But it Might Be Yes

It was a sunny day as I sat on the front porch with my big sister.

I was about thirteen or fourteen, which meant she was around twenty-four. If I remember right, we were both going through difficult times in our lives.

She gave me some words of advice that for some reason have stuck with me.
She told me:

1. Stop sitting like that. It’s not lady like

2. Don’t worry if you haven’t matured as quickly as your friends, your time will come.

3. What can it hurt? The worst they can say is no.


Guess what? She was right.

It wasn’t polite to sit like that, although I still do when I’m hanging out in the comfort of my own home, drinking a cup of hot cocoa.

Maturity hit. So did the crazy emotions that came with it, but they’ve settled down a bit.

And to my surprise - The worse they said was no.

I feel like I am coming to a crossroad in my life. School is almost over, I have my name in a couple of books.

It feels good to accomplish what I have set out to do. But now it is time to make new goals, step forward to the future.

New goals are not only exciting, but can be filled with rejection.

It’s funny that what was true so long ago is still true today. I just have to keep moving forward and remember:

What can it hurt? The worst they can say is no.

Thanks T.

Accents in Writing

If you have ever read a book with a character who has a thick accent, you know...it's hard to read.

Use accents sparingly and if you do, remember to only pepper a character's accent in the writing so it is easy to stay focused on the story.

That being said, half my book happens in Mexico. So I give you my friends a tribute to accents and Español.



I love those singing vegetables! Love them!

So what are your thoughts on accents in writing?

School Time Song Madness

(to be sung with the melody Winter Wonderland)

Sittin’ here,
Doing homework.

Two more papers,
Needin’ research.

A difficult time,
I’m writing in rhythm,

I hope my teachers,
Give me lots of time.

I hope my teachers,
Give me lots of time.

(If you sing this in the bathroom, it echoes throughout the house and scared little animals away. I know, I’ve tried it. j/k…it scares big animals away too.)

Okay, so here I am writing not one, but two research papers while my precious piece of creative work hangs out, tucked away in the files of my computer. I feel sick (not with the swine flu, just creative writing deprive-ativity – see when you write you can make up awesomely awesome words and pretend they mean something).

Someday I will get back to my wonderful piece of work (at least my mom thinks it’s wonderful. Again, j/k. My mom has only read the first chapter, she thinks its brilliant. I love that woman.)

Augh, I’ve gotten silly. Okay, I’m going back to work on my research paper. If you want something not so silly, you can check out my post on my group blog (CLiCK HeRE). If you want silly…try to sing that song in the bathroom and count how many animals you can scare away. Let me know if it worked, it might make my creative mind feel better. =)

Here We Go #2

Yeah, I’m going to need to change that title to something good.
So anyway, the second question on my writer’s list of questions is, “Are you equally good at telling stories as you are as writing them?”

Haa haaa haa haa, mwa haa haa. Hee hee. I’m sorry. Let me dab that tear from my eye. Hee heee. Can’t stop laughing.


I used to act in high school and I did all the funny roles. There was something about losing yourself in someone else’s character that took the edge off of being on stage. Plus the physical humor, so funny. At the time, that seemed so easy.

When you write something, it’s a little bit different. As you stand in front of an audience, you worry about what the audience is thinking. Are they going to like whats been written? Will one of those great big canes appear from air and yank you off the stage?

I once stood in front of a crowd of writing peers, getting ready to be judged for a humorous piece of work. It was supposed to be one of those stories that had a twist at the end that would send everyone into fits of laughter.

It didn’t quite turn out the way I had imagined. I said my funny line and paused, waiting for a laugh. My mouth went dry and my eyes started to water. I realized I was having a hard time breathing, but I couldn’t just go sit down in the middle of my piece. So I kept going.

I rushed back to my seat the first moment I could. My face felt hot and I just wanted to leave. My friend leaned over and said, “We couldn’t hear you very well.”

“Oh.”

So my answer is no. I don’t tell stories as well as I write. Maybe someday with lots of practice or maybe a microphone - possibly both.

Cats, Superheroes and Boxes, oh my!

What should I be for Halloween? I have been pondering that all morning long.

When I was little, I was always a cat. I loved them and I had the costume available at any dress-up moment (a black leotard and kitty ears wrapped around a headband – ingenious).

Middle school was an awkward age, because you not only had to impress your peers, but you had to impress yourself (I don’t know who was harder to impress!). One year, I dressed up like a punk person (pink spiked hair, little glowing lights all over my costume – I can’t remember why we added the lights – but it was enlightening).

High school was completely different. Most people didn’t dress up, unless they had the exact “right” costume. Many times the boys would find their mother’s best Sunday dress and wig and go as the neighborhood PTA president (she was so spunky with those homemade cookies- you could have homemade cookies at school back then). The girls like put their hair walls up even higher and sprayed them all types of funky colors, add a few plastic bracelets and – Bam! 80s rock star. I’d just pull out those kitty ears and wear them with my normal clothes. You couldn’t go wrong that way. Especially if that way cute guy was walking down the hall, you could just slip those ears off and act like you were too, too cool for a Halloween costume.

Once college started, it was the thing to dress up again. But the hard part was being able to pay for the costume (poor college students, you know). I think that one year I dressed up as a box and the next year a potato farmer (I was going to school in Idaho, we had lots of potatoes in the fridge).

Now I am an adult with kiddos myself. I’ve been pondering what I should dress up like this year. A few years ago, I was a vampire, but those plastic vampire teeth made it hard to close my mouth and I drooled down my chin (plus I couldn’t enunciate my words and scared away some kids with the drool thing). So the vampire thing is out.

I love superheroes, so I think I may have to go as one I’ve made up, like Super Laundry Girl or The Amazing Cereal Pourer Woman. My superhero power would be pouring cereal on villains – topping them with a drizzle of milk. Just think - the cereal would solidify in a crunchy, stiff mold of cereal-ness. Nabbed ya supervillain! So cool.

Where did it go?

So, I've spent most of my morning looking for my memory stick/flashdrive - or should I say Lifeline.

I can't find it anywhere. I usually keep it hooked to one of those neck-badge thingies so I can find it easily, but alas, nowhere.

It has all my critiques on it for critique group tonight, homework, and yes, even my calorie counter.

Why oh why didn't I load it onto my computer?!

That's it, I need to start making backups of both my computer files and my flashdrive files. I have learned my lesson.

p.s. if you haven't seen me around lately, I've been mad at my blogger site. We are almost on speaking terms. Almost. Stinkin' blogger site fight. When will it behave?

AWESOMENESS

Okay, if you haven't been to Elana Johnson's Blog site today, you need to.

She has a wonderful post about awesome awesomeness. Something we need to be reminded of.

Thanks Elana, you made my day! =)