A Space Of Our Own

I've missed this space in recent months. I miss how it fills me up and allow me to share my words/myself and meet so many amazing readers and writers.

This is the only place I can share my words, who I am, and who I wish to be without harsh judgement. Maybe others judge in private, in which case, that is fine with me. They move on. They stop reading. I never know.

Though it has never happened to me, some might judge in public. And if they did, I would simply delete their harsh words right off this page. It's my space, after all. But trolls ... they don't seem to come here. I thank them for staying away.  

I choose what I wish to write about. What the border looks like. The template. The photos. I choose the books and writers I want to read and celebrate. There's no editorial calendar. No one waits with a deadline and a finger wag. There are no request for revisions or stamp, stomp, DENIED.

No one tells me my words aren't funny enough or commercial enough or interesting enough. (And, hooboy, I know I've written some posts that have been real doozies.) Though I've tried not to, I've probably said stupid or uninformed things throughout the years. But I own them. They are mine.

My revelation, today -- and it answers a question others have asked me, a question I've asked myself, why do you bother? why do you blog? -- is that there is no other writing space in the world where this is the case. Maybe a journal but, with a journal, there's no opportunity for someone to whisper, or maybe shout, yes or me too or I understand or I don't or have you seen it this way? and it opens my eyes to how you and I fit together in this world, whether we're linking arms or laughing or nodding or wondering or pointing one another toward a new understanding.

This isn't me signing off, it's me signing in. Maybe it's the glop of love hormones from baby boy, but it's me saying thank you for reading my words and for letting me read yours. In this small corner of the universe, we have a space that is all ours. 

Draft

Yesterday, something prompted me to click on the never-published draft of a blog post written weeks ago, only to discover there was one measly line. A completely unfinished thought I can't, for the life of me, decipher.

It seems that a switch has flipped. 

I began to scroll through to see what other words had been abandoned and discovered that, in four years of blogging, I only have five unfinished blog posts.  Each with just one line. Each just about to become ridiculous, no doubt.

[Insert transition here. i.e. There is no time for me to think up a transition]

It's the morning I forget my book.  The morning my music player dies. 

The weather here in the northeast is just right.  

I consider myself a fairly calm person.

Maybe it's vain to wonder where I was going with each of these but I do wonder.  Sounds like they were about to become rants or melancholy reflections (And  I've never posted a melancholy reflection before. No Sir. Never.)  I do tend to stop myself from rants (though a few have crept in over the years.)

Do you stop yourself from writing certain blog posts?  Any drafts you'd like to share here? 

What Are You Wearing? A Blogging Conundrum

I'm going to be honest. I struggle, sometimes, with this blog. I will often spend hours (hours, people, I'm not exaggerating) on a post and discover that no one has read it. Some days, I will take five minutes to write about a ridiculous outfit I am wearing and it will become the most highly trafficked post in the history of this blog (I'm serious).

I use this space to write what I enjoy writing, to share what I love to share, to learn what I can from all of you. I know that other blogs have a lot more to offer and I'm not interested in competing with them. I just give you myself and my thoughts and hope that's enough.

The friendships and connections I have made through blogging have been invaluable. So, I do not worry about how many followers I have or how many comments I get. But I do worry that there is a preference for posts I don't write...if that makes sense. That people would prefer I write about what I'm wearing (skinny jeans, brown boots, a long black sweater with a cowl neck. Yes, I believe in wearing black and brown together, fyi) or some other content I have not been giving.

Anyway, that's what I'm thinking about today. Or worrying about. Sometimes I feel as if I have a worry list and before I go to bed I check my worries off. Did I worry about this today? Did I worry about that? This issue I speak of is on it. I don't know why. Don't ask me. It just is.

I wonder, do you worry about content for your blog? Am I the only one?

The Bad Blogger

I have to apologize because I've been neglecting this blog lately. Please know that I read all of your posts and follow your lives, your projects, your brilliant minds but these days I've been more of a passive participant in the blogging community due to lack of time.

