Mary Brebner

My WIP wake-up call

2012-01-19T11:51:00.001-05:00

I'm pretty excited--my story's finally coming together. It's been through multiple reincarnations and multiple complete rewrites (exhausting, let me tell you). And it's taken so much longer than I ever expected. I know that, if I actually want this writing thing to pan out and turn into a career at some point, I've got to be more organized and make writing a priority. Writing BREAKFALL has been a serious wake-up call and a fantastic learning experience, opening my eyes to what can be and what has to happen for my dreams to come true.

Writing BREAKFALL so far:

May 2010
Got idea for story, research, a little panster writing
June 2010
Changed setting to Paris, changed POV to 1st person past tense
July 2010
Scattered forward progress on WIP, due to much time spent floating in lake with a frosty adult beverage in hand
August 2010
Nada written. The start of school always takes all of my attention
September 2010
Finally in the school groove, decent plotting and writing on WIP, though the plot's changed about 20 times at this point: mob in, mob out; girl's name changed; mob back in; and much more
October 2010
Finally nailed down plot, scattered writing; football season, every weekend occupied
November 2010
Finished zero draft during NaNoWriMo and won 20-page critique from writer who just got a book deal; sent off first 20 pages (though I did let her know this was just a first draft and wasn't clean); got critique back and it pretty much ripped my WIP apart. Not surprised but it still rocked my writing world.
December 2010
Used critique to evaluate story. Wrote not much at all. Decided to set WIP aside. Too much to think about.
January-February 2011
No writing done on BREAKFALL
March 2011
Both literally and figuratively tore WIP apart and started pretty much from scratch, breaking WIP into scenes, putting them on notecards, keeping what worked and discarding the rest. Lots of moving and shaking going on.
April 2011
Still back at the drawing board; doing a lot more research, trying to get a better handle on character motivation and come up with a more solid plot
May-October 2011
Minimal progress; not really focused on story. Life interfered, other things took priority and, unfortunately, my writing fell by the wayside. This can't happen if I want to be a full-time writer anytime soon.
November 2011
NaNoWriMo time again. As I was doing it with my students, I knew I needed to write another story. Dug out BREAKFALL and dusted it off. Decided it had decent bones but pretty much everything was wrong with it. Changed the plot. Changed the setting. Changed the characters. Started from scratch and, while I didn't "win" NaNo, did get a good 25k written and a plot I was much happier with.
December 2011
Got some words written (about 10k) but there was something holding back the flow of the story. Played Skyrim, read a ton, and worked on book review blog while trying to puzzle it out.
January 2012
BIG changes--went from 1st person to 3rd person and my main character changed from a guy to a girl, MC's love interest from a girl to a guy. This worked SOOOO much better--the story started flowing and so did the words. I'm hoping to have this draft done by Tuesday. Which would be completely awesome.

Seriously. THESE ODDS SUCK!

2012-01-11T17:34:00.001-05:00

When THE HUNGER GAMES trailer first came out, I watched it a ton of times, chills running up and down my arms each and every time. I even marked the release date on my calendar (seriously, I've never done this before, not even for the awesome Harry Potter).

Here it is if you've been living under a rock and missed it:

Now, Evil Iguana Productions has come up with a completely awesome spoof of that trailer (Moira Rogers posted it on her blog and I swear, I scared the pups because I kept bustin' out laughing). See if you don't agree:

Doesn't the fake Katniss look a lot like the "real" Katniss? And I love how they followed the same pattern as the official movie trailer. A great spoof.

Bustin' through

2012-01-07T19:50:00.000-05:00

You know those days when you really-really-really want something so bad, you're willing to break through any barrier to get to it?

Yeah. Me, too.

2012: Let's try this again...

2012-01-01T19:57:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!

I don't know about you but for me, 2011 was nothing special. Actually, it was rather disappointing, as far as hopes and dreams and other stuff went. *sigh*

But that's all water under the bridge now, right? It's 2012! And, if you're an optimist, it's a fresh start -- a brand new year that's clean and ready for new and wonderful things. If you're a pessimist, well, the world's going to end so why worry? Hey, pessimists! Live it up, baybee!

Generally an optimist, I like the idea of a fresh start. It's like when you open up that brand new calendar and there's nothing written on it. No dates to save, no deadlines, no to-do lists...yet. I love both the beginning and the ending of things -- tossing away that old calendar is just as satisfying as filling in the new one (it's the middle that can get a little sludge-y).

This year, I've got some goals I want to accomplish:

1) Improve my health. Yes, yes. I know. This one's on pretty much everyone's list, and it winds up getting dropped by the second week of January. However, my health played a rather large contributing role in last year's disappointments. I HAVE to get healthy. I can't be tired all the time, uncomfortable in my own skin, or with allergies so bad I can barely breathe. This just isn't acceptable, especially if I plan on living healthfully and happily until I'm at least 100.
Specifically:
*Eat my veggies and fruits--lots more than my carb-heavy 2011 "diet"
*Take my vitamins (thanks, Mom)
*Do Couch to 5k then do a 5k (Plan: Get to the Green on St. Patrick's Day); extended goal: half-marathon
*Keep up with allergy shots

2) Make my dream a priority. I get distracted so easily and then I get mad at myself when I realize those distractions have eaten up my time. Reading, reviewing books on my book blog, Twitter, TV, friends, family, the day job, dogs, life...these aren't all distractions per se, but I need to organize, plan, and prioritize so they don't turn into time sucks. I want to be a published author; I want to be a full-time writer within the next couple of years. Therefore, I need to make writing a major priority.
Specifically:
*Write at least an hour a day and/or write at least 1,000 words a day (More would be great!)
*DVR my TV shows and use them as a reward
*Limit social media time
*Don't let day job leak into after-day-job time
*Just say no and try not to feel guilty about it (Ha! As if that's possible.)

3) Blog here at least twice a week (I'd love to do it three times a week but let's not get overzealous). This is something I really failed at last year. But I have a plan...*rubs hands together* I love it when a plan comes together (name that show!).
Specifically:
*One day about writing and/or health (to keep me honest and on track)
*One day for fun or for writing/health

Sheesh. I'd better stop before I get completely carried away. I could throw in dating (my mother would be thrilled), social life, travel, and a million other things but I think I'll stick with these--especially the first two biggies.

So, what about you? Plans for 2012?

Elegy for the English Language

2011-12-15T09:02:00.002-05:00

These past couple of weeks, we've been doing a poetry unit. You know the drill--read, analyze, write. Anyway, one of my students (I told her she's now my favorite student) wrote this fabulous elegy and I had to share it with you:

Elegy for the English Language

by a fabulous student who will remain nameless on this blog

Oh, English language! You'll never be the same.

The kids have misused you and turned you into slang.

Is is now be and no one says sorry.

It's always their bad cuz he be throwin' a party.

Everything's beast and what had happened was...

He be lazy and talks like this.

She used to wear a hat but now she be wearin' that stank thang.

Her weave be messed up and he ain't cut like me.

Oh, English language! What happened to you?

Why can't we all conjugate so the world isn't blue?

This makes me feel better in multiple ways. First off, I don't feel like such an old fogey for complaining about "the way kids talk these days" because many of their peers feel the same way.

Second, there's hope for the future! We have students who understand the difference between proper grammar and slang. They even understand when it's appropriate to use slang and when you should speak using standard American English (hanging with friends versus a job/professional situation).

Ah, kids. What are you going to do?

Have you read this yet?

2011-11-20T10:06:00.001-05:00

Personally, I'm not a huge Nora Roberts reader but I fully respect the woman for her tenacity, her prolific writing career, and for being so unapologetic in the face of critics (esp. those who criticize romance). And, after reading THIS ARTICLE in The Guardian, my respect for her has grown exponentially.

Some of my favorite quotes from THIS ARTICLE (seriously, you have to read it):
Talking about those who disparage romance: "Why would you apologise for what you read for pleasure? Just think of the illiteracy rate. Every book read for pleasure should be celebrated."

Explaining what a "nursing mother" cover is (which her new book does NOT have): "You know, where she's falling out of her dress and he has his mouth on her tit."

And, apparently, she's a huge fan of French fries: "...how can one live without French fries? Not well, I say. In fact, I've been known to say a day without French fries is like a day without an orgasm." (there's even a website: adwoff.com)

That, coupled with the fact that she still lives in the same house she lived in as a teen newlywed despite her yearly salary being about $60million, is why Nora Roberts is my new hero(ine).

NaNo Stats for Week 2

2011-11-15T10:16:00.001-05:00

Overall goals for students:

Block 2: 16 students x 5,000 words each = 80,000 words for the class

Block 3: 25 students x 5,000 words each = 125,000 words for the class

Block 4: 25 students x 10,000 words each = 250,000 words for the class

Block 6: 28 students x 10,000 words each = 280,000 words for the class

Stats for week 2:

Block 2: 34,566 words total 43.0% of overall goal

Block 3: 44,199 words total 35.3% of overall goal

Block 4: 106,996 words total 42.7% of overall goal

Block 6: 84,064 words total 30.0% of overall goal

And for me, I'm hovering at 15,656 -- so far behind in my goal that I don't think I'll ever catch up but whatever. I'm writing and that's what's important. My character is getting battered around (he's just about to fail at something big-time and get fired AND the girl he likes isn't calling him back...poor guy), and tension is building. So I'm going to keep plugging along, keep encouraging my students (some of whom are completely rocking the socks off their stories!), and keep my BIC!

Hope your writing is going well!

Student Stats for NaNo Week 1

2011-11-09T08:46:00.001-05:00

All four of my English classes (two regular level, two honors level) are participating in the Young Writer's Program run by the awesome folks at NaNoWriMo and, so far, most of them are really enjoying it. Some have far more of a story than I ever expected!

To foster a bit of competitive spirit between the classes, I post their whole-class weekly word count and the top class gets a little treat.

First up, their goals (honors classes have higher word count goals):

Block 2: 16 students x 5,000 words each = 80,000 words for the class

Block 3: 25 students x 5,000 words each = 125,000 words for the class

Block 4: 25 students x 10,000 words each = 250,000 words for the class

Block 6: 28 students x 10,000 words each = 280,000 words for the class

Next, the stats for week 1:

Block 2: 19,520 words total 24.4% of overall goal

Block 3: 24,656 words total 19.7% of overall goal

Block 4: 58,919 words total 23.5% of overall goal

Block 6: 46,321 words total 16.5% of overall goal

All in all, that's pretty darned awesome! Especially because, once I posted these stats and awarded the blue ribbon to my teeniest class (percentage wins the day, just like on The Biggest Loser), my sixth block class was all upset. The only thing you could hear in class yesterday was the clickety-clack of the computer keys. We'll see if that drive continues or if Block 2 stays on top!

And I kicked some NaNo butt yesterday, too! After fussing that I'd fallen so far behind, I added a bunch of words, bringing my total up to just over 8k. Not the 13k I needed but not too shabby. Now, I just need a couple more days like that and I'll be back on track.

How's it going for you?

NaNo Lapse

2011-11-08T17:02:00.002-05:00

No surprise. I've fallen behind in NaNo. But I do have a perfectly good excuse -- I blame the children! This year, we're trying to go a lot more paperless so I have the students using Google Docs to write their stories. They've all shared their file with me so I can check in anytime and see how they're doing and provide feedback and suggestions.

And it's eating up all my time. Don't get me wrong, it's my job and I do love it but I also enjoy writing with the students, and they like to hear about my word count and how my story's going, too. I'm going to have to carve out some writing time of my own so, even if I don't get the 50k, I can still make some good progress.

But I haven't given up hope yet. I've got a good foundation and, for once, a pretty solid outline for my entire story. With a couple of hard-writing days, I might actually catch back up! Maybe...possibly.

So, how's NaNo going for you all?

NaNoWriMo -- It's ON, baybee!

2011-10-28T20:35:00.002-04:00

It's almost National Novel Writing Month time again and my students and I are participating once again. We've been talking dialogue, character development, plot, and description this month, doing a bunch of mini-essays (about 250 words) focused on each of those novel aspects.

http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/

This week, we started really talking about the requirements and what we'd be doing. Some of their eyes got as big as saucers when they realized I was serious about this writing throughout November thing. (What, did they think I was just pulling their leg? Sheesh.) Some of them practically danced with excitement even after I told them about the word count goals (While they could set their own goals, the minimums are: regular English students -- 5,000 words; Honors English -- 10,000 words). Probably 95% of them think 250 words is a huge piece of writing, so anything in the thousand range is incredibly intimidating to them. But we broke it down into daily word counts, and they breathed a little easier. Plus, I've got a 50k writing goal, which shocked them a bit (they didn't realize how many words made up a book until we started talking about it).

Next, we wrote up a quickie plot outline. I shared mine with them, so they had an example (I got a couple, "I'd read that, if it was a book", which did my heart good -- yes, I'm a sucker for a compliment, especially from people in my target audience. Fingers crossed, right?). I was just looking for a beginning, middle, and end -- just enough to for me to know that they had a starting point (it's that first step that's the hardest...) and that they had a direction.

After I was done with my mini-lesson and released them to do their own thing, there was immediately a buzz of conversation. I loved it because even the students with the deer-in-the-headlights expressions loosened up and started to get into thinking about writing! So cool. And so many great ideas! I can't wait to see what happens in November and what my students produce.

NaNoWriMo is a fantastic experience. Which is why I don't understand how some authors can blog about how much they hate it or how useless it is or how they'd never ever do it. Okay, I get that you're entitled to your opinion but do you have to put down NaNo and those who participate in it? Sure, there's a ton of junk words produced throughout November. Sure, some people turn around and send that junk off to agents or self-publish it without rewrites or edits or anything. But, for the most part, it's just people out there having a great time, writing. There's a fabulous sense of camaraderie between NaNo participants that encourages and inspires.

If you're interested, you can sign up here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/
If you've got a young writer or are a young writer, check this out (It's what my students and I use. There are fabulous forums, challenges and dares, word wars, and even virtual classrooms! So cool.): http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/

Hey, buddy me if you'd like! I'm MaryBrebner on NaNo and would love to see you there. Happy writing!

What to eat when you're a zombie

2011-10-16T14:55:00.000-04:00

I've come to the realization that, should one of those massive pandemic epidemics come sweeping through my little Southern town, I'm a goner. I always seem to catch every new bug that pops up on the radar (and, thanks to my germy students, I'm exposed to them all).

In an effort to prepare myself for when I do become a flesh-eating zombie, I've been studying the zombie food pyramid.

I found this on My[confined]Space but they have no knowledge of its origins.

Yep. Brains are definitely the way to go. Though I do wish chocolate were still on the menu.

What about you? Will you be a zombie or zombie food?

Oh, and don't forget -- The Walking Dead premiers tonight on AMC! Woot!

Fear is the mind killer

2011-10-12T20:07:00.002-04:00

So, you may have noticed my blog stutterings lately. On again, off again. Whining about time and not being able to write and so forth. Trust me, I irritated myself with my constant fussing.

But I think I'm finally back on track (God, I hope so!). I hate not being able to write, being afraid to put words on the page.

Because that's what it was--fear. And I completely brought it on myself.

Around the end of last year, I had a shiny new idea, had plowed my way to about 50k and was making good time towards a tidy ending. Then a golden opportunity presented itself. Someone well-known in the writing blogosphere--someone who'd just landed a major book deal--held a contest in which she'd read and critique the first 25 pages of a novel. And I won. I WON! I never win anything, at least nothing like that. I was thrilled and, even though I knew my pages weren't read to be seen, I couldn't pass it up. So, I sent her those shiny, new, beautiful-to-my-eyes pages knowing she'd have plenty to say. I mean, they weren't perfect, after all. I'd only gone over them a handful of times and wasn't even done with the story, so they were probably going to change anyway. I thought she'd give me some good pointers, talk about flow and character and the like...stuff I knew I needed.

Or so I told myself.

She ripped them to pieces, throwing questions at me left and right, pulling loose all the dangling threads in my story. In fact, she did exactly what I expected--exactly what a strong critiquer should do. She did nothing wrong.

I thought I was prepared. I swear I did. But those questions made me question my sanity in writing that story. A story with a guy's voice. A story where said guy works in a field I'm unfamiliar with, except though extensive research. A story that takes place in a setting I don't know much about, having never been there except virtually.

Despite all that, I plowed forward, at least until I reached the end of the book. Then I went back to the beginning, read over her notes again, and realized everything was wrong. What the hell was I doing? The story sucked. My characters were paper-thin. The setting wouldn't hold up if someone who'd been there ever read it. And the plot was so freakin' over-the-top that no one would ever believe it.

I stalled out. Went into a tailspin. Crashed and burned, engines flaming with black smoke trailing behind me. It wasn't pretty.

For months, I tried to rewrite, rework, research more, fill in the character holes, shore up the plot holes, and research some more. I ditched pages, dropped characters, moved events, and moved the beginning a kazillion times. But I couldn't get past the first pile of chapters. Or start anything new. I was afraid that I'd fail. Afraid of failure before I even got anywhere and I couldn't move past it, no matter what I tried.

So. Freakin'. Frustrating.

But lately, the muse has been whispering sweet-nothings in my ear again. A reworking of my crash-and-burn guy story (I mean, who cares if it's over-the-top? I love over-the-top!). A new YA urban fantasy and an adult urban fantasy set in the same world. A hot and humorous romance. All yummy. All just waiting for me to write. *rubs hands together gleefully*

Oh, thank all that is good in the world. I'm writing again. I'm getting words on a page, even if they are only backstory, character development, and research at the moment. Writing. That's right, y'all! Yeah buddy!

Frank Herbert, author of Dune, was right. Fear is the mind killer. It certainly laid mine low. But I'm determined to work with my fear this time. I mean, it's okay to be afraid as long as you don't let it stop you, right? Fear is the whetstone upon which I sharpen my blade (who said that? I know it wasn't me...).

Okay, so that's my story. What have you all been up to?

Ooh, perks!

2011-09-11T10:39:00.002-04:00

Have you heard of Klout? I read some Tweets about it a little while ago and, curious, I zipped over to Klout.com and signed up (This is ME on Klout). It's a funky site, with what seems like little purpose but to "rate" people based on their presence on various sites on the web. Supposedly, I'm a "Thought Leader" (really? um, okay) and am influential in writing, children's literature, NaNoWriMo, authors, TrueBlood, and Macs. Well, okay, yes. Those are topics near and dear to my heart and topics I talk about a lot. But still, it's kind of weird.

But there are perks! (Again, a little strange but hey, Free stuff! I'll take it!) This was on my porch when I came home last week:

A perk? Really? So I opened it and...

"You just received +K in Opening Boxes." I like that they have a sense of humor...and, what's this? A box from SHARPIE? I LOVE Sharpie!

Look at all this awesome swag! I mean, did you even know that Sharpie made all this freakin' cool stuff? There are Sharpie pens -- clickable and non-clicky -- in all kinds of pretty colors, pens that don't bleed, mini Sharpies, gel highlighters, liquid pencils (I can't wait to try those!), and brush tip fabric markers (ooh, to be a teen again and the desire to write all over my clothes! You know, kids still do that. They love to sign each others' shirts and write all over their jeans and shoes, just like I did when I was their age.).

But I think my favorite of this pile of Sharpies are the "80's Glam" Sharpies. Obviously, I'm all about 80's Glam (boy, we thought we were cool back then when Day Glow ruled!) but what's the most fab are the color names: Jellie Pink, Leg Warmer Orange, Valley Girl Violet, Banana Clip Yellow, and Argyle Green. LOVE! Ah, memories.

I almost don't want to open all the pretty packages... Do you think my students will appreciate me grading their Literary Terms Quiz in Valley Girl Violet?

Neglect

2011-08-28T08:15:00.000-04:00

Oh, my poor, sad, neglected blog. I will be back. Soon. But first I must:

Write lesson plans for my English and Honors English classes
Design a semester-long curriculum for my new class
Put all my tests, quizzes, projects, and worksheets online
Write reviews for my book review blog so I won't get behind (again)
Attempt to eliminate much of the dog hair from my house (seriously? It's summer, dogs! You're supposed to be done with most of your shedding, not acting like exploding hair balls. Gah.)
Clean the bathroom
Laundry
Work on second draft of untitled WIP
Figure out how to get all this done plus exercise when I'm supposed to be in meetings and/or holding after-school detention this week
Grade a boat-load of papers, including a big ole writing assignment (at times I wish I were a math teacher. So much easier to grade those papers.)

Hope all is going well with you--I'm off to work on lesson plans!

Squirreling it away for a rainy day

2011-08-03T13:13:00.000-04:00

Whenever I leave the house, I have to put up my little trash cans and lock the cabinet where the trash and dog food is stored. Why? Well, Finnegan, my boy dog, entertains himself by knocking over the trash and eating the kleenex (Eew. Dogs are gross). And what he doesn't nosh on, he scatters around the living room. Or he paws open the under-sink cabinet, rummaging through the trash for goodies or stuffing himself silly on kibble. But he's never gotten into anything else.

Until today. After going through the normal procedure of securing the kleenex, trash and kibbles, I left to run some errands. When I came back, the dogs ran in to see me as usual and hung out in the kitchen with me while I unpacked. But when I headed towards the living room, I spotted some plastic. Then some more. And there it was. Ripped open by eager teeth. The rawhide chewy bag. I looked back at Finnegan, who wagged at me. (Fiona was nowhere to be seen, probably hiding in the kitchen.)

Not my dog. But he does get the same psycho
expression when food comes his way.

Surprisingly, it looked like most of the chewies were still there, so I gathered the remains of the bag and stowed it in a high cabinet. Fiona appeared and proceeded to nibble on her illegal treat. Finn watched for a while then dug around in the couch and pulled his out. Once done, he disappeared into the bedroom. There was some scratching then he trotted in with another chewy and proceeded to down it before I could get it from him. (These are the small wrapped sticks of chewy, not big pieces. Still, too much rawhide is never good for dogs.) Then he disappeared again.

I found him in the office, going through a bag of books I'd set aside to take to school with me. He'd hidden another one in there. And two more stuffed under the pillows on the trundle bed. And another in the couch. Two more under my bed. One more behind his dog dish. And another in the brown chair.

Poor guy watched me with huge eyes as I went around the house uncovering his stash. He'd worked so hard, squirreling away all those lovely chewies for when he really needed a snack, and his mean alpha was taking them all away. He then spent much of the next hour going to each of his hiding spots just to make sure I hadn't missed any.

As writers, we're much like Finn, squirreling all our lovely ideas away for the days when we can actually explore them in depth. Personally, I keep a writing journal where I jot down ideas, paste in pictures of places and people that capture my fancy, and make little doodles. Like Finn's chewies, they're hidden gems that I can take out when I'm looking for something to nosh on. It's one way I can keep track of my ideas and get them out of my sight as I focus on my current project. If I don't compartmentalize them, I'll lose them in my jumble of a brain or they'll take over and shove whatever I'm working on at the time out of the way and I'll lose my forward progress.

Still. I'm filing this one under "Crazy Finn Stories". That dog just cracks me up. I hope he didn't eat too many chewies before I got home or he's going to be out eating grass in the heat. Stupid dog.

Ah, Summer Reading...

2011-07-22T12:43:00.000-04:00

Usually, over the summer, I float in the lake, read, watch TV, hang out with Family and friends, and write. While it hasn't been the best summer for some of that (uhg. My writing is suffering. I think I must be going for the whole tortured artist vibe.), I've made some awesome headway into my very large To-Be-Read pile. There's something so satisfying in going to GoodReads and marking a book "read".

With two weeks of freedom before I have to go back to school, so far this summer (June and July) I've read:
1. The Neon Graveyard by Vicki Pettersson
2. The Strange Case of Finley Jane (novella) by Kady Cross
3. Bloodring (Rogue Mage #1) by Faith Hunter
4. Blood Magic (Blood Journals #1) by Tessa Gratton
5. Dead on Delivery by Eileen Rendhal
6. Queen of the Dead (Ghost and the Goth #2) by Stacey Kade
7. Possession by Elana Johnson
8. Shift by Jeri Smith-Ready
9. Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter
10. Conspiracies by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill
11. Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich
12. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
13. Hammered (Iron Druid Chronicles #3) by Kevin Hearne
14. Grave Dance by Kalayna Price
15. Solid by Shelley Workinger
16. Where She Went by Gayle Forman
17. Hourglass by Myra McEntire
18. Blood Red Road by Moira Young
19. Nightfall by Ellen Connor
20. Trial By Fire (Raised By Wolves #2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
21. Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby
22. Red Glove (Curse Workers #2) by Holly Black
23. Heartless (Parasol Protectorate #4) by Gail Carriger
24. Overbite (Insatiable #2) by Meg Cabot
25. Summer's Crossing (Iron Fey #3.5) (novella) by Julie Kagawa
26. Wrapped by Jennifer Bradley
27. Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham
28. The Iron Knight (Iron Fey #4) by Julie Kagawa
29. Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick
30. Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky
31. No One To Trust by Julie Moffet
32. Summer Rental by Mary Kay Andrews
33. Love Struck (novella) by Melissa Marr
34. Making Waves by Tawna Fenske

I think, out of all of those, my top five were:
1) Making Waves by Tawna Fenske -- a super-funny romance with pirates
2. Trial By Fire (Raised By Wolves #2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes -- a young adult paranormal with werewolves
3) Blood Red Road by Moira Young -- a post-apocalyptic with a kick-ass heroine
4) Where She Went by Gayle Forman -- a young adult romance with a tortured rock star
4) Grave Dance by Kalayna Price -- an urban fantasy with romance and a kick-ass heroine (I do like a good kick-ass hero/heroine)

So, any favorite books that you've read this summer?

Wish I'd Brought a Camera

2011-07-12T10:48:00.000-04:00

You know those awesome/crazy, funny times when you wish you'd brought your camera with you, just so you could capture the moment? Yeah, had one last Saturday.

A bunch of us went tubing down the Saluda River in Columbia, South Carolina. This was my first time tubing down this particular river (though I've kayaked down the river, which was a blast, too) and, I have to say, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Now, the Saluda is a low-flow river, with some very gentle "rapids" (I don't know if you can even really call them rapids, though they are class threes.) so it's not a scary trip by any means. We packed up our coolers (Shhh...don't tell! Open containers are "not allowed". Pfft.), plopped back into our rented tubes, and floated down the river. It was fabulous.

There were some seriously picture-worthy moments and no one brought a camera! Of course. (It did cross my mind to pick up one of those disposable waterproof ones but I forgot *headdesk*.)

Picture-worthy moment number one came when we were walking our tubes down the muddy path behind the zoo towards the river. At that point, we were all red-faced, sweaty and dirty because we'd been waiting for over an hour for the stoner-dudes running the tube rental kiosk to get there and get set up (we were on time, they were way late). And, once they opened and we were both tube and life-vested up, we had to ride on their un-air conditioned, old school bus, which we shared with the requisite high school church group (there's always a church group wherever you go in South Carolina, it seems. They're busy folks.). We couldn't wait to get into the chilly river.

Oh, and then there's the moment when I'd gotten all settled in my tube and I looked back at my group scattered across the rocks and water behind me. Everyone had a huge smile on their face and our bright blue tubes contrasted against the dark waters, the light tan boulders, and the deep green of the thick trees around us. Picture-perfect and me without my camera, damnit!

Then there's the one where I slid off a rock I was climbing on right into the very cold water...of course. I'm not the most graceful of creatures, especially around water. Seems I always find my way to get completely soaked whether I'm looking to or not.

I did find some pictures, though, just so you can get a better idea of the Saluda's beauty:

The Saluda River. So pretty!
Image taken from HERE

Just add a couple of cold blue cans & that's what we looked like
(um, minus the guy in the jeans. I mean, who wears jeans when tubing down the river?).
Image taken from HERE

So, when are we going tubing next, y'all?

Are you kidding me?

2011-07-08T09:53:00.000-04:00

Hi, yes, it's me. I'm sorry for the scattershot postings this summer but it's just been one of those summers and I didn't want to inundate you with my whining. But it's July and I'm back from a fabulous holiday down along the "Forgotten Coast" of Florida (we stayed in a cool round house called "The Barnacle" in a little town called Port St. Joe). New month, new perspective (I hope!). Hum...maybe I'll get some of the To-Do's marked off my list. That'd be awesome.

ANYWAY, that's not the reason for this post. This is (from Publisher's Weekly Deals):

#1 NYT bestselling author James Patterson's next 26 books, including 4 new series for young readers, with 13 titles each for Michael Pietsch at Little, Brown, and Megan Tingleyat Little, Brown Children's, for publication through the end of 2014, by Robert Barnett at Williams & Connolly.

Next 26 books? In, like, three year's time? Are you flippin' kidding me? Twenty-six? How is that even possible?

Okay, I do kind of know the answer to that one. I know for a fact he doesn't write much on his own anymore. From what I've read, every book that you see his name along with another author's name is actually written by the secondary author with Patterson providing the idea and basic outline. Still. That means he comes up with and outlines a ton of ideas each year. Wow. That's impressive. (It'd be a lot more impressive if he wrote all of those books...impossible but impressive.)

However, I've read several of his co-authored books and wasn't overly thrilled with them. I DNF-ed (DNF=did not finish) a couple of them and those I finished, I didn't think were that well written. Sure, the surface story was intriguing but there was no depth. The writing, on the whole, was simplistic (especially with the young adult books, which is a whole other topic) and lacked passion. Maybe it's because I knew these books were cranked out by writers in Patterson's book-producing factory (a multi-million dollar factory! Smart, smart man to capitalize on his name) but I didn't enjoy them. But obviously others do, or he wouldn't have been able to make that amazing deal.

What's your opinion of The James Patterson writing factory?

People are weird!

2011-06-22T20:43:00.000-04:00

I know, I say that like it's a new thing but people are weird. These past couple of days have been just filled with weirdness. Odd people everywhere, which made for some truly interesting people watching.

Take the guy waiting for his wife in the Bed, Bath & Beyond. He was at the front, right near the check out, chillin' on the patio set they had on display. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Yeah, until he whips out his nail clippers and goes to town on his fingernails. Right there in the store. Snip. Snip. Snip. I pictured his sharp, dirty clipping zinging everywhere. *shudder* I sent him a look (to which he was oblivious) and hurried away from the display of Tervis tumblers, afraid that somehow one of his nails might wing its way into my eye.

On my drive home, while sitting at a stoplight, I saw this guy walking down the street with a can of Budweiser hanging from his neck. On a big gold chain. Is this a new fashion statement I'm unaware of? Maybe he was just thirsty and didn't want to to hold his 40 when he wasn't drinking it. I suppose a big blue can hanging from a gold chain is more attractive than those hat sipper thingies. On second thought...no. No, it's not.

Then today in the waiting room at the doctor's (Btw, yay for no more cast, no more stitches!! I'm able to type again! Finger healing!), this woman who was in front of me at the receptionist's was chatting away with a friend and, completely out of the blue, she asked, "Do you think, when you turn around and see a ghost and scream that the ghost is scared, too? I mean, do you think it jumps when it sees you?" There was a beat of silence in the entire office as we all processed what she said. But, being Southerners (Shut up. I know I'm a transplant but I certainly wasn't going to say anything.) we merely smiled and said nothing.

Holy cow, don't you just love people? So flippin' weird.

One-handed wonder...don't forget the thumb!

2011-06-13T19:57:00.000-04:00

So, since surgery on Thursday and my left hand and wrist is all casted up (thank goodness I'm right-handed!), making all but my thumb unusable, I've learned a few things.

One: It's hard to wash your hair one-handed. Or put it up in a ponytail when it gets too skanky.

Two: It's hard to put on a back-clasp bra one-handed. And I don't have any front-clasp bras. Oh well. It's a perfect excuse to go bra-less (What? It's summer, I'm not teaching, my dogs don't care...perfect timing and an awesome excuse!).

Three: I can't imagine life without both of my hands, and I have gained even more respect for those who have to function without a limb permanently.

Four: Since it's hard to type too long with just a thumb (thumb cramp!), I'm having to go old-school and actually hand-write parts of my draft #2. Gasp! The horror! But I bought pretty pens. Colorful ones. And highlighters. And sticky notes. Yay for satisfying an office supply addiction.

And, I'm working on my TBR pile, whittling it down. I just finished HEXED by Kevin Hearne, which I LOVED -- seriously, if you like urban fantasy or Jim Butcher, you'll love Hearne's The Iron Druid series.

Nature in all her glory

2011-06-06T19:04:00.000-04:00

Wow. Have you seen these absolutely amazing photos?

They totally look fake, don't they? Actually, they're from Chile's Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain, which spewed ash into the air and created its own lightning storm.

Photos like this remind me what a completely wild and gorgeous and dangerous world we live in and get my creative juices flowing.

It settled down after a bit but, holy cow, what a light show!

Credit for the photos goes to AFP and The Age (Australia). They have a bunch more pictures, if you're interested.

GREEEEEEN with Jealousy

2011-06-02T11:20:00.000-04:00

Do you have writerly jealousy? I do. And so do so many others. Recently, Maggie Stiefvater tweeted a link to The Rumpus and a question posed by An Awful Jealous Person (she also wrote a great post HERE and follow-up HERE). This Awful Jealous Person wanted to know Why not me? Why were this Person's friends and acquaintances finding success and the Person wasn't? And how should this Person deal with the jealousy that comes with others' sucess?

While the whole thing is a bit tongue-in-cheek, it comes awfully close to the truth. While we're happy when someone close to us has success, there's also a bite of jealousy, especially if they're successful in our chosen endeavor like writing. I know that whenever I read about someone younger than me getting published, a Tweep or fellow blogger finding an agent, or a friend's book hitting the shelves, jealousy nips at my heels. Sure, I'm happy for them, especially when I know I'll soon be able to read their books, but that durned jealousy dogs my steps.

Of course, I have to say that jealousy has a positive effect on me because it

KEEPS ME WRITING.

And that's the absolute, most important thing that we KEEP WRITING. We can't let jealousy overwhelm us or bring us down. Instead, it should spur us on, pushing us to get that novel done, to send it out to agents or even to jump in and self-publish it.

So, as Dory says, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming." (Though I'm sure she meant, "Just keep writing, just keep writing." If she had opposable thumbs, that is.)

Almost there!

2011-05-31T20:02:00.000-04:00

May is such an amazingly busy month! I got absolutely no writing done and I'm thinking this is a large part of the reason I'm a bit restless at the moment.

My fingers are a-itching to get at the keyboard but my brain is not, as yet, cooperating. Soon, my pretty...*strokes computer*...soon.

In other news, Fiona's recovering from her ordeal quite nicely. She gets her staples out Thursday (she had 60 of them plus a ton of stitches both in and out! Poor pup!) and I'm trying to keep her from running and jumping too much so she doesn't tear herself open. Don't you just love dogs? Fi's such a little fighter. Dogs rule.

THREE DAYS LEFT!! THREE DAYS LEFT!! THREE DAYS!!! (I do love my job but I'm absolutely exhausted with this crew. I go to bed at 8:30, like a 90-year-old granny. And, yes, I eat my dinner at 4:30, too.)

Little Fiona's Major Trauma

2011-05-24T17:08:00.000-04:00

So, in the midst of the craziness on the last month of school (wow--can't believe how fast it's going!), a serious trauma. Little Fiona was attacked by a German Shepard and badly injured. She survived (I dove in and saved her little fuzzy butt -- got a few bites on my arms and hand but so totally worth it to save my little angel pup) but she's covered in stitches and staples.

If you're interested, here's the quick version: Finn, Fiona and I were taking our regular walk when two dogs (a Shepard and a Shepard-Rottie mix) jumped a fence and came after Fiona. Both of them got their teeth on her and shook her. I dove in and the Shepard-Rottie mix backed off, realizing something was wrong. However, the Shepard wouldn't let go, despite me being there, yelling at him and beating the crap out of him with the plastic handle of the dog leash. Thank goodness the neighbors heard me and ran across the street to help and got the dog off Fiona. (Btw, Finn just stood there, completely confused. Poor bubba. Not the sharpest stick, though he is one of the sweetest.)

I took Fiona to the vet and myself to the doctor (yay Tetanus shot!), the Shepard's currently with Animal Control, and the mix is back with her owner. Fiona had two drains in her (removed yesterday -- vet's pleased with her progress), tons of serious soft tissue and muscle damage (thus the ka-zillion stitches and staples all over my poor baby's torso), and lots of bruising and scrapes. We'll have to keep an eye out for infection and necrotic tissue but, so far, she's doing well.

Little Fi, who couldn't even make it all the way on to her
bed before crashing out. So tired!

Turns out, the girl whose yard the two dogs were in didn't even own the dogs, she was just trying to help out two dogs in a bad situation (think Animal Cops-bad). Which really sucks because she was trying to do a good deed. What kills me though is that I haven't even heard from the actual owner. I mean, I've never been in a situation like this. Should I expect to hear from her? I don't know. Is she maybe scared that I'm going to sue the crap out of her? (I don't see myself as a sue-crazy person, but I do want my vet/doctor bills paid for, since it was her dog who did this. But, if she gives me a hard time...I don't know. *sigh* I hate confrontations of any kind. I like life smooth and chill and things to work themselves out. *sigh again*)

Anyway, the important thing is that Fiona's doing better, I'm okay and I'm thanking all that's holy the Shepard didn't come out and attack a little kid or something. Glass half-full, right?

Hum. I'm thinking my next post needs to be filled with sunshine and margaritas. Sound good? Hope everyone has a wonderful week and a fabulous Memorial Day weekend to all you USA folks! I'll be out on the lake -- Fiona'll be out there with me and Finn on the boat, comfy and cool-looking in her Justin Bieber t-shirt (so she doesn't scratch at her boo-boos), hangin' out under our pontoon's bimini with a Frosty Paws!

In case you hadn't noticed...

2011-05-10T18:12:00.000-04:00

Fearing nonsensical babble, I'm taking a mini-break from blogging. It's STATE TESTING TIME!! Yay! (said with a huge dollop of sarcasm) Just ignore me as I count wall tiles and wake students up so they'll finish the darned test o' the day...my fortune for an air horn (boy, that would be fun!).

After this week of testing, my posts in May will still be pretty sporadic since it's the run to the end of the year: field trip, exams, meetings, closing of school, and getting grades in and finalized. Wow, can't believe the end of the year is here!

Anyway, have a wonderful week, an awesome May, and I'll talk to you all soon!

Book Awesomeness!

2011-05-04T16:02:00.001-04:00

Holy cow, y'all. I just finished a totally awesome book and I just have to tell you about it! It's called IF YOU WERE HERE by Jen Lancaster and I've got a total book hangover from it (Jen would be proud). Here's the blurb:

If You Were Here follows Amish-zombie-teen- romance author Mia and her husband Mac (and their pets) through the alternately frustrating, exciting, terrifying-but always funny-process of buying and renovating their first home in the Chicago suburbs that John Hughes's movies made famous. Along their harrowing renovation journey, Mia and Mac get caught up in various wars with the homeowners' association, meet some less-than-friendly neighbors, and are joined by a hilarious cast of supporting characters, including a celebutard ex- landlady. As they struggle to adapt to their new surroundings- with Mac taking on the renovations himself- Mia and Mac will discover if their marriage is strong enough to survive months of DIY renovations.

First off, Jen Lancaster is absolutely hilarious in a snarky Northside Chicagoan kind of way. Granted I don't know the girl personally but I know her type. Based on that knowledge and having read all of her books (I wouldn't really call them memoirs but I guess they were. Especially Bitter is the New Black.), I would love to hang out with her, drag her along on a girls' night with several of my girls.

ANYWAY, this book is her first venture into fiction, though it's closer to her reality than not (okay, now you're thinking, "Stalker!" but I'm not, I swear. I just follow her blog.). A lovely young couple, Mia and Mac, lives in an "up-and-coming" area of Chicago which, because of the economy, is no longer so up. They're plagued by rats, gangbangers, and the most annoying landlord (who, despite the fact that she's a celebutante, reminds me of my very own asshat of a landlord from when I lived in Chicago. Pablo, may your buildings rot beneath your feet. If that sounds harsh, I promise it's not. No heat during a Chicago winter=not good.).

So, they decide to move to the 'burbs. To Mia, that means moving to the town that was the inspiration for Shermer, IL. John Hughes. Sixteen Candles. The Breakfast Club. Everything that is good and right with the suburbs, Mia knows from watching Hughes films. And, as fate might have it, Jake Ryan's house is up for sale. Yes, the one with that kiss. The slow lean over the birthday cake. *swoon* Of course, that means Mia talks her hubby into buying it, despite the fact that it should be tagged as a tear-down.

I loved it all. Having gone through my own--though decidedly less painful--renovation (still many more projects to go...ah, the joys of an old house), I totally felt their pain as each DIY reno project just made things worse. I loved the completely unsupportive neighbors. The battle for just one working bathroom out of seven. The constant John Hughes references (holy cow, I do love me some John Hughes. Every time Sixteen Candles or Pretty in Pink comes on, I MUST watch it.). The snarky asides about a certain vampire series when everyone knows Mia's Amish zombies are so much better.

Even though she changed the name of the town (it's called Abington Cambs in the book), I recognized most of what she described--I'm pretty sure she's talking about Lake Forest, IL, which I know very well considering I have family and friends there. And it is gorgeous. Right along Lake Michigan, it has some absolutely stunning houses, beautiful parks, and great schools. There's something to be said for a book that's set in a place you know well. It adds another layer of connection, I think.

Anyway, if you're looking for an absolutely hilarious story liberally sprinkled with mercenary contractors (both literally and figuratively), militant neighbors, graveside visits with John Hughes himself, and a cast of fantastically fabulous characters, If You Were Here is totally for you.

Something in the air...

2011-05-03T19:51:00.000-04:00

I swear, there's been something in the air this week. I know it's only Tuesday but it's already been kind of an odd week.

First, my icemaker broke. I know: cry-cry over my first world problem (so not tragic). But I'm an obsessive water drinker (allergy meds = constant dry mouth) and need to have a steady flow of ice to fill up my Tervis tumbler for my Crystal Lite. *sigh* Guess it's back to ice trays for me!

Then, there was a big ole fight at school. One of my boys got into a huge hit/slap fight with a girl and they raised a serious ruckus trying to get at each other. No, no one was hurt but they're both currently out of school on suspension. Lord, middle school drama (and since when is it cool for a guy to hit a girl? I'm sure his mother taught him better than that.).

And my big guy, Finn, has been acting really weird. Yesterday, he was all pant-y and wanted to stay outside. He had stuff smeared across his face like he'd rolled in something (I think there might have been blood but I wrote it off as red dirt). Of course, I cleaned him all up with wipes, since it was late and I had no desire to give him a bath. But he was just acting...off.

I should have known. Today, as I was innocently reading some blogs, he came trotting in from the outside and dropped something on the carpet. Then he sat there, wagging his tail. I glanced at it, thinking it was a dirty squeaky toy. It took my mind a moment to process what it really was...A DEAD SQUIRREL!!! My dog brought a DEAD SQUIRREL into my house and dropped it on my carpet!! I screeched and Oh-My-God-ed as I danced around with massive heebie-jeebies. When I came to my senses, I got out the dust pan, swept it up, and deposited it in the outside trash can. Finally, I scrubbed the crap out of the carpet using every carpet-type product I could find. Plus Febreeze. Blech. *shiver*

Finn, if he were a plastic soldier, guarding his find.

Finn was very dismayed that I didn't like his little present. I thought cats were the "deposit a dead creature at my person's feet because I love them" critters. Guess I was wrong. And I guess that explains Finn's weird behavior. He was guarding his find yesterday and today, after it had marinated in the outdoors long enough, he decided to share. Aw, sweet. God, I hope he never does that again.

Z is for Zen

2011-04-30T15:11:00.000-04:00

I am currently sitting in one of my favorite places in my house, enjoying a moment of Zen. It's gorgeous here on my little screened porch. The sun is shining, it's 80 degrees out with a slight breeze and not a cloud in the sky. Finn is splayed out on the cool concrete sound asleep while Fiona watches the squirrels and keeps the porch pest-free. I'm actually making some forward progress on my story, which makes me so very happy, and I'll probably celebrate that achievement with a frosty adult beverage later. The summer bugs aren't buzzing yet but there are birds a-plenty twittering and tweeting, providing the only music by which I like to write. And the neighbor's finally done mowing her lawn. *big sigh* Yay. Zen. Peace.

Here's to those little pockets of Zen and the people, places, creatures, and anything else that make those moments possible. Cheers!

Y is for Yada, Yada, Yada

2011-04-29T13:57:00.000-04:00

Every writer's heard it: butt in chair, hands on keyboard. Yada, yada, yada, right? But learning to be a consistent writer--a daily, productive one at that--is one of the major keys to finishing that first draft, polishing that final(ish) draft, getting published, and getting published some more. Many don't make it even through the first draft (although it seems like everyone and his mother wants to write a book), much less getting published.

BIC: Butt in Chair; HOK: Hands on Keyboard;
TAM: Typing Away Madly

Lilith Saintcrow is a huge proponent of writing every single day, published or not. She likens it to exercising (in her post today)--it's something you need to do consistently and, once you're in a rhythm, you can't take too much time off or you'll get out of the habit. You'll fall off the wagon. (Been there, done that myself way too many times to count. Both with exercise and with writing.)

But she's right. Writing is a habit and, like exercising, it's easy to fall out of the habit, especially when things get tough. Libba Bray, a fabulous, talented, prize-winning author, talks about how hard writing really is and that fact surprises her each time she sets out to write a new book (you've got to read her post today! It's awesome.). I can agree with that. It's even more difficult when you're not writing consistently. At least when you're in the writing habit and you're struggling with a scene or even an entire novel, you can babble away (free write, describe something, whatever) and maybe, just maybe, something will stick. Not writing? Then getting back into it will be exponentially harder.

So, chant it and then do it: BUTT IN CHAIR, HANDS ON KEYBOARD! Typing away madly...Yada, yada, yada...

X is for X-Factor

2011-04-28T18:55:00.000-04:00

What is it about a particular author or book that calls to us? Is it the characters and plot? Is it the tone (humorous/scary/thrilling/sad)? Is it the imagery or the style of writing? A combination of these things or something else altogether? The X-Factor (why is it I feel like I need to say, "Dun-dun-duuuun!" after that?).

There are authors who I'm obsessed with, and I'll read (and usually buy) anything they write: Meg Cabot, C.E. Murphy, Kelley Armstrong, Jen Lancaster, Janet Evanovich, Jim Butcher, Lilith Saintcrow, Rick Riordan, and Rachel Caine, to name a few. Their stories are quick-witted with a strong dash of humor; their characters are brave-hearted and irrepressible with tons of quirks and issues to boot; and their writing pulls me in and won't let go. I love reading their books and would be thrilled if I could write half as well as them.

Do you all have authors you just have to read? What is it that draws you to their writing?

Now, you'll have to excuse me -- Meg Cabot's ABANDON just arrived at my doorstep, and I'm dying to lose myself in her re-imagined tale of Persephone...I tell you, Meg's got the X-Factor in spades.

W is for Where Does the Time Go?

2011-04-27T13:46:00.000-04:00

Is time speeding up exponentially, or is it just me? I swear, each year I get older, the year gets shorter. Or is it because we live in such a fast-paced world nowadays that everyone feels this way? I was talking to some of my students about the end of the year and they were commenting on how fast this school year seemed to go (we only have five weeks left!), so maybe it's not just an age thing.

I can see now how people spend years and years working on their stories. This one (the one I was GAH-ing about earlier this month) has taken me forever to write and get to the revision stage (which is closer to a second draft stage but whatever), as opposed to the other couple of trunk novels I've written (maybe that's why they're trunk novels...). Is it because time is going so fast and I'm busy with my head down working and, when I finally look up, three months have passed? Or is it because I've become a slower writer, more worried/freaked out about the craft, character development, plot and so on than throwing up the first draft on paper and moving forward? If it's the latter, I think I need to find a happy medium and work towards a faster first draft, with a more focused second, third, etc.

My GAH-inducing draft is still on the back burner. I tried to get back into it this week but I think it's still too early. Instead, I'm diving into research and plotting this new shiny story that's been teasing me. And, by the time I'm really ready to get back to the GAH-story, it'll be summer! Time flies.

V is for Violence

2011-04-26T14:52:00.000-04:00

Right now, we're starting a post-apocalyptic/dystopia unit in my class and that, of course, got me thinking about violence. Personally, I do love a good action, blow-em-up (Resident Evil, baybee!) or a we're-all-gonna-die movie (Children of Men is a particular favorite). Give me shambling zombies who want to eat my flesh (yay for AMC's Walking Dead) or ex-spies who just want to help and blow s#!t up (Ah, Burn Notice, you're so informative) and I'm your girl. And I've been inhaling all the fantastically dark dystopian novels that are out right now (have you read Ann Aguirre's ENCLAVE yet? Completely awesome. And I can't wait to read DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth--drooling with anticipation.).

All of those things are incredibly violent. The books I'm recommending to my students are filled with zombies, murder, oppressive governments, and dictatorial regimes. Teenagers are forced to battle to the death to win the HUNGER GAMES. Boys must run through their lives in THE MAZE RUNNER. Books are burned in FAHRENHEIT 451, and Big Brother is always watching in 1984. But my students love it -- the more high action, high stakes, the better.

As an adult, I can separate fact from fiction. I know there aren't really zombies shambling around who want to eat my brains (except...there are those zombie ants I was just reading about... *shiver*). People don't run around and blow everything up without very serious consequences. And no one would really allow their kids to fight to the death on live TV (God, I hope not!). But kids these days are bombarded by violent images, both real and made up, and I have to wonder: do they know which is which? And how much is too much?

U is for Unexplored

2011-04-25T19:17:00.000-04:00

It's said that all the stories have already been written. Eh, maybe. But there are a multitude of variations of those stories still unexplored. Isn't that why we anticipate reading new stories, have cover lust, create To-Be-Read lists, and spend hours writing? So we can see what's out there, get inspired and do our own thing? That's why I do all of it.

I see writers as armchair travelers, exploring the unexplored plots, bringing to life interesting characters, and opening readers' eyes to new and exciting places. We also get to play cruise director (cue Love Boat theme song), taking our readers on trips to lands both far and near through our stories. There are so many untold stories out there (even if they are just twists on those original plotlines) - that's part of the reason I'm both a serious bookaholic and writer. I want to visit places I've never been and revisit places I know well to see them in different ways.

So get out there (physically and mentally), journey to new places, and explore the unexplored.

T is for Tired

2011-04-23T14:43:00.000-04:00

Yep. Tired. There comes a time in everyone's life when they're just run down. Worn out. Ready to collapse. A lot of times (most of the time?), we have to plow through because there are people and critters depending on us and we have no time to drop into a worthless heap on the couch and veg in front of Doctor Who all day (new season starts tonight!! Yippee!!!).

But I've found that, if I don't take that time that my mind and body is so desperately crying out for, my body will force me to take time out. For example, earlier this year, around the end of February I think, I mentioned to my co-workers that I really needed a mental health day. I could feel it. My mind was acting up -- I'd forget words or call a student by the wrong name or blank on what I was trying to say -- and I knew I needed a day to recharge. But I put it off. And put it off some more because, really, it's a lot of work to be out when you're a teacher. Besides the copies, seating charts, instructions, class rolls, putting everything away so the room won't be trashed when you come back, you also have to have strong lesson plans to keep the little angels occupied and it can't be busy work because then they really won't do it. So, despite my really needing a day off, I didn't take it. Until my body rebelled and forced me to take time off. I was out of school for three and a half days (NEVER have I been out that long!) and sick for several weeks after that.

Okay, I promise I'm not trying to whine about being sick or tired or teaching. What I'm trying to say is, when you're run down and exhausted, listen to your mind and your body. Take some time to recharge. If you can't take a whole day, take an hour and do something for yourself even if it's something as simple as sitting down with a good book in your comfy chair (my fave way to recharge), dozing on the porch, or taking the kids or pups for a walk around the block in the spring sunshine.

How do you recharge when you're tired?

S is for Slang

2011-04-22T08:37:00.001-04:00

OMG
Fo-shizzle ma dizzle.

As if!

Gag me with a spoon

Peace, man

Hey, daddy-o

You're all wet.

That dame's got some gams on her.

When writing for young adults, it's hard not to use slang. Teenspeak is essentially slang, after all. But slang dates your writing more quickly than you may want, since it changes so quickly and changes from region to region and country to country.

The colorful slang above is American slang from 1940-2011 (I'm not even sure how much of it "translates" to other countries). If I told one of my students that they were all wet, they'd be completely baffled (and their minds might even go straight into the gutter with that one!). Or if I exclaimed, "Gag me with a spoon!", they'd wonder how I could speak if I was actually choking, rather than talking about something disgusting.

My point is, go easy on the slang when writing, YA or otherwise. Try to stay as timeless as possible in your word choice because words (included invented ones) fall in and out of favor super-fast in Teenworld. What's BEAST one day (totally awesome, according to my 8th graders, who are always proclaiming how "beast" they were in whatever game they just played) is beastly (hideous/total crap) the next.

R is for Rewind and Redo or Plow Ahead?

2011-04-21T17:16:00.000-04:00

Well, what started out as an "R" post turned into an "S" post, so I'm kind of winging it here. But that's writing, right? For me, I start out with a glimmer of an idea, which I jot down somewhere, adding to it when something else pops up. I take that idea and mold it into a plan, which becomes a very bare-bones outline for a novel. This whole process also involves creating simple character sketches as well as setting decisions and research. I know, this sounds planned and not winging it (or pantsing it). But stick with me.

Then I write. I follow the plan, taking my characters from point A to point B and so on. Until we skip a couple of letters. Or double back and redo one. Or escape the alphabet and the outline altogether. This always seems to happen to me. (No matter how meticulously or half-assed-ly I plan, I always seem to deviate from it.) It's at this point that I have to decide if I'm going to rewind to where my characters and I got off the writing train and redo it all so my story follows my original plan, or if I'm going to plow ahead. And I have to be honest, for the past couple of stories, I've plowed ahead, determined to finish the zero draft. I figure I can always go back and fix it later, if I want to.

There's something to be said for taking the road less traveled and following your instincts, rather than sticking to the script (and also for mixing metaphors!). It can take you, your characters, and your story to interesting and unforeseen places.

Are you a rewinder or a plow-ahead-er?

Q is for Quirks

2011-04-20T19:34:00.000-04:00

There's nothing I like more than characters with quirks. It's those little things that make them just a bit...odd. Different. Quirky. Like a kick-butt girl who faces death every day but curls up at night with her stuffed teddy from childhood. Or the hard-core punk rocker who captures a spider and puts it outside rather than smush it.

Quirks make characters more interesting. No one's perfect, after all, and those who pretend to be are just hiding something.

Do you have a favorite character quirk?

P is for Potatoes

2011-04-19T18:15:00.000-04:00

When I was growing up, my mom decided I needed to learn to play an instrument. Makes sense. After all, music is good for the brain and soul and, between the practice and lessons, would keep me out of mischief. At the time, she was way into genealogy and had worked her way over to my dad's side of the family, who are Scottish (yes, there are some English folks, too, but they're the black sheep of the Brebner tree. Kidding, Cousin Sue!). I wound up playing bagpipes.

You're wondering how this relates to potatoes, I know. Bear with me.

My pipe band was led by a wee Scotsman named Ian, a true meat-and-potatoes, hard-working, blue-collar guy. He firmly believed that a potato a day would help to speed up our fingers, improve our lung capacity, and give us the stamina we needed for our full three-to-four-hour practices. If we looked tired or were making a ton of mistakes, he'd ask in his lovely Scottish accent, "Did ye eat yer tatties?"

If we said no, he'd pounce on that answer and proclaim that, if we'd just eaten our potatoes, we wouldn't suck (he had much more colorful descriptions but they're not at all appropriate outside the practice hall.). If we said yes, he just knew we didn't have enough potatoes that week because they were the most important part of any meal. According to Ian, potatoes were a key tool for success.

(And here's how I relate potatoes to writing...)

Every time I sit down to write and the words won't come or the writing's not going as smoothly as I'd hoped, Ian's words echo in my head, "Mary, did ye eat yer tatties?" That helps me think about what I'm missing, and what I need to do to get down to business.

So, what are some of your key tools for success? And did you eat your tatties?

O is for Oh. My. God! Awesomeness!!

2011-04-18T00:51:00.004-04:00

OMG, do I love action, adventure, science fiction, and fantasy movies. Explosions, hot men, thrills and chills, hot men who also happen to be dirty from the explosions and lovely muscles from toting around heavy weapons, chase scenes, and the feeling I get as I plunge head-first into a whole new reality. Plus, hot, sweaty, muscle-y men running around saving the world with their butt-kicking, how-the-hell-do-you-run-in-those-high-heels girlfriends/wives/partners? Just awesome.

So, when I saw the trailers for these two movies, I squealed and (mentally) shouted, "OMG! Can't wait to see these movies!" Don't you just love summer movies?

First up is Cowboys and Aliens, staring Daniel Craig (*sigh* When he walked out of the water in that James Bond movie? *fans self*) and Harrison Ford (who I've always loved. Indiana Jones, I <3 you!).

And then, there's THOR! I mean, Thor, y'all. God of thunder (and rain and farming). With a big hammer. And awesome abs. Plus, it's directed by Kenneth Branaugh, who I adore, and has Natalie Portman in it. Though I completely hate this whole 3-D thing. I'll have to find a theater that shows it in old-school, regular 2-D. (And I feel like an old lady complaining about it. Darned those kids with their shaggy hair and rock-and-roll! The old ways are better! *shakes cane at 3-D crap*)

It's a double-O day! O is also for One Hundred Friends who follow my blog! Welcome to all of you, new and old. I hope I keep you entertained with my babbling about writing, books, my dogs, movies and TV shows, and other stuff (though mostly those first two). Thank you so much for your comments and support.

N is for Names

2011-04-16T12:47:00.000-04:00

Why is it so hard to name characters and novels? I agonize over it each time I have to name something. I'm revising my zero draft (groan) and I STILL don't have a title. I can't even think of something that sounds good. Right now, I'm titling my word documents "BoyStory" plus the revision date. *headdesk*

Now, when it comes to naming people, I'm a little better. There are a ton of great websites out there for baby names, complete with meanings, which really helps. Plus, there's always the phone book, which is fabulous for last names. I do tend to get tripped up if a minor character just pops up and I'm not prepared with a name but Bob is my catch-all name and I try to remember I can rename that character later.

Do you have naming issues? How do you find names for your characters or titles for your stories?

M is for Music

2011-04-15T16:35:00.001-04:00

I love music. Always have. My parents had a huge collection of records and an entire box of 45's and growing up, I loved to listen to Carol King, Joan Baez, The Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, and countless others from my parents' collection. During the cassette tape era, I mostly listened to mixed tapes, many created by other people (my bestie Jim made awesome mixed tapes), and the radio. We didn't invest too much money in them, mostly because I was in high school and my family was a blue collar, coupon clipping crew who didn't have a lot of money left over after food, housing and clothing.

Today, I have an extensive collection of CD's, though the songs on them are uploaded to both my computer and my iPod, as well as a decent collection of Mp3's. They're eclectic to say the least, and I totally love to put my iPod on shuffle and clean the house while rocking out to Dropkick Murphys, John Mayer, Joan Jett, Incubus, Strathclyde Police Pipe Band, and Katy Perry (among others).

But I can't write to music. At least not music that has lyrics and that includes songs I know by heart (mostly because I'll wind up singing to them and not writing, like I set out to do). I'm working on building a collection of instrumentals and am always on the lookout for tunes that contain more than just band/orchestra instruments (you know, violins, trumpets, piano). Instrumental tunes work better but I still get wrapped up in the music and lose my focus. Maybe it's because I played bagpipes in a pipe band for a kazillion years and still have to analyze a song when I hear it, I don't know.

It makes me a little sad that I can't create cool playlists for my scenes, like I've seen other authors do. Or have a song that really represents my main character, so much so that I write almost the entire book listening to it on repeat. When I do NaNoWriMo, I'm the nerdy one who has to put "silence" or "the sound of the trees and the traffic" in the "What music do you write to?" box. *sigh*

Oh well. Guess I'll just have to turn my music up even louder and sing along more obnoxiously (scaring the dogs and annoying the neighbors) next time I clean the house.

L is for Listen

2011-04-14T17:59:00.000-04:00

So this morning, I was standing outside my classroom door, muching on a banana (gotta get that potassium in--helps with the stress levels), listening to the eighth graders chattering away. I love to hear what they're interested in and what the hot topic of the day is (today it was the two new boys who started this week. Twins. The girls are thrilled. The boys, who now have more competition for the girls' attention, are not as thrilled.). Plus, it keeps my dialogue in my YA stories sharp and fresh, since I'm surrounded by teen-speak all day long.

Most all of their discussions involve gossip: news of who's crushing on whom, which pair broke up or got together, who's super-mad and ready to fight (Ooh, the tempers on these kids. Ready to throw down at the slightest perceived insult. That rage filter is just not developed at all on some of them.). Some are worried about their homework, the homework they didn't get done the night before and now they just know that Mrs. Smith is going to freak out at them (I resist the impulse to point out that, if they'd just done it last night instead of IMing until midnight, they wouldn't have to worry). Sometimes, there'll be a snippet of conversation about something they did in class, something they're excited about or interested in. (My ears always perk up then, just because it's rare for them to talk about much else but themselves and their friends. Or the latest movie/sporting event/video/TV show.)

There's always a lot of drama in middle and high school hallways. Friends and/or enemies fighting (both verbally and physically), somebody saying something mean/snarky to someone else, a boy/girl is caught talking/hugging/kissing someone other than his/her boy/girlfriend...someone drops some juicy gossip, and it spreads like wildfire.

Remember when you were in high school or middle school? Everything connected to you, in your social circle, was so very crucial, so critical to your immediate survival. One wrong word or action could completely ruin your day. One positive word or smile could make your week. Gossip makes the world go 'round for teens because it involves people in their little world. (Of course, the younger and more immature the teen, the smaller his/her world.)

If you're a YA writer (or parent or teacher or whatever), get out there and listen to what teens are talking about. If you can, actively listen--ask questions, talk to them. If you don't have easy access to a teen or two, head over to the mall or to a coffee shop and plant yourself near a pile of them. It's very educational. (and, at times, scarily eye-opening. You would not believe the amount of cursing I heard this morning! I almost spit out my banana at some of the language.)

Happy listening!

K is for Kudos

2011-04-13T18:48:00.000-04:00

You know, it's becoming a rare thing for companies to take responsibility when something that goes wrong with their product. They may give you an "Oh, so sorry" but nothing more. Sometimes, you're lucky if you even get an apology. That's why I have to give a shout-out and major kudos today to a company that stepped up when delivery went pear-shaped--Fannie May Chocolate Company. (Okay, have your laugh. I know I'm a choco-holic! I can't help it; it just makes me so very happy.)

The Fannie May store on
Michigan and Wacker in Chicago

Fannie May (not to be confused with Fannie Mae, the home loan folks) is a Chicagoland staple, with the first retail store opening in 1920 on LaSalle Street in downtown Chicago. From there, it spread all around Chicagoland and, in my family, it was considered a major treat to get a box from Fannie May. My mom always put Fannie May vanilla buttercream eggs in our Easter baskets (but never forgot to hide a couple eggs in the freezer for herself--she's smart & sneaky like that). Of course, the eggs when I was a kid were twice the size of today's eggs but they're still an Easter necessity. OMG--sooooo good. Melt-in-your-mouth, to-die-for good.

So, when I got the catalog in the mail last week, I had to order. I've ordered online before--Christmas presents (my parents don't really trust the whole ordering online process so it's the perfect present!) and, of course, the ubiquitous Easter eggs--and never had a problem before, no matter when I ordered. So I trusted that my yummy chocolate would arrive safely. Unfortunately, they met with a very, very sad fate. They melted.

There were a number of coinciding circumstances that led to the chocolate eggs' sad fate including missing cool-packs in the box, unseasonably warm weather, and being the last on the UPS delivery route. I was so devastated, I did something I very rarely do--I sent an email to customer service. It was a very polite email, talking about my sadness over the eggs' fate and my undying love of Fannie May chocolates while describing the pool of buttercream goo into which the eggs had melted.

The next day, I got a short but polite email from Michelle in Customer Service apologizing for the inconvenience and giving me the details on a replacement order. Wow. Thank you so much, Fannie May. You're an absolutely fantastic company who I love (mmmm, chocolate buttercream), and I truly appreciate you taking my email to heart. Kudos to you for great customer service and making me a very happy chocolate lover. My family's Easter baskets thank you.

And for everyone who's never had Fannie May chocolate, go. Try some. Order it online. Personally, I suggest the light and dark chocolate buttercreams and the Trinidads. They're my favorite. You'll thank me.

J is for Jealousy

2011-04-12T18:04:00.000-04:00

The Green-Eyed Monster himself

We've all felt it. The Green-Eyed Monster who sneaks up on us and makes us growl and howl in dismay. "How did Mr. So-and-so get that and I didn't?" or "Why does Ms. Fancypants deserve that? I'm as good as her." Jealousy sucks and, personally, it can make us feel very inferior or unwanted or unloved, depending on when that mean little monster makes its appearance.

However, jealousy can be an incredibly effective emotion for your characters. Jealousy can propel people to do crazy things--murder, theft, destruction of property. Just think about how much fun you can have driving your characters insane with jealousy!

Just look what happens to Carrie Underwood's crazy jealousy when her (ex)boyfriend cheats on her!

I is for I...I...I got nothin'

2011-04-11T18:12:00.000-04:00

Yeah, brain dead today. It was the first day back to school after Spring Break and the kiddies were wild. I (well, all of us in the 8th grade) really hoped they'd settle down just a tad but, alas, it was not to be. *sigh* Guess those hormones and the fabulous weather are just too much for the little buggers.

So, I'm bailing on this day. Maybe I can get some writing done. That'd salvage it!

Sorry, y'all but I got nothin' (except, I did complete the letter I!! heehee).

H is for Hum-I-Wonders

2011-04-09T15:49:00.000-04:00

The beginning of every story starts with a Hum-I-Wonder. It's that saying to yourself, "Hummm, I wonder...", that can lead to a bright, shiny kernel of an idea and a fabulous story.

And you never know what's going to spark that idea. Could be you catch a glimpse of a young mother walking up the steps of her house, overloaded with groceries and other bags, a toddler and a baby in her arms, and a dog on a leash pulling to get free to chase a squirrel. Driving on down the road, you do a Hum-I-Wonder as, in your mind's eye, you see her suddenly drop the bags and plop down on the front stoop clutching the kids to her. Maybe she just got some terrible news. Maybe she's a single mom and life overwhelmed her. Maybe she's an stay-at-home mom who has to go back to work to make ends meet and she doesn't want to leave her kids. Who knows? But there could be a great story there. You just have to take the time to go hummm.

So, let's hear it for those Hum-I-Wonders! (Plus, when you're out doing your book tour and someone asks you how you come up with your ideas, you don't have to go into a long, detailed explanation or hem and haw about how first you thought of this and then you thought of that... You can just say, "Well, they're Hum-I-Wonders." Easy Peasy! *snort*)

G is for GAH!!

2011-04-08T04:45:00.007-04:00

Image from FUTURAMA (Comedy Central)

Going nowhere.

Giving up.

Ganking.

GAH!!

I'm at the point in rewriting this second draft when I want to rip my hair out and scream. Actually, I did growl a lot. Scared the dogs, who are now cowering under the bed.

This story's given me nothing but grief. I can't seem to get a handle on the plot which seems to get more complicated each time I attempt to simplify it. The characters are incredibly uncooperative. The setting refuses to be described. Gah! Stupid story. (Actually, today would have worked better if it was a "W" day for "whining" or a "V" day, considering I can hear the smallest violin in the world squeaking out a sad dirge for me and my writing woes.)

I've devoted way too much time to this story, especially with all these other stories battering away at my brain, stories that I like more (at the moment). So I'm thinking, for the time being I'm going to put this one away in the trunk. Oh, it may come back out (and it probably will because I think it has great potential. Possibly.) but this story and I are not getting along so well right now. I think we need a period of separation. Perhaps I'll try again in a couple of weeks. Or months. Or years. *kicks manuscript* Stupid novel. Why won't you work?

F is for Funny

2011-04-07T11:05:00.000-04:00

It's tough to be funny, especially in writing. Comedians have the opportunity to change things up if their jokes aren't going over well with the audience. TV sitcoms can try again the next week. Novels, however, that's a completely different story. There are, of course, those who can squeeze funny out of just about any situation. I love to read their thoughts and humorous takes on the world around them.

Some of my favorite funny writers (some published, some soon-to-be published):

Tawna Fenske: A romance writer with a risque view of the world. Her first novel, MAKING WAVES, is due out this August and I can't wait to read it.

Jen Lancaster: OMG, I love this girl. She's got several memoirs out already (Her titles alone are awesome: BITTER IS THE NEW BLACK? Yes, please.) and her first work of fiction, WISH YOU WERE HERE, is due out in May.

Lilith Saintcrow: She writes kick-ass Urban Fantasy novels (Dante Valentine, Jill Kismet, Strange Angels--all awesome!) and, in her spare time, entertains her readers with stories about Neo!Squirrel and his backyard shenanigans. Hi-larious.

Jackson Pierce: Her vlogs are quick and witty and, whether she's teaching her followers how to slice a mango or talking about breaking her ankle at circus class, they're well worth watching. Plus, her novels, like SISTERS RED (out in paperback!) are excellent.

Allie: I don't know much about her except she's hysterical. If you haven't visited her over at Hyperbole and a Half, you're missing out. She hasn't posted anything new in a while but read her archive. So worth it.

There are tons of other funny folks out there but these are my current favorite blogs. Any others I should be following?

(I hope there aren't too many errors! I don't have time to edit as I'm meeting my funny friend for lunch and I've got to book. Have a great day, y'all!)

E is for EVERY DAY

2011-04-06T10:54:00.000-04:00

Write EVERY DAY. It doesn't have to be much -- even 100 words in your story counts when you only have a couple of minutes in your day to write. It's part of the BICFOK theory (that's Butt In Chair, Fingers On Keyboard), and it's proven.

I'm still working on the EVERY DAY part of the equation. After a long day filled with sugar-hyped, hormonal teenagers, I just want to face-plant on the couch (especially during the last quarter of the year. Between testing, freak outs about passing, projects, field trips, and paperwork...*headdesk* Yes, I'm currently counting the days until the end of this school year.). Some days, I cave to the siren song of the couch (which means I don't exercise either, another thing I'm attempting to integrate into my everyday life), and some days I get what I want and NEED to done. Right now, those days are about 50/50. I'm working to get the ratio closer to 80/20 or, ideally, 90/10. As always, a work in progress!

So, what about you: are you an EVERY DAY writer (or runner or painter or whatever)? Or are you more of a work in progress, like me?

D is for DO's and DON'Ts

2011-04-05T13:16:00.000-04:00

When I started writing again after a long hiatus (which involved going back to school and then into a different profession), I was a bright-eyed innocent, my heart brave and my intentions shiny. I was going to be a published author. I had a great story that I knew everyone would love. I'd re-realized my dream and was going to achieve it, darn it all! So, I wrote/revised/edited a totally awesome novel in a couple of months and queried a small pile of agents. And waited (while starting my next story). And, while there was a tad bit of interest, no one took me up on my offer of fabulosity.

Why? I fretted. What did I do wrong?

Determined to answer that question, I delved into the online world of writing (one I had merely skated over before) and discovered a gold mine of information out there on the web for writers. The do's and don'ts of writing, so to speak. Magical formulas to follow so agents (and then publishers) would want to read my manuscript. Things I should and shouldn't do with my setting, characters, dialogue, plot, conflicts, descriptions, literary elements; when to introduce conflict, what I should and shouldn't say in YA, taboos, where not to start the plot, how to avoid a sagging middle, avoiding stereotypes... It went (and still goes) on and on and on.

