Please check out this video of the amazing Jessarae performing his new song "Without You (It'll Be All Right)" -- inspired by my book, POSITIVELY. Doesn't everyone want to inspire a song? I'm so thrilled my book was honored this way.

Teen said that for World Aids Day, there was a booth at school that gave out buttons that said: "Dry Humping Saves Lives" and "Masturbation Doesn't Break Hearts." There were also free condoms.

I'm glad to see one thing hasn't changed. Someone (probably an adult, I'm guessing) still calls it "dry humping."

Not to brag or anything, BUT I AM DONE WITH ALL MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING.

Yes, it is my annual tradition to get it all squared away BEFORE Thanksgiving. If you still have some shopping to do, why not head over to your local indie bookseller? You never know what fabulous books you'll find like the ones in the SCIBA Holiday Catalogue. . .


BTW, the book on the cover is called THE CHRISTMAS MAGIC by Lauren Thomson. The illustrator is the talented New York Times bestselling Jon Muth, seen here on right with illustrator/author/celebrity judge Mark Teague and mucho award-winner Walter Dean Myers on left . . .


Speaking of books, this week I'm working on the copyedits of BOBBY THE BRAVE (SOMETIMES), the sequel to BOBBY VS. GIRLS (ACCIDENTALLY) . . .


It's all done digitally and looks like this . . .


However, it can get confusing because of where to click and not click and STET and not STET. So, I thought, I know . . . COFFEE!!!

Um, now I am not a COFFEE!!! drinker, but Starbucks had this Peppermint Mocha La La Delish Latte Just For Lisa, so I got one. Only, it didn't help my copyediting because COFFEE!!! does strange things to me . . .

. . . but ooooOOOooooh, is it good!!!

Speaking of strange, our friend and illustrator of the BOBBY books, Dan Santat . . .


. . . went out of town recently. He asked us to babysit his pets . . .


Oops. That's not Dan's pet. It's Son's water buffalo. I KID YOU NOT!!! Here's another great gift idea . . .


Heifer International lets you give life-changing gifts to hungry families around the world. Son used his own money to buy a share of a water buffalo. I bought really cool animals which I cannot mention because some of the people reading this may get them as gifts in their names.

Oh, back to Dan. He's got this in is office . . .


It's a wall! It's a chalkboard! It's a chalkboard wall!

Too cool.

And finally, since we're in the giving and receiving of gifts mode, look! Look! Yes, it's Karen B. Schwartz , the Grand Prize Winner of Lisa Yee's 42nd Annual Bodacious Book Contest with her Bodacious Book Contest Grand Prizes, including the coveted petrified orange . . .

Subscribe to Lisa Yee's Blog and get her fresh baked blogs e-mailed to you!

Email:

Or you can click this for a RSS feed...

If you recall, there are FOUR contests in which you can get copies of Radiant shadows.

1. Enter on Goodreads (thru Jan 12, US & Canada)

2. A WL casting video (I'm posting these over on my YouTube page). (NOW thru Jan 12, US & Canada)

3. A Radiant Shadows trailer/tease (I'm posting these over on my YouTube page). (NOW thru Jan 12, global)4. Voting and going viral. On January 12th, you can enter up to SIX times. To enter, ON THAT DATE you will
Winners will be chosen via a randomizer (US & Canada).

What this means--

You can enter on Goodreads now, and you can submit videos now, and you can post links now, and on the 12th of JANUARY you can vote for a top pick and tell where you've linked a WL or RS video.

Check back on the blog on Friday for a special update on entering. (HINT: I just got permission to expand the RS teaser contest by sharing excerpt of RADIANT SHADOWS on here.)


----------------
* Members must have 20 posts to read the excerpts.

Look at what I found! The perfect gift for:

1.) A girl
2.) Who loves books
3.) And has pierced ears

http://www.etsy.com/shop/smallbookcompany

(I tried embedding an image, but it didn't work. Seriously, it's worth the click to take you to these cute earrings!)

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/morris/morrisaward.cfm#2010finalists
Congratulations!
PS. I told you Flash Burnout was awesome. ;)

FLASH BURNOUT, by the divine lkmadigan, is a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Book Award!!!