Work has been very demanding. As many of you know, I write and produce content for toys. It's hard for me to talk about my job on this blog because there are a lot of restrictions to what I can and can not say (crazy, I know). Just know that when my development schedules slip (and would you look at them go? slip sliding away, she sings), the engineers get grumpy, the sales teams get frantic, the big chain stores yell 'where are my toys!' Everything explodes. And somewhere...a spoiled child cries. And that's the gist of each day.

My nights are far more exciting as I frantically edit my work in progress, Rabbit Island. Goals of finishing the first edit by next Wednesday are just out of reach. I stay up as late as I can but there is a point when exhaustion takes over.

And that’s when the travel comes in. I will be leaving for far-off lands (Georgia…Alabama) next Wednesday for the holiday weekend in the states.

All this to say: I’ve been a bad blogger. I’ll try to be better.

Part of that effort: I joined Rachael Harrie’s Third Writer’s Platform-Building Campaign. Will you participate with me?


And tell me, how have you been spending the final days of summer?

Will You Hold On To This For Me?

These past few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about what this blog is. When people ask me what my blog is about, I tell them it's about my 'writing journey', whatever that means. It seems to quiet people, so I leave it be.

I don't think it's that.

In truth, I don't know what it is. I do know that this virtual space is mine. That I go to it, to write. And that's about all I know.

When I was a teenager, I wanted to draw a picture of how I was feeling because the image was so strong, so real. I couldn't draw it the way I wanted to. I still can't. But the image has stayed with me.

I wanted to draw a picture of two people. One person with a head flipped open, like the lid of a can. And the other holding their hands out.

It was not just about sharing thoughts. It was as if to say: Please. Take this. Keep this for me.

In some ways, I think this blog is an extension of that feeling. I need others to keep these stories and thoughts for me.

So, thank you. :-) Thank you for holding on to all this, whatever this is. I hope to do the same for you, if you need it.

Z is for Zee End

Stick a fork in me...I'm done.

Thank you all for playing along as I took on the A-Z Challenge.

This has been a really busy month for me with travel, family visitors, blogging and writing, and I'm glad I kept up with the posts. It was touch and go for a while. But the discipline was beneficial in surprising ways. It helped me be more disciplined with my fiction writing. Because it was such a busy month and I planned to make a really big push on my novel, it required me to carefully plan my writing time. In addition to these 30 posts, I also wrote 14,000 words of my WIP (as of 4/25, when I'm scheduling this post.) I hope to get a little more before the month ends.

My only regret is that I got really behind on my blog reading and I'm still catching up on a lot of posts. Please know that I love visiting your blogs, but I had to be a little selfish this month and use a lot of time for my WIP. It's really important for me to finish it soon. I'll be back to visit as soon as I can.

Thanks for reading this month! Things will be back to normal on the blog in May. And you should look forward to a giveaway very soon...

Filming the Hole

My. Brain. Hurts.

I literally googled 'blog post ideas' because I'm completely tapped out. It didn't lead me to anything useful.

I remember one of my screenwriting professors once told our class that if there's a hole on the set, film the hole. So this is my attempt at that. Basically, it means that sometimes the funk, the bunk, the mishaps and mistakes, they are the things that make the art, so it's best to admit your shortcomings and see what happens, before you try to cover it up.

I did that once. In my writing. I'll tell you about it.

I once wrote a cheesy scene. I'm not really one for writing cheese. I prefer the depressing reality of things. Give me war torn villages, cancer with a capitol C, suicides and murders, unrequited love. Anything that allows me to say This is the way things really are, when, in fact, they're probably not... While I can get past the cheese in novels and films and television shows, and musicals, musicals, musicals, I love me some big ensemble happy clappy tappy numbers, it's not what I tend to focus on in my writing.

But a cheesy plot twist found it's way into my writing (I'm sure there have been many throughout the years) and, when I was finished, I wasn't sure what to do with it. I figured it would be best to throw it away. But a strange voice whispered: Film the hole. So I tried it. My main character basically looked at what just happened (1st person narrative, how I love thee) and said, all that stuff that just happened... That was cheesy. That was Hollywood. And, to tell you the truth, it worked out well. It said a lot about who she was and the way she observed life and highlighting that was one of the best things I could have done.

