What Do Women Want????

I’m taking a Literary Masterpieces class in school right now. One of the assigned readings was, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. Do you know it? Probably not. It’s really old. LOL Don’t I sound educated already.

The story is part of the famous Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. In one of the tales, told by a woman, Alisoun, a rapist is asked to answer the question, “What is it that women most desire?” If he can’t find the answer he’ll be killed for his crime. Whew!!! Glad they changed the law on that one.

Itchin’ to know what his answer was? Yeah, so was I. I thought he’d be hanged for his crime in the end because who can say what women want. Most of us don’t know what we want. Right?

Well, that was my initial reaction. Then I started thinking. Hey, I do know what I want. I have it all in my head. I know exactly what I want. What is that you ask?

To be Enough.

I want to be woke enough to write this post because I’m really tired right now.

I want to be loving and nurturing enough that my kids don’t hate or resent me when they are older.

I want to be spiritual enough that when my time comes to meet God I won’t be too frightened.

I want to be brave enough to query agents.

I want to be strong enough to take the rejection letters that will come when I query.

I want to be courageous enough to take risks when necessary.

I want to be pretty enough to still turn my husbands head when I walk in the room.

I want to be smart enough to know when enough is enough.

 

What was the rapists answer? Women most desired sovereignty over their husbands and for them to love them also. Yeah, I like that answer too. LOL What do you think women want?

Have a great day. Read a book and laugh.

Random Tidbits...

Okay, my new schedule is kicking my...

So I thought I'd share what I've been up to the past few weeks. Life has been pretty hectic. Not that it's not always so but it has been even more.

1. I'm getting acclimated to my new job. It has been difficult. I haven't worked in some time now so I am adjusting horribly. LOL Well, I'm trying but going to sleep at 1 in the am is probably not a good thing when you wake at 5 am.

2. I found a TV show that seems promising: Terra Nova. I can't wait to see how this story progresses. I'm not a huge TV watcher so I'm kinda of excited. My last fav TV show was Lost. The only problem: I've been so busy I haven't had time to watch it at its regular time slot. Thank God for DVR and my secretive family. They won't spill the beans.

3. I've been writing a lot in a writing journal. I've never really did it before but when I take lunch at work the last thing I want to do is look at another computer. So I've been writing long hand. I like it. Didn't think I would though. Wish my fingers luck.

4. I'm working on the end of my high fantasy story. And I might be a little biased but it is coming along nicely. I'm super excited about this story. LOL, I'm excited about every story I write.


What are you up to? Let us know in the comments.


Have a great day. Read a book and laugh!!!!

Quick side note...

Hey everyone. I know that I've been posting once a week but I had to interrupt the silence and post. I'll be posting on Monday as usual. However, I just checked my email and found a request from another blogger, fellow Shewriter, and fellow YALitChat.org member - oh and she's an author, Kelly Hashway. Kelly is the author of May the Best Dog Win, a children's picture book. She has been chosen as a finalist in the "50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading Contest." Please follow the link, embedded in the title of the contest, to cast your vote.

So I'm asking that all my followers please take a minute to vote. It is super quick and easy and Kelly deserves it. As writers we should all try and support one another. I'm trying to do my part. Are you doing your part?


Have a great day. Read a book and laugh!!!

You Have Homework....

How do you unwind your writer’s mind? I listen to music and watch movies. Movies though, I must admit feel like homework for me. I’m always trying to find the inciting incident, looking to see if the hook grabbed me, watching the character arc…you get the picture.

I’m a little nuts.

But there's a lesson in this obsessive-compulsive practice of mine: it makes me a better writer. I can immediately spot the inciting incident in most books I read and in my own MS. Well, I’d better be able to do that with my own work. Right!

Do you know your inciting incident? Do you have a killer hook or opening chapter? Will it grab your reader and make them keep turning the page even though their eyes are on fire from sleep deprivation? Let’s hope so. Not the sleep deprivation but the continued page turning. What about your character arch? Does your character grow/change as the story progresses? They should.

So, the next time you watch a movie: Stop. Put your writerly cap on. Invite the muses. Pop some popcorn. You can even grab a voice recorder to make notes. Then plop down into a comfy chair and do your writing homework. Believe me, it’s worth it.

Have a great day. Read a book and laugh!

