Chips are like stretching

I know, I know, you're all thinking what's gotten into that girl! This is the 3rd blog post this week!

And my explanation will be long and convoluted, so bear with me... For all you FRIEND'S gurus (and aren't we all?) Remember the episode where Monica is making Joey an entire turkey for Thanksgiving and he comes in eating chips? She freaks out on him for ruining his appetite and he explains to her that he has to warm his stomach up, "chips are like streching".

Well that's what's going on with my blog right now. I'm stretching my writing muscle to prepare for next month and the Blogging from A-Z challenge. See that pretty poster to the right, click there to learn more. I initially got roped into this by my writer friends, but now I'm actually getting really excited about it. The basic premise is that for everyday in the month of April (except Sundays) I will blog to a letter of the alphabet. So the first blog will have to do with A, so on and so forth. Some people are coming up with giant scheming plans for themes and continuing stories etc. I think I'm just gonna wing it. You're very surprised, I know.

I'm getting excited about it because it will be a challenge (hence the title) and will force me to write everyday, which can be very hard sometimes. So I'm trying to gradually increase the frequency of my posts this month, in preparation. I'd hate to pull my writer muscle a week into the challenge and have to pull out!  ;)

The funny thing about the whole thing is that I don't blog like a lot of other writers do. In fact my kiwi friend, Jade, who is an amazing writer and has all sorts of awards and contests for me to follow on her blog, and the only response she gets from me on those is another questioning email whining "what am I supposed to do with this again?" And I'm not a tech novice (Don't tell anyone but technology is actually in my job title).  So what's the deal? Well I guess it's just that I blog for me and the people who are important to me. I blog because I'm a bazillion miles away from all those very important people and I suck at calling. This is a way for me to let them see what's going on in my life.

I'm not really into making my blog all about my writing, I'd prefer it be about my life. And my writing has become a big part of my life, but there are other things that are just as important.  Like Ryan and Cleo and travel, and talking about my stupid thoughts.

I apologize in advance for the slew of blog posts you will see over the next two months. Feel free to ignore, delete or even curse at my persistence. You won't hurt my feelings (as long as you don't tell me about it).  :)

Much love and happy blogging!

No really, it's fun you should try it!

Lent sucks

I'm not a religious person. I am spiritual though, and full of intrigue about God and the purpose of life.

Why the hell am I following the tradition of Lent right now? (Ha Ha, I used Hell and Lent in the same sentence, do I get bonus points for that?)

 Oh yeah, that's right, because of Tessa.

Do you know Tessa yet? You should, she's a very cool person, don't let the ugly sunglasses fool you! Anyway, Tessa is a religious person, and decided that she was going to follow the tradition of Lent this year and give up reading. Are you aghast, you should be, I almost fell out of my seat when she said it. How can you give up reading? You might as well give up breathing and blinking and sleeping. I can't even imagine how hard that would be. But as Tessa explained to me, that's kinda the whole point. If you pick something that's easy to give up then there's no struggle, no sacrifice.

Well throughout many discussion about why people give things up, and how and where the idea came from, Ryan and I decided to join in. I'm not doing it for exactly the same reasons as Tessa, but I still think sacrifice is good to endure every once in awhile. Especially in this cushy world we live in nowadays. Ryan decided to give up soda (if you know my husband even a little you can close your mouth, you don't want to swallow a bug) Bill also decided to give up soda... well actually we didn't really give him a choice. If the rest of us were going to be sacrificing, then Bill needed to also, and soda is by far his biggest vice.

Don't worry he's almost over the shakes, though every once and awhile I walk into his office and he's caressing a coke can.

Strangely enough I didn't get to pick what I would give up either. The others picked for me, and then changed their choice a couple of times. They couldn't decide what would hurt me more. It went from candy, to desserts, to the current choice: Video Games

Let me lay it out for you. I'm not a crazy gamer. I don't wear a headset and live in World of Warcraft (Though I have played it thanks to Dr. Sieger!) But I do like games.  The Sims, Civ, and most recently on my iphone, the complete addiction called Triple Town. If you've never heard of Triple Town, look away immediately. Focus on something else, and whatever you do, don't look it up on the app store. I warned you!

So no games for me for 40 days. You have no idea how many times a day I pick up my iPhone and scroll through the apps with longing. But on the plus side, I've been reading a lot more. And I've started writing the sequel to AMPED, it's going to be called APEX, and I'm very excited about that.

 I think Lent will be good for me, as long as the soda withdrawal zombies don't kill me first.

Anyone else giving up something for Lent?

Cleo the voyeur

So my dog is a voyeur.  She watches me get dressed, has to be in the bathroom if I'm in the bathroom, and pretty much has her cute little nose all up in my business most of the time.