I don't think you should consistently make excuses for mistakes in your work, or put a spotlight on the things that aren't working, but I urge you to experiment with this idea a little. See where it takes you.

I had no blog post and I admitted I didn't and now I do. So there's proof in the puddin'. ;-)

What do you think about filming the hole?

A New Kind Of Community

A few weeks ago I finished Patti Smith's Just Kids, a memoir which explores her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. Not such an easy relationship to define. They had a love and devotion to one another that few people experience, both of them completely absorbed in the other's creative energies, so dedicated to the idea of 'becoming' an artist as they sat in dingy quarters, sharing grilled cheese sandwiches, trying to express themselves through poems and photographs and sculptures and song.

As I was reading, it occurred to me that, back then, everyone knew one another, whether they were all hanging at the Chelsea Hotel or milling around Max's Kansas city, desperate to make their way into Warhol's Factory. One day someone would be sipping an egg cream and run into their mentor at the local diner. The next they would be sitting on a concrete stoop in the village and share a cigarette with Jimi Hendrix. All the sudden a crooning little bird named Janis Joplin would be in the neighboring apartment writing a song.

A few years back, when I read Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller, a book that follows the careers of Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon, I discovered the same thing. Early in their careers, well before fame and fortune, whether they were sitting at the piano in Bay Ridge Brooklyn, summering on the beaches of Cape Cod, or setting up camp in Laurel Canyon, everybody knew everybody. They all lived together sharing this desperate creative energy to become.

I began to wonder why I didn't live in a hotel full of fiction writers. Why I wasn't having poetry slams in abandoned warehouses, or setting up camp with painters and singers and actors and photographers. Tyler is sitting next to me on the couch watching British football, not agonizing over a blank journal or a tortured canvas.

So where are all the little communities of artists today? Where are all the collaborators forming their relationships? Is anyone sleeping in the Bowery hoping the next Bob Dylan will invite them to sleep on their couch until they sell their first book of poems?

It occurred to me that we're all gathering in different ways. With hash tags and @ replies and blogger comments and guest posts and RSS feeds and Mr. Linkys. I may not be camped out at the Chelsea Hotel, sharing chance encounters with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, but sometimes I'll tweet a #Fridayread and the author and I will get into a twitter conversation. I'll see acknowledgements in published books for groups of people who formed critique groups on the Internet. Everybody's out there but are we together?

It's interesting to me that the successful artists mentioned above all found one another before they were successful in the streets of cities, in the back rooms of restaurants and warehouses, surrounding themselves with creative people to support and learn from. And that, now, we're all doing the same thing through such a new medium.

So, what do you think? Do you wish we were all sleeping on one another's floors in the East Village of Manhattan? Or are you happy to be sitting in your bathrobe tweeting with the next @jk_rowling?

Obsession

Some random thoughts today:

I updated the look of my blog last week and just now got around to announcing it. There is some more information about my writing projects and my work in children's media, which I've been meaning to put on this blog. It's also just a little easier to navigate. I don't really like the sorry picture of the flower blowing in the wind right now (I mean, it's pretty obviously a template) but I'll get around to making that more 'me' sometime soon. So if you're reading this blog through a reader, click on through and let me know what you think!

I've found myself completely obsessed with 3 things in the past week.

1. Tom and Lorenzo. Their blog has me laughing out loud. It's clever and fun, without being mean, which is unique for a pop culture blog. They also happen to review and comment on three television shows that I love: Project Runway, Mad Men and Glee. Their Mad Style commentary is incredible. I have been known to drool over the gorgeous style in that show and I love their smart observations.

2. The discovery that Family Ties has come to the Hub Network. I discovered this at about midnight on Saturday night. Sunday morning, I immediately got a Season Pass on my Tivo and was devastated to learn that the show would not be taping until 2am. So I went to Hulu and watched back to back episodes of the show. I watched an episode in which Alex becomes obsessed with Donna, an unwed expectant mother, and convinces himself he is going to be the father of her unborn child. And an episode in which Jennifer and Steven Keaton grow apart when Jennifer begins to flourish into womanhood. MY GOD, this is the stuff of GENIUS people. GENIUS. I'm not sure what's going to happen to me now that I know this show is airing in reruns. And did anyone realize what a remarkable actress Justine Bateman is? I haven't seen the show since I was about 13 and it never occurred to me how wonderful she is, perhaps because of the big personalities on that show like Michael J. Fox and Meredith Baxter Birney. (Yes, these are the things that keep me up at night. Why was Mallory overshadowed?!)

3. PBS' Great Performances: Sondheim! The Birthday Concert My love of Sondheim runs deep. Since Tivo-ing it, I have watched select performances repeatedly. Especially Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters rendition of Move On. I watched it SIX times in a row and the only reason I stopped watching it was so that I could watch Elaine Stritch's 'I'm Still Here' SEVEN more times . I know...I know... it's sick. I also came to the conclusion that if you want to be a great singer you have to have a really gigantic mouth. People, I can not tell you how much I love Marin Mazzie and Patti Lupone but their mouths are insane. It's like they have been taken possession by a crazy alien. These photos don't even really do it justice.

What are you obsessed with lately? Or am I the only one who gets caught up in things like this?

As It Turns Out: Somebody Likes This Blog

Thank you to the lovely, talented Lisa Galek for honoring me with my first ever blogging award: The Honest Scrap Blogger Award. Apparently, I'm honest. Which is quite ironic given the fact that I'm a fiction writer. Mwahahahaha! I write lies! All lies!

I have to share ten things about myself and share this award with other honest bloggers. So here goes...

1. For quite a long time I have had the story of a 16 year old girl in my head but had never written for a young adult audience. So, I was pretty scared to write it. This week, I officially decided to take the plunge. I hope all of you YA writers will welcome me with open arms and loving hearts and help me not be so scared.

2. I wrote a novel when I was 11 years old called "Ten Is Enough." In the coming weeks I plan to subject all of you to a few excerpts. Get excited!

3. I love to cook and I love to eat. I am obssessed with the farm to table craze and I belong to a CSA which forces me to figure out how to cook with things like 12 pounds of Kale.

4. I have lived in New York state for 27.5 of 30 years. 2 years were spent in Boston. .5 in the UK.

5. Of the 27.5 years in New York, 1.5 of them were spent in Astoria, Queens. 17 of them were spent in a town called Hicksville which is on the semi-north shore of Long Island. (Yes, it's called Hicksville.) 3.5 of them were spent in Ithaca. 4 of them were spent on the island of Manhattan. 1.5 of them were spent in Brooklyn.

6. I currently live in Brooklyn, in a neighborhood technically called the Columbia Waterfront District. Some people call it Red Hook. Others call it Carroll Gardens. I call it no-man's land because it is a 10 minute walk from the subway. I live with my boyfriend, Tyler.

7. I am an only child but I like to think I play well with others. Unless you want to borrow my bike, in which case, I'll cry.

8. I work at a toy company as a writer and producer. In other words, if you push a button on a toy, I wrote, recorded, edited, and produced all the music and speech you hear. Every time I tell people what I do, they ask me if working at a toy company is like the movie Big. I am here to tell you, it is nothing like the movie Big.

9. I loooooove dresses and skirts. From May to September, I do not wear pants. In the winter, I wear the same clothes but I put turtlenecks and wool tights underneath them.

10. I really love to blog and read your blogs. This whole 'I write, you read' then 'you write, I read' thing makes me really happy.

I would like to extend this award to the following bloggers:

Sharon Mayhew at Random Thoughts, who was my first blogging friend. She is as sweet as cake and writes about cake. I plan to to buy all of her children's books when they are published and give them to my kids.

Lori H. Walker, who always has so many thoughtful, interesting things to say about writing and teaching on her blog.

Karen at The Oliva Reader who reads and reviews the kinds of books I like to read on her blog. We are encouraging one another in our month of writing and I'm very excited.

