Tag Archive for 'This is how I show my love'

Books I’m excited about

Published on September 2, 2010 in reading is delicious Tags: , , , , . ______________________________________

I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed that there are aLOT of great books that either just came out or are just about to come out.

MOCKINJAY by (do I really have to say it…you already know) Suzanne Collins

Can I be honest here? I’ve had this book for like a week and I totally haven’t touched it. I did the same thing with the last Harry Potter book. I don’t want it to end. :(

MATCHED by Ally Condie

For some reason this book has me so interested — a society where your choices are predicted and controlled and there’s a love triangle somehow?? It doesn’t come out until November, but I really want to see how the plot turns out. Such an intriguing concept.

PARANORMALCY by Kiersten White

LOOOOOVE the concept of this book. Working for the International Paranormal Containment Agengcy???  I’m in. And I’m ordering it from Amazon on payday–which is tomorrow! Can’t wait.

And since my dear kARi always does that fun “What’s in my mailbox” post, I figured I’d share my most recent deliveries:

INCARERON by Catherine Fisher

Okay, so I’m halfway through this book and I’m really liking the plot. It’s like you know what’s coming, but that’s much too simple–so what’s around the next corner?? Plus the imagery and setting is soooooo cooooool. Dystopian Victorian???

THE WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE by Joan Aiken

I haven’t read this one yet, but the Joan Aiken books I have read have stuck with me for their clarity and plot and interesting characters. This book is older, but I had to get it! Cruel governesses and wolves–need I say more??

THE DEATH (AND FURTHER ADVENTURES) OF SILAS WINTERBOTTOM: THE BODY THIEF by Stephen M. Giles

Oh, don’t try to act like that title didn’t intrigue you. Be honest. I can’t wait to start this book and it looks like a short fun read.

And I’m currently listening to:

FAIREST by Gail Carson Levine

Wow–this story is magnetic. I’m about 5/8ths through and I’m so wrapped up in the plot! Love the characters and the setting–kingdoms and magic mirrors and an ugly protagonist that you root for!!

I haven’t heard many full-cast audio books (every character has an actor doing their voice vs just one actor doing all the voices) so it takes some getting used to. That and there’s singing. Lots of singing. I’m starting to love it.


Oh yes, reviews are coming!!

-M♥lly

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how to tell if you’ve got an awesome dad

Published on June 21, 2010 in Writing Tags: , , . ______________________________________
  • reads you stories pretty much every night
  • watches you and your sister’s “plays”
  • watches you and your sister’s “acrobatics routine” on the swingset
  • agrees that swingset is an airship
  • agrees that rubber fishing worm is a pet
  • makes up Victor the Vampire stories for you to illustrate
  • plays Barbies
  • takes you on adventures at parks
  • makes pancakes for dinner when Mom is out of town
  • goes to your first scary zombie (NEVER AGAIN) movie with you
  • writes notes to mean teachers (MRS. WATSON!!)
  • picks out your first cigar
  • gets mad at you when you smoke
  • loves you anyway
  • believes in your dreams
  • listens to you cry when your dreams haven’t come true (YET)
  • prays for you

Yep. I got an awesome dad. On the few nights when he didn’t feel like reading us stories, my sister and I would beg, “Just read us the Bible! Pleeeeeeaaasssee!!” and what parent can turn that down??? lol. We didn’t care what he read, we just wanted him to read to us. Poor dad. Great dad.

And who wouldn’t want to grow up to be a writer when they’re surrounded by stories everyday?

Happy belated Fathers’ Day to all the awesome dads out there.

You make dreams come true just by believing in us and loving us no matter what.

To all the not-awesome dads: step it up.

Peace♥

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from my heart to YOURS

Published on June 18, 2010 in Writing Tags: , , . ______________________________________

Are you ready for the weekend, my dears????

me too.

Here’s my totally shameless Newspaper Blackout poetry rip-off (molly-fied, of course):::::

Do you know what it means??
I think I do.
I mean, as I was scribbling things out I found a meaning.
I think randomness is rarely as random as it’s meant to be, but I’ll write more on that some other time.

If nothing else, it means enjoy your awesome weekend because every day is a gift to be savored.

xoxo

Peace♥

p.s. to see my inspiration, visit here: www.austinkleon.com
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thinking like a kid again

Published on May 28, 2010 in Writing Tags: , , , , . ______________________________________

So I made a promise to myself a long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away) (okay, not really on that last part) that I would not grow up too much.