And that's ok, I mean, she's a dog right?  I am the person who takes care of her, so therefore I am very interesting.  I get it.  And technically I'd be hypocritical if I judged her, because I watch her do her business too.

But the funniest thing about this dog being a voyeur, is the shower.  As soon as Ryan or I grab a towel and head to the bathroom, she races to get there before us.  Towels and the removal of clothing mean that Cleo's favorite game is about to commence.

The Shower Attack!

She's pretty good about water, doesn't really give us much fuss when we have to give her a bath.  But man, when the shower turns on she jumps up on the edge of the tub and perches there the whole time.  I actually took a picture of it this morning just to help you visualize.

That's her spot while the shower runs.  And when you move and the spray hits her in the face, that's her favorite part because she can open her mouth, shake her head and "attack" the water.  There's the added advantage of getting to lick soap of my legs and pushing the shower curtain back to get a better view.  

So, basically my dog is crazy.  And a voyeur.  And it's weird and maybe a little creepy.  But it's also really funny and makes me love her even more.  Isn't that strange?  

Query Letter

Look at you February, another post!  Don't get a big head, nobody likes a blog with an ego.

So, my query letter was posted on Matthew Rush's blog the last two days.  You can take a look at it here:  http://theqqqe.blogspot.com/

He's an awesome writer that has taken it upon himself to help out other fledglings who need help with the query submission process.  For those of you that are complete newbies... When you write a book and you want to get an agent, you have to write a query letter.  It's a brief synopsis of what your book is about and the goal is to snag the agent's attention so they will request to read your book and then sign you and then sell your book for gazillions of dollars, letting you spend the rest of your days living in Fiji drinking pina coladas.

Or something like that.

So thanks again Matt for the great critique!  For all of my recent addition followers, thanks for your comments as well and here is my revised query letter based on your comments.  What do you think?  By the way, this is just the meat of the letter, I left off the intro and ending.

The question to ask yourself non-writers:  Do I want to read this story now?

Seventeen-year old Avery Lancaster worries she might be crazy. 

When an asteroid collides with the sun, a purple solar flare erupts across the sky.    Now Avery can see haunting images when she’s touched.  She has no idea what these images mean, and she’s not the only one with a new, freaky ability.  Teenagers everywhere are becoming Amped.    

The Flare Research Center is formed, and Flare victims are brought in for “their own” safety.   They’re not calling it a prison sentence, but Avery has no intention of being used as science experiment.  She and her friends flee into the mountains of Colorado before they can be captured.

Hounded by FRC agents at every turn, they find another group of runaways hiding in an abandoned mine.    Now Avery is surrounded by kids who can scale walls, detect metal and cast the room into silence like a mute button.  Her visions are lame in comparison.    

Using their unique Amps, they band together to stay hidden from the FRC agents combing the mountains.  But hiding isn’t enough.  They must learn why the Flare only affected teenagers.     When they discover the government is involved, they form a plan to bring the whole system down.  

In order to stop the FRC, Avery must face her greatest fear; embracing her Amp.  If she doesn’t learn to harness her power, she may lose more than her sanity.  She may lose her life.

I pity you, February

I haven't posted anything yet in February... It's been a rough month and I've been very busy doing final edits on my novel as I prepare to send it out into the big bad world this week!

But as I looked at my blog and the archive running along the side, I suddenly felt very bad for February.  I knew that if I didn't post something soon, February 2012 would slip into the darkness and be forgotten forever.  So here's your pity post February.  I don't really have anything to say, but I'm throwing you a bone so the other months won't ridicule you.

In case you haven't already heard, Ryan and I are booked for another year in Egypt.  Ha ha, booked!  That makes it sound like we have reservations for a table in Cairo.  Which I guess is pretty much the case.  We've decided that we can handle another year in the sandbox, maybe more if the revolution aftershocks stay quiet.

We also have our plans for spring break finalized.  We're flying to Scotland and spending a week driving through the highlands with Matt.  Ryan is about to wet himself over the prospect of seeing a live game with his favorite soccer team in Carlisle.  I'm excited about all of it, the lochs, the pubs, the kilts (oh my!), and the beautiful greenery.  One thing we've noticed whenever we leave Cairo, is that it feels so novel to go to a place with grass and trees.  There's an audible sigh throughout the group whenever we step into a city with clean air and nature. Definitely one of the things I miss most.

Ok, February, that's it, you have your pound of flesh.  I've bared a sliver of my soul to you.  Now you can stand proud on the playground and not be ridiculed as the month that nobody loved.

Jordan in January

Once again life in Egypt has changed my perspective.  I'd never had a burning desire to visit Jordan.  Truth be told, if my life depended on knowing where Jordan was located on a map, I would probably be dead.  But my world has expanded and tales of the spectacular city of Petra drew Ryan and I to the little country east of the Dead Sea last week.

We flew into Amman on a flight that was pushed back twice, so we arrived at the lovely hour of midnight.  For those of you that know me best you are hopefully understanding how difficult this was for me!  I am normally in bed by 9 and asleep by 9:07 :)  By the time we got our rental car and hit the road, it was closer to 1 and the lovely man at the hotel gave us keys and sent us off to bed around 2.

Jordan is a beautiful little country.  The terrain reminded me a lot of Israel (but don't tell Jordan that).  Rolling hills with houses built on terraces and steeped facades of stone.  The brush is scrubby and coarse, and there are huge rocks littering the fields.  We enjoyed the food immensely.

Especially this lebanese dish where they covered tomatoes in a garlic dip and then sprinkle them with sumac.  I would have taken a picture of them, but I was too busy eating.  Wow!  I bought some sumac while we were there hoping to recreate the dish here in Egypt.

I don't think the people were as friendly, but the policemen were fantastic.  Not only did they wear helmets with big pointy spears on top, they were very helpful and courteous.  Once again no pictures, I've been trained well not to take pictures of law enforcement in the middle east.

We visited the citadel in Amman, which overlooks the ampitheater, and more Roman ruins.

Then we drove to Jerash, which a dinky little town north of Amman with some amazing ruins.  There's a Hadrien Gate when you arrive and an amazing ampitheater with a dramatic drop off.

Tessa climbed a wall and I made friends with a wandering horse in the Hippodrome.

The next day we drove to Petra.  On the way we stopped at the Dead Sea.  Didn't get in because it was too cold, but I'd already done the whole floating thing when we went to the Dead Sea in Israel.  It was really beautiful to see it from up high, and the twisting drive through the mountains was great!  

There really just aren't enough words for Petra.  And pictures don't do it justice either.  All I can say is it's amazing, overpoweringly beautiful, and so worth the miles of walking.  But maybe go at a different time of year than we did, because Petra in January was freakin cold!

I'd give Jordan 5 stars as a great place to visit.  There's a lot to see and I can vouch from experience that you can see it all in 4 days!  I think we're done with middle eastern travel for a while though, time for a change of scenery and a bit less noise from call to prayer at 5 am.  The next trip will hopefully be Scotland and northern England in March!  Yay more cold. 

 I think I need to buy a jacket.

Need a book to read!

I am desperately in need of a new book to read.  Want to know what's so funny about that?  I'm actually in the middle of reading 4 right now.  Three that I'm reading and critiquing for writer friends and my own because I'm an obsessive freak.  I keep going back to my pages in fear that something has changed while my computer screen was closed.  Manuscript elves maybe?

But anyway, I digress...I need a fun book, something that I can just melt into and not have to think about grammar or plot or point of view.  I just finished "Winter Sea" and while it was good, it wasn't great.  That's the problem I've been finding lately.  It's taking a lot more to wow me into loving a book than it used to.  I think part of it is the writing process, it makes me uber aware of poor technique or shoddy plot lines.  So many books feel formulaic now.

Oh how I miss those special moments in the past.  I actually have a warm and fuzzy feeling for the days I started to read some of my favorite books.  It was the start of a journey into novels and series that captured my curiosity.  The list is small, but the books I can remember being mesmerized with are:

Harry Potter- Big duh and if you've never read them and only seen the movies I feel bad for you.

Outlander- I was depressed for a week when I finished this series!  I loooooooove the characters, it's a completely addicting read.

The eye of the world - This one was a surprise to me, because I didn't think I would love it so much, and I didn't know it would eventually be 12 novels all the size of a dictionary.  Still to this date it is the most impressive series I've ever read because damn!  There are like 57 main characters.  How on earth Robert Jordan kept his plot lines and characters in order is beyond me!

Hunger Games- I stayed up all night with this one.  I literally could not wrench the book from my fingers.  It didn't matter that I had to go to work the next day, nothing mattered but reading.  That is very rare to find.

Clan of the Cave Bear- This was probably the first adult series I ever read.  It is so beautifully epic, I still like to reread it every few years.

Twilight- I didn't think I'd like Twilight.  I'm not into vampires, whiny girls, or stories that are more about romance that plot.  But once again damn.  I think it's something about her voice, Stephanie Meyers just knows how to grab you.  Couldn't put the books down.

Trickster's Choice- Can't believe I almost forgot Tamora Pierce.  This series is fantastic and I love her writing.  She's not as well known as she should be.  Ali is one of my all time favorite characters!

I think that's it.  My pantheon of book Gods.  Hopefully I'm not getting so old that I've forgotten one!

So, I'm looking for another one to join this collection.  Any suggestions?  What are you reading?  I love fantasy and Sci Fi, historical fiction.  Give me my next fix!