Tagged

I was tagged by Lilah Pierce to answer these surprisingly difficult questions:

Question 1 - Where were you five years ago?

1. I was twenty-nine. Still claim to be, but five years ago it was true. ;)

2. My baby was still at home all day. She'll be nine next month. :(

3. If I remember correctly, this was when I was obsessed with scrapbooking and just starting to dabble in digital scrapbooking.

4. I lived in Arizona on an unpaved, unmaintained road. I think that was the year it rained and rained and rained. We got our 4-wheel-drive Tahoe stuck in the mud--to the point that the body was resting on the ground and we had to let it dry out a little and dig it out the next day. Good times!

5. We also had a microburst that year that lifted our trampoline over our house and our vehicles and exploded in our front yard. The tramp was wasted, but it could've been so much worse.

Question 2 - Where would you like to be in five years?

1. Published. Or at least done with this stupid rewrite. Okay, so maybe I'd like the rewrite to be done a little sooner. ;)

2. Sane. Five years from now, all my children will be teenagers.

3. Still in Idaho. We really like living here. :)

4. Recovering from my addiction to obsessively refreshing my email.

5. I'd like to develop some sort of superpower, like super speed, or super strength, or super healing, or flying. That would be cool. What? It didn't specify that my goals have to be realistic. ;)

Question 3 - What is on your to-do list today?

1. Write this blog post.

2. Polish up my resume and apply for a few jobs. Yes, I'm finally giving in on this one. No more slacking for me. Ridiculous as it seems, I'll probably get more writing done once I'm gainfully employed. :)

3. Figure out the ending to my story.

4. Work on critiques for crit buddies.

5. Laundry, dishes, make dinner, and other exciting tasks including making my children suffer by requiring them to do chores as well. >:)

Question 4 - What snacks do you enjoy?

1. Ferrero Raffaello. Seriously, like little bits of Heaven.

2. Black Cherry Ice Cream

3. Chocolate

4. Brownies

5. Lemons with salt

Question 5 - What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

1. Buy a modest house with acreage and new vehicles. No mortgage or car payments=awesome. :)

2. Put away enough to live comfortably for the rest of my life.

3. Put away enough to put my kids through college.
 
4. Take a fun, indulgent family vacation. :)
 
5. I'd probably end up giving a lot of it away. That's a lot of money.
 
And the taggees are Stephanie McGee, Michelle Gregory, Patti Nielson, Karen Akins, and anyone else who would like to participate.

Tagged

Tere Kirkland at The Lesser Key tagged me. According to the rules, all I have to do is complete each sentence and tag three people. So here goes:

•I like new office supplies--pens, pencils, clean paper, notebooks. :)
•I like Dove chocolate with almonds. Yummy!
•I like hardcover books with pretty covers.
•I like taking things apart to see how they work.
•I like learning new things.
•I like drawing, painting, scrapbooking, writing--anything creative.
•I like sleeping in.
•I like revising. Wish I was doing that right now instead of drafting.
•I like when a scene falls perfectly into place after I've been struggling with it for days.
•I like my characters--probably too much.
•I like giving and receiving critiques. Feedback is always awesome!
•I like free blog posts like this one. :) Thanks, Tere!

•I love the feeling of a shiny, new idea.

•Today was not very productive. (Tuesday)

•I hate daylight savings time. Seriously, whose crack-smokin' idea was this? I feel like I've been living with a borrowed hour since we moved here and then I was forced to pay it back against my will. And I paid it in sleep. Score one for Arizona. Best reaction from my daughter: "When you wake us up in the morning, what time will it be in the real world?" :)
•I hate peanut butter candy, especially Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I know this makes me a freak, but I can't stand the taste or the texture. Not really a big fan of peanut butter all around.
•I hate popping open those biscuit tubes. Makes me all anxious.
•I hate being sick.
•I hate doing dishes.
•I hate the lack of good Mexican food restaurants in Idaho.
•I hate buying something and finding out I could've gotten it somewhere else for less money. Even if it's only a few bucks difference.
•I hate that we barely got any rain in AZ in 2009, but as soon as I moved away, it started raining like crazy. It rained for three days straight in January and I missed it. :(

•I (secretly) like being alone. It's the only time I can think. :)

•I love thunderstorms.

