New WIP Music

Okay, I have so many pots on the stove it's ridiculous, folks. I have book ideas coming out the wazoo, but here's the thing, there's this one that has been eating up all my brain power (and let's face it, I don't have a lot of that). It's this beautiful, or at least I consider it beautiful, story that absolutely must be told. Or else I will hate myself for all eternity. Okay, maybe that's a little extreme...

But still...

So, as you might have noticed, I like to create a soundtrack, as many writers do, for my WIP. And since playlist.com sucks now, I'm gonna have to give a link to my Pandora station for this book.

http://www.pandora.com/station/play/906049481888864147

If anyone knows of a website similar to what playlist.com used to be, could you let me know because it makes me all kinds of sad that I can't just add songs to a playlist then paste the html here without having to sift through youtube videos :(

If you don't want to check out the Pandora station, then here's one song that I think fits my story perfectly (Stef introduced this to me because she's awesome, of course).

Fangirl Friday!

Happy birthday to Zach Braff (a.k.a JD on Scrubs, a.k.a. Stefanie's alter-ego), Paul Rudd, and John Ratzenberger!

So, lots of news on the superhero movies front.

The Captain America sequel will be released on April 4, 2014! YAY and BOO! I have to wait two freaking years to see more of this:

The X-Men: First Class sequel will start shooting in January which means we'll have to wait even longer for more McAvoy and Fassbender. It's kinda easier for me to deal with this since I'm loving the X-Men titles from Marvel. AND I'm only up to 2010 in those. I was on a comic binge the other day and realized I was missing a couple of issues because the next one in line was this:

*RECORD SCRATCH!* Right! To put it simply, I was astonished (nudge, nudge, get it?!).

Anyway, that's enough of that. Let's continue with what I started last week. Today, I'm discussing:

The Best Time-Suck: TV 101, Part 1

Stefanie is Bedazzled!

Once upon a time, there was a girl who went searching for a writer buddy. After meeting a few people, this girl thought she would never find "The One". Nobody was clicking with her. In an act of desperation, the girl posted on the AbsoluteWrite.com forums, titling the post "Can a girl get a writer buddy :)". The heavens shined down on her then. Her savior came in the form of a girl who wrote awesome YA and was funny and just as silly as the girl was. It was the start of a beautiful friendship.

Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic, but considering the impact this writer buddy has had on me, the dramatics are warranted. I first started exchanging emails with Stefanie Gaither back on March 27, 2011. Over the past year, Stef has become not only a writer buddy, but also a dear friend. I even had a dream once in which we met at a writing conference. When we saw each other in said dream, there was lots of hugging and girly squealing (later, when I told Stef about the dream she said she would have tackle hugged me, lol). After the hugs, we became detectives to find the person trying to sabotage our writing... But back to the point of this blog post.

Without Stef's help, my writing would not be what it is today. She taught me the difference between its and it's. She opened my eyes to the wonders of the semi-colon and the emdash. She's tried to help me with my comma problems, but that is a lost cause. She has always been honest about my writing without being harsh. She's helped me out of many writer blocks including one last night. She listened to me rant about how hard writing is and life in general. We have stayed up into the early morning hours just being crazy.

Needless to say, Stef will be getting a very heartfelt acknowledgement at the end of THE SUMMER I BECAME A NERD  because, if not for her, the book would be crap.

Here's just a small collection of things we've traded in chat sessions (of which, there have been "many" or that's what gmail says, apparently there are too many to count), emails, through facebook, and twitter. Enjoy the crazy!

Shufflin' Saturday

I love music! I mean, who doesn't, right?  So, I thought I'd start a new series of posts where I just talk about the music I'm diggin' at the moment.

Fangirl Friday!

Happy Birthday to Daniel Craig, Jon Bon Jovi, and Dr. Seuss!

New Avengers Trailer!!!!

OMGOMGOMGOMG!!! Soooo BADASS! Am I right? I know. I'm right.

I started watching Downton Abbey this week. And yes, all the hype is correct. It's awesome!

Kick Them While They're Down

So, yeah, this is me right now. I even have the same hair style. Kind of.

I was chugging along the other day, writing away, when, all of a sudden, I felt that something was off. And then, I was stuck.

"What is wrong? Something is wrong! Where do I go from here?" Then came the downward spiral of "my book is crap and I can't fix it".

Thank goodness for writer buddies. I sent Stefanie what I had up to that point. By the end of the conversation, I realized something VERY important. It was time to beat my character up. I needed to kick her while she was down. Which sucks because I really like my main character and, just like any person I like, I don't want to see her do something stupid. I don't want her to be an idiot or have someone treat her badly. But, you know what, if I didn't do that, then what kind of story would this be.

Harry Potter is always my go to when I feel like I need to learn a lesson about writing. Remember when everyone and their momma thought Harry was the heir to Slytherin? Remember when Harry and Ron had a fight in Goblet of Fire? When those things happened, you felt for Harry, you wanted him to succeed despite all those hardships.

So, the moral of this blog is: Don't be afraid to kick the sh** out of your character! Plain and simple.

Writer Buddies

The other day I did that post on inspiration for writers here, but I made a big oopsie. I forgot one of the most important things. And I feel like such a goofball. I totally forgot about all my amazeballs writer buddies! So, since I forgot to mention them, I thought I'd do a big post and give you links to all of their wonderful stuff.

