Fonetic Friday: Word of the Day

Hey, you know those cool words they make you type when you comment on a blog, the ones that prevent spammers from commenting? If they were real words, what would they mean? See if you can come up with a definition and use it in a sentence.


Today’s word is: ashes

HAVE FUN! AND HAPPY FRIDAY?

Ashes: Are you kidding me. This isn’t even a made up word. How can they do this to me. How are we supposed to play a make up a definition game, with a word like ashes????

Okay, since ashes is such a lame word, I decided to make up one of my own. Booge-This is what you call a Halloween Scrooge. (I had to make up a word to describe myself, since if been bi#@%ing about dressing up all day.

What Would Your Character Say/Do Wednesday

I’m always looking for questions to ask my characters; anything to pull them out of their shell and see how they act in foreign territory. I wondered what it would be like if my characters participated in other Middle Grade and Young Adult stories. How would they act in Narnia, or at Hogwarts? It’s interesting to see how your characters act in a completely different setting.

Interview questions for your character based on “Watership Down.”

1)How would your character face the destruction of their whole community?

2)What would your character do if they could see the future?

3)Would your character choose to live a comfortable life, even if it meant some of his/her companions would be killed?

4)Would your character strike out on their own, or would they try to get a group to follow them?

5)What role would your character play in a group of refugees fighting for survival?

Lovely News From Lola

The lovely Lola at Sharp Pen, Dull Sword http://sharppendullsword.blogspot.com/2010 has given me this award. Isn't it beautiful.  You MUST check out Lola's blog, if you aren't following already. She has a way of combining pictures and words that is awe inspiring. Plus her blog is just down right fun.

Thank you so much Lola

Melissa’s Myths For Mondays

Myth #10:

It Should Take No More Than a Year To Finish a Book and Sell It


I actually thought it would be much faster than this. I thought I’d dash of a book, give it a thorough going over to pick up any spelling errors that the computer missed. (Since I’m the worlds worst speller, I’m not sure how I thought this was going to work.) Then I’d send if off to an agent who would take one look, fall in love, and pounce on my manuscript. Within weeks I’d have a contract, and my book would be on the shelves within six months of that time.

Boy did I have a lot to learn. I had no idea that agents might take weeks or months just to look at your query, and then if you’re super super duper lucky they might ask to see a partial or full and take months or more to look at that. And that’s just to get to step one.

Does anyone have any tales of woe or triumph about submission times?

Fonetic Friday: Word of the Day

Hey, you know those cool words they make you type when you comment on a blog, the ones that prevent spammers from commenting? If they were real words, what would they mean? See if you can come up with a definition and use it in a sentence.


Today’s word is: Herknorf
HAVE FUN! AND HAPPY FRIDAY?

This is a little know, highly endangered animal that lives high in the andes mountains. It's about the size of a normal house cat, (ie. smaller than Mitchell Lafayette!). It has the hooves of a goat, but the trunk and ears of an elephant. It lives in tiny crevaces high in the mountains and only comes out at night. It eats mainly rocks and branches that grow high on the mountain walls.

No one has ever taken a picture of the herknorf. Only a few natives have seen the animal.

What Would Your Character Say/Do Wednesday

I’m always looking for questions to ask my characters; anything to pull them out of their shell and see how they act in foreign territory. I wondered what it would be like if my characters participated in other Middle Grade and Young Adult stories. How would they act in Narnia, or at Hogwarts? It’s interesting to see how your characters act in a completely different setting.

Interview questions for your character based on “The Warriors.”

1)If your character belonged to a “clan” what kind would it be?

2)What role would your character play in the clan?

3)Does your character’s clan cooperate with or war against the other clans?

4)What would your characters warrior name be?

5)Does your character have an easy life, but a lack of freedom or a hard but independent life?

Melissa's Myths for Mondays

Myth #9

There’s a Magic Formula for Query Letter’s

One thing I did not do when I started writing was to mass query agents with one query letter. Why didn’t I? Because I was too freakin’ scared to query anyone. I let them trickle out like the last few drops of blood available after the vampire holocaust. (Okay, the truth is, I still do.) I have to space my rejection out in small doses.

But I also learned through lagging, that every agent/agency has a different set of requirements and desires when it comes to query letters. Some agents want you to just cut the crap and tell them what your story is about. Some agents want to know why you think they would be a good match. None of them wants to feel like they’re just one of the crowd.

