Friday Fun

Yay! Yvie's back, babies, because it's the weekend! And you know what's awesome about this weekend? Next week Mom and Anne have the whole week off from work, which means plenty of time for them to hang out with me (so I don't have to hang out with Tula. Who just won't. Leave. Me. Alone.)

Mom also wants me to mention that this means she won't be blogging next week, or really on the internet much at all since there will be yard work and stuff happening.

And by stuff, I mean, playing with me. Because I'm awesome.

Just like you ape-friends. Just like you.

Onto the fun!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

In Which I Won

So, I'm super excited that I won one of the auction items in the Read for Relief Auction.

I spent waaay more money on my bid than I wanted to, but I justified it like this:

1. I got paid on Friday, so I wasn't quite as broke as I had been
2. I actually get paid 3 times this month, which means I have a whole extra paycheck that doesn't have to go to the mortgage or monthly bills
3. It was for a good cause
4. I had been outbid on everything else I had bid on
5. Both Brother and Twin offered to chip in some money if I needed it to win the bid (I didn't. But still, they're pretty awesome)
6. I both wanted and needed the auction item

Ahh, justification. Is there anything you can't do?

The item was:

The Sisters in Scribe are offering to each critique the first 30 pages of the manuscript of the winning bidder. That’s three thorough crits for one manuscript! Since we all write YA, this prize is for YA and upper MG manuscripts only, in any genre. (Contemporary, sci-fi, paranormal, dystopian, fantasy—you name it!)


Sisters in Scribe is made up of YA writers (and crit partners) Kristi Helvig, Valerie Kemp, and Lacey (L.J.) Boldyrev. They blog about all things writing. Learn more about the Sisters in Scribe on their blog.

So yeah, 3 crits is pretty awesome.

Also, I'm struggling a bit with my opening for Break Free. I think part of the issue is that the opening for Glimpse was pretty much perfect from the very beginning. I just needed some line edits to spruce it up a bit, but that was it. What's in the MS now were the first words I wrote for the MS and I still think they're pretty successful.

It's not that I think the beginning of Break Free is bad. I don't. I think it's just kind of mediocre. And if I'm going to enter the Baker's Dozen Auction (see Monday's post), and I will..., then I'd like an opening that's a bit zazzier than mediocre.

So, I'm really looking forward to the crits I won.

How about you? Written any great openings lately? Have any tried and true tricks you'd like to share?

In Which I Have Pitch Problems

So, a few months ago, before I started writing Break Free, I set a goal for myself.
I wanted to participate in Authoress's Baker's Dozen Auction for this year. I missed it last year, since I didn't have anything ready at the time. But this year, I knew I could do it.

I mean, there's 300 YA entry spots and only 35 chosen to be part of the auction, so the odds are low for me to actually be in the auction, but I don't even care. I just want to be able to submit my first page and pitch for consideration.

This seems like a "do-able" goal, but I keep running up against some issues.

First issue, you need to submit a pitch along with your first page.

I don't typically write pitches. I'm not very good at it. Queries, no problem. Pitches? Bit of a problem.

She's having some pitch crit sessions next month, and I'm going to try hard to get into one of them, but they're run on a lottery, so it would be pure luck.

I've got my pitch down to 4 sentences, but I'd really like it to be 2-3 sentences. To be fair, last year the pitch had to be under 100 words, and mine is at about 75 right now, so it's not like I'd be disqualified or anything, but it's just the spirit of the idea of it. If that makes sense.

Does anyone have any good tricks or tips in regards to writing a good 2-3 sentence pitch?

Here's what I have so far...

Seventeen-year-old Kiel Reaux is two steps away from paying off a debt and earning his freedom from the Baron of Old Town when he is captured by slavers. Sold to Izzy, a foreign priestess, she promises to set him free if he leads her through a deadly jungle of wild magic. But when the Baron comes to collect, earning his freedom is the least of his problems. You can’t enjoy freedom when you’re dead.

I have issues with the length of the first sentence but am too close to it to decide what I can cut without messing up the rest of the pitch or losing the reader. Anyone have any thoughts?

Otherwise are you planning in participating in the Auction? Did you want me to look at your pitch or 250 words?

Friday Fun

Yvie's back, ape-friends!
Why?
Why because it's the weekend of course!

And what a great weekend it will be! Up here, we've said goodby to hot summer weather and hello to cool fall weather. I'm just going to cross my paws it's here to stay.

Onto the fun!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!



Click Here for HILARIOUS Captain Planet Video. Trust Me. (Language warning)

In Which Matt Needs Followers!

Do you know Matthew MacNish?
Of course you do. Who the hell don't?

BUT! In case you don't know Matt, this is the post for you.

I'm not going to lie. Matt is amazeballs. He's also kinda badass, and pretty cool to boot. He hosts query workshops on his blog. He's a blog commenting fiend, and also he's funny and used to live pretty damn near close to where I live now (Minnesota represent!).

Matt has a goal. He would like to reach 1000 followers before he starts querying. Hopefully by the end of this year. If you aren't familiar with his blog, take some time and pop over. Maybe click on the "follow" button. You won't regret it.