It was, for the most part, great advice from fabulous writers, editors, agents, and publishers (of course, there's a lot of junk out there, too. Just be careful who you get your advice from!). Sometimes, they agreed about something: Don't start your story with a dream sequence! Drastically minimize your use of adverbs! Other times, they gave conflicting advice: You must have a ton of beta readers and critique partners--I have over twenty! versus I only have one person (or none) read my manuscript before it leaves my hands.

Too much advice, too many DO's and DONT'S and my head felt like it was going to explode. My writing dragged to a halt. I started worrying about every little sentence -- every word -- and what what wrong with it, how to make it right. I rewrote paragraphs a kazillion times. I started and stopped several stories because I couldn't seem to get past those voices that screamed, "Make sure you do this or the plot will go to hell!" or "Don't do that! A reader won't read past that sentence if you do."

I got so caught up in the DO's and DON'Ts of writing, I couldn't WRITE. I had a major advice traffic jam in my brain and I wasn't getting anywhere, no matter how hard I laid on the horn or how frantically I switched lanes.

So, I backed off the research and the reading a zillion writing advice blogs every day. I let what I'd learned process in my subconscious. The traffic jam let up. I could FINALLY write more freely again. I was back on track.

What did I learn from all this? The writing -- getting the words down on the page and creating the best darned story you possibly can -- is the most important part. Everything else can be fixed. Later.

C is for Charleston

2011-04-04T06:31:00.000-04:00

Today, I'm headed down to Charleston with my mom. It's a bit of a ritual for us to take a little trip over my breaks and Charleston is one of our very favorite destinations (especially since it's only about an hour and a half away from Columbia!).

This time, we're headed down there with a mission -- Mom wants to shop at Forever 21, which just opened a branch there. I've been teasing Mom about returning to high school (mentally, that is) since she and Dad retired down here about ten years ago and I'm thinking this fascination with a store called "Forever 21" pretty much cinches the deal for me. Yay--now I can tease her even more! Actually, I think it's pretty awesome that my parents are totally enjoying their retirement. After all, isn't that one of the reasons why we work so hard all our lives? So we can enjoy retirement?

Anyway, Charleston. This is the perfect time of year to visit. The dogwoods are out as are the azaleas. Tomorrow's supposed to be high 70's/low 80's. Plus, it's not a typical break week, as most schools were either out the last week of March or will be out after Good Friday. I love to stroll down the streets and look at the gardens. It gets me inspired (even though I have kind of a black thumb. Which comes mostly from not watering. I mean, who wants to be out there holding a hose when it's a hundred degrees out? Not me. I'll be on the lake.).

Is there any place that you return to again and again?

B is for BAD INFLUENCES

2011-04-02T10:53:00.000-04:00

I know, you thought I was going to talk about books, didn't you? I am, after all, a book addict. But that just seemed too easy. (And, lately, I seem to be doing things the hard way.)

So, BAD INFLUENCES. When I was a teen, my mother was always going on about BAD INFLUENCES. How, when one of my friends talked me into cutting school the day before Senior Skip Day so we could have a four-day weekend, she was a BAD INFLUENCE (okay, so I did get busted and had to go to school with a handful of other losers on Skip Day). How another friend talked me into calling home with a story as to why I just had to stay where I was because I didn't have a ride home (yeah, big party I was dying to attend). I can see Mom shaking her head and muttering, "That Senga, BAD INFLUENCE."

To be fair, Senga was a bit of a bad influence. She was what one might call a "wild child", with very little restriction and a whole lot of freedom. With her, it was mainly boys and alcohol, nothing overly illegal or too destructive. And, while my other friend wasn't really a bad influence, she did push me past my comfort zone, which was pretty easy to do, since I was pretty much a goody-goody.

Personally, I think having a bad influence around isn't always a terrible thing, especially in your novel. They push characters to do not-so-good things, create conflict and drama, and generally stir things up.

So, what about you: did you have a BAD INFLUENCE in your life? What about your novel?

A is for April Madness!

2011-04-01T02:54:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I joined this bloggy challenge thing, hoping to get myself more inspired when it came to writing for my personal blog. While March and May are usually super-crazy for me, April is a bit of a breather in between those two testing/field trip/testing/conferencing/grading-until-my-fingers-fall-off months. Perfect timing.

I know it's called the A to Z Blogging Challenge but I'm renaming it

April Madness!

(the renaming is purely for my own personal entertainment. What can I say, I'm easily amused.)

Anyway, I'm kind of thinking I'll babble on about writing and such but if you have any questions or suggestions, I welcome them! Hope you enjoy APRIL MADNESS...er, um.. the A to Z Blogging challenge.

Happy Spring!

2011-03-20T15:18:00.000-04:00

Happy Spring, everyone! I hope your weather has been fantastic and continues to improve. Holy cow, I can't tell you how much I disliked this winter - I do not do well in the cold. Not at all. It makes me exceptionally crabby and unproductive.

Isn't this a cool perspective?
If this pic is yours, let me know so I can
give you credit! It's beautiful.

What is it about nice weather that motivates? Is it the sunshine? The soft breeze? The colorful flowers and greenery poking through the brown dirt (or red, as it is in my neck of the woods)? I'm not sure but it certainly gets me moving (see, I even wrote a blog post after a many-day hiatus. A hiatus that was completely unintended. Time just slipped away from me!).

It's even got me working on not one but TWO writing projects! The first is actually my NaNo project, which needs a complete overhaul, including a new beginning AND a new ending. And a whole bunch of fixin' in the middle. (eep!) Plus, I'm researching and plotting my next story. I'm trying my hand at a mystery, and I'm pretty darned excited about it. I've always loved mysteries but have been a bit too... intimidated, I guess, to attempt one. Forget that, I finally said to myself. I've read a zillion mysteries, watched a kabillion mystery shows, I can do this! So, we'll see if I'm right. I hope so. I'm really liking my main character and her family - they seem like a crazy bunch (which is always fun to write).

And, to keep myself motivated writing-wise, I'm doing the A to Z Blogging Challenge, in which I'll write a post for every day in April except for Sundays. And each day's theme matches a letter of the alphabet. While I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to write for twenty-six posts (as opposed to the very comfortable once a week thing I've got going). As of today, there are almost 550 bloggers of every shape and size taking on the challenge, so it should be interesting!

Care to join me? (*snort* that's like asking if y'all are nuts. Wait, are you? Good! Wanna join me?)

Yes, I am a Book Addict...

2011-03-05T20:05:00.000-05:00

...and there is no cure! (God, I love books. Don't you?) However, I need to chill a bit on the book buying, which has been out of control lately. But So. Many. Good. Books! I mean, check out my TBR shelves:

Oh, wait, that's not all...

Yeah. And that doesn't even include the books on my Kindle! I'm telling you...no more books until I get these shelves tamed! (Yeah, right.) I just started UNEARTHLY by Cynthia Hand on my Kindle and, so far, very different than most of the angel books out there so I'm really enjoying it.

Anyway, how's your TBR pile(s) looking? Anything in particular that's on the top of your TBR pile?

The Hunger Games Movie

2011-02-27T16:57:00.000-05:00

Y'all, I'm so excited about The Hunger Games movie! I do a dystopian unit with my students at the end of the year and The Hunger Games is one of the books they can choose to read (of course! How could I leave HG off the list?). They LOVE HG--the whole series, in fact. I know Lionsgate's out there looking for the perfect Katniss and personally, I think they should cast the YouTube girl!

You know the YouTube Katniss, right? She's awesome--and totally made me cry. Plus, there's a new one with her and Peeta (oh, how I do love a British accent on Peeta, even if he isn't supposed to be British. Makes him seem even more adorable and vulnerable.).

Here's the one that made me cry (it gives away a huge scene between Katniss and Rue so, if you haven't read it yet (um, what's wrong with you?!? kidding.), you may not want to watch it):

And here's the Katniss and Peeta scene:

LOVE! Thank you, MAINSTAY PRODUCTIONS for putting these together! (Ooh, those Mainstay boys are adorable and oh-so-very talented.) More, please?

Too Much of a Good Thing?

2011-02-20T12:04:00.000-05:00

This past Christmas, my parents bought their granddogs a plethora of toys (there are no grandchildren in the picture, so they shower their affections on the dogs. The dogs love it. The parents, I'm afraid, would prefer a grandkid. Sorry, folks. Love you!). Two long monkeys that, when someone chews on their heads, break into shrieking monkey laughter. A sixteen-squeaker cow. Cheweez (chicken flavored, of course). A fuzzy hedgehog we immediately named Fred. A green dog almost as long as Fiona. Rawhide twists. My pups were in heaven, tearing through the packaging like toddlers on a sugar high.

Once all the presents were unwrapped, the dogs bounced from toy to toy, picking up one and giving it a toss or a squeak before moving on to the next one. Finally, with toys strewn around the living room and rawhide treats buried in couch cushions, the dogs collapsed into exhausted heaps in the middle of the floor.

Too much. Too many choices. Too much awesomeness.

It's the same thing with ideas. You'd think that having great ideas for amazing (well, in my mind, anyway) plots would be a good thing. But what happens when you're swamped with them? One right after another, before you even have time to catch your breath? Or write the first story? Yeah, it's not great.

I promise, I'm not complaining about having ideas--far from it. I love those shiny new ideas that come to you in a weird flash of inspiration when you least expect it. They're gifts from the universe. But they can be entirely too distracting when they come in multiples. And, unfortunately, I'm easily distracted lately.

So, how to focus? First, pick ONE of those lovely, shiny ideas. It's hard. They're all so pretty. They all have the potential to be awesome (hopefully). But the concentration (my focus) has to be on one, at least for a first draft.

Second, well, there is no second. That's it. Make a choice. Stick with it, not allowing yourself to be completely distracted by those shiny ideas (I've started a new writing journal to jot down, you know, stuff. So I won't be distracted. It doesn't always work but it helps quite a bit.). Write it. Move on to the next one.

As you can see, I'm not one who's currently able to successfully juggle projects. Maybe that will change, as I write more. Probably not. But it's all good, just as long as I keep writing.

What about you all: How do you focus? Can you focus on multiple projects?

Steppin' Out of that Comfort Zone

2011-02-12T15:12:00.001-05:00

We all have our comfort zones. At home, mine happens to be ensconced in my big chair; dressed in a t-shirt and yoga pants; with my computer, a book, or a dog (sometimes all three). Usually the TV's on, since I'm a junky. When I'm at work, it's walking around my classroom, helping students, joking with them, making sure they're doing what they're supposed to do. I don't use the overhead lights because they're too bright and give me a headache, so the room's lit by funky lamps from Target. There are pillows and beanbags for comfy reading. Yep, both at home and at work, I'm all about being comfortable in my environment.

But yesterday, I was thrown out of my comfort zone onto the hard, wooden floor of the basketball court.

Let me back up just a tad. Every year about this time, both teachers and students go a little nutso. We get on each others' nerves. There are more fights between the kids. Teachers snap and gripe a bit more. So, in an effort to blow off some steam, we have a little competition. Staff against the student basketball team. In a game of basketball. With the whole school looking on.

Yeah. I don't play basketball. I'm much more of a running-yoga-beach-volleyball-for-fun kind of girl. Not competitive sports. But I was recruited because I'm, well, tall. Yep--those exact words were fed to me when I protested, saying I don't know how to play. Not at all. Never played, except in middle school when forced to for a grade.

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous. Crowds are not my thing, especially when I know I will make a fool of myself in front of them. But, once I got into the spirit of the thing, it was fun. I played like crap--all over the court, like a spider monkey (my brother's laughing suggestion when I whined on Facebook). And those girls played hard! However, in the end, triumph was ours--staff WON! Woot, baybee, woot!

I did enjoy myself. Not that I'm going to run out and join a league but it was interesting nonetheless. Plus, it got me out of my comfort zone, which is always good. There's nothing like new experiences, especially those that push you places you might not go on your own.

So, what about you? Been out of your comfort zone lately?

What freaks you out?

2011-02-04T17:36:00.009-05:00

I seem to be freaking my self out a lot lately. Right now, for instance, I'm watching Doctor Who (always awesome--this one is with the newest Doctor who, despite my worries, is absolutely adorable and Amy Pond makes a fabulous sidekick). It's the one with the Angels. Do you know about the Angels?

With Doctor Who #10 (British hottie David Tennant), there was a great Angels episode called BLINK that absolutely freaked me out.

CREEPY! I swear, I didn't blink the entire episode. Now, that's the kind of horror and scariness that I "like" (I put it in quotes because I don't seek it out but I do like it when I see it. I'm not so much with the blood and guts, unless it's one of those action flicks where everything blows up and he

ads explode and all that. That's not really scary to me. But those shows and movies and books with more of the anticipation, the dread, the heart-pounding question of what's around the corner? That's what freaks me out.

The Angels return later with Doctor Who #11. And there are more of them in this episode...

As for creepy, freak-me-out books?

TRAPPED by Michael Northrop

The day the blizzard started, no one knew that it was going to keep snowing for a week. That for those in its path, it would become not just a matter of keeping warm, but of staying alive....

Scotty and his friends Pete and Jason are among the last seven kids at their high school waiting to get picked up that day, and they soon realize that no one is coming for them. Still, it doesn't seem so bad to spend the night at school, especially when distractingly hot Krista and Julie are sleeping just down the hall. But then the power goes out, then the heat. The pipes freeze, and the roof shudders. As the days add up, the snow piles higher, and the empty halls grow colder and darker, the mounting pressure forces a devastating decision....

When I first picked this book up, I thought it looked good but what I didn't know was that I'd read it right before a big ole snowstorm. Granted, we don't EVER get enough snow in South Carolina to completely trap me in a building so that if I went outside I'd freeze to death but still. Oh, and then the crazy-ass snow storm tore across the entire country and, suddenly it didn't seem so implausible.

Then I read this:

CRYER'S CROSS by Lisa McMann

The community of Cryer’s Cross, Montana (population 212) is distraught when high school freshman Tiffany disappears without a trace. Already off-balance due to her OCD, 16-year-old Kendall is freaked out seeing Tiffany’s empty desk in the one-room school house, but somehow life goes on... until Kendall's boyfriend Nico also disappears, and also without a trace. Now the town is in a panic. Alone in her depression and with her OCD at an all-time high, Kendall notices something that connects Nico and Tiffany: they both sat at the same desk. She knows it's crazy, but Kendall finds herself drawn to the desk, dreaming of Nico and wondering if maybe she, too, will disappear...and whether that would be so bad. Then she begins receiving graffiti messages on the desk from someone who can only be Nico. Can he possibly be alive somewhere? Where is he? And how can Kendall help him? The only person who believes her is Jacian, the new guy she finds irritating...and attractive. As Kendall and Jacian grow closer, Kendall digs deeper into Nico's mysterious disappearance only to stumble upon some ugly—and deadly—local history. Kendall is about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried.

Again, very creepy. Old desk. Whispery voices. Disappearing kids. *shudder* Fast-paced to the point of almost being frantic near the end, the suspense builds right along with the mystery. Loved it! Want more!

Any creepy story recommendations?

Total Immersion into TeenWorld

2011-01-29T18:41:00.000-05:00

For the past three days (and nights), I've been completely immersed in teen world: Forty-three teens ranging in ages from 13-15 on a field trip to Disney World. And let me tell you, I'm completely exhausted.

You may know I teach 8th grade, so I'm surrounded by teens all day long and am pretty aware of teen life (they don't whisper as quietly as they think they do, and I hear a LOT). But, on a field trip away from parents and school, it's a totally different experience. We drove down on a bus, traveling at night (this is NOT fun--try getting enough sleep to function the next day on a bus. Not pretty.) and jumping right into the fun at the World of the Mouse (we did all three parks--the Magic Kingdom itself, Epcot and Hollywood Studios). Mornings, we learned about physics & design, technology, and careers. Afternoons, we got to play in the park and, during that time, I was immersed in TeenWorld.

I had a group of 13 guys and girls in the morning and 10 girls in the afternoon. While the morning ran rather like school, the afternoons...well, they were quite different. Even though the girls chose to be in this particular group before the trip, they weren't all friends. By the second day, they'd broken into several distinct packs: four friends who thought they were totally hot stuff, three relatively "normal" girls, one who wanted to be with the boys (two in particular), one who hung with a lot of different groups though she preferred to be alone (not allowed in this case--rules were that she had to be with at least one other person when not with me), and one who refused to leave her mother's side (her mom was a chaperone). But these weren't necessarily cliques--they were more fluid than that.

It was fascinating to watch the dynamics of the different groups over the course of the three days because they shifted constantly. Crushes developed; hearts were broken. Guys got into arguments over things that seemed life-or-death, were ready to kill each other one second and best friends the next. Girls judged, hugged, supported, flirted.

There's an amazing amount of gossip within teen-world. For example (one of about a zillion from those few days, trust me), because the girls had to complete a scavenger hunt in the afternoon, I chose two leaders for the day (one for the map and one to run the camera). It was pretty random, since I only knew three of the ten of them. But one of the girls (who didn't raise her hand when I asked for leaders, btw) got all upset because she was getting "bossed around". Then, when we split up, she gossiped to everyone she ran into about how horrible those girls were and how they kept trying to boss her around. Some listened, some didn't but the gossip still spread. Amazing.

Everything goes so very fast in TeenWorld. An hour there is like a couple of days in the adult world. Lives completely changed within half a day. It was an experience and, even though you may curse me afterwords, I highly suggest if you ever get the chance to chaperone an overnight trip with teens and you write YA or MG, you do it. It's not just people-watching, it's learning about teen lives in a way you've never experienced. Even if you live with a teen (hang in there, parents--the terrible teens don't last forever), it's so very different when they're away from their everyday structure of family and school.

Now, excuse me while I go take a nap. Teen life is exhausting.

And lo, down came the snow...

2011-01-15T08:54:00.000-05:00

And it stayed. My adopted state of South Carolina got lots of snow on Monday (well, lots for us--about six inches). This heavy snow was topped off with a sprinkle of freezing rain, just enough to form a nice crust on top of all that snow. Then it melted a bit and refroze, with a thicker layer. And then again and again.