Kerri Arista because her songs and her words are beautiful and honest and I'm excited she is writing a book.

Christine at Inwardly Digesting because I've just discovered her blog and I like it very much.

Pimping Myself Out

I've been thinking a lot about blogging lately. I can not tell you how much it means to me that people read my blog. Every time I get a comment or a follower, I squeal. No really. It's particularly embarrassing in the office. I love the blogs I read and I love the friends I've met through this community.

But, lately, I've been reading a lot about building a platform and building an audience. About getting a facebook fan page. And a twitter account. About getting known 'before the agent', 'before the book deal', 'before the book release'. I've been told what I should be doing. I should be posting every day. I should be commenting on blogs. I should participate in forums. I should join writing communities. I should discover what I have to offer readers, what I have to share that makes me different, makes me unique. I should be offering to guest post. I should be holding contests. All of these things will help me gain loyal followers and readers that will forever be my audience.

So, I've dutifully been thinking about all of these things. And, I've got to tell you, as my mother would say when I was a kid, "Geeze, Melissa, you're giving me a splitting headache." I just don't have the time to commit to all of these tasks! Yesterday, I actually told Tyler, "Do you know that if I spend just 15 min. a day on twitter, I inevitably get at least 2-3 more followers?" And then I stepped back and thought. No no no. This is not why I do this.

Honestly, there are million bloggers out there. They have a lot to offer. They've got writing advice. And publishing advice. And blogging advice. They've got friends in high places. They've got agents. And book deals. And there's nothing I can give you that all of these capable bloggers can't.

The only thing I can really offer you is me. So, that's my 'strategy'. I'm going to write this blog. And I'm going to read your blog. Because that's what I love about blogging.

Reading blogs.

And writing my blog.

After all of this soul-searching and figuring out how to use my time wisely and blog the best that I can, all I can say is that I hope me is enough. 'Cause that's the only thing I can really give you that you can't get anywhere else.

Yes, I realize in another context, these words could potentially be illegal. *hugs*

Why Do You Blog?

Have I told you that I really enjoy Elana Johnson's blog? She tells it like it is and that is a quality I very much admire in people. Her post about understanding why we blog really made me think. She urged us to understand what our goals are and what we'd like to achieve with a blog. So I thought it might be nice to state these goals here.

1. First and foremost, I blog because most of my work sits in a drawer unread. I like to write and have people read what I have written. I don't know if that's a very popular writerly belief. Maybe I'm supposed to pretend I do all of this purely for the love of the written word? But this is about being honest and I'm telling the truth.

2. I didn't know this would happen when I started but, now, I blog because I've 'met' interesting people in the writing community through this blog and I want to keep these invaluable connections. They have helped me grow as a blogger and writer. Hopefully, I've helped them too.

3. I write this blog because I do feel it's necessary to have an online presence as a writer and, if I blog with honesty and integrity, I can't imagine it would hurt my writing career to have one.

Those are the main reasons I blog. Maybe a lot of them are selfish, but I hope not. I suppose a lot of these goals will change as my life changes. But that's to be expected. Sometimes I whine...very loudly I might add...Tyler has heard it...about not getting a lot of comments, visitors, or feedback on my blog, but, when I step back and think about why I'm blogging and what my goals are, that's not a reason, so I need to calm down about that. Originally, I thought I might like to make money from a blog or get free stuff, but, it turns out that's not the reason I do it either.

So, I'd love for you share the truth: Why do you blog?

Because of A Book

I'm blogging over at Write For A Reader today for Shelly's Because Of A Book feature. I love this series because I think sometimes we forget that books impact our lives in so many ways. Well, maybe we don't forget, but we don't always stop to articulate them. I found this to be such a great exercise for me- remembering my favorite books and how they changed my life. I hope you'll click the link below and check it out!

