Good Ol' College Days...

I remember when I was in college. I did some pretty sick stuff! One time, I went to a house party, got drunk, assisted in the total incineration of a tree house, played strip poker and finally ended the night facedown (naked) in some guy's bedroom. I wasn't alone, though, but I shudder to think what happened. X_X

Ahem. These days, kids in college are no less tame. Just recently, I found out that pledges in a sorority at a famous college (starting with "P") had to eat the sperm of a guy at the frat house. Yup. You read that right. I think I should rephrase that and say that kids in college these days are WORSE. Of course, I graduated not too long ago so I suppose I'm included... Anyway, not all college kids are crazy. Some are quite chill and do minor stuff like smoke weed, have sex at parties and duct tape their friends to the bed. Ya know, normal stuff.

Or twerk it like a black girl.

 Who says white dudes can't drop it like it's hot? LOL.

  

The Blog Hop Of Joy

Before I write anything I just want to get this out there: Kyra Lennon is going to be famous. Just you watch!

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog post...

Kyra and the equally amazing Clair Dugmore came up with this pretty exciting blog hop to kick off March. All you have to do is list five things that bring you joy. I'm sure we all can list more than five but for the sake of this event I'll resist the urge. Just this once.

And we begin with: 

My Family. They drive me crazy sometimes but I don't think I can live without them. We've been through so many downs that our bond is near invincible.

The Internet. This might seem geeky but I absolutely cannot live without the internet. Sure, I survived without it for, um, sixteen years but now that I have it I'll never go black -- I mean back. Yes, I absolutely meant to say back.

My girlfriend, Mandy. She is so sweet and loving. Man, I never knew how good it felt to have a woman who actually takes care of you. I mean, I'm not a baby but who can say no to a girl that cleans and does your laundry. Sadly, I'm being figurative in my description 'cause Mandy does none of those things. In her own words, "You were fine doing that without me and you'll be fine now." Well at least she cooks... okay maybe that's stretching things. She tries to cook? No. That's not right. She is good at trying to boil water? Yup, that's it.

Love you Mandy. ^_^

Shameless US. I. LOVE. THIS. SHOW. I don't watch TV but I make it my duty to watch Shameless every Sunday without fail! They bring me so much joy because their attitudes and living circumstances remind me so much of where I grew up. It was never pretty -- or easy -- but me and my family made it work as a team. And we made it out.

Go team Gallaghers!

And finally, the thing that brings me the most joy is The Prospect Of A Brighter Tomorrow. Yeah, yeah.. it's gooey and full fo crap but it's true. For me, this means so much more than that -- it's about my ideas, my stories and my art. Every time I write or brainstorm an idea, I imagine what it would be like if it came true; what it would mean for me to be a success. That always, ALWAYS, brings me joy. I guess it's just that people and technology don't always bring you satisfaction but your imagination is infinite -- it will never disappoint.

At this very instant, I'm imagining myself at a book signing with a crowd of five hundred people eagerly waiting to reach my table.

Tell me that isn't joy.      

 

Neither Here Nor There

It's so hard to write when you have nothing to write about. There's nothing spectacular to report about my life right now; no interesting bit of news to examine (none you haven't already read); no new snippets of literary advice to distribute nor do I have any tales of fancy to tickle your toes.

There's just nothing really intersting I'd like to blog about at the moment. Some of you have so much material that can last an entire year but I don't have the luxury to do such a thing. I work hard and I play hard. I use the little time I have to toil endlessly toward  my literary dreams and spend an occasion with friends and family.

When something comes up I'll write about it. When you write about something I'll read it. I do visit your blogs you know. I might not leave a comment but I do drop by... to stare... to admire... to envy. You know, the usual. ^_^

Okay, now I'm going back to my revisions - I gotta get everything ready and query-able by the end of February. Goals, people, you have to stick to those goals.

Aloha! 
   

Merry Christmas!

What a year it's been!

So many amazing things have happened, not just for me but the entire world! Likewise, where there is happiness and joy there's always darkness and despair. Millions of people lost their lives in the most tragic of ways--most recently the Sandy Cook Elementary School shooting. Our hearts and minds go out to all those familes and the countless other victims of tragedies around the world. It is in times like these we need to remind ourselves that evil will always try to ruin us, regardless of who we are, but through the essence of all that is good we have shown that we can band together and fight all odds. It is our love...our happiness...our sheer belief in a brighter tomorrow that makes us strong. So as we move into a new chapter on this the most holy of seasons, I want to wish everyone, near and far, a wonderful Christmas and a bright and prosperous New Year.

Thanks for the memories.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I Got Hacked

You won't believe the past few weeks I've had. I already have so much stuff going on right now (what with Christmas being right around the corner and all) and the last thing I needed was to get hacked and cause me more stress!

From the 7th of December to about 1 am this morning my Google Account (the email service that I use for this blog, my Paypal, my bank account and all that good stuff) was compromised. I foolishly (FOOLISHLY!) trusted a link a friend sent me on stupid FACEBOOK for a discount on Riot Point Game Cards for the popular MOBA League of Legends. The link was to Walmart's website so I thought it was legit. Usually I scan all suspicious links with Virus Total to be sure but this link was sent to me by a friend... she wouldn't send me a bad link, right?