I tag:

Rebecca Knight
Elizabeth Mueller
Susan Fields

Don't forget about The Beta Club tomorrow. Mine's going up for shredding. :)

I've Been Hit!

I was tagged by Michelle Gregory at beautiful chaos to answer this writerly questionnaire. Since I'm it, I get to tag whoever I want. >:) Stay tuned. I'll announce the lucky taggees at the end.

1. What's the last thing you wrote? What's the first thing you wrote that you still have?

The last thing I wrote is an experimental short story I’m working on, but haven’t finished, called Pancakes. That title is awesome. ;) It has a lot of meaning for the story. Really.

The first thing I wrote that I still have is an awful poem I wrote in high school. Even the title is awful, so I'll spare you. I thought it was hilarious at the time, and my English teacher thought it was genius enough to include in the school poetry journal, but it was a total joke—intentionally.

2. Write poetry?

Not anymore. :)

3. Angsty poetry?

No.

4. Favorite genre of writing?

I guess that would be YA speculative fiction—scifi, fantasy. And there’s always a romantic element in there.

5. Most annoying character you've ever created?

The protagonist in my newest WIP—he’s a huge jerk.

6. Best Plot you've ever created?

I don’t know if it’s the best, but my favorite is Embrol. :)

7. Coolest Plot twist you've ever created?

The one at the end of the sequel to Embrol, and that’s all I’m saying.

8. How often do you get writer's block?

I don’t know that I get writer’s block. It’s more of a brain deadness, like when I’m super tired or stressed out.

9. Write fan fiction?

No.

10. Do you type or write by hand?

I used to think typing was the only way for me, but lately I’ve found some advantages to writing by hand. #1 advantage: I can’t click off my spiral bound notebook to obsessively check my email and Statcounter. :)

11. Do you save everything you write?

Yes. Every crappy word. And the good stuff too—though my opinion of what belongs in that category changes frequently.

12. Do you ever go back to an idea after you've abandoned it?

I don’t have any abandoned ideas yet, but I think a lot about an idea before putting anything into writing. Are they still abandoned if I never write them down?

13. What's your favorite thing you've ever written?

Embrol. Love the story. Love the characters.

14. What's everyone else's favorite story that you've written?

Embrol, but it’s the only one anyone has ever read, so I don’t know if that counts. :)

15. Ever written romance or angsty teen drama?

Yes on the romance—love a good love story. You’ll have to ask my betas if it’s angsty. I don’t know. I guess by definition there is an angsty angle to Embrol, but it’s not a result of normal teenage stuff. Does that count?

16. What's your favorite setting for your characters?

Um, the moon? Is that giving too much away? :)

17. How many writing projects are you working on right now?

I have three in the works, though I only actually work on one at a time. The voices get all screwed up in my head if I try to work on more than one simultaneously.

18. Have you ever won an award for your writing?

No.

19. What are your five favorite words?

Totally (totally overuse this one :). Awesome (obviously). Coalesce. Festoon. Ephemeral.

20. What character have you created that is most like yourself?

Olivia—main character in Embrol.

21. Where do you get ideas for your characters?

People I know. Bits and pieces from characters I see in movies and on TV. People-watching.

22. Do you ever write based on your dreams?

There is a dream that I had that I put in Embrol, but that’s only because it fit so perfectly. The story isn’t really based on it.

23. Do you favor happy endings?

Yes and no. I definitely think there should be a solid sense of closure, but I don’t like endings where absolutely everything is resolved perfectly, all tied up with pretty ribbons and bows. It’s too unrealistic for me. Or maybe I just like to make my characters suffer, and I have to get in one last little jab before it’s all over. :)

24. Are you concerned with spelling and grammar as you write?

Concerned? I think obsessed is a better description. It’s ridiculous. If I don’t fix something I know is wrong, it will annoy me until it’s corrected.

