Christmas

Hello Everybody!

Did everyone get what they wanted from Santa Claus? I did! I got a new winter coat, some beautiful new sweaters, and a boat for the next two days. Okay, so my nephew got a toy boat and I get to "sail" with him. And I got to be Dr. Kim yesterday with his Sesame Street Medicine Kit. Not to mention I was devoted to untangling all of the plastic animals so my nephew could ignore his Noah's Ark play set. I was really bummed he didn't want to play! Who does he think he is wanting to play with the musical snowmen decorations that will be up for weeks?

So I am reading my $3 book that I bought before Thanksgiving and I almost put it down within the first few pages because the one character was really ticking me off and it didn't seem to bother any other character. The character ticking me off is "perfect" in her eyes and in the story it seems that her husband is cheating on her and her children are mentally disturbed. A small part of me thinks she has it coming. Does that make me an awful person? I didn't feel so bad when the other characters started getting angry with her perfection. Now, I'm sucked into page 200 of 300.

I guess my $3 was money well spent on this book if I'm that addicted to it and feel that strongly about this one character that I love to hate. It also makes me paranoid as a writer. I like what I write-will others? I suppose it doesn't matter as long as I'm proud to put my name on it. Anyway, I hope you are enjoying your new toys as well as others presents today or cuddling up with a book that makes you angry.

Hmmm...insomnia

I went to bed last night around 10:30 (I am nothing without at least seven hours of sleep, just ask my husband), but unforunately I could not fall asleep to save my life. I was stressing over a decision I had made (a good and right decision, just a scary one) and found myself thinking about Anne, Andy, and Mark. I cannot let them go! Anyway, in my head I was running through crucial scenes to include through Mark's perspective. I have to say there is always one scene in each of the stories that I have thought of where I can map it out perfectly because it just sticks with me until I write it down. In RoV, it was scene where Andy overdosed and where Anne and Andy have a battle royale over all their secrets. Through Andy's perspective, it was a moment with his love interest.

My hope for my Christmas vacation is to job hunt for something permanent full-time because that's still the dream, buy a new wintercoat for a ridiculously cheap price, and maybe play around with my web-site. No promises that blogging will occur, but I will try my darndest. That's the beauty of vacationing in Vermont for the holidays, I don't know where I am at because I lose all sense of direction with the mountains.

P.S. FedEx did NOT come through for me today. However, I believe they are not to blame and I'm going to go ahead and blame Lenox. Lenox was like we sent your item, oh wait your item is on back order, and then we are going to send your item but you have to wait until March. Thanks Lenox and I pity your representative and the manager that I will most likely ask for tomorrow when I call to get a definitive location of my purchase!

Seasons Greetings?

So I have been feeling super rushed this holiday season! Not only that, I know I'm losing it. Today I was putting away a coupon for cinnamon rolls thinking, "Oh, maybe I'll get these next week for when I host Christmas morning." Sounds normal, right? Well, I'm going to Vermont for Christmas. Plus, Christmas is essentially next week.
I hate how busy the holidays are and I feel like I'm just trying to survive. That's not what it should be about! I do have only three Christmas presents left to wrap, one of which hasn't arrived to my house yet. Fingers crossed that FedEx doesn't drop the ball on that one!
Between all my baking, gift-wrapping, and working to earn mola-I haven't had much time or desire to write anything. Maybe my Christmas vacation will serve to clear my head. What is everyone else doing for the holidays? Does anyone feel the same way I do about the holidays being extremely rushed?

Now we're cooking (and baking too)

Hello all!

So this is my week: my book is up on Kindle via Amazon, I got two of four kinds of cookies baked for Christmas, and I finally had a major breakthrough for my job search-hence my cooking reference in the title. I got a substitute position for a maternity leave that isn't too far away from my house. I'm REALLY, REALLY excited about it!!!!!! Perhaps my book about my search for a career could have a happy ending in 2011. If nothing else, it will have a chapter where my glass is more than half full!

Also, I saw two people today who purchased my book two months ago and they both said that they loved it! It's always nice to get positive feedback. I'm still kind of frustrated with Andy's story, but that's okay. We'll work on it. Like I said before in a recent post, I think I'm going to move on to my to 1920s who-dunnit novel. I have to say that I surprised myself with how thick and complicated the plot is going to be. It will definitely be intriguing as well as challenging to write. However, anything worthwhile is challenging; otherwise what is the point?

Anyway, I'm going to go set my table for dinner as my husband is cooking dinner for myself and two friends. A home cooked meal-can this week get any better for me? Maybe I should play the lottery tomorrow night.

Moving on Up!

So I've entered the 21st century by adding my book to Kindle via amazon.com! That's kind of the awesome end of being self-published, I own the rights to my book. It would be greatly appreciated if you spread the word to Kindle readers that my book is up there. This small and crazily easy step makes me feel like I'm moving on up in the world!

Anyway, I took the time to proofread what I had written for my first sixty some pages of 1920s novel and I feel like I have a good base. I'm excited to write the end because I think it will be highly fun, but I know I've already made my first mistakes in writing anything: I'm rushing. I lack the details that make stories great. I plan on going back from to the start to add details in and then continuing on with the plot.

Well, those are my thoughts for the day. I'm going to continue the quest to clean my house, wrap gifts, and start holiday baking! Spread the word that I'm on Kindle!

Back in time...

I have been thinking about going back in time to my 1920s novel and finishing that up. I feel that I need to walk away from Anne, Andy, and Mark in order to see if I can in fact let the characters go. It might be fun to immerse myself in another world, time, and culture. "They" (all those experts of novel writing) say that the second novel is the most difficult to write whether it be from exhaustion from the first one or the feeling that you used all your good ideas in the first one. I have never felt that way, but maybe I used too many ideas in the first one to carry over to make a solid second novel with the same characters. I'm okay if I did. After all, I started novel writing to kill time and entertain myself anyway.

I have my 1920s novel start at the holidays in anyway, so perhaps the festivities of the year are sparking my craving to write this. Maybe I'll start playing around with it just to see how far I get. I do have a title for my 1920s novel, The Point of No Return. I'll come up with a way to shorten later similar to RoV.

On a different tangent, if you recall a few weeks ago I ranted about Halloween and Christmas decorations. Those damn inflatable decorations are popping up everywhere and I can't help but look at the people and think to myself, "Why are they wasting their money on that?" I would be at the mall if I had an extra $90-$200 to spend; I can always use new clothes. :-)

Chronicles of Turkey Part 3

Well, the Thanksgiving feast was a success! I didn't learn how to make gravy because my attention was turned on placing everything into serving dishes and making sure it was hot enough to serve. Kudos to people who entertain with fancy meals all the time. It's a lot of time and energy and I definitely prefer baking. As if the all day event of cooking was not energy depleting, myself and the family went out on Black Friday. The important thing is that cooking a large meal doesn't seem as daunting to me now. I think I could tackle the Christmas ham! I could, but I won't. I'm not hosting Christmas dinner.

Anyway, back to the business of novel writing. I don't like tooting my own horn, but there is something about RoV that I cannot recreate with Andy's story. It's still missing some sort of component of magic and I wonder if it's the fact that I'm holding on to these characters when I shouldn't be or if I just haven't found that something exciting to incorporate. Or I could be crazy thinking that it's missing something. I have been rereading RoV one or chapters at a time before I go to bed and I can't put my finger on it, but it's just better. That's really all I can say about it right now because I'm stuck. Any suggestions to become unstuck?

I miss blogging. My work schedule has carried me away from throwing down all my random thoughts down for all to read. As a side note, I'm happy to announce that my time substituting at a school district got extended giving me more hope that I will be able to find a job that utilizes my degree since I am getting more experience. That was a major run on sentence, but I don't care because I'm tired but blogging!

Chronicles of Turkey Part 2

Well, it was another calm day of Thanksgiving preparations and I have to admit that my nerves have been calmed slightly.

I made dips and cut up veggies for my appetizer. My husband found these bags that you put the turkey in to cook it and it keeps all the juices in. This is how my grandmother cooked a turkey and if it's good enough for grandma then it is good enough for me.

I am happy to report that I will not have to wake up super early because I am not stuffing my turkey. My mother is doing the stuffing and it's so worth the wait. So that's where I stand with my Thanksgiving feast. I will attempt to blog tomorrow mid preparation.

Any tips for success?

Chronicles of Turkey Part 1

Yes, I have decided to chronicle my whole turkey day experience. It is my first time cooking a turkey and I feel that whether this is a success or failure that I will share the experience with you. I hope I don't regret this decision...

I went grocery shopping last night and almost started hyperventilating before swiping my debit card. Lets just say that the bill was three times what I typically spend on groceries. I am cooking for ten people and taking care of all major things: turkey, mashed potatoes, veggie, and some other things that are beyond my memory.

Tomorrow I will attempt to prepare my appetizer and clean out the bird. Also, I intend to find out how one cooks a turkey. I have a plan for this...ask mom. You know that same lady who plays doctor for you and can get all stains out of clothing. I will keep you posted with my turkey adventures. Happy Thanksgiving!

My life is too busy...

I'm sorry that I haven't written in a while. I don't really have any fabulous excuses like George Clooney wanted me to housesit for him or the Pope needed my opinion about wedding dresses on Catholic brides. I've been working a lot and I had house guests for a few days. In fact, blogging is prolonging me putting my house back together. I lack the desire to do laundry right now.

