Blogfest: Oh, How I Miss You!

About a year ago I said I wouldn't get involved in blog fests anymore, that I was just going to focus on delivering great content. But, it was hard to resist this one. It's simple, easy, and a really great way to make another blogger smile.

Just like last year, based on Andrew Leon's excellent idea, Alex, Andrew, and Matt are hosting the ...

Oh, How I Miss You! Blogfest

Here's the scoop (if you're familiar with it you can just skip the italics):
The bloggers we miss… and the ones we would miss!

Do you have a couple blogger buddies who aren’t posting as often? Those who’ve pulled back and seem absent from the blogging world? Do you have blogger buddies you are grateful they are still around and would miss if they vanished? Now is your chance to show your appreciation and spotlight them!

List one to three bloggers you really miss and one to three bloggers you would miss if they stopped blogging. Then go leave a comment on those blogs.

Without further ado, the blogger I miss is:

Nicole Ducleroir @ A Significant Moment at a Time 

~Nicole still posts, but very very rarely and I hardly see her around much unless she's talking about her running and/or scuba diving. Kudos to her for following her dreams, but I sure do miss having her around as a 'writer'!

And the blogger I would miss is:

Roz Morris @ Memories of a Future Life

~Once a week Roz hosts a writer who uses music as part of their creative environment – perhaps to connect with a character, populate a mysterious place, or hold a moment still to explore its depths.

NOTE: There are so many of you that I've come to know over the past few years and if we never talked again, I'd sure as hell miss you, much more than you know, but thanks to email and Facebook, I doubt that would ever happen. So, this choice is based purely on blog content, not the relationship I have with the blogger.

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OH, HOW I MISS YOU BLOGFEST, hosted by Andrew Leon, Matthew MacNish, and Alex J. Cavanaugh

First, a big hand to the hosts of today's blogfest: Andrew Leon, Matthew MacNish, and Alex J. Cavanaugh! You can drop by either of these blogs to locate the entire list of participants.

The Premise: Do you have a couple blogger buddies who aren’t posting as often? Those who’ve pulled back and seem absent from the blogging world? Do you have blogger buddies you are grateful they are still around and would miss if they vanished? Now is your chance to show your appreciation and spotlight them!

On November 16, list one to three bloggers you really miss and one to three bloggers you would miss if they stopped blogging. Then go leave a comment on those blogs.

Our blogger friends are special – time to let them know!

With no further ado, here are my choices ...

Bloggers I miss because they don't post as often (or have stopped commenting and I therefore lose track of):

Nicole Ducleroir:

I'm a short story author, aspiring novelist, and world traveler who has penned fiction from homes on three different continents. I currently live with my husband and two children in the Atlanta area. When I find myself less inspired by my Southern locale, I have only to rifle through memories of adventures abroad until colorful characters or thrilling plots come forth. And on the rare occasion that none arise...I've been known to finagle a flight out.

Michelle Davidson Argyle:

Michelle lives and writes in Utah, surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. She loves the seasons, but late summer and early fall are her favorites. She adores chocolate, sushi, and lots of ethnic food, and loves to read and write books in whatever time she can grab between her sword-wielding husband and energetic daughter. She believes a simple life is the best life.

Hart Johnson:

I write books from my bathtub and blog in my basement. For a full bio on the 3 faces of me, check out the tab. As for the shenanigans around here... lots on writing, some life... mostly I just want to encourage you to play with me. Silliness abounds.

Bloggers I would miss if they no longer blogged (I'm sure we'd still keep in touch via email, but it's still nice to read their posts!):

Dawn Ius:

I started writing at age 8 upon discovering writing about monsters was less scary than looking for them under my bed. I'm still leery of things that go bump in the night, but hope my thriller writing skills have improved. I live in Canada will my husband, stepdaughter and three bullmastiff hounds. You know, just skulking around.

