Penny and Hank Day 5

4000 words exactly. Oh how I love round numbers. Round numbers that are divisible by 5. I'm sort of insane for the number five. Hence why I have to get 60K words and 250 pages, all divisible by 5.

16 pages (I'm not loving that... no 5's)

But I did finish chapter 2.

I met my goal for the evening. YAY and I didn't get overly distracted by the Twitter or Facebook.

Chapter 3 will be one of the hardest chapters I will have ever written. Its very far out of my genre and comfort zone.

BTW- Current writing quality-- craptastic. Thank god for revisions.

Penny and Hank Day 4

Yep, I was home today with a sick kid, so you would think I would get a lot of writing done.

But I was home with a sick kid which means I got about an hour to write.

Chapter 1 is done.

Chapter 2 has one paragraph.

Here it is:

How do I wake up in the morning? Is it the gentle touch of a mother, or the grating noise of a buzzer? Nope, it’s a 75 pound lab mix jumping on my genitals. You would think, since I was woken up this way every day, I would learn and start sleeping on my stomach. Nope. I blame Zack, he was the one who taught the dog to do that. I planned on killing Zack in his sleep one day. It’s been on my to-do list for years.

Word count:2169

Might get some work done tonight, but most likely not. The Office is on and I've got priorities.

My verison of Nanowrimo

Ok I'm starting a new project.
My goal, to finish my newest novel's first draft by the end of the school year. June 23.

My goal is to revise my oldest WIP No System At All and have that ready to query by the end of the summer.

I'm getting all the feedback from my writers group about my second WIP New York Karma tomorrow. I'm going the shelve that one for a while until I start to miss the characters again. After the query/ rejection process is over for No System At All. (I'm hopeful but VERY realistic)

In the meantime, I plan on writing a new story. It's a retelling of a classic greek myth in modern times, complete with a not so goth kid, a accidental kidnapping and six month quarantine.

I started writing it two days ago and I've got 1373 words (three pages for anyone who's counting.)

I want to get about 250 pages and 60K words.

How will I do this? Between mommihood, working, wifing and doctor who, how will I get all this done? Easy--- I plan to do it all, badly.
It's worked so far in my life, lets see how long I can push it.

I'll keep you updated but I need you to help me stay motivated... can you do it? Can I do it?

Let's see if Penny and Hank ever make it out of my head and onto my computer screen.

Penny and Hank Day 3 word count 1373 words.

all about me

Today I'm going to start a new project. It's a new novel, because I have two WIP that are currently being critqued by other writers.

Fun fact about me:
When I don't write, I get grumpy. I get cranky. I'm awful to live with.

So with the summer looming ahead of me and while I'm waiting for feedback, I'm going to start a new novel.


Last night on my car ride home, the entire story, characters, conflict and setting has come to me so quickly.

We'll see how quickly I can get the crappy first draft done.

I'll keep you updated.

My question to you, how often do you get flashes of inspiration? How often do you act one them?

People are amazing- Bombay Beach

I've been meaning to write this for a while, and while my daughter is watching Dora, now seems as good a time as any.

On Mentalfloss.com I found this article.
According to Ransom Riggs:

Bombay Beach may be the most famously depressing place in California; the poster child for the post-apocalypse. On the edge of the dying Salton Sea, an enormous body of water half the size of Rhode Island and so salty and polluted that by 2030 no fish will be able to survive in it, there is a town. There are several towns, actually, along the Salton’s 70+ miles of rancid coastline, but the most in tact, the most iconically awful, is Bombay Beach.

It’s a 10-by-10-block square of squat houses and mobile homes that was somebody’s idea of paradise back when the town was incorporated in 1929. A beachy getaway 150 miles from the Pacific, it was supposed to be Palm Springs with water — but decades of hyper-saline farm runoff and other problems turned the sea into a nightmare; plagued by fish and bird die-offs and outbreaks of botulism that leave its banks littered with corpses and its beaches smelling like hell, all but the hardiest tourists and investors had fled the scene by the late 60s. Even worse, the Salton began to overflow its banks, flooding the bottom part of town repeatedly. The remains of dozens of trailers and houses that couldn’t be saved still sit rotting, half-buried in salty mud, along what used to be the town’s most prized few blocks of real estate.

So here are some pictures from this place.

Dry

Same place flooded

So you would think in a place as crappy as this, people would have abandoned it, but nope, the house that has "The Hills Have Eyes" spray painted on it has people living in it.

That's not sand, that's fish bones. The constant stench of rotting fish must be overwhelming. This is the worst place on the planet, and yet, people live there, they haven't left. It's the their home. Human's need to have a place they connect to runs deep and through all cultures. It might be left over from our primate days.

