The most amazing giveaway EVER!

Go. Go NOW. To Sparkling Reviews:

They are having epic giveaways. Over 8, and all of them more amazing than the next.

Goooooo! Hurry! They end tonight!

Night of the Giving Dead Auction

I haven't blogged much here, but it's clear I have stalkery type feelings for Carrie Harris. And in all that fangirlyness I am experiencing, I want to share something pretty important.

Night of the Giving Dead, hosted by Carrie, is an auction with tons of great stuff up for grabs. Query and manuscript critiques, arc copies, signed and personalized books from amazing YA and middle-grade authors. It's incredible.

It is for the best cause I can even think of. The Giving Library gives books to children hospitalized.

Donate. Bid. Do anything, it's important and the reward is priceless.

In A Slump?

I am digging my WIP. No really, it's awesome. Haven't had a single "uh oh what do I write now" moment yet.

But I did have a strange feeling after a couple of days of nonstop writing. I had grown into a writing slump. What kind of slump, you ask?
Well...
I wrote in my craft room. I wrote in my bedroom. I wrote in my kitchen. I have typed on these keys in every room of my house (except the bathroom...yikes). I needed a new atmosphere, but what do I do?

When I lived in Savannah I practically lived at Panera Bread Co. Unfortunately there is only one I know of around me now, and it's pretty far. So I never thought to go.
But you know what? A slump needs to be...um...unslumped when it can. So I went. And I wrote like my life depended on it.

Check out the amazing pecan roll I devoured. Mmm...

Anyway, my point is if you are in a slump for any reason, try changing your environment. Change rooms, go outside, go to a coffee shop, do something. Because maybe your slump can be unslumped like it mine.

Some Awesome Facts Tuesday

Here we are again, sharing is caring and Tuesday is the day I care.

This week's theme for awesome facts is cats! *meow*

1. I've always had a pet in the house, and they have always been kitties. In total I've had nine. There is one outside I started feeding recently, so I'll count that as ten. Why not?

2. My cat is named Gizmo, and he's 10, and he was born on Halloween. He's so fluffy and fat, I <3 him. (His picture is on the right. LOOK AT THE CUTENESS.)

3. Whenever I see a cat in a movie, I instantly love it. Even evil ones like in the movie The Cat's Eye, I rooted for the cat.

4. Fat cats are my favorite. I turn into a squealing crazy fangirl over fat cats. I have fat cat kitchen stuff and figurines and I will buy more and more until they over run the house and I'm on an episode of Hoarders.

5. Every time I watch a show, I get a little grumpy that everyone has a dog and not a cat. Sure, cats are feisty, but that's the appeal tv show people! Dogs are trainable, cats are awesome. Cats win in my book.

Book Love: Bad Taste In Boys

Carrie Harris. You have to know her. She's the awesome author of Bad Taste In Boys, coming out July 12th (ahem, my birthday).
It's going to be a great addition to the YA genre, I mean...it's zombies!

Here is a summary (from Goodreads):
Someone's been a very bad zombie.
Kate Grable is horrified to find out that the football coach has given the team steroids. Worse yet, the steroids are having an unexpected effect, turning hot gridiron hunks into mindless flesh-eating zombies. No one is safe--not her cute crush Aaron, not her dorky brother, Jonah . . . not even Kate!
She's got to find an antidote--before her entire high school ends up eating each other. So Kate, her best girlfriend, Rocky, and Aaron stage a frantic battle to save their town. . . and stay hormonally human.

And if that summary didn't grab you, check out the beautiful cover:It's creepy and a bit sexy, isn't it? I love it. And I even love the font.

I've grown to be a bit stalkery of Carrie Harris and her awesomeness. I've read almost all her blog entries, I follow her on twitter, I friended her on Goodreads...the stalkyness is an ongoing battle I am beginning to lose.
I admire her humor and wit, and if her book is anything like her, it's an instant hit for me.

So Carrie has an awesome giveaway on her blog right now (ends tonight, go enter quick!) for a chance to win her book before it comes out.
I combined my stalkeryness with my craftyness and created some pretty cool stuff.

First, I wanted to go out of the box and create a movie poster. I mean, who wouldn't want to watch BTIB? So I made this entire poster from scratch. There are over 10 images added in for it, and I really like the way it turned out.
I made the director George Romero (creator of The Night of The Living Dead):
Then, since it's all about the sugary lip-ness (lip-ness? hmm), I decided to take a pic of me with the sugary goodness. Here is me with the lips:
I thought it wouldn't be so bad to lick the sugar off afterwards. Note to others and to self for future reference: don't do that.