Leigh T. Moore:

*Writer, editor, wife, mom, friend. *My books THE TRUTH ABOUT FAKING (YA rom-com) and ROUGE (Mature YA romance) are now available on Amazon, B&N, Kobo, & Smashwords. *New posts on Mondays. Leave a comment, make a suggestion, stay a while~

Matthew MacNish:

I'm the father of two beautiful young ladies, three lazy cats and one adorable German Shepherd. Together we live in the mountains of north Georgia amidst my endless collection of vinyl records. I run this blog in an attempt to help other novice writers avoid the mistakes I made in the beginning of my road to publication. Believe me, I made many.

So there you have it! My top six favourite bloggers :-) PS: I'm also to blame for the "lack of commenting" situation. It just gets so hard to keep up once you garner a large following ...

______________________________

Reminders:

• My poetry book FABRIC is a Goodreads Choice Awards nominee. Please vote! You can read an excerpt at this link too.
• My latest release, Show & Tell in a Nutshell, is being featured today onWriter's Digest. For a chance to win a copy of the paperback, comment at this link within the next two weeks.

This is how it all began ...

Music ... bam bam, twang twang, grunt, yell, squeal, vibrato, ahh, pluck, strum, record, click, cassette, disc, head bang  ... yeah man, this is what you call art. I'm gonna be a rock star.


Lyrics ... stupid, these mean nothing, sounds ridiculous, gibberish, I'm a dickhead ... hmmm not bad, yeah this is f#@%ing cool, man  ... I think I have a talent for this. Wow, where did I pluck that awesome line from?

FOUR YEARS PASS ...

Poetry ... hey, this is just like writing a song, hey, maybe there's a way to make melody with words ... ooohhh, yeahhhh, I liiiiiike thissssss ... I want to do this every day ...

Prose ... Um, is this a short story? Um ... I don't know. There's no ending is there? It's all just kinda ... you know ... stuff that happens. This is stupid. What am I thinking? Sure I can write. But structure? Pfft ... don't count on it.

Poetry ... guess I'll just stick to what I know ...

FOUR YEARS PASS ...

Novel ... I'm going to write a novel and get it published, yep ... easy peasy ... I SO know what I'm doing.

FIVE YEARS AND SEVEN DRAFTS LATER ...

About flipping time ... STRING BRIDGE! And a whole bunch of other stuff ...

What started you writing?


Check out the other ORIGINS BLOG FEST participants HERE.


My latest news:

• Yesterday I guest blogged over at DEAD GOOD BLOG about knocking down walls.
• My book trailer for String Bridge got an honorable mention in the Quiddity International Literature Journal & Public Radio Program.

Deja Vu Blogfest: What do we women wish for?

Today, DL Hammons has teamed up with three awesome blogging buddies, Katie Mills (Creepy Query Girl), Lydia Kang, and Nicole Ducleroir, to bring you … the Deja Vu Blogfest. Please click the Blogfest Badge to locate the list of participants.


Basically, the idea behind this is that we re-post a post which didn't get the attention it deserved, either because it was written at the beginning of your blogging journey and didn't have any followers yet, or perhaps it was posted during a holiday season (um ... hello?) and not many people were lurking by.


Anyway, here's a post from the very first month I started blogging (March, 2010), and it is in MUCH need of an edit. A BIG edit. Yikes!!! But, I have refrained from doing so. So please, have a read, and just try to focus on the content, rather than its execution, please. Ha! Oh dear ...


What do we women wish for?

Sometimes I wish I was brought up living on a little farm and all I knew how to do was milk the cows and collect eggs. I wish all I ever knew about the outside world was what I read in the out-of-date secondhand school books I had as a child because that’s all my parents were able to afford. If I lived on a little farm, I would grow up to be so loyal to my family that I would take over the farm when they died simply to keep it in the family.


I would then teach my kids how to milk the cows and collect eggs and when it would be time for me to die, I would die content and satisfied with my achievements, because I would have achieved what I had set out to achieve. My kids would then take over the farm to keep it in the family too and it would continue like this for generations. My great great grandchildren would look at photographs of me on the farm and say, ‘Wow, can you imagine being alive then?’ That’s what I do when I look at old photographs of my grandparents. I look at the captured moment of happiness and that’s what lives on forever.