I haven't been writing much or at all to be honest because of my whole lack of time, but I think about Andy's story all the time. I have thought of ways to expand certain scenes and even some things that I could add. Sadly, they are not going to be 8,000 words, but it's a start. I think about what I want to do for Mark's story sometimes. One bitter evening last week, I added to my career hunt book because I had some new fuel to the fire. This place called me and said they wanted to set up an interview. However, I left two messages expressing my excitement for this interview, but they never responded. If you don't want to meet me, don't call me in the first place. It's their loss, I'm a hard-worker and fast learner.

I hoping to find some sort of inspiration for anything on Friday night. I am going to go see Harry Potter 7 Pt. 1 with my bestest (yep, you read that correctly) friend from high school and whenever I watch movies like that, I'm always intrigued. You don't have to be a Harry Potter fan (even though you should be), but you have to admit that the idea of the whole thing is pretty cool: a wizarding world within our phone. Does anyone know the spell that Mrs. Weasley uses to clean her house magically. If you think of it, let me know because sadly I can't wait any longer to do the laundry.

The Best Store Ever...

I have been walking around the house and telling my husband that I need a new novel to read and this is always too late after the library closes and I'm too cheap to go buy a new one. My husband and I went to Garden Ridge which is like a Costco meets even cheaper prices.

Anyway, I got a new novel for like $3, will it be anything as good as Rules of Vegas or New York Times Bestseller List? Probably not, but for $3 I am willing to take that chance. I was looking at all the books and thinking, "Hmm...how could I get my book here?" Then, I was like, "Rules of Vegas is worth more than $3."
I will keep you posted with how my big $3 novel is as far as quality goes.

The big steal of the night (no we really didn't steal anything) is my new artificial Christmas tree for $75 off the original price which is below anything at Target could offer and I HEART Target. Now I want to decorate for Christmas because as you know from a few postings ago, I love Christmas decor with the exception of the big blow up things.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my new find with you. Also, I want to tell you how much I miss blogging more frequently. Needless to say, working seven days a week is kicking my butt!

I'm out of words

I finished looking over Andy's story and for now I am out of words, which is rather sad because that leaves me 8,000 words short of my goal. I really want to make my goal. However, I think this will be a good thing. I'm going to send it out to my original editing crew for ideas and take a break from Andy, Anne, and Mark. Everyone needs a break and this will be mine. Maybe I can read a novel or start my Christmas shopping.

Overall, I don't know what to think of my latest story. I'm certainly proud to have accomplished something like this once again, but I feel that it is lacking something. Again, I'm relying on feedback from others to make it better. This was my system with RoV and it worked for me the first time. I think it will continue to serve me well.

I had dreams of being a world famous novelist once again the other day. I was overlooking the appointments at work and thought to myself that working from home would top anything and how it would be nice to have my mortgage paid off because I got a really nice publishing contract. Ah...mortgage free...let us take a moment to bask in the glory of having no debt like that..............................kind of has a care-free quality to it; like sitting on the beach on a warm, sunny day.

Anyway, I guess now that I'm done with Andy's story, that means I could potentially move on to Mark's story, which can be an exciting endeavor. Who knows where all of this will take me. Being mortgage free could be around the corner for all I know.

People, Places, and Things

When asking my husband what I should blog about he responded, "People, Places, and Things." Okay, I can do that...

People:

I love Linkin Park's new song, Waiting for the End. What? Kim likes Linkin Park you say? Yes, it's true. I listen to Hybrid Theory when I'm angry. I want the new album and intend on looking for it at The Exchange, I never pay full price for music.

There was also a crackpot that came into work today looking for a discounted wedding dress for a Halloween costume. She was willing to spend over $200 for her costume. Since when has Halloween become an affair where we spend over $200 on a costume and especially something as lame as being an "ice queen." Just dress like Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls and call it a costume already.

Places:

I have been hankering for a weekend away, which is problematic since I work weekends. At any rate, Christmas is in Vermont this year so I will get a change of scenery. However, I'm in the mood for one of the those random last minute trip deals where it's a big gamble as to what is least expensive. Will it be Atlanta, San Antonio, or Las Vegas? I can never contain my excitement when trying to book these trips.

Things:

Of late, I have loved my car. I've put some money in it and my mechanic and I are hopeful that I can get another three years out of it. This is exciting as long as I don't have to keep sinking money into it. Cars without payments are always a great thing and I like my car: it's one of the last Oldsmobile's ever made and has a Cadillac engine it. My husband doesn't like my car, but I think he's jealous because it's much cooler than his car and if racing, I would totally win with my engine. However, I would take a new SUV in a heart beat. I'm not going to be one of those mom's (I'm not pregnant, let's state that for the record) that drives a minivan. I want a SUV.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the randomness of my thoughts this evening and I would like to thank Mike for his topic suggestion today!

10K to go...

Almost 10,000 words left to write to reach my goal of 90K words for Andy's story. I'm very excited because I'm only half way through the story as far as editing and revisions go. I have to admit that at some points in time, I didn't think it was attainable; but I was silly to doubt myself. 10,000 words is like a drop in the bucket compared to what I have.

The editing is going well. I always get random ideas for minor story line changes at the weirdest times like walking into work or putting my shoes on in the morning. However, any idea is a good idea and it must be considered even if it does occur when I'm freakishly tired and just want to sleep. Lets just say that the comment option in word is my best friend. I write comments to myself all the time throughout my story and then sometimes forget what they really pertan too. That's when I say my first and middle name in anger towards me.

I'm still interested in writing my tales of my career search. I have new bitterness in my career hunt and its as if I'm scratching the scab off an old wound. The blood is the motivation to keep this project alive. Also, it is still equally exciting as I don't know how the story ends: a real life page turner unfolding each new day. Despite my disheartened spirit for a career, not job; a career, I still remain hopeful that it will all pan out for the best.

Less is more

I was driving the other day to a conference when I passed a highly decorated house for Halloween. Now I have never been one to fully get into Halloween as an adult and therefore don't really decorate my house for it (Christmas is my decorating holiday as my house looks excellent in twinkle lights), but I can't help but be extremely annoyed by the large blow up decorations. Even at Christmas, I don't the point. I think those things start at $90 and can go up to a few hundred dollars for just one blow up decoration that looks incredibly tacky. There is one house in my area that has purchased multiple of the same blow up decoration and has about ten of them in a ten by thirty part of their front yard as well as places three on top of their front porch roof!!!!

What ticks me off about this whole decorating thing is two major things: 1. If you can spend hundreds of dollars on gaudy blow up decorations, then you have way to much money because if I had that kind of cash, I would throw some extra money toward my mortgage payment. 2. Less is more! More is only more when it comes money and writing pinnacle scenes in stories. Details are what make them so important otherwise it would just be another line in a paragraph in a chapter.

So there ya have it...I feel less is more in life except for important storyline moments and money. Also, I hope you have your house tastefully decorated this season!

A random mash up of stories and thoughts...

I have nothing special to say today so I will go with another random blog entry...

Today my morning started out with me approaching a kindergartener who appeared to be on the brink of tears. I introduced myself to her and asked her what was wrong. Her response was this heart melting, "I miss my mom" with an exaggerated sigh. I consoled her and offered to walk her to class where I was overly enthused to see her desk in order to get her excited about her day. I stopped in to check on her at lunch and she was doing fine. I love school counseling and writing!

I had a dream the other night that I was dating Tom Selleck. (Wait, it gets better). I wasn't married and the next thing I knew I was escaping through an air conditioning duct from Tom's apartment with Patrick Dempsey. (I told you it would get better. But wait, there's more...). My mom and other friends/relatives were pressuring me to marry Patrick and I was like, "But he's just as controlling and possessive as Tom." However, they didn't seem to care. So I ran away and was going to transfer my retail job position to our Baltimore location and my friend from Baltimore was coming to save me. We decided to meet half way which for some reason worked out to be Greensburg, PA (definitely not half way) where I was hiding in a bush waiting for my friend to come.
Now, I'm a bit fearful to decipher this dream, but I think it all boils down to me wanting to date a celebrity while knowing it would never work out because I'm married and that I need a new job in my field. What is your take? Also, I really just want to see my friend in Baltimore.

I need a Halloween costume in the event that I'm invited to a party. I would love for my hubby and I to go as Peter and Lois Griffin from Family Guy because it would be a relatively easy costume to pull together. Also, I am not beyond sticking a sign on me that says "Nudist on Strike," so I can just wear street clothes because I always have to wear business casual/formal to work now. Any ideas? P.S. Some of my students think I should be a princess, witch, or even a ninja.

I hope you enjoyed this random compilation of thoughts!

Oh the open road, how I heart thee...

I was driving this evening and thinking about RoV and what I would do to change it. I thought about the scene where Mark and Anne have a large fight and maybe a few minor things that I would change and then I stopped to realize that this is how I would write the story now; not two years ago. I'm positive that two years from now that I will think differently on my writing now. This doesn't bother me because I think it just goes to show that I'm evolving as a writer.

Unfortunately, I haven't had much time for editing. I am not used to my seven day work week and getting all the house chores is still a challenge. I'm confident that I will persevere or that my cats will rise to the challenge of doing laundry. However, I have thought of some minor scenes that I want to add so maybe it's a good thing that I'm a little detached from my project.

In addition to my lack of editing, I have sadly not finished Water for Elephants and sorely regret not having it with me when I spent five hours in the emergency room with the my beloved the other night. His ankle is not broken, so no need to fret and no I did not see McDreamy, McSteamy, or any of the Grey's Anatonmy cast. And yes, I was looking for them.

Well, anyway, I must go have my car towed because some moron decided it would be okay to come to a dead stop on a road where we were going over thirty miles per hour. My brakes did stop the car in time and then I had drive home with my emergency brake on (good thing I fixed it when it broke in August). The moral of this story is don't be an idiot while driving and perhaps leave the recommended 3-4 car lengths between you and the idiot in front of you.

Life Mulligan's

Are you familar with the saying, "Hindsight is 20/20?"

I am. My job hunt and even my attempt to find some new places to do book readings has come up a little short. The commercials for trade school and even truck driving school sometimes look appealing. Sometimes I think about going back to school to be a teacher, but I lack the funds for that idea. Other times I think about getting my real estate license because I've done well in sales the past few years at my retail job. If I can sell dresses, I'm confident that I could sell houses.

One of my favorite novels to read is Jude Deveraux's, The Summerhouse, and it's about these three women who get to go back to a certain point in their life and choose a different path to see how it turns out and then ultimately they get to choose what life they want: the old or the new. If I had to go back to a point in time, I think it would be picking a college and a major. I love school counseling and I love Duquesne, but I'm thinking a larger Ohio school for meteorology could have been an interesting route to take. I'll never know of course and I like to think that if I had gone that other way, I would never met my husband or never written a novel: a tragedy on both accounts. After all, what other job do you get paid to be wrong all the time? They said today that it was going to be cloudy, but it was positively sunny for most of the day.

If you got life mulligan's, then perhaps that would be mine. I am a little obsessed with the Weather Channel on both the television and on-line. They have the pollen meter, which I get a kick out of in addition to seeing what is making my sinuses pound. So while I go check out what the temperature is going to be for tomorrow and pray that I get a full time counseling job, I hope you think about your life mulligan's because they are fun to ponder every so often.

My Inner Child

After work today I went to Half Price Books in order to find some children's books that would work for counseling children. So you don't think that I just read books to children all day long, it's a great supplemental activity for the younger kids who can't talk about their feelings, but can relate of a character. At any rate, I have a love of children's books! Before attempting to write RoV, I tried my hand at children's books. Truthfully, I find it difficult to write a meaningful character because I was trying too hard to come up with a fun character and I didn't know how to do that without adding so many details. I feel a lot of the children's books are made great because of the pictures.

Anyway, I love children's books! My childhood faves consist of Ten Loopy Caterpillars, Bip, Strega Nona, and Blueberries for Sal. I find Consider Love fun and cute as well. I found my inner child today and it was good fun! What are your favorite children's books?

Oh Friday, why don't you stay a while?

I'm sorry but it feels like a Saturday, so I really hoping to hang onto Friday. I'm not doing anything special tonight, but I just like the way today feels. For example, I finally got to utilize my master's degree and it was an extremely good weird that I didn't have to keep track of my time spent on tasks down to the very minute so I could log about it for school. Unlike some people, I feel that I was adequately prepared for the "real world" by my institution of higher learning, but in large part from my internship supervisors. Plus, I feel like it's all what you put into it and since I'm passionate about school counseling; I'm putting in my heart and soul.

Working in the school as an employee and not a student intern had a similar feeling as to when I finished RoV. I was like "uh, I really did learn something as an English minor." So I guess I'm just excited about using all my higher degrees of education because so many people don't, not that you can ever strip someone's education away from them.

As if I wasn't feeling accomplished enough today, I acted as superwoman around the house by grocery shopping and doing various cleaning tasks. Nothing pleases me more than cleanliness and organization. I'm weird (or awesome, you preference) like that.

It makes sense if you really think about it...

I believe I mentioned that I will finally be using my degree for a part-time school counseling position. I'm really excited for the opportunity even though it's just two days a week. I feel like I'm a step closer to finding a more permanent position whether it's in a school or community setting. What this boils down to is that I'm going to be working seven days a week for the next two months. I thought, "Well, crap, there goes all my time for everything else mainly writing." But then, I thought about it some more and I think it will be a good motivator for me. (This is the part where you really have to think about it in order for it to make sense)...

Last year, I did work 50-60 hour weeks, went to school, and still managed to do household chores. Somehow among all that I was able to finish editing my novel and start promoting it. I must confess that since I've been out of school and only having one job, I look at the laundry basket or even the dishwasher full of dishes and think, "Good grief, that looks like a highly daunting task." Working more will force me to manage my time better and thus, I will be more motivated to get everything done because I have so little time to do it in. Do you follow me? Does that make sense? Can anyone else relate to this madness?

October 4, 2010

It's October. October! I'm going to start Christmas shopping soon. I know I'm not the only person who is thinking about Christmas shopping and I would like to remind all of you that Rules of Vegas will make a wonderful Christmas gift! Ahh, nothing like a plug on your very own blog. No, but seriously, books always make good gifts. I have received a number of excellent books in my time. Allow me to list the one's I remember for you in no particular order:

1. The Bible from Grandma. What kind of Catholic woman would she have been if she didn't get the Bible for me for my First Holy Communion? To her credit, it was a children's version that had pictures and they did in fact suck me into reading it.

2. Dare to Desire from my college roommate. It is a highly inspirational book that I try to read each year to remind myself that if I want something, I can achieve it and that God has a plan for me.

3. Where the Sidewalk Ends from the fabulous people at Sir Pizza (See best pizza in Pittsburgh for details). Yes, the family got me this book when I overcame my picky eater ways to try their pizza. I have been hooked on the pizza ever since and I have to say, this book got me interested in poetry for quite a few years.

4. Various cookbooks from various people to which my husband thanks you. I am more of a baker than a cook. Besides, life's short, you are supposed to eat dessert first anyway.

My mind is drawing a blank on specific titles, but the point is that books make excellent gifts and Rules of Vegas is no exception. Don't wait until Black Friday to start thinking about Christmas shopping and presents. If you recall, Black Friday wasn't a very pleasant day for our heroine, Anne, in the story. All I'm saying is that a little preparation might be worth it in order to avoid your stepbrother making out with your first cousin.

Multi-tasking

Blogging and baking chocolate chip cookies all at the same time: if this isn't a part of the American dream, then I don't know what is! I have to say that the baking portion of my day is annoying my cat, Sadie, who hops up onto my lap for approximately 6-7 minutes while the batch of cookies bakes in the oven. And because I know you are curious: yes, I do taste-test a cookie from each batch. Any good baker does.

I am moving back to the beginning of Andy's story for another round of editing and then I'm going to put it out there for more opinions. If I push forward with publishing, I definitely want to find an agent. However, as previously mentioned, I have to find a new job. I am looking for people willing to write a testimonial about Rules of Vegas to place on my web-site. It can be anonymous if you wish. If you are willing to write something, I would be very grateful. Please send it to kimberlyzylinski@kimberlyzylinski.com.

It fully has sunk in that I almost have a completed second novel. How crazy is that? Even if it doesn't go anywhere, I can say that I have written two novels, which I think is a pretty cool accomplishment.

Editing

Oh the amount of editing I've been doing is rather exciting. I still am worried about coming up with enough details and maybe one more sub plot, but I will prevail! Of course, I only have time for editing when I'm super tired. Maybe I'll develop a night owl personality.

I have been reading things other than my own writing which is refreshing because I think it useful to see someone else's writing style. I think a good writer needs to recognize different techniques of writing and possibly integrate them into their own to develop an unique writing style and evolve as a writer/person. "What book has Kim been reading that made her think about this?" Water for Elephants. I'm only on chapter three, but I really needed a break from my own work despite having the motivation to continue forging forward with it.

Good news kids: I am back to semi-normal hours at my job. I say semi-normal because the liklihood of me doing twelve hours shifts has dramatically reduced, but may not completely disappear as I have just accepted a temporary part-time position in my field. I'm hopeful that it will open some career doors for me. It only took ten months for me to use my master's degree. Better late than never, I suppose.

::Big Sigh::

I miss having time to blog and I miss being able to write and edit my story earlier in the evening. Honestly, I think that's why I'm struggling with the edits is because my brain is complete mush when I arrive home that to think about another thing that is important will make the remaining contents of my brain spill out. Hence, the title of my post this evening.

I think the missing key ingredient to my story is more details. I'm still having trouble getting into a guy's mindset and maybe that's a good thing. I still think about the story all the time: when I'm driving or when I'm cleaning. Perhaps I'm thinking about the storyline too much. Either way, I intend to read over the story again before passing it off to more friends and family to read. Any suggestions on how to get in a guy's mindset? (If you are thinking drinking beer and watching porn, I'm going to say I'm not a fan of either; so I encourage you to come up with a different answer.) Do I want to know the answer to the previous question?

New reads

Hello,

So I finally figured out what book to purchase with my Borders gift card. The winner is Letters From a Nut. It is written by a friend of Jerry Seinfeld. This guy wrote companies and dignitaries with the most ridiculous of requests: buying a mannequin from Nordstrom's because it looked like his dead neighbor, writing a hotel to see if they found his missing tooth, etc. It's really quite humorous.

Also, I renewed my library card and checked out Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen. If you recall, I am reading it because my boy, R-Pat, is going to be starring in the movie. While I love R-Pat, I don't think he would be a character match for anyone in RoV. Any suggestions though because maybe that is one way to drum up some publicity, we can get the actors on board first so the book will take off and then they can make a movie.

Editing the story is going well, I have been making minor plot changes and have surpassed the 70,000 words which is very exciting. I will keep you posted, but it may be sporadically this week because I'll be MIA for work.

:;Relieved Sigh::

I survived my work week, my car did not. Some engine light came on and caused me to be paranoid so it is being repaired. I'm also getting some "new wheels." No, really, my car needed new tires. Haha...my jokes are awful when I'm tired. Nevertheless, my car should be fine and in the meantime, I'm driving around in my dad's pick up truck. It makes me want to run over people who can't drive. Yep, I'm that girl. I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm high up and I could some major off roading in that vehicle if I chose to. Maybe if my master's degree doesn't pan out I should consider truck driving as a career if I'm going to use that logic. What would be a good handle for me?