Pardon me whilst I say WEEEEEEEEEEEEE again (and in all caps)!



Looky at the details!

Find more info on the book at IndieBound or Amazon.

If you haven't yet read this book, DO IT NOW! It's hilarious, edgy, poignant and BEAUTIFUL! I love it so.

P.S. I'm sure all the finalists are marvelous, and my congratulations go out to all the authors. I just think LK is especially spiffy and wonderful because, you know, I've hung out with her and have first-hand experience of her coolness. She's been a very supportive agent-sister and friend. Of course, even if I'd never met LK, I still would have LOVED this book!

P.P.S. Thanks to lisa_schroeder for breaking the news on Twitter!

Hey LJers,

I just wanted to let you all know that we are going to be performing some mogilefs maintenance over the next few days. We will be upgrading our current version to latest stable as well as changing some db config information to better handle the amount of files we are currently hosting. This shouldn't cause a big impact on site stability, but you may see some minor delays with userpic / scrapbook images appearing or other requests associated with our mogilefs. We would love to not have that happen, but unfortunately with some of the steps we need to take we have to cause a delay with images. I figured this was a better solution than taking down all of LiveJournal because well lets face it, we all need our daily LJ fix ;)

Thanks,

Seriously, every time I sit down to blog, all I come up with is BABY BABY (sometimes Princess) BABY.
It's too bad I didn't write this book...
(seriously, it's too bad. This book rocks)

I realize some people don't want to hear the particulars of the final weeks of pregnancy, so I'm going to bounce from the blog until baby is here. I will, however, do what I did last week and post some old entries this month. I'm also going to do a giveaway for my FINAL PRINCESS FOR HIRE ARC come Jan, so stay tuned. Finally, I just did a post on the tenners if you want to check it out

If revising during December (like I am) give yourself only 24 hours in which to complete your shopping.

(Like I did.)

::crosses off the last item on gift list, pulls manuscript back out::

I've had a blog entry on my writing process (which laurenbarnholdt asked about when I put out a call for writing questions at the beginning of NaNoWriMo) more or less done and sitting in a file on my computer for weeks, but I've been so entrenched in school stuff, that I haven't had time to post. And, coincidentally enough, the specific school stuff I've been working on has involved a lot of writing and revising of the academic variety, which has made me think a lot about the ways that my creative writing process and my scientific writing process are similar and the ways that they're different.

Since I've been in epic-writing mode on the aforementioned school stuff, I thought that rather than posting the one massive blog entry on my process, I might post one factoid at a time- and try to update more often.

So here it goes:

Fact About My Writing Process #1: Sometimes, it's hardcore (and sometimes it's not)
( Read more... )

And for those of you who aren't interested in reading about my writing process, I give you: A Random Picture From Halloween.


I am faery. Hear me roar.

Everyone at the party I went to kept asking me if I was a vampire. And I kept being all like "Wings, yes. Fangs, no. What part of that says vampire to YOU?"

Did you know there is no autosave feature the way there is in Word? While this in no way negates by hatred of Word, this is vital information for folks to know.

Especially if Pages suddenly quits working.

And you lose two hours of work.

But, you tell yourself, you just did those two hours of work, so it's not so bad. You can recreate them much faster.

And then you realize that the editorial letter you have been making comments on for TWO FRICKING WEEKS is also gone. The one that had all your reasons and explanations for the changes you made, written as you made them. The one you never actually, um, saved. So there isn't even a backup of any sort.

I found this shareware - if you are in a similar situation, you might want to download it. I set it to back up every five minutes.

Picture Book:
BUSIEST STREET IN TOWN by Mara Rockliff: Eulalie and Agatha May have been friends forever and over the years have watched Rushmore Avenue become the busiest street in town, with zooming buses and trucks. When these two friends decide to take back the streets and teach everyone how to take time to taste the gingersnaps, the neighborhood will never be the same! Retro-inspired illustrations lend a vibrant and whimsical feel to this tale of grassroots activism.

