Contests and Fun Stuff
To celebrate making the final four of the American Title III contest, KJ “Kim” Howe is holding a really fun “kill me off” contest. She explains it in detail on the Drunk Writer Talk blog.
Odyssey has announced their summer 2007 fantasy writing workshop.
Contests and Fun Stuff
In my best books for 2006 post, I mentioned the book Intuitive Eating. Here’s an article about the same subject: Common Sense Approach to Eating.
This is terrifying! A cat was trapped in the cargo hold of a plane for three weeks! I guess the owner was transporting the cat and somehow the cat got loose in the hold? I don’t know. But the cat and owner didn’t get hooked up at the end of the owner’s flight, and the cat ended up riding around the world in the cargo hold for three weeks, and miracle of miracles, the cat is still alive! No one’s quite sure what she ate or drank. A cat can’t go that long without water, that’s for sure, but I don’t think it could go that long without food, either. Anyway, it’s amazing. And support for my decision to never, ever take my cat on a plane.
These aren’t necessarily books that were published in 2006 (most weren’t), just books I read in 2006. I hit an all-time high, reading 60 books this year. So while my favorites list might seem long, it’s still only a subset of all I read. In several cases, I read multiple books by the same author, but only put one of them on the favorites list, even if I enjoyed all of them.
I found this great article: 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job on Steve Pavlina’s blog, and it reminded me of a book I read in the month or two before I quit my job: Making a Living Without a Job
I’ve been really busy and haven’t been posting, but I had to pop in here and wish everyone a Happy Holidays. That’s Happy Yule, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, and of course, Merry Christmas. That’s still going to leave some people out, so to everyone - everywhere - have a very happy new year. 
I don’t think I’ve mentioned this on the blog… in late October, I joined StomperNet. Since then, I’ve been just swamped. I’m learning a huge amount, but (naturally) it’s taking a lot of time. Considering the state of my finances, it’s very needed!
I’m thrilled to pieces that the democrats did so well in the midterm elections. Yippee! Hooray!
Now to keep their feet to the fire. There’s a lot to be done, and a lot to undo, and if they screw this up, it’ll hurt our chances of taking the White House in ‘08.
It’s nearing midnight on October 31. I suppose you think that means we’re getting close to the witching hour. But no! At 12:01am on November 1, that yearly trial begins… it’s NaNoWriMo!
I’m probably not going to start word one until I get up tomorrow morning (something about starting off fresh) but I’m getting a little tingle watching the clock, all the same.
I just heard about my MFA application - and I got in! I’m so excited. And so soon… the deadline was like a week and a half ago; I didn’t expect to hear the results so quickly! Anyway, there’s still stuff to figure out - the financial aid and getting registered and all of that. But the hardest part is done. I’m in!
I just saw a fascinating talk on BookTV on CSPAN given by Thom Hartmann, author of the book Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class — And What We Can Do About It
I don’t think I’ve talked much about my application to Seton Hill. I discovered the Seton Hill Writing Popular Fiction program a few months ago and spent several months trying to decide if I wanted to do it or not and finally decided yes! It’ll be difficult, but I’m willing to do it because I believe it will help me tremendously with my writing.
My darling cat is at the vet for the next week. He’s been there since Wednesday, and I miss him! He was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, and we tried giving him the pills, but he was allergic, so that pretty much left radio-iodine therapy as the only viable option. It’s pretty much painless and works really well, the only problem with it is that my cat has to stay at the vet for 10 days. Aaahhhh! It can’t end soon enough. I want my cat back now!!
I’ve been so busy lately. My parents came to visit for a week, and my cat is sick. He’s going in for a procedure next week, and hopefully it will clear up a lot of his problems. The siding is finally finished, but… there’s a bit more that needs to be done. I need to find the money for it. I haven’t been writing much; instead, I’ve been spending a lot of time on the business and trying to make a little money. I’m running out. 
Oh, and I was in a wedding. And I applied for the MFA program at Seton Hill.
Check this out: California Takes on Global Warming. Yay!