In Which We Discuss NaNo (Again)

I know, I know. Another NaNo Post? And not even yet October?
Yes. Yes it is.

So I know a month or so ago I was leaning towards not doing NaNo, just because I had so much other stuff I wanted to work on.

BUT, now I'm leaning towards doing it. Why? Multiple reasons. One is that after some fixes in Break Free, and a list of what I need to do for it going forward, it turns out it might not need as much work as I thought it did.

Another reason would be that NaNo would give me an excuse to take a break from it and let it rest before I dig into line edits. Which is always good.

Also, my NaNo story idea has been really developing over the last few weeks via day dreams and junk. Clearly my drunken muse is telling me to get on board for writing it in a few months. And I have to say, I don't really disagree with her.

(NaNo project has things in common with the below pictures:)

BUT, we'll still wait and see. It's not yet October, and October is the month I really spend time ramping up for NaNo, with the beginning of the snowflake method, a first draft query and a scene list. So there's a chance that, come October, I just won't have time to do all that. And if I don't have time, I'm not doing NaNo because I don't want to screw up my story just because I didn't have time to properly plan and nurture it first.

How about you? Are you going to participate in NaNo 2011?

In Which We Bid To Support

Hey all, just wanted to quickly pop in to draw your attention to this awesome auction
Read For Relief

They’re auctioning off a bunch of industry-related items to raise funds for the Red Cross to help with the Hurricane Irene aftermath. The auction items include:

Query critiques
Manuscript critiques
Books (ARCs or published books, both signed and unsigned)
Book-related swag



Check it out, there's some awesome stuff!

In Which Blogger Switches Things Up

Has anyone played around with the new blogger interface?

For those who don't know what I'm talking about, blogger rolled out a new interface for the dashboard about a week ago. You can try it out by clicking on the "Try the Updated Blogger Interface" Link. Don't worry you can switch back.

It looks something like this:

I haven't really given it a try beyond just a few looks. Mostly because just with those few glances I decided I'm not crazy about it. I'm also not crazy about trying to figure out where everything is again.

But, I realize I may be acting unfairly since I haven't actually used it. Has anyone else given it a test run? Do you like it? Not like it? Why or why not?

OK update: I've played around with it a bit. It's going to take some getting used to, especially regarding some weird format stuff but one of the things I absolutely LOVE is when you "preview" your post now, it actually opens it as a separate window and shows what it will look like on your actual blog. So it's a true preview.

Friday Fun

Yvie's Back! To send you into the gloriousness that is the wiznat.






That's a nickname for the weekend, btw.

I have a crap load of nicknames. I think most dogs do. Here's a list of my more popular nicknames:

B
Miss B
Beaver
Beavie
Beep
Beep Beep
Beedibeep
Bee Bee


You can see there's a bit of a trend there.

Onto the fun!



see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

In Which I Went Shopping

Hi all, sorry about yesterday's post, The link for the bread recipe was included, but I realized it was kind of hidden between the pictures.

So here's the link to the recipe again, for anyone who wanted it: Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread.

Here's what mine ended up looking like. And I'm not going to lie. It was delicious.








So, last week I mentioned shopping therapy at the RenFest. I told myself I wasn't going to buy anything this year because, as mentioned, I am pretty broke (AND Doggy Tula has come down with a serious itching problem over the last few weeeks. She will be getting a second vet visit later this week. Sigh).

Anyway, so they we were, hanging out at Renfest, studiously NOT thinking about how Twin's car was stolen and how someone was in our house while we were sleeping, and THERE IT WAS...

Now, I know I've mentioned before how I'm jealous of Twin's ability to look good in hats. It doesn't come as easy for me. In fact, my steampunk writing hat in my blog pic is really the first awesome hat I've ever owned.


Until. I found. THIS!!!





That's right! A mothereffing steampunk Bowler/Derby Hat! Holy hell guys. I wanted it IMMEDIATELY.

So I bought it.

For reals. I would've totally regretted not getting it.


So, now I have another steampunk hat. This one, though, will be a steampunk EDITING/REVISION hat. I think I may change my blog picture to match the hat of whatever I'm doing at the time. So, for example, since I'm revising Break Free right now, I'll be changing the above picture to match.

So, there you have it. The Siren call of the steampunkery sucks me in again. Man, I would buy so much cool stuff if I had a lot of money.

How about you? Bought anything frivilous necessary lately?

In Which We Celebrate

Happy Labor Day to all my friends in the states.


I'll be back to regular blog posts on Wednesday because I'm making this for breakfast today.





Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread




TTYL

In Which We Write Posts To Help Shelter Dogs

Saw this post on Piedmont Writer and decided to jump on.

11 week old Yvie at the shelter

The face that launched a puppy adoption

Pedigree is resurrecting its insanely successful Write a Post, Help a Dog program. In 2010, 391 bloggers wrote about the program and with each post, Pedigree donated 20 pounds of its Healthy Longevity dog food to shelter animals. In all, 7,820 pounds of food was donated to two shelters renowned for their care of senior dogs: Muttville Senior Dog Rