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Showing posts from January, 2012

In frustration, she heaved a sigh

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(First off, I'm not sure that title is grammatically correct. Second, I would love to see what a sigh looks like and how it looks to heave it.)

Do you have trouble coming up with a different way to show emotions in your story? Yeah, me too.
The Bookshelf Muse is a huge help with this dilemma! They have put together a "thesaurus" for us writers.
The other day, I needed a new way to show, not tell, my character's frustration. I went to The Bookshelf muse and found a ton of ideas!

For instance:

  Rushed, heavy breathing, hot intakes of breath, an impatient snort or sneer
· Gritting teeth
· Needing to take a moment to calm down
· Storming out of a room
· Throwing hands up
· Stalking away from someone, leaving in a huff
· Name-calling, personal jab, trying to hurt in retaliation
· Sarcasm
· Speaking without thought, often leading to regret
· Slamming a door
· Grabbing hair in clumps, looking up at the sky "Why me?"
· A heavy sigh
· A strained voice

Those were jus…
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Foto Friday

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Wow!
The inside of a wave.
Can a person with magical water powers make this and walk through without getting wet? Or make this like Moses and escape?
Very cool...






http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/laba_q/imgs/f/c/fc2b5680.jpg
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Too many pretty words?

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Going off this post from the other day (about not thinning seedlings/words) I thought of CHIME by Franny Billingsley. (My brain is odd, I know). Why would I compare CHIME with foliage?

By the end of the summer my garden was overrun with so many ginormous leaves I couldn't find the tomatoes or squash or pumpkins or cucumbers. Ironically, the leaves feed the plants and protect them from the sun but hid them from me.
Toward the end of the season it was easy for me to get lazy and leave the veggies. Then I remembered I didn't want wayward seeds taking over my garden again!
CHIME was amazing. I read the pages slowly, soaking in the ambiance of the story. If only I could write like Ms. Billingsley!
Only, it wasn't her story that moved me. It was the way the author put words and sentences together that moved me.

Here's a couple of examples:
"Another few minutes won't hurt, " said Father in his sermon voice, which is his favorite voice, the one he starches and i…
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"Seymour! Feed Me!"

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Utah weather is strange this year. We still haven't had a good snowfall and it's the middle of January. The weather was soooo nice last Saturday I decided to rake the leaves clustered around my front steps. My daughter and I raked and swept two garbage cans full of leaves. I dumped them in the garden.

While in the garden I had to laugh a little at myself. I remember a couple of years ago we dumped our moldy, gross pumpkins in the garden as well as squash we didn't get around to eating. I was thinking about how good those little gourds would be for the soil, not the consequences of hundreds of seeds scattered around as well.

When the ground warmed up, little green sprouts came up EVERYWHERE! I was giddy with the relief of not planting much that spring. Clusters of green appeared all over and I couldn't bear to thin them.

I hate to throw away a living plant that's doing good (I have no problem killing off all the Morning Glory!). We had at least 1500 plants coming up.…
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Foto Friday

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This pic makes me think of tons of magic being released...


http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1109/C404-5244-6082AuroraTakasaka.jpg
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Sometimes planning is just stalling

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"You were made to create something. Something important. And sometimes, planning is just stalling. So get on with it."  Jeff Goins
I read a post last week that I've been mulling over and want to share with you.
Something you need to know about me first: I'm a thrower-awayer. I LOVE garbage day when all the refuse leaves my house and for a few precious moments the trash clutter is gone.  I like drawers and doors shut.  I like even numbers ($220 instead of $227).  If a shampoo bottle is almost empty I either dump the rest into another bottle or throw it away. It's not worth my time to shakeshakeshake it until the last drop slithers out. (Honestly, I don't think the one penny I'm saving by using the last drop is worth my time either.)
So goals work for me. Nice, clean words on lined paper are a road marker to point me in the direction I need or want to go. When I've completed the task, I can cross it off my list! Aw! Sweetness! Sometimes I get anxious when a go…
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Foto Friday

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Quirkiness & Superstitions

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I've always heard that athletes have superstitions. Watch almost any sports movie or ask any sports dude and dudette and you'll find out they have superstitions too. Go ahead and ask someone. I'll keep typing this post until you come back.

In the meantime, here are a few superstars who boast of superstitions:

Tiger Woods has a habit of always wearing red on Sundays of tournaments.
Michael Jordan wore a pair of his UNC shorts underneath his Bulls’ shorts to channel his success in college.
On the night before a game, Jason Terry (a Maverick) wears a pair of his future opponent’s shorts to bed.

Sports people aren't the only ones with quirks. Here is a list of a few author rituals:

Each manuscript must have it's own writing spot.No chapter can have thirteen pages.No eating sweets while writing about the villain because sweetness might rub off on him/her. Wiggling fingers while a query or manuscript email takes off through cyberspace helps the email fly straight to the…
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How many books can a reader read if a reader can chuck books?

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Sorry. The title got away from me.

I wanted to know:
How many books you read this year?What's your favorite genre?Is there ONE book you would recommend every read?Did you set a reading goal this year? And are we friends on Goodreads? What? Why not? Here's my link so we can be buddies: Taffy Lovell
My goal was to read 75 books this year. I made it by 133%. Yup. I'm an overachiever reader.
I find I thoroughly enjoy Young Adult books. I think it matches my maturity level :0
I LOVED The Girl of Fire and Thorns. And Forgotten. Oops. That's two. Sorry.
My reading goal this year is to read one non-YA book a month.

Confessional Story:
I did chuck a book once.
I had no idea Hunger Games was a trilogy. I read the last page and stopped cold. The words read something like: End of Book One. I threw the book across the room. (It was a library book so please don't tell the librarians.) I couldn't believe the audacity of the author to end on such a literary precipices! And I ha…
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Foto Friday

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Julie Bellon's First Page Fridays

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Need help on your first page? Julie Bellon has an awesome post she does every Friday, First Page Friday. Check it out! Here is the jist of what she does: First Page Friday---What It Is & How It Works Since we have been getting some questions about what exactly First Page Friday is, I thought I would take a few minutes today to explain it.

I was at a conference in April where there was a panel of national agents and editors. They all said the same thing---that if a manuscript hasn't caught their attention by the first page they reject it. They wanted to see fresh and original writing that drew them in, and of course, one free of typos and grammar errors.

As I talked to my writer friends and my editor friends, we all came to the same conclusion---everyone wanted a clean first page. (Of course it goes without saying that we all want a clean manuscript, but for this purpose, first pages fit.)

So, I asked my national editor friend if she could critique…
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Happy New Year! May all your dreams come true!

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