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Monday, June 28, 2010

OOD 4




I popped the quarter in the slot and cranked the metal handle.  I cupped my hand at the bottom of the spout ready for my treasure—but nothing came.  The greedy machine wouldn't give me my candy or the quarter.

I tapped, I turned, I twisted.   Nothing.  I had to find another quarter.  My mouth was cotton, I needed that gum.  I circled around the machine hoping to find some money; the circumference grew as I scoured the pavement.  Around and around I shuffled until I saw a scuffed up quarter.  I bent to retrieve it, but it was stuck I couldn’t remove the money from the asphalt.  I pulled and bent my fingernails, the quarter didn’t budge.

I stalked up to the machine and gave it one final thump with my fist.  I walked away without my quarter, without my gum, but at least I had a nice bruise to take with me.  I rubbed my sore hand and went home.   


     

Friday, June 25, 2010

OOD 3



The mutant octopus slimmed towards us, it’s large tentacles glowing with bubbling yellow toxin.  We weren’t going to make it.  Fin smiled sadly. 

“I’m sorry! It wasn’t supposed to be this way,” I cried.

“What? The neon yellow octopus wasn’t part of the date?”  He was trying to be funny.  It made me sick.  Here we were on the deck of my father’s sailboat, floating in an oil infested ocean with a giant suctioned cupped cephalopod on the deck, and sharks darting around the boat.

I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the sting of the poison as a tentacle hovered over me.  Make it quick, just make it quick.  
    
Thunk!

I peeked open an eye.  A large hunk of octopus flesh sat before me, bubbling and oozing.  The sea creature let out a horrible shriek and turned it’s full attention towards Fin who was now holding a large machete. 

“Where did you find that?”

“It was next to the life jackets and some aerosol can of something…” Fin puffed as he thwacked off another arm.  I smacked my forehead and ran for the can underneath the bench.   I pulled out the sea monster repellant as more octopus chunks flew. 

“Back up!” I ordered Fin.  I sprayed the pink foam over the intruder.  His bubbling skins started to hiss, as orange  vapor poured out of him.  The octopus slid back off the edge of the boat and deep into the ocean.  

“Phew, that was a close one…” Fin wiped his face with his t-shirt.

“Yeah it was, do you want to have our picnic now, or wait until we’re on shore?”

“I’d take some lemonade.”

“Sure thing.” 

Thursday, June 24, 2010

OOD2


Stars twinkled overhead as she belted out her favorite tune.  Her cheeks were wind whipped but her spirits were still up as the moon arched it’s way across the sky.  It was only three hours past her bed time, but it seemed to matter less with every s’more she ate.  A belly laugh like a baby tiger, the girl tickled her daddy next to the campfire. 

“Ticka, ticka, ticka.”

“Hmm, I think it’s time for someone to go to bed,” Dada said.

“I no wanna go to bed.”

“Yes but you should.”

“Dada’s right sweetie, if you want to go swimming in the morning you have to go to bed,” Mom started up. 

“I wanna watch a show.”

“Sorry pumpkin, there’s no tv out here.”

“Maybe we should have brought one…” Dada rubbed his head.  His musing was interrupted by a sharp cracking sound in the woods beside them.  Gizmo, the family dog, perked up at the disturbing noise.  An English bulldog ripped through the brush and straight for the beloved family pet.  Dada grabbed up the baby, while Mom kicked off the intruder.   The dog slowly backed away, with low throaty barks escaping through it’s horrible mouth.

“That stupid thing bit me,” Mom grumbled.

“Is it bad?” Dada asked.

“No, I think it only had one tooth, but maybe we should sleep in the car.”

As the family tossed and turned in the car, the little girl requested the Barney song to lull her to sleep.  This is when Dada decided that maybe they should just pack it up and go home.  The family decided to campout In the family room and fall asleep to Blues Clues, making the girl extremely happy.  It was the best camping trip ever.        

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Inspiration box...

My sister and I are taking a writing class together, we've only had two so far, but it's really fun.  It's just about getting you writing and using different techniques to get your creative juices flowing.  We did this exercise where we pulled on object off a table and free wrote about it--it was neat to see the kinds of ideas that people got from a tiny random object.

So my sister made me a shoe box full of random stuff... so I've decided to pull out an object every day (we'll see how it goes) and write about it...Beware I will post them, but I'm not going to take the time to edit them...as this is a writing exercise...not an editing exercise.

Feel free to write your own piece to post in the comments or just read along.

-RBP

OOD1: Truck



The wheels spun against the red counter top and the truck slammed into a tall glass of lemonade. 