I am partially mad at myself because I did some editing the other night when I was getting to the point of teetering on the line of being functional and just staring off into space. Of course, I was editing a crucial part and want to add stuff, but I don't want to do it when I'm so tired, therefore I have this urge to edit, but not enough energy to do it well. My bad joking telling remains unharmed.

I apologize if this post makes no sense what's so ever. I just wanted to write and I'm afraid to edit my story because I don't want to undo all the crap that may pour out of my fingers. Going back to the truck driving handles, I have to confess that I placed my own job hunting woes into Andy's story. At one point, I have him talking to the infomercial on the television about becoming a medical technician or truck driver. Prior to starting my current job, I made it to that point myself. I suppose you have to hit the low points to know that high points are good.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll read this post tomorrow morning and will be like "What was I saying?" I promise I'll write some posts in the morning when I'm a more functional human being.

September 19, 2010

I was rereading Andy's story and it was like reading it for the first time. I had changed some things in the story line the first time around that I don't remember changing and I know that it doesn't match up for what I wrote at the end of the story. Some author I am, I forgot my own story.

I am less nervous about coming up with an extra 22,000 words to work into the story. Right now, my word count is about 70,000. Not too shabby. I think I'm going to reread the story before sending it off to friends and family for their opinions. It can be done! It will be done!

So I have a confession for you and I'm well aware that you may think less of me after reading it. As you may know, I have a small crush on the Twilight series both books and movies and when Rob Pattinson showers, he can look oh-so-yummy. I was stalking R-Pat on imdb.com and found out that he is going to be in the new movie, Water for Elephants, based off of the novel by Sarah Gruen. So now I'm on the search for this book because I want to read it before seeing the movie with Mr. Pattinson. Don't judge me because you probably have a secret like this too. I was going to borrow it from the library, but to my dismay my library card is not functional. I bet it expired because it still has my maiden name on it written neatly on it. Judging by the neat cursive, it's at least ten years old.

Stranger Danger

Hello,

I told you that I would be MIA this past week and bad news kids, I'm going to MIA this coming week too. Come Monday will be the start of my work marathon of close to 50 hours in 4 days. Yay, I'm so excited. This is the last week of this crap, I promise you that.

Needless to say, I haven't had time to do anything with my new novel or my old one. I have thought of some minor plot ideas for the story, but haven't put them into place. Since I've been in a different bridal store locale, there is more inspiration for my crazy bridal shop exaggerated non-fiction or sarcastic fiction novel. It's a different crowd of customers and a whole new level of crazy.

I appreciate you hanging in here with me with my new crazy hours at work. I miss blogging and telling you my random thoughts more frequently.

Back to Basics Again

I don't know why I stray from my plan that has worked so well for me in the past, but I do. Perhaps I do it to add spontaneity as I lack the money and vacation time to do one of those last minute travel deals to a random city. Maybe I just want to find a more effective way to write a novel. Whatever my reason, I end up going back to my roots of rereading and editing until it's done right. This works for me so I'm going to stick with it.

I have been editing my story (for which I thought of two potential titles) and adding a bunch of new things. I will probably read through it again before passing it out to my "original editing crew," who are composed of family members and close friends to get their opinions on it. Then, I will do another round of editing. Viola, another finished novel.

Between now and the end, I would like to increase the story line by 22,000 words. Yep, you read the screen correctly: 22K. This sometimes seems like a daunting task, but I CAN and WILL accomplish this! Where is my cape, I'm feeling like a super hero once again?! (Don't you wish it was grammatically acceptable to use two punctation marks at the end of sentences. Is that really George Clooney?! We won a million dollars?! What do you mean, you are taking me to the psych ward?! Do you see how great two punctuation marks can be?! Three is overkill. See what I mean?!!

Okay, now on a serious note, I may be MIA this week. I am being exiled to a different work location for a few days to cover some shifts. So my seven minute commute is going to become an hour long commute-yay, I'm so excited.

Did you sense the sarcasm in my last statement?!

September 10, 2010

Last night, something rather funny happened. I finished blogging and then I began writing Mark's story and I got stuck. It turns out, writing a trilogy is not like writing a research paper. I didn't know if I wanted to use flashbacks and I didn't want to repeat myself in the stories unnecessarily. Needless to say, I ended up going back to Andy's story to do some major editing. Now I know that writing a trilogy is not like a research paper.

As a side note, to my story above I had a one-sided conversation with my cat about this problem. "Sadie, what comes after Chapter 1? Where am I going?" She yawned and proceeded to curl up in my lap not caring about my dilemma.

Anyway, that is my situation as I know it and I definitely found it amusing enough to share with you.

September 9, 2010

Last night, while starting my third novel, Mark's story, I thought of an interesting concept to look at writing. Keep in mind that up until this past December, I have been in school continuously since kindergarten. I ended up having a conversation with myself that went a little like this: "Kim, you haven't even really fully finished the second story and you are writing the third story."

Then, I was like "Oh silly Kim, it's kind of like a really big paper where Mark's story is the conclusion and Andy's story is the body."

"Hmm, a really big paper you say? Well, I suppose I have successfully written papers where I had a strong introduction, not so great body, and kept rolling with the conclusion."

And it should have been at this point in the evening where I should have checked myself into Western Psych because I was having a conversation with myself, but no one else was home to notice so I kept writing. Anyway, I thought it would freak me out that I was starting a whole new story with the same characters without finishing the second one, but I'm going to run with it for a little bit to see how I do. I might have to abort it for my "back to basics" plan. Either way, it's going to be interesting.

September 8, 2010

I did it! I finished the rough draft of my second novel! It's no where near what I want it to be and I certainly am not sending it off to the publisher any time soon, but I finished a second novel! It is a totally exhilirating feeling! How many people can say they have written one novel, let alone two? I'm guessing not many and the fact that I did finish it gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, I can take my writing career somewhere. Or vice-versa, maybe it will take me places, either way I think it would be an exciting journey.

As crazy as it sounds, finishing the second novel makes me feel like I'm on the brink of big things. I know I have talked about this before and all I can compare it to is the fact that when you are planning a big event such as a wedding, starting a new job, expecting a new member of the family, etc. you get excited over the anticipation of it coming. However, I don't know if a writing career is coming so I want to be excited, but I don't want to get all worked up over nothing. Nevertheless, I feel like Superwoman flying into a new world of possibilities; I'm just lacking a real life cape. I suppose I could fashion one out of a bed sheet and fly around my living room.

I want to apologize for being MIA on my blog the past two weeks or so. My nephew and in-laws came to visit this past weekend and work has been keeping me busy. Those crazy brides just keep rolling in requesting crazy things. Not to mention, I was finishing my second novel. Now if you excuse me, I am going to attempt to write a third novel so I can present the whole trilogy to an agent or publisher.

September 7, 2010

This is my 58th entry for this particular web-site for my blog. How crazy is that? How crazy are you for reading all my thoughts? You don't have to answer that question because we both know what the answer is and it's okay to be a little crazy.

I am still searching for a new job or hoping that I find an avenue that allows me to make writing my career. My fall back plan is winning the lottery. Do you ever do that? Think about winning the lottery? I don't need millions of dollars, I think I just want a quarter million to cover the bills and then I would travel. I don't mind working because I would need something to keep me busy. Maybe I could do something completely different like become a florist or a pastry chef.

Do you feel a little crazier reading my blog now?

Trilogy Ideas

So I was talking to someone the other day and she mentioned that "they" (you know, that group of experts for a particular field) say that if you are going to be a writer, you are kind of golden if you have a trilogy lined up. I thought "Fantastic" because I'm almost two-thirds of the way there. Have I mentioned that I have big plans for Mark from RoV? I have great challenges in store for him. I think about his story a lot. I know his perspective will have a little wisdom that comes with age behind it. In fact, his story line is my motivation to finish Andy's story-line because you can't have one without the other. At least I can't. Andy's story can't be floating out in limbo for all eternity, I have to reign it in and finish it.

Recently, I have been embracing my inner child. I think it will be good for my writing. My two and half year old nephew is visiting me and I pulled out some of my old toys for him. After I type this blog, I may go build a wee waffle house just for s's and g's. I think when you have new experiences or refresh the old memories, it can enlighten your writing. I imagine that the people who work for Pixar and Disney are probably among the happiest on Earth because they get to hang out with their inner child a lot. I know I certainly do when I see new movies such as Up or Toy Story 3.

Anyway, the wee waffle people are calling to me to come build them their dream house complete with elevator, separate master suites, and a kitchen that would make Emeril envious.

September 1, 2010

This year is flying, isn't it? Just the other day, I realized that Christmas is only four months away. Christmas! I'm sure all the major department stores will start decorating for the occasion shortly.

So the past few nights, I haven't slept because I have too many ideas bouncing around my head. It's rather annoying and upsetting that I don't have more time to write them down. Then, it becomes frustrating because if I write them down, will anyone care that I wrote them down, or am I just entertaining myself by writing them down. Yep, this is the crap that keeps me up at night. Now I can't blame my mind completely, the neighbors can be a bit obnoxious every so often and my cats and husband make awful bed buddies. However, more often than not, it is ten thousand stories keeping me awake.

Anyway, enough complaining about my lack of sleep. I have renewed motivation to call various places in order to get my book out there. I had coffee with another self-published author and she gave me the lift I needed. So I hope to hit the ground running once again with phone calls and starting more book readings.