Has it ever occurred to you that the less one has and knows, the happier they are? The more one knows about the world, the more one wants to explore, and the more torn one feels. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it’s exactly like me, and it's called ambition, but I do wonder sometimes, would my emotions fluctuate so much, if I didn’t have all these ambitions that I can’t possibility do, all at the same time, and which make me feel like I’m not achieving my goals because there is too much that I want to achieve? If I had a simple life on a farm for instance, and never knew any better, would I be happier?


Do you think you would be more content if you wanted less?

A heads up!

This is a non-post today because I'll be posting tomorrow instead. :o)

I'm participating in the Deja Vu Blogfest, in which we get a chance to showcase a post that didn't get the attention it deserved when it was originally posted. Nice idea, huh?

Haven't signed up yet? Click the badge and add your name to the linky list! :o)

If you missed yesterday's post about female Aussie authors and gender bias, you can either scroll down, or click HERE.

If you missed Monday's post about the Vine Leaves Literary Journal, you can either scroll down, or click HERE.

See ya tomorrow, folks ...

Pay It Forward Blog Fest ~ how could I not get involved in this?

Matthew over at The QQQE and Alex J. Cavanaugh are hosting a blog fest today in order to increase everyone's blog traffic. The deal is that each participant must list three blogs they think others should follow. But you know what? Yesterday, Leigh T. Moore cheated and listed more (she posted a day early). So I'm going to play her game. Hahaha! See, look, I've already listed three mega-fantastic blogs in my introduction!!!

Actually, you know what? I'm not going to cheat. That's just going to make it harder on everyone. All my buddies know who you are, right? So, without further ado ... here are three blogs which I think should get better recognition:

Dawn Ius @ Through The Looking Glass

Not only is she one of my trusty critique partners, but she is also one of the most BRILLIANT writers I have ever met. I really am surprised she doesn't have more followers than she has. I think it has to do with her being so busy all the time, and I guess she doesn't get the chance to spread herself around the blog masses. And of course, she's busy brilliantly writing adult thriller and paranormal romantic suspense. I'm not allowed to talk about her achievements in public yet, but let me tell you, if you knew what she had in store for her publishing career, your jaw would be touching your toes and you'd be drooling incessantly--she is THAT good.

Bridge Social Media

This is the brain child of Dawn Ius and Judith Graves. Navigating the social media waters can be overwhelming and Bridge Social Media is your lifeline. With more than 15 years of combined marketing and communications experience, they'll bridge the gap in your marketing plan and effectively link you to your target audience. On they're blog you can read all sorts of interesting facts about social media, and also about their clients. They also hold tons of giveaways you don't want to miss out on. But this company is just up and running this year, and I'd love for them to get some more exposure. This begins with BLOG traffic. So please do me a favor and click that follow button!

Janice Phelps Williams @ Appalachian Morning

This woman is a superstar. She is a publisher, an author, an illustrator, and a musician. She even writes AMAZING poetry. I know that for a fact. I've read some of it! On this beautiful blog you can read about each and every one of her endeavors, be it writing, drawing or what have you. The talents of Janice are never-ending, and her blog never ceases to entertain. In addition to that, she is a generous, kindhearted, gentle soul, whom I will keep in my heart forever and ever. And how can I not mention the fact that she was the first publishing professional to whole-heartedly believe in me and my writing. She helped me make String Bridge what it is today. I can't thank you enough, for this, Janice. Do please follow her blog. Her posts really won't disappoint!

Please follow these blogs today, and comment on them if you can find the time. Also please take a look at the list of all the other participants HERE or HERE, and try to visit a few of those too!

PS: If you missed my radio appearance yesterday, you can listen to the archive HERE.

PPS: I have String Bridge Merchandise!!! T-shirts, Hoodies, Mugs, Kindle cases, Notebooks, GALORE! Check it out!

Laughter is the Best Medicine Blogfest: He He Ha Ha Ho Ho!

Guten morgen, folks! A nice and easy ride today. Leigh T. Moore and Lydia Kang are hosting a blogfest in which we have to post our favourite writer joke. Mine's short. It goes like this:

Punctuation neglect kills.

"Let's eat Grandma."

