Found over on Jenn’s blog:
I am a
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“You are just a sweet person. When a friend needs a shoulder to cry on, you are happy to offer yours with a box of tissues as well. Once in awhile, you wish you could be a little more dramatic but then sensibility sets back in and you know that you are perfect the way you are.”
That’s me–sensible.
Confidential to D: Daisy, appropriate, no?
I have so much to say, and not enough hours in the day. At least not this week. I did want to comment on all this fear and loathing in the romance community, but that will have to wait. Here’s what’s going on:
I know. I’m insane. For some reason, I thought this time of year would be quiet and a class would be a nice diversion for snowy, cold days. Color me diverted.
So, instead of any actual content, I’ll give you this passage from my journal (I was searching last year’s for a thread of an idea that I think will fit the writing assignment):
Okay, worst lunch ever. I paid for tortellini in tomato water? Come on, if you make a mistake, drain the pasta and add new sauce. I mean, tomato soup has more substance than whatever it was they put on my pasta. Gah. Not eating there for a while. At least it’s warming up.
Do you like that total non sequitur into the weather? As you can see: my journal = scintillating.
So, I’m sure you foodies already know this, but Missy Chase Lapine is suing the Seinfelds for plagiarism and copyright infringement, among other things.
Sadly, my first reaction when this story broke a while back was: Wait. Jerry Seinfeld is married? And he has three kids? Clearly, I am the last person on earth to find out. I so missed the memo on that one.
My second reaction was: people spend hours each week pureeing veggies to hide in their kids’ food? For real? I mean, I could understand if you were pureeing some wedgies …
Just to be contrary, I want to whip up a meal of deep-fried Twinkies with a chaser of milkshakes … make that milkshakes with whipped cream. Now that’s what’s for dinner.
In other plagiarism news … yes, there’s other (possible) plagiarism news. Over at SBTB, they’ve uncovered strange similarities between nonfiction texts and passages in Cassie Edwards’s romance novels.
The first in the series of posts is here (with links to the rest). If you have time to sift through all the posts and comments, it makes for some interesting reading, not just what was discovered, but the various reactions as well. And it will be interesting to see the fallout from this.
Wait. Late, breaking news. Signet (one of Ms. Edwards’s publishers) weighed in, as reported on SBTB and GalleyCat.
Well. That’s interesting.
First it was Marianne. Then Anno. Who’s next? And what can you do when all the cool kids are doing it?
Play along:
The Recipe For Charity |
2 parts Tolerance 1 part Humor Splash of Fascination Limit yourself to one serving. This cocktail is strong! |
Next up: Jumping off of bridges. (Oh. Wait. I’ve already done that.)
So today, Darcy and I received what I think are the final, final line edits from our agent (!). No major changes, just a word/sentence here or there, a few add this, delete that sort of things.
However, our agent (!) saved this revision tracked version of Geek Girl’s Guide as:
Emergency Geek.doc
Now, she means this in the kindest, nicest, most positive way. Yes? Darcy maintains that it means the manuscript is so, so hot, not that it needs some serious mouth-to-mouth. Surely, that’s what it is.
Right?
Right.
Right.
I went to print out MacKenna’s story (AKA The Fine Art of Holding Your Breath) since I’m starting the revision process with a read-through. I was casually glancing at the text when a section I knew I’d changed caught my eye. Only, the section was the old way, not the new and improved way.I double checked all my versions to make sure I was working in the latest and greatest. I checked the version I sent to the Golden Heart. I checked everything.
I remember making these changes. They were small but good ones suggested by Darcy and Jen. Were they in the latest and greatest? No. Were they in the version I send to the Golden Heart? No. Were they in any version of the story?
No.
*head-desk*
I did find the changes, in various sent/received emails, so all is updated now. That still doesn’t help me re: the Golden Heart.
The fine art of screwing up.
Sigh.
Well, I’m off, to do a read-through and drown my sorrows in green tea and Fig Newtons.
You Are 50% Left Brained, 50% Right Brained |
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Jill over at The Wet Noodle Posse has a great post on matching goal setting to your brain/learning type. It’s worth a read, especially if you’ve tried goal setting and it hasn’t worked for you.
But what do I do with that 50/50 split? It probably explains why I do write a lot of things down. I like to get stuff on paper, but what I actually write looks a little chaotic.
For instance, when Darcy and I were brainstorming revisions for Geek Girl’s Guide, I made some “outline” notes that looked like this:
Oddly, Test good pen has nothing to do with the outline or story. I was trying out a pen to see if I liked writing with it. But there it is, in all its glory, as part of the outline (it really does have its own bullet point). I’m not even sure these notes would make sense to Darcy, never mind anyone else.
I looked at my 2007 writing goals/resolutions. I didn’t keep a single one! But! That’s not necessarily a bad thing. At the start of 2007, I wasn’t planning on doing anything with Geek Girl’s Guide. I had a (small) start on MacKenna’s story, I hadn’t partnered up with Darcy, hadn’t even thought about taking that terrific children’s book writing class.
And so on.
What’s a goal setting girl to do? I did accomplish a lot, I think. Much more than what I wrote down at the start of the year.
Well, I ended up writing down some goals, more coherently than my outline above (sort of). I won’t bore you with all of them, but in summary:
The rest? The rest I’m keeping flexible.
I’m telling you, this is great stuff. Learn. Win prizes. Cure the common cold. It’s all there on The Wet Noodle Posse site this year:
The Wet Noodle Posse had such a great time with our month of Golden Heart prep that we’re giving away writing tips … one month at a time. In addition to book and critique giveaways, join Q&A sessions and read guest blogs from bestselling writers like Sherrilyn Kenyon and Gena Showalter.Check out our line-up of topics!
January-Getting Started (goals, choosing story idea, focus, etc.)
February-Character Development (names, physical descriptions, backstory, etc.)
March-Plotting
April – Conflict
May-Research
June-Business side of Writing (market, marketing, promotion, etiquette)
July-Prepping for Conference (both for national and smaller conferences)
August-Inspiration (for stories and for keeping yourself going)
September-Writer Health (physical and mental)
October-GH Preparation
November-Writing Challenges (NaNo, BIAW, turning off the internal editor, etc.)
December-Editing/Revisions
Get great information in a fun community! Visit http://wetnoodleposse.blogspot.com
You can enter to win Barnes and Noble.com gift certificates by posting this news release on your blog or forwarding to a chapter/group e-mail loop or newsletter. To be eligible, e-mail the particulars of your forward/post to jillmonroe @ cox.net (no spaces) and post no later than January 20, 2008. A random drawing will determine the winner(s) of the gift certificates.
Writing Wrongs 