August 27, 2010

So I started something crazy the other night during my sleepless night: I started chronicling my transition from graduate school to the real world and thusly the start of my career hunt. Now I would typically be worried about having two projects going at once, however, I feel that this will be okay because it's not like I know how it all ends yet.

Anyway, my new project is my real story with some comedy thrown in as I've decided to make fun of myself. I already have over one thousand words and I think it will be a fun side project for me. I intend to post some of it on my web-site. Really, I will, I promise!

This weekend I got a family wedding so I will catch up with all you fine people next week!

And the search continues...

As depressing as it may sound, I have kept track of every job I have applied to since November 2009. Why? I find it helpful because sometimes on monster.com the jobs resurface under different titles and I would feel like a fool for applying to the same job twice. Sadly, many of the places I apply never acknowledge me as is the case when job hunting like it's your job.

I feel that resumes should include what you could literally bring to the office. For example, Kimberly A. Zylinski, Master of Science in Education for School Counseling, can bake awesome brownies or cookies for office parties. Let's face it, nothing draws a crowd like free food and if it's delicious then you might as well shut down the whole office for twenty minutes to serve everyone in line for it. Conversely, nothing scatters people away like disgusting food. There is always that one person who brings in candy that has been sitting in its wrapper too long and tries pressing it upon anyone who walks by their desk.

Anyway, my job search tooking an interesting turn today, which to me seems pretty ominous considering I was chatting about faith and trust the other day, with my name being turned into a large international corporation to be a writer for their in-house newsletters and magazines. Granted I'm one of one hundred candidates to get my name thrown in, but the idea of writing full-time had some appeal today. While I don't have my foot in the door yet, this exciting new opportunity gives me hope. I still would love to be a school counselor, but I am slowly making my peace with the fact that it may not happen for me. I am educated and no one can take that away from me and more than anything, I just want to have a meaningful career.

August 23, 2010

FAITH- for being only a five letters, it is an awfully big word. I was at church yesterday and it seemed that the priest began talking to me and me alone. He mentioned that we can sometimes turn our back to God if we don't get our way. One of his specific examples was that we don't get the job that we want and we have to have faith that God has a plan for us. I'm not going to get all religous on you because everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, but these comments led me to evaluate my lack of career and where I was heading.

It was a short thought process as the answer is that I have no idea where my career is heading and no matter where I'm at in life, I will probably never know. So in the meantime, I will just have to TRUST (another five letter word that has a great deal of punch behind it) that it will all work out. However, this didn't stop me from dreaming that I could be the next big author whose book gets turned into a movie and I'm invited all over the world to speak about experience. Since this daydream occurred in church, I was sure to incorporate the words "faith" and "trust" into my imaginary interview with Matt Lauer. Personally, I feel the most frustrating part of it all is feeling like I'm on a path to somewhere really good, but no one else realizes the road is so great. Do any of you feel like you are the same road as me? Perhaps we could carpool.

Anyway, so I'm on my little road full of faith and trust wondering where I am going when it occurs to me that I shouldn't really care where I'm going as long as I'm enjoying the ride. So here within lies a new goal to strive for...I'm going to attempt to be more trusting and faithful that my little journey will lead to something great whether it's the most awesome book deal that anyone has ever heard of or just a simple school counseling job where I can eventually become a principal. I have decided to chronicle this experience here to share it with you. Maybe we can all enjoy the scenery on my journey to Careerville.

August 22, 2010

Good afternoon!

The book reading/signing was a success yesterday. I met some really cool authors and will hopefully will be joining forces with them. There was an interesting discussion that arose between the audience, Jessica Bellas author of Maotai, Mooncakes, and Monks: Misadventures in Hong Kong and China, and myself that surrounded the stigma of telling people that you are a writer. The question was posed about how many people I told when I was writing RoV and why did I tell so few. I compare it to the stigma of someone saying they are going to New York or L.A. to be an actor or actress because their chances of major motion picture success is probably very slim. At any rate, I have dreams now of starting a self-published authors coalition where we can take over the world or at the very least, the region. Either way, it would give me some great material to blog about.

Also, yesterday I learned of a contest that takes place in November where one must write a 50K word story in thirty days. I believe the grand prize is to be published and the draft that you can submit can be the most awful thing in the world. The point is to combat the number of stories started, but left unfinished. I can definitely obtain 50,000 words, but doing it in thirty days is a bit much. I wrote RoV in three months and sometimes I spent 40 hours a week on it! I guess we'll see what November brings.

On a final note, today I was doing the mundane task of dusting my bedroom furniture when I thought of a good side plot for my story, which I intend on integrating as soon as I'm done reading through it. I'm about half way through and have been making minor adjustments on it. It's very exciting to see it slowly coming together!

August 20, 2010

So tomorrow is the big day-I am going to be at Joseph-Beth Booksellers for a book reading and signing. I'm very excited for this! I have a fancy new dress from Alfred Angelo (see the Purely collection) that I'm wearing and I got one of my biggest fans coming with me tomorrow-my mom. I am a bit sad that I will not have time to partake in cheesecake across the street afterwards as I have another engagement, but maybe next time around.

Overall, I have enjoyed my summer break away from book readings. I intend to start making some calls for the fall for some book readings. I'm going to call my usual spots, A and The Fire Escape, and may check out Caribou Coffee. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to share. I hope to see you at the book reading event tomorrow!

August 18, 2010

I was writing an argument between Andy and Anne the other night. I've discussed the challenge of writing through a man's perspective, particularly one that can be kind of playboy since I associate so little that type and when I was writing something that Andy was saying I was like "that's something a petty girl would say." I was home alone so I believe I said this aloud. It was at this point that I stopped writing mid chapter and went back to read what I had written. I'm hoping this will help clear my head and get back into Andy's because he certainly is not a petty girl.

I apologize for small, infrequent entries of late; however, I have been working goofy hours and going to concerts. Tonight I have a date with Paul McCartney. I promise that I will get back into the groove of writing.

August 16, 2010

For those of you that don't know, I have two children: Sadie and Tess. Yes, they are of the furry persuasion, but they are my children and my parent's "grandkitties." I have no doubt that they are treated better than some human children. It amazes me how they have completely different personalities. Sadie is the more feisty one who always steals treats and will sit in the litter box. She's weird like that. Tess is needy as far as attention and gets irritated if you place anything in or around the fireplace as she likes to sit there constantly. They are turning three this week and like any mother, I miss the days when they were tiny. They were quite literally 6 week old powder puffs when I got them.

My parent's have two cats too and in college I thought about writing a story through a cat's perspective and not tell the reader it was a cat until the end. But what other creature on Earth can sleep for 18 or more hours a day and enjoy chewing on Q-tips or mini blind strings? That would be one f***ed up human if I wrote it any other way.

Anyway, even if you aren't a cat person, you have to admit they are amazing creatures. I have to envy their night vision and speed. Each morning, Sadie runs downstairs and into the kitchen to wait for me because she knows I'm going to pass out treats. If I were writing through her perspective, she probably secretly hopes that Tess doesn't eat her share.

Tess and Sadie, my almost three year old daughters deserve some time on the internet after all their furry support for my writing career. After all, they are my feet and leg warmers during the winter when I'm writing.

August 15, 2010

On Friday I experienced a rare phenomenon: stress leaving my body! I went away for the weekend to the Laurel Highlands and the moment I stepped out of my car in twenty degree cooler air and found myself surrounded by trees and calm, I immediately felt the stress leak out of my body. It made me wonder what I could do with a free weekend, tons of quiet, and no stressful distractions of my humdrum Pittsburgh life in terms of writing. I suspect a lot.

Like all good things though, it must come to an end. Now I am back home to find that my cats didn't clean the house (I'm going to let them slide this week since it's their birthday) and all the silly things that I have to do have jumped back into my mind.

August 11, 2010

When speaking to a representative from the publisher that worked with me last year, she asked if I wanted to pursue writing as a career. I said that if the path led me that way, that I certainly would consider it because I was about to finish a degree where obtaining a job would be highly competive and challenging. She guessed that I had a master's in psychology (close enough, mine is in education) and said that my writing had a counseling vibe to it.

I found this comical because I had others tell me my writing was like a step by step manual. This happens first, this happens second, and so forth. More than that, I found it funny because I saw them as two separate entities: be a school counselor or be a published writer. The paths were separate to me.

I thought about this today, when someone told me that on a completely unrelated topic from writing and counseling that I wouldn't succeed with what I wanted to do in this particular situation. (I am well aware that this sounds shady and illegal, I assure you it's not. It's just better to have the whole thing remain anonymous. They simply told me that I wouldn't succeed.) It ticked me off to be told 'no' to something when they clearly weren't giving me a fair chance. They tried tying my potential success to something totally unrelatable to the situation. It would be like trying to correlate how the smell of new carpet is great to how Jupiter's orbit, that's how ridiculous this situation was. It made me want to be a counselor and/or a successful novelist twice as much. I would love to go back to this person and say, "See, I can have my cake and eat it too! I'm a success."

Anyway, I really wanted to have my cake and eat it too today. It serves as motivation to carry on with my writing career even if I never publish another novel. More than that, I feel that I'm already successful and feel sorry for the individual who told me that I wouldn't do well where I was today.

8-9-10

My fruitless job search has brought me on the doorstep of chronicling my lack of success. I am thinking about writing about my anti-climatic graduation (I graduated and then joined a temp agency), my time in a cubicle filled, windowless desert of the finance world, and my search for a career. Now to do this as a fiction piece or as a true story? I would definitely write it as a sarcastic piece. A constant negative thing needs to be dripping with sarcasm or some sort of comedic relief to get them to the other end. Otherwise, you have a movie like Spanglish where all the funny parts of the movie were in the trailer and you thought you were going to see a comedy, when in reality it was a drama with three seriously funny parts. Oh Adam Sandler how you fooled me!