Because Of A Book

Tell Someone You Wrote A Book

For a long time, I did not tell anyone I was writing a novel. I was afraid. I didn't want to fail and then be held accountable for that failure. I wrote and kept it secret. Slowly, I told my family members and my closest friends. Eventually, I decided to start this blog, and I officially announced the journey I had been on. That accountability changed my life as a writer. There was no option to fail. I had told people I was writing a novel and there was absolutely no way I was going to go back on my word. I succeeded and it is, in part, because I didn't want to tell my family, my friends, and by virtue of the Internet, the world, that I could not do what I set out to do. I am a very stubborn, persistent, proud person and telling, sharing, became essential to my progress.

When it came time to set this novel free and try to get it published, I experienced the same kind of fear. I did not want to tell people this goal. How many rejections would I receive? How many times would I lose my way? How many novels sit on people's shelves before they get the 5th or 6th or 100th book published? Why would I announce a goal nearly impossible to achieve?

But I thought it through. The first time I started talking, it worked. I finished what I set out to do. I figured it could not hurt to tell people my latest goal. It turns out I was right.

My advice to you is to go tell someone you wrote a book. And here's why:

It came up in random conversation with a co-worker. I told her what I had done. That night she was riding the train home from work and sat next to someone from a big publishing house. Of course, she thought of me. Now I have that person's contact information and a reference I never thought I'd have.

My friend Mike reads this blog (Lord knows why) and his friend from high school is a literary agent. He reached out to her on my behalf and now I have a valuable connection.

I was chatting with a colleague about my novel. Her friend of many, many years, from summer camp is also a literary agent. Another valuable connection I never imagined having.

After chatting with a children's writer I work with at my day job, she told me she was in the process of completing her first novel. I shared that I had just finished one myself. Together, we discussed our writer woes. And she asked me about getting ready to query. She's not sure what her next step should be. I happen to know a little about the next step. After all, I'm in the midst of it. We'll be chatting again very soon, when she has written 'The End.'

What good things have happened to you when you uttered the words, "I wrote a book..." or "I'm writing a book..."?

Time to Write

As the warm weather begins to find its way to the Northeast, I've been thinking a lot about my writing schedule. Or the lack of one...

I value time spent outdoors and when it's sunny, I do not like to stay inside and write. My schedule is flimsy, to say the least, and it is flexible. I don't plan to write every day. I write when I have 'time' to write. I give up activities to write. And I give up writing to engage in activities. There's no rhyme or reason to any of it.

These are the things I will give up writing for (and not feel guilty)
Spending time with Tyler
Dinner or drinks with friends and family
Visits with friends and family
A Bike Ride
A hike
Working Out
Taking the night off after a particularly difficult/emotional/stressful day at work
Cooking
Eating
Showering
Sleeping

Here are things I give up writing for (and feel guilty)
Being on facebook
Watching television
Blogging
Reading blogs
Browsing the internet

Now, it should be said that I don't have the hours from 7:30am to 7pm to write. These are the hours I spend working full time and travelling to and from the office. I like to go to bed no later than 12:30am. And I consider that late.

So, you see, that I have roughly 5 hours per night to do everything else. There are several things pulling me away that make me feel guilty (I have to think about those). And there are even more things pulling me away from writing that I value or are absolutely necessary. I think my priorities are pretty appropriate. But if any of the non-necessity activities become available to me at any given time then the manuscript gets placed in a drawer. And it never. Gets. Done.

This makes me think I need an actual schedule. I'm not sure how it's going to work, but I think something needs to be put in place. The flexibility is great, but perhaps it's getting out of hand. Perhaps the things I value need a more specific time slot (my goodness, has it really come to that?) Whatever the case, I'm mulling it over...

So, tell me, please. How flexible are you with your writing time?

Do you write every day at a specific time no matter what?

Do you give up the things you value in order to write?

What things take precedence over your writing?

What things take precedence over your writing that maybe shouldn't?

Inquiring minds want to know...

Updates, titles, and tips

A few updates today...

I am nearing the completion of the revisions for Part II of my book. Side note: I've split the book into 3 mental acts (that's the script writer in me) but, technically, it's all one book with no parts. That being said, Part II is where most of the plot is and plot is always very difficult for me. Fortunately, my characters have been exceptionally helpful. It's unclear whether they're begging me to be more active or I'm pushing them, but whatever the case may be, we have a nice working relationship. Only 1 scene to re-write and 1 scene to write from scratch before I begin revisions to Part III.