25. Does music help you write?

When I’m writing new stuff, it helps, as long as it’s the right music. I need silence when I’m revising, though.

26. Quote something you've written. Whatever pops into your head.

This is my newest opening from Embrol.

------
Three seconds. That’s how long it took for my life to end.

Well, it was an end of sorts. And it may’ve taken longer. My recollection of that day is fuzzy, at best. I suppose it depends on which point was the actual end. Some might say it was the first or second or third time I died. For me, it was the moment I saw that truck barreling toward us. A girl really should have better memories of her eighteenth birthday.
------
 
Aaaaand...
 
Tere Kirkland at The Lesser Key
Rebecca Knight at Rebecca Knight: Writer in Progress
Tricia J. O'Brien at Talespinning
 
...you're it! *runs away laughing hysterically* Have fun! :)

Bloggy Award Time--See, I'm not a Total Slacker

I'm so late in posting these, but I have a few awards to be thankful for. :)

First off, thank you to Dawn Simon at Plotting and Scheming - My Writing Life for the Best Blog Award! If she hadn't given me the award, she'd be on the list of nominees, so be sure to check out her blog.

The rules:

1. To accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his/her blog link.

2. Pass the award to other bloggers that you have recently discovered and think are great! Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

And the nominees are:

Teressa at The Chocolate Chip Waffle

L.T. Elliot at Dreams of Quill and Ink

Anissa at Anissa Off the Record

Melissa at Chasing the Dream

Second, Julie Dao at Silver Lining gave me the Kreativ Blogger award. I'm going to be lazy on this one and refer you to my previous post with all the rules and seven facts about me. Thanks, Julie!

Lastly, from Suzy Hayze at Tales of Extraordinary Ordinariness, I recieved the Honest Scrap award. Thanks, Suzy!

The rules:

1. List ten honest things about yourself.

2. Pass it on to seven other bloggers.

Here are ten honest things about me:

1. When I eat goldfish crackers, I like to pop them in half with my teeth, so I have two little fishies before chewing. Doesn't always work, but I still do this every time.

2. "Dork", "Nerd", and "Weirdo" are all terms of endearment at my house.

3. Other than my tennis shoes, every pair of shoes I own adds at least two inches to my height.

4. Going along with #3, my husband calls me a hobbit on a regular basis, and it's not because I have hairy feet. Yes, we have strange ways of showing our love around here.

5. I refuse to use internet/texting acronyms like LOL. It doesn't bother me if other people use them, but there's a part of me that feels like I'm giving in to some sort of evil peer pressure by using them.

6. I love to read. Not just books, although that is what I prefer. If I’m bored, anything will do, including shampoo bottles. It’s kind of fun trying to figure out the correct pronunciation of all the chemicals in the ingredients list.

7. One of my favorite lines from a movie is, “Your mother went to college,” delivered by Kipp in Napoleon Dynamite. I would try to describe the scene, but without experiencing it for yourself, you can’t truly appreciate just how hilarious it is. If you haven’t seen the movie, you wouldn’t understand. If you’ve seen it and still don’t understand, well, there really is no point in trying to explain.

8. The whole concept of using time travel to fix past mistakes makes no sense to me. Let’s take, for instance, the movie Terminator, followed by Terminator II and Terminator III, and now The Sarah Conner Chronicles TV series.

The basic plot is that in the future the world has been taken over by cyborgs, which stemmed from an artificial intelligence program that man created. One of the cyborgs is changed into a ‘good guy’ and sent back to the past to protect John Conner, the man who is the leader of the resistance in the future. Thanks to the cyborg’s presence, John Conner and his mother, Sarah, discover the cause of the future war, so they try to stop the creation of the source of the cyborgs, which in turn would cause the cyborgs to cease to exist, thus making it impossible for the time-traveling cyborg to go into the past in the first place. Ultimately, this would eliminate all of the events that led up to the destruction of the artificial intelligence. So, essentially, nothing would've been changed.

Are you following this?

