August Contests!

It's contest time, folks.  Here are just a few that I've come across lately:

Laura Eno is giving away two signed copies of her new release Prophecy Moon (and a third to s/he who writes the most adoring/feet-kissing comment :)  Enter before Tuesday, August 17.

Accompanying a great interview of the author, Charity at My Writing Journey is giving away Substitute Me by Lori Tharps.  Contest ends Friday, August 13.

Angelique at Vampires and Tofu is having a birthday give-away.  Prizes include Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers, Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopkus, and Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare.  Her birthday is August 30, so I think that must be the deadline... ?

Alexandra at The Publication Follies of Alexandra Shostak is giving away a copy of MATCHED by Ally Condie, or BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, sequel to BEAUTIFUL CREATURES.  **Edit** Deadline is Monday, August 30.

Okay, that's it for now.  Good luck!

Delinquent Me: Eat Pray Love - Love +

A week late is better than not at all, right?

Finish Indonesia and discuss general feelings on the book. How did it affect you? I read this book at a time in my life when I was really struggling and it had a profound effect on me so I am curious to see what others thought of something so deeply personal. 

Will you go see the movie? Will you read Committed which is Gilbert’s follow up to Eat Pray Love?

What are some of your favorite quotes from the book?

 
I really enjoyed the book, and the Pray section impacted me the most.  In fact, I would go so far as to say my deep love of her time in India got me hyped up enough that her time in Indonesia was a real let-down.  That's not to say it was bad, but it wasn't amazing in the way I'd anticipated.  That being said, I loved our medicine man and his Bali meditation:  have every part of your body smile, even your liver.  I need to work on that.  I'm not sure my liver is accustomed to smiling.


Will I see the movie?  Probably not in the theater.  Netflix will send it to me in six to eight months, and by then I will have enough distance from my reading that one will not affect the other.  

Will I read Committed?  Again, probably not, mostly due to my disappointment in the last section, and assuming Committed is based on her time with Filipe.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm thrilled that Liz found true love and could move on with her life a healed woman, but the healing was more interesting to me than the love she allowed herself in the end.


Most of my favorite quotes can be found in my last post on Pray.



Award!

Thank you, Medeia!

I've decided to follow a theme in passing on this award.  I'd like to share this with the EPL book club, since I have so enjoyed reading the book along with other people.  It was a fantastic idea, and I am especially grateful to The Book Vixen for organizing it.

Jamie at Three Cheers for Literacy
Nicole at Home Grown Me
Charlie at Life Happens
Lily of Darkness at Lilium's Realm
Erika at Kiss My Book
Jamie at The Book Junkie's Bookshelf
The Book Vixen


Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the book.  It's been delightful reading along with you.

Sunday Returns

Thank you to everyone who sent well wishes for the weekend, and greetings to those who found me over the weekend.  I have been without internet for close to 60 hours, so forgive me for not replying to each of you individually.  Coming back to an inbox full of comment-love was delightful, and capped an already tremendous weekend.  ;)

The wedding was fantastic, the reception was a hip-happening good time, the drives to and fro were (painfully) long, and I got the best haircut ever while sitting on a loading dock wrapped in pink plastic.  Oh, and we came home with a sampler pack of New Glarus beer (only sold in WI)—if you're ever there (and you drink beer, of course), you must try my new favorite: Fat Squirrel.

Of the entire event, my only complaint would touch on having someone put too much eye makeup on me.  I don't normally wear much, and I swear there was silver going up past my eyebrows.

We barely just arrived back home.  It's late, I'm tired, and only the Fat Squirrel is keeping me going at the moment.  For now I'm going to post a couple of photos for your Sunday evening/Monday morning viewing pleasure.  Back to writing-related work tomorrow.

The winnings from the rehearsal dinner trivia game: Wisconsin cheese curd.  Yum. 

Getting my hair set by an incredibly awesome hairdresser.  She's so awesome she drove to WI from Chicago to do the wedding party's hair... and give delinquent little ol' me a trim.

Ah, direction.

The blue grass accompaniment for the ceremony.

Our camera was a little slow at taking pictures.

Bride, two giggling officiants, groom.

Bridal party. 

Okay, this photo requires a short tale.  When my husband and I got married many years ago, we got a cheap DJ who didn't understand our taste in music.  During the reception, he played O Town's "All or Nothing".  Our two friends serenaded my new husband with the song.  Two years later, one of those two women (in blue here) got married, and my husband and the other friend serenaded her with the same song.  So, last night, the circle closed as the third member of this pop-loving trio was serenaded in her wedding gown... while wearing an alligator hat.

Me and the lovely bride, post-gown.

Me with my hubby.

Another bridesmaid (formally known as the Fuchsia-maid) and I.  She was holding the camera.  I'm not intentionally trying to show you the inside of my nose, I promise.

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Friday Escape

This weekend I'm a bridesmaid for my college roommate.  Pictures will probably abound come Monday, especially since I'll finally be getting a haircut :)

As if I haven't already been delinquent enough in my blogoduties this week, the weekend forecast shows no relief.  Maybe at the hotel on Saturday afternoon before the wedding?  I have no idea what's in store for us—except that haircut.

I'm 20 pages to the end of Eat Pray Love, for those of you who're interested.  I will get my post up by Monday (or may they strike me down!).  Also, an award will show up, since I received one at the beginning of this week and haven't been able to post it.  It's coming.  I haven't forgotten.