Have a great day, all! Just click on either Leigh's or Lydia's name to fine the list of other particiapants! :o)

Super 8 Dubut Albums blogfest that I missed ...

I forgot about this blogest when it happened, hosted by DiscConnected, so I've decided to do it now :o)

Super 8 debut albums of my choice (today) are the following (added Wikipedia links to labels if you don't know them, and vids of my fave tracks too):

PJ Harvey: Dry

Sheer: Infliction

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: From Her to Eternity

Dirty Three: Sad and Dangerous

Magic Dirt: Friends in Danger

Joni Mitchell: Clouds

(yeah, I'm cheating here, this is actually her second album, but the one that made everyone take notice!)

Hard Candy: Tattoo

(my parents' band)

Click here and then click on covers and the songs will come up in Media Player.

Nightmares on Wax: A word of science: The first and final chapter

Bernard Pivot Blogfest: Let's get to know each other.

And today we have Nicole Ducleroir's Bernard Pivot Blogfest. Please be sure to check out the other participants. All we have to do is answer the following questions about ourselves. I've never heard of this questionnaire, but it's supposed to reveal a lot about our personalities. So here we go:

1.What is your favorite word?

I don't have one, but I tend to take a liking to different words every week, like um ... coffee, ice cream, lemon meringue pie ... um ... oh, sorry, what did you say? I'm not supposed to be talking about what I like to eat? Whoops ... but they're still words, aren't they?

2.What is your least favorite word?

rules (who needs 'em?)

3.What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

Um ... being turned on creatively, spiritually and emotionally? No, seriously now, writing, music, writing, reading, writing, music, reading, um ... sex? What is that again?

4.What turns you off?

My off button. It's located ... um ... somewhere. Let me know when you find it.

5.What is your favorite curse word?

Really? My favourite curse word is a bit offensive. Can I whisper it? (cunt) (I like it because it's still considered taboo - isn't it? And it sounds so much stronger than any of the others, and if you really want to offend someone, 'fuck you' just doesn't work any more. But if you say, 'fuck you cunt', well, that's kinda crossing the line - the waist line to be exact ;o) Oh yeah, and its Greek equivalent: Mounotricha (literally translated: a cunt hair) PS: please don't judge me. I'm just answering a question! *flutters eyelids*

6.What sound or noise do you love?

Silence!

7.What sound or noise do you hate?

Garbage trucks at 5 a.m!

8.What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Ok, well, I guess I'd like to be either a zoologist or an archaeologist. I actually studied archaeology before I got into English. I bet you didn't know that about me, huh?

9.What profession would you not like to do?

Garbage collector. I just couldn't bear to wake up all those poor writers who stayed up half the night trying to finish their novels.

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

God: Don't worry, you're not going to be shoved into an alternate universe, or another body, to be given another chance to rectify all the mistakes you made. You're really dead, and it's really over, so relax, pick a cloud, and go to sleep.

Me: Really? Awesome. Oh ... wait ... does that mean, the man of my dreams, who I was convinced I'd met in another life, really wasn't from another life because I didn't have one? Sheesh. I was so sure we had some kinda cosmic connection. Shame ...

God: Oh, don't worry. Of course, he was. You see, this was your last life. You are perfect. Be proud.

:o)

I was a goth, yes I was. I was punky, yes I was. I was into metal, yes I was. I was also a bit weird, yes I was. Obsessed with how I looked, yes I was. But somewhere in between then and now I changed, and don't really care how I look anymore. Is that a crime?

Now, before I show you my teen photos, I just want to let you know that Bryan Russell is posting one of my flash fiction pieces on his blog, The Alchemy of Writing, today! So do me a favour and shimmy over there, after here, to take a look. It's a quick read, only about 400 words, so it won't take you long :o) If you'd like to learn more about Bryan, you can also head over to Matthew Rush's abode to read an interview with him.

Also there are two awesome Blogfests coming up that you really don't want to miss!

Nicole Ducleroir's Bernard Pivot Blogfest, which focuses on getting to know each other better. Sign up. It's fun and easy.