Last idea I had is my fave. I made a ring inspired by Bad Taste In Boys! It's made from polymer clay. I glazed it to death to get the shine and then I glued clear mini beads on to look like sugar.
Here are 3 pics, one from the front, one from the side, and one with me trying it on:

Even if I don't win, I had a blast making this stuff. And maybe it will inspire you to make your own zombie creations!

Don't forget, Bad Taste In Boys comes out on July 12th!

Some Awesome Facts Tuesday

I'm making up a new meme for my blog. Sure, there are some other memes like it, but this one is because I'm lazy and want to make up my own days/names for them. Laziness wins every time.

So from now on Tuesday's will have 5 facts. About me, the blog, my WIP, my friends, food, my cat, crafting, anything and everything. Awesome, right? Awesome.

Let's get this started with some facts about moi.

1. I can't whistle. Seriously. And every time I tell someone they start whistling and try to teach me. I've tried. I've even looked up tutorials on the net. Not gonna happen. *sigh*

2. If I see a bug in the house, I try and save it and let it back outside. It's bad karma to let 'em die I say. But to be honest, they crawl on me they are squished in a heartbeat.

3. My first word was cheese. Can't live without cheese, and yet, I hate cheesecake. Whaaat? I know. Shocker. But everything else has to have cheese on it. Everywhere. Extra extra cheese.

4. My fave tv show of all time is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You got action, comedy, suspense, romance, drama, horror, and all the teen drama you'll ever need. I've seen every episode at least 5 times, and I have marathons all the time. In fact, just talking about this makes me want to start another marathon.
<- my fave cast photo, well, maybe less bleached...

5. I name my favorite things. My car? No name. My ipod? Oz (after Buffy, of course). If it's important and I love it, it gets a name.

So there we go, 5 facts about me. Educational, informative, and now I want to eat cheese and watch some Buffy.

And 4 months later...

I brought the blog back. And this time, I'm going to try...REALLY try this time to make it work.

There were many reasons why I stopped, why I didn't try at all, why I ignored it all together. But the main reason is intimidation. With all these huge blogs of writers or soon-to-be writers or want-to-be writers, I didn't see my place. I would think of how awesome they had their blog, how many followers they had, how witty they were, and I got lost in it all. How do I stand out in the blog crowd?

And you know what? Last night it hit me. Really hit me. I don't have to be anyone's favorite blog. I don't have to offer amazing advice that people bookmark for inspiration in the future. I'm just going to be me, and write what I want to write. Followers, no followers, it's not going to bother me anymore. YAY!

*takes a sigh of relief*

It feels good already.

Now on to awesomer things. I finished my outline yesterday. Changed a ton through the months when I had an idea, and this time I really am done. I might tweak while writing my first draft of course, but for now I'm finito. Is that the right spelling? Eh...

Tonight I am equipped with my writing tools. I've got on sky.fm "Classical Piano Trios" radio station to put me in the Victorian mood, I've got a giant glass of Hawaiian Punch (my current drink o'choice), and some writing fuel. AKA, red seedless grapes. They are my fuel. Weird something healthy is a fuel, hmm? Tasty and full of awesomeness.

So tonight even though it's 1:30am, I'm going to get SOMETHING down on my draft. Because once you start, it makes it easier to keep going. Good luck to me! *crosses fingers*

Almost There...Right?

So yeah...still outlining. But I've had a ton of busy stuff this week, so I knew I would be going slow. Plus, in taking my time I changed the first two chapters and I didn't have to rewrite the whole thing, just the outline! Phew, that would have killed me.

But I am to chapter 19, that's 3 more closer to finished. Yay! That's 2 revised chapters, 3 extra, I'm almost done. I'm taking my time, I'm really happy with it.

Plus I shared my synopsis with my writing partner and a close friend and they both loved it. That makes me even more excited to start this thing.

I'm determined to finish before Monday. Wish me luck!

How is your writing coming along?

Why I Outline, and Why It Hurts

Today is the day. I have researched for 4 days straight, I have written over 100 pages of notes in my notebook Petunia (see yesterday's post for that), and I am ready to GO!

So I get my laptop set up, a giant cup of green tea, some grapes (my writing munchies, red grapes only), and Petunia is at page uno.

And then it hits me. I am actually outlining this.

And.

It.

Is.

Hard.

I know what I want the outcome to be. I know the intro, I know the middle, I know the characters. But how do I get there?

I spent all day outlining, I'm on Chapter 16, aka, not even halfway there. I'm ripping my hair out at this point! I just want to write it already!

But listen, gather round. Outlining is important for a writer like me. Some people can write a whole book without outlining, some can write the intro and go from there and have the perfect novel. I'm not that kind of gal.

