Me, as a Liar

I have a few blog awards to pass on and one of them involves creative lying, which is something I do well.

I think I'm going to have to save a few of these for next week, just so I don't have a crazy long post, but I'll do 3 today.

First up: The Circle Of Friends Award.

This was given to me by a lovely new friend and new blogger Nicole Dulcleroir.

I was thinking about all my blog friends and there are SO MANY. I always talk about my critique group girls, who are my ultimate circle of friends, but I've given them awards already so I thought I'd give this one to a new little circle of friends, my agent buddies Sarah Skilton and Miranda Kenneally. They are both represented by Sara Megibow and they are both super cool girls, so check them out. Miranda is more of a Tweeter than a blogger so you should go see her on Twitter @MirandaKeneally.

Next: The Sunshine Award

BJ Anderson gave me this little beauty. BJ has been a bloggy friend for a long time and she's a great writer to get to know.

I'm going to pass this along to a few new friends: Mariah Irvin, because she is hilarious and Derek Whisman, because he's new to blogging and he's got great taste in books.

And last: The "Creative Writer" Award

This was given to me by the beautiful and talented Erica at Laugh Write Play and sassy sarcastic Matt at Pensive Sarcasm.

Both are encouraging me to tell LIES, and I intend to take them up on their offer. But I'm going to switch up the rules and tell 6 truths and 1 lie instead of the other way around. Here they are:

1. I once threw up all over a fireman

2. I only dated my husband for 4 months before we got married

3. I've never seen an episode of LOST

4. I have several exciting things happening now that I can't share with you yet

5. I didn't like reading when I was kid and I often fudged book reports by reading only the back cover and the last page.

6. The best class I ever took in college was called "Walt Disney's Influence on American Culture." We mostly watched cartoons.

7. I love lima beans and I've never understood why they get such a bad rap.

I'd like to pass this one on to two good honest people who might enjoy a little lying: DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude and Jamie Debree at The Variety Pages.

And there you have it. I'll try to catch up on the rest next Friday. Thank you everyone! And feel free to try to guess the lie. I might tell you what it is... someday.

My Workspace

Well, I'm still a little sick and this has been kind of a crazy day, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and post pictures of my workspace. I didn't even clean it up before I took these pictures, so you can see it in all it's messy glory.

My workspace is located in a little extra bedroom, just down the hall from the room where my kids play. The walls are light green, the air circulation is good, and there's a window with a pretty decent view of the best yard in the neighborhood (it belongs to the house across the street).

This is where the magic happens:

Fancy right? I especially like the large winged horse and the fact that more than half of the screen is taken up with Dora the Explorer on Netflix. When my son is awake, I usually have to share the screen, which is why I try not to write while he's awake.

I know you are coveting my awesome flower lamp, my puppy dog mousepad, and my ghetto high school pottery too. There's nothing like looking at crappy pottery to get those creative juices flowing.

It's not exactly glamorous, or clean, but it's where I write.

Where do you write?

If Writing Weren't Hard, It Would Be Easy...

... and then everyone would do it.

My unplugged week didn't go so well. This was because:

1. I set an unrealistic goal. I needed to write about 15,000 words last week to finish my manuscript. I knew it was possible-- if the stars aligned, and the kids cooperated like never before, and my muse was operating at full strength--unfortunately, last week wasn't one of those weeks.

2. My kids were sick. I've said it many times, but they really do come first. If given a choice between snuggling with my feverish pukey child while watching a movie, or trying to get some words on paper, I'm going to choose the snuggling every time.

3. I got really sick, and I'm still not really over it. For me, sickness is the ultimate creativity drain. I can't be witty when I feel like poop.

4. The Olympics

5. American Idol (I can't help it! I'm an addict.)

So yeah, some of these things I had some control over. I didn't NEED to watch every single night of figure skating, or ski cross, or aerials, or everything else. And I could have gotten a lot more done if I had turned off the television and read the recaps the next day, but it wouldn't have been as fun.

I did manage to write about 2000 words despite all the craziness, and I feel okay about that. It feels like a drop in the bucket, but at least I'm 2000 words closer to finishing.

Do your writing plans ever get thwarted by things outside your control? What are some things you can control that keep you from reaching your goals?

And I missed you all last week! I can't wait to see what everyone has been up to.

It's All About Taste

It occurred to me about a month ago that all of the steps in the publishing process come down to one thing: personal taste.

You can write the most brilliant novel ever about sea slugs, and if you only submit it to one agent, and that agent happens to detest sea slugs, it won't get published.

Or perhaps you'll find an agent who is crazy about sea slugs and loves your chatty MC and thinks the story is wonderful, but when he submits it to editors, one editor doesn't like the chatty MC, and one likes the MC, but thinks the story is lame, and another just hates sea slugs.

And then if you manage to sell the book you have to worry about reviewers who hate sea slugs or chatty MC's or books with alternating points of view. And then readers... you get the point.