And Arlee Bird's A-Z April Challenge. I participated in the A-Z last year and it was a riot! Check it out!

Ok, here's me being brave and giving you a glimpse into my late teens, very early twenties. I changed the way I looked a lot, and really liked to go OVERBOARD with dressing up! Oh man ... tell me again, why am I showing you these?

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Nineteen 

Twenty

Twenty-one

Me, last year, boofy-haired, a little more chubby than I used to be, lazy to put make-up on or dress up, but hey, that's me and I'm happy to be me. I'll be 30 next month, and can't wait to see what this new decade brings!

Have a great weekend, everyone! See ya on the flipside!

The Top Ten Countdown Blogfest! So Hard ....

Ok, I literally just signed up for this right now :o) I got an email from Stephen T. McMuffin (Ok I made his last name up), telling me to do this. But he made me a promise, that he wouldn't haunt me with his political yahoo for the rest of my life. Yes, I am politically inept and everything goes over my head, my eyes glaze over, and I appear to be the most unintelligent being on this planet. Go check out the other entries too at Alex J. Cavanaugh's. So, without further ado, here are my top ten off the top of my head in no particular order:

1. I Want You, Elvis Costello



2. River, Joni Mitchell



3. Wise Up, Aimee Mann



4. Sweet '69, Babes In Toyland



5. Silence, PJ Harvey



6. Seether, Veruca Salt



7. Hey Man, Nice Shot, Filter



8. Henry Lee, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds



9. Myriad Habour, The New Pornographers



10. Say Yes, Elliot Smith



So there ya go. My (almost) all time faves. :o) Well, no, there are so so SO many more like, Prince (back in the day before decided to become a sign), Madonna, The Tea Party, Nightmares On Wax, Portoisehead, Magic Dirt, Kate Bush, Janis Joplin, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jeremy Enigk, Smashing Pumpkins, Live, Nirvana, L7, Luna Chicks, Nine Inch Nails, Afghan Whigs, Pornos for Pyros, Jane's Addiction, DEF-FX, Alana Myles, Patti Smith, The Kinks, Dirty Three, Goo Goo Dolls, Pixies, Gordian Knot, Tori Amos, Chemical Brothers, Radiohead ... I could go on forever!

Here's my runner-up :o) Groove Is In The Heart, Dee-Lite!

Caution: This is NOT a blogfest! ;o)

Howdy Doody! So, I'm participating in Elana's NON-BLOGFEST today to talk about Writing Compelling Characters! Woohoo! To see the other entrants you can go HERE-EY DUDE-EY.

So, how do I write compelling characters? I NEVER EVER tell you what their personalities are like. Confused? Don't be. When someone asks you, for example, why you love your hubbie, you answer,

"Oh, ah, um, I'm not sure. He's cuddly, kind-hearted, I love how he nibbles my ear in the middle of the night ... etc"

DON'T EVER DO THIS. DON'T EVER TELL YOUR READERS WHAT YOU THINK OF YOUR CHARACTERS. If the world were all just a place for fiction, I would tell that someone who asked me why I loved my husband,

"Why don't you find out for yourself? How about you spend a night in bed with him? A week, perhaps, getting to know him, and then you can tell me why I love him."

This is what you gotta do for your readers. You have to let them experience your characters for themselves.

For example:

DON'T SAY

Kit, a girl who likes to watch documentaries, and Ailish, who has pale freckled skin, and takes pride in her garden, are eating dinner outside on the verandah. Kit wants to find her father and asks Ailish where he is. Ailish doesn't want to talk about Kit's father, and answers back abruptly, preoccupying her mind with other thoughts.

DO SAY

“I know I asked you a long time ago, if you knew where he was. But I was just wondering if you’ve heard anything since then.”

“Sorry Kit, I haven’t.” Ailish continues to chew, swallows, and then gulps down the remainder of her herbal water in one go. The sound of it gushing down her throat reminds Kit of the whitewater rafting documentary she watched the other day. Ailish’s eyes begin to water. She wipes her mouth with the back of her pale sun-spotted hand, and narrows her eyes at the weeds to her left, which are invading her precious flower bed.