Mini Southern SnowGirl

My poor little state was paralyzed. We don't have many plows, and the ones we do have are makeshift trucks with plows strapped on. We have a few spreaders so some major streets and highways got a coating of sand, which helped a little.

Four snow days. Four. Of course, there's a good reason for that. While much of my district is suburban, there are a lot of rural bits with dirt roads. No plows. No sanding. Just pure ice. Yards turned into skating rinks from all the melting and refreezing. Not pretty. However, I am so not looking forward to making up those days. *shiver* Eighth graders. Testing. Spring. Hormones. Very, very ugly unless we have little breaks from each other every month. *double shiver*

There's still snow and ice on the ground and it's Saturday. While some of you may be shaking your heads and saying, "Well, duh, it's winter. What'd you expect?", I have to tell you the snow usually melts within a day or two. Driving around, I feel like I'm back up in Chicago after the first storm of the season.

However, there was some good that came of these snow days: IDEAS. With not much to do except torment the dogs and watch daytime television (thank all that is good we didn't lose power!), my brain was searching for new. And found it! Possibilities include:
A high-interest historical, a bit guy-centric
A creepy/funny satire-type story
A romance
An action/adventure that involves treasure

If only I could clone myself so I could write all of these at the same time! Ooh, there's an idea. Clones...

The Bad, the Good, and the Staring

2011-01-06T19:20:00.000-05:00

The Bad: My brain has been frozen lately. No new writing, no new ideas. I finished my zero draft of my YA action/adventure and am overwhelmed by the amount of work it's going to take to make it presentable. So, like my Mac, my little rainbow of doom has been swirling indefinitely (for those of you PC users, that's the same thing as the hourglass when it gets stuck turning and turning and turning...).

The Good: Until it became unstuck. I'm not sure what it was--a blog post I read, something someone said, something I saw on TV--but the rainbow of doom stopped swirling and let me click on a new document (okay, enough with the computer metaphor, I promise). Ideas, they are a-flowing! Holy cats, I do love a good brainstorm. Hopefully, there will be something in the storm that I can use--what am I saying. Of course there will be! (see, resolution of the year: be more positive)

The Staring: My pup, Finnegan, has gotten into the habit of sitting on the ottoman and staring at me. Sometimes, it's because he wants to snuggle. Sometimes, he wants to go outside and patrol his yard (and probably eat whatever the cats left for him. Or anything else he can find out there because he's a fuzzy trash can. Yes, he's disgusting.). Sometimes, I'm certain he stares because he knows it freaks me out.

Finn of the Cocked Head and Princess Fiona.

Dogs. They're totally weird.

2011 To Do List

2011-01-01T12:55:00.000-05:00

I love lists and am a list-maker at heart. So, I enjoy making New Year's resolutions but, as it happens with 99% of my other lists, a lot of it carries over from one list (or year) to another. I do have some new to-do's to add to the list but many of my resolutions are carry-overs from last year (oh, and the year before...and the one before that...).

This year, I will strive to:

Write daily, even if it's just a blog post. I'm not setting a word count goal but I really need to get in the daily writing habit, not just writing when inspiration hits. This is one of my biggest goals this year and one I really don't want to let slide.
Find a crit group and/or some crit partners. I do have a couple of beta readers (finally!) but I need to find some people who can delve a bit deeper into my writing and who I can do the same for. Which brings me to my next goal...
Be braver. I need to put myself out there--on Vera Kay, comment on writer's blogs, wherever--but I want to dive deep into the writing community, not just skate along the surface. I'm committed to my writing and want to take it to another level. I've written several trunk novels and I want to come out of the trunk, so to speak.
Make my writing blog more interesting. I'm aiming to post two to three times a week about a variety of topics. I'd like this blog to be fun and interactive (I love comments and need to be better about responding!), something people enjoy reading. I do not want to be a Gloomy Gus and whine about how hard writing is (even when it is hard)--and, I swear, I can be funny, damnit!
And finally (urg, this one follows me from year to year...as it does with many people), eat more healthfully and exercise consistently. Yeah, I know, you're surprised by this one, aren't you? Stuffing my face with cookies and avoiding veggies has done nothing for me. Time to get more serious about it--just because I'm a single chick who hates to cook doesn't mean I can't find ways to feed myself like an adult (I can't have cereal for dinner every night or depend on frozen meals to get me through). And I really need to get fit. I do enjoy running but, again, it's all about being consistent. Which is hard for me.

Well, that's it. Nothing on my to-do list is impossible. I just need to do it. And that's the rub, isn't it? Life intrudes on good intentions and it's so easy to fall back into old habits. But I'm hoping, by putting my list out into the blogosphere, it will keep me on track and, even though most of those to-do's will follow me into upcoming years, I'll get what I need to done.

To all of you out there, Happy New Year--I wish you the best of luck in all you wish to achieve this year!
Happy Reading and Writing in 2011-
Mary

How Did It Get This Far?

2010-12-27T10:09:00.000-05:00

Um...how is it the end of 2010? Did this year go really, really fast--or is it just me? Wow. I can't believe it. As usual, around this time of year, I'm thinking about what went well, what I'll keep doing, and what I want to change. I'm not quite ready to put those musings out there in the world (that makes them more real, yanno?) but I will have a year's end post, so I can ring in the new year with good intentions that will, hopefully, stick!

So, what about you--are you a resolution maker or do you prefer to take it one day at a time?

Oh, forgot to tell you! Mom and I had a great time on our cruise. For the most part, the weather was good (I got a little toasted on our last day at sea, since I was out in the sunshine reading most of the day. Go figure.), the company was fun, and it was an experience. Five days was more than enough--that last night, our entire table was ready to get home.

In the cabin, reading ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis (awesome book, btw--pre-order it! Ignore the crap hair & massive forehead on that chick, er, me...):

In Nassau, Bahamas (not overly pretty. Guess I was expecting...more. But it was still fun!):

Senor Frog's in Nassau (yes, it's a chain but look at that view! And the color of the water--perfection!):

The girls from our table (we lucked out with an excellent crew of people to hang out with. And, yes, there were many umbrella drinks. Hey, we were on vacay!):

We liked Atlantis on Paradise Island--the aquarium was particularly cool:

Now, get crackin' on those New Year's Resolutions (that will go by the wayside as soon as life gets hectic, i.e. within the first three weeks of 2011...for me, at least!).

Winter Break!

2010-12-17T10:50:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited--today I'm leaving from Charleston on a five-day cruise to the Bahamas! First cruise, first time to the Bahamas. I know it won't be that warm but 60's & 70's are much better than the cold temps we've had around here lately.

I'm also really excited about taking a break from my regularly scheduled life. Sometimes, we just need a change of scenery, right? It's especially important when you've hit a huge speed bump and your mental engine just isn't strong enough to drive you over it...and, yes, I speak of writing. For me, it's dumping the first 1/3 of my WIP, adding details and bringing both the characters and setting to life. For others, it's organizing thoughts, working on dialogue, or just taking a mental break to recharge.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the recharge and coming back to my WIP refreshed and ready to rock and roll!

What about you--how do you recharge? What's your favorite place to visit?

Back next week with writing resolutions!

Change of Scenery, Change of Setting

2010-12-12T11:53:00.000-05:00

On Friday, I'm leaving the not-so-sunny-or-warm South and cruising on down to the Bahamas. Yay--my first cruise and first time in the Islands (of any kind). Today's a kind of cold, rainy and miserable day. One of those where you just want to stay inside, curled up in front of the fire with a good book. So, I'm thrilled to have a change of scenery.

And, of course, this change of scenery got me thinking about setting.

I've always loved to travel. Sometimes traveling involves a car, sometimes a plane, and sometimes a boat (yay again! I'm excited, what can I say?). As a writer, we may explore places that are very familiar to us or, perhaps, we're more interested in exotic locales.

My current WIP (the one I just finished the zero draft for) is set in Paris, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I've done a ton of research, finding just the right locations around the city for my characters to get lost in and to explore.

Google Earth and Google Maps are so completely awesome because you can really see the area and practically explore every section of the world as if you were there. Then there's Lonely Planet, one of my favorite places to visit when I'm dreaming of traveling somewhere. Of course, you do miss out on the sounds, smells and the actual feel of the place but it's a start. Plus, if you actually visited the place at some point, those pictures can bring all that flooding back.

However, I'm thinking of changing the setting. Huge, I know. But, after finishing the zero draft, I've realized it doesn't have quite the right sense to it--Paris is the City of Light, the city of l'amour. I need some place a bit...rougher, I think. A bit less lovey-dovey. Or, maybe I need to explore the seedier side of Paris.

I'm going to ponder this possible change of setting while enjoying my change of scenery...

Young Writers Rock On!

2010-12-03T19:40:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, you just have those moments when someone surprises you. Well, Tuesday of this week, my students shocked the heck out of me. I think I told you that my four classes were doing NaNo, right? Well, Tuesday, they turned in their final word count as they left the room, most of them handing me their exit slips (with their numbers) to me with a little smile. They were proud and excited to share what they'd accomplished.

And, darned right they should be! After tallying word counts for all four classes, their total word count came out to almost 700,000 words. One hundred eighth graders and nearly three-quarters of a million words between them. I was gobsmacked (to use my favorite English expression). Completely and totally bowled over.

These are the kids who freaked out when I gave them their first writing assignment of the year--a 250-word letter. The kids who noticeably paled when I told them about NaNo and what we'd be working on during November. Kids who vocally claim to hate reading and writing (yes, my heart clenches when I hear that).

Seven. Hundred. Thousand. Words.

And many of them are still going, begging to keep writing because they're not done with their stories.

This is our next generation of writers. I can't wait to see what they create (but, holy cow, I hope their grammar improves. I'm working on that, I swear.).

If you can, help support NaNo's Young Writer's Program in any way possible. They do fantastic work connecting young writers across the world and inspiring them to reach for more than they ever thought possible.

50k!

2010-11-28T09:05:00.000-05:00

Yay! I "won" at NaNo! Though I'm not quite done with my story, at least I'm 50k in!

How 'bout you all? Did you write a lot this month? Did you hit 50k? Or did you wrap up your draft for NaNoWraMo?

Writer's Block

2010-11-26T00:02:00.002-05:00

While I don't believe in writer's block, per se (I tell my students--and myself--that it's more of a writer's mountain and it just looks daunting), I do believe in procrastination. I, myself, am an expert at it.

Why, just a couple of days ago, when I had plenty of time to write I cleaned out my filing cabinet, shredded bills, colored my hair (pesky grays!), washed a large pile of dishes, scheduled the roofer, changed my insurance to my new car (well, not new--it's a 2003 Jetta--but new to me), downloaded and filled out paperwork for a new title and registration, read blogs, wrote four reviews and scheduled them to post, and played Zombies vs. Plants.

Yes, I got a lot done--stuff I HAD to do and had been putting off.

What I didn't get done was any writing. Well, besides the book reviews. So, when I ran across this music video by Jackson Pierce (yes, she's multi-talented and HI-larious), I knew I had to post it. Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T09:10:00.001-05:00

There are so many things I'm thankful for in this world and, in 2010, I added even more to my list.

Family: they're an awesome bunch of people. And this year, my brother joins us for the holiday from Chicago! Yay!

Kids with fur: for always greeting me at the door with wagging tails (and entire bodies), for dragging me out of my comfy chair for walks so we can patrol the neighborhood, and for snuggle-time.

Friends and co-workers: for making me laugh, for getting me through those rough-and-tough days, and for all the fun we have.

Online friends: for your support, your writing, your comments and tweets, and your love of reading. The blogging community of readers and writers is one of the most encouraging and friendly groups of people I know--and something non-bloggers usually don't understand (they so don't know what they're missing!).

Books: wow, the amount of quality literature out there is amazing and I wish I could sit & devour each and every book out there! We're blessed to have such a plethora of stories to immerse ourselves in.

Writing: what can I say, writing has added new dimensions to my life. I'd forgotten how much I loved it, getting lost in worlds of my own creation, playing with words, and having characters come to life. While I'd love to be published and share my stories with the world (*sends prayer out into the universe*), no matter what, I'm going to keep writing.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you U.S. folks and Happy Day to everyone! What are you thankful for?

Enough with the talking dogs already

2010-11-18T20:25:00.000-05:00

I'm a dog person. A huge dog person. If it were allowed in the city, I'd have a huge pack of dogs just like Sigfried in the (way old) show of All Creatures Great and Small. (Have you ever seen it? My parents are Anglophiles and Masterpiece Theatre folks and always forced us kids to watch their shows but I liked Creatures because it followed James Harriot around England as he did his vet-ly duties. Hum. Now, I want to watch that show again. Wonder if I can find it on Netflix...)

Anyway, Sigfried had this massive pile of dogs who always greeted him at the door with intense canine excitement and, when I was a kid, I wanted a pack just like that. (Really. I swear there had to have been 10-20 dogs of all shapes and sizes in that pack!) Of course, my parents, sensible people that they are, denied me my dream and I was stuck with just one bassett hound. (Who, in hindsight, was more than enough dog for any one family.)

But I've got dog exhaustion. There are fifteen-million heartwarming dog books glutting the shelves. There are adorable pups snuggling with high-fashion models who want to sell us too-expensive perfume and underwear. There are commercials filled with furry critters of all breeds carrying things and rolling in things to sell bath tissue and other consumer products I desperately need. And then there are the cutsie kiddie movies with those damned talking dogs (pardon my French).

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for personification. When it's used effectively, it's fantastic. When dogs' mouths are manipulated through CGI so they "talk", it makes me just want to roll my eyes. Okay, maybe you're a fan. Sure, I thought it was cute the first couple of movies--Babe was adorable (Baa-Ram-Ewe!). But enough already. Please. I'm begging you. The fake-talking dog (all critters, for that matter) craze needs to come to an end.

Thank you. *steps off soapbox* Now, back to writing! How's your NaNo project going?

Good Support is Hard To Find

2010-11-12T20:35:00.000-05:00

It's absolutely amazing what a good support system can do for you. While this is true in many aspects of life, it's especially true in the writing life. Writing is a solitary activity, hard for those who don't write to understand completely. After all, we live in our heads an awful lot.

Which is why it's so important that those you're close to support you or, at least, don't get in your way. It's fine if they look at you funny when you say you have to write or when you drift off in the middle of a conversation, muttering about plot holes or a character's need for chocolate (oh, wait, that's me--I've got to get to the grocery store...). As long as they get that you're chasing a dream, following a passion, writing because the story has to get out of your head (okay, so they may not understand that last bit but, again, it's okay!).

Today, in the middle of NaNo and plot holes and misbehaving characters, I had a soul-affirming conversation with one of my best friends. I've been feeling bad because I've had my head in the writing sand, so to speak, and haven't been hanging out with my group of friends too much lately.

But she understood. She *got* it. She even offered to be my aide-de-camp when I "become a famous author" (knock on wood!). But her support gave me the boost I so desperately needed.

So, find your support system. Don't be afraid to lean on them. They want you to follow your passion and to succeed in your endeavors.

Day 7 of NaNo

2010-11-07T14:33:00.000-05:00

is a big time-suck! But so much fun.

So...how's it going? Have you been writing or procrastinating--or a little of each, like me? I'm sad to say, I discovered Plants vs. Zombies yesterday and, well, lost a couple of hours arming little plants against the invading hordes. If you're not familiar with this game, don't go search it out until after November. It's curiously addictive. Then again, it could be because I haven't played a game in too long that I was so intrigued. Or maybe I was just killing time.

I did, however, still get my WIP up to just over 40k so, all in all, NaNoWraMo isn't going too badly! I'm aiming for about 60-70k, which I should be at or around once all the pieces fall into place. I hope. There's a lot of moving chunks around, cutting and reworking that needs to be done so the story fits the plotline (it veered far afield not too long ago and I've been trying to rein (is that the correct rein? I think it is) it in ever since. Almost completely back on track (I hope)!

For some reason this year, there's been a lot of controversy surrounding NaNo--have you all noticed it? Some people have said how terrible it is, that it encourages every average Joe, letting them think that it's possible *they* can write a publishable novel. Well, yes. But isn't that the point? To encourage people to expand their horizons, try out something that maybe they've been talking about doing for eons? Of course, most of what comes out of NaNo is pure dreck but there's some good stuff, too. Think of Julie Kagawa, who wrote what became THE IRON KING during November. Or Shannon Delaney, who wrote what developed into 13 TO LIFE during NaNo--on her cell phone, no less. See, not all bad.

Plus, I like how it makes writers feel like we're part of a larger collective (BORG! haha). It can get lonely, pecking away at the keyboard each day. It can lead to self-doubt and other self-destructive thoughts and emotions. With NaNo, we've got our buddies on the website, we can chat about it on Twitter--it connects writers from around the world. Someone (I can't remember who, sorry) pointed out that NaNo isn't national, it's international and really should be InNoWriMo. So true.

So, what do you think? Is NaNo good or not? Whatever your feelings, I hope you're writing!

The Great Rawhide Battle

2010-11-03T18:22:00.001-04:00

It started last night when I gave my kids with fur, Finnegan and Fiona, each a rawhide. Fiona's only about 12 pounds, so she gets a little rawhide twist. Finn's about twice her size and is usually thrilled to get a Cheweez--a longer rawhide strip. His, whatever the size, is usually gone within minutes. Fiona's a bit more of a delicate eater and prefers to first lick all the chicken flavor off her twist, leaving Finn to stare at her and her treat longingly since his has long-since disappeared into his belly. Usually.

Don't mess wit me. I haz da crazy eyes.

Last night, however, Finn had enough of Fi's teasing and decided to turn the tables. He pranced around the house with his rawhide in his mouth until she was done then he put his rawhide in the middle of the living room floor and sat back. He looked from her to the rawhide then back again.

Fi had no idea what to do. She danced forward. He moved closer. She took a couple steps back. He walked over to his bed and laid down (facing the rawhide, of course). She jumped up on the couch. Then back onto the rug, slowly approaching the tasty treat. He moved in, snatched it up and ran for the bedroom. This little dance continued most of the evening, until bedtime.

