Showing posts with label stuff about me. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stuff about me. Show all posts

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Me on Blogging

so not a lot of people read my blog and no one really comments.

i think it's hard to get people to read your blog on a regular basis, unless you've got tons of friends who read it or you talk about something interesting every day.

or it looks all pretty and professional & you link to a lot of similar stuff.

or you use buzz search words like famous or celebrity sighting or win free stuff. or view live (something, i think you can guess what it might be) here where the girls might or might not be legal.

a lot of the time blogging is like venting or arguing with someone, but it provides the anonymity of the Internet. do you guys really know where i live?? i doubt it.

there's always talking about the news, but it's all depressing. riots, sicko murderers, economy in the dump, unemployment skyrocketing, boring election stuff, teen suicides. i've started to tune it out and am currently waiting for one of those happy puppy or kitten stories. ;) or a story that talks about what i'm interested in.

writing. publication opportunities. TV shows i like. books i like (we so need Book TV). music i like (vaguely punk/pop alternative). podcasts i like (lots of comedy ones, some book ones, one really progressive one that every so often surprises me but in a good way).

later this evening i'm going to set up a blog for reviewing books, then work on another review. i think i'm going to have to review a book almost every day for weeks, maybe months, to have it viewed as a legitimate review blog.

*long exhale* i think i'll review Freefall.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Me on NaNoWriMo

i like the whole idea of it, but i understand why some people don't like it.

it's more about quantity than quality, you could totally fake it and use a novel you already wrote, it's too hard to write 50,000 words in 30 days, and so on and so forth.

when i first did it in 2006, i hit 50,000 words in less than 30 days, then hit the wall & only got another 5,000 more before the end of the month. of course, i wasn't going to school then, or working.

well, i'm not doing either of those right now. ;)

finishing the first time showed me i could write a novel, even if there were plot holes and typos and bits that didn't really make sense. that didn't matter. i just needed the ego boost and the knowledge that i really could do it if i tried.

i'm doing it this year because when i came up with the GhostIdea i was writing out ideas for my next YA novel. i'd just finished the draft of the WerewolfIdea and started quick plotting different ideas. most were one or two lines that would be the core of the story.

then i got to the GhostIdea and it became a page and a half of plot bits and weird bits and character bits.

yeah, i was excited about this one.

so i'm working on the GhostIdea. instead of the 50,000 words, i'm looking more to finishing the whole novel at about 70 to 75,000 words. it's a first draft, it doesn't have to be perfect. this is about getting the bones of the story down and working out characters and their motivations, figuring out where the twisty bits and secret bits go and where to leave something hanging right in my MC's face so she has to suffer until she figures it all out.

if you want to friend me, click on the NaNoWriMo thing on the right side. it should go to my user page. :)

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Me on The Hard Truth of My Life

this one's going to be hard.

i had a job interview last week, and over the weekend i debated with myself why i might or might not get it. as i found out today, i didn't get it. i'm not upset. i have experience, but not with children that young, and i have no formal training. my experience comes from accidentally falling into it, like i was the only option left.

some days i wonder if i've picked the wrong career to get into.

it's hard to stomach that it'll take years for a book of mine to be published, especially for my family because i think they think i'm ruining my life by picking writing straight out of university. i don't want to upset them.

but this is what i want to do. i hope they can accept that.

so, while i work on my YA novel writing and talk to wonderful authors and agents and editors online and soak up all the info and tips they give out, i'll write more short stories to send out to magazines, and i'll write book reviews.

maybe i'll look into getting more recognition for Canadian writers and those who want to be writers. do you know how many literary agents there are in Canada?? according to The Writer's Union of Canada website (link here), approximately 30.

30. that's shocking. if i had contacts in publishing and personally knew other agents, i'd become an agent.

maybe i'll become an advocate for books in print. i understand why e-books exist, i have e-books that i've bought and read and enjoyed, but my first love will always be books in paper form.

maybe i'll offer editing services. my English degree must count for something.

or maybe i'll forget all about this tomorrow and huddle under the covers and cry because i'll think i'm wasting my life.

if you see me blog tomorrow, you'll know i made it out of bed and found some tissues.

i was right, this was hard.

but it had to be said. i have to be honest with myself.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Me on ARCs

i know i blogged yesterday, but something came in the mail today which reminded me about a semi-rant i've had building since i returned to Twitter earlier this year.

i'm talking about ARCs, or advance reader copies.

if you follow me on Twitter, you noticed me gushing last week about winning an ARC of Becca Fitzpatrick's Crescendo from the nice people at Simon & Schuster Canada, or at least, the people who run their @SimonPulseCA Twitter account.

isn't this proof that Canada cares about YA and wants more authors to visit on book tours?? ;) that's another semi-rant for another time.

now, i know about ARCs because i read agent blogs and writer blogs and i know mostly how the publishing process works. i am not against ARCs, i think they're a great idea.

i'm just getting tired of people gushing over and over on Twitter and their blogs about all the cool ARCs they get sent straight from the publisher sometimes 6 months before the book is published.

i'm not published, i'm not a reviewer or book blogger, and i don't work in publishing, which means i never get to read an advance copy. this is a special circumstance (did i mention how much i love you for it, S&S Canada?? :)) that i never thought would happen. i've RT'd bunches of stuff on Twitter and got nothing.

i'm not against book bloggers and reviewers. actually, Madeleine Rex's review of Brenna Yovanoff's The Replacement pushed me even more towards buying and reading (and loving) the book. i like Madeleine. she's funny. her reviews are really good. her book in progress is called The Lemonites. such a cool title. :D

i guess it's just a pet peeve of mine. there are books i want to read, like Andrea Cremer's Nightshade, or Ally Condie's Matched, or Stephanie Perkins' Anna and the French Kiss, or Mandy Hubbard's Ripple, or Lauren Oliver's Delerium, or Bree Despain's The Lost Saint, and because i want to read them so much because they sound so cool and interesting, i don't plan to read any early reviews by bloggers about them. i don't want anything ruined for me.

maybe this is just me whining about having to wait until the release date to buy a book i want to read, or to borrow from the library 3 months after it comes out, but i don't care. i'm (at the moment) unemployed and close to broke; if i got boxes of ARCs free from publishers that i got to review, i'd be all gushy, too.

i want to read the book, not have someone else read it and gush and talk about it while i have to wait.

reviewers and bloggers i follow on Twitter have Delerium. it comes out in February, 4 months from now. right now, that feels like forever.

it feels like i've wanted to read Anna and the French Kiss for years. it's going to be really really really good, but i have to wait like all the regular people to buy it in December. and i don't usually read contemporary YA, Stephanie Perkins. romance, yes. contemporary, no. somehow you've lured me in with promises of kissing and a cute boy with an irresistible accent and how romantic Paris can be. you are a genius. i bow to your genius. (ok, maybe i'm sucking up a bit, but can you blame me??)

maybe i'm just bitter. i still like you, book bloggers and reviewers. maybe you could gush a little less, or maybe let me read one once in a while?? i get it, shipping to Canada can get expensive, but me shipping it back to you is also expensive, so we're even. ;)

and even though i have the ARC, i'm still buying a finished copy of Crescendo. it looks so good. :D

oh, and i'm very anti-selling and buying ARCs on eBay. i may be grouchy and upset, but that is not cool. and not fair. i hope you get papercuts that get infected and all puss-filled and gross, ARC sellers.

keep an eye out for other semi-rants in the future, including one on how rare it is for YA authors to visit Canada on book tour and why i don't want to have to drive 3 to 6 hours south to Seattle or Portland to go to a signing.

(i saw Sherrilyn Kenyon once. it was in Vancouver (thank God i could stay in my province) at a Chapters. maybe 30 people were there. this was either March or April or May or June of 2006. not YA, but i like her books.)

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Me on What I'm Doing With My Life

so, it's all official and stuff. i'm now the proud owner of a Bachelor of Arts with a Major in English from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

is it wrong that i'm a bit panicky??

i feel kinda old, like i should have a totally solid life plan and stuff, but i don't. i barely have a job right now.

well, i kinda figured that i'd take the summer to think about what i wanted to do and look into some things, so i'm not totally worried at the moment. i guess in August i will be, but not now.

so, for the moment, i'm taking things one day at a time, trying to write every day (even if it sucks, because then i'm still writing something), and doing things around the house so it looks like i'm being productive.

and now, because i'm fun (i am, i promise :D), here is the latest info on my work in progress.

i'm still working on it, and i'm still enjoying it, which is good. you need to enjoy what you're writing. i keep thinking of bits to add, to takeaway, to edit and fiddle with, but i'm trying to move forward and write down what i want to fix so i can go back later and edit it.

the fact that i want to go back and edit it to make it better is a good sign. it means i'm taking it seriously, that whatever i write first isn't always the best. the hard part comes when i have to decide what needs fixing and what doesn't.

i thought up a good plot twist the other week, and i'll have to do some editing to work it in a bit more, but i think it'll be a good twist. i like it. it makes the whole book seem kind of MC in the dark and sneaky.

i do think i'll need beta readers, but not until i finish this first draft, and the second, and the third, and maybe a fourth, but i'm not sure. three drafts before beta readers/critiquers sounds okay to me.

i can only hope that by the time i query agents, they're still interested in werewolf MC struggling to figure out who she is coming of age YA novels with a romance subplot but it's not the main plot.