Every person in this world has their own set of likes and dislikes. I dislike books where people seem to fall in love/infatuation for no clear reason. This scenario drives me crazy. But there are a lot of books like this that are popular, so just because I don't like them doesn't mean someone else (or millions of someone elses) won't.

I think it's important to remember when you query agents, or your agent submits to editors, that in the end it comes down to taste. The agent has to love your book in order to take it on. And if one agent doesn't love it, that doesn't mean it isn't great. It could be the hottest book since Harry Potter, but it just didn't fit with that agent's interests. I think this is why we're told over and over again to query widely.

So there you go. Don't feel bad about rejection, it's all (or at least a lot) about personal taste.

Have you ever read a bestseller that you hated? Or have you ever read a quiet little book that you loved?

I was supposed to unplug this week, but I didn't. So, I'm going to officially unplug tomorrow and stay unplugged until a week from Monday. I'll miss you!

My goal during unplugged time will be to FINALLY finish this first draft. It's close. I just need some time to focus.

This Is A Contest You CAN'T Miss

I'm supposed to be unplugged this week. Unfortunately, this week has turned into a crumby week for writing, so I'm pushing back my unplugged time until next week.

And this is good, because I need to tell you about this totally awesome contest at Elana Johnson's and Shelli Johannes-Wells' blogs.

This is the kind of contest I would have LOVED to enter before I got an agent, because you can win query critiques (and partial critiques) FROM AGENTS.

I don't know about you, but when I was writing my query letter I would have done just about anything for some professional advice. I think they are giving away 6 different agent critiques(just kidding, between the two of them they are giving away 8 agent critiques-WOW) so there are many chances to win (plus, while I'm sure there will be hundreds of entries, there probably won't be thousands like Nathan Bransford's contests. The odds will be pretty good.)

I'm sure 90% of you already follow Shelli and Elana, but I'd hate for the other 10% to miss out on this opportunity.

You need to follow both blogs to enter (which you won't regret--they are both must-reads in my opinion). And they even have cool prizes for the already-agented, so you should enter too.

So I'll ask you, if you could have any leg up before you query (a referral from a client, a query critique by a professional, a conference pitch session with your dream agent, etc.), which would you choose?

Cupid Shot Me

I was going to participate in Diane Estrella's How Cupid Shot Me Day, but I really, really need an unplugged week. So instead of taking the time to write a new post about how I fell in love with my sweetheart, I'm just going to link to a few I wrote a while ago. (I know, I'm lazy)

Why Italian Poetry is the Key to My Heart

How a Weekend of Honesty Lead to a Lifetime of LOVE

My husband and I have been married for more than seven years and I love him more everyday. I'm so grateful to be married to someone so supportive, and helpful, and... hot.

Mmm Hmm. Nice.

Do you have a love story you'd like to share in the comments? I'm totally in the mood for mushiness.

And I've won a few blog contests lately and I want to say THANK YOU to Terry Lynn Johnson and Mary Campbell for the lovely new books. I'm so excited to get reading!

See you next week!

The Books I Read

You might know that I am trying to read 100 books this year.

Before you become impressed I should probably tell you that I will most likely listen to half of these books, and another quarter will be chapter books or easy middle grade. But it's still cool, right?

So I think I'm supposed to have a post listing the books I've read so far this year, so you can all see that I am actually reading 100 books and not just pretending to read them. Plus, you can all giggle at my reading choices.

This is what I've read so far this year:

1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

2. Soulless by Gail Carriger

3. The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl

4. Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

5. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney

8. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

9. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl

10. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

11. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

12. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

13. Stargirl by Jerry Sprinelli

14. The Ranger's Apprentice #1 by John Flanagan

15. The Ranger's Apprentice #2 by John Flanagan

16. The Ranger's Apprentice #3 by John Flanagan

17. Clementine by Sara Pennypacker

18. If I Stay by Gayle Forman

19. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

20. Graceling by Kristin Cashore

21. The Black Tulip by Alexander Dumas

22. Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business by Barbara Park

23. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

24. The Shifter by Janice Hardy

25. The Giver by Lois Lowry

Yeah, I've been reading a lot of Roald Dahl. He was my favorite author when I was a kid, so I got my daughter the Roald Dahl collection for Christmas. We've been reading them together every night. So, I can guarantee there will be a lot of Roald Dahl in the final 100.

Anyway, check back if you're ever curious about what I'm reading. I won't ever do reviews, because I don't think I have reviewing skills. Plus I don't want to say negative things on the internet if I hate a book. That wouldn't be nice. But if you are dying to know what I think of a book (because my taste in literature is so excellent--as you can see from my list), feel free to email me.

What are you reading right now? Do you have any recommendations for great MG reads or books meant for grown ups? (My reading list appears to be mostly YA, and I can only take so much teen angst).