Month: October 2008

Yes, I’m Cheesy

Filched from Linda McLaughlin’s blog:


You Are a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

 



You are a traditional person with very simple tastes.In your opinion, the best things in life are free, easy, and fun.You totally go with the flow. And you enjoy every minute of it!Your best friend: The Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Your mortal enemy: The Ham Sandwich
 
 

 

Sadly, I must report that Linda is my mortal enemy, because her blog says she’s a ham sandwich.

Any best friends out there? (PB and J).

I ate a Reuben right before taking this test, and it dares to say I have simple tastes? Because I’m too lazy to cut my sandwich into pieces? Because I drink milk? Sheesh! Milk rocks!

I must point out that I’ve made TONS of grilled cheese sandwiches over the years, because they are a favorite of my family’s. However, I’ve eaten maybe three. Yet, I proudly admit, I AM cheesy.

Tell Me Tuesday–Please!

Okay, blog-buddies, I need some good news! My life has been very stressful for the last couple of weeks. A loved one is experiencing an extremely stressful situation, as well. I can’t go into what our situations are on a public forum like a blog, but the good news is my situation is not health-related and it’s not marriage-related. The bad news is I have no clue when the stress will alleviate. Thank Elle Muse I can find a refuge in writing.

So hit me with your good news! If you need to vent, you can hit me with that, too. Misery loves company, right? But I would most like to hear about your writing goals and accomplishments. If you’re feeling great about your writing lately, tell me. Maybe it’ll rub off into other parts of my life.

Pubbed Contest Deadlines

A mini-rant. Gee, coming on the heels of my bye-bye to Bebo post last week, I almost feel grouchy!

Okay, last year, I entered Penny’s first novella in the RITA. That was the only contest Penny entered. Penny did not final, but that’s not the source of my gripe.

This year, Penny has entered her second novella in the RITA. Now, because Penny’s novellas don’t actually release until the end of December, the January 2nd receipt date for the five copies of the book reaching RWA in Texas is impossible to meet. I can pre-order Penny’s novella anthologies on Canadian Amazon all I want, but I won’t receive them until mid-January. Argh. (P.S. for those who’d like the link to pre-ordering Penny’s second novella on American Amazon, here it is).

For the RITA, I’m willing to pester Penny’s publisher for five copies of the anthology and, like last year, perhaps even hassle her to mail them to RWA for me. I mean, it’s the RITAs—the Oscars of romance writing. Even though there’s a slim chance of an erotic novella finaling, entering is a chance Penny can’t pass up.

So, I receive the October Romance Writers’ Report (RWA’s monthly magazine, for those not in the know), and I’m thinking this year maybe I should enter Penny’s new novella in more than one contest. However, every contest listed in the October RWR has an entry receipt date of no later than January 15, 2009. Usually earlier. That’s fine and dandy if you receive copies of your books from your publisher no later than December 15th (especially when the author lives in Canada, as I do), but when you don’t get copies until mid-January for a book released the end of December, where on earth is the author supposed to find the time to enter these contests?

Hopefully the November RWR will list published contests with more reasonable entry receipt dates—like February 1st. Because I would love the chance to enter a couple of contests other than the RITA and see how Penny’s work stacks up (assuming the contests have novella categories—many don’t). However, I still feel like my freedom of choice of which contests to enter is sorely lacking. Not to mention ironic. My book is copyrighted and published in 2008, but because the release date is the end of December and I don’t physically have copies in my grubby little hands until mid-January, I can’t enter contests with an early January deadline. Yet I can’t enter Penny’s 2008-published novella in next year’s contests, either. Because then I’d need a 2009 copyright/publish date. I dunno, I think that’s wonky.

Awwww…

Allie McBeagle is seven today. This is how she celebrated:

Also, she got a hard-boiled egg for a present. She’s one happy dog.

“A Force to be Recognized”

So You Think You Can Dance Canada, Week Two

Why did I title this post “A Force to Be Recognized”? Because one of the four SYTYCD Canada judges, Jean-Marc Genereux, a French Canadian who often guest-hosts or choreographs on Do You Think You Can Dance (U.S.), was apparently criticized for his English after last week’s first SYTYCD Canada when he said one couple were “a force to be recognized” rather than “a force to reckon with.” But, I dunno, I think “a force to be recognized” captures the essence of what this show is about.

In particular, I love this couple! Arassay and Nico. She’s from Cuba, living with her father in British Columbia for under a year, and he’s from Quebec. I’m sure neither of them minds that Jean-Marc’s English isn’t perfect. The video is a little long, because it includes not only the clip of this week’s Theatre Dark Angel dance (notice how I spelled Theatre, because this is SYTYCD Canada) but the preceding interview bit and the judging at the end. But the dance is definitely worth it to watch.

Now, my question. Why are there four judges on SYTYCD Canada when there are only three on the original American version? For that matter, why are there also four judges on Canadian Idol? I’ve never been able to figure that out. The rest of the dance show follows the American format to a tee, more than Canadian Idol follows American Idol actually, because this year Canadian Idol had a top 22 instead of a top 20 and the show also didn’t restrict the finalists to the same number of males and females. As a result, I believe (I only watched one episode of Canadian Idol this year) the male finalists outnumbered the girls from the start. I actually prefer that. I’d rather see the true Top 20 singers (or Top 22) than have them split along gender lines.

What say you?

(P.S. If Teresa E. is reading this, I tried to make the accents above Genereux using your instructions, but they didn’t work. I’m accent-impaired).

Bye-Bye Bebo

I’ve cancelled my Bebo account (for those unfamiliar with Bebo, it’s similar to MySpace). Unfortunately, for the past several months, I’ve received far too many spam messages that I just have to go in and delete. I also found that I rarely used the service after the first few weeks once I set it up. That said, I would have stayed on if not for the spam—especially the aggravating porno comments mass-sent via cell phone—because I loved the template that I found to showcase my profile and books. But the spam wasn’t worth it. So, to my bona fide Bebo friends, bye-bye! If you want to find me on a social networking site, I’m still on MySpace and intend to stay there. I’m also on Goodreads and Shelfari, although I’m thinking of losing Shelfari, too. Adding books there is a PITA. For some reason, the program runs slow on my computer. I don’t have that problem with Goodreads.

For those who use social networks, which ones are you on and which of those do you find worth your time? Which have you left and why? I’ve never joined Facebook, for example, because I’m already on MySpace and I don’t want to set myself up for another Bebo experience. For those on Facebook, would you recommend it? How about Twitter?

Gah, I’ve just let go of Bebo! Do I really want to saddle myself with another social network? Right now I feel social-networked up the whazoo. I need and want to focus on my writing for the next several months.