I mean, I’d be responsible and pay my bills and hold down a steady job, but all that stuff would never get into my head all the way.

I still wanted my imagination.
My sense of wonder.
My ridiculously happy-go-lucky-i-love-everyone attitude.
(When I was a kid, my mom used to beg me to stop talking to the strangers at the grocery store. I was crazy about people. seriously.)

But it hasn’t been so easy. There are a lot of dark people, places, events that are hard not to get overwhelmed by.

Also, I underestimated the entirely draining power of a desk job.

I used to cry because this was not how I pictured my grown-up self, stuck at a desk, not painting or drawing or writing or making jewlery or exploring parks or hanging out with my family. And I would tell myself, “write yourself out of it, girl.”

So I did. I wrote and wrote and wrote. Not all of it was good. But I suddenly had a fresh wind on the embers of my heart and my passion flared up and no one knew what to do with me anymore because I was like a hyper-active kid once again.

beautiful, no?

But sometimes my writing can be really weird. Like really weird. I’m half tempted to cut some of it out of my novel. Where did this come from??? I ask myself.

Lady LovelyLocks

And then yesterday,
an image popped into my head and I knew.

LADY LOVELYLOCKS. Suddenly, I could see her beautiful, multicolored, rodent-ridden hair.


How had I forgotten how she had fascinated me???

And I loved Duchess Ravenwaves because she was beautiful (evil, but beautiful).

Duchess Ravenwaves

Grown ups are scared of chipmunks and birds scampering through their tresses, but Lady LovelyLocks embraced it!
Whoever thought her up must have known it was a really weird idea, but they used it anyways, building and shaping and elaborating until there was a whole amazing world full of beautiful puppies and ponies and princesses for little girls to fall in love with.

What about Teddy Ruxpin?? (yes, I know I’m dating myself here) HE FLEW IN AN AIRSHIP. His best friend, Grubby, looked like a weird BUG. There were purple and orange and green mushrooms everywhere. GENIUS!

And David the Gnome. HE RODE ON A FOX. THERE WERE TROLLS. magical magical magical. I remember waking up really early to watch it on the Spanish channel because they canceled it on Nick jr. My dad would always ask me if I knew what they were saying. NO. BUT YOU COULD TELL FROM THE PICTURES.

THE REALLY COOL PICTURES.

Can you see where the seeds of my weird ideas were planted?

Fraggle rock. Grownups don’t like the idea of small, furry puppets burrowing tunnels under their homes and linking to other dimensions and sharing dreams. BUT WHEN I WAS A KID IT WAS AMAZING!!!

The worst part is that adult-me had forgotten all about these cool stories until that weird spark of remembrance yesterday when it all came flooding back.

So you know what? I think I’ll let my inner kid have some fun and I’ll keep working on my weird and crazy, fantastical ideas.

Have a beautiful weekend.

Peace♥

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You can get pulished, my friend

Published on May 7, 2010 in Writing Tags: , , . ______________________________________

INSPIRATION FOR FRIDAY♥♥♥

source:http://www.eso.org/public/images/vlt-mw-potw/

reach for the stars, right? heehee

At the DFW conference, Jodi Thomas gave an awesome keynote speech about her writing journey. People made her feel like she should give up. Her writing was rejected. She never won any contests. Her writing teacher avoided her. She gave up. Almost. She couldn’t stop writing. She had an amazing passion for it. So she kept it up. Now the number of her published books is greater than the number of my age.

Anyone can write a book. I really believe this.

However, most people don’t. And of the people who do, only a small fraction can get published by a major publisher.

That doesn’t discourage me one bit.

It encourages me. Here’s what I adore about the writing world:

  • We love to help each other.
  • We’re driven to write, so lots of aspiring authors share their learning experiences.
  • Editors and agents write books and blogs and articles about ways to be the cream of the slush.
  • If you’re bad at grammar, there are books to read that will help with that.
  • If you’re bad at writing, practice makes perfect.
  • If the publishing industry is daunting, there are books and blogs and articles that break it down into understandable bits.
  • There are conferences where you can meet inspiring people.
  • There are critique groups where you can get your work ripped to shreds so that it grows stronger with each revision.
  • There if a treasure trove of delicious fiction to read read read and learn from.

In my opinion, the odds are against us UNLESS we go all out and improve and stretch in every way possible. If you’re willing to grow and you’ve got the stamina to keep writing until something works and shove it in a drawer if it doesn’t, then I know you can get published.

