So fun

Ah, Sunchips

So my little brother, No Beard, made these commercials for a contest, I'm kind of glad he didn't win, because I can post them on the blog now! Baby Pearl and I are in the first one with No Beard, and then Flying Dutch Pig, Grandpa Pearl and Sasa are in the second one...I love it, too fun.

POW (Pearl of Wisdom)

I was just having trouble coming up with the subject of an email I just sent, so I clicked on the subject "button/generator" in my yahoo account, it came up with:


for a fish and finger pie

the honey that burns

Hazards of storing plutonium in Tupperware

I'm going through a shrinking spurt

My motivational speaking tour

I like eggs

Do Not Read

re: please don't call me a chinchilla

This is the first email of your new life

None of which seemed very appropriate, so I settled for 'hey'. Original, right? But at least my message probably wont get sent to the spam filter.

I'm kind of sad I didn't put: Hey, panini head! But that didn't quite fit either, because I'm not exactly Gordon Ramsay on my favorite episode of Kitchen Nightmares.

Sammy Keyes and The Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen

Author: Wendelin Van Draanen
Title: Sammy Keyes and The Hotel Thief
Genre: Middle Grade, Mystery
Rating: G

What I like: Sammy is such an awesome protagonist, who is kind of a hot head, but you are totally on her side when anything isn't going her way. I like the characters and also the fact that this is a mystery (even though I thought I would totally figure it out, because hey it's a middle grade book, it did have really good clues, and I didn't know who the hotel thief was up until the last moment).

Synopsis: Sammy Keyes gets bored in her Gram's apartment, well that the excuse she gives for pulling out the binoculars. When Sammy is surveying the neighborhood, she sees something that makes her that makes her focus in on the Hotel across the street. There's a man in the window, holding a purse, wearing gloves and pulling out a wad a cash. He's a thief, and stranger still, Sammy's pretty sure she's seen him before. When the man looks out the window, his eyes zero in on Sammy, and she does the first thing that comes to her mind, she waves. Now Sammy must find the Hotel Thief before he finds her.

Pearl of Wisdom

I decided what I want to be when I grow up, pretty much...Wendelin Van Draanen. That lady is amazing.

So I don't really want to be her, because hey, I like me. (Shout out to Flying Dutch Pig)

But I want to do what she does, because it's about the funnest thing I could ever imagine. Wendelin is an author--so she writes, she goes around the country visiting schools and giving presentations/rock concerts, she inspires kids to read, write, exercise...and you get paid for it! Isn't that craziness...that people will pay you to have fun.

I got to see one of her presentations this last week, and I am inspired. She told amazing stories (voices included) about her road to getting published, how much fun it is to create characters and write out things you never get to do in real life (like punching the bully at school in the face, or sneaking into places) and then she got up with some of the seventh graders and sang a rock song she plays in her family band...called thing two. How cool is that? (p.s. that's the guitar I'd have to get if I were in a band)

I am truly impressed and inspired. It took Wendelin ten years to get published, but that's why she is such an amazing writer, she really has crafted her talent...and although I really hope it doesn't take ten years, the biggest part of her message was don't give up and it will happen. Be persistent. So that's what I plan on doing.

So about being persistent, it doesn't matter who you are or what you write, people will always criticize... this is hilarious:

The fifty best author vs. author put downs of all time:

Mark Twain, according to William Faulkner (1922)
A hack writer who would not have been considered fourth rate in Europe, who tricked out a few of the old proven sure fire literary skeletons with sufficient local color to intrigue the superficial and the lazy.

But, of course, there must be SOME writers we can all agree on as truly great, right? Like Jane Austen. Or not:
Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice,' I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone. --Mark Twain

AND

This made me laugh so hard...probably because I do some of these things Alot :)

Peal of Wisdom

I just read the best thing ever...

Well, in an ideal world this is what I would do anyway... It's hard to keep everything balanced in life. I try to do everything, and I worry about it so much that I do nothing. So thank you Wendelin Van Draanen, I think I'm going to try to make myself do the dishes, even though I really don't want to.

So I keep wanting to really delve into my next project, but I just got a whole set of edits for my novel--and even though I really want to wait for the other set of edits to come in, so I can compare notes before I start re-writing, it's just so dang hard. I love my story, and my characters and it's hard to put them in a little box and build a different world. I finally get why people write series. Writing is so addictive. But it a good way.

I'm going to go do the dishes, come back and start writing...because that new project is looking pretty bare-boned, and it's time to start fleshing it out.

Pearl of Wisdom

"Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Escribir, por ejemplo: "La noche está estrellada,
y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos."
El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta."
Poema XX Pablo Neruda

This is one of my favorite poems. We had to recite it for my Spanish Phonetics class, it's amazing how it flows. I love it.

Poetry is often sad, and about various aspects of love which reminded me of another quote:

"To my mother Candy, who taught me that love is the best part of any story"

Stephanie Meyer

This is in the dedication of The Host.

So I'm brain storming, because I'm trying to wrap things up with my first novel-I'm still revising, but it's time to move on to my next project.

Which to be a good story, has to has to have a love story. I totally agree with Stephanie Meyer's mom. I'm trying to think of a book I've read that hasn't at least had a sub plot with a love story... Even To Kill a Mockingbird, which doesn't have an obvious romantic subplot, is essentially a love story(love for mankind).

I have at least three different novels that I'm considering to write, but it's almost like I have to nail out who the love interest is and what my romantic plot/subplot will be before I ultimately decide which story has to be told. Which is slightly daunting but amazingly fun because I get to delve back into high school-without actually attending, and get the low-down on what it's like to be a teenager from my fifteen year old informant/sister.

So here's to love and to brainstorming...

And I just read this, which cracked me up.

Pearl of Wisdom

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
the saddest are these: It might have been."
John Greenleaf Whittier, Maud Muller

I just heard this quote recently, and took a moment to read the poem--and it just amazes me what people can do with words. So I've been thinking to avoid these words(it might have been)what am I going to put on my bucket list:

*go to Spain
*publish my novel
*go skinny dipping (jk mom)
*Be on an episode of Sesame Street

Which brings me to the next question--How do you make it happen?
I realize I need to go finish "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch, but other than that I also want to be realistic, I just read this stat off of an agent's blog (one who is on the top of my list to submit my MS to):

"In the first three months of 2010, we received 1,297 queries....I didn’t sign any new clients in the first three months of 2010. Still, just to get a full request? We’re looking at only .2% of all queries received."

Yaouch .2% let me type that again .02%!@#$*

So I guess I need to get my nose back to the grindstone, rework my query, and probably get two new readers--And then book a flight to Spain.

RBP