Next archive:February 2006
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Ever wonder if your book's title is helping or hurting your chances for success? The geniuses at LULU have come up with a Titlescorer to help you figure it all out. Here's how mine stack up:
Angels of Light = 59.3% OR Untouchable = 63.7% (Untouchable it is!)
Witness = 59.3%
Midheaven = 72.5%
How did yours do?
Congrats to my cp, Christina Laska, for her BIG WIN in the Jasmine with There Once was a Mafia Princess. You rock!
So I slammed my hand in the employee breakroom door...and now I'm hunting and pecking. Can you get worker's comp for stupidity?
Oprah's interview with James Frey (author of A Million Little Pieces) is all over the press this morning. I sincerely hope the book does help people, and I also hope that publishers will take a closer look at the memoirs they decide to publish--fact-checking wasn't Oprah's job, although she did receive warnings about the authenticity of this book. It's unfortunate.
I watched Lost last night and got all excited again. Charlie's issues are confusing to say the least, but for my teaching purposes...the episode showcased the arrivial of religious ritual. While it's been dabbled in before, Claire and Aaron's baptism is the most solid evidence to date.
On Tuesday, my friend Charles and I went to see Underworld: Evolution. He'd turned me on to the first movie. We were both disappointed--gore, violence and sex overrode any kind of redeeming plot or message. Since the first movie had such a big message, it would be difficult to follow up. One of the ladies at Romance Divas said it seemed like the order of the movies should have been reversed. Charles made seeing the movie an assignment for his Media History class and the reaction was much the same: save your money.
Charles and his friends @ Emulsion Arts are nominated for three regional Emmys! The ceremony is this weekend--good luck!
Thanks for the tag, Tyler...here we go!
Seven things I want to do before I die:.
-learn to swim
-fix my tattoo, which I currently call 'prison art'
-travel out of the country (Canada does not count)
-sell my books
-fall in love again
-get my Ph.D.
-Shoot. Yes, a gun. Call it research if you must.
Seven things I cannot do well:
-bowl
-confront
-add
-subtract
-multiply
-divide
-say no
Seven things that attracted me to my spouse:
-ooh, so sorry, not so much married...
Seven things I say most often:
-Really?
-Yes, this is my serious face
-No problem
-What's your student ID number?
-I need some coffee
-It's in my faculty folder on the shared drive
-Living or dead?
Seven Books I love:
-Interview with the Vampire (Ann Rice)
-Sacred Hoops (Phil Jackson)
-Carrie (Stephen King)
-The North & South series (John Jakes)
-The Killer Angels (Michael Shaara)
-Gone for Soldiers (Jeff Shaara)
-Shogun (James Clavell)
Seven Movies I would watch over and over again:
-Glory
-Gettysburg
-Gladiator
-Cinderella Man
-Last of the Mohicans
-Hoosiers
-Serenity
Seven People I want to be tagged:
-Sorry, the madness ends here!
Last night, as we watched the Panthers not show up in Seattle (I can take a loss, but a contest would have been nice), my friends and I got to talking about our names. One simply had to have a name that started with J. Some were named for relatives, others for songs or poems of the era. I was named for the Biblical Martha, or so I'm told. Of course, when I got old enough to understand the story, I learned that Martha was the sister who just didn't quite get it, who was more intent on the appearance of things than learning from the prophet in her house. Thanks.
As writers, we're called to name our characters (not to mention title the work). In the best cases, names should reflect--or at least not detract from--the arc for each character as well as the story.
How do you name your characters? Were you given a name for a certain reason, or did you name your children in a special way? Inqurining minds want to know...
...dang it, Tyler just tagged me. Tomorrow, I swear!
Lost: Aside from all the fun stuff that happened on Lost this week, chalk up another World Civ lesson: "How long will it take to build an army?" I was probably the only one excited to see their civilization reach the point where they need a 'military'. Enteraining, educational, eye candy. Who's not watching this show?
