Stylish Blogger Award

Wow! I feel so humbled—and honored—because amazing mom, Katy, who blogs about her sons Jack and Sammy and her family’s amazing resilience and courage in coping with a Leukemia diagnosis, just gifted me with the Stylish Blogger Award.

Part of the award is to tell everyone a little more about myself. So here it goes. Aside from my obvious passion for writing I…

• Take care of my four-year-old son Zane, diagnosed with Trisomy 18, full time. You can visit him at http://www.mylifewithzane.blogspot.com/. Maybe even become a follower. (I also take care of my older son, Justin, as he’s not yet self-sufficient being only six and all)

• Live in the mountains, but consider myself a beach person

• Once auditioned for the Ford Robert Black agency (as an actor) and failed miserably

• Love to read (but that’s probably obvious)

• Used to be a teacher and reading specialist

• Rock climb

• Quit my job, sold my house, and bought and RV to go on the road for a year with my family

And I have to say, blogging has seriously become my new procrastination activity. There are some really great blogs out there. Here are just a few I follow and enjoy. As such, I have passed the award to them, as well:

• Inside Looking Out
• The Death Writer
• Livin’ Our Dash
• One Significant Moment at a Time
• Love and Leap of Faith
• Superman Sammy


Take a trip over and pay them a visit.
And thank you Jack  & Sam’s Mom for the award!

Six Things I Did Today Instead of Writing

1. Exercised. As I’ve grown older, I’ve become more acutely aware of something that has always been a part of my life: Gravity. Though I may not be able to restore things to their twenty-something state, I am certainly willing to try.

2. Checked Oscar results: I wanted to watch the Oscars last night. But it’s kind of hard when we don’t have television stations. We’ve tried the whole rabbit-ear thing, but it doesn’t work in the mountains. And we’ve elected not to pay the outrageous costs of satellite TV. Each time we stay in a hotel and flip through stations, it reinforces our reasons for remaining TV free. Therefore, I had to go online to see who the winners were. Come to find out, I haven’t seen these movies anyway.

3. Blogged. Obviously, here I am. Not editing. Not revising, Not writing my manuscript. Oh, the things I’ll to do procrastinate. I even danced around the blogs to see who else was procrastinating.

4. Worked. I actually have a job. That pays me to do stuff. So I did Regional Director-ish duties for Destination ImagiNation. Our regional tournament is coming up next month, and my to-do list is still there. I kind of hoped it would go away on its own.

5. Wrote down new ideas. I have a new idea for a YA novel. But the new idea came to me while I was driving. For some reason, the road is my muse. Of course, it is hard (and not exactly safe) to write and drive at the same time. I reached for my voice recorder, and the batteries were dead. So, back at home, I needed to write those babies down before they fizzled away.

6. Read books to Zane. In between his daily PT exercises, we like to take breaks. So we lie next to each other on the floor while I read. Today it was I Love You All Day Long. I thought it was a pretty cute book. Apparently, Zane didn’t agree. He wiggled away to another area of the room.

DNA Writers Epic Double Helix Contest

DNA Writers is holding an Epic Double Helix contest to celebrate 100 followers!

The prizes break down like this:

• Brenda: Free $25 Amazon gift card.
• Shelley: Free book from the Book Depository under $15.
• Erica: Free book from the Book Depository under $15.
• Cassandra: Free 10 pg MS critique or 4 pg synopsis critique ($35 value).
• Diana: Free $15 Starbucks e-gift card.
• Janelle: SIGNED paperback of Lisa McMann's WAKE.

The ultra Grand Prize is (drum roll please)…
full substantial edit of 80k or less (MG or YA only) from Kari!

So who are DNA Writers?
Erica
Cassandra
Brenda
Shelley
Diana
Janelle

So, you ask, what are the rules?

• Must be a follower of DNA Writers
• Fill out the contest form on their blog 
• Contest ends at midnight EST March 6th.

Is that awesome or what?

Taking Writing Personally

For awhile now I believed in the notion that, in order to be validated as a writer, I needed to be published. With each rejection letter I received, I subscribed to the idea that something must be wrong with my writing. If someone else (especially someone working in the publishing industry) does not want my work, then I must be less than or inferior to those who have novels and books in print.