The thing about job hunting is that it always feels like the sky is caving in and then when you get somewhere good, you feel like an idiot for ever doubting your lot in life. At least that's the way I feel. I think I have a similar story to many people out there. I pity anyone who is graduating now. Seriously, stay in school or go back to school. Whatever it takes to keep the loans in deferment because the outside world is a brutal one. Stay in the expensive bubble of academia!

Anyone, I'm going to step down off my soapbox and go swimming because it's hot out. Maybe I'll float around and think of story ideas.

August 8, 2010

I would like to point out that it looks like I'm a fan of my own blog. While I am proud of my work, I became a fan of another blog and added my picture to it and it changed my husband's picture who is a fan of my blog. I will get to the bottom of this dilemma.

Once again, I had something marvelous written earlier and then the internet went down and erased what I had written. Then, I had a rough afternoon of floating around my pool. All my ideas are completely lost today.

It's almost August 6

It's almost August 6 and I'm trying to keep myself awake in hopes I will have a moment of brilliance for writing the current part of my novel. My best ideas come while I'm trying to fall asleep or when I'm in the shower. It's amazing how the steam clears my head. I am a firm believer that you are not truly clean until you spend at least fifteen minutes in a steamy hot shower. I'm aware the water company must love me. I know I'm not the only who has this occur, so it kind of makes me wonder why are more big political decisions made in a sauna? Sure, no one wants to be that up close and personal with an enemy or a (insert your least fave political party here) ___________. But if that is going to clear everyone's heads and help them generate a decision that works best for the good of the people, isn't it worth a shot?
See, it's beyond my bedtime and I had a great idea! You should see me when I'm completely delirious.

I was cursing technology earlier today because I uploaded highly important documents to a highly important web-site, you know secret agent work on a typical Thursday, and it would not cooperate. Then, I came home and started writing and moving sentences and adding stuff in a previous paragraph. I had to stop and marvel at it for a moment because there is no way I would be nearly as productive with writing this all out by hand or even with a type writer. I have to give props to the people who labored to write it all out by hand or crouched over their type writer with their white out if they were correcting a mistake. It kind of scares me about the advancements we will see in twenty years. I worry that I won't be able to keep up or that I'll expose my children to too much addictive technology that they can ultimately outsmart me with. Also, it kind of pisses me off that my DVD collection that has taken a lot of time and money to obtain will be obsolete and I will have to start from scratch. Can't we pick just one form of technology and agree on it. Do we really need things to be faster or shinier? Can't anyone appreciate that I have all the Friends seasons on DVD and I am happy as a lark with my special edition Dirty Dancing movie just as it is?

August 4, 2010

Good morning!

I have some exciting news that I can't remember if I mentioned it before. I have been invited to an event by Joseph-Beth Booksellers in the Southside for a book reading and signing with other local authors! I am very honored to be included in this event and I think it is going to serve as a really great jumping off point for the fall. I have some new marketing ideas that I'm going to put into place. I really did just need a break for the summer because it was all getting to be a bit much doing book reading after book reading.

I have a rare Wednesday day off because I worked a bridal show over the weekend. I have some big plans to clean my house and then I hope to spend some more time writing. I think this book will be a similar length to RoV when all the editing is all said and done. My plan is to push forward to write the end and then go back and read it through to see what needs to be fixed.

I still am looking for books to read to close out my summer if you have any suggestions!

August 2, 2010

I had a crazy business weekend with working and a fabulous date with John Mayer. Okay, so I didn't have a date with John, but I did attend his concert and it was amazing!

My efforts to find a job in field have been rather fruitless. Despite my failure in this arena, it is enticing me to do some sort of memoir of the college student who can't find anything in their field. I know I'm not the only one who has this story, however, much of the time it feels like I do. Since I can't use my master's degree right now, it serves to drive me toward find an agent. As I understand it, finding an agent is much like finding a job in your field.

During a picnic this past weekend, I was able to speak to someone who has publishing experience in the academic world. My hopes were not dashed about possibly finding an agent because I feel it is a matter of searching for one in an organized fashion as well as polishing up what I have been writing. (Lately, that's been a good deal!) I'm trying to go places career-wise, I'm just not sure where I'm going!

July 30, 2010

I found some new songs that are acting as the "soundtrack" to the novel I am writing. They aren't The Fray, but they are Snow Patrol. Is it obvious what kind of music I listen to? I downloaded (okay, my hubby downloaded) an application for my phone that plays various artists of the same genre. So I have been listening to Snow Patrol, Coldplay, and The Fray with the occasional Deathcab for Cutie and other random artists thrown in. My hubby also got me earbuds for my birthday so grocery shopping has some new pizazz to it!

The other day I saw that the Powerball was about $60 million. I said to my friend that I could totally live off of it and wondered out loud what I would do with myself if I did win that much money. I would of course pay off my bills and those that belonged to my family members, share with friends, and travel. But what would I do for the rest of my life? I am not the type of person to just sit around for long periods of time. My friend pointed out that I would write. I probably would. I would volunteer and when I have children, you better believe I would be an awesome classroom mom!

July 28, 2010

Truth be told, I feel like I repeat myself a lot on this blog. Plus, I am tired of writing about the same old things so tonight I'm just going to talk about random stuff. Do what you will with it.

Did you know that silk can't be spun in pure white? It's true, take that fact to Jeopardy, but because it is an all natural fabric it is not naturally white. So if you hear someone say that they can get you white silk, they are lying and going to give you something other than silk.

If money were no object (sadly it is), I would fly first class to Australia and check out The Australia Zoo (formerly run by The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin. I miss Steve and all his crazy antics. The world was a better place with him in it and I hope his children aspire to be just like him). I would check out the opera house, the Great Barrier Reef, and wouldn't leave the country until I hold a koala bear.

I have never been to Disney World. I'm actually afraid to go now in case I see one of the Muppets and the puppeteers attached to one of them. I have loved the Muppets from day one and I think it would ruin all the magic to see them being worked by the puppeteer. I feel that some sense of awe from childhood should remain in adulthood. For example, I was totally disappointed when I went to Kennywood one year. I was too afraid to ride the coasters and all the kiddie land and rides like the Turtle had lost its luster. The magic was gone.

Finally, there are less lightning bugs out this year, than last year. I have no scientific basis for this other than the fact that last year, I could look out into my yard and it was like yellow twinkling lights everywhere. Now it's just a random sparkle here and there. I correllate the lack of lightning bugs with the heat. Last year, was unseasonable cool.

I hope you enjoyed the randomness of this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you want more random thoughts or stories, please feel free to let me know.

July 27, 2010

Last night, I enjoyed the sillier aspects of writing a novel such as searching for small towns in Missouri. I have never been to Missouri, but when using Mapquest, I figured I found farmlands when all the roads in the immediate area titled County Road followed by a number. Plus, they were a great deal of distance from the major cities.
I would imagine that if I were to go to this small farm towns that I would hope to see my characters there, much like my drive to and from vacation when passing Mechanicsburg. If I exited at Mechanicsburg, would I have found Anne and her family? The prospect of having such success is what keeps me looking. We live for the "maybe's" and the "what if's" of life. Maybe I will meet Matt Damon. What if I win the lottery? Maybe my husband will bring me home a strawberry milkshake after his softball game. The mystery is exciting!

July 26, 2010

So last night I couldn't fall asleep because I had a ton of story ideas running through my head. It was to the point where I had quickly mapped out the story-line from beginning to end and even thought about how I would start writing it. I have to admit that it was rather annoying because I just wanted to go to sleep. Not only that, I am in the middle of writing a story and I wanted to kick out the last book of that series before starting anything new. I wonder if this happens to any other authors.

Before my racing mind plagued me, I was on a roll with writing. I'm getting to a really pivotal part of the story. It's kind of cruel to tease you like that. I will post something new on my web-site! Promise!

July 25, 2010

Hello,

So I was in a major bookstore the other night and when I walked in, they had a table set up for an author to do a book signing. I totally want to do that! The big bookstores did not like the little guy and that is why I am thankful for Joseph-Beth Booksellers. So I was walking around looking for a book to read because I had a gift card to spend and I'm totally overwhelmed by the selection. I am taking suggestions for what would be a good read to close out my summer.
Anyway, while walking around I had this super longing for to get my book in there. My book may not win any publishing prizes, but it is a good read and I'm sure certainly better than some of the stuff on the shelves. Therefore, I'm on mission to find an agent. I will probably start this search in the fall because my mission now is to find a new full-time job, preferably one that will utilize my master's degree.
But I can taste the success of being in a large national bookstore and I want it. I'm the type of person that if I want something, I find a way of getting it. After all, I wanted to be published and I made that dream happen!

July 23, 2010

Hello,

I'm sorry I haven't written a few days, I was sick and then I had an espionage mission. That's right, an espionage mission. Just in case my master's degree doesn't pan out, I'm training to be a secret agent. I'm excited that I thought about more details for the end of the story.

I have no air condition and truth be told, it's a bit much to sit in front of the computer to write. It's just too hot to do anything except swim or sit in air conditioning. Today I successful spent most of my day at the mall. Hopefully by the time it cools down I will have the bulk of the story line worked out and will be able to breeze through the writing.

July 19, 2010

I'm going to write tonight! I was going to have arts and craft time, but realized the pair of scissors that cuts in fun shapes is in my car. It sounds like it's not a big deal, but my car is at the mechanic and it's just too much effort to go get them. Arts and crafts will be another night.