Fitness: When I moved last summer, going to the gym became inconvenient. The result? I lost weight, but only because muscle weighs more than the 'f' word. I won a $100 gift card at our Holiday Party and spent it yesterday on a new pair of running shoes. Now that I'm also done being sick, I'm heading back, inconvenient or not.
Writing: I recieved Debra Dixon's Goal, Motivation, Conflict in my mailbox yesterday. I also downloaded Patricia Wrede's "Worldbuilding" kit.
Reading: I finished Are you Lonesome Tonight, about a woman's long term affair and love child with Elvis. She's either telling the truth or a very convincing delusional. I also picked up Freakeonomics, which has been in the news lately, and cracked open The Lost Books of the Bible for research.
GO PANTHERS!
I've had the iPod for over a year, but my computer wasn't up to date enough to run it. Until recently. Yes, I have wasted much time uploading music to this tiny white device. She's pretty. She's slick. She's portable. I love her. Over at Romance Divas, there's a thread about using music in your writing, creating soundtracks for your WIPs. I do this, and the iPod makes it sooo much easier! I justify the 'wasting' of time now by saying it will take less time to create such masterpieces of mood in the future.
RD also has a thread about workspace. Some are messy, some (like mine) are insanely clean. I function better in an organized space. Last night, I got even more organized. I went through all my disks and actually labeled them correctly - which story is where, which are research and for what. Took me two hours, but now I can grab whatever I need. Again, in the name of saving time later, lol. I had no idea I had so many stories started.
And I decided: while I work on revisions for the paranormals, I'm also going to finally finish up that pesky western I started, oh, six years ago (thanks for the reminder, Christa!). 'Bout time! What uncompleted WIP is hurling insults at you from the 'later' pile?
As you may have noticed, I have a new home! Yay! I'm grateful for this new home and technology that allows me to blog with ease. You may also have noticed that my blog is u-g-l-y. Maybe not ugly. Spartan? Isn't that what the Mayor said to Faith? Upon further investigation, you may also notice that I don't have any links up. When I figure out how, I will. Don't lose heart. My brother said to try Blogrolling, so I created an account and loaded my links...and have no further idea how to get it over here. Sigh. Bear with me. It's kinda like my house. It'll get there.
In reading news: I just finished Ann Rice's new book Christ the Lord. Not for everyone, but I liked it. I'm also 100 pages into The Introvert Advantage. 100 pages of telling me how physiologically I'm an introvert. Still waiting for the 'advantage' part. I also read Shelby Reed's latest from EC, Holiday Inn. Shelby is an on-call CP, and I'm sure one of the reasons my Jasmine scores were solid. If you haven't read her, don't pass go, don't collect $200. And finally, arriving yesterday, Are You Lonesome Tonight. Though I'm not a huge Elvis fan, a friend convinced me to give it a read and see what I thought. I'll let ya know!
What's in your wallet...er, your bookshelf? Or you can tell me what's in your wallet. Whatever.
I'm one of those people who always thinks of the *perfect* comeback hours after I should have used it. I spend too much time rehashing conversations and moments and what if this or that...even what would I say or do if x situation ever happens?
Part of that is me being a big ol' introvert, and part of it is sheer waste of time and energy. Today, I don't have that problem. My first day back in the classroom since my grad assistant days, and I think I said everything I thought I wanted to say. Was I perfect? No. Did I get far enough, deep enough? I'm not really sure, but I enjoyed being there, with those particular students, talking about something I love.
Pretty challenging, a differnt kind of challenge than writing a book, or even taking a class. 21 more class periods to go! Stay tuned :)
Next Tuesday I achieve a goal. I will begin teaching my first college-level class. I did take the long, scenic route to this little pinnacle. While I've always wanted to do this, I found my master's degree to be...incomplete. Then I found someone who told me what I needed to do (as if it were some kind of state secret). I completed my graduate hours in history right before the holidays and here I am.
So I'm excited, getting new ideas every fifteen minutes, and wondering how many times I can show clips from Lost without getting into copyright infringement. What does a TV show have to do with World Civ? Ahh...those guys on Lost are building their own civilization, which is exactly what I'm going to ask my students to do. I mean to be entirely entertained by the results.