And while I am no longer devastated to the point where I want to eat an entire container of Cherry Garcia (the full-of-fat kind) with each rejection, I still cannot help but take it a little personally. Fellow writers advise the opposite. Do not take it personally, they say. But, I wonder, how can we not? We as writers sink so much of ourselves into our work; it is personal business. It is not the same as making a mathematical error. Sure, I might mess up someone’s closing costs on a loan or shortchange someone a twenty in the teller line. But I have not personally put myself out there—my history, my thoughts, my aspirations, my inner self. When we write, we expose ourselves to the rest of the world (or at least to those who we choose to read our work). So when we send out queries, sample chapters, or whole manuscripts, and they come back with the proverbial stamp of rejection all over them, we should take it a little personally.

I was given the book Art and Fear by a co-worker of my husband. It is a compelling read. The authors (David Bayles and Ted Orland) advocate for the making of art. Not the selling of art, but the making of it. It has definitely transformed the way I view my own writing. I no longer see it as the crafting of saleable material for the general public, but as the process of writing, the doing of writing, the need to mold words into art. I highly recommend this book to anyone struggling with the publishing process, to anyone who doubts he or she is a true writer. Despite what the industry may say to you, keep writing. I know for me, it is something I have to do whether I am published or not.

Grammar Friday: Collective Nouns

Collective Nouns

noun n. a person, place, thing, or quality

col•lec•tive adj. gathered into a whole; characteristic of a group

Collective nouns can be tricky when pairing them with the correct verb form. They can be singular or plural. Perhaps we should start with an example:

Team either can be singular or plural, depending on if you refer to the team as a unit or by its individual members.

Singular: The team is celebrating its big win.

Plural: The team are playing separate positions.

In the first, the team is a unit. It is one thing. In the second, the team actually refers to the individual members of the team. Of course, the plural sentence sounds more natural if the word members is inserted after team. But the meaning is the same whether the word is there or not.

Other examples of collective nouns:
Family
Management
Company
Swarm
Crowd

There really are way too many to list. Just another grammar tidbit to be aware of.

Six Things I Did Today Instead of Writing

1. Played chauffer: This is one side responsibility that comes with being a mom. I have to cart the boys to school, pick them up at separate times, then take the oldest to his karate class in the evening. Hiya!

2. Chatted on the phone: Yes, I spent an hour catching up with my best friend from high school. We have remained friends for the past #@ years (uh oh, the number lock key doesn’t seem to be working). When we talk, it is like no time has passed at all, and we’re sixteen all over again. All right, sixteen with kids.

3. Worked on the book proposal for my travel memoir: This kind of falls under the category of actual writing, but the process is far less creative and way more laborious. So not really writing at all.

4. Practiced katas: In order for my oldest son to earn his yellow belt (which he really wants to have), he must learn three katas. It is taking awhile for him to learn them in class. This means, he has to practice at home. So now I am learning the katas, too. Watch out, I might someday become a de facto black belt. (Cue punching sound).


5. Laundry: Need I say more? This stuff never goes away.

6. Read: I am really enjoying Art & Fear by David Bayles & Ted Orland (going to have to write a review on this one). It was given to me by a co-worker of my husband. It has proven to be a wonderful gift. Unfortunately, I only made it through a few pages this morning before I was asked to fill a cereal bowl with Raisin Bran Crunch.

Character Workout

I love great characters—characters who are fully developed and whose lives intrigue me. If the people who populate the books I read are layered and human, I usually enjoy the book. Despite the Hollywood-esque need to maintain an active plot with lots of external conflict, I prefer in the inner conflict. (Although a good chase scene is not always the worst thing in the world). Like real people, well-developed characters seem to create conflict on their own.

That being said, I think we as writers can always dig deeper in our characterizations. So I present to you—free of charge—Character Workouts. This is really just a fancy name for character development exercises.