I need to get my fall book tour planned out so if you have suggestions, please let me know. I've been told about a place in Squirrel Hill and I think I will hit my usual spots since they are such gracious hosts. I'm open to any other suggestions.

Also, I'm looking for good book suggestions. I received a book store gift card for my birthday and I'm not sure what to buy. Going to large bookstores can be overwhelming! Let me know what you think I should get and then I will discuss it here with you.

July 17, 2010

Well, it was year ago today that I spoke to the publishing company for the first time. Kathryn answered and we each asked a bunch of questions to one another before she finally said, "Just skip the admission process and send directly to me." I credited her the acknowledgements of my book because she definitely got the wheels in motion.

Last night, I had something really cool and rather cute happen to me: I was at a carnival and these two girls approach me who were ten to twelve years old and ask if I am the girl who has written the book. I said yes and the one girl mentioned she wanted to read it, to which I said she was too young. However, they seemed to be really excited to meet me and I gave them my business card for my web-site for them to share with adults. All in all, it was kind of neat to be recognized by complete strangers. I guess I'm building on my local celebrity status. :-)

July 16, 2010

So I had a crazy thought today, which I think I may attribute to the oppressive heat: I thought about scrapping Andy's story. I want to do a story through Mark's perspective, but to get to that one, I need Andy's story to bridge the gap. I thought about this horrifying thought while cleaning the bathroom and said to myself that I haven't had the time to devote myself to the story as I did with RoV and that it will come together and it may need some major tweaking to get to a point where I like it. Oppressive heat and cleaning lead to crazy thoughts, apparently.

On a lighter note, I think I'm going to collect testamonials about Rules of Vegas to place on my web-site. If you are interested in writing one, please e-mail it to me at kimberlyzylinski@kimberlyzylinski.com. As always, thank you for your support!

July 15, 2010

Hello All!

I am happy to report that I actually was able to sit down and write out a decent size section last night. It was the first time in a while since I've been able to do that and it felt really good. I know I will still have a lot to fill in when I am finished writing the big events. I have to chronicle the big events of the story line because it feels like they are burning my mind until I can get them written down.

In the past, I have referenced the idea that I could write about a bridal shop since I work in one. I am excited about a new event that would definitely show up in the story-line if I ever do write about that. While not sponsored by the company I work for, I am participating in an esponiage trip where I get to play the role of matron of honor and my co-workers will be the bride and parent. We have an appointment at another bridal shop to see what kind of customer experience they provide.

I know I have said this before: Inspiration is everywhere and who knows what this little trip will spark. Maybe a CIA spy story line will commence.

July 13, 2010

I had every intention of writing last night and tonight, but I find myself enthralled by the television. Last night, I was like "I'll just put on a movie as background noise as I write." Bad idea because I ended watching 50 First Dates in its entirety. Then, tonight I have to watch one of the most intriguing reality shows out there: Deadliest Catch. My television watching is multi-purpose tonight as I plan on ironing all my clothes for the week. The life of a housewife: perhaps a future story coming to you soon. :-)

No, I did end up writing a little bit. Whenever I log into my e-mail account, I see e-mails of the already edited story that I sent and know that I have to work harder to send the next part to my original editor. Perhaps tomorrow will be my big night to write as I know I will not have to share the computer with my lovable husband.

July 12, 2010

I'm back from vacation. While I had a wonderful time, it's always nice coming back from vacation because I missed my kitties and my bed. I am looking forward to getting back into my routine of blogging and writing. I need to incorporate reading novels in there. It was nice just to sit and read for hours on end, however the sun and the sand may have helped a little on that end.

I'm kind of done with book readings for the summer. I think I'm going to take a break and do some coffee shop readings in the fall. I need a small break for the rest of the summer. So I guess stay posted for the fall book tour line up.

I'm on vacation, so I don't know what day it is

That's right, I totally have no clue as to what day it is. I think it's Wednesday. I know I have to leave Sunday. I was able to write a little bit of the story last night. I am definitely going to have to fill stuff in after I get the main parts written. That will be okay because it is all a part of my back to basics plan. I did it with RoV and I can do it this time around.

I apologize for this being short, but the sun and sand are calling my name and I'm going to follow the sound. I write again when I'm much tanner, which isn't a stretch since I'm the whitest girl ever!

Independence Day!

Happy July 4th to you and your families! As mentioned a few weeks ago, I am on vacation this week. It is really great to be away and I can't promise that I will be writing every day. After all, I'm on vacation!

I am excited that I am going to be doing a reading at a local coffee shop named the Las Vegas Lounge in Fairfield, CT. It's an hour train ride from NYC if you know anyone who is looking to escape the city for an evening. It's going to be this Wednesday evening.

Driving up here, I passed Mechanicsburg. I got this stupid excited feeling like if I were to exit at Mechanicsburg, I could find Anne and Andy at home for the summer. They are real to me and I want to be a part of their world. It was no different than my first time in New York City and I was looking for Central Perk and the cast of Friends. They are great people, why shouldn't I want to hang out with them? So that is my dorky moment. I hope you have a great holiday and I will try to get on to blog every few days!

June 29, 2010

Today I received an awesome invitation from Joseph-Beth Booksellers in the Southside. They have invited me as well as other local authors to come for a reading and book signing event on August 21 in the afternoon! I am really excited for this because I was very afraid that it was going to be on the weekends that I already have plans. I have girls weekend and the wedding event of the year in August, so I can't miss the events! Please mark your calendars and join me to celebrate local authors.

I think it will be a really cool opportunity to not only get my name out there, but to see what other local authors are doing. It will be nice to branch out and make more writer friends. So anyway, that is my big news. I will worry about doing more local book readings when I get back from vacation. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to focus on anything else right now.

June 28, 2010

I read through the comments that my friend sent to me about Andy's story. I found one of them highly amusing because when I was struggling to figure out how I was going to end the story or at least a direction of how to end the story, he wrote something to the effect that it was kind of foggy. Of course it was foggy, the author was in the dark as to what was happening! So needless to say, I have a lot of editing to do.

I am also thinking about picking a part to post on my web-site. I spend so much time talking about the story, it would be nice if I shared it with you, even if it was just a snip-it. I will have to reread what I have written and pick a good part to post.

I'm very excited because I started packing for my vacation and I'm going to take some of my own novels to try and sell at a coffeeshop in CT. I hope I can have an impromptu wedding. Maybe I could gather all the beach goers for a reading. Who knows? The sky is the limit.

June 27, 2010

My apologies for having not been super consistent with blogging. My boss is away on vacation and I have been working more in addition to dealing with the phenomenon of everything happening all in the same week before you leave on vacation.

Awaiting in my inbox is the latest section of new story with edited comments from my friend. I am very excited to look over this e-mail as well as hopefully send the next part to him before leaving on vacation. I am still trying to connect parts A to C and to be perfectly honest, I don't remember how close I am to accomplishing that. Just how sad is that? LoL, I would be a fun character to write about right now. A clean freak scatterbrain with a to-do list as long as Santa's nice check-list at Christmas time who is trying to work close to fifty hours in five days, clean her house, and go see the long awaited Eclipse movie all before sticking her toes in the sand.

I think I have just proven once again that inspiration is in fact everywhere, even if it's in your own chaotic life.

June 25, 2010

I had my book reading tonight and unfortunately, the turn out isn't what I had hoped for. I need to reassess my plan of attack for marketing RoV and go from there. Fortunately, the owner of affogato had some good ideas for marketing myself in her store, so I think I will give them a whirl. Please go hang out with Victoria at affogato as the environment and beverages are superb.

I have to say being in my career crossroads is kind of a scary sort of exciting. Will my book take off to the point where I could live off of it? Can I live the dream and be a stay-at-home mom (when the times comes) and be a novelist? Will I join the ranks of education professionals? Am I destined to stay in retail? I think I can answer the last question confidently with a 'no' but I'm beginning to think all bets are off the table.

I'm sorry if I sound like Debbie Downer this evening, I promise with the dawn of a new week I will try to be chipper.

June 23, 2010

I am so regretting jumping ahead in writing stuff this evening. I went from point A to C without stopping at B! Now I have backtracked to B and it's like forcing together puzzle pieces. Forcing together pieces doesn't make the picture any clearer. However, I am happy to report that while listening to my awe-inspiring guys, The Fray, that I thought of how I want to end the book. That's means I can go from point C to D without too much thought!

A few days (it might even be weeks since the summer is moving so quickly) I was ranting about going back to basics and moving from A to C definitely didn't fit in with that. I can sort of make my peace with this because the conditions in which I wrote RoV are totally different from now. Once upon a time, I had a nice office job that allowed me to do actually do my job and whatever I wanted at the same (it does exist) and I wrote RoV while at work. It worked out well since I am morning person. I attribute some of writer's block to writing in the evening when I'm ready to fall asleep.

The moral of my story today is that if I was successful before, I should really stick to the track that led to that success in the first place!

P.S. Can anyone else believe that June is almost over? Didn't it feel like that it just started last week? I find this all very disconcerting.

June 22, 2010

I finally got a hold of a computer without competing for it! I was going to blog at home, but my husband was hogging the computer. So I went to my parent's house (I was going there anyway for dinner) and had their computer all to myself. I pulled up youtube to listen to music while I checked e-mails and blog, but got sidetracked on the main page with the video of Lisa Kudrow giving a commencement speech at Vasser where she majored in Biology.

I began listening to her speech while checking e-mail and she explained an all important question-how did she go from researching with her dad at a headache clinic to being an award-winning actress. Her answer: failure. Before being cast in Mad About You as Ursula the waitress, and then in Friends as Phoebe; she was fired after two days of working on Frazier, was turned down for SNL, and a couple other jobs along the way. The point is that if she had went back to biology or succeeded at any of those other jobs then she wouldn't be where she is today.