Oh gosh, just thinking about it now makes me mad. It turns out the link was a virus--and a terrible one at that! About thirty minutes after clicking the link my computer started acting weird. It performed an automatic shutdown while I was in the middle of emailing my boss and when I booted it up I got the dreaded BLUE SCREEN of DEATH! No matter how much I tweedled and twaddled the thing wouldn't start. At that very moment I remembered slapping my head and thinking of the hundreds of dollars I'd have to spend to get it fixed. I knew it was a virus; I knew where I had gotten it from and who sent it to me. What I didn't know was that Kyra (no, not that Kyra ) had been infected too. I also had no clue that when I had tried to log into my email account hours later, from a different PC, it would state that my password or username was incorrect.

To save you from this very long, very frustrating, very complicated, very sickening tale: the link was to a fake website made to look like that of a legitimate company's. In reality, the entire code of the site was laced with trojans and keyloggers, so just simply loading the page would infect the would-be victim. And because the page itself was for 50% off Riot Point Game Cards, the good folks at Geek Squad pointed out that it was probably a hacker from the League of Legends game who created it to steal accounts and other information. The hacker not only stole every piece of information on my laptop but he also permanently destroyed key files needed to run it. Not only that, to prevent me from logging onto my League of Legends account and posting about it on the forums, he changed my email account and passwords. And since I use that gmail account for just about everything... BOOM! Checkmate.

It took Gmail weeks to lock the email account and grant me access to it because they had no clue I was who I said I was. A representative finally emailed me on another Gmail account I had to set up and told me the good news.

And here I am.

I didn't lose any money (not unless you count the four hundred dollars I spent to repair my laptop) but I did lose my this-will-never-happen-to-me way of thinking. I am very tech savvy and I know all the latest and best ways to protect myself from viruses and hackers. I know that if something is too good to be true it's probably a scam. However, what I didn't know is that hackers have found a way to ensnare folks like me: social media and friends. Alone they probably won't be able to dupe a techy person but when you throw friends, Facebook and Twitter in the mix... man it's a whole different story.

I hope you guys are careful on Twitter and Facebook. It might seem harmless but there are folks out there to get you.  

I'll see you on Monday.

When You're Not In The Mood

Do you ever wake up and know you have things to do but don't feel like it? Sometimes I just want to stay in bed all day and not go to work and other times I simply don't want to go and visit my relatives for thanksgiving. You feel meh?

Most days, however, I DO NOT feel like writing. Sometimes I'm  too tired or I feel like going outdoors and riding my bike or shooting hoops or something active instead of sitting in front a desk for hours. I do that enough during the day, in the afternoons and on the weekends I want a change of pace. But here's the thing: I feel guilty when I don't write when I should be. I'm a firm believer in deadlines, outlines and all things cohesive so when I fail to do what needs to be done, I question my integrity. What kind of writer am I if I don't feel like writing half the time? How can I be a successful writer if I don't write? It's a conundrum, of sorts, because when I put it off for the next day I end up doing so again and it may continue like a cycle for days on end. At the moment, I haven't done any work on my YA or MG for three days. Three whole days! That's forty eight hours, four thousand three hundred and twenty minutes and two hundred and fifty nine thousand two hundred seconds. Is this bad? Am I supposed to write every single day? And if I don't live, breath and eat writing every hour of every minute, am I truly a writer?

Do you sometimes neglect your writing because you don't feel like it? And how do you get in the mood if such a thing occurs?    

This Genre Is Oversaturated, Write Something Else

I am sick of hearing this and you know what? Kiss my ass whoever you are.

I spent a very long time dreaming up the idea for my current YA WIP and an even longer time actually writing it. A crit partner the other day told me that the market is oversaturated with the genre of my YA and agents aren't looking for that right now. Um...okay? What am I supposed to do? Stop writing the thing 'cause one agent doesn't like that? Honestly, I thought he had had more faith in my ability to know that this is something I'm aware of, and that it's kind of unnecessary to even bring up. I mean, give me some credit, I do read ya know. Geesh. I don't like it when people think you're a total noob who knows nothing about the industry, but that's possibly another post.

My YA, in it's truest form, is a Superhero (slash) Fantasy (slash) Romance. However, I can't call it that 'cause there is no "Superhero" genre. At least I don't think there is. My MC is a kickass Superheroine Mage who happens to draw her power from a five thousand year old angelic warrior--who happens to be a spirit, who happens to fall in love with her. Unfortunately, simply because there is a ghost involved (which doesn't encompass the whole story) I have to lable it a Paranormal and, unfortunetely for me, this is the genre everyone is scorning right now like someone with an STD.

Readers can't help fall in love with what they like; writers can't help love what they pen. If it happens to be Paranormal, then so be it. I understand why agents and editors might not want to see Paranormal right now (most will be clones or some silly idea) but I believe there are still a lot of really cool concepts in this genre that haven't been explored. And dare I be so bold to say that I have some really cool concepts in this genre that I have explored, and would like to share. Are you saying I should give up now because so and so very established so and so with this many clients and this many accolades said so? I don't think so baby.

I brought this up because I was really discouraged when my crit partner said what he said and then I got a second blow to the heart when I saw the same thing echoed on an industry blog. I actually did ponder giving up the book and writing something else. But you know what I realized? They don't get to decide what I write. There are hundreds of agents out there--maybe thousands?--, loads of editors and gazillions of readers who WILL like what I write. One or two prejudiced folks should not sway your writerly path. So for all you Paranormal writers out there, and those other authors who write in genres that people treat like a disease, let's all join hands and collectively say, FUCK YOU biased people!

The end. ^_^