9. When it comes to sports, dance or pretty much anything that requires even a small amount of coordination, I can confidently say that I’m very, very bad at it. In addition to that, I am continually running into things. I hit my arms on doorknobs, stub my toes on a regular basis, and hit my head on open cupboard doors (this is more of a height issue, but still relevant), just to name a few.

10. I totally cheated and stole some of these from a previous tagged post.

And the lucky nominees are:

Dawn Simon at Plotting and Scheming - My Writing Life

Michelle Gregory at beautiful chaos

Stephanie L. McGee at Chronicles of a Novice Writer

Natalie Murphy at The Sound of Rain

Julie Dao at Silver Lining

Stephanie Thornton at Hatshepsut: The Writing of a Novel

MG Higgins at MG Higgins

Thanks for reading everyone! Have a fabulous Monday!

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know... and More

I’m feeling pretty special today, having four nominations for this lovely award. Thanks so much to TereLiz at The Lesser Key, Jenna Alexander at Turn the Page, Mandy at The Keyboard, and ElanaJ at Elana Johnson, Author. You guys are all awesome!!

First off, the rules. You know how I love rules. ;) These rules apply to all those who receive this award.

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might not know.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

Now, all the incredibly interesting info you never wanted to know about me. :D

1. I love paper. Not so I can use it for anything. In fact, I feel a little sad if I have to cut it up. My favorite is plain white paper with no lines or holes. The thick stuff they use at the copy store that feels almost polished, that’s the best. And Bristol board. Love that stuff. I do use the white paper for drawing, as long as it’s not flawed. The other paper (i.e. scrapbook paper), I just like to have. Looney, I know.

2. I also love brand new markers. There’s just something about that clean line of ink. This goes for pens too. I only like to write with gel pens.

3. I like to collect the brown recluse spiders (photo here) and wind scorpions (aka camel spiders or sun spiders) I find around our house and property and keep them in jars. I don’t know. Science project? We’ve found over thirty brown recluses and six wind scorpions since we moved here.

4. I have over 800 fonts installed on my computer, and I’m always on the lookout for more. They’re fantastic for jazzing up my query letter. :D I’m kidding! Calm yourselves. I like to do word art.

5. Someday, I would love, love, love to learn blacksmithing and welding, so I can make awesome metal sculptures that have no other purpose than to look pretty. I’d also love to learn how to blow glass. Sometimes, I just like to know how to do things. Just because.

6. I met my husband, Jason, at a Beastie Boys concert. He had blue hair and an eyebrow ring. This may not seem that shocking, but for those of you who don’t really know me, this did not jive with my super good girl persona. And I almost ended up at the concert with another guy, Bob—some names have been changed to protect the innocent. :) When I found out Bob was going to ask me, I bought my own ticket so I wouldn’t have to be his date. I even got a ride to and from the concert with Bob. My best friend sat in the back seat with me, and we talked about Jason all the way home. Probably the cruelest thing I’ve ever done. Not my proudest moment. For some reason, Bob never called me again. Hmm. ;) It all worked out though. Jason and I were married five months later, yes five months, and have been very happy for almost fourteen years. Man, I feel old.

7. I don’t like change, unless it’s something I can control. Then I will most likely change it every few months. Like how my furniture is arranged in my living room or my blog background. And I’m not totally loving the new background, so that will probably be changing sooner rather than later.

If you’re dying for even more useless info about me, I did this once before. You can find it here.

And now for the nominations in no particular order:

1. Tricia J. O’Brien at Talespinning
2. Lazy Writer at A Walk in My Shoes
3. Lady Glamis at The Innocent Flower
4. Tabitha Bird at Books, Bubs and Writing Blabber
5. Megan Rebekah at Megan Rebekah Blogs.…and Writes
6. JosiahsMommy at Confessions of a First Time Mom
7. Rebecca at Sometimes Helpful Nonsense

Thank you all for being fabulous! Happy Thursday!!

Tagged

I was tagged by my good friend, Stephanie.

Here are the rules:

*Link to the person that tagged you.
*Post the rules on your blog.
*Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
*Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
*Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

So, here goes. Sorry, it’s kind of long. It seems I have a hard time shutting up when I’m talking about myself.