Middle Grade:
BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. by Kate Messner - Gianna Z has less than one week to collect, identify, and creatively display 25 leaves for her science projector else she won't be able to compete in the upcoming cross-country race. As the deadline for her project draws near, life keeps getting in the way. A wonderful, warm family story that is full of heart!

Young Adult:
FLASH BURNOUT by LK Madigan - When he takes a picture of a street person who has passed out for his photography class, class clown Blake expects an 'A.' He doesn't expect that he'll soon be ditching his girlfriend to prowl skid row, or conducting midnight corpse-checks at the morgue to track down his best friend's long-lost mom. This authentic (and surprisingly funny) debut novel is the story of a crash course in what it means to be a boyfriend, and a friend, and a man.


Forthcoming
MAGIC UNDER GLASS by Jackie Dolamore: Nimira is a music-hall girl forced to dance for pennies. When wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to sing with a piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it is the start of a new and better life. In Parry's world, however, buried secrets are beginning to stir. Perfect for fans of spooky fantasy and thrilling romance. (12/22)

I KISSED A ZOMBIE (AND I LIKED IT) by Adam Selzer: When Ali and Doug start dating, Ali is falling so hard she doesn't notice a few odd signs: he never changes clothes, his head is a funny shape, and he says practically nothing out loud. Finally Marie, the school paper's fashion editor, points out the obvious: Doug isn't just a really sincere goth. He's a zombie. (1/26/10)

No matter what you celebrate, 'tis the season to do it. Personally, I am celebrating my defeat of the retail industry. Yes, Virginia, for the first time in my twenty... um... ish years I have finished my Christmas shopping early. I've even wrapped all the presents. This is largely (get it? LARGELY) because i have a baby due in three weeks and didn't want to have to swing by Toys R Us on the way to the hospital. Broken water + frantic shoppers does not a good holiday make.
Anyway, enough with the gloating. Let's focus on gifts--from the tangible to those of the heart. Question for the day:
What gift, whether given or received, has impacted you most as a writer?

Before I received a scholarship to attend the 2006 Highlight's Foundation Chautauqua workshop, I had never talked about my writing. Actually, I'd never even TOLD most of my friends that I wanted to be a writer. It was just too hard to say. "I am a writer" meant I was actually taking myself seriously. It meant I cared. It was so much easier to pretend I didn't stay up into the late hours pouring my heart onto a page, that I wasn't taking this massive risk that might never pay off.
But this week-long conference changed everything. It gave me hope and perspective and focus. I heard amazing authors speak about their journeys, and made some wonderful writing friends. It was something I couldn't have possibly been able to afford at the time without the assistance of donors, and that is why I bawled through the entire closing reception. For more about my experience, here's my blog post from back then: Chautauqua. Seriously, I don't think I would be a tenner, or an elevensie, or an <insert any debut publishing group> if it wasn't for the push this gift gave me. I hope to return the favor time and time again.

It's Wednesday, and Wednesday means Shakespeare. Okay, technically I believe it means "Odin's Day", and is in commemoration of that Norse God - I defer to everflame (aka Tessa Gratton) to know that sort of thing for sure. But here at Writing and Ruminating, I try to provide a bit of the Bard midweek.

You may (or may not) recall that Love's Labour's Lost is one of the plays that I looked at during my June extravaganza, Brush Up Your Shakespeare Month. If you'd like a refresher on that play, here's my summary. Or, if you'd like to take a look at Shakespeare's use of poetry and wordplay within the text, you may prefer this post, which talks about the poetry, wordplay, and use of imagery in the play.

If you were to google "Shakespeare Christmas quotes," you'd likely find these lovely lines:

At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows.

Heck, I plucked them out of the play to feature in a quoteskimming post back in June. But if you look at the actual text of the play, you will see that they are taken entirely out of context, as one is wont to do with Shakespeare. In this particular scene, which is actual Act I, scene 1 of the play, we're learning of the King's desire to set up a girl-free learning zone. The sole skeptic among his sycophantic friends is Berowne, who wonders whether it really makes any sense. (He eventually goes along because he's a good sport, but he never expects them all to be able to pull it off.)