Kids in movies

I write YA and MG stories. And I adore movies with kids. So, I thought I’d do a fun post on movies with kids doing bad stuff- or just plain stuff. Sometimes the kids are good but sometimes the kids are terrible - I love them all. Some of my favorite movies are those with kid leads. Here are a few of my favs, categorized:

The Little Kids

The Fire Starter: Drew Berry was setting everything on fire…including our hearts. She was adorable.

The Champ: Little Ricky Schroder has (in my opinion) made the saddest scene ever in movie history. Period.

Creepy Kids

The Little Girl who Lived Down the Lane – A young Jodie Foster was extremely creepy in the role of abandoned little girl. But don’t fret, she could definitely handle her own.

The Bad Seed – Rhoda wanted what she wanted. And if someone stopped her from getting what she wanted, she could deal with them. In her own special way.

Orphan - The creepiest of all little creepers. She had me fooled, you too I’m sure. The best part about it – after she’d done all her dirt – you cold beat her senseless and it not be child abuse.

Kids Kicking Butt

Percy Jackson and the Olympians – Percy, the son of Posideion, along with his satyr and protector, Grover, and the daughter of Athena, Annabeth go on an adventure to return Zeus’s stolen lightening rod. Oh, yeah they kick some butt on the way.

The Last Airbender – This kid is awesome. He literally bends air. There’s another kid that bends/manipulates water…this is one of the best kids-with-powers movies I’ve seen in a long time.

Holiday Movies

A Christmas Story – “You’ll shoot your eyes out” – one of the greatest kid-movie lines ever. My family and I have to watch this movie during the holidays or it just ain’t Christmas.

Home Alone - "KEVIN" - What's Christmas without big family vacations to Paris and leaving the youngest one at home to fend for himself. And boy does he have to fend.

Honorable Mentions:

The City of Ember: Dystopian society where the entire population on earth live underground. Of course, it took two kids to discover that it was okay to go top side. Great movie.

The Ring – the creepy kid killer is not on screen much but when she is she makes her presence known and leaves you unable to sleep with the TV on for months – yeah, I said months. Don’t judge me.

E.T. – Okay, I love this movie. My kids love this movie so it had to be on this list. It’s a great family movie about the ugliest cutest drinking alien ever to stow away in a little boys closet. 

The Hunger Games – Okay, I know the movie has not come out yet but I loved the books so much there’s no way they can mess this up. Right? Oh gosh. I hope not. Katniss Everdeen kicks major booty and Peeta Mellark is the smartest sweetest teen ever. Yeah, I’m Team Peeta.

Hope you've enjoyed my gallery of awesome kid movies. What's your favorite?

Have a great day. Read a book and laugh.



And the Winners are....

 

And the winners are:

Alison - The Karma Club by Jessica Brody

Danah - The $10 Amazon Gift card

Congrats to the winners! Alison has already been notified. Danah, I tried to email you with the address you left in the comments, but it returned undeliverable. Please email me within three days or I will have to choose another winner.

This was my very first giveaway and it was a huge success. Thanks to everyone for participating.

Have a great day. Read a book and laugh!!!

The winners were chosen using Random.org

Back to the Books Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Back to the Books Giveaway Hop!


This hop was organized by Kathy at I Am a Reader Not a Writer Blog and Heather at Buried in Books.

Over 300 participating blogs are offering a book related giveaway and we are all linked up together so you can easily hop from one giveaway to another. The hop runs from Thursday, September 1st through, Wednesday, September 7th.

I have 2 great giveaways for you. There will be 2 winners.


My first giveaway is a $10 Amazon gift card.

 My second giveaway is a copy of two great YA reads:

If I Stay by Gayle Foreman

or

 The Karma Club by Jessica Brody

Giveaway Details:

To enter the giveaway: Please follow this blog. Leave a comment below with your email address, for contact if you should win. If you were to win the books, please specify which you would like. The last day to enter the giveaway is Sept. 7, 2011 at midnight. The winners will be announced on Sept. 8. The contest is open to US residents only, please.

Please click the next blog in the linky below. Happy Hopping and Good luck!!!

Have a great day. Read a book and laugh!

What I like about you...

I'm a sucker for a good story. It's true! Give me a good book and you'll not hear a peep from me until it's finished. And I love reading young adult fiction the most. The characters are awesome and writers (in their infinite wisdom) keep coming up with new ways to say old things.