And it picked back up while I was at work. I came home to pillows and blankets everywhere and one very triumphant little Fi, carrying around a half-eaten rawhide in her mouth. Poor Finn. Dude may have won last night's battle but he lost the war.

I don't know what it is with these two but they're more entertaining than most of the stuff on TV.

UPDATE: I let the dogs out this morning and, yanno, did my morning stuff then let them back in. Finn's usually right there at the door, ready to chow down on some kibble. But he didn't want to come in. Guess what he had in his mouth? No, not cat poo (his favorite snack. Yes, dogs are gross). It was a piece of The Rawhide. He must have buried it last night. Fiona ate her kibbles and a pile of Finn's, since he was in the living room, devouring the dirt-encrusted rawhide. And the battle rages on.

Hey, Politicians: Show, Don't Tell

2010-11-02T15:13:00.000-04:00

This is a bit of a rant--sorry! I promise, my next post will be much more upbeat. Maybe even funny.

I IZ TIRED OF ALL DA NEGATIVITY.
(This is Fiona, my newest rescue. Isn't she cute?)

Another election season almost done, thank all that is good in the world. And, yes, I voted (did you?).

But something I came away with, watching all the negative ads, the muckraking, and the smear tactics used by politicians in South Carolina (and, from what I've seen, across the country), is that politicians really need to learn how to show who they are and not just tell us how terrible the other person is.

Every good writer knows that you have to show what's going on in your stories and with your characters, not just tell the reader. But, for some reason, this year's politicians just didn't seem to get it.

Go, Happy Bunny!
(yes, I have this poster)

Let me explain my thinking (see, I told you what I was going to do. It's annoying, isn't it?). In watching all these negative ads, I only learned how evil the other candidate was, how they were taking away jobs or taxing us to death or aligned with *that* party (whichever *that* might be). What I didn't learn was much of anything the candidate the ad stood for. Not really.

In fact, before I voted, I had to go online to try and find out some facts about the candidates: what they really believed in, how they really voted on issues important to me, who they really were. (Okay, yes, that's something you should do anyway--Know your candidates.) Because the ads, out there to influence my vote, didn't tell me much of anything and showed me even less.

I'm not saying it's easy to get your message across in a thirty-second ad. It's not. And I'm not saying that a politician can show everything he/she wants known about him/herself in that time.

But don't tell me how horrible that other person is. What they did wrong. How they're going to destroy life as we know it. I won't hear what you have to say because I'm too busy tuning out the negativity or changing the channel. (However, because of all these negative, annoying ads, I watched less TV in the past month than I have in a very long time. So, I guess it wasn't all bad!)

For the next political season, please--I beg of you--please drop the negativity and show me what you can do for me, my community, my state, and my country. If you do that, I might just vote for you.

Be sure to vote today! Earn your right to complain. :P

Or, if you're an old-school Chicagoan, be traditional and

Heehee. Just kidding. That's illegal.

NaNo: Day -1

2010-11-01T21:22:00.000-04:00

Well, um, *scratches head*, so yeah. So, it seems like the first of November is just not my day to officially start NaNo. It all started with a sick dog and stepping in vomit first thing in the morning. And, yes, I squealed like a little schoolgirl then danced around with my foot in the air. Not the best way to wake up.

My computers, which were supposed to come last Thursday all shiny and pretty in their cart, didn't arrive. Thus, no computers for my kiddos today. And no computer lab either, considering all the social studies classes were using them to vote for class president. (Being middle school, it's more the voting experience than anything. But the president just gets to give a speech and say he/she is president. Pretty cool & the kids like it.)

Then, I celebrated a (very) late birthday with my parents (they were traveling & I was busy...you know, life.).

But--TOMORROW, I have a day off (election day...weird, I know but I'm not complaining) and nothing pressing besides laundry. So that means *trumpets and a shower of multi-colored confetti* A Writing Day! Yippee!

I'm still doing the whole NaNoWraMo, for those of you who are NaNo-ing with me. Gotta get this WIP done! I'm super-determined. This is GOING to happen (the power of positive thinking, what-what!).

Happy writing to all of you who started on the correct day! I'll join you in the fray tomorrow. Merry NaNo! :)

NaNo-ing: Yay for National Novel Writing Month

2010-10-26T07:29:00.000-04:00

It's almost time--you can smell it in the air (or at least see it all over the Interwebz). Everyone's a-buzzing about NaNoWriMo or fussing because they can't do it this year--hopefully, they'll be cheerleaders for those who are because we love cheerleaders...especially around mid-month, when our plots are slumping and our characters are running around like chickens with their heads cut off!.

I'm planning more of a NaNoWraMo (as coined by Sara McClung--hey, send her your email, if you're interested in joining us with that!)--that's National Novel Wrap-up Month, so I can finish this WIP that's haunted me all summer. It's been one of those WIPs where every word is a struggle and the characters fight me every step of the way. Finally a little more than 35k in, I think I've finally got a handle on it (yay). If I can crank out 30-50k this next month, the first draft will be DONE.

Although I plan on doing a twisted NaNo (par for the course with me, it seems), I still signed up to be an official NaNo participant. Buddy up with me and we can cheer each other on! I'm HERE! :) Isn't the monkey badge so cute?

Are you NaNo-ing or are you planning on being a NaNoNag?

I Love Writing

2010-10-18T19:19:00.000-04:00

I love writing. I love creating something out of a wisp of an idea and thin air. When the dialogue is snappy and the characters are doing their thing, it's absolutely amazing.

I love when you're deep in a scene and you look up and an hour has gone by as if it were three minutes. I love when the perfect word or phrase or metaphor creates exactly the type of feeling or imagery you were looking for.

I love when you read over something you wrote at the beginning of your story and, inexplicably, it meshes with something you just came up with and there's that connection between events or people or whatever and it happens without you planning it.

I love when the characters are spitting words back and forth, their dialogue is fast and furious, and you can actually envision them standing there in front of you having this conversation. Their voices are strong, their passion is tangible, and their connection is solid and real.

I love when you've finally finished that first draft, which seems to take forever (and sometimes does), and you're reading over something you wrote a week, a month, a year ago and you're wondering how it's possible that you--little ole you--wrote this because it actually sounds professional or publishable or, at least, awesome enough that someone other than your mother might enjoy it.

I love when you're so caught up in the words, you don't notice the world around you or time passing or the kids (or dogs) screaming for their supper or the next door neighbor's very odd music or the honking of horns or even the crash in the other room as something shatters on the floor.

Writing rocks. I wish I'd been brave enough to embrace it fully earlier in my life but I'm so very glad I've found it now (even if it aggravates others in my life because I'd rather write than whatever they want to do).

What about you? What do you love about writing?

The Underdog

2010-10-16T22:19:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you but I root for the underdog. Hey, what can I say, I'm a Chicago Bears fan. And a Chicago Cubs fan. Oh, and a University of South Carolina Gamecocks fan, although that's a bit more of a recent development.

I was raised to believe in the underdog--that the team or group or person on the bottom can rise up and succeed if they just have that right blend of skill, determination, luck and old fashioned chutzpah. Of course, it also means that, when my team is winning, I'm just waiting for them to fall. And, unfortunately, they usually do (Okay, that's probably my fault. I mean, look at the teams I love. I kind of set myself up for it.).

It's the underdog characters who have the greatest appeal. They have a huge obstacle to overcome and, despite their greatest efforts, they try and fail over and over until finally...they win! (Unless there's a sequel. Then they're at the bottom again and have to start all over again.) To me, they're the most interesting, those flawed bottom-of-the-heap characters.

What about you--who do you root for? (Just don't tell me you're a Green Bay Packer fan. Darned cheeseheads.)

Technology's great...when it works

2010-10-08T15:09:00.000-04:00

I had a technological meltdown yesterday at work.

The new flip cameras aren't compatible with windows movie maker. Another computer crashed, rebooting itself in an endless loop until I put it out of its misery and hung an "Another one bites the dust" sign on it. (The kids think those signs are hilarious and walk around the room singing that song. Me, I just try to envision myself as a 13-year-old, skating around the roller rink to it. Good times. Simpler times.) The kids couldn't figure out how to download or use Open Office, despite the fact that it's exactly like MS Office. One girl, who spent three hours at home putting together her presentation, couldn't get it to play on our Windows 97 software. She came very close to crying. Me, too. I got to where I couldn't stand the sound of my own name.

Thus, the meltdown. It was a very quiet one, as far as meltdowns go. No histrionics or throwing the laptop across the room (I truly HATE the Dell I have to use, and it came perilously close to flying through the air with the greatest of ease...) or letting loose a good primal scream. But it must have showed on my face because our guidance counselor recognized the signs and sent me home (yay--I didn't have to go to the meeting where they talked about...technology).

So, after 45 minutes of composing lesson plans because it's always harder to be out than to just go to work already darn it, I left. Twenty-five minutes early. (Trust me, I was super-excited about this.) I went home, poured myself a beverage in a big, frosty mug and settled down on the porch with my dogs and several Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Then I took a two-hour nap and had another frosty beverage. Fabulous.

I've decided that's the way I need to deal with every major meltdown. Usually, I can hold one off with just a peanut butter cup or a power-walk with the dogs. But big meltdowns call for big solutions.

Oh, and I took today off.

Countdown and Tally Up

2010-10-06T20:24:00.000-04:00

I'm working away on my WIP, which I just ripped completely apart last week, dumping about 20k into the "Dead Darlings" file. Tonight, I'll hit 30k (again) on it, and I figure I still have 30-40k to go. Okay, maybe less. Or more. I'm terrible at guessing how long my story's going to be--I just write it until it's done then add or cut as need be while keeping in mind the average word counts for YA contemporaries.

But then I realized it's October. Which means next month is November, and I'm committed to NaNoWriMo again. (I'm wondering if this means I'm actually commited...maybe I just need the padded cell and a nice slushy drink.) But, no getting out of it. I'm doing it with my students (NaNo's Young Writer's Project), and I feel like I need to start fresh so I can show them my example of the writing process, from the perspective of a semi-pantser/semi-plotter. That way, I can take them all the way through, from brainstorming to drafting and crafting to actually writing the draft, developing the characters and ending the story. Oh my.

So, what that really means is I need to get my entire first draft written before November. I'm averaging about 1k a day right now which isn't going to cut it, even if there are 31 days in October. Now, my math skillz are not great but we've got 25 days left in October (right? *headdesk*). I try to write every day but, of course, some days are more productive than others...think I'm going to aim for about 2k a day. That'll get me ready for NaNo AND, if I stay on track, I might even finish early! Oh, crumbs. I just jinxed myself.

Whatever. Off to write! And, if you want to join me in the NaNo madness I'm MaryBrebner on the site (and IRL, LOL!). I'd love to dive into the madness with you.

Anyone Wanna Shag?

2010-10-01T21:06:00.000-04:00

Did you just choke on your drink? Because, I promise, it's not what you think (though it makes for great conversation outside of SC. Especially over in Britain.). Allow me to elaborate...

When my parents retired to South Carolina, I kind of envisioned them reading, boating, swimming, doing some traveling, and hanging out with friends. You know, typical retirees who live on a lake. And, at first, that's exactly what they did. They hung out with my uncle (Dad's brother) and his wife (they're one of the reasons the parents decided to retire down here). They took daily walks. They went to art openings, tasted the local cuisine and took day trips around the state.

And then they fell in with the Shag crowd. Otherwise known as "Shaggers", dancing the state dance of South Carolina. They go out dancing at least twice a week. Sometimes three. Here's a clip of what the dance looks like when danced by regular folks. It's much fancier when the pros (and Junior Shaggers--so cute!) do it.

They just got back from a week in Myrtle Beach where they drank a bunch, ate more, and then danced it all off. It's called "SOS" or, as the guy in the video clip below says, "Where old people come and get drunk and dance."

Yep. My parents have reverted to high school. Well, mostly my mother, who now runs around with a group of blondes they call the "Six Pack". My dad, as many typical dads do, just goes along for the ride.

It feels like a story just waiting to be written. (Or maybe just parts of it!) NaNoWriMo, possibly?

Hey, anyone else out there doing NaNo this year?

BBW: Bloggers Speak Out & Speak Loudly

2010-09-26T14:30:00.000-04:00

Being an American and an avid reader of all flavors of books, I believe we have the right to certain freedoms including the freedom of choice. We have the right to choose what we want to read. We have the right to choose not to read a certain book. We have the right to be vocal about a book--whether to praise it or not.

What we don't have the right to do is force our beliefs on someone else. That's what Banned Books Week, officially running from September 25-October 2 of this year, is all about. According to the American Library Association, one of the main sponsors of Banned Books Week, "Banned Books (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States."

Some of you may say, "No way! Banning books? That doesn't happen these days." (Oh, to be so naive.)

It does. Take, for example, Wesley Scroggings, an associate professor at Missouri State University. In this opinion piece, he outlines his reasons as to why he wants Laurie Halse Anderson's SPEAK banned.

SPEAK, filthy and immoral? I think not. It's an incredibly powerful, realistic novel of a brutal attack and its repercussions for the victim. Laurie Halse Anderson responds along with literary agent Janet Reid, and authors Catherine Ryan, Myra McEntire, and A.S. King.

It's one thing to prevent your own children from reading a specific book because you don't feel it's appropriate for them or because you don't like the subject matter. That is your right as a parent. It is also your right NOT to read a book, whatever the reason.

However, it is another thing entirely when someone tries to prevent my child or any other reader from reading that book. That is not their right.

Support freedom of choice. Make your voice heard. Write an opinion piece. Comment on Mr. Scroggings's own piece. Read a banned book today.

My book review blog, The Book Swarm, is holding a five-banned-book giveaway! It runs through October 3rd and is open internationally (anywhere The Book Depository ships).

Interested in more? Check out this fantastic line-up of bloggers, authors, and other book industry folks who spoke out against banning books:

Bloggers Speak Out is a movement sparked by the recent article, "Filthy Books Demeaning to Republic Education" by Dr. Wesley Scroggins that was published in the Springfield, MO News-Leader on September 18th. In this article, Scroggins vehemently advocates the censorship of books in schools, and specifically requests that the following books be removed from the Republic school system: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler, and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. To show our support of these authors and to fight against book banning and censorship, we have decided to take action and speak out.

Below is a list of links of bloggers speaking out against book banning and censorship--in the form of giveaways, posts, and reviews. Some are "officially" participating in what we're calling Bloggers Speak Out, and others are posts that we've found around the blogosphere. If you get time, you should definitely check them out!

Giveaways of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

**All giveaways will end on 10/3, unless otherwise noted**

Papercut Reviews

Braintasia Books

Escape through the Pages

Tina's Book Reviews

Sea of Pages

Mrs. Deraps Reads

Moonlight Book Reviews

Cari's Book Blog

Just Your Typical Book Blog

For What It's Worth

Wondrous Reads (Ends 9/27)

Frankie Writes (Ends ?)

The Elliot Review (Ends ?)

The Bookologist (Ends ?)

La Femme Readers

Other Giveaways

**All giveaways will end on 10/3, unless otherwise noted**

-Lisa Schroeder: ARC of The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney (Ends 9/23)

-Will Write for Cake: Win Speak, Twenty Boy Summer, or Slaughterhouse Five

-Mindful Musings (here): Win Speak, Twenty Boy Summer, or Slaughterhouse Five

-Teens Read and Write: Win The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

-Mundie Moms: Win Speak, Burned, Twenty Boy Summer, or The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Ends 9/26)

-Wicked Awesome Books: Win a "Filthy Books" Prize Pack

-Carol's Prints: Win Speak and The Mockingbirds

-Myra McEntire: Win Speak, Twenty Boy Summer, or Harry Potter

-The Bookish Type: Win Speak or Twenty Boy Summer

-Bea's Book Nook: Win Speak & an ALA Challenged Book (Ends 10/2)

-Sarah Ockler: Win a Wesley Scroggins Filthy Books Prize Pack (Ends 10/1)

Other Posts Against Book Banning and Censorship

Braintasia Books

Escape Through the Pages

As Told by Jen

Aine's Realm

The Compulsive Reader

Once Upon a Bookcase

Daily Dose

Speak Loudly Book Drop @ Late Bloomer Online

A Life Bound by Books

The Undercover Book Lover

Reading the Best of the Best

The Pirate's Bounty

Reclusive Bibliophile

The Lady Critic's Library

Emilie's Book World

Jacob's Beloved

Just Your Typical Book Blog

Maggie's Bookshelf

Basically Amazing Books

The Darker Side of the Fire

Katie's Book Blog

Sassymonkey (BlogHer)

Authors Speak Out

Laurie Halse Anderson: This guy thinks Speak is pornographic

Laurie Halse Anderson: The power of speaking loudly

Author Gayle Forman @ Eve's Fan Garden

Author Saundra Mitchell @ Eve's Fan Garden

Karen Rivers

Sarah Ockler: I Speak Loudly for Speak

Sarah Ockler: On Book Banning Zealots and Ostriches

Author Laura Manivong @ Page Turners

Cheryl Rainfield: Fight Against Ignorance

Myra McEntire: Speak Loudly: In Defense of Laurie Halse Anderson

Andrea Cremer: Speak Out

Natalie Standiford on Censorship @ Emily's Reading Room

Important Articles on the Subject

"Filthy Books Demeaning to Republic Education" (the article that started it all)

Scroggins' Official Complaint to the School Board (PDF)

"Republic School Book Choices under Fire" (Springfield News-Leader)

Laurie Halse Anderson's Editiorial in the Springfield News-Leader

Sarah Ockler's Editorial in the Springfield News-Leader

Natalie @ Mindful Musings' Letter to the Editor in the Springfield News-Leader

Essay: Kurt Vonnegut's Thoughts on the First Amendment

Love At First Sight

2010-09-21T21:12:00.000-04:00

Do you believe in love at first sight? Lately, a lot of the books I've been reading are filled with "love at first sight." You know, their eyes meet across a crowded room or he catches her scent (um, between werewolves or shapeshifters, usually) and knows she's his mate, or she feels that zing of connection and knows he's the one.

I'm not a huge fan of this in books. It seems like the easy way out when it comes to building relationships. Of course, I've seen it done well, too. But in many cases, to me, it's a cop-out to developing something strong between two people. Because that's super-hard to write and to do it well. Just like in real life, it's about chemistry and connection. It takes time and effort to build a strong connection.