Workout #1
List the contents of your character’s purse/wallet/backpack/locker/desk drawer (you get the picture). Then, imagine someone has stolen/ransacked/broken into the above storage place. When your character discovers the invasion, what item would he or she feel most upset to have been found by another? From your character’s point of view, write a first-person narrative of the secret item, the feeling evoked by its discovery or of having lost it, and why losing it or having it discovered is so important.

Hopefully, the workout (aka exercise) will give you greater insight into your character and help create another level of depth he or she did not have before.

Happy writing!

Grammar Friday: Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
Today I thought it would nice to have a short grammar lesson about pronoun-antecedent agreement. This is a big pet peeve for me: The mismatch of a pronoun (he, she, it, they) to the phrase it refers.



A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in three ways:

• In number

• In person

• In gender

Number:
Example: If a student wants to go to recess, they must finish the assigned homework.

This is WRONG! Yet, I hear people saying such things often. The subject is the student. This requires a singular pronoun (he or she)—not they.

Instead, the sentence should read as follows: If a student wants to go to recess, he or she must finish the assigned homework.

Person:
Example: If a student wants to go to recess, you must finish the assigned homework.

Again, you is not a correct pronoun for student. You is second person while student is third person.

Just as in the previous example, the sentence should read as follows: If a student wants to go to recess, he or she must finish the assigned homework.

Otherwise, you could reword to sentence to read: If you want to go to recess, you must finish the assigned homework.

Gender:
Example: If a student wants to go to recess, he must finish the assigned homework.

While this seems correct in the instances of number and person, it is incorrect in terms of gender.

Instead, the pronouns should include both he and she (see sentence above).

Otherwise, the sentence can be made plural as such: If students want to go to recess, they must finish the assigned homework.

Obvious, right? Not to everyone. Just another simple grammar rule to keep in mind.

Bernard Pivot Blogfest

To celebrate her 500th follower, Nicole Ducleroir is hosting a Bernard Pivot Blogfest today. Those familiar with Inside the Actor’s Studio will recognize the famous ten-question questionnaire asked by the show’s host, James Lipton. The questionnaire was originally created by French journalist Bernard Pivot.

Okay, here's Bernard Pivot's famous questionnaire with my answers:

1. What is your favorite word? Words that convey meaning through their very utterance are my favorites. If I had to pick a favorite (which I guess I do), it would be whisper, which uses onomatopoeia. Now there's a word worth calling a favorite!

2. What is your least favorite word? Retarded (when used as slang for “stupid”). I bristle whenever I hear it. Plus, it personally impacts me because I have a son with special needs.

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Music.

4. What turns you off? Negativity in any form. But I am most impacted by the negativity of people close to me.

5. What is your favorite curse word? Sh#&, prefaced by “piece of”. Though given the right aggravating situation, I can string a unique array of modifiers in front of it. Of course with children around, I need to utter these things under my breath.

6. What sound or noise do you love? The sound of a snowblower on an early winter morning or a mountain chickadee.

7. What sound or noise do you hate? Grinding of teeth.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Well, Rick Steves already took my job of choice, so I’d say a dancer (despite being told I was uncoordinated at an early age). Otherwise an Egyptologist.

9. What profession would you not like to do? Nursing. I would hate to poke needles into people’s veins. While often necessary, it is also foreign and wrong.

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
Your whole family is here.

Valentine's Day

We shouldn’t need a holiday to celebrate love. Should we? Love is something we should be showing to our significant other, children, extended family, friends, and—yes—even strangers on a daily basis. For some of those mentioned (i.e., strangers and even sometimes friends), I am not talking about throwing your arms around them and offering up kisses or other acts of physical affection. In most instances, that would be highly inappropriate. Rather, I mean a universal kind of love. For love is not strictly defined by deep emotions, attachment, devotion, or even lust. As a matter of fact, Webster’s New World Dictionary gives one definition as:

love (luv) n. a feeling of brotherhood [and I might add sisterhood to bring the entry into the 21st Century] and good will toward other people.

