All Recent Posts

NaNoWriMo Distractions

Are you taking part in NaNoWriMo this year? If so, then you’re probably at a point where you’d love some distraction, but you totally can’t afford the time as you’re working toward that 50,000 word deadline. Always one to be helpful, I’m offering some links to videos that focus on NaNoWriMo. That way, you can waste your time on the computer while still having some sort of legitimate claim to the idea that you’re working toward your goal. Whose got your back? That’s right. I do. If you’re a slacker, that is.  Read More →

Sing It, Sister

So, what does it take to become a novelist? There are a few things you need, according to this author who felt like she should devote an entire two-minute video to the subject. Feel free to watch it. If not, I’ll sum up: You need a beginning, a middle, and an end, as well as to sit down and write the story. And here I thought it was all difficult and stuff.  Read More →

Writers are Weird: Writer’s Routines (Part Two)

An eclectic bunch of Brits today, and this time I don’t mean me. The great, the surreal and the genius! Will Self is an elaborate and intricate writer so you would think that his prose would need complete silence at almost monasterial levels. However, his approach is even more complex than his writing. Apart from working on a manual typewriter (quaint yet what a pain in the ass) as early in the morning as possible he works on multiple drafts at the same time. He waits until the first draft is 80% finished and then draft two and subsequently draft three. He says it gives him a, ‘grasp of the totality of the book’! He goes onto to talk of... [Read More...]

Maybe Math Really Can Be Fun

I’ve made no secret about the fact that I absolutely love being a freelancer. It affords me a flexible schedule, and I relish not having a boss breathing down my neck. Still, I love to see when people with “legit” jobs get creative and obviously enjoy themselves. Today’s clip is of a really fun presentation a math teacher did for his students. I can’t decide if it’s cool-cool or nerd-cool…  Read More →

We Didn’t Start the Fire

Remember that awesome Billy Joel song and how it summed up, like, a ton of history in just a couple of minutes, while simultaneously taking absolutely no responsibility for anything that has happened?  That was cool, and it had a beat you could dance to, Dick. Today I came across this video that sums up the last decade in seven minutes flat.  I like the way the narrator manages to get in a few zingers, even while talking a mile a minute. ETA: Oops, I guess it’s seven minutes and three seconds. Now how will we find the time to watch it?  Read More →

Writers are Weird: Writer’s Routines (Part One)

Sorry, but it’s the truth. Most are weird good, the type of weird that brings a smile to your face and an expedience to your typing. The kind of weird that your loved ones smirk at but sometimes don’t get, but they’re cool with it. But your pets are sometimes confused as hell when you’re wearing a wig and a baseball cap and dressed in a t-shirt and shorts with slippers in the shape of Scooby Doo. However some are weird WEIRD. I have tried to make a full and frank account of some of them here. Feel free to add your own habits and weird little things so we can compare and contrast and then nervously change the subject and then pretend... [Read More...]

What Are You Reading?

We’ve all heard the advice that if you want to be a good writer, you should also be an avid reader.  I have to admit that I’ve been resting on my laurels for quite some time now.  Since I received my Kindle, however, I’ve poked my head out of my shell and dived into the world of literature once again.  I recently asked you all to offer suggestions for what I should read. It went something like this: “What should I read, and why? Tell me about your favorite fiction. What classics make the world a better place by their mere existence? Fill me in on industry books I should be reading. What authors will blow my mind? What’s the best nonfiction... [Read More...]

Why, Yes, I Do Love My Kindle

Before I start to tell you more about my experience with the Kindle, I wanted to hit you all up for naming suggestions. It turns out that you can give your device its own name, and I haven’t come up with the perfect one yet. If you’ve got a suggestion, please leave it in the comments. As I mentioned previously, my darling husband bought me a Kindle for my birthday. I do love my little toy, let me tell you. We’ve had some issues, and I had to get a replacement because once my battery ran all the way down, it wouldn’t start back up. I sounded so forlorn telling my hubby, “My Kindle won’t wake up.” It reminded me of some little... [Read More...]

I’m a Jackass

So, it turns out that I’m a jackass. Not just a cute little petting-zoo burro, either; but a braying, bucking donkey of a blogger. After four months of inventing word games, of finding hilarious videos, and of attempting to share my self-deprecating humor, I was so sad that no one seemed to be reading. My self-esteem took a nosedive, but I kept trying to put cool stuff up here because a) that’s what I was hired to do, and b) it’s fun. A lot of times, it seemed like Julia was the only one who was interested. This little donkey threw a bit of a pity party, hee-hawing and boo-hooing to herself. After all, when I asked a community of writers... [Read More...]

Double Ds

Below you will find several sets of letters. If you add the same letter to both the beginning and the end of the group, you will have formed a real word. For example, _REA_ would become “DREAD” when a D is placed at the beginning and the end. Put your answer in the comments without looking at what other people have said. 1. _tlant_ 2. _ada_ 3. _eldin_ 4. _illo_  Read More →

Double Ds

Below you will find several sets of letters. If you add the same letter to both the beginning and the end of the group, you will have formed a real word. For example, _REA_ would become “DREAD” when a D is placed at the beginning and the end. Put your answer in the comments without looking at what other people have said. 1. _riti_ 2. _awnsho_ 3. _oin_ 4. _oftnes_  Read More →

An Afternoon Chuckle

Usually I can make these videos and other posts somehow relate to the writing life, but I’d really have to stretch pretty thin to make that work today.  Still, I thought this was pretty darn funny, even if it does have a laugh track.  Read More →

Oh, Literature. How I’ve Missed You!

For some reason, it didn’t quite register when my husband pointed the camera at me as I opened my birthday gift a week and a half ago, that there was something truly special secreted under the purple flowered wrapping paper I’d bought during a school fundraising drive several years ago. It turns out that he wanted to capture the look on my face as I opened the package to find my biggest (current) materialistic dream had been fulfilled. He bought me a Kindle. And I am in love. Um, with him. Yeah, that’s what I meant. Here’s the not-so-flattering picture he got, by the way: As someone who gave up the love of reading as life got more... [Read More...]

We All Want It That Way

Yesterday I talked a bit about why it’s so great not to have an office job.  Then I saw this video, and I’m thinking it wouldn’t be all bad.  This totally made me smile, even if I do have this song stuck in my head now.  Read More →

Why I Can Be Smug, A Blog Action Day Post

So, in case you’re living under a rock, or like me, you’ve been attending to a sick baby for days and haven’t poked around the Internet, I’ll let you know that today is Blog Action Day. It’s something that’s been going on for a few years now where thousands of bloggers all write about one specific topic on one specific day in the hopes that some actual change will come about and the world will be all copasetic and stuff. This year’s topic is Global Warming. No, wait. Scratch that. It’s on Climate Change. Despite having gotten half a dozen emails in the last week reminding me that Blog Action Day was coming up and what I was supposed... [Read More...]