ANOTHER GREAT CONTEST OVER AT Emy's place

Go to it and win an ARC of   MATCHED by Ally Condie. You know you wanna grab this book. Click over to her new place and follow. :) (Apologies for me being late to re-follow you Emy.) Here's the link peeps: Emy's house :)       

Cool contest.

Head over to Theresa Milstein's Substitute Teacher's Saga  and enter her really great get to know other bloggers through her Halloween Haunting contest. Contest ends November 1st. This is such a fantastic idea, Theresa. (Why didn't I think of it?)

Write for teens? Then this is a MUST read.

You have to read what Audrey, a 13 year old Californian, has to say about the reading habits and reading preferences of her and her friends. Click to read what these amazing kids have to say over at  Write 4 Kids

Can You See It? Really? Part Two

Using our senses in writing means using all FIVE of these, makes it so very easy to show what we mean, little gems. If I am going to show the crackling fire in SEVENTY-TWO HOURS what better way than to use my sense of hearing, sight, and smell. I even used touch when Anna burned her finger on  the spattering embers. The sense of smell brings back memories (as Angela pointed out) and is the one we're most likely to use. But let's use them all and give our readers the descriptive language they want and deserve.

I've blogged about our pal, Angela before. I can't tell you the times that I have been stuck, popped over to her blog and used her thesaurus on setting, colors, shapes and textures, or emotions. More than once, her thesaurus collections have brought me back into my book and helped me NAIL the scene. So this being a day when I still have the CRUD, I will leave you with a link. If you haven't yet, please go and sit a spell at her house. You'll go back often, so click over and visit Angela's place. You'll be glad you did. :)

Just want to give a big THANK YOU to Tess. *hugs and more hugs* *and more hugs* :) Never ending hugs to you, pal.

Can You See It? Really?

As writers, we know to make use of our senses, but most of the stories I see, could use a lot more touching, hearing, seeing, smelling, and tasting.

We never go through a day without these vital sense organs reacting to the outside world. When Christopher was little, he grabbed the pretty red HEATING ELEMENT in the oven. I felt HIS pain, because I could SEE his pain. He cried of course, but there were other ways he showed the agony. And when I looked at his hand, I saw the skin had melted away.

We need to do more than show a gurgling stream to our readers. Our readers want to be in the book. Sitting by the stream, smelling the fish, and listening to the wind howl. They want to be able to see the night sky and feel the passionate kiss. I write picture books and middle grade, but thought I'd throw the kiss in for those of you that write the GOOD stuff. :)

So if you are having trouble putting it into words, go and do it. Yes, I really did eat acorns when I wrote SEVENTY-TWO HOURS. And they're quite tasty. By the time I wrote revision 91, :) I was able to write that scene so well, the reader can actually taste the acorn.

Remember, the reader wants to be IN the story with your characters. No matter what is going on. That's why books can take us from another country to ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. 

Short post, but I have the CRUD. I've been in bed for two days. Anyone else have anything to add? Can you see it? Really? Have a lovely weekend. Thanks for popping over.

Happy, Happy Birthday

Happy eleventh birthday, Lenny Lee.

I hope your birthday is filled with AWESOMENESS. Because you are filled with awesomeness. So here's wishing you TONS of joy and TONS of love and 100 more birthdays. (At least.) Everyone join me in wishing this COOL little guy a most wonderful birthday. Everyone sing happy birthday. Sing loud, so he can hear you. (^_^)

Win a copy of A Memory Between Us, by Sarah Sundin

Pop over to Karen's house and read her review of this well written book. You can win a copy. How cool is  that? It's historical fiction, need I say more? :) http://karenelange.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-with-sarah-sundin.html

Check Out Judy's post today

Click over and read Judy's post today. It's about the United Nations focus on bringing water to the millions of people, like the women who live in the foothills of the Drakensberg, who still have no direct access to clean water. (From Judy's beautiful post.) Click over, will you? http://judycroome.blogspot.com/

Question for you

Computer is going and thanks to all my writerly pals that sent me their support and advice. For one thing, everything will be backed up thrice. The thing that hurt the worst was loosing my writing and family pictures. The pictures are gone forever, because someone wanted to hurt a fellow human being. Well he/she got their wish. My entire family was hurt by the loss of our pictures. Ivy went to see Taylor Swift over the summer and those pics (of her with Taylor's band) are all gone. I feel responsible, because I put off backing up. :(

My question for you is this: What is the best movie adaptation of a children's book. Or the absolute worst. I have wanted to do this post ever since Where The Wild Things Are came out. Yeah, I'm a little slow.

As most of you know, my favorite book of all time is: Black Beauty. But NONE of the movies adapted from this book HAVE ever done it justice. Say STINKO with me.

Sea Biscuit was one of the best. And I thought The Black Stallion series was done fairly well. 
 
What did you all think of  The Cat In The Hat? Pinocchio? Eragon? All of the Harry Potter books? Diary of a Wimpy Kid? The Jungle Book? Little Women? Matilda?

Do you have any picks for  the BEST or WORST? Speak to me. :)

I know I've been mostly absent this week.

But I DO have an excuse. My PC has been very sick. Almost dead. As a matter of fact, they had to revive it. And by that I mean, make it new.

This virus was the absolute WORST virus that they have ever seen.  And I have virus protection. So don't don't let that fool ya. Your computer can still get one. Where did I get it from? FACEBOOK!

I opened a message from my son. Not realizing his facebook had been hacked. MY KID. Of course, I'll open something from him or any of my other children. (They all don't have facebook.)

Point? I will never open another message from anyone. I can't. This virus got into all the files, the family pictures, the writing. It wormed its way into my Microsoft Office.

This is a warning to you. All the writing folks that I love. Back up EVERYTHING. Put your pictures on a disc. Please!

This has weighed me down on a week when I should be happy for Beth. (And I am. Just not like it should be. Nothing is this week.) She is in New York with C. (her hubby). Having a big time. *waves to Beth*

I'm using my laptop right now, but am really only writing on this and I am DEATHLY afraid to use it on the internet too much.

CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED. BACK UP EVERYTHING. :(

The story of how I did

Last week several bloggers followed our very own Patti Nielson http://pattinielson.blogspot.com/ into the wonderful world of keeping track of our writing hours, minutes, and seconds. :)

So how'd I do? Here's my tally:

Monday: Well, it was my birthday and I met with Beth. So I wrote NOTHING. UGH (GUILT)

Tuesday: Hospital trip with Christopher. Hubby drove and I wrote in the car for two hours. (Sun was bugging me and hubby was chatting away or I would have written more. More GUILT.

Wednesday: YAY. After home-school I wrote for four hours. WOOT! Left laptop feeling, oh so wonderful about myself.

Thursday: Home-school and then writing. I logged another four hours. Feelin' fine. Yeah!

Friday: home-school co-op. After my journalism class (great kids, btw, I love 'em.) I wrote two hours and then when we returned home from co-op, I wrote for another hour. Said to self, "self, you are a writin' FOOL." Yeah!

Total: Thirteen hours

What I learned. I learned I write more than I thought I did on certain days. And that interruptions don't bother me. I flow along. But I have pangs of GUILT when I don't log at least three hours of writing time. This GUILT haunts me until I am able to have a long writing session. And the guilt makes me believe I won't be able to write the next day. So I have to step outta that guilt in order to write well the next time.

This experiment was totally worth it and I have decided to do it on my own for a month to track my progress on my novel. GET OUTTA HERE guilt. :)