So how do you know? One of my best resources is Query Tracker.com. You can set up a database of agents you want to query, make notes, attach query letters, keep stats. It’s the database I wanted to set up for myself, but couldn’t figure out how, and didn’t have the right software even if I knew. You can also link to interviews with agents, and their social networking sites as well. It’s a huge help finding out what you need to know about the individual agents.

Do you try to customize query letters to each agent you query? What sites do you find most helpful for researching and customizing query letters?

Fonetic Friday: Word of the Day

Fonetic Friday: Word of the Day


Hey, you know those cool words they make you type when you comment on a blog, the ones that prevent spammers from commenting? If they were real words, what would they mean? See if you can come up with a definition and use it in a sentence.

Today’s word is: Smshang

HAVE FUN! AND HAPPY FRIDAY?

Smshang: This is my new favorite curse word. I use it in place of a combination of filthy words I used to spew out, usually when I stubbed my toe, or when the cat chewed up a pair of shoes. FYI: I have no idea how to pronounce this. I just spew out a bunch of mashed up letters.


“Smshang, Mitchell Lafayette, no fancy feast for you, you #@!$. Mommy loves you though, fat boy.”

What Would Your Character Say/Do Wednesday

I’m always looking for questions to ask my characters; anything to pull them out of their shell and see how they act in foreign territory. I wondered what it would be like if my characters participated in other Middle Grade and Young Adult stories. How would they act in Narnia, or at Hogwarts? It’s interesting to see how your characters act in a completely different setting.

Interview questions for your character based on “The Hobbit.”

1)Does you character crave adventure or would they prefer hearth and home?

2)Would your character do something that violated the norms and mores of their society, even if it meant they would be looked down upon for ever?

3)How would your character deal with the hardships of a long journey?

4)How would your character deal with a character like Gollum?

5)Would your character be likely to write down the events of his/her journey for future generations to appreciate?

Melissa's Myths for Mondays

Myth # 8

Anyone Can Be a Writer

This is a tough one. I absolutely believe that anyone can write a book. I also believe that having written a book you are a writer. However, when most people dream of being a writer, they don’t usually imagine themselves with a completed manuscript sitting in a box, in a drawer, behind lock and key… Most people imagine being a writer with a hard bound book that rapidly makes its way from the shelf in a bookstore, to the hands of an eager reader, up to the sales counter, where cha ching, money will change hands, and you will be paid for your writing.

So while anyone can write a book, it takes a lot of hard work to make it to the bookstore shelf. That’s where a lot of people fall short when it comes to their writing. They happily write the book, what fun afterall to bring your imagination to life. But they don’t want to make the effort to do the real work that comes after the book is written. That’s what separates writers who get paid to write, and those whose books moulder away in the drawer. My goal is to be published by a reputable publisher. I’ll keep trying whatever I need to try to make that possible.

What do you think separates people who have written a book and given up on getting published, and those who have been published or are working toward being published?

Fonetic Friday: Word of the Day

Hey, you know those cool words they make you type when you comment on a blog, the ones that prevent spammers from commenting? If they were real words, what would they mean? See if you can come up with a definition and use it in a sentence.


Today’s word is: Poggia

HAVE FUN! AND HAPPY FRIDAY?

Poggia: This is what I called my porch When I lived in New Orleans.
 
“Let’s all go out on the poggia for a julip.”

An Award to Acknowlege New Friends

A Grey from Grey places. http://greyplaces.blogspot.com/ awarded me the "One Lovely Blog Award".

Thank you so much. It's fun to recieve an award and even more fun to pay it forward. I get to pass this award on to some of the new friends I've made in the blogosphere. Check out their blogs. Then pass this on to 10 new friends.