So instead of list all the reasons or things I love about YA fiction, I'm listing what I don't like. That's a much shorter list. Believe me you'd thank me if you'd seen the other list.

Things I hate to see in my YA fiction:

 

1. Perfect characters – nobody’s perfect, not even your hot guy lead who always knows what to say to make your MC drool all over herself. He’s not perfect and neither is she. Before you submit that story to an agent, you’d better find out more about your character. Make them believable because nobody’s perfect and everybody’ll be able to tell you didn’t flesh out your character(s) enough.
2. Unrealistic dialogue. Um, kids don’t always talk in complete sentences. Well, sometimes. But not always. You’ve got to mix it up. Give the reader a taste of intelligent characters, but unless there is a specific reason for them sounding like Harvard Professors (something like an experiment gone wrong- sci-fi story) then stop trying to woo us and let the kids be kids. Oh and keep the slang to a minimum. I have a sixth grader (all his friends are older) and a 10th grader with dozens of friends and nieces and nephews - they don't talk slang 24/7. So your MC shouldn't answer their parents with, "Yo, what up, yo." I'm not even sure I wrote that right. A little goes a long way, but too much just starts to show your age- not your MC's. Plus it's distracting. Maybe give one character the habit of talking slang a lot- not every single one.
3. An MC with no choice. Everyone has a choice, if they didn’t where would the tension be. If your MC learns of something he/she has to do don’t make it so that they must do it. Let them decide that they don’t want to do what everyone is expecting of them- it gives the reader something to look forward to - Are they going to change their mind? And of course, this adds tension. This is what the reader wants. It propels the story forward.

Now there are a few other things I don’t like to see in my YA. I have had my mind changed once or twice about what I like and don’t like. Are there any that I missed that you hate? I’m sure there are. Leave a few of your own YA pet peeves in the comments.

Have a great day. Read a book and laugh.

Randomness...

I’m tired. I’m hungry. And I’ve been up all night. So today’s post are random tidbits about what’s been going on with me:

1.  The kids went back to school yesterday. I have three – a 10^th grader, sixth grader, and a third grader. The hubby’s conveniently gone away on business. Yeah, I was up all night signing papers. I can’t remember any more why I was excited about them going back.

2.  I’m adding extra villainous traits to my villain/antagonist in my current WIP at the suggestion of my CP. You can never have a villain that is evil enough. Right now, this pen and paper to my right with my children’s names on them are the most evil, loathsome, inhumane things I’ve seen in a while.

3.  I’m so ready to stop editing I want to smack someone. Of course, I’m practicing patience. But the hubby better watch out around the 18^th of every month. That’s all I’ve got to say about that…

4.  Pleasantly surprised about a new movie I’ve heard about, Magic Mike. Yeah, I know that title is something else, huh. It stares Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello, and Matt Bomer. I could probably watch with the volume turned down. I’m wondering though, I usually see movies with the hubby, but I’m thinking he might not like this one too much.

5.  I’m thinking of writing a MG story. I haven’t decided yet, but I have a short story I never completed – I fell in love with the characters. A female protagonist who kicks some major butt and a nerd on a special mission- umm I’m thinking. Not sure right now all I can think about with any real clarity is snuggly up in my bed.

What are you up to? Let everyone know in the comments.

Have a great day. Read a book and laugh.

Blog Award

I received this Appreciated Follower Award from Fi at Fi's Magical Writing Haven. Thank you so much Fi. It's nice to be recognized. I follow quite a bit of blogs and most days I simply don't have enough time to comment. But there are times when I just have to. Maybe it's something in the post that resonates with me on a personal level or I have a couple extra minutes (yeah, it does happen) or sometimes I can't explain it I just have to leave a comment.

This post is dedicated to the followers who comment on my blog the most. Those that grace the comment section with their wit, suggestions and sometimes rants. I appreciate you all, of course, but the rules were that I could only pick five followers.

Here are the rules handed down from Fi:

1. Reveal the top 5 followers
2. Copy and paste the award here
3. Cross fingers followers will spread the love to other deserving bloggers
4. Do what I do best....Have bloggity FUN!!!!!!

So my top 5 appreciated followers are:

1. Kelly Hashway
2. Catherine Stine
3. Brenda
4. Bella
5. Totsymae

I'd like to extend a hearty thank you to all my followers. Thank you for your comments, always.

Have a great day. Read a book and laugh!!!