This is actually a writing post…kind of. We all know I like titles that drag you guys in because I am a comment whore.
Plus Julian Froment started this conversation and asked me not to tell everyone even though he said it in the comments. He is a very reserved gentleman who would never swear and/or make a lewd comment to anyone anywhere. What we like to refer to as proper English Gent. I lie. I digress. Go check out his blog anyway. I hang out there. We can have a drink.
So here is the question. When you are writing and reading, how important is it to you that the characters fall in love with one another before they fall into bed? Do they ever have to fall in love or is the act itself good enough to satisfy you?
There is a new collaboration in the works that includes Marie Ann Bailey of 1WriteWay at http://1writeway.com and John W. Howell of Fiction Favorites at http://johnwhowell.com We thought it would be fun to put our heads together one day a week and come up the Top Ten List ofWhat Not to Do in a number of situations. This idea was born in a discussion about Top Ten Lists and so we thought we would have a go at it. The lists will be simu-published (new word) on our blogs each Monday. We hope you enjoy.
The Top Ten List of What Not to Do When Meeting Potential In-Laws for the First Time
10. When asked where you live; do not say “together,” even if it is true since there is a good chance you can mumble the city name and get away with it.
9. When asked about your ambitions in terms of employment; do not say “I’m happy with my government job” since there is a good chance they will consider you a lardbrick and unworthy of membership into the family.
8. If asked to dinner and you are asked your favorite food ahead of time; do not say “Lobster,” even if it is since there is a good chance the parents will kill themselves to get you a meal you will like and hate you forever.
7. If the potential mother-in-law asks you where you bought something; don’t say “Neiman Marcus,” even if it is true since there is a good chance she has never shopped there and will think you are a spoiled brat. (Which you probably are).
6. If the potential father-in-law asks you what you are driving and you know he has a truck; do not say “BMW,” even if it is in the driveway since there is a chance he will think you borrowed it.
5. When asked what your favorite sport is; do not say “soccer” since they will likely be perplexed at the idea of grown person hitting balls with their heads.
4. If you are offered a drink; do not ask for a shot of Tequila with a beer chaser since there is a good chance the man of the house will drink you under the table and you will get sick and be forever embarrassed by your actions.
3. If there are brothers or sisters of your intended present; do not ask about school, church, hobbies or favorite songs to curry favor since there is a good chance they have some emotional problem and hate you anyway.
2. When asked about your own parents; do not say that your parents have married and divorced each other several times and you no longer remember who your real father or mother is since there is a good chance they may worry about your own stability.
1. When it is time to say goodnight; do not pat your intended on the butt on the way out since there is a good chance the parents will instantly become jealous and hate you forever.
I am disappointed that roughly two weeks have gone by since my last update, when I had intended to make weekly updates. Oh … d**n … I just blew Goal #1 … again :(
(1) Get off my own back. Yadda yadda. They’ll find a cure for the common cold before they find a cure for my self-flagellation.
(2) Set up a schedule of posting that gives me time to write, but doesn’t make followers think I’ve fallen off the face of the earth. I adjusted this goal down to posting to The Community Storyboard and my blog, perhaps on alternate weeks. That all depends on whether someone has posted an engaging writing prompt and/or I:
(3) Get organized. What a joke this goal is!! Especially right now when our kitchen is in such disarray. The good news is that the cabinets are all in. We have to wait on the countertop but in the meantime my dear hubby laid plywood over the cabinets so we have workspace. And we can start unpacking and filling in the upper cabinets. But I still have to wash dishes in my shower. And now that we’re moving things around again, I’m feeling disoriented (doesn’t take much).
(4) Write the third novel in my series, The Widow’s Club (working title). This is the one goal I may actually be succeeding with: I’ve written 13,147 words so far. At this rate, I could be done ahead of schedule, but I’ve had the luxury of a long weekend. Tomorrow (Monday) it’s back to the workday world and I’ll be happy to get any writing done.
So that’s my update. I probably won’t make another RCC update until end of July, just to spare myself from having to admit that I’m still behind on most of my goals. I mean, really, I’m not that much of a masochist, am I? (No one has to answer that question.)
CREATE A FAN PAGE AND PROMOTE IT ON ALL YOUR OTHER MEDIA OUTLETS. Author 101: Link it with your blog, your website. Tweet it. If you belong to the Independent Author Network, make sure it’s there. Everywhere you have an online presence, include it.
CREATE ONLY ONE PAGE. I have two, as I said above: one for my first novel and one promoting me. It’s too much. It’s too much of a hassle to keep one…
A couple of months ago, I created a Facebook Page. You can find it here or click Like on the widget in the right-hand column (gotcha!). Initially, I was hesitant to start a Facebook Page because I have strong but mixed feelings about Facebook in general. I managed to avoid Facebook until a few years ago when I discovered that one of my nieces had started posting all her children’s pictures there. I opened an account immediately. Seeing pictures of adorable baby boys as they grow up was a huge incentive. At that time, Facebook was fairly easy to navigate; that was before it started to emulate Twitter.