Anyway, why I am telling you about Lisa Kudrow's commencement speech at Vasser? Well, Lisa could have been talking to me because some days I feel like what is the point of having a Master's degree in Education while working in retail and having a novel? Any moment can be the moment and it fueled my dream that maybe I can be a big name author too. I don't care that I sound corny because the fact that I succeeded with publishing a novel is an accomplishment in itself and for now Lisa Kudrow's speech as made me feel better about my unsuccessful job hunt for education jobs. So thank you Lisa Kudrow and thank you to my readers for your support. Support has also fueled my dream of infamy.

June 21, 2010

So I wrote my little heart out last night and I am very excited what I got going. I just regret being a morning person and pooping out before ten a.m. I'm going to blame my day in the sun as to why I was so tired. I need to figure out how I'm going to tie up all my loose ends of the story. Then, I am going to go back in and fill in the gaps of the story. An interesting tidbit about Rules of Vegas is that Chapter 18 (the sled riding chapter) wasn't original to the story. After reading through the story, I wanted to show non-dramatic time amongst Mark, Andy, and Anne. There were also a few chapters that didn't make the cut because they began straying too far from the story line.

I have a book reading on Friday and I'm excited about it. Victoria, the owner of 'a,' is going to being tweeting about me. As far as I know, I haven't been tweeted about. This book has brought about a number of first experiences for me! I'm toying with the idea of a fall regional book tour by visiting cities such as D.C., Baltimore, and maybe some places in Ohio if my friends would be willing to put me up for the night. I'm not sure if I could get the vacation time or the cooperation from non-local coffee shops, but I'm willing to give it a whirl. Any other p.r. suggestions out there?

Father's Day!

I wish to extend a very Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there reading my blog! You have a very important job-to be a super hero for your kids!

Over the years, I have written a few father characters in my stories. Anne's dad, John, I feel I wrote a good role model. While Anne keeps him in the dark on certain things, it is clear that she is his number one priority. In reality, it shouldn't be any other way. In Andy's story, John's role as a stepdad is equally important to Andy. Thus, in John's case, he takes his parenting seriously whether it is with Anne or Andy because he knows family comes first.

Reflecting on my writings, all of my stories have a father who has some hero-like quality to them. I think I can thank my own dad for that because he's always been there for me. I'm truly blessed to have had both parents place me and my sister as their priority. I imagine it would be an extreme challenge to write an evil parent character. I know of some pretty poor parents, but I haven't dared placed myself in their shoes. I may have to step over to the dark side of parenting when writing my 1920s who-dunnit story.

Anyway, I must go get ready because my dad has chosen to go golfing for Father's day. Once again, to all the dad's out there-keep being a hero! It is appreciated even though it may not be expressed as much as it should be.

June 18, 2010

Well, I was able to clear my mind today while sunbathing by the pool (I know, what a rough day I had), which allowed me to think through my storyline and decide where I'm going with this whole thing. And I did it without getting too much sunburn! I also decided on some minor character details. For example, I decided to make the one character shorter than what I originally said in the story. If I can't picture the characters in my head then it's no good. (Now that's a comment that makes it sound like I got too much sun).

Unfortunately, my book reading got canceled today. I was anticipating some new people showing up this week too, so it is a bit of a bummer. I have a book reading next week that I'm looking forward too. I typically read from Chapter 2, however, I'm getting tired of reading that particular chapter. Does anyone who has read my book have any suggestions? It has to be a part with enough intrigue to draw people in without giving too much away. I'm tempted to read the party scene and I also like sled riding scene just because of the descriptive details. I'm open to some feedback.

June 16, 2010

I got a pleasant surprise today. My original editor, Chris, edited the first portion of Andy's story that I sent out a few days ago. Guess what I'm reading after writing this? I feel like I'm finding my groove! My back to basics plan seems to be working.

I'm also looking forward to my book reading tomorrow. I think the Fire Escape has been talking me up to their customers, which is appreciated. For those of you that haven't visited the Fire Escape, it has a really great ambience. It's very spacious and has a large selection of drinks and even ice cream. So I hope to see you there tomorrow. If tomorrow doesn't work for you, then I have a reading next Friday as well.

June 16, 2010

I think it's amusing that inspiration can be found anywhere in almost anything: music, nature, or even the cracked out lady coming into my work today. It's true, there was a woman of questionable character who came in claiming to be in love after a month and wanted to try on wedding gowns. No ring, no date; just love, apparently. To me, what makes this small tidbit of information so exciting is the creativity that it allows. Who is she in love with? Her drug dealer, the guy across the street, or the person she imagines in her mind? What kind of wedding does she envision? A small thing at the JP or some elaborate fairy tale wedding that only Disney could manufacture? These details are the descriptive glue that holds stories together!

I've started debating with myself about whether to take the laptop with me on vacation. On one hand, it would be nice to update my blog and write if it's a rainy day. However, I know if it travels with me, I may not be able to pry my husband and brother-in-law away from it (sorry boys, but you know it's true), which would defeat the purpose of spending quality time with family on the beach. This will most likely be a game time decision, but I still have two weeks to worry about this.

June 15, 2010

It may be super early to call my back to basics move a success, but I'm feeling better about going back through my story and reading through it. I was able to read through the first six chapters or so and fill in the gaps, thus helping me rid of the comments I place all throughout the story for myself. Also, I finally got around to sending the first few chapters out to my original editing team, which consists of close friends.

Not only did I fill in some gaps, I feel that I will have a clearer idea of what is going on with my story. I don't know how other writers feel about writing their stories, but it can be a daunting task. You become in the mood to just write and before you know it you have a beast of a story that is bigger than you imagined it to be. I think that's where I am at in my writing process. I kind of can compare it to planning my wedding. After you set the date-it's like I have a ton of stuff to do. However, you break it down to smaller, more managable tasks and it's not so scary as you original picked out. (I guess I have revealed that I'm a planner).

June 14, 2010

I would like to tell you that my bike riding is going so well that I worked out the rest of the plotline for Andy's story. I would like to tell you that, but it would be a lie. I'm still concentrating just trying to not to run out of breath. However, I did ride further without stopping as much for air or water tonight! I think I need a flat, picturesque boardwalk or street close the beach and ocean for such things. If only I could teleport to the beach instead of waiting three weeks.

June 13, 2010

So on Friday night, my wonderful hubby took me out on date night! He picked a super classy restaurant in the Southside for dinner and then after eating the most delicious chocolate mousse, we then proceeded down to Joseph Beth Bookstore. I approached the employee at the cash register and said, "Hello, I am a local author whose book is here and I wondering if it would be allowed for me to act like a dork and get my picture taken with it on the shelf?"

Needless to say, because of my hubby's last name that he gave to me it is on the bottom shelf, but it was there on the shelf in an honest to God bookstore! I plan on posting the pictures of this momentous occasion on my web-site or Facebook. I don't care that I'm a dork or that everyone knows it.

June 11, 2010

Well, I anticipate a productive afternoon of editing because it's a party of contractors at my house today: new gutters, clean fill for my yard, and the internet service provider guy. I still need to go grocery shopping, but I went to college-I can be creative with the weird items that lurk in the pantry and a microwave. It just may not taste all that great.

I mentioned yesterday that I'm going back to basics and quite frankly, I'm really happy with my decision to slow things up and make the draft I have going even more fabulous. For those of you that know me, you must know that it's an understatement that I'm a perfectionist. Writing drafts of letters, research papers, and now novels is no exception to this. If something is worth doing, then it's worth doing well.

Of course, I will keep you posted with my progress and as always, I'm interested to hear what other writers are doing.

June 10, 2010

Last night, my internet connection failed to the point where I had to call my service provider. I had some riveting things to say and of course it was all typed out and then the connection failed.

So anyway, while traveling to the bank for work today, I decided I need to go back to basics with my writing. My "routine" or even steps that I took last year when writing RoV are nonexistent. I need to use music for inspiration, which has sort of lacked. (This was what I was going to blog about last night). I have only read through what I have written two or three times, whereas with RoV, I read through the manscript at least once a week. Plus, I sent portions out for feedback, which I have yet to do. However, I did call my original Editor Extraordinaire to warn him that an approximate 40,000 words is coming his way.

Those little quirks led me to success the first time around and I hope it can do so for the second time. (The moment of truth is quickly approaching-will my internet connection fail?)

P.S. I have another reading lined up on Friday, June 25 at affogato otherwise known as 'a' located in Bellevue. The time has yet to be determined, but it will be some time in the evening.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

So I have slight obsession with the Twilight series. I may or may not be purchasing my tickets for Eclipse after I'm done writing this blog and I just heard that Stephenie Meyer put out a novella from Bree's perspective. Bree is the lone vampire girl in Eclipse that surrenders at the end and eventually is taken care of by the Volturi. (P.S. if that is news to you then you aren't a true Twilight Series fan). Anyway, I'm not sure how I feel about this new little novella. I will read it as I am an avid fan, but I wonder why Bree? She's just a blip on the radar.

Then, I ask myself this very same question about my own sequel. Why Andy? My answers consist of because he was my fave in his own interesting way as I never expected him to turn out the way he did and why not Andy? Who am I to say that Stephenie Meyer loved Bree in her own special way. However, I am anxiously awaiting Stephenie's book through Edward's perspective. I suppose that's all I can hope for my own novel and perhaps novel-to-be-I hope Rules of Vegas is intriguing enough for people to see things through Andy's eyes.