Cool Chick and Procrastination

A lovely award arrived for me the other day, called a Cool Chick, thanks to Carolina Valdez Miller (go check out her talented self).  


I'm passing along the rules: Before you take him home, you have to tell me how you like your eggs cooked. Feel free to hand over the award to other Cool Chicks if you wish, but please advise those recipients to keep his hutch clean and tidy at all times. Oh, and make sure he has plenty of grain and water. And love.... 

I only eat my eggs scrambled or in an omlette (which counts as scrambled).  I'll add cheese, mushroom, shredded zucchini, but that's about it.  
I will be passing along my Cool Chick in another post, when my unsuspecting victims delighted recipients will love him too :)


Procrastination....
Only a few more days left of Pen Olympics and I'm feeling the crunch.  I may have been a tad overeager with my goals.  Not anticipating needed several new scenes in my editing has put me behind and I'm pushing to catch up.  No matter where I end up, I will have at least 3 chapters more revised/rewritten and I can only count them as a win.  I may have had a little more done had I not caved and commenced leveling a druid in WoW but that was whispered and no one heard.


Things that distracted me on the internet:
~  Still following the 2010 Olympics when I can catch them and at this point, I can only catch them online.  Going for highlights.
~  Today is TwitterTattoo day and I've been considering more ink for a while.  Motivated to find something close to an idea I've had which incorporates the triquetra; I discovered Celtic Trinity Knot Swirl as designed by Captain Bret in Rhode Island.  It's perfect (middle of page from the link) and I want.


Non-internet distractions:
~  The Kodak ink commercial interests me but for some reason the sound of the ink splatting on the paper is my nails on a chalkboard moment.  Included in that moment is the sound of chewing food with mouth partially open.  It's not you, it's totally me.


Accomplishments:
~  The toddler nap strike goes on but I am rising to the challenge and cranking out 2k + words a day.  I have no idea why but it's not like I'm putting a stopper on this bottle.  

Sleep Writing

The other day, I was having a bit of a laugh with someone about sleepwriting and how funny some of the output is when reading it the next morning.  Naturally, I got to thinking about whether writing anything while too tired to form coherent sentences is a waste of time.


My unscientific conclusion is: no writing is ever a waste of time.


I can think of plenty I would consider a waste of time.  Putting down a fresh layer of mulch a week before the windy season - waste of time (and money, but I've already kicked myself and learned from that mishap).  Steam cleaning the carpet with three kids and a dog (needs to be done anyway).  Going to the mailbox (has the level of junk mail tripled in the last year or so?).


No matter what gibberish lays on the screen in the morning after two cups or so of coffee, I find I can always salvage something.  A thought, a phrase, an emotion needing to be expanded on.  After I finish erasing the embarrassing prose I wouldn't even let my husband read (and he likes most of my stuff), I look at the potentials left and get back to work.


I find, however, all of the above does not apply when writing intoxicated.  I bow to the myriad authors out there who are/were slaves to the drink and produce masterpieces.  I'm not even sure I can get a noun/verb thing going together.


Things that distracted me on the internet:
~  Wealth, and I mean potential to be distracted for days wealth, of information to read on agents, the publishing industry, and more with tons of links thanks to Teresa Nielsen Hayden, courtesy of Neil Gaiman.  I'm in research obsessed heaven right now.  Here's the linky.  It's from 2005 but hey, it's new to me :)  It might be new to you.
~  Revising my novel means putting my characters in something other than white space.  While I can visualize a house layout, sometimes it's nice to look at a picture of something while I write.  Home plans on the internet rock.  Home plans (in microscopic print) for 10k + sq ft homes are drool worthy.


Non-internet distractions:
~  Two of my three kidlets are back in school after a mid-winter break.  'Cause two weeks off around the Christmas holiday and a week in April isn't enough.  I believe this may qualify for accomplishment rather than distraction.


Accomplishments:
~  Three days this week/end of 3k plus words written.  A two scene chapter has morphed into four when realization struck me that I was leaving a lot of stuff out.  All good things have gone in.  Very pleased.

Award from @EisleyJacobs

 So, here I am, waking up from a decent length sleep, and grab my Blackberry off the side table.  (More about my obsession with having my phone near me at all times later)  A cute little icon shows up at the top, letting me know I've been mentioned in Twitter.


And, looky what I got!


@EisleyJacobs from Twitter awarded me Lesa’s Bald Faced Liar “Creative Writer” Blog Award.


I rub my eyes and wonder why my tweeples are calling me a liar.  I'm always honest about their prose!  Oh man, I might have used up a truth that could've gone below...


After really waking up, it all becomes clearer.  The answer is really 42  This is a good award, as Eisley put it - Lying for a good cause :)


Here are the rules:
1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you.
4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.
5. Nominate seven “Creative Writers” who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.


