Month: April 2008

Weekend update

So, we promised to take the kids to the dollar store that’s next to their swim school. Or rather, was next to their swim school. Now it’s a mattress and furniture liquidation place. To make up for that, on Saturday, we went to stinky feet Burger King play place. Yeah. I know. The high life. Someone make it stop.

Those who live in big plastic bubbles shouldn’t throw cheeseburgers. Shilling for Burger King unintentional.

I bought Andrew a pair of new spring shoes since he totally blew out the original pair I bought. I. Mean. Totally. But he’s undecided. So, today I asked if they’re his or mine. Because, get this, we wear the same shoe size. I would totally wear those shoes.

I finished my short story, Speechless. It came in just under 5,000 words. Anyone want a 5,000 word YA short story in first person, present tense that manages to combine speech team, vanilla chai deodorant, and dead sexy class clowns? Yeah, I didn’t think so. (Earlier today, Bob asked if I were writing about him; given the above list, I’ll let you answer that yourselves.)

And, last, but hardly least, I think we may have spring here in Minnesota. Shhh. We don’t want to scare it away.

So, what do you do now?

Sell a book, what’s next? Write another one. Well, we could. Or I could just go take a nap, which is what I did on Saturday afternoon.

I haven’t taken a nap in ages, but I seem to have some spring cold/flu/undefined ailment, so I though a nap might help. Of course, I’m not sure it’s really a nap if you have a five-year-old nursemaid in constant attendance, soothing your brow, patting your arm, and adding glittery lip gloss to your lips (I might be sick, but I’m still fashionable).

I wanted to thank everyone for all the kind congratulations yesterday, but even though I didn’t “nap,” I was still feeling under the weather. Ditto for today. Only no lip gloss, so I’m not nearly as fashionable.

But I am here to say thanks and thanks again. Darcy and I really appreciate it.

We interrupt this blog…

For an announcement from Publishers Marketplace:

Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance’s debut THE GEEK GIRL’S GUIDE TO CHEERLEADING, the story of a self-confessed debating dork whose practical joke lands her a spot on the varsity cheerleading squad, where she realizes that if there’s one thing worse than blending into the lockers, it’s getting noticed!, to Jennifer Klonsky at Simon Pulse, by Mollie Glick at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.

If anyone is interested, I’ll be glad to elaborate why it took nearly two weeks from hat tossing to being able to announce the sale. But. Later. I should be able to form coherent sentences later.

Fortunate Friday

 My fortune cookie fortune today:

Your destiny is to be famous.

Wow. For a fortune cookie, that’s … specific. They’re usually not quite so bold. I’m hoping they mean famous as in Louis Pasteur rather than, say, Paris Hilton.

Of course, it may be my destiny, which I end up refusing. This will lead me to write one of those introspective, navel-gazing, literary, semi-autobiographical novels (and if I can make it both pretentious and obscure, so much the better).

Depending on what destiny thinks of that, it will either end up on the NYT list or in the remainder bin.

Ah, destiny. You are a cruel mistress.

Book Giveaway

Chris over at book-a-rama is holding a book giveaway contest.

Linda Wisdom author of 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover will be making a guest appearance here at book-a-rama on April 11, I’m going to give away my gently used (by me) copy of 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover to ONE lucky reader.

So, go on over and enter, by April 4th. Sure, it means my chances to win are slimmer. I’m sure you can deal with that guilt.

Booking literature

Booking Through Thursday: 

  • When somebody mentions “literature,” what’s the first thing you think of? (Dickens? Tolstoy? Shakespeare?)
  • Do you read “literature” (however you define it) for pleasure? Or is it something that you read only when you must?

Argh. I hate this literary vs. genre argument with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. I love Fitzgerald (Darcy and I have a serious thing for The Great Gatsby). Love “Shapespeare” as Andrew used to call him. Spent serious time with the Russians (Tolstoy, Pushkin, Chekhov).

I enjoy genre. I enjoy literary and literature. I think it’s important for writers to read outside their comfort zone. If, for no other reason, to understand what it is they don’t like about it and why.

But then, we love absolutes, don’t we? All genre is escapist fluff. All literary is pretentious, tragic, and obscure. All classics are boring. And sure, you could probably find plenty of evidence to support those statements.

And I don’t buy the: I’m busy, so when I read, I want to be entertained. Uh, same here. The way I see it, all fiction (and a great deal of nonfiction) is escapist. If it’s not my reality, then chances are I’m escaping.

Sometimes it is good to grab a comfort read, something you know will make you laugh, or has a guaranteed happy ending. And sometimes, those tougher reads help us make sense of the world, understand why the bad things happen.

As a reader, I need both of those. As a writer, I’d be negligent if I didn’t at least consider all types of writing.

I’ve been called a literary snob for not liking The Da Vinci Code. It wasn’t so much the writing (nothing to uh, write home about), but the topic. Conspiracy. Yawn. Whatev. If I’d been into the subject matter, then I probably would’ve been into the book.

On the flipside, it has also been suggested I’m somewhat less of a writer for choosing to write young adult fiction–that somehow fiction with teen characters aimed at a teen demographic is lacking in all the elements you’d find in adult fiction.

My response: whatev.

So, y’all go fight among yourselves. I’m going to go back to reading whatever happens to appeal to me, despite its label.

I’m a little bit country


You’re Ecuador!
It’s been said that you’re worth your weight in gold. But maybe you’re just worth the wait. In any case, you have some friends who’ve been waiting for you longer than any human would find to be reasonable. At least you get them to sometimes come out of their shell. Much has been made of your most inaccessible traits, and there are those who feel they could learn about the whole world from these. You could never quite get over your distaste for lima beans.

Take the Country Quiz II
at the Blue Pyramid

Except we love lima beans around here. They’re called “wish beans,” because if you happen upon one in your mixed veggies (not wedgies), you get to make a wish. It’s supposed to come true, too.