A New Year, Another Promise

I vow to write more, or at least try to be a little more productive in the coming year. I haven't accomplished much this year, but I will really really work on it this year...

My poor poor hand...

I just spent the past 2 hours writing out 35 Christmas cards. I'm very positive I've forgotten some people, although I'm not sure who...I guess I'll just send out a few more towards the end of the month to make up for it. I haven't sent out cards in a few years due to me being extremely pregnant last year and just moving to my new house the year before. We got three in the mail today, so I took that as a signal to get my ass in gear and get them out. I'm proud of myself for finishing them but my hand is cramped and my forefinger and middle fingers are sore as hell.

For lack of better things to write...

five things on my to-do list:

1. get caught up on my laundry. my daughter apparently has more clothing than i do.
2. watch "american gangster". i've owned this movie for almost a month now and i haven't bothered to open the cellophane yet.
3. run the vaccum. the in-laws are coming over on saturday...
4. play "viva pinata" one more time before my xbox live gold account subscription expires.
5. eat some soup tonight? it's cold outside...

five things i like to snack on:

1. veggies & southwest ranch dip
2. doritos *salivate*
3. cheese
4. ben & jerry's phish food
5. skittles

five things i would do if i were a millionaire:

1. pay off all my debt, brad's, my parent's, and probably other select close relatives
2. buy a new honda accord, 4 door of course...
3. throw some money at CVES and CVHS...they always need new things and funds are usually pretty tight.
4. travel in europe. not backpacking, that's for dirty hippies. and i'd take a cruise ship across the atlantic, no flying for me!
5. liposuction. no matter what i do, i can't get rid of this damn sack of a stomach that kayleigh left me with 10+ months ago.

five places i have lived:

1. meadville, pa
2. conneautville, pa
3. edinboro, pa
4. toledo, oh
5. rouseville, pa

five jobs i have had:

1. drive thru, mcdonalds
2. jack of all trades, kmart
3. music department, media play
4. distribution/mail clerk, maritz corp.
5. cash office/home-mens-kids dept, the bon ton

i'm not going to tag people, i'm not really sure who actually reads my blog...

Michael Crichton

I read "Jurassic Park" when I was 10, before the movie came out. I have a severely ear-marked copy of it (white paperback, black t-rex sillouette) that I've read dozens of times. I also read "Disclosure" (didn't like that one too much) and "Timeline" (the movie was better). And of course, who isn't an avid follower of "ER"? (well, not the new season anyways.)

He had such a great mind, even if the media thought he was kooky for "State of Fear".

You say "tomato"...

I got into an argument with a coworker today about this: when you say the word "the", do you pronounce it like "thuh" or "thee"?? And when you say the word "a", as in "I took 'a' bath today", is it pronounced like "ay" or "uh"?? I've found out that I use both pronunciations of both words, mostly depending on the sentence I'm spitting out.

It's nice to know that my air-headed associates actually think of stimulating topics once in a while.

Blah Blah Blah!

I'm at a "blah" stage right now. I feel so apathetic about everything in my life at this point in time and I can't bear to try and be creative about my writing. Hell, I'm down to about two blogs a week, if I'm motivated enough. Most nights, my brain is so revved up that I cannot calm down and I resort to either a "House" marathon on USA (very serial-like, each episode is virtually the same) or playing mindless card games. Each night, I fall asleep with Stephen Colbert (when I'm able to go to sleep on time), and the next day repeats itself. I hate working weekends, it sucks the life out of me and leaves me with almost no time for my family & friends.

Blah blah blah.

I almost wish I could go back to working part-time, but if I were to do that, Kayleigh wouldn't go to daycare any more and I'd still be just as busy at home.

Blah.

I've spent the day drinking Hater-ade.

I'm a book snob. There are some books I refuse to read for many well thought reasons. Here's a short list of what I have not and will never read:

1. The DaVinci Code: I know the story. I know how it ends. I know people are so pissed off about this book and its Biblical ideas. I've seen countless hours of programming about this book on The History Channel. And I have no interest in reading this book ever. It was too hyped up back in 2003 and I simply don't give a shit about it.
2. Any of the Harry Potter books: I don't like the idea that JK Rowling was considered a literary "saviour" and she alone was the reason children read books. When I was 9 years old (and this was back in 1991), I was reading Stephen King and VC Andrews. My grade school teacher called my mom and told her I was reading books that were inappropriate for my age level. Mom didn't care, I was reading and that's all that mattered to her. And this was before Harry Potter. And I HATE how snobbish people are when they hear you aren't an avid HP reader. "You haven't read any of them?" they say with a slight curl of the upper lip. Screw off!
3. Nicholas Sparks novels: I've already discussed this one. Not going through that rant again.
4. Serial novels based on TV shows: This includes Star Trek, CSI, Buffy The Vampire Slayer (I know, I love the show but the books are lousy), and Star Wars. I'm sure there are many other crappy knock-off novels that are worth mentioning but I don't care enough to mention them.
5. Chick Lit: I read a few of these when the "movement" first started (The Nanny Diaries, Confessions of a Shopaholic, In Her Shoes). It was witty and cute for about 6 months. Not so much any more. Hell, the name alone sounds like the cutesy mint gum I used to chew when I was in grade school. Now there are so many variations of Chick Lit that it's branched out into the land of Blogs and annoys me even more.
6. Oversexed horror novels: Bentley Little, you suck. Just stop writing. Seriously. It's gross, even for my tastes.
7. Stephanie Meyer: I do believe the Vampire Romance category is out. I have no interest in her, her novels, her wholesome background or anything else that has to do with her. The fact that my Grandma H. loves the Twilight series just kills me (and she's the same woman who thought Gone With the Wind sucked). And remember just over 10 years ago, BTVS debuted with a similar premise: young girl has ancient duties to kill vampires yet falls madly in love with a super hot one. Sorry Twilighters, I'll take Buffy and Angel any day, even if it's not good in book format. (or Buffy and Spike, I'm not choosy).

There is so much more to this list, but I'll save the rest for a rainy day.

"Takin' Care of Business"

I'm having a real shitty week. To be honest, I have no motivation for anything at this point. My "real" job is not going as planned and I may be looking for a new one once Christmas is over. I feel incredibly stressed and today was just as depressing as yesterday was. Maybe my feelings have something to do with how sucky the economy is at the moment. It feels like my whole life is dancing on eggshells and I'm not sure how long it will be before things pick up again. I'm going to spend the rest of my evening watching the Great Debate on tv and playing computerized Monopoly (which is so much more fun than playing with other real people).

Untitled

I haven't had the time to do much of anything this week. Still getting over my cold, taking care of my daughter, and I slept for almost 9 hours Wednesday night. Now THAT doesn't happen too often!

I'm going to try extra hard to accomplish something this coming week. I have Sunday off, but my husband doesn't understand that my days off are days off, not "let's go to my parents for the day" type of afternoon. Gah.

Annoyances with authors

Is it wrong to dislike Nicholas Sparks? I know he's a wildly popular writer of sappy romance novels, but I've never actually read one. I've seen "A Walk to Remember" and "The Notebook" and I was emotionally wrecked after watching both. Years later, I still can't watch the end of "A Walk to Remember" without hyperventilating. Regardless.From what I've read in the reviews, I find his novels to be too conveniently sappy. It's almost like he's seeking out that one lonely group of women who would rather curl up with one of his novels rather than their significant other. And now that he's got a new movie and a new book coming out, he's everywhere.

I don't find too many writers to be annoying. For the most part, unless I actually look at the author's picture in the back part of the book jacket, I have no clue what this person looks like. Same goes for the journalists in the magazines I read. I try not to get too involved with the bios of writers unless I find them to be truly interesting. To me, Nicholas Sparks (and is that even his real name? sounds fishy to me...) comes off as an effeminate male desperately trying to prove he's hetero. And I have no issues with gays, let me clear that outright. I do have issues with people claiming to be proudly gay, yet refusing to come out at the same time. Like Clay Aiken. But that's a different entry for a different blog...

I also find the authors of the "Left Behind" series to be incredibly annoying, mostly because they are so damn preachy. BUT that is the whole gimmick behind their novels. They write Christian fiction and that's how it's supposed to be -- preachy & gimmicky. Bentley Little -- he tries waaaayyy too hard to be this generation's Stephen King. I read one book of Little's and I only finished it because I had invested too much time reading it.

I especially like seeing television interviews with music magazine (Rolling Stone, Spin, etc.) journalists who love to claim they are "writers" except I don't buy it because the column they write is restricted to either a Top Ten list or some random quotes from a rock show they had recently attended. I know I shouldn't knock what they do, but it's almost like calling yourself a Doctor because you have a doctorate degree (and yes, I know someone who does this and has been doing it most of her adult life). It's misleading.