Jolene Perry : http://jolenesbeenwriting.blogspot.com/
Katie Mills: http://creepyquerygirl.blogspot.com/
Emily White: http://emilytwhite.blogspot.com/
Kate Higgins: http://kathleenhiggins.blogspot.com/
Patti Nelson: http://pattinielson.blogspot.com/
Rachel Harrie: http://rachaelharrie.blogspot.com/
Stina Lindenblatt: http://www.stinalindenblatt.com/
Janna Qualman http://somethingshewrote.blogspot.com/
Christina Lee: http://www.write-brained.com/
Lola Sharp: http://sharppendullsword.blogspot.com/

What Would Your Character Say/Do Wednesday

I’m always looking for questions to ask my characters; anything to pull them out of their shell and see how they act in foreign territory. I wondered what it would be like if my characters participated in other Middle Grade and Young Adult stories. How would they act in Narnia, or at Hogwarts? It’s interesting to see how your characters act in a completely different setting.

Interview questions for your character based on “Chronicals of Narnia.”

1)If your character found a secret land in a wardrobe, who would they share it with?

2)Would your character align themselves with “dark forces” to reach their goal, even if their goal is to do something good/positive?

3)Does your character have any relatives or authority figures that mean them harm? How do they combat this?

4)How would your character react to unexpectedly being pulled out of their world, into a foreign land?

5)Would your character adapt to their new environment and resist returning to the “real world” or would they try to get back throughout.

Last Weeks Writing Hours Tally

Last week, Patti Nelson http://pattinielson.blogspot.com/ challenged her followers to keep track of the number of hours we spent either writing, or revising. I just started a new WIP so I also had some character development to do, so I included that time as well.

Monday:
Monday I was so fired up about my new WIP and the character I was writing that I couldn't do anything hardly but write. I did still have to do my job, work out, eat, pee, etc. But I spent 5 hours and 30 minutes writing.

Tuesday:
I usually cook all my meals for the week on Tuesday night, and since this can be quite time consuming, I only got 3 and a half hours in.

Wednesday:
I had several things going on and was only able to get 2 hours in.

Thursday:
I realized that I had less than 4 days to read my book for book club. I went and bought it and when I saw how dense it was, I knew I'd have to put writing on the back burner to focus on reading this book. But I still got in 2 hours.

Friday:
I was frantically trying to read the book, but took out a couple of hours to write

Total for Monday-Friday: 14 hours.

I like the idea of keeping track and being accountable for my writing. I'm going to try to find a way to post this on a regular basis.

So how did you do on your writing? Do you ever have days when you just can't stop writing? What about days when you can't seem to get started?

Melissa's Myths for Mondays

Myth #7

Editors Must Have an Easy Job Because All They Have To Do Is Fix Our Comma and Spelling Errors.

I swear, I’m really putting it out there now. Yes, I actually believed that the job of an editor was to go through your manuscript and fix any spelling errors or commas that you didn’t catch before you sent in your MS. I know, I know, but actually I get this question often from non-writing friends.

It took me a while to realize that the job of an editor has very little to do with spotting comma splices. This was quite an epiphany for me. I think I finally caught on to this after attending a couple of conferences where the editors talked about what they did. But understanding the role of the editor really changed my perspective on the revision process that I needed to engage in.

Have you had learned anything about editors or the editing process that you didn’t expect?

***Also, check back tomorrow, I'll give you my tally of hours spent writing. ***

Thank You for the Award

Thank you Pretty Writer http://pettywitter.blogspot.com/ for giving me the Cherry on Top Award

The award includes the opportunity to Thank Pretty Writer, who has a great blog with all sorts of fun book reviews and interesting news from the UK that I love reading about.

Also to tell anser the question: If I had the chance to go back and change one thing in my life what would it be.

that's a hard question, I've found that if you just wait around long enough your decisions, choices, mistakes, usually reveal themselves to be for the best. I definately would not be where I am now, if I hadn't made a few good decisions and many many decisions that seemed crappy at the time. But since I'm very happy with where I am now, I have no regrets.

I'm passing this along to several other bloggers that I have gotten to know and enjoy:
http://louderthannoise.blogspot.com/
http://greyplaces.blogspot.com/
http://tessyquin.blogspot.com/

Now my computer is acting up so I'm going to stop here for now.

Fonetic Fridays: Word of the Day

Hey, you know those cool words they make you type when you comment on a blog, the ones that prevent spammers from commenting? If they were real words, what would they mean? See if you can come up with a definition and use it in a sentence.

Today’s word is:Ingyla

HAVE FUN! AND HAPPY FRIDAY?

My Definition: A deep sea mushroom. Scientific name: Cantharellus maritimus . "Can I please have extra ingyla on my salad?"