“You don’t stop messing with that stupid truck and I’ll flush it down the toilet,” Kathryn glared at me—she meant it.  I slowly rolled my truck away from her glass, if the food didn’t come soon I might die.  And now I had no way to distract myself.

I stared at my Styrofoam cup full of milk.  How come I had to drink milk anyway?  Kathryn got lemonade, Mom got sprite and Dad got root beer.  And I got a glass of stupid milk.

Kathryn tapped her blue finger nails against the table, waiting for her cell phone to chime.  She was hungry too, we had been in the car for over five hours, with a bag of carrots and some raisins Mom had packed to sustain ourselves.  And now we were stuck in this lame restaurant while dad was trying to get the car fixed and Mom was outside on phone with Aunt Lou. 

But the worst of it was waiting for over thirty minutes in the sticky booth for my hamburger.  I was about to march in the back and cook it myself.
 
I slowly pulled a sugar packet out of the brown box by the ketchup bottle while Kathryn texted madly.  I bit the end off the white packet and brought the milk down below the table.  I emptied my fifth packet in my milk when Mom startled me. 

“No food yet?” she asked.

“Nope,” I said shoving the emptied packets on the floor.  Mom sat down and a waitress headed for our table with four massive burgers and a mountain of fries.

“Finally,” Kathryn muttered.  I took a swig of milk, just as the waitress set our food on the table… the sugar tingled my teeth, just as Dad walked into the restaurant.

“Well Tyler, looks like you won’t have to push us to the Grand Canyon,” Dad slapped my back.  I choked on the milk most of it spraying over the hot plate in front of Kathryn.  She looked at her plate of soggy hamburger and milky fries.  She didn’t say a word as she picked up the yellow truck and walked to the ladies room. 
     

Friday, June 18, 2010

This is amazing!



Not that it has anything to do with writing or an update on my new "plan"...

but it's so cool.

So I decided to change my time line, I'm doing steps 3-5 all the same time, and hopefully this will save time. So I go through three chapters a day with a fine tooth comb and fix the world building, consistency and cut the fat... it feels like it's going well, I'm really pleased with the first nine chapters I've done.

Hopefully I can keep it up. I'm still giving this segment of the plan until july 11th, but hopefully I'll be moving to the next phase before then.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

The Plan...update

So why is everyone trying to get me to finish my book...don't they know it takes time to cultivate perfection?

Besides now I have a plan, I'm going to finish it, for the 7th...maybe 8th time.

My husband just asked me to finish my novel so we can be millionaires and start living the dream...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HA!

Oh and he wants that for a father's day gift so, I my deadline has been changed... to June 20th.

Right. I'm on that. Just shut the door and watch the baby...oh and bring me a bag of m&m's because I'm hard at work in here. I've got a deadline!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Plan

I need to be finished...for my own sanity.

This is the plan:
Part 1:
1. Finish Major Edits (that I'm almost done with, on pg. 202 of 284) 1 week (6/11-6/17)update...finished these Edits 6/12/10, moving onto next phase of plan
2. Re-outline MS 2 days (6/18-6/19) update finished outline 6/15/10
3. Protag. Edits, motivation and consistency 1 week (6/20-6/27)
4. World building 1 week (6/28-7/4)
5. Trimming the Fat... 1 week (7/5-7/11)

Plan revised...I just got edits back from my sister-in-law and they are amazing! So I'm trying to do steps 3-5 plus her edits all at the same time... so it's going a little slower...but I feel really good about it :) So the deadline for all these steps has also change... it's now:  Aug 1st

Part 2:
6. Then send it to my betas and take it on a road trip...(Aug.1-Aug.17)
7. Re-read/re-work query/synopsis/submission material
8. Make Edits
9. Query... September 1st.

I have a deadline. Huzzah.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Fish People

 


We're fish people, not because I want to be...
This post talks all about people and pets and rejection.

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Monday, June 7, 2010

Flipped

This looks awesome!  I can't wait to see it, it looks like it might actually live up to how awesome the book is...I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Query Test

This site is so cool, I just found out about it and I'm already obsessed.  You submit your query for other writers to review, it's done on a point system...so in order to submit your queries you have to read and review other queries...it's kind of fun.

I wish that the comment section were larger, because I find I want to give people more advice...but oh well, most people who have reviewed my query haven't left comments, but one was so helpful!

Check it out.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Bedtime stories... abbreviated

Around our house there have been many stalling techniques used lately, by baby pearl, in order to not go to bed...

One of the them is to yell 'Bredfast!' (or Breakfast) and run to the highchair and demand to be fed, only to throw applesauce/cereal/yogurt etc. on the floor.

another is to say 'Elmo Show!', in which I reply--No sorry.