KING

Berowne is like an envious sneaping frost,
That bites the first-born infants of the spring.

BEROWNE

Well, say I am; why should proud summer boast
Before the birds have any cause to sing?
Why should I joy in any abortive birth?
At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows.
So you, to study now it is too late,
Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate.

Berowne is telling the King that he's left his scheme until too late in life, and that he's setting himself a momentous task; hence the "climb over the house to unlock the little gate" line - rather like the contemporary "it's like going around your ass to get to your elbow" sentiment> But I digress.

First and foremost, I have to say that I have no problem with taking bits of Shakespeare and using them out of context. Those three of Berowne's lines are lovely, but the fact that the middle line rhymes with the line above about "abortive birth" indicates that they are part and parcel of that earlier sentiment. Berowne is very much saying, as Pippin would later sing in the musical named after him, that "Everything has its season." Still, one can understand why the line about abortive birth isn't widely quoted - not that there's anything wrong with it in context, but out of context - well, it just doesn't play well.

Second, I have to take a moment to swoon over Shakespeare's use of the word "sneaping", a word which comes from the Middle English word (not so long-forgotten in Shakespeare's time) snaipen, meaning to injure, nip, or rebuke. Snaipen is probably of Scandinavian (read: Viking) origin, given the existence of a similar word in Icelandic (closest of all the Scandinavian languages to what the old-time Vikings spoke, incidentally - learned that when I was in Iceland a few years back). The Icelandic word is sneypa, and means "to scold". The "archaic" use of the word "sneap" was "to blast or blight with cold". So a sneaping frost was a nipping, injurious sort of frost - I suppose he means that Berowne had a sharp tongue.

Third, a word about form. All of the lines here are written in iambic pentameter (five iambic feet per line, taDUM taDUM taDUM taDUM taDUM). Berowne's first two lines answer the king and rhyme with the king's lines (frost and boast being direct rhymes in Shakespeare's time, and spring and sing rhyming even now). The following six lines are rhymed ABABCC, which is a form known as Venus and Adonis stanza because Shakespeare used it throughout his lengthy poem, Venus and Adonis. That poem, which was written early on in Shakespeare's career, made a bit of a name for him. It's not surprising, then, that he opted to use it in this, one of his earliest-written plays, which is, as I've said before, a tour de force of poetry and wordplay, with nearly 2/3 of the play being in verse.

All this because I was putting out the wreath and doormat and whatnot today in a bit of holiday decorating, and thought I'd see what I could find that spoke about Christmas. Only now, instead of falalaing, I'm hearing Corner of the Sky on brainradio. Here are some of the lyrics, which I think apply well to Berowne's dialogue:

Everything has its season,
everything has its time
Show me a reason and I'll soon show you a rhyme.

Edited to add: Tessa gave me the answer on the Wednesday thing

Hey, lookie:

Wednesday = Wodan's Day, Wodan is the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Odin... and Odin was a god of poetry and inspiration (in addition to war and death and magic) so I suspect he'd approve of Wednesday Shakespeare! Much more than Thor, Tyr, or Frey (Thursday, Tuesday, Friday) would have. So, it's the perfect day.

Ta Da!

The bad news: I hurt my back.
The good news: I am on Aleve and I have muscle relaxers.

The bad news: I have so much to do, that I can't spend time being relaxed so I can't take it until tonight.
The good news: The stomach virus I had all weekend is gone.

The bad news: I am tired.
The good news: I am dragging myself to get work done. Which I thinks makes me a warrior.

The bad news: my house is a mess.
The good news: I can escape by going to the studio.

The bad news: I don't have a puppy.
The good news: I may have found a puppy!! : )

The bad news: this economy rots
The good news: I still hang on to my delusional hope that I can somehow find a miracle and eek out a living.

In a world filled with blogs, stories posted on Twitter, and NaNoWriMo, the Onion imagines that there is a new service, the “only online service in which users can post a major multivolume epic in the morning, and have it read, critiqued, and reNovelled by thousands of other people around the world before lunch.”

Like many Onion parodies, it’s painfully close to the truth. You can read the whole story here.