I decided to re-design my blog, so if you're reading this in a reader or through e-mail, feel free to check it out because I think it's pretty. And the edges are all a surprising, beautiful yellow. Which is the color of the sun. Sun=happy. And it only took 6 hours for this indecisive Libra to choose a blog template. So humour me :-)

I chose a title for my Work in Progress. It is now called Spared. I don't know if this is the best title for the book but it seems to suit my pages quite well right now. Out of curiousity does that word conjure up anything for you? Does it intrigue you in any way? I'd love to know.

And because this post has been very selfish so far, here's a Writing Tip:

When you finish a scene, or a chapter, or your words for the day, before you do a happy dance, write the first sentence for the next scene or chapter or set of words you plan to write tomorrow. Trust me on this one.

2010 Comment Challenge

One of my goals for the year is to become a little bit more active in the blogging community. I read a lot of blogs, but I must confess that I am a professional lurker. I don't always comment and participate in the conversation. Yet, when someone comments on my blog, I become very giddy. It may or may not involve clapping hands, jumping up and down and/or squee-ing.

So I decided to participate in a challenge from Mother Reader and Lee Wind. It is a Comment Challenge. Just comment on 5 new blogs a day for the next 21 days. After I signed up, I realized it encourages commenting on Kid Lit Blogs. But since this is also a personal challenge for myself I am going to comment on all kinds of blogs including Kid Lit Blogs. I hope to discover some new blogs in the process. So comment away!

Blogiversary! And a giveaway...sorta...

So, I realized this week that today...January 5th, 2010... is my one year anniversary of blogging!

I would give you some stats for the year but soon realized that would be futile. I didn't post as much as I would have liked to (97X). I don't have many 'official' followers (A whopping 2! lol.) I don't have many google feed subscribers (10) but I've had an impressive sounding amount of visitors (1,097).

The most searched terms for my blog are:

1. "harry potter naked"
2. "te quiero barcelona"

So, I apologize to all the screaming teen girls, perverts, and Spanish speaking people of the world...I'm pretty sure you didn't find what you were looking for.

I've learned a lot this year, by writing this blog and reading so many others' (my google reader is completely obnoxious). I found out that I love to blog and I wish that I could find a full-time job blogging (if you're hiring, please feel free to contact me! ;-) I also discovered that the blogging community is filled with incredible content and extraordinarily interesting and talented bloggers. I would start a list, but that's another post all-together. Look for it soon.

When I realized this anniversary was upon me, I immediately wanted to do a give-away. Because...well...why the heck not! Tyler and I brainstormed a bit and came up with a few amazing prizes:

1. A ROUND TRIP TICKET!! (on the MTA from Brooklyn to Manhattan)
2. A moleskin notebook! (with my notes already in it)
3. Home-made ice cream! (Sent by post)

I soon realized, there wasn't much I could give away. You've seen the stats. This blog isn't exactly pulling in the big bucks. I don't have any sponsors. Shocking, I know. I could give you something out of the kindness of my heart, but let's face it, my heart is kind, but my pockets are not so...er...full. I'd give you a crap-load of free toys (ask me about my day job offline some time :-) but I would promptly get fired. Nobody wants that...

So, I really thought about it. What could I give my loyal followers? All 1,097 of you. (So...half of you wanted to see Harry Potter naked. But that's my favorite stat, ok?)

It surprised me that I didn't think of it sooner. After all, it's what this blog is about.

Without further adieu...

An excerpt from 'He Who Shall Not Be Named'...my work in progress...(A prize will be given if you can find a name for this damn book)

My main character, Elisabeth, and her new friend, Dallas, are on a swing set. At night.

"What about this run-away sister of yours? How’d she get out of going to Northfield?”

“She’s developmentally disabled,” I knew no other way to say it, so I threw out the politically correct term.

“How’d she get to be that way?” he asked.