So in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, remember to tell people you love them on days other than February 14th; hold the door open for a stranger; say a kind word when you would otherwise make a snide comment or sarcastic remark. Our world will a little bit better because of it.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

In honor of the day, here are some resources to spark loving feelings:

Poems:
Shakespeare’s 18th Sonnet
Love’s Philosophy by Shelley
i carry your heart with me by cummings
She Walks in Beauty Like the Night by Byron

Songs:
Valentine by Martina McBride
My Funny Valentine by Frank Sinatra
Valentine’s Day by Linkin Park
Happy Valentine’s Day by Outkast

Books:
Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff
Plum Lovin’ by Janet Evanovich
Love Poems by Women edited by Wendy Mulford

Acts of Kindness:
Open a door for someone (and keep it open until they walk through)
Refrain from cutting someone off in traffic (even better, don’t use the finger)
Buy a cup of coffee (or tea) for someone
Say something nice
Keep sarcasm in your head
Smile

Grammar Friday

The Difference Between Bring and Take

My husband and I were chatting one night about grammar. Specifically, he was quite irked by the fact that people who travel in similar circles as he (i.e., business) do not know the difference between bring and take. He was almost starting to bristle.

So in the event you are one of those people (or know someone who is), here is the difference:

Bring: This is the act of carrying something to a place thought of as “here”. By example, I may ask my husband: “Will you bring me a glass of water?” He may refuse, but at least he will not be angry with me for using the wrong word. I, however, may be angry with him for not bringing the water to me.

Take: This is the act of accompanying someone (or something) to a place thought of as “there”. In this case, I may say to my husband: “I am not going to take your dishes to the sink.” Again, he may not be thrilled that he has to get up and walk his own plate to the kitchen, but at least he will feel less stressed because I did not refuse to “bring” his plate for him.

Idiomatic expressions such as “Bring to the table” and “Take someone under your wing” are exceptions. But in conventional speech, always follow the rules above.

Think of bring and take in terms of here and there. As a mnemonic device, take and there both start with “t”. 

Until next time…happy grammar!

Music and Writing

It used to be I could not write and listen to music at the same time. I always grew distracted by the lyrics, often singing along.

“Something in the way you love me won’t let me be.”

“His name was Rico, he wore a diamond. He was escorted to his chair, he saw Lola dancin' there.”

“Never was a cornflake girl. Thought that was a good solution.”

The lyrics of the song imposed themselves on my writing. I would either have to shut off the music or close down Word. To some degree, that still happens. But—like many writers—I use music as a tool for inspiration. And sometimes, a song comes along that seems to be perfectly written and composed for one of my characters.

I recently heard Dog Days Are Over by Florence and the Machine and immediately knew it related well to one of the major characters in my in-progress YA novel. Dog days are the hottest and most stagnant days of summer. Its meaning clearly plays itself out in inner conflict, as well. When Alexander (a major character) meets the main character, his dog days truly do seem to draw to a close.

Anyway, this prompted me to wonder if other writers match songs to their characters. Just curious.

Brenda Drake (http://www.brenleedrake.blogspot.com/) offers an It Was a Dark and Stormy Night Blogfest Contest. The winner receives a critique of the first 50 pages of his/her manuscript from Weronika Janczuk from the D4EO Agency (the agency, by the way, that gave me a kind rejection for one of my works in the past).


Unfortunately, I am quite the last-minute being by posting this to my blog the night before the “assignment” is due. Here’s the deal:

Post the first line of a finished manuscript on the blog. Get critiques from followers. Give critiques to participants. Polish and post the first line on February 9th.

Here it is. Drumroll please…

Emergency lights throbbed atop the ambulance, yet there was no sound.

Feel free to offer all forms of critique and suggestions.

Six Things I Did Today Instead of Writing

pro•cras•ti•nate (vi) to put off doing until a future time

1) Grocery shopping: This is one of those evil necessities that simply has to be done. Often the hubby will do it for me, but he’s in a loooonngg meeting today. Plus, I needed to pick something up in town anyway, and we were desperately low on food. But, while making the forty-minute drive, I did take mental notes for my current manuscript. That kind of counts as writing. Right?

2) Laundry: What can I say? If I don’t do it, we’d likely wear the same, smelly clothes every day.

