Tag: Liza Kane

And It’s Leap Day

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So, I felt the need to blog today. As if I needed to put a stamp on this day to recognize that yes, indeed, it’s a 29th day in February and that a 29th day in February is a Rare Day that needs to be Memorialized and Celebrated. Or something.

At any rate, in honor of the fact that I can only really write “February 29” every four years, I’ll share 20 mini-goals toward my big life goals that I WILL make happen by the next Leap Year. I’d write 29, you know, because of The Significance that is Today, but as you’ll see, I already had these 20 mini-goals in mind, and I didn’t want to spend extra time making up nine more, when I could be accomplishing the goals on my current list. Like the first one. I’m sure my crit partners would like for me to get on that one, like now.

(Plus, I kinda hate nines and prefer round numbers.)

In no particular order, except for #1:

  1. Finish WIP2. Query it.
  2. Meet my writing buddies at DFW Con. Be accountable.
  3. Go to my paythebills job Event this year (a BIG deal, trust me!). Be inspired. Go next year.
  4. Go to World Fantasy Con. Be a Fan Girl.
  5. Write and finish WIP5. Because it’s snarky yet sweet.
  6. Write and finish WIP4. Because it’s an overwhelmingly huge fantasy novel, and I love challenges.
  7. Write and finish WIP3. Because it reminds me to forgive.
  8. Rewrite my Hot Mess of a first novel. Because by now I will have the skill to execute its storyline.
  9. Be credit card free. Being able to give generously to people means more to me than amounting crap I don’t need.
  10. Read all of Haruki Murakami’s books. Because his stories are what I want to write, but lack the skill.
  11. Revisit the idea of going to graduate school.
  12. Go on a Disney cruise with my family. Because I want to visit Harry Potter World. I said it.
  13. Grow a vegetable garden. Because paying $4 for a salad is ridiculous.
  14. Return to Maui. Hopefully a few times. Refresh my spirits.
  15. Go on a mission trip. Maybe Brazil, or back to the Philippines.
  16. Learn to surf. For real.
  17. Road trip to more national parks. I missed out on Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone Park the last time.
  18. 90% of my food will come from local, organic sources. For reasons too numerous to share here.
  19. Own a puppy. Because my husband has this need to love and be loved.
  20. Continue to meet my physical fitness goals. Because it’s more fun to DO these things in a body that can keep up with my travel goals!

What milestones are on your list?

Image attribution: Shalom Jacobovitz

Far From a Finished Draft

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“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.” Confucius.

So, I put myself on a blogging hiatus simply because I wanted to focus on finishing this draft of WIP2. At this point, I’m still far from The End, but I’m getting ever nearer.

I probably would have been closer to the finish (in fact, I was hoping this would have been a “Yes, I wrote The End!” blog post, but whatever), had I not burnt out sometime between last Monday and this past Tuesday. Sure, being mentally exhausted from the paythebills job didn’t really help me. (I needed to be a little more extrovert-y these past two weeks in my paythebills job, which already strains the limit of my introverted nature.) But, I honestly think I simply got hit with another stupid “fear of some kind of failure” panic attack.

I started to think too much about the story I’ve written so far; obsess too much about the work I’ll have to do to revise it; cringe about all the horrible writing that I’m going to be subjecting my poor crit partners to. So, that mindset just made me shut down and not have anything to write about whenever I sat down to write anything. I even started to entertain the thoughts of working on one of my many other WIP ideas rather than finishing WIP2.

But then…I decided to just plow through the actual storyline, even if that meant writing huge swaths of nothing but chapter summaries. At the very least, I was hoping to see images of scenes again, something, anything, to remind me why I loved this story. I plodded along and added a few pages here and there, but nothing amazing, and surely nothing I’d be proud to put my name on.

Sometime around 3AM this morning, I read a little blog post that Merrilee Faber shared. It’s from Janice Hardy’s blog: The Other Side of the Story. The blog talks about revisions, mainly, but what I liked most about the post were passages like this…

I knew when I wrote this draft that it was a bit “all over the place” because it was wrapping up the trilogy and I wasn’t sure how some things were going to pan out. I needed to write it and see what happened, and then needed to hear what folks said about it before I went back and revised.

…and this…

I cut 10K words (four entire chapters) without batting an eye because I didn’t need them anymore. They did their job to get me mentally where I needed to be, but they hurt the story to leave them in.

I know it’s a little thing, but finding someone who had to write in weird, meandering ways just to get to the place where they mentally needed to be to get through the story was encouraging to me. (Also, that she sent it out like that to gain feedback from her critters before revising it herself.) It immediately made me want to open my WIP2 and add a few more words. (At that point it was nearly 5AM, so I didn’t add too many pages, but I added a few, and that was all that mattered to me.)

I wish I could say that I did indeed find those tricksy muses and voila, I’m hot on their heels racing toward The End. I clearly didn’t, and I’m still plodding. But, I’m here and writing out all the stuff that’s lodged in my mind, and not paying attention to that little internal editor that’s telling me that whatever I’m writing is wrong/useless/unnecessary/doesn’t align with the MC’s characterization or voice.

I’m writing, and as rambly and pointless as those words are, they are getting me closer to The End (much closer than I would be if I waited for perfection.)

Road Trip Wednesday: Best Book of January

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{Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway‘s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered.

This week’s question: What was the best book you read in January?}

First of all, I can’t believe that January is gone, let alone have a “best of” for it. I’ve been so tunnel-vision-y with My Plan to finish this draft of WIP2 (which is still not done, ahem) on top of the everyday fires I had to put out responsibilities that I had to take care of for the paythebills job (main reason why WIP2’s current draft isn’t done yet), that even though I wanted to read so. Many. Awesome. Books. I just couldn’t.* I had to do the Grown Up Thing and Prioritize. *pout*

So, despite acquiring a bunch of books, most of which were sponsored by my friends and family via birthday presents (THANK YOU ALL!), I only really read three books: Anna Dressed in Blood, by Kendare Blake; Pandemonium, by Lauren Oliver; and The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green. (If you KNEW how quickly I devoured books you would be shocked, SHOCKED by this paltry number!)

I know this is a cop-out answer, but considering I prioritized my life to read these books, I would say ALL THREE were truly awesome. Plus, since they were distinctively different genres/styles, they all fed different Book Cravings that I’d been jonesing for.

If I must, MUST choose one, I would HAVE to choose The Fault in Our Stars, since that book is so life-changing AMAZING. (The fact that I’m choosing to spend my meager pennies to buy another copy to giveaway would ALSO be a great indicator to how much I loved it, I would imagine!)

I will eventually come to the point where I can read more science fiction and fantasy, the genre of my heart, but I am waiting till this draft is winging its way to my crit partners before I indulge. (See how Grown Up I am? See??)

So, what was the best book YOU read in January?

[*Waiting in the wings for me to finish WIP2 are Under the Never Sky, by Veronica Rossi, Legend, by Marie Lu, 77th Shadow Street by Dean Koontz, Inheritance by Christopher Paolini, and 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. I. So. Can’t. Wait!]

The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green

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 Six-ish months ago, I went to a little John Green reading, where I first heard snippets of his yet-unpublished-new-book. Though Green read many clever lines that I loved and noted, I went to great lengths to scribble down this conversation in my notebook:

“Literally?” I asked.

“We are literally in the heart of Jesus,” he said. “I thought we were in a church basement, but we are literally in the heart of Jesus.”

“Someone should tell Jesus,” I said. “I mean, it’s gotta be dangerous, storing children with cancer in your heart.”

“I would tell Him myself, but unfortunately I am literally stuck inside of His heart, so He won’t be able to hear me.”

(Sigh. I knew I would love this book. He had me at the mocking use of “literally.”)

