In preparation for tomorrow's Grammar Friday post, I submit a little humor:
A linguistics professor was lecturing to his class one day.
"In English," he said, "A double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."
A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right."
(I would love to credit this but it was something I collected a bazillion years ago from an email that was making the rounds.)
Not sure some of you heard about the furor over an article by Meghan Cox Gurdon earlier this month expressing concern about the direction YA fiction seems to be moving.
Robin Weeks posted about it yesterday and has an interesting discussion going on in her comments. You might want to pop in and read Robin's blog post and chime in.
I totally stole this from Sarah Eden. She was kind enough to suggest it when I cried for help on Twitter, since I'm old and need short things to memorize. By the way, I can't wait for her book Seeking Persephone to come out in September. It's a prequel to Courting Miss Lancaster, and I've already fallen in love with the characters.
Here's the poem I'm memorizing this week.
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
~~Emily Dickinson
Hey, Robin. I didn't even realize until now that you're mentioned in this poem. Are you a fainter? You seemed sturdier than that.
BLOG AWARD
I've also been honored with another awarding of The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award by Kimberly Krey. You should check out her blog. I must be really sweet, because this is the third time I've been given this particular award. Thanks, Kimberly.
Feel free to stop reading (like you're not free to anyway) if you're tired of reading random things about me.
Rules of the The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award (some rules varied but these were the most popular): 1. Copy and paste the award to your blog. Check
2. Thank and link to the person(s) who nominated you. Check
3. Share seven random facts about yourself. One
I hate the sensation of falling--that feeling of your stomach being higher up than the rest of your body. The kind you get when you're, you know, falling. I'm not afraid of heights. On roller coasters I'm fine going upside down and doing the corkscrew turns. Just not the falling.
When my family went on vacation to Disneyland a few years ago and we spent four days park hopping, one of my family's favorite rides was California Screamer. My daughter assured me it was not bad at all. I went.
As we got off, she said, "See, there were only one or two times when there's that sensation."
Um. No. Try five. I counted them.
Tower of Terror anybody? Why don't you just shoot me?
Two
I have an associate degree from Brigham Young University in University Studies with a focus on genealogy (they didn't have a major).
Three
The only bones I've ever broken are a toe and my tail bone (twice).
Four
I'm a serious Harry Potter geek. And proud of it. You can find me at the Leaky Lounge where I'm a moderator. As of last night I have 12,878 posts. I think I'll have to retire when I hit 13,000. =D
Five
My favorite color is green. Just about any shade, though after wearing olive drab everything for a couple of years I was a little off that shade of green for a few decades. When I got to my permanent duty assignment in Nurnberg, even my dang bedroom walls were painted OD. Ugh.
Six
Dark Chocolate. I like the other versions, but if I have a choice, dark chocolate wins every time. The darker, the better.
Seven
When I was a little girl, I was in love with musicals. I would sit in my classroom at school, just waiting for my teacher to break out in song and dance. Such a disappointment.
This video is totally the stuff of my dreams. How come I'm never in a place where they do this? Life's not fair.
4th rule: Pass the award along to 5 deserving blogging buddies. Jordan McCollum (Jordan's got choice writing info and is tekkie resource as well) James Duckett (the writer, not the guy on death row) Deanna Barnhart (a fellow member of my critique group and host of July's Gearin' up to Get An Agent Blog O Rama) Amber over at Litpool (she's counting down until Harry' Birthday with HP trivia and prizes) Candace's Book Blog (I LOVE her blog background)
Princess Rose is the eldest of twelve sisters condemned to dance each night for the wicked King Under Stone in his palace deep within the earth. It is a curse that has haunted the girls since their birth--and only death can set them free.
Then Rose meets Galen, a young soldier-turned-gardener with an eye for adventure and a resolve that matches her own, and freedom suddenly begins to seem a little less impossible. To defeat the king and his dark court, they will need one invisibility cloak, a black wool chain knit with enchanted silver needles, and that most critical ingredient of all--true love.
And the winner is:
Bree
So Bree, email me at donnakweaver(at)gmail(dot)com with your mailing address.
In general, do not use a hyphen to set off a prefix at the beginning of a word or a suffix at the end of a word (exceptions ex- and –elect.)
Modern example: multi-purpose is now multipurpose
Be wary of spell checkers that may urge you to insert hyphens after the prefixes.