*crossing my fingers*

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Me on Self-Editing

or, why i'm feel nauseous when i have to edit something i wrote.

i don't really know what my deal is with editing. probably cause i've never really had to do any major editing on something. except for this past semester when i had a first draft due early March and had to edit it by mid-April.

for some reason, probably a bad one, i'm used to writing something once and not going back to check it or edit it.

i've also had little workshop critique experience, so i've never really had a lot of edit suggestions from other people.

the other day i finally realized that what i'm working on now will need lots of editing. i've written bits that, while i put them in there cause i thought they should be there, i know that they don't totally need to be there.

when i'm done this first draft/zero draft, i really want to print it out and write all over it with a pencil and a pen, marking it all up.

i'm still sort of afraid of doing it. i know what i want to put in it, but will it be what someone wants to read??

the best I can do it edit it to where i totally love it (and hopefully not take forever), then send it off to find an agent who totally loves it, too.

i can only hope i don't totally suck at self-editing.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Me on Writing and Motivation

it's been a while since i updated this thing. probably should, since it's the weekend and i'm not really doing anything.

i should be writing, working on my WIP, but i'm not. it's because i'm a slacker. sometimes i wonder if i've got the right work ethic to be a writer. i've barely got the right work ethic when it comes to cleaning up around the house.

i have to drill into my head that having the Word file open does not mean i'm writing. i can think about what i want to write next, what chapters and scenes will come after the one i'm currently working on, and i can write down outlines in little notebooks at 3 in the morning, but when i sit down to write my brain freezes and i start playing games instead (the current game is Virtual Villagers 4).

i don't recommend anyone writes where i currently write: in an armchair in front of the TV. my laptop's plugged into a nearby outlet, and so i sit in the chair and write. well, sometimes write. the past few days when i've tried to write something, i've barely averaged 1000 words.

what i need to do in order to write more each day and treat my WIP as something serious that I want to query to agents once it's written and edited and polished to the bast of my ability is to take my laptop back up to my room. TV is terrible when it sucks you away from writing.

i imagine that if i had an actual real serious deadline for my WIP i'd be writing a lot more, and i'd have a lot more than 15,000 words written.

i did that NaNoWriMo thing one year and hit the 50,000 word mark after 20 (or 25, i don't remember) days. of course, that was when i wasn't working and didn't have class that semester, but i still did it.

with me not having class right now and work not a whole lot except 1 or 2 afternoons a week, i should be able to write more than what i'm writing now.

i'm sick and tired of not writing when i should be. after dinner, i'm taking my laptop upstairs to write more than 1000 words tonight.

i need to write. i have this compulsion to write, but i also let things get in the way of me writing.

fail.

until dinner, i'm going to try writing, finish watching Dogma (so funny), and play some more Virtual Villagers.

and maybe babble some more on Twitter.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

So, let's try this again

i've blogged every so often for the past, i don't know, 4 or 5 years, but i could never do it on a regular basis. i'd do it for a little while, then i'd run out of interesting things to say and i'd stop doing it.

i figure that since i'll be graduating from university this summer (as far as i know), it'll be something to do to keep me from getting bored. i should be graduating. i've done all the required stuff.

so, i imagine an intro on my odd life would be helpful.

i'm Lindsay. i'm, currently, an English lit major in my last semester of getting my B.A. i sort of work, doing after-school tutoring with kids, but i'm tired of how what i'm required to do keeps evolving and plan on giving notice soon. i'd like to say that all of my spare time is spent on writing, but it isn't. some of my spare time is filled with writing. the rest is filled with either reading way too many books or watching far too much TV.

i don't have anything published yet, but i'm working on it. my current work in progress is a YA urban fantasy coming of age type novel. at the moment, my basic premise is that my main character has moved back (with her mother) to the town her parents grew up in two years after her father was killed in a car accident. the town is divided, with two werewolf packs fighting for dominance. because her parents were the town's Romeo and Juliet without all the death, my MC is caught in the middle with one side pressuring her to choose them while the other continually reinforces the fact that the choice is ultimately up to her.

i want it to be more of a focus on my MC and what she's going through instead of the two guys who want to date her, but i'm getting the feeling that it'll be a mixture of both.

i don't really want it to be a stand-alone, i like writing series, but at the moment i don't see how i would continue it, unless the next one involved cops and mysterious dead bodies and strange werewolf ritual bits.

promise you won't steal my idea, people who might one day read this.

i'm not really sure what this blog is going to turn into. maybe i'll just write about my views on writing and books and other stuff. i really don't think i'm all that interesting.

just a girl who wants to grow up to be a writer.