Now on to my balderdash…and true statements. But which is which? (hint, I have 2 of either lies or the truth)
1. I have 3 daughters and each were born in a different state.
2. I have an eidetic memory that I conceal most of the time so I don't scare people.
3. I have no first cousins at all.
4. I had to have someone come set up my computers and networking.
5. I have a BBA in management.
6. I once sold cheap knockoff perfume in parking lots and I was terrible at it.
7. I have blue eyes.


So, which ones are true… and which is the bold faced lie? Comment if you know! Or if you want to take a guess.


Now to tag my unsuspecting friends with blogs you should go read. They are my latest #amwritingparty and writing followers. 


Courtney Reese (@CourtneyReese86)
Carolina Valdez Miller (@cvaldezmiller)
Kimberly Gonzalez (@kimberlycreates)
Tina Marie Frawley (@TinaFrawley)
Clair Devers (@clairdevers)
Dustin Hansen (@DustHansen)
Riley Carney (@RileyCarney)



In honor of this post (and I have to rush to the dentist without my hair up in a towel) I will put my distractions in later :)

The Olympics are coming

I can't wait for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC to start tomorrow.  For one thing, live sporting events are occurring in my time zone.  I never realized how New York centric we are until moving from there to the west coast.  I will not complain (in this post  at least) about 10am Sunday football.


Back to the Olympics...  Another thing, these are the winter games and I vastly prefer the winter games to the summer ones.  Sorry track and field, your javelins may be fun, and your runners may be lightning fast, but come on!  No way you are beating out alpine skiing, speed skating (Woot Apolo!), and yes, even curling oh you strange sport you.  Need I even mention hockey?  (Why doesn't Washington have a professional hockey league?)


Now, I am psyched to be watching the Olympics, but a little disappointed that they are happening 3 hours from home and I won't be there in person.  I'll get over it in the next decade or so.  


This year, the two weeks surrounding the Olympics are also playing host to the Pen Olympics, an event happening by the fantastic advice givers Alicia and Theresa over at Edittorent.  Since I am distracted by the internet more often than not, I plan on giving the friendly competition my all.  These chapters don't edit themselves after all.


Go, USA! USA! USA! 


Things that distracted me on the internet:
~  Reading about the Kubler-Ross model.  Since this is technically research for a short story I'm working on, does this count as distraction or accomplishment?
~  Believe it or not, I have another possible accomplishment distraction (can I use those together like that?) - body language descriptions.  Sometimes a shrug can mean different things depending on what body part is doing it.  That's all I'm saying on that, here.


Non-internet distractions:
~  My darling two year old came downstairs with a sliver of paper wadded in her adorable hands, quite proud of herself.  So was I until I saw she had shredded a 1/4 of my working outline for my short story.  The outline I had handwritten and chose not to type because the story would be done in the time it took.  Or not.  Many thanks to scotch tape and my middle daughter for not decimating that roll hidden in the back of the drawer.


Accomplishments:
~  Come on, the distracted has to count today.  Okay, 500+ words on the short.  With last night that makes it half done.

And the underdog takes it...

 I'll admit, I was cheering on the Colts.  I like Peyton Manning, so boyish, out there doing his thing.  Blue clashing against gold, the heartland versus the big easy.  And, as far as football goes, the game was pretty exciting.  Good thing since the commercials weren't anywhere close this year.

The first half of the game went predictably, at least for me.  The Saints made some headway but it was the Colts' game.  I sat through a decent halftime show (I do like the Who, think the halftime show needs to be a little less "safe") and browsed a few writing blogs while watching from the corner of my eye.

A funny thing happened in my complacency.  The Saints started to win.  No, I didn't jinx the Colts through my tv, but I had counted them out.  Counted them as trying hard but not hard enough.  Oh well, maybe next year or something.  The onside kick first took me by surprise.  When Tracy Porter ran that ball for nearly 75 yards for that touchdown that put the Saints up into untouchable lead, I sat up and paid attention.  What I really wanted to know was what coach Payton said to those boys in that locker room.

So - how does this tie into writing?  Well, I could go all metaphor on you.  But I won't.  Some writers identify with the Colts; strong, sure, polish gets the job done.  Some of us identify with the Saints; the underdogs, flounder a little in front then get it together in the back end when it matters.  Because all of our hard work on our writing boils down to what we send out into the world.  How we get it done in the end.

Winning as an underdog is still a win.  Congratulations Saints and writers who are getting the job done. 

Things that distracted me on the internet:

~  Twitter.  Great group of talented writers hanging out at #amwritingparty and #amwriting 

~  The Amazon/MacMillan kerfluffle.  The only dog I have in this fight at the moment is my love for my Kindle.  Better minds than mine have already weighed in and I spent days sorting out the what from the what.  I think the buy buttons are back.

Non-internet distractions:

~  Super Bowl 44.  Next up Olympics 2010.

Accomplishments:

~  6 critiques done for writing group.  No writing/revising for me on Sun, but another 1500 words done on Wishful Thinking.