As a parting note, I would like to leave you with this, courtesy of PhD Comics (comic #1352).

It doesn't only apply to the PhD, right?

Have a great weekend, folks!

NaNoWriMo 2010 and the Plotter/Pantser Advantage

I signed up. 

Yup, I sure did.

And now I'm terrified.  Most of that fear stems from not knowing what my life is going to be like once fall classes resume.  And part of it, ladies and gents, is the sheer fact that 50,000 in 30 days is a whole lot of time and sweat and exhaustion waiting to happen.

I'm also pretty stoked. 

I bring this up because a) see above paragraph, and b) I've seen a number of posts in the past 24 hours discussing pantsing v. plotting (see Jessica's and Summer's posts, and, tangentially, iggi and gabi's).  They've made me consider NaNoWriMo, how it works, and who might be more successful—the pantser or the plotter.

Pros for the Plotter

These seem pretty obvious to me.  The outline is waiting for you on top of your keyboard on that fateful November morning when the race begins.  The story has been developing in your mind for some time.  Scenes already exist, though they are yet unwritten.  All you need is some time and some quiet.

Cons for the Plotter

While the outline is immaculate, you haven't plotted the exact path from point A to point B.  You get stuck.  When you resume, your story takes an unexpected turn... 

Actually, wait.  Can this happen to a plotter?  Or is each scene thoroughly outlined so no unknown plot twists can infiltrate the WiP?

Hmm... maybe it's better not to talk about the plotter, seeing as I don't conform to this category.

Pros for the Pantser

The whimsy and excitement of discovering your story drives you to go days without sleep.

Cons for the Pantser

Oh, shoot.  Wait.  What just happened?  How did the story get here?  No, no, no, this doesn't work.  It's headed for a dead end.  Go back, delete 20,000 words and start over.


I've oversimplified the categories, no doubt about it.  And such categories are never so well defined, anyway.  The continuum is vast, and most of us will fall somewhere in the middle.  I tend to lean toward the pantser side (and have found myself getting very little sleep when a story won't stop in my head), but I never start writing before my story has a solid beginning, a few key mid-way points, and a solid ending.  All of these are subject to change, of course, but a barebones outline is necessary for me to feel comfortable with the process.

I've had a story idea bouncing around in my head for close to six months now, and I've decided to hold onto it until November 1st.  I'll spend some time in the next couple of months writing a preliminary summary for it.  Before I discovered NaNoWriMo (or, I should admit, before I went to Google to figure out what all this nonsensical acronym means :) I had already written a couple of pages.  I know we're not supposed to start NaNoWriMo with anything but outlines, but I promise what I've got is nothing of consequence.  If you're interested, you can see the first 250 words here.  I wrote them because I wanted to toss them into the pool for Nathan Bransford's Monday Page Critique.  I'm still waiting, and may wait for another 279 weeks while he goes through everyone else's :)

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year?  Are you a plotter or a pantser or somewhere in between?  Which are you more like?  Which do you think would be better for an intensive writing competition like NaNoWriMo?  Why?

Tagged--I'm It (what *is* it?)

I've been tagged!  Oh, no!  Just kidding.  Aléatoire tagged me in this handwriting exercise.  Since I'm terribly behind in posting anyway, I thought I would post this (since I can do it in the extra 15 minutes I've found for myself this morning).

Honestly, I hope that's legible.  I don't have time to take a picture with my real camera, nor do I have a scanner, so PhotoBooth it is, folks.  Here are the prompts:

1. Your name/Blog's name
2. Are you right-handed or left-handed?
3. What are your favorite letters to write?
4. What are your least favorite letters to write?
5. Write: "The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
6. In CAPS, write: "BABOON, SPLENDOR, ONOMATOPOEIA, FLIP-FLOPS, HUZZAH!"
7. Your favorite song lyrics are?
8. Make sure you tag 7 people to join in on the fun.
9. Tickle your fancy and add a special quip for us to enjoy.

I don't have time to tag anyone else right now, but if you think this is cool, consider yourself tagged.  Just leave me a note so I can hop over to your blog and check out your handwriting.  I promise I won't do a(n extensive) handwriting analysis :)

Disclaimer: #9 isn't written in Latin letters.  Illegibility may not be due to bad resolution.

And now, off I run to class.  Happy Wednesday! :)

Monday Montage

Update from Saturday's Post

Thank you, everyone, for both your empathy with my cyber-struggle and your suggestions.  I've decided to try a system of scheduled visits—though I haven't worked it out yet.  Of course, if I work out my schedule this week it will be interesting to see how well I can keep up with it over the next month with classes ending, two weddings to attend, my mother visiting, and classes starting again.

Bottom line:  I'm not ignoring you!  I'm trying to get my cyber-bum around to visit everyone, but it will be sporadic for a while.

Writing Update

Instead of being a cyber-junky this weekend, I did some hardcore revising of chapters 1–4 (now chapter 1–6).  More will still need to be done, and my notes are quite extensive, but I'm feeling pretty good about it.  Again, thank you to anyone who shared encouragement or sympathy on Thursday's post.  They helped keep my motivation up all weekend, and I'm still going strong this afternoon.

EPL Book Club

I'm a little delinquent in my reading of EPL.  My final book club post will be up by the end of the week (hopefully...)

Last Week's Random Act of Awesome

Well, it's not entirely random.  I've been planning this for a long time.

PS—Don't EVER get a tattoo on your foot unless you're a true masochist.