Prefixes and suffixes are pretty cool actually. They should make you feel powerful because you can create a word. And speaking of the word create, it's a perfect transition to another exception to the above rule. Let's say you create a work of art (something written, of course!), but your house burned down, destroying your masterpiece. Now you have to recreate it.
Oh, but wait. Isn't there already a word "recreate"?
Yup.
By using that word, suddenly your reader has to stop and think about usage (a bit like the list of words at the beginning of this post).So this is an exception for hyphenating prefixes. If there's already a word of your new creation, you need to use a hyphen for clarification. So it would be re-create.
So what have you created today? Or better still, what are your plans to recreate this weekend? Doing anything fun?
I went to a BBQ tonight hosted by Canda over at Canda's Ink Blast. Lots of food, good conversation, contests and prizes. I took some pictures but my son's moved my thingy that lets me get the pics off my memory card. I came away with FOUR books!
Including the one on the right. Orson Scott Card wrote the book based upon the screenplay for the movie. We enjoyed the movie, though the theatrical ending was sadly lacking. Card got permission to continue writing well into the filming. He brought depth to the characters that most novels based on screenplays can't capture. This book is one of my favorites. There was something in it that struck a chord with me, something that never got translated into the movie. The book's out of print. I have a copy of the paperback already that my brother lent me. I may--MAY--do a giveaway. I'll have to stew on it.
If you think you'd be interested in having a shot at it, let me know. Persuade me.
Back to the BBQ, I experienced a sense of deja vue as I sat at a table with other aspiring writers, eating and chatting about writing in general, about books we love/hate, and learning about each other. What it reminded me of was the first time I attended a moderator meetup with five other mods from The Leaky Lounge.
Bear in mind, that this was a group of adult Harry Potter fans. Rabid Harry Potter fans. So rabid that we'd all been asked (or volunteered) to help with a very busy and award winning (one from Jo Rowling herself) website. We all knew each other online but were finally able to meet in person. There's a language (modified netspeak) that we use on the discussion forums.
HP = Harry Potter
LV = Lord Voldemort
DE = Death Eaters
HBP = Half Blood Prince
DD = Dumbledore, etc.
It was funny during dinner at that long ago meetup that one of the moderators (who happened to be a producer at one of the large local radio stations) used one of the above shortcuts in her speech. She paused, flushed, and then gushed her amazement that she'd actually said it out loud, in person. It seemed so geeky, and we all thrilled at the release. Closet HP fans coming out.
At the BBQ tonight, it felt a little like that. Sitting around with a bunch of other writers, talking about these voices we all have in our heads trying to get out. Discussing the benefits of using that Dragon software program so you can speak rather than type. Dissing how lacking some kinds of modern literature can be.
*sigh*
If I hadn't eaten so much yummy food (and now my stomach hurts), I'd be completely satisfied.
Thanks Canda! And thank your sweet husband for cooking all those burgers and dogs.
Each of the following blogs is offering a different awesome prize!
(That's14 prizes!)
And the grand prize is a $25 dollar gift card to Amazon.
Quick, Fast Entry
Pick a blog, any blog to get started
(just click on the underlined name)
Better hurry! There's only 4 days to enter -Tues., June 21st-Friday, June 24th
**(Need more details? More complete entry details at the bottom of the page)
1. Follow Rachelle Writes and leave a comment. Then follow Cindy M. Hogan and leave a comment about Rachelle's blog. (If you do both you get 1 entry into Rachelle's contest and one into the Grand Prize contest-You Must do both to enter either)
13. Enter all 14 contests and you get an extra 5 entries into the Grand Prize Giveaway. (19 entries) 14. That's not all! Get 6 extra entries by buying Watchedhere (print book) orhere (e-book) and sending her a copy of your confirmation cindymhogan at yahoo dot com. Easy peasy. Wow! That's 25 entries!
Have funand good luck!
**More Details on how to enter
Click on the blog name
Follow that blog
Leave a comment that you were there
Jump over to Cindy's blog
Leave a comment about what you liked about the other blog.
Congrats! You've entered that blog's contest and earned one entry into the Grand Prize Drawing!
Enter one. Enter two or how ever many you like, but...
If you enter allthe blogs' contests you get a bonus 5 entries into the Grand Prize Drawing.