So that, my dears, short and sweet and to the point, because we all know long blog posts tick us off, is how I write compelling characters. I give my readers a ticket through the blue and purple tunnel and into my characters' lives.

Have a great day! And don't forget to check out the other NON-BLOG entries!!! ;o)

The I GOT U! Blogfest.

This is a blogfest about blog love. Today we are to write about another blogger. Please check out the host's (Sheri) blog and the other entries listed in her side bar!

Ok, I would LOVE to write about Lenny because Lenny is an inspiration to us all, but I'm not going to, because I can only imagine that he is also everyone else's first choice. So I'm being sneaky and mentioning him, so at least you can click on his link and see why he is dearly loved so much by us all!

Right. Now to my proper post. Creepy Query Girl!

Katie and I share a common problem. We both live in Europe - Katie in France, me in Greece. We live in places where the English language is scarce in the streets. We can't eavesdrop on English conversations. We can't observe people's mannerisms. We can't immerse ourselves in the average English conversation in order give our dialogue realistic qualities. We have to go on memory. And I think that scares us a little. It scares us because we wonder whether we are going to lose touch with the language - whether we are going to misrepresent English speakers as time passes by. Perhaps one day all our characters are going to be speaking English in French and Greek translation and gesture.

Anyway, I can really relate to Katie's blog. Not only for the reason I stated above, but because her blog posts always push the right buttons. She has wit, wisdom, and a tendancy to make me want to write elaborate comments under her posts. She makes me want to explain exactly why I feel the same way. She makes me want to open up - tell her about my insecurities, my joys, my doubts, my good and bad news.

Although we've never met face to face, I feel like we have (well, we kind of HALF met face to face when I could see her through the webcam on Skype, but she couldn't see me - hehe - by the way she is GORGEOUS!!!). And I feel like we were meant to meet. I hope that one day, we will cross paths. After all, we do live on the same continent :o)

Do you connect with any bloggers that you feel you were 'meant' to know?

Guess That Character Blogfest - Day Two

Howdy! Firstly, sorry if I didn't make it to your blog yesterday. Have been terribly busy with work and my eyes were ready to pop out of my head by the end of the day! Please give me the weekend to navigate your reveals as well!

Ok, here is a description of Ivy:

29 years old. Wispy ash-blonde just below the shoulder-length hair, with an uneven fringe that is always falling in her face. Tall, slim, but curvy, average sized bust, but quite perky and model-like - probably her best asset, although she hides a lot of her great bodily features (read below to see why). Small blue-grey eyes. Sharp, yet gentle, impish facial features, not quite symmetrical, her ears stick out a little too much. White skin. She protects herself obsessively from the sun. Doesn't like to wear make-up, but does wear lip gloss. She looks quite young, but has a few wrinkles below her eyes, in between her eyebrows, and around her mouth from a lot of crying, frowning, and squinting at archaeological artifacts.

Doesn't give much of a damn recently as to how she looks, so is quite scruffily dressed - wears the same old jeans (ripped under the bum) and orange mohair sweater too many days in a row. Half-tucked in white shirt underneath, collar stained with sweat, strands of hair falling from her pony tail. Addicted to black baby-doll shoes that she can just slip on and off without a fuss and match with anything and everything. Loves her long vintage maroon coat. Wears it everyday on her way to work at Ditsy Daisy's Cafe to protect herself from the icy cold streets of Seattle.

She's very well-built. She is an archaeologist, loves field work, and is therefore very fit. Couldn't break her wrists if you tried. Recently went through divorce, became depressed, ran away from Melbourne, Australia to Seattle and got herself a waitressing job to pay the bills. Wanted to escape responsibility and career for a while, sort her mind out, live like a the teen she never was. She's influenced by her mother who is an obsessed pediatric surgeon and because of her she has an (unwanted) mental dictionary of medical jargon and body parts that she subconsciously relates to everyday life. She resents her mother for naming her after Inra Venous (I.V. get it?). Has loved the drums since she was a child, but never took it seriously. Was just having a play around to take her mind off things and use as an aid to beat something up other than her ex-husband.