This picture I think is the most interesting, no matter how isolating the location, no matter how horrible the conditions, we seek each other out. We find comfort in being a group. Sure, some of us might be shy, but when you live in the middle of the desert, it's nice to know, you're not completely alone.

There are about 300 people who live there in 2000. Some people might find this depressing but I find it to be amazing and hopeful. Human's don't give, we don't leave, we stick around because we need each other.

For more about Bombay Bay, you can read the whole article here.

Humans we're pretty cool

So I've decided to focus my blog for the next few entries on how people are pretty amazing.

First of all, we are interested in everything! Look around your desk, see that roll of tape that's been sitting there for 3 years and rarely used. You know what? Someone on this planet SOMEWHERE knows everything about that roll of tape.
Who invited tape?
Why was it invented?
Different types of tape.
The process that tape undergoes to be made.
The process that tape undergoes to be distributed.

You see tape, someones sees a whole career.

If I was a really good blogger I'd give you the history of tape, but since you found this blog you're capable of using the internet you should google it yourself. I did.. there's a PDF all about it.

Humanity has a wide variety of skills and we were not all born equally.

Proof: I was taking an exercise class and during the cool down the instruction was stretching her legs in a full split and her chest was flat against the floor.
I was so far away from the floor I needed my glasses to see it.
I looked at her and thought, "there is no way we are the same species." No other animals on this planet have such a wide variety of skills. If we were different animals would she have an evolutionarily advantage, would she be able to live longer and would I be picked off by a predatory?

Lesson of the day: Humans are awesome

Doctor Who, how I love thee.

New season of Doctor Who started up this weekend (BBC America- its been on for a week in England).

My Predictions for 2010 says "I will hate the new Doctor for three episodes then warm up to him."

Prediction--- WRONG--- I LOVED HIM 10 Minutes into the show.

The writing was prefect, the characters were realistic and funny, the show had the same level of creepiness.

Without giving too much away, in case you haven't seen it and you should because it's amazing, This was a much better opening than seasons 1, 2, and 3. Season 4 was perfect-- cute little blobby things and the reunion of the Doctor and Donna Noble.

Every GREAT episode of Doctor Who was written by Moffit and now that the show is under his control, I have very high expectations.

The WORST episode of Doctor Who is still better than about 98% of American Television. Do your brain a favor and go watch Doctor Who. Your brain will thank me.

Yo Gabba Gabba

Yo Gabba Gabba! Yep at first glance I thought the same thing you did:
What the hell?
What are theses things?
Clearly who ever created it must have been on an illegal substance.
I don't get it.
Is it trying to be retro on purpose?
Did they really just sing a song called, "Don't bite your friends?"

Yep, I thought it was the dumbest show on children's programing.

I don't get DJ Lance, is he the Overlord or the puppet's god or what?
Plex is a magic robot? HUH? Really?
Why are there 4 ecosystems and 5 characters?

Then my daughter started to watch it and by default I started to watch it.

It's not a horrible show.

After reading an entertainment weekly article, I learned that the show was created not by psychologist or a teacher, but by parents. Artistic parents who were in a band called the Aquabats, but parents none the less.

Now the show makes sense.

Clips are short, no more than 3 minutes. Lots of bright colors. Lots of music- simple catchy songs. It encourages kids to get up and dance around translation for non parents "stay in one spot but use a lot of energy to tire you out and so you'll take a nap."

The show has cool musically guests, Weezer, MGNT, the Ting Tings.

Then my daughter tried to bite my arm a few days ago and I said, "No, we don't bite our friends."

Dear God, Yo Gabba Gabba was RIGHT!

Shameless pimping

Yep, I'm going to pimp out my blog for a contest....

http://dear-editor.com/ is a cool site (Thank you Alicia for pointing it out to me) that lets you ask an editor whatever writer question you have.

It's been around for a month and it's going to give away randomly a free MS critique.

If you like writing, or shameless contests, please go check them out!

How smart is smart?

As you may know, I sort of have a crush on John Green. He's an amazing writer, funny, fast paced, and every character feels SO real. The thing about John is, he's smart. Like super smart. Every time I watch one of his videos I learn something.

I'm reading his newest book, where he's telling the same jokes I tell in my WIP but much funnier.

Whenever I read interviews with authors, I'm never left with the feeling of, "well, that person clearly can't tie his shoes."

I'm not the smartest human being in the world... I could fill up blogs of all the dumb things I do in a week--- maybe that will be my next project... instead of Project Nice, it will be Project Erinn's an Idiot.

But I feel like I've got a functional brain, so why am I not "John Green Smart"?

Do I need to be John Green Smart in order to write a good book?

What's the IQ level of the average pro writer?

I"m smart enough to know, there's SO much out there I don't know about. How much the stuff that's out there will I need to know about to be a good writer.

Does anyone know?