The Pen is mightier...

When I was younger, I used to write all my "stories" by hand. Of course, back then I had a small manual typewriter that was once my mother's and when I felt adventurous, I'd bang out a few pages on that. I still have a story I wrote when I was 11, all typed up on roughly 20 pages of lined paper. It's also full of white out, pen marks, and quite messy, to be honest. Over the years, I've written more on computers, and I've advanced from saving to floppy disks, to zip drives, and now I use a portable flash drive. Transferring everything over from one format to another is rather time consuming, but it's necessary when your new laptop doesn't have a floppy drive (true story, I was super pissed when I realized this). Now and then, I still bust out the pen and paper (always blue ballpoint & college ruled lined) and scribble away. The other night, while I was suffering from a severe sinus infection, I typed up a few pages of some stuff I had written a few years ago. I was surprised at how much material I had and I feel I should focus on that instead of this other novel I was trying to work on. Maybe I can do both, you know, jump back and forth. And maybe it's not a good idea, seeing how at the moment, my train of thought isn't worth a share of AIG stock.

We'll see how it goes. :)

I'd like to thank...

I won this lovely blog award today, bestowed upon me by Darcie over at Mommy on the Edge. I'm supposed to give this award to other bloggers as well, but aside from hers, I don't read a lot of blogs (I'm disqualifying the Myspace blogs, most users have private profiles and you can't read them anonymously), so I will check out some later on and make my selections at that time.

I am feeling better today. Yesterday was horrible. You know how some days you realize you've been staring at the TV with no recollection of the last hour, or attempt to play a simple hand of solitaire and not understand why your 8 of spades won't go on top of the 3 of hearts? That was me. All day long. I don't get sick often, but when I do, I do it in style. I still have 4 full days of vacation left, so I don't consider it totally wasted.

I spent a good portion of today thinking of the physicalities of my characters and I decided it will be easier to write about them if I knew what they looked like. I think I may have found something:

I know it's just Paul Walker & Mila Kunis, but they represent what I want my people to look like. And it definitely helps that they are both pretty hot, agreed?


UPDATE: Ok, here's a blog I think is award-worthy: Disenchanted Forest

Her blogs crack me up, and yet I totally get it.

*sniffle*

I am genuinely sick now. I've spent the past 2 days in a haze on sinus congestion. Last night I took some NyQuil and promptly passed out for almost 12 hours. And after all that sleep, I still can't funtion properly today. So, in honor of the First Annual Vacation Illness, I plan on playing canasta today. Maybe some laundry too. No writing today. :(

Hooray!

I wrote an entire page in the past hour. This is a step forward for me, so-to-speak. I'm not feeling too well right now, however. My throat is getting very sore and I'm afraid I'm getting sick. Just the thing I want to do during the first days of my vacation! I do believe I'll stop for tonight and watch a little History Channel until I fall asleep.

An afterthought

Is it wrong to completely abandon a major plotline because it will require too much research? I've been toying with this thought for a while. I have another plot I can use that I actually like better, but I don't know if I want to completely give up my original idea just yet. I know with fiction you can just make stuff up, but there is a degree of authenticity that readers enjoy. I'll give one example that actually pertains to a movie rather than a novel: in the film "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," Ratner is getting ready to go out on a date with the slutty girl. His sleezy friend (what the hell was his name??) tells him that she'll surely want to have sex if he plays "Led Zeppelin 4, side 2." In the next scene, the couple is in the car and Zeppelin's "Kashmir" is playing. I know I'm being picky about this, but "Kashmir" is neither on Zepplin 4 nor side 2. The fact that Cameron Crowe wrote the screenplay (and the fact that he's a huge music-buff) makes me wish that he'd done a little more research on that trivial little scene.

I just want to do things right and not have my credibility screwed.

From A to Z

While on my lunch break at work today, I walked around the mall, stopping briefly in Waldenbooks to check out the new releases. Just for fun, I looked over the shelf where my book will eventually be (once I finish writing it, publish it, etc.). In my particular Waldenbooks, it will sit between John Saul and Alice Sebold. Not bad, really. You've got Anne Rice just above and Shakespeare just below. I'd say that's a decent spot. I've heard of some writers actually changing their last name or using a specific psuedonym just to have a plum spot beside a famous bestselling author in the bookstores. And if for some odd reason, this novel turns out to be a Young Adult title (what are the odds??), I would be near JD Salinger and RL Stine. I remember reading RL Stine's "Fear Street" series when I was younger and I think it would be sweet to be on the same shelf as him. :)

*grumble* Sunday drivers...