That gives you a total of 19 entries to win the
Grand Prize- A $25 gift card to Amazon. And don't forget to get your copy of Watched for a bonus 6 entries. (25 total)
Remember- you only have 4 days to enter. (Tues, June 21st-Friday, June 24th at midnight)
and you must comment on both blogs for entry into each contest.
Individual blogs will award prizes on June 25th
The Grand Prize will be awarded on June 28th on Cindy's blog.
Check back to see if you won! You have 2 days to claim your prize.
A bigthanks to my awesome friends for joining in on the fun.
The poem I chose to memorize for this week is actually the lyrics to a song. The words were written by Michael Williams and sung by John Denver. It seems especially as the warm summer days are here and kids are enjoying their time off from school.
Catch Another Butterfly
Do you remember days not so very long ago
When the world was run by people twice your size
And the days were full of laughter and the nights were full of stars
And when you grew tired you could close your eyes
Yes the stars were were there for wishing
and the wind was there for kites
And the morning sun was there for rise and shine
And even in the sniffles kept you home from school in bed
You couldn't hardly stay there after nine
And I wonder if the smell of morning's faded
What happened to the robin's song that sparkled in the sky
Where's all the water gone that tumbled down the stream
Will I ever catch another butterfly
Do you remember campouts right in your own backyard
And wondering how airplanes could fly
And the hours spent just playing with a funny rock you found
With crystal specks as blue as all the sky
And I wonder if the smell of morning's faded
What happened to the robin's song that sparkled in the sky
Where's all the water gone that tumbled down the stream
Will I ever catch another butterfly
Now I watch my son, he's playing with his toys
He's happy and I give him all I can
But I can't help feeling just a little tingling inside
When to hear him say, he wants to be a man
And I wonder if the smell of morning's faded
What happened to the robin's song that sparkled in the sky
Where's all the water gone that tumbled down the stream
Will I ever catch another butterfly
Will I ever catch another butterfly
What do you miss from your childhood? What did you surrender in your rush to adulthood that, looking back, you wish you could have kept?
In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice.
Then he made proof-readers."
~~Mark Twain
I'm going to touch on a big grammar issue today--the human brain. Ever get frustrated that you've read your dang manuscript a bazillion times and still miss some mistakes? Some of my problem is I can't NOT edit, which just makes new typos.
When it comes to language, our clever human brains can be our antagonists. The following is my case in point:
Can you read this?
Olny srmat poelpe can.
cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
In one training I attended, we were told to read through the project three times looking for different things. An important key is giving it a break because reading something over and over can result in missing the obvious. If you go do something else or put it down for the night and come back to it fresh the next morning, stuff can jump right out at you that you'd have missed the day before. Checking for specific things, such as facts, numbers, dates, etc. rather than reading the entire project will often catch problems otherwise missed. I like reading it aloud. My hubby likes to be read to, so he's a great guinea pig and patient when I suddenly stop to fix something.
So are you one of people who can proof things flawlessly? Do you have any tricks that makes it easier?
So now I have to choose someone to pass this on to. I've decided to give it to Cindy Hogan, a new acquaintance and author of the book Watched. She's been doing lots of training on her blog for people who may be looking at self publishing. She doesn't just talk about the pros and cons. She actually walks you through the process.
You should check out her blog.
And then Lia Davis, author of The Divinity Series gave me The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award.
Thanks, Lia!
I didn't realize I'd failed to fulfill the requirements of this award when I posted about my first receipt of it here. I know. I know. I'm a slacker loser. But, I believe in making restitution, so I will pass this off to twice the number of people I would have if I'd received it only once.