Just a couple of my favorite book couples, ones that forged a strong connection (aided, perhaps, by lust at first sight) include:
1. Ron and Herminone. Sure, it took many, many books to develop this love but, once they finally realized what they had, it was a deep and strong connection.
2. Stephanie Plum and Joe Morelli. They've got a past (since they played choo-choo in the garage when they were young), they've got chemistry, and they've got the connection. I don't know if it's enough for them to ever get married (especially with tasty Ranger out there--yum!), but it wasn't instant love. It took some work to get where they are (well, I'm up to book 15...not sure what happens in 16).
3. Elisabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Yeah, I had to throw a classic in there. As you can probably tell from my first to selections, I'm a sucker for hate turned to love, and this relationship is at the top of the hate-to-love pile. But they're perfect for each other. It took a while for this connection to build but, when it did, it was a very excellent happily ever after.

Okay, so what about you--love at first sight or developing a connection?

Square peg...Round hole

2010-09-15T17:43:00.000-04:00

So, here I am, writing along. My zero draft (I totally stole that phrase from Lilith Saintcrow, btw) is cooking, my characters are dialoging, the action is increasing. And then...a wall.

There's a brief pause in my word flow as I reassess. Huh. Well, maybe if I back up and try this way. Oh, yeah! That'll work. It escalates the action. There's more danger and more chance my MC will get some smootches from his gal. The words flow once again.

Forward progress is awesome. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (despite my low word count. But that's part of the zero draft process for me--sometimes, it's more like an outline rather than a full-fledged novel at 80k or so.). I type faster. Come on, come on--gotta get to the end! I'm so close I can taste it.

Until the action takes a bizarre twist. Bizarre as in, instead of straightforward action and love story, I've got mobsters, rival mobsters, an art theft, a kidnapping, AND a murder. Um, what? This so does not work with my story! It's like trying to drive a square peg through a round hole. Sure, I can do it if I pound at it long enough but it'll never be smooth or round.

Okaaay, back to the drawing board. A LOT of dead darlings. But I'm thinking...this might actually work. My MC still gets to rescue the girl (don't worry, she "rescues" him, too. Turnabout is totally fair play in my book!), there's still enough action (I hope), and I don't believe I'll be splintering that poor, wrongly-shaped peg until it fits.

So, what about you--have you ever tried to drive a square peg somewhere it did not belong? How'd you resolve it? A saw? Or just some sandpaper? (By the way, it was hard to write that in present tense--but kind of cool, too.)

In transition...

2010-09-09T17:51:00.000-04:00

I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a domain name: www.marybrebner.com (isn't it pretty? Yeah, I thought so)! I'm REALLY new to this whole domain thing (blogspot's so easy but it's not mine, you know?) so, please bear with me as I go through the "up to three day transition" and making sure all my gadgets work and all that stuff. Oh, and I do apologize for my silence--I'm hoping to get back on a blogging schedule next week. For sure! :)

It makes me feel like a "real" author to have my very own space. Kind of like when I bought my house eight years ago (my how time flies!), I felt like a "real" adult. Not that I wasn't before but was just more tangible proof, I guess. Whatever. I'm weird. Just ignore my babble.

Anyway, you should automatically be redirected to www.marybrebner.com but, if you're not, could you please let me know? Love y'all!

Juggling Chainsaws and Flaming Swords

2010-08-31T19:14:00.000-04:00

There are times, like the opening (and closing, for that matter) of school, when I just don't have enough hours in the day to get everything that I need to get done. With so many balls in the air (or chainsaws and flaming swords, depending on what day it is), I have a very hard time setting my priorities.

For example, this weekend, with just a mere inkling of what I was going to teach my students this week, I threw my hands in the air and decided to forget about it and work on my WIP. Now, that turned out to be incredibly productive for me writing-wise: a breakthrough in a sticky plot point that I really needed to move forward move forward, a character stepping up and taking charge like I wanted him to (and another getting herself kidnapped...oops), and 4k written on Sunday. Needless to say, I was thrilled about it.

However, I had just the barest idea of what I was going to do with my students come Monday. Review literary terms? Sure. We'll do that. Luckily, I'm not a first (or second) year teacher and I'm a pretty good pantser when it comes to teaching (and writing, for that matter). But now I'm behind again, with a stack of papers to grade and my MC clamoring at me to tell his story.

*sigh*

Thank goodness there's a DVR in my life to catch all the summer series finales while I work on getting both my school and writing act together! Unlike mine, I hope your work and writing life (if they're not one in the same) mesh beautifully. Later! Got to go write (lesson plans or WIP...that is the question).

Bad, bad girl!

2010-08-25T17:52:00.000-04:00

(Oh, lord, hope that blog title doesn't bring in the pervs!)

Yes, I've been a very bad girl. Not posting for almost a week and not actually writing anything for longer...terrible. But I have a wonderful excuse. School started.

Because I tend to do as little as possible that's school-related over the summer, the first couple weeks--and weekends--of the new school year I'm swamped. I'm planning, organizing, grading and basically trying to get back on a work schedule versus summer schedule.

My writing totally suffers. I really, really want to write but I can't because I have 100+ students who will tear the place apart if I don't have a plan for them. (I love 'em but middle schoolers have incredibly short attention spans and large mouths...all gossip & distraction. *headdesk*)

This weekend. This weekend will be MINE! (I hope.)

Winner of BODY WORK!

2010-08-20T18:57:00.000-04:00

Yahoo! A winner for
Sara Paretsky's BODY WORK!

Lucky number 29: JEMI FRASER!!

Congratulations--I've sent you an email.

GIVEAWAY: ARC of BODY WORK by Sara Paretsky

2010-08-14T11:45:00.001-04:00

A fan of Sara Paretsky and her kick-butt main character, V.I. "Vic" Warshawski for quite a long time, I'm really looking forward to her newest release, BODY WORK, which comes out at the end of the month. Vic's a tough chick, a seriously awesome P.I., and all-around great character. If you haven't read any of Paretsky's V.I. novels and you like mysteries, you've got to check them out.

“Doctors take days off—why not P I’s?” V I Warshawski demands. But when America’s hardest-working private eye goes clubbing, a stranger is shot, and dies in V I’s arms.
V I has been visiting Club Gouge, Chicago’s edgiest night spot, where a woman known as the Body Artist turns her naked body into a canvas for the audience to paint on. The show attracts all kinds of people, from a menacing off-duty cop, to Ukrainian mobsters, Iraqi war vets—and V I’s impetuous cousin Petra. A tormented young painter shows up, too, and the intricate designs she creates on the Body Artist drives one of the vets into a violent rage.
When the painter is shot, the cops figure it’s an easy collar—PTSD vet goes off the rails, stalks, then kills young woman. But the vet’s family hires V I to clear his name, and the detective uncovers a chain of ugly truths that stretch all the way from Iraq to Chicago’s south side.

I'm super-excited that I have an extra ARC of BODY WORK, coming out at the end of the month--and it's for you! All you have to do is fill out my handy-dandy little form below (yay--I learned how to use Google Docs AND imbed the form! Woot). Contest ends next Saturday (Aug. 21). Good luck!

UPDATE: Looks like my spreadsheet title got cut off. Oops (and darn!). I'm also running this contest on my book review blog, The Book Swarm. We review primarily YA over there but enjoy mysteries, travel memoirs, and a bunch of other stuff, too! So, if you're a follower of both, you get extra points--yay!

ARC Giveaway: BODY WORK by Sara Paretsky

Open to residents of US and Canada only (sorry, international folks!).

Contest ends August 21 @5pmEST.

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First Day...of Teacher Training!

2010-08-12T18:27:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day of my eleventh year of teaching. Pausing here in shock. How the heck did I get ten years of teaching under my belt? Good lord, I've got to say (again) how fast the time goes. I don't know how your school district does it but ours has five days of teacher training (inservices) and workdays before the kiddies come to school (they come next Thursday whether we're ready or not). During those days, we learn about such exciting things as reviewing the sexual harassment policy, religion in school (no-no, unless you're teaching something like world religions), OSHA training (that's Occupational Safety and Health Administration for all you office types who get to avoid learning about how to avoid blood-borne pathogens and puke), discipline and all that lovely stuff.

Now, our school has a reputation for being a pretty tight-knit group, and we usually do something stupid-fun at the beginning of school, for camaraderie and to re-establish our bonds as teachers (very important when the turkeys get you down). When we had money, we did laser tag or go-carting or went for a boat trip on the lake. Nowadays, we make our own fun, usually in the form of making a fool of ourselves a la eighth grade talent show. This year, our (random) group was appointed the "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" group. Cyndi Lauper! Yahoo! We copied the video and danced around like girls who wanted to have fun. And it wasn't too terrible. We had some stupid-fun.

I think, sometimes, we get so focused on things in our lives, whether it's a goal or a job or whatever, whether we started it because we loved it or because we had to, that we forget to have fun. So, stop and do something stupid-fun today or this week. Remember why we're here in this world. Have a good time with those in your life. Go have fun!

How time flies!

2010-08-07T16:25:00.000-04:00

Can you believe it's already August? Almost time to head back to school (which I'm both dreading and excited about at the same time. Probably much like my students!). And, of course, there are the school supplies.

What is it about school supplies? Even when I wasn't teaching, in the years between college and going back to college to get my teaching degree (I know. Even now my mother rolls her eyes, an "I told you so" that I should have double-majored in Communications and Education. *sigh*), I loved heading into the store and stocking up on notebooks, pens, markers, anything that caught my fancy.

Back-To-School time is a chance to start over, with a clean plate. Didn't do so well last year? Well, you have the chance to fill those notebooks up with everything you need to know so you'll do better this year. Never had what you needed? Huh, look at this fancy-dancy organizer that will hold notes for all your subjects, a place for handouts and your writing utensils.

I take it as an opportunity to reorganize myself. Not everything, of course. But something important. This year, I'm bound and determined to carve out a specific writing time. (Also on the to-do list is to schedule a specific exercise time, too, but then that's always on my list) Now, this isn't going to always work because there are meetings and open houses and stuff like that but, if I can set a schedule for myself, I think I can be a lot more productive than I have been in the past. Plopping down with my laptop in front of the TV is all well and good but I'm not "reaching my potential". (Uhg, I do hate that expression, though I tend to use it a lot in parent conferences. Like, your child is not reaching his/her potential. Read: your kid is failing because he/she is more interested in texting and gossiping than doing his/her work.) I want to do more.

So, what about you--are you a specific writing time/goal/word count kind of person or do you write when the mood strikes?

How do you get your write on?

2010-08-02T21:33:00.000-04:00

Some people can write anywhere, anytime. Put a computer (or a pad of paper, if you're the old-school type) in front of them and they can bang out a pile of words. Me? Not so much. I need what Beth Revis over at Writing It Out calls "Tools of the Trade".

My Tools of the Trade are:

Bic crystal blue pens--and lots of them (I've been writing with these since I was in middle school. Love 'em!)

A composition notebook--this is where I do all my planning, notes, basic and/or semi-detailed outline, collage of pictures and inspiration

My MacBook--filled with MacLove! This is my biggest writing tool.

Internet connection--used for quick research and, of course, quick Twitter visits! (procrastination, thy name is Interwebz)

Sound--well, either the TV is on, with episodes of Firefly, Castle, or another show that I've already seen several times or I've got to have silence. I have way too much tendency to sing along with music or, yanno, attempt to dance.

Fuel--Diet Coke or Crystal-Lite-spiked water, Cheese Its, chocolate, Extra peppermint gum

My dogs underfoot--Finn likes to sleep under my desk or curled up on the cool tile of the fireplace and Fiona likes to sleep under the bed (if I'm writing in the office--don't know why she doesn't like that room but she doesn't) or between my char and the ottoman.

What do you need to get into writing mode?

The Muppets: Pöpcørn

2010-07-29T15:45:00.002-04:00

The Swedish Chef from The Muppets was always my mother's favorite character. Usually my brother and I would sit down to watch the Muppets (And no, don't count back how long ago that show was actually broadcast. It was a while ago!), and she would be in the kitchen making dinner. When the Chef came on, we'd have to call her and she'd come running in just so she could watch him.

I love that Muppet Studios is doing these little bits--it makes me so happy when I have an alert that they've posted something new. Yay for the Muppets and the quirky (crazy?) people at Muppet Studios! I still say they should bring back the Muppet Show. I'd really like to see Justin Beiber get his butt kicked by a bunch of Muppet babies. Or maybe he can get eaten by that big, fuzzy guy, the one with the regular-sized body but the monster head and mouth? Yeah. That'd be awesome.

Anyway, I'm always amazed at how those wacky writers can create an entire story in one short, three-minute (or so) segment. And, in this segement, there's a basic plot, great characters, and humor. Wow. Totally inspired now. Think I'll go work on my own character development. Enjoy!

Review: The List Maker's Get Healthy Guide

2010-07-27T22:18:00.000-04:00

I am a HUGE list maker. There's just so very satisfying about writing a list and crossing items off it. I'll admit it: if I write a list after I've done something that should have been on my list, I'll write it and cross it out. Yeah. I'm that bad. So, when I saw this book, I had to check it out. Plus, getting healthy is always on my list (though I'm a massive getting-healthy fail this summer. Darn you, lake + noodle + cold drinks.).

This book has lists for every aspect of your life: food, fitness, mind, beauty, health, home and life. It's fabulous because you can pick and choose what you're working on at the moment (sure, it'd be great if we could get healthy all at once but, if you're anything like me, baby steps are the best way to go). It's like all the great advice from a zillion different health magazines (including, of course, Prevention, who created this book) all in one place.

Just a couple things I learned (none of these are complete lists--just some tips I found particularly interesting or useful for myself; a lot of them I've read before in other magazines, too, but it's really good advice!):

One of my favorite treats from McDonald's, the Filet-O-Fish (not that I've had it in forever but still) is only 380 calories but 18 grams of saturated fat. Holy cow and a half! That's a lot of fat!!
Be positive: surround yourself with honest people (hadn't thought of that but it's a good idea!)
Confidence builders: commit to growth, don't compare yourself to others (particularly difficult in the blogging/twittering world of writers!)
Forgo the lemon wedge: nearly 70% of wedges on the rims of restaurant glasses have disease causing microbes (eew!) (this one I've heard before and always get my water with NO lemon)
My mama was right: sugar can help stop hiccups!
Integrate exercise: that's something I really need to do, rather than think of it as just another thing to do at the end of the day (and I'm usually exhausted at the end of the day so it's just an excuse to ditch it)

E-Galley provided by NetGalley and Rodale Books

Dead End

2010-07-25T11:41:00.000-04:00

It's just one of those days, yanno? Back to it next week!

The Boy Problem

2010-07-21T09:26:00.000-04:00

Hannah Moskowitz wrote a great post entitled, "The Boy Problem" (which I promptly co-opted; you've got to read it--it's great), that discusses some of the reasons she believes teen guys don't read YA.

I've witnessed this problem first-hand. I battle it every single day in the classroom. We have SSR (sustained silent reading) every Friday for at least 20 minutes. Generally, the girls (and some of the guys, of course) come in with their books, sit down and dive into their stories. But there are those who claim not to have anything to read, despite the fully-stocked library just down the hall and the shelves of books available to them in my classroom. They whine. They fuss. They pick the smallest book on the shelf (usually a Goosebumps book, way below their reading level) and stare blindly at it for the entire SSR time, never absorbing a word. Then they toss it back on the shelf only to pick it back up next Friday and stare at the same page again. Rinse, repeat.

Some I can match with a book or a genre, and we're set, for a while at least. But, despite my best efforts, some keep up the fake-reading throughout the rest of the school year sticking to their claim of hating to read (Omg, my heart breaks, and my blood pressure rises when I hear that! I just want to strangle them. Yes, the whole refusal-to-read thing brings out my violent tendencies. But I repress them, satisfying myself with the evil glare rather than a slap upside the head. Because that would get me fired.).

There are so many great middle grade books out there for boys but there aren't nearly enough young adult books to keep guys reading (this is getting better--I've taken a look at the upcoming releases and there's some great-sounding books on the horizon). Many of those who are readers jump from Rick Riordan to Dan Brown--from MG to adult. Some stick with MG books or read only the books assigned by their teachers, ditching reading as an activity of choice as soon as possible, never to pick it back up in their adult lives.

Of course, there are exceptions. There are always exceptions. But what I'm interested in is what's going on--why aren't more guys reading? Why, if they read in elementary, do they ditch reading in middle school (or high school)? What do you all think?

More on this subject to come...

Old Spice Guy

2010-07-18T11:09:00.000-04:00

While I'm sure many of you have seen this clip, I know you won't mind seeing it again...and again. *drool*

Anyway! If you don't know the backstory, this all came about when, on Twitter, @wawoodworth wrote "ATTN LIBRARIAN TWEEPS: Need help getting @oldspice guy to say a few words regarding libraries. RT plz. Thanks." And the @oldspice guy responded. Bare-chested. In a very low-slung towel. YAY for books, words and librarians everywhere (as well as the rest of us).

And...replay! (heehee)

Six Traits of Writing

2010-07-14T20:01:00.002-04:00

Have you heard of the "Six Traits of Writing"? (If you're a teacher, you probably have.) Teachers use the Six Traits to provide students a framework that helps them focus and improve their writing. As writers and authors, we too need to keep these Six Traits in mind: Ideas (some include content), organization, voice, sentence fluency, word choice and conventions. Even though they seem simple, when used properly and consistently, they can make your writing sing.

A clear and focused message
Important details relevant to topic
Reader learned something new
Interesting and understandable

Beginning hooks reader
Easy-to-follow, chose best way to organize
Ideas link to main message
Strong conclusion that wraps up story

Enthusiastic about topic
Writing sounds like writer
Readers can feel emotions in story
Story holds reader's attention

Story is easy to read
Sentences begin in different ways
Both long and short sentences used
Sounds smooth when read aloud

Used strong verbs and colorful phrases
Chose the most precise words
Used unique words
Didn't repeat common words too often

Correct punctuation
Proofread for correct spelling and grammar