Ok, imagine a mix between Robin Wright Penn and Cate Blanchet, with no make-up, more of a fringe and with more ashy-coloured hair ... and you (kinda) got my gal.

So ... drum roll ... the winner is ... well actually there were two that were pretty close! So I'm gonna be even more generous, (gosh what has got into me?) and award them both!

Francine:

Hmm, given she's a drummer, her arms well-honed, strong wrists, medium build, 5' 5" shoulder-length blonde hair (scraped into pony/pig tail), pear-shaped face, rosy glow, purt lips from too much indepth concentration, hazel eyes.

Vicki Rocho:

I'm seeing someone most at home in cut off's or khaki shorts. Simple, plain t-shirts. Minimal make-up. Dark blonde hair streaked lighter by hours in the sun. Usually pulled back into a pony tail. Probably a ball cap or other hat. Clear blue eyes that will pop if she were to play them up with make up. She's smart, and comfortable in her own skin.

 

So Francine and Vicki, email me so that I can organise Paula to email you about your e-books!

 

See you all next week!!!

Guess that character blogfest - Day One

Ok, the day has come for the Guess That Character Blogfest! Whoo-hoo! Please make your way over to see the other participants' entries and guess what their characters look like too. Just go to the link in my side bar to find our wonderful host, Jen @ Unedited, and the other participants' links.

So, the deal is, you have to read this excerpt and guess what the character looks like, and tomorrow I will reveal what she does look like.

But there's a little twist on this for you today. Of course! I have to plug ths contest of mine till it wears me out! It's had about 150 page views, folks, but only two people have entered:
Roland and Leigh. Thanks for your donations guys!

So, what's going on people? Seriously, how could you pass up these prizes?

Anyway, back to the task at hand here. Whoever has the closest guess, receives a little prize ...

Here's the excerpt:

On Ivy's way to band rehearsal she stops in front of Crossroads Trading Co. and spots a full-length, long-sleeved, low-cut, slinky black dress in the window. She envisions herself wearing it at a congratulatory event for a unique archaeological find; making a speech, thanking her students for their assistance on the site … Without my wonderful students I would never have had the opportunity to find this part of the skull of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, in east China's Jiangsu Province … 

Ivy grabs her drumsticks out of her bag and stares at them as though they are about to lash out at her for not treating them with respect. They’re tattered and splintery; in need of a good layer of StickShield. Bugger it. She throws them in the trashcan nearby instead. I need to get myself together. Letting my anger out on a stranger’s drum kit isn’t helping.

So, whatcha reckon Ivy looks like? Please comment and let me know! For the person whose guess is the closest, I will give you five free entries into THE WRITING SHOW CONTEST, with no strings attached, and donate $5 dollars on your behalf. If you aren't a writer, you can have the choice of either me donating on your behalf for a very good cause (see contest link), or passing over the prize to a friend of yours who is a writer. Of course, you will also receive the free e-book that comes with entering. Good luck!

Apologies ... and title decisions

I'd like to apologise for not getting to many of you yesterday, but it's not my fault :o( I really wanted to but blogger was being a shit. Thanks so much to all who dropped by mine to confirm their title votes. You're all fantastic!

I've decided on BITTER LIKE ORANGE PEEL for WIP1. The paragraph below, which I have now tweaked to suit the title even more after Nicole Ducleroir's comment yesterday inspired me, is the reason for the title choice. Thank you so much Nicole!

Kit leans against the kitchen sink, squinting at the sunlight creeping through the orange tree by the window. Over-ripe oranges are rotting on the concrete, and the bitter scent of trodden rind is wheedling its way through the cracks in the wooden frame. She thinks about ‘him’ rotting; staining every footpath she is bound to tread with his bitter memory; contaminating her mother’s tongue with his bitter taste at the mere mentioning of his name. But Kit wants to taste the fruit; a need that has been stalking her since Ivy moved away. She wants to find the real ‘him’; she wants to know who he is below the rind.

For WIP2, I'm a little ambivalent now. It'll be either PLEASE DON'T WEAR YOUR EYEBROWS TO SCHOOL AGAIN,  or LOOKS LIKE CANDY, TASTES LIKE MUSIC.