And, I’m starting to feel better. Even though I was sick, I still attempted the Labor of Love and Word Count Marathon challenges last week, but didn’t manage to finish either one. Still, I got a little over 5000 words written, and that’s progress.
I haven’t posted in a while - first, I was in wedding last weekend and things were just really busy, and then right in the middle of the weekend (and the wedding), I got sick. Really sick. So I’ve been sick almost a week now, and I’m really tired of it. I hate being sick. I especially hate being sick for a long time like this.
Found this interesting article about a joint effort in California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their state. Both Schwarzeneggar and the Democrat-led California legislature are working together on this effort. Yay! Let’s hope they can work out a deal that will be fair and beneficial to both the environment and the business sector.
Many thanks to Edward Bulwer-Lytton for the inspiration for my new tagline.
Bythepen has long been my handle online; it’s only fitting it be applied to my blog as well.
Welcome to my new home. Not too far from the old, just down the block and all that. (For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, today I moved from my test blog to this nice new permanent blog, and brought along most of the posts from the old one.)
They’re replacing the siding on my house. I’m really glad to finally get this done, but while they’re doing it - what a pain. I can’t wait until it’s over. I took everything off my walls (inside) last night so nothing would fall and break while they’re pounding - so now my house is a total mess. And I’ve been preparing myself for days for being wakened rudely at 7am by loud construction noises outside my window.
I’m watching a documentary on PBS called “Fire and Ice” about the “Winter War”, a war between the USSR and Finland in 1940. Wow. I never learned anything about this in school. Or if I did, it was a paragraph so short I don’t remember a thing about it.
Laurell K. Hamilton
Every so often, I just break down and have to read one.
Signed up for a bunch of writing dares today - Unfinished Business at the end of the month, this weekend’s marathon. And of course I’m in the middle of the July/August Dare. I’m also planning on the outline marathon in the middle of this month, then the one in October prepping for nano, and of course Nanowrimo itself. I also set up the neat countdown up above (at least, it’ll be there until Nano, then I’ll take it down and maybe put something else up there.
Karavans
by Jennifer Roberson
The Sleeping Doll
by Jeffrey Deaver
In the Woods
by Tana French
An Ice Cold Grave
by Charlaine Harris
Tempting Danger
by Eileen Wilks
Holidays are Hell
by Kim Harrison, et al.
Body Movers
by Stephanie Bond
Personal Demon
by Kelley Armstrong
Two Bodies for the Price of One
by Stephanie Bond
The Julius House
by Charlaine Harris
All Through the Night
by Suzanne Brockmann
Made to be Broken
by Kelley Armstrong
Dead Until Dark
by Charlaine Harris
Black Powder War
by Naomi Novik
The Kissing Game
by Suzanne Brockmann
Living Dead in Dallas
by Charlaine Harris
In Care of Sam Beaudry
by Kathleen Eagle
A Taste of Honey
by Stephanie Mittman
A Heart Full of Miracles
by Stephanie Mittman
Club Dead
by Charlaine Harris
Kiss and Tell
by Suzanne Brockmann
The Courtship
by Stephanie Mittman
Manhunting in Montana
by Vicki Lewis Thompson
Dead to the World
by Charlaine Harris
Legacy
by Jeanne C. Stein
Otherwise Engaged
by Suzanne Brockmann
Cold Heart
by Chandler McGrew
Northern Lights
by Nora Roberts
Manhunt
by Janet Evanovich
Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand
by Carrie Vaughn
Alaska by Cruise Ship
by Anne Vipond
A Cold Day for Murder
by Dana Stabenow
3 Men and a Body
by Stephanie Bond
Kitty Raises Hell
by Carrie Vaughn
Storm Glass
by Maria V. Snyder
A Fine and Bitter Cold
by Dana Stabenow
| |
107 / 301 (35.5%) |
| |
70,000 / 70,000 (100%) |
| |
93,596 / 250,000 (37.4%) |
| |
58,835 / 125,000 (47.0%) |