1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you. Check 2. Share seven random facts about yourself. A. I've lived or visited the following countries/colonies: South Korea, Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong (wasn't part of China then), Germany, and Ireland. (I lived in three of them ranging from 18 months to 2 1/2 years). B. I'm a rabid Harry Potter fan and I get to see the last movie at 5 p.m. on THURSDAY, July 14th. C. I am my city's election official, and this is an election year, so we're really busy gearing up. There's SO much work. D. My next to youngest son was a cage fighter. Watching him fight (I couldn't let him go and not be there in case he got hurt) was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Fortunately he felt he'd proved himself when he won his fight and was happy to retire. E. I love being a grandmother and I miss my grandkids desperately. I was spoiled when they all lived within 20 minutes of me. Then their parents moved to far off places (like China and Hawaii--both very expensive to travel to). Skype chats just don't cut it. You can't hold children while you read to them on Skype, and they act all weird in front of the camera anyway. *sigh* F. I used to commute to work, and when I changed to my current job I picked up 20 hours a week. Imagine what I could do with that time now--take a laptop on the bus. Put in those ear buds. Nope. I'll stick with what I've got now as wonderful as that job was. G. I got a bicycle for Mother's Day, and I plan on riding it down the canyon soon. 3. Pass the award along to 5 10 deserving blogging buddies. Please check out their blogs and follow them if you're so inclined: Deanna -- Procrastination Station Ashley -- Ashley Nixon Margot -- Inklings Shelly -- SeeShelWrites Shelli -- *A* Musings Joshua -- Joshua J. Perkey's Blog Betsy -- Betsy Love LDS Author CJ --CJ Duggan Matt -- The Working Writer Bryce - Bryce Daniels Preservation Society
4. Contact those buddies to congratulate them. Check
I'm sure all you writers out there have heard of and/or participated in a critique group. I've heard some tales of some wonderful groups, but I've also heard some real horror stories. When I was at Life, the Universe and Everything conference (LTUE) in February a couple of New York Times list authors mentioned how destructive they'd found them to be and no longer participated in them.
Late last year, I posted on Brodi Ashton's blog asking about how her critique group had found each other (her group is one of the wonderful ones that meets in person). Well, Robin Weeks who also follows Brodi kindly let me know about her online critique group at David Farland's Writers Forum. Dave is a wonderful supporter of writers as well as a well-known author in his own right. He teaches classes on writing, and I think he's been at all three conferences I've attended in the last nine months. Members of his Writers Forum who were attending LTUE were able to get together at a local restaurant for dinner. It was lots of fun, and I got to meet in person several people I'd conversed with online.
Anyway, when I joined Dave's writer's groups I found there are a number of individual groups based upon genre. I applied to join two of them. One was for the romance genre, since my finished ms is a romantic suspense. This group is not very active right now, but the two ladies there are very supportive.
I also applied to Robin's group for YA fantasy. This is a very active group, and I've learned so much already. As I detailed last fall, I signed up for a college creative writing class ($770 in tuition for 3 credits) hoping to learn more about the craft of writing. I knew within a week this class wasn't what I was looking for and dropped it. I learned more in a month with the Pied Pipers critique group than that class would have taught me.
Critiques can be frustrating. There's no getting around it. But they have to be honest, or they're a waste of time and effort on both sides. The frustration isn't always about how people are critiquing your writing. It's also about figuring out how to make something work in your book. I can have a number of my friends (who aren't writers) be beta readers for me. They can give me input on how the story is working, but they can't necessarily tell me WHY it isn't working. My fellow critique group members can. And their input has been very insightful.
But critiques need to be about what works as well as what doesn't. Sometimes it's too easy to get caught up with finding the errors. As with our children, we need to catch the writer doing it right.
Now, as the writer, I must realize that I can't please everyone, even in my critique group. But I should seriously consider what I'm being told and decide how best to use the input to improve my book--or not. A funny thing happened with my first submission. None of my beta readers had ever had any doubt about the gender of my MC. Yet two of the critiquers in my group got the impression she was a guy and that totally changed how they looked at everything. Considering the number of people who have read the beginning of my book, that's a good 10% of the people who could potentially think my MC was a gay guy. It was an easy fix for me to make, but one I wouldn't have considered without their input.To me, that's priceless.
The things I'm learning from this critique group doesn't t just come from critiques on my writing but on the critiques I read on other members of the groups. I'm learning what I should be looking for, how to be a better critiquer myself. I'm still really new and raw at it.
I know a very talented woman, who's written two books. I've read comments she's made in an online forum, and she's intelligent and writes very well. I imagine that her books are really good. But I'll never get the chance to know because she won't let anyone read them. Anyone.
When my oldest daughter decided to run for student body president in the 6th grade, she made a comment to me that was very profound and wise beyond her years. It's something I wish someone had told me when I was in younger. She said she could never win if she didn't try.
Well, she did try, and she did win. Did I ever mention she's my hero?
How about you? Do you have a critique group? Do you meet in person or online? What's your experience been?