1. Reading
I love to read. Not just books, although that is what I prefer. If I’m bored, anything will do. I will read whatever is in front of me, including shampoo bottles. It’s kind of fun trying to figure out the correct pronunciation of all the chemicals in the ingredients list. Yes, I’ve been told many times that I’m weird.

2. Irregardless
I was quite chagrined to find out that, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, this is indeed a word. I absolutely loathe it, and every time I hear it, I cringe. Please, bear with me on this. I’m not just another crazed member of the grammar police, and it’s not my intention to offend anyone. There’s actually some pretty solid logic behind my reasoning. Well, it’s solid logic in my head, anyway. I’ll elucidate. If you look up the meaning of the prefix (ir-) and the suffix (-less), they mean essentially the same thing, so wouldn’t that be a double negative? It totally contradicts itself, making it, in my opinion, a wasted jumble of letters. The dictionary even says to use regardless instead.

I’m not really sure when I developed such strong feelings for this ‘word’, but it may have something to do with my grandmother being an English teacher. She passed away several years before I was born, but growing up, my mother told me on a regular basis, “Your grandmother would roll over in her grave if she heard you talking like that.”

Hence, I strive to use proper grammar. Heaven forbid I should be the cause of my dead grandmother rolling over in her grave.

3. Time Travel
The whole concept of using time travel to fix past mistakes makes no sense to me, at all. Let’s take, for instance, the movie Terminator, followed by Terminator II and Terminator III, and now The Sarah Conner Chronicles TV series.

The basic plot is that in the future the world has been taken over by cyborgs, which stemmed from an artificial intelligence program that man created. One of the cyborgs is changed into a ‘good guy’ and sent back to the past to protect John Conner, the man who is the leader of the resistance in the future. Thanks to the cyborg’s presence, John Conner and his mother, Sarah, discover the cause of the future war, so they try to stop the creation of the source of the cyborgs, which in turn would cause the cyborgs to cease to exist, thus making it impossible for the time-traveling cyborg to go into the past in the first place. Ultimately, this would eliminate all of the events that led up to the destruction of the artificial intelligence. So, essentially, nothing would have been changed.

Are you following this? Don’t worry. The headache you’re experiencing is a normal side effect.

--Jason read this and told me that movies are meant to be entertaining and not to be picked apart by crazy people like me.

Whatever.

4. Movie Quotes
One of my favorite lines from a movie is, “Your mother went to college,” delivered by Kipp in Napoleon Dynamite. I would try to describe the scene, but without experiencing it for yourself, you can’t truly appreciate just how hilarious it is. If you haven’t seen the movie, you wouldn’t understand. If you’ve seen it and still don’t understand, well, there really is no point in trying to explain.

5. Coordination
When it comes to sports, dance or pretty much anything that requires even a small amount of coordination, I can confidently say that I’m very, very bad at it. In addition to that, I am continually running into things. I hit my arms on doorknobs, stub my toes on a regular basis, and hit my head on open cupboard doors (this is more of a height issue, but still relevant), just to name a few. Sadly, I think I may have passed this on to my youngest, Talise. I’ve noticed her doing it with more and more frequency as she gets older. She is way too much like me for her own good.

6. Mechanics
I really enjoy taking things apart to see how they work. So much so, that I get a little thrill of excitement when something breaks, because that means I don’t have to feel bad about dissecting it. When the keyboard went out on my laptop, I called Gateway to see if it was still covered under warranty, and I was very excited when they told me that they were going to send me the keyboard to install myself. As you can imagine, I was quite disappointed when it arrived and all I had to do was pop out the old one and put the new one in its place. I really wanted to open it up and see its innards. Don’t feel bad for me. When it finally did stop working, I happily opened it up with hopes of repairing it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a possibility, but at least I got something out of it.

So that’s it. Virtual high fives to all who hung in there till the end. It was a long and arduous journey. I tag Tori, Jill, Bailey, Ashley, Vanessa and my new friend from the blogosphere, Jeanine. Happy tagging!