Over the years since then, I’ve accrued a fair number of “friends.” A large majority of my friends are actually family (I have a lot of cousins). The rest are former classmates, coworkers, former coworkers, and a few are friends. Now, making these distinctions, especially between friends and coworkers, is not to suggest that I don’t consider my coworkers or former coworkers to be friends; many of them are. In fact, I actually like everyone I’m “friends” with on Facebook; in many cases, I love them. What makes my personal Facebook account awkward for me is the degree (or lack thereof) to which I can be fully myself. The thing is: my Facebook friends represent a vast spectrum of likes and dislikes, political and otherwise. I don’t hide the fact that I am a “bleeding heart liberal.” (In reality, I’m more moderate, but compared to some people, yup, I’m a bleeding heart.) Yet, I still feel uneasy when I express my political views, when I express myself. I don’t separate the political from my personal life. I don’t because I live the political everyday. I have a government job so I know first-hand how political winds will affect whether or not I can accomplish my agency’s mission. I’ve been a social worker, counseling victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, so I know first-hand how legislation can help or hinder a victim’s recovery. I’ve taught college-level courses in composition and social work, so I know first-hand how university politics can ultimately shortchange a student’s education by not teaching him writing or critical thinking skills. So, for me, politics is personal.
But I know that my views are not shared by every one of my Facebook friends, so I censor myself, at least I try. I’m sure there are some friends/family members/coworkers who would like me to try harder. And there are some friends whose views I totally disagree with. I don’t ask them to censor themselves; instead, I simply hide their posts. The downside of that is I then miss the occasional good news, latest baby picture, etc., unless I go directly to their Facebook page, which is not something I always remember to do. There have been many times when I thought about just deleting my account altogether. If any one of my Facebook friends really want to stay in touch with me, they have my email address or they can call my mom and get my phone number. I’ve lived at the same street address for almost 22 years. I’m not hard to find.
But those pictures of the little ones get me every time. I have five grandnephews and one grandniece. They live in different states so to see them grow up, I need to keep my Facebook account.
But I still think of closing my account and here’s another reason why. Now that I have a Facebook Page, I feel lonelier than ever on my personal account. My birthday last week came and went with only one person from my personal account wishing me a happy birthday and that was done through a direct message, not on my Timeline. Yet, I blogged about my birthday and when the post showed up on my Facebook Page, it went “viral.” According to Facebook, it got the most Likes and was viewed by more people than anything I’ve written to date. Now, I usually don’t broadcast my birthday. I tend to keep it under the radar, but this year was special to me and I wanted to celebrate. That so many in my blogging community celebrated with me was a wonderful experience. That there wasn’t a peep on my personal Facebook account brought me up short. [Caveat: three friends from my personal account did Like my blog post on my Facebook Page and left messages.]
The difference is that on my Facebook Page, I am a writer and everyone I Like through that page is a writer. That’s my focus. On this blog and through my Facebook Page and Twitter account, I stay pretty focused on writing. I have nothing to censor and I can be totally myself. It’s ironic to me that, through my blog, I feel more myself than through any other media. And I don’t feel lonely. Yet, I do, at times, on my personal Facebook account.
There’s been many discussions about loneliness and Facebook, studies done, reports published (like this one from the Atlantic Monthly). My husband cites these studies as one reason why he doesn’t and will never have a Facebook account. Being a shy, sensitive introvert, I do become easily paranoid (“Nobody likes me!,” “I’m persona non grata and I don’t know why!”). Thus, I have to remind myself that this problem with Facebook is of my own making. I should know better than to think that “silence” on my personal account indicates anything. The dark side of social media is that your expectations get raised beyond reasonable levels. Before Facebook, I was tickled by every birthday card I got, and I didn’t think about the ones I didn’t get. A bit more effort goes into selecting and sending a card whereas with Facebook all you have to do is point and click. And so we (at least I) have a tendency to expect more from people now then I did pre-Facebook days. And that’s simply not a fair expectation.
I started off this post thinking I had every reason to feel unhappy with my personal Facebook account. But now I realize it was my own unreasonable expectations that have caused my unhappiness. I’ll keep that personal account because it’s a great way to see the kids in my family grow, see my mom with her great-grandchildren, occasionally exchange political views with like-minded comrades, and keep track of my wealth of family and friends. My Facebook Page is for the writer that I am now and the author that I hope to be.