For this week I've selected a fun Christmas poem by Countee Cullen. When we used to do The Twelve Days of Christmas (ding dong ditching with our kids), we'd include this poem and give the families some mistletoe.
Under the Mistletoe
~~Countee Cullen
I did not know she’d take it so,
Or else I’d never dared;
Although the bliss
was worth the blow,
I did not know she’d take it so.
She stood beneath the mistletoe
So long I thought she cared;
I did not know she’d take it so,
Or else I’d never dared.
WIP Progress Report.
Don't you love it when a plan comes together?
My goal this weekend was to get through Part 2 of WIP #1 to which I'm making a plot line change. Making the change (which has the MC doing something very different than in the original plot) was tough. But I really need to get the entire ms ready to submit to my critique group on July 1st. Ugh.
But, I did it! The fewest changes need to be made in Part 3, so I should have time to do a read through before the end of this month. Phew!
Awards
On another note, I'd like to thank two blogging pals for kindly giving awards. I thank them both.
When I was a little girl and in school, I could have sworn that my teachers presented grammar as set-in-stone rules. The way they showed me how to do something was the only way to do it. I graduated from high school and moved on to college, and no one ever said anything different.
Well, guess what? I moved into the business world and attended a training session that provided me with a "Duh!" moment.
Latin grammar never changes because Latin is a dead language. Dead? Yes. Because there's nowhere in the world where people actively speak it, so it never changes.
That doesn't work with English. English is a vibrant, ever-changing language. It's the official language in several countries, and each one manages to tweak it in their own way. For example, in 2007, the word Woot was the Merriam-Webster Dictionary word of the year. If you follow the link you'll see what it means. But do you know where it came from? We Owned the Other Team. It's a gaming term that's now being used by people who aren't gamers.
Snarky is another word I like. I heard it for the first time when I became a moderator at the Leaky Lounge. Many of the other moderators are British, and that's been mostly a British term, according to Dictionary.com. But I'm hearing it a lot now, both from people I associate with and on American television and in American books.
This is my first post in a weekly series on grammar (future posts should be shorter). From what I read in books, we writers seem to have a bit more discretion than people in the business world. For example, Jo Rowling uses comma splices all the time. What's a comma splice? It's when you use a comma to connect to standalone sentences. In business writing, it's considered poor grammar.
Ted grabbed the ball. He threw it at Bill.
Ted grabbed the ball, he threw it at Bill. (this is a comma splice.)
Grammatically correct options? You can connect the two sentences with the word "and".
Ted grabbed the ball, and he threw it at Bill.
If the sentences are closely related, you could use a semicolon.
Ted grabbed the ball; he threw it at Bill.
But Rowling's editors didn't find it necessary to edit out all her comma splices, so that implies to me that for writing books (not about grammar or for business), we may have some discretion. Who decides? My guess is your editor.
But everyone needs to know there are different styles of grammar. And the rules are different, depending upon the style you're using. When I teach classes on grammar, I suggest that my coworkers choose one style and be consistent. At work, we use the Gregg Reference Manual. This is business oriented, but it's still a good resource about grammar rules. They update every five years to keep up with trends. Click here if you'd like to see a list of other sources.
Notice in the following (hilarious) video the reference to the Chicago Manual of Style. They aren't talking fashion.
So where are your grammar strengths? How about your weaknesses? What resources do you prefer to use?
I know. I seem to be posting about being tagged at lot this week. But speaking of yesterday’s post, don’t forget to check out amazing Elana Johnson’s Possession bloghop. Check here for details.
Tag
Today is actually to thank Donea Lee for tagging me. You should go check her out if you don't know her already.
I’m supposed to answer some questions and then tag some others. Here are my answers to the questions posed:
1. Do you think you're hot?
2. Upload a picture or wallpaper you are using at the moment:
From my trip to Kaua'i last June. That's one of my grandsons on the right at Lydgate Park.
3. When was the last time you ate chicken?
Lunch yesterday (grilled in a mesquite with lime marinate—SO good!).
4. The Song/Songs you listened to recently.
I listen to Pandora.com or stream a local radio station. What’s playing as I write this is Secrets by OneRepublic, Break Your Heart by Taio Cruz, and Rhythm of Love by Plain White Ts (love these guys).
#1 Canda is a new blog friend. She’s got a month of giveaways going on in June on her blog, so you should check it out.