Now I'm even thinking, SOUNDS LIKE CANDY, TASTES LIKE MUSIC ... decisions decisions ... :o)

Anyhoo ...

I'm supposed to be participating in the Character Interview Blogfest today, but unfortunately I couldn't find the time to actually write it. I'm not going to have time to make the rounds either, so cover for me will ya? ;o) Check out the other entries at Sangu's Echoes of a Wayward Mind.

Have a great day!

Title Blogfest Verdicts and More

Okey dokey folkies, this title blog fest on Saturday was VERY interesting, don't you think? I got so many different reactions, plus some that I hadn't even considered - especially with the titles for my memoir.

Today I'm going to show you the results, tell you what my working titles are, and what each book is about. One thing I will say now though, is that the title that got the most votes out of everything, PLEASE DON'T WEAR YOUR EYEBROWS TO SCHOOL AGAIN, was chosen because you thought it would be a funny book. The FUNNY thing with that is, the book is the complete opposite of funny, and I considered that title for what it metaphorically represents in the story. You can read a short excerpt of how it is used in the introduction of my memoir here, if you feel like it.

Anyway, here are the results:

WIP 1 (women's/general fiction)

Curiosity Cured The Kit = This is my working title and it got only 8 votes.

Secrets + Lies = Truth = 8 votes

Bitter Like Orange Peel = 12 votes

The Roger Thing = 3 votes

More Than Absence = 11 votes

Now here is my UNPOLISHED plot summary:
Two half sisters, Kit and Ivy, decide to search for their father, Roger. Their mothers, Ailish and Eleanor, who are best friends, do not want to get involved and leave them to fend for themselves. Kit is convinced that the reason for his absence all their lives is due to him being involved in the secret service. Ivy, who lives on the other side of the world, and who is in the midst of finding her feet again after a divorce, supports Kit's decision to find Roger, but couldn't really care less about it until evidence is revealed that supports Kit’s theory. All Ivy's life she has just believed he was unable to commit and abandoned her and her mother without any guilt. However, when the sisters' effort to find leads to Roger’s whereabouts, digs up a tangled mess of secrets and lies that Ailish and Eleanor have bottled up for decades, not to mention another sister they didn’t know about, their own relationship becomes threatened. Will their father live up to their expectations? And Is revealing the truth worth destroying what family they already have?

Now what title would you choose?

WIP 2 (memoir)

We're Not Ordinary People = This is my working title and it only got 3 votes.

Until I'd Fall Asleep With My Teeth Clenched = 3 votes

Her Tablet Courage = 2 votes

Please Don’t Wear Your Eyebrows To School Again = 21 votes

Looks Like Candy, Tastes Like Music = 16 votes

Basis of story:

This memoir is about being the only child of gothic rock musicians, focusing primarily on my relationship with my drug-addicted mother, and my experiences dealing with her drug withdrawal, anxiety, panic, violent rages, erratic mood swings, etc etc.

Now what title would you choose?

Furthermore, are the stories at all what you suspected?

Next Top Title blog Fest

Ok, this is a pretty damn easy blog fest if you ask me, but seriously fun and fantasticular idea - no, that was not meant to sound like a mix between fantastic and testicle, but hey, it happened.

The lovely host is slushpile slut. Make sure you nip over to hers to check out the other participants in her side bar.

The deal today is to list three to five possible titles for your current WIP(s), in order to see what response they get without knowing anything about the story. So what titles of mine attract the most attention? Muster the most curiosity? What titles would spark your interest and make you pick it up to take a closer look?

WIP 1 (women's/general fiction)

Curiosity Cured The Kit (or Curiosity Cured Kit)

Secrets + Lies = Truth

Bitter Like Orange Peel

The Roger Thing

More Than Absence

WIP 2 (memoir)

We're Not Ordinary People

Until I'd Fall Asleep With My Teeth Clenched

Her Tablet Courage

Please Don’t Wear Your Eyebrows To School Again

Looks Like Candy, Tastes Like Music