So this morning, as I'm blindly driving to work at 7:30, I had an epiphany about the backstory for one of my main characters. It's something I've had trouble with for a while because a lot of the things I came up with sounded like complete and utter crap. And I should've pulled over and scribbled something down as soon as I had this epiphany because once I got to work and was able to sit down to make a few notes, I forgot most of it. Some of it has come back to me, but there were a few details I'm sure I'll never remember at this point. I'm so irritated with myself. I keep a little notebook beside my nightstand for this purpose! I should start carrying one in my purse too.

The Waldenbooks store in my mall stopped carrying "Writer's Digest" in their periodicals section. I think I may have been the only person in the county buying it every other month. When I had a subscription to it, WD was a monthly mag, not bimonthly. How sad. I still have a subscription to "The Writer" magazine, but it's still not the caliber of WD.

Procrastination is my best friend

Ok. I know I'm totally contradicting my first post by not posting/writing every day. I'm a busy lady! Last night I crashed around 11pm, which is my prime time on the computer (baby's asleep and I have some "me" time). My work schedule is erratic; since I work in retail, I don't have a real set schedule aside from my given 35 hours a week. For example, I worked yesterday from 8am until 3pm. Today I am off. Tomorrow it's 8am to 4pm. I haven't worked a lot of nights recently due to one of my coworkers in the office being on maternity leave. She'll be back at the end of the month and I'm sure I'll be back to the lousy 12pm-9pm and 8am-4pm back to back once again. Needless to say, when you add in time with Kayleigh and Brad (and my dog), it doesn't leave a lot of free time for me to check my email, let alone concentrate long enough to write anything respectable.

Why am I not spending my day off writing?

You see, all the shit I've been putting off all week (due to my lack of time) has gotten out of control. Laundry has taken over my basement, dog hair roams freely on my carpets, and my dining room table, well, it's seen better days. I'm eating lunch at the moment, which is a good excuse as any to check my email and other random crap.

I am on my vacation starting on September 26 and ending on October 6. How awesome is that? I plan on writing tons during that time. My daughter will be at day care most of the time (we have to pay for 5 days a week whether she goes or not, so dammit, she goes!), so it will be just me and the dog...yay!

"What's your name, little girl?" ~~ Lynyrd Skynyrd

I have issues with names. For the life of me, I cannot stop changing my main characters' names. I find a decent name, go with it for a while, then end up hating it by the end of the month. What the hell. It wasn't this hard to think of a name for my daughter when I was pregnant last year. Perhaps I am thinking too hard. But I don't want to hate my characters based on their stupid names...

In the beginning...

This will be my first attempt at "real" blogging. I've actually blogged on Myspace for almost 4 years now, but I guess you could say I'm serious about it now.

I'm trying to write a novel, you see. Having this blog might give me a little bit of motivation. I get stuck sometimes, and then I realize, "Holy shit, I haven't written a single page in a year!" So if I write daily here, maybe I can write daily there too.

My goal is to have a decent chapter finished by the end of this month. It may or may not be a realistic goal for me. I think the most I've ever written at any given time was five pages (and that's when I stopped for almost a year).

Before I end this entry, I want to make a few things very clear.

1. This blog is what it is: a simple yet therapeutic way to help clear my mind of all this bullshit so I can proceed with my novel. I'm not blogging to call myself a "writer" because this isn't real writing, so to speak. This is just another online journal for the whole world to read.
2. If my grammar isn't the best, or if my spelling isn't up to par, then go fuck yourself for caring too much. My brain works too fast sometimes and my fingers don't always keep up. Plus, I have a habit of typing everything in lowercase. I'm lazy. Kiss my ass. I guarantee, my writing on here differs greatly from how I write my novel.
3. No one reads anything from my novel until it's finished (or if I happen to feel vulnerable enough to let out an unfinished copy). Please don't ask me detailed questions because odds are, I'll just ignore them.

Please comment! Comment frequently! I need all the advice I can get, good or bad. Trust me, I'm a big girl and I can handle criticism. :)

Thanks for taking a chance on me, I know I'll make it worth your time...