#2 Ellie is an awesome SciFi writer from the UK and always posts fun and interesting stuff about writing and about her projects. I think she groks Spock.
#3 Everett is a writer I met on Twitter, who’s been very kind and supportive. He’s pleasant to chat with and more than willing for retweet tweets. Twits. Uh, whatever they’re called. =D
#4 Laura is an author, who also does writing craft posts including fun digital drawings for visual effect. You ought to check out her blog and see what she has there for you.
#5 L.G. is another writer I’ve met around the blogospere. Not only does she post interesting and fun things (and has an awesome blog name—Bards and Prophets—that just makes me want to sit down and talk to her in person), she adds great comments.
#6 Stephanie must be a nerdfighter because she has awesome in her genes. She’s an author (I’m reading her Whitney Award winner ‘Cold as Ice’ right now and loving it) AND she used to live in Ireland! Having just returned from a trip there last April, all I can ask is how lucky is that?
#7 Melanie is in one of my critique groups on David Farland’s Writers groups. She’s another very supportive online friend and said the most touching thing anyone has ever said about my firstborn (book, not child—he lives in China right now).
#8 Robin is our illustrious group leader in my other critique group at David Farland’s . She stayed at my house and dragged me around with her (talk about sociable) at LTUE last February. Better move fast to keep up with her. She writes wonderful, insightful, challenging posts on her blog, and she cohosts Farlands’s Authors Advisory. If you haven’t checked her out yet, you should do it.
Click the Tagged above for Elana Johnson's Possession Celebrations. When have you broken the rules?
Oh. my. heck.
You do not even have enough hours in a day for the times when I broke the rules when I was little. I had my first cigarette when I was five. We were living on South Post in Seoul, South Korea and some friends and I got a cigarette off a Korean guard.
Our parents all smoked. Why not us?
Well, somehow my dad got wind of what we were doing and came racing up where were we at.
Busted!
He took me right home, and I had the privilege of smoking an entire cigarette all by myself.
Green, anyone?
Need I say I've never found them to be appealing since? It didn't help that one time I saw my mother, whom I greatly admired, digging into an ashtray for a butt because she'd run out. I decided right then and there that no object was ever going to control me like that.
And then I met chocolate ...
Poetry Challenge
Fine. I'll do it. I figure anything that stretches the old gray matter is good, right?
I've decided to participate in Dan Well's #PoetrySummer. My friend Robin Weeks has been posting about it (she a brilliant attorney and aspiring writer, so why am I not surprised?), and somehow I just got sucked in. *sigh*
Since I'm running a little behind (and I like silly, funny poetry as much as more serious, cool stuff) my WEEK #1 contribution is a poem I memorized as a young teen (author unknown)--and the fact that I can still remember it is truly amazing:
Love is a peculiar thing.
It's something like a lizard.
It wraps its tail around your heart,
and crawls into your gizzard.
Playing catch up, here is my WEEK #2 poem (also left over from those ancient, early teen days), once again the author is unknown (maybe my Girl Scout camp leader in the Philippines?):
I love you.
I love you.
I love you, divine.
Please give me your bubblegum;
you're sitting on mine.
Isn't this great stuff? I think I can do this!
Oh, yeah.
I'm going to have to start memorizing them now. *sigh*
I need to select some (very short) poems for the rest of my weeks of summer. Any suggestions?
If you'd like to participate in Dan's challenge, you can participate on Twitter using the hashtag #PoetrySummer.
Alex J. Cavanaugh's It's All Fun and Games Blogfest
It’s All Fun & Games Blogfest, June 6, 2011 - list your three most favorite games and why. Board games, card games, RPG, video games, physical games, drinking games - even mind games! If it’s a game you enjoy playing, it’s worth sharing.
My family loves to play games. We've got an entire closet full of board games, and we're also video gamers. When our children were younger, we had a game room with a TV and lounge chairs we got from the local 2nd hand store. Since some of my kids are pretty artistic, I had them paint murals on the walls of their favorite games. By the time it was finished they'd mostly grown up and moved out, but I still love the paintings on the walls of my exercise room.