I’m excited to be kicking off a blog tour for Pipe Dreams today. The tour will include interviews, guest posts, and reviews. There are lots of opportunities to win a free copy. Hope you follow along. Here are the dates and links:
Tuesday, July 2 @ My Fiction Nook
Visit My Fiction Nook to read an excerpt from Pipe Dreams and an author spotlight on Destiny Allison. Plus, enter to win a copy of a the book! http://www.myfictionnook.com
Friday, July 5 @ Thoughts in Progress
Destiny Allison, author of Pipe Dreams, shares the difference between writing non-fiction and fiction in a guest post. http://masoncanyon.blogspot.com
Thursday, July 11 @ Selling Books
Visit Selling Books as Destiny Allison answers questions about her writing life and the types of books she likes to read for…
So as I continue to procrastinate this morning–going through my blog reader, making comments on some of my favorite blogs–I see that a number of bloggers had the good sense to post on the 4th of July. Obviously, they were aware that this is a holiday many people spend celebrating. How did I spend 4th of July? As I usually do, holed up in my room, working on my computer. Virtually, I was away at Camp NaNoWriMo, taking advantage of the day-job-free day to get a big jump on my word count. Other years, I spent at home since my husband and I tend to avoid large unruly crowds. We prefer to enjoy fireworks from a great distance. One year, on a business trip to Washington, DC, we got to see fireworks from our hotel window. We had thought about going to the Mall but when we saw the crowd, I knew that I would have missed the fireworks due to debilitating panic attacks.
When I was a little girl living in the country, I loved 4th of July because we would have a picnic in our backyard and at night I could run around with sparklers. As I got older and lived in urban and suburban landscapes, being around strangers with all manner of fireworks just made me nervous. My husband is the same way, so we spend every 4th of July at home, patiently waiting for the fireworks that our neighbors illegally set off to end. We may grill a steak and and sit on our backporch and try to talk over the crash, boom, and bang, but that’s pretty much the extent of our celebration. Except for last year. Last 4th of July we were in San Francisco, CA, and a couple of friends invited us to a small party in a house on Potrero Hill. The plan was to go up on the roof and watch the fireworks over the city. If you ever have been in San Francisco in July, then you won’t be surprised to know that we were fairly bundled up. Some guests even had the foresight to bring their down jackets. I had a blanket wrapped around me. Still, a great time was had by all. I took movies of the fireworks with my Flip recorder, but they are rather underwhelming. There was fog and very heavy cloud cover so the fireworks had a limited range for viewing. I clipped snapshots of a couple of the highlights.
Despite the cold and the clouds, this was my best 4th of July ever: in a city I love, with friends I love, with the man I love.
View from Potrero Hill, San Franciso, CA, July 4, 2012
This weekend, I was invited to attend screenings for two very different independent film projects. Both gave me pause. The first was a pilot the producer is hoping to sell to Netflix. Condescending, poorly written, and a disaster in almost every way, it was all I could do to stay awake. The second, Twilight Angel, was powerful, evocative, and completely engrossing. No actors were hired, no sets created. The entire feature length film took place in an artist’s studio. Riveted, I forgot my surroundings and was completely immersed.
Why am I telling you this? Because I’m bothered. I celebrate creativity in all its forms, rejoice in the individual pursuit of passion, and encourage all to follow their dreams. Unfortunately, there is a fine line between embracing creativity and abusing it.
In the first film, the director/producer seized on an idea he thought he could sell. Conceptually, the idea has…
Raise your hand if you’ve been fortunate to meet this phenomenal blogger. I see a lot of hands and that’s as it should be. Briana is one of the kindest bloggers I have ever met and definitely a bright spot on WordPress. Her blog is filled with character interviews, her ranching tales, her publishing journey, poetry (a recent addition), and a vast array of posts that are always informative and entertaining. Her stories range from Western to Werewolf fantasy, so one can be sure that she’s an author to keep an eye on. She does so much for those around her that I think it’s high time she gets a spotlight.
Everyone go visit Briana’s blog by clicking on her picture. Also, go and buy her Western short stories in preparation for her first traditionally published book, Me & Billy the Kid. Click on the cover to get to…
Everyone knows Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Richard III (or knows of them at least). Even Richard II, As You Like It, and Antony and Cleopatra can be said to be well-known William Shakespeare plays. But what about the others? He wrote or collaborated on nearly forty, after all. Here are ten of the least-known plays by the Bard, with the reasons why people should read them (or reread them), along with an interesting fact about each. We hope you enjoy them. If you like this list, be sure to check out our follow-up pick of Shakespeare’s ten best plays (complete with interesting trivia about them) our interesting facts about Shakespeare too.
1. King John. This is one of the Bard’s least-performed plays, although it was popular with the Victorians because of its pageantry and medieval pomp. Nevertheless, the play has been…
Marie at 1 Write Way 