Or the last one is...'Story!', even though we just read three. I am a sucker for books though, so I had to come up with a short cut to make the bedtime routine a little quicker.

Brain Cloud


Wordle: Bats

    title="Wordle: noche">Wordle: noche


Wordle: the raven


Wordle is the best thing I've discovered all day. I'm so excited! I found out about it on this blog post in reference to finding out what words you over use...and need to get rid of when editing you MS, so I've been having fun.

It was awesome to put my manuscript in there...I didn't post that one... but I need to review my use of the words:

Back
Picture
Looked
Going/go
time
eyes
around
get
asked
like
Know

So I've got my work cut out for me! But that was an awesome suggestion, because how can you kill your 'little darlings' if you don't know what they are?

This is the word cloud for this post:

Wordle: blog post

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

It was the best of Birthdays, it was the worst of Birthdays...

Today is my Birthday.  It has been a fabulous day, my husband cleaned the house after I went to bed last night, baby pearl slept the whole night, my friend got me cupcakes from a really good bakery, a billion people wished me happy birthday on facebook, we had a birthday dinner on Sunday with my in-laws, Hubby and baby pearl took me out to eat last night and we played at the park.  My parents/siblings are having us over for a cookout tonight.  S'mores included.  I've gotten calls and cards and presents.  And it's my special birthday...I am twenty five on the 25th.  It's been great.

But it seems even more great in comparison to how the last couple of days have been... Baby Pearl has an ear infection, so we have all been in sleep dept...she woke up at 5:40 yesterday after staying up late and wouldn't go back to bed (it didn't help that husband and I stayed up late watching Hulu).  I dropped a brand new jar of jelly on the ground...it shattered while making Husband breakfast/lunch--he was in a hurry to go to class.  Hubby is stressed with his intersession class he's taking, he's also still working like a dog at his job, he worked a double on Friday, and the night shift on Saturday and still woke up at 7:30 to go to church on Sunday.  I'm pretty sure I broke my pinky toe on Sunday, it's a nice shade of purple--good thing Husband is a Paramedic, he know's how to fix boo-boos, although I'm sure I could have buddy taped my toes myself, it's nice to have a professional do it.  The house has been a massive wreck, because with a screaming kid and a messed up foot, cleaning hasn't been a priority. 

But with all the craziness going on, today has been really awesome.  And I feel so grateful for the twenty five years I've been given...I have so much.  And even though the last few days have not been fun, nothing was ever really that bad...it's easy to get frustrated about the little things, but you look around and realize your problems aren't much to complain about when other people are going through things that are much worse.  I have an awesome husband and daughter, and great friends and family around.  I have an awesome life and can't wait to see what the next quarter of a century brings around.           

Thursday, May 20, 2010

WIP update, poco a poco

83,661 words

I need to chop more, but I've ran into more plot inconsistencies... which is so frustrating, because if you change something one place you have to change all the others...duh

The real problem when you change those things, you realize it won't work anyway or something is better and you have to go back and fix things again.

And when you miss one that's why you have readers who are like 'what the heck is going on here?' because the whole work is jumbled around in your head...

 Sometimes I can't remember where a scene happened in reference to another and I'm like wait, did he already say that?-does she know that yet?-did meet those people yet?

So the next editing plan I have is to write another synopsis...an updated one so I can keep the plot straight of when things happen and where I need to add things about characters or actions.

I feel like working on this book is never going to end... but I have to remember...poco a poco it will get done.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The giving cake


This is such a cool cake!  I read this and went here to check out cakes with children's books themes... it makes me want to take a cake decorating class.  Who knew books could make cake even better?

Heist Society


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Title: Heist Society
Author: Ally Carter
Rating: PG
What I like: This book is squeaky clean, super fun, and really well written. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book and see what happens with the romantic subplot. I really like the characters in this book, they are definitely three dimensional. I read on her website that the rights have been sold for a movie--and I'm totally not surprised. This book would make a fabulous movie...let's hope they get it right!

Synopsis: (I pulled this off Ally's Website) When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring Kat back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat, there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family's history--and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

Friday, May 14, 2010

True Confessions of...

Here's a nod to a sixth grade Freudian slip from Pig-Tail-Peg's Reading/Writing Workshop...


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The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle was one of my favorite books in the sixth grade...I hope the student didn't put the 'Susan Boyle' comment down on a quiz!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Lady Gaga

So I'm not a big fan of Lady Gaga, but this is one of Pig-Tail-Peg's students...and I love his version of Paparazzi:



The internet is an amazing thing... This kid put his video up on youtube and today he was featured in the Ellen show. Craziness.