Now, as to my three favorite games:
StarCraft II
Since I was just talking about video games I'll start with this one. We've been StarCraft fans for many years and would have LAN parties as a family, sometimes playing with each other and sometimes playing against each other. Now with the Internet we're able to do it online when we're in different cities. After waiting more than a decade since StarCraft Broodwar, they came out with StarCraft II. I love what they've done with the graphics and the storyline rocks. This particular version is just the human campaign. We'll eventually get the Protoss and the Zerg campaigns as well. You can play the campaign by yourself, or you can play scenarios you set up online with friends or just people online.
Seafarers of Catan
This is an extension to the Settlers of Catan board game. We love this game because the way it's designed it can be different (literally) every time you play it. Each of the hexagons you see above (land and ocean) can be placed either in established patterns provided in a booklet that comes with the game or in ones you make up yourself. The basic game is for 2-4 players, but you can get an extension set to add two players. The difference between Settlers and Seafarers is the addition of ships and a pirate.
The Great Dalmuti
The Great Dalmuti is a card game that's similar to the game Scum (in our family we routinely mix terms from the two games). In this game you have a king (the Great Dalmuti), who's the person that wins the most recent hand, then a vice king (2nd person to go out). On the losing end you have the scum (the last person to go out) and vice scum (the next to last person to go out). Hats are required for the top two people and the bottom two people. Below is a picture of a scum.
So these are three of my family's favorite games. What about you? Do you like to play games? What do you like to play and why?
As for my writing career, I started writing over ten years ago after resigning from the CIA, and it took me more than seven years to finally create a manuscript that was worth submitting. (I tried submitting earlier novels and I have the rejection letters to prove it!) The idea for Undercurrents had been rattling around in my head since college, and it took that long for it to finally take shape. Thankfully, submissions have gone much smoother since that first novel made it into print.
In the five years she’s been married to Navy SEAL Kel Bennett, Marilyn has lived with fear as a near-constant companion. But the morning she sees two men in naval uniforms approaching her doorway with solemn faces, her fear turns to terror. This is what she signed up for when she exchanged wedding vows with that stunning man in military dress whites: a husband who leaves home whenever the phone rings and who might not ever come back. Turns out Marilyn is lucky this time: Kel is still alive, although gravely injured from the Saint Squad op that thwarted a terrorist attack in the southwestern US. While his wife is relieved to have him stationary in a hospital bed, Kel’s necessary lack of openness about his work puts a strain on their already troubled marriage. As the distance between the couple widens, Marilyn turns to the book she’s secretly writing to express her unspeakable emotions.
Meanwhile, the backlash from the foiled terrorist mission brings Halim Karel to the States in search of Seth, the undercover agent who’d infiltrated his organization and spearheaded the abduction of his boss’s niece. As danger mounts and the SEAL team springs into action, Marilyn is shocked by her first glance into the grisly realities of her husband’s profession: violence, deception, even killing. And when she becomes a central ploy in Halim’s revenge plan, she struggles to find needed trust and confidence in this military man she loves — not just to save their marriage but to save their lives.
So what's it take to win the book? I'm only going to make you jump through two or three hoops.:
Comment here that you're interested in the book (please read the disclaimers below).
Follow this blog (if you aren't already).
If you've just followed me, please Tweet or Facebook about the giveaway. Please give me a link to your Facebook or Tweet so I can follow you if I'm not already.
And if you're already following me, feel free to Tweet or Facebook about it.
Disclaimers:
I haven't read this book (yet). It's Book 4 in a series, and I've only read the first book Freefall (to my hubby). We really enjoyed it.
While the books generally stand alone, this one volume has a plotline from the prior book Crossfire. When I asked Traci about it, she said she would normally recommend reading Crossfire first, but the book should work without doing so.
This book is about religious people. While their religious beliefs are in the background and just part of their lives and culture (not the preachy kind), if you are sensitive against that kind of thing, you might not like the book. Or you might. You won't know unless you give it a try.
The name of everyone meeting the requirements will be put in a bowl at 6:00 a.m. MDT on Monday. I will then have a random person (probably my hubby or perhaps my youngest son if he happens to be awake that early) draw the name. I'll post the winner then.
I went to a BBQ tonight hosted by Canda over at Canda's Ink Blast. Lots of food, good conversation, contests and prizes. I took some pictures but my son's moved my thingy that lets me get the pics off my memory card. I came away with FOUR books!
Don't you love it when a plan comes together?
I've acquired an extra copy of Traci Hunter Abramson's book Backlash. 