3) Read Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. I really like the characters and the fact that it’s written in alternating chapters by the authors, Rachel Cohn and David Levitan. I just wanted to keep reading it…and so I did.

4) Ate the leftover Hershey’s Kisses my in-laws left behind after their weekend visit.

5) Fed the fire in the wood burning stove. This thing is my nemesis. Every time I turn around my work has been reduced to a pile of ash or a charred stump of a log. Seriously, the fire is a living, breathing, sentient thing trying to keep me from achieving my word-count goal.

6) Made a lengthy To-do list for the day. I only crossed off four things on the list. It is almost dinner time, and I have 36 things to go.

Goodbye

Goodbye
In September 2010, Inside/Outside Magazine ceased publication. I was quite bummed about this because I was the writer for their "With the Kids" column. I am not certain when the website is being taken down, but here is a blast from the soon-to-be distant past:
http://www.insideoutsidemag.com/columns/With_The_Kids/

RIP Inside/Outside Magazine.

Log Lines

log-line (n): a brief summary of a written work that outlines plot and contains a hook to stimulate interest

Here are mine:


Two for the Road: Screenplay/Comedy
     When Margie Green grows tired of her abusive husband and decides to leave her life and rob a bank to survive, she doesn’t realize Stewart Snyder is robbing the bank at the same time. Forced to flee together, the two wind up evading the authorities, along with Stewart’s psycho cop of an ex-girlfriend and Margie’s husband.

Surviving San Francisco: Screenplay/Comedy
     Twenty-three year old Leah Newland takes her big dreams and leaves the comforts of her parents’ Zion, Illinois home for the freedom of San Francisco. Upon her arrival, she is met with countless obstacles, including an obstinate and single veterinarian, which make her question her choice to move away at all.

Outrageous Adventure (with Jennifer Salerno): Screenplay/Comedy
     What happens when seven inept people are led by an equally inept tour guide into the Grand Canyon? Will they survive the elements? Better yet, will they survive one another?

Outcast: YA Novel
     As I reached my locker, fuchsia and tangerine marker screamed to me from across the hallway. “Loser” in bright, bold letters decorated the metal door. Students gathered around to stare at it as though it was an original Picasso. My cheeks flushed with humiliation. Though the books and supplies I needed for the day resided in that locker, I refused to approach it. The entire audience gawked at me, knowing the label was mine.

Fractured: Contemporary Novel
     “How do you feel?” Lloyd stops for a moment to ask. The wind skims the fronds of the palm trees, cactus wrens bob through the sky, and people continue to streak through life as if nothing ever happened. How can everything still be in motion after what took place in there? How can Lloyd’s mouth still be moving, but the words coming from it hold no meaning for me? How do I feel? I feel carved out like a jack-o-lantern, hollow and empty. That is how I feel.

The Alchemy Wheel: Contemporary Novel
     When nineteen-year-old Natalie Kirkland, a young woman with a promising future, strikes and kills forty-three-year-old Gordon O’Neil on a darkened stretch of highway and flees the scene, her life changes forever. Only two other people share her secret: her boyfriend, Andrew Lohse, and the silent witness across the highway. Though haunted by guilt, Natalie takes measures to put the incident behind her. But her self-reproach only intensifies once her life begins to tangle with Gordon’s through an accidental friendship with his sixteen-year-old son, Michael, and a series of coincidental events that draws their two lives together.

Superstition Gold (working title): YA Novel
     Ellie’s mom walked out on her a few years ago, and she refuses to believe her mom won’t come back. To make matters worse, her dad is marrying another woman and her best friend Kyle dumped her for cheerleader Tiffany Sheldon. But when Ellie meets quirky Alexander and learns about his map, his quest, and his background, will she finally be able to heal?

Our Life on the Road (working title): Nonfiction
     In 2006, we sold our house, quit our jobs, and purchased an RV. On day five of the trip, I discovered I was pregnant with no maternity coverage. Set against the backdrop of the national parks, the book outlines our physical and emotional journeys, which were intensified by the birth of our youngest son and his unexpected and usually-fatal Trisomy 18 diagnosis.