I read the most inspiring quote that I’ve come across in my journey as a writer on Kate Lacy’s blog:

Courage doesn’t always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.”

Beautiful, huh?

Peace♥

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Honesty Day

Published on May 3, 2010 in Writing Tags: , , , . ______________________________________

Okay, so I almost didn’t write this post. It hits realllllly close to home. I don’t like to get this personal.

Plus my husband would kill me if he knew.

BUT I’m hoping it’s something other writers can relate with, so I’ll embarrass myself and show you my dirty laundry.

Literally.

Just kidding.

This is my weekday schedule:

5:30 am wake up

7:10 am Get to job that starts at 7:00 am

Push paper around desk all day, yawn, eat lunch (yay!), maybe look at a few little blog sites, push more paper.

4:00 pm Clock out

I carpool with my husband, and his job isn’t so regular. He gets off work anywhere from 3:30-8:30pm depending on the workload. If I’m stuck waiting for him I go grocery shopping or to the library or tanning. (Okay, I just started tanning. I couldn’t stand those sweet-potato-skinned elite girls in highschool, but I’ve come to the conclusion that tanned fat looks better than pale fat. Not that I’m fat…anyways, I digress)

6:00 pm Let’s hope I’m home by now. Kissy-face will now fix my dinner while I walk the dog. (I know, I’m spoiled.)

7:00 pm This is when I either take a shower, work out, go tanning, go to critique group, sometimes go to Kissy’s ball games, or get an early start on writing.

8:00 pm-12:00 am This is when I get most of my writing/revising done. My cat likes to surprise me with random jumps onto my keyboard, while my OCD dog licks my foot for 2 hours.

At this point, Kissy has played Tiger Woods Golf for a couple hours and passed out on the couch.

Boo freakin’ hoo, right? I know that a lot of people are tons busier than me. At the DFW conference, I remember hearing Candace Havens talk about her schedule. I would not survive if I had all the deadlines she does.

My point is: I’m going to marriage counseling. (Still not really sure where that fits in the schedule.)

Did you notice that I didn’t make any time to interact with Kissy-face??
*smacks palm against head*

I knew I was forgetting something.

WRITING IS REALLY IMPORTANT TO ME. But, I think I’ve kinda made it more important than other things that should be higher on my priority list (namely, my husband).

HOW DO YOU DO IT??

Please let me know if you have a secret to balancing your schedule vs your loved ones!!??

I don’t even have kids! How will I act when I do? I can’t just neglect my children!

For weeks I’ve been trying to use a stopwatch and squeeze two solid hours of writing in while it’s still daylight. Unsuccessfully. But, I’m determined to make this work, so I will try again. Hopefully I can get my writing done from 6-8 and then have 8-12 for family time. Yes, that’s less writing time. And yes, my house is not nearly as quiet from 6-8 as it is from 8-12, but I have to give it a shot.

Any advice from those successful at schedule managing  is appreciated.

(P.S. We’re not getting divorce or anything. We just kinda forgot to talk because I was so obsessed with writing, so this is supposed to help.)

(P.P.S. Now that I’ve written this post, I just want to delete it! It’s so hard to write and share the embarrassing parts of my life. But what fun is storytelling without honesty, right??)

(P.P.P.S. Okay, last one, but this is hilarious. My husband just walked by and saw my computer screen. He said, “Honesty day?” *Gets too-excited gleam in his eye* “Does that mean no-writing day!?”  Poor guy. Also, how would he even correlate honesty with not writing…lol.)

Peace♥

14 Comments

How to write a super synopsis

Published on April 22, 2010 in Writing Tags: , , , , , , , , . ______________________________________

Do you ever wonder how those authors who’ve written twenty books can sell based solely on synopses? THIS IS HOW THEY DO IT.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Synopsis Salad Shooter.

Why should stories make sense when they can be fun??  Give it a whirl and I guarantee you will come up with a killer plot idea that will have agents swooning.

(If you need help with any of the parts of speech, I put a brief description at the bottom of this post, along with examples I came up with.)

Please share your dynamite stories with us all!!

noun=person, place or thing.
verb=an action
adverb=describes a verb
adjective=describes a noun

My examples in order: Mary Kole, dog, wasted, flower, purple, snail, squirms, vomit, hamsters, hastily, fuzzy, eyeballs, bombed, eons, tremblingly, Olleymae

Peace♥

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