I realized that very few people asked it like that. It was always what was wrong with her. Or why she was like that. Never how. Which was, of course, the one question I didn’t want to answer. Had never wanted to.

“I guess that’s just the way she is,” I lied.

“So what exactly is wrong with her?” he urged.

“It’s unfair to say there’s something wrong with her,” I said defensively.

“Ok. Then what’s right with her?” He offered.

“It’s not as simple as that.”

“I’m sure it’s not. I was just kind of curious.” He was so sincere.

“She just…doesn’t connect with people,” I started pumping my legs harder again, pulling back severely on the chains so that we quickly fell out of sync, “I don’t know how else to say it.”

“Not even with you?”

I considered this, “No.”

“How can that be?”

“You ask it like there’s some kind of answer. If I knew…if people knew, they would fix it.”

“Maybe it’s not meant to be fixed,” he said simply.

I grew frustrated, “You asked me what was wrong with her. When you ask things like that, it assumes that’s something that needs to be set right. I don’t want to make those kind of judgments. I can’t.”

I wanted to concentrate solely on the task at hand, trying to get higher and higher in my swing. In my peripheral vision I saw Dallas’ sneakers as they reached up into the air.

My sincere thanks for reading this blog. I hope someday you get to read this book. :-)

The Pioneer Woman Cooks! And she writes too!

Guess what?! Tonight I am going to see The Pioneer Woman! I have been reading her blog for about 2 years now and she is one of my favorite writers.

I know she's better known for her blog and cookbook than as a writer, but it takes a lot of skill to write a blog and I hope that is never lost on people. She writes with incredible wit, honesty, and humour. And, perhaps more importantly, she has such a distinct voice. I consider a unique voice one of the most essential qualities a writer must have and when you find that voice on a blog, you want to go back to it day after day. I'm incredibly impressed with her following but, not surprised, given how strong that narrative voice truly is.

So, tonight, maybe I'll get to hear her real voice! Sometimes I forget that I live in a city of 8 million people. Because in a city of 8 million people, there's always the possibility I may not even be able to step foot in that Border's tonight. In a city of 8 million people, even a wristband for an event might not allow me to step foot in that Border's tonight. This issue actually deserves another post all together (Can you tell the city crowds are getting me down?)

But I digress...

Here's hoping I get to see the Pioneer Woman tonight!

Oh, and if someone has any tips for how I can shower at the gym with the wristband, let me know. I didn't think of that when the nice man at Borders slapped it on my wrist...

Julie, Julia, Melissa, Sally Tutu...the list goes on

Worst Blogger Ever!

Yes. I get the award. At least for (in)frequency of posts.

Well, today, lookee here, I'm blogging. So maybe the award is being ripped from my fingers by another infrequent blogger. Take it! Take it I say!

Today, I saw the movie Julie and Julia which I, of course, loved. Because it's about food. And cooking. And butter. And bread. And cheeeese. Among other things. And because it was about Julia Child who I love dearly.

It got me thinking about a lot of things. About a love of life and of food. And about finding out what you love to do and what makes you happy.

I was very unhappy at a previous job and I did not deal well with it. I became unbearable to be around, I cried AT work on more than 1 occassion, and I complained incessantly to my friends. I had convinced myself that what I did defined me. And I remember my dear friend Lynneth telling me, it's just a job, it's not who you are.

I am still unable to comprehend this. If I'm not doing something, I feel useless. If I'm not bettering myself in some way with how I spend my time, then I feel I'm not spending my time wisely. I once sat and watched a 4 hour marathon of Bridezilla on the WE channel and I hated myself for the next 4 hours.

Why is what I'm doing so tied to who I think I am and how I feel? I can not answer this. All I know is that Julia Child found a way to do what she loved and bring so much of herself into it. And Julie Powell had been inspired so much by this idea that she wrapped herself up in an insane project in order to figure out who she was and what she should be doing with her life.

So, I ask myself, is this what my novel is? An insane attempt at discovering who I am and what I should be doing with my time? I think perhaps it is. If so, well...then, bon appetit...