1. Juliana Brandt - Such a dear, cool lady! We are both at pretty much the same place in our first drafts so it helps to have someone to talk to about the dreaded middle of the story. Her story is awesome, she is awesome, go check her out (but not in a creepy way :P )!
Twitter
Blog - I Aspire to be...

2. JJ Toner - A very cool dude with a straight forward critiquing style. I always know I'll get the honest truth from JJ. His new book, a thriller called St. Patrick's Day Special, was just released on Sept. 1.
Twitter
Blog - Wild Thoughts by JJ Toner

3. Misty Provencer - Misty is super supportive and always willing to talk writing with me. She also just got repped by Caryn Wiseman at Andrea Brown. Hurray Misty!
Twitter
Blog - Nothing Cannot Happen Today

4. Stefanie Gaither - Last but certainly not least, Stef has been my writer buddy for a while and we talk pretty regularly. We also device ways to distract each other, including trading pictures like this:

I want you to take these rhinestones and make it so they're my hair.

and videos like this:

All in the name of keeping each other sane as we traverse this thing called writing. Not to mention she's always willing to read my stuff and I'm always willing to read hers (cuz it's awesome!). I've learned so much about writing from her. She's a great critiquer (yeah, I know it's not a word, but it should be). She's a great brainstormer. Follow her, love her!
Twitter
Blog - A Sort of Mental Squint
Tumblr

If you came to this post looking for ways to find writer buddies, I don't really have a tried and true process. I met Stefanie on the Absolute Write forums after posting that I was looking for a writer buddy. I met Juliana, JJ, and Misty after commenting on a blog that was setting up crit groups. They invited me in. The only advice I can give is to keep trying. You're not going to mesh with every person you trade chapters with or who responds to a forum post. But, you'll never find anyone if you don't try.

YouTube Tuesday

So, yes, I consider myself a Nerdfighter! NERDFIGHTERS HOOOO! Anybody get the Thundercats reference? If you did, you're cool. Anyway, I've been watching the Vlogbrothers for a while. John and Hank Green are the awesomeness! I can't express how much they've kind of, not trying to be dramatic here, changed my life. Their motto, don't forget to be awesome, might not sound that deep, but, really, it's a very complex statement. It reminds me that everyday we have a chance to be awesome. A lot of us, myself included, just float through life waiting for something to happen to us. Waiting for that one spectacular thing to change us and our life. But, what I didn't realize, is that if I just made an effort, if I took control, the amount of spectacularness could be increased from one to infinity as long as I DON'T FORGET TO BE AWESOME!

That said, I'd like to recommend the Vlogbrothers on this YouTube Tuesday. Here is their most recent video:

Also, can I just say that I LOVE Tumblr! I stole my writer buddies' (*waves* Hi Stef!) idea and created one that is pretty much dedicated to inspiration for my new WIP which I'm about a third of the way through with the first draft. So, check it out or don't or save it for later, ya know, whatevs: http://dftbaleah.tumblr.com/ Also, go check out Stefanie's because hers is all types of alien awesoneness: http://stefaniegaither.tumblr.com/

And that's it! Hope you all have an AWESOME Tuesday! And if you have any YouTube channels that you love, share in the comments :)

Day 109: A Day in the Life of a Writer...

What's a writer supposed to do when they start reading a book and it seems like every other aspect of that book is incredibly similar to the book said writer is writing?

1. Freak the f*** out!

2. Keep reading said book because it is awesome.

3. Berate self for being a crap writer because this book is so well written, it is ridiculous, and there is no way self can do better.

4. Set awesome book down because it is now a ticking time bomb.

5. Call DH to whine about your predicament.

6. Throw manuscript in trash.

7. Write a rambling email to critique partner about how you're thinking of changing the whole vibe and voice of your book.

8. Read critique partner's amazingly inspiring response email that begins with "Deep breaths. Deep breaths."

9. Take said deep breaths.

10. Man up and finish reading time bomb.

11. Realize that critique partner is right. You shouldn't completely change your book just to be different from this other book. Just because there are some similarities does not mean you have to give up. 

12. More deep breaths.

13. Pull your manuscript out of the trash, dust off coffee grinds, and get back to making it sparkle. Because you've worked way too hard to get to this point and not finish.

Day 100: Happy Day 100 Dance!

I can't believe I've been doing this writer thing for 100 days! I don't think I've ever, ever, EV-AR focused on anything for 100 days. *pats self on back*

And I must report that some great things have happened this past weekend. Can I just say Hurray for Absolutewrite.com! Lots of writer buddies have responded to my call for help! Speaking of writer buddies, a special shout out goes to Stefanie Gaither (@stefaniegaither on Twitter and her site is http://stefaniegaither.com/ , follow her, love her). Her story is great so far and I'm really enjoying critiquing it.

Which brings me to this whole crit swap thing. I have a feeling that (hopefully) looking over others' work will make me a better writer. Huh, who knew? It's not really about picking it apart and finding bad stuff, for me, it's more about finding the good stuff. Realizing what is working in their manuscript, finding their strengths and adjusting my own work accordingly. I'm not saying copying the other person, but finding the will in yourself to notice where you're lacking and making it better. Hmmm, thought provoking ain't it... (yeah, I said 'ain't' :P)

Anybody want to show their crit partner some love or tell me about your experiences with beta readers? Put it in the comments, ya'll!