Along with sharing the first chapter of his then-unpublished-and-yet-to-be-named book (my notes referred to it as “the story after Paper Towns“), Green also shared anecdotes that related to both his author-journey-so-far, and what he felt was his responsibility as a writer to produce stories that were both helpful and beautiful.

I didn’t understand all the implications of his talk until I read The Fault In Our Stars, that long ago unnamed book.

Green sought to add a story that was both beautiful and helpful into this world? I’d say he exceeded his expectations. (He certainly exceeded mine!) (Also, much of his author-journey-anecdote became clearer to me after reading this book, a lesson I’m taking to heart for my own journey.)

And, here I am, left in a sort of afterglow.

I always get a quiet hush whenever I read an amazing book. Being a part of a story’s world, being momentarily linked with the author of those words, deserves a sort of reverence. Like, we traveled on a pilgrimage together for a time, and shared a holy act of worship.

Or, maybe I’m just maudlin right now since the characters in The Fault In Our Stars loved and grieved the way I would (and have) loved and grieved, and that poignancy is still with me.

I can go on and on about The Fault In Our Stars, but I don’t want to give the wrong impression of this book with my muddy words. Instead, I’ll give you the opportunity to read this book for yourself, and we can revel in the beauty together. (If we haven’t met yet, “Hi! You totally need to read this book so we can be friends!”)

I will send a copy of The Fault In Our Stars via bn.com to one lovely reader of this blog.

[THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED–Congratulations, Christine Myers! Barnes and Noble is processing your order as I type this!]

This book simply needs to be read, and it would be my privilege to give a copy away. I think of it as adding beauty to someone else’s life.

By the way, if you haven’t read this book yet, I highly recommend reading it in the privacy of your own home. Unless, of course, you’re comfortable bawling your eyes out and wiping snot on your shirt sleeve* in public. Then, by all means, do what you want.

(*I plead the fifth that this was me in any way.)

SciFridays: Machinarium

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That little "click here" just can't be denied

So, last night, my husband stuck his baby (aka, iPad2) on my lap, and queued up his latest obsession: Machinarium. Now, I like video games as well as the next nerd, but I was really tired from my (looooong) day, and needed what remained of my eyesight to do things like read, and possibly write.*

Well, wouldn’t you know it, despite my effort to ignore the atmospheric music (and the poor little robot waiting to be put together), curiosity won out**, and I started playing. And, of course, I loved it, and became addicted to solving all the little problems, and moving on to the next scenes. (My hubs knows me so well.)

Anyway, what I love about this game is that it focuses on puzzles and problem-solving, without the death and dismemberment of little robot if you make the wrong move. Since the whole killing thing is not an issue, you’re encouraged to explore the world and figure out how to get from point A to point B. (Plus, little robot is really cute when he dances after solving something.) And, after you solve it, you get to know more about the story and little robot’s world.

Little Robot giving hints about possible next steps

If you happen to own an iPad2, I would encourage getting this little game. I’ve only started, so I’m about a third of the way through this world. Each stage gets increasingly challenging, but that’s part of the fun. You can unlock cheats by playing a little spider game (which kind of reminds me of those Atari games from back in the day) but don’t do it too often. It’s not fun when someone tells you how to do something. I mean, the purpose of the game is to figure things out for yourself, after all, and since you can’t die, there’s no punishment for taking extra time to solve a problem.

Have you played this game yet? How do you like it?

Even if you haven’t played, isn’t Little Robot cute?? 😀

[*There was one part involving a Rubik’s cube type puzzle that completely triggered my motion sickness. I FINALLY got it sorted out, but I earned myself a headache and slight nausea doing it. For those in the know, it’s that red/green puzzle in the prison cell. Needless to say, I didn’t do much reading after that.]

[**Looking at the junkyard scene overwhelmed my curiosity mostly because it had the same landscape that I envisioned for my current work-in-progress, Scrap Metal.]