming weeks, I will write and link to some posts on revision, so you can join me on my fabulous journey through the boggy terrain of redeeming my month-long manuscript.

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