Here is why outlining is for this gal *points to herself*:
- I have the memory of a fish. I can hear or see something and minutes later forget what I heard or saw. If I thought of a genius idea and then didn't write it down in my outline, I know I will forget.
- In writing the outline I never get stuck when writing my first draft. I will never say "what now?" because it is right there in my outline where to go next.
- I have an idea of how the pacing goes before I even start. If there is so much detail in the outline in one chapter, I might reconsider taking some of it out to make the pacing stay at a steady pace.

Another reason I like to outline is when I get a final draft done, I can look back and see how it all original went down. And laugh. And nod. And think "oh yeah that's how it originally went." It's cooler than you think, trust me.

So...I'm going to work on the outline again tomorrow. I'm going to work on it the next day too if I have to. I may want to scream, and cry, and throw my grapes on the wall for something to look at other than my laptop screen, but it will be worth it.

What about you? Do you outline? Why or why not?

My Notebook, My Love

I had an idea 3 days ago. An idea so epic, it trumps anything I've done with my writing and I had to work on it right away.

A YA steampunk mystery with romance, suspense, drama, and epic adventure. I know, right? I was impressed with myself, believe me.

From this incredible idea, I had to get everything down. That's where my love comes in.

Here is where I exclaim my love of my notebook. I buy a small five star notebook for each of my book ideas. Each one a different color, and I'm a dork and decorate the front with a theme. I use the whole notebook for ideas and research.

I bought a new one, she is pink and I've named her Petunia. Petunia is my new best friend and I think she will be for a long long time.
Here are some of the things I wrote down inside:
- character name ideas, surnames, and name meanings
- clothing of the nineteenth century for men and women
- history of new york city, Victorian era, and Ireland in 1800s
- definitions of Victorian titles such as Marquess, Rakes, and Governess
- character bios of MC and love interest
- riverboats!
Petunia is over half full in three days. She and I are exhausted, but hey, this idea is worth all the effort and more.

When it's not 2 in the morning I will show you Petunia and her greatness, but for now just know from my crazy rant she is amazing.


So do you carry a notebook? How do you organize your notes? Are you weird and name your notebook like people name their car too?

And then my head explodes...

Have you ever had so many things going on, and so many ideas, and so many visions in your head that you feel like your head is going to explode?

That's me today.

I saw 2 writing competitions today, both with the same deadline. So I was thinking of ideas for that.
But then I was thinking about my WIP, and I need ideas for that.
And then I remembered an idea I never wrote down, and thought about that.

AHHH! *explode*

So what do I do? Do I continue with my WIP, write and outline for the new idea before I forget it again, think of new ideas for the writing competitions....or die from too much thinking at once?

"I'm not a machine!" - Lesley's brain

I know what I'll do. Doses of Supernatural and X-Files will clear my head and get my ideas a'flowin'.
And distract me.

"Much better." - Lesley's brain

Oh How I Less Than Three...

I ♥ H.P. Lovecraft. Heard of him? Please say you have. He's brilliant, genius, incredible, amazing, awesome!

H.P. Lovecraft was a writer that I consider one of the best of all time. He wrote horror, fantasy and scifi and with over 108 works under his belt he was an icon in horror.

He was the master of creepy, scary goodness and without him I probably wouldn't be the girl I am today (interpret that as you will).
And hey, before you think I'm weird, a lot of famous folks find inspiration from H.P. too. Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, even filmmaker John Carpenter believes in his work.

From the battle of giant alternate universe Gods, to fish people who kill everything in their path, to evil mad scientists and witches who feed off children. His writing is not for the faint of heart, but once you get into it you can't help but read more and more.

My favorite of his stories is "Shadows Over Innsmouth" about a town of people who in order to become immortal must worship Dagon, a fish God, and become like him. A man is sent to investigate the strange town and the townspeople must do whatever it takes to ensure he will not leave. Muahaha!

Yes, H.P., I ♥. He was a creepy, gory, nasty dude and I love every story of his I get my hands on. Some of the scenes I am writing in my WIP is inspired by H.P., and I hope to do him proud.

If I Had To...

If I had to work at an office, I'd work at Dunder-Mifflin/Sabre Company.

Why? Well...
Creed hasn't done work in over 2 years and can buy you anything in the world. Michael plays a movie every week in the conference room. Angela makes brownies and plans parties every other week. Pam has the reading club and they eat finger sandwiches. Dwight makes the office safe with his pepper spray and nunchuks. Jim pulls awesome pranks on Dwight and they would be hilarious to watch play out. Meredith plays solitaire all day. Phyllis makes rabies quilts.

The Office is dreamy. Imagine going into work and doing nothing all day but hanging out and having parties.
Michael might be a handful, but it seems worth it. He will consider you family and take you in.

You know what?

I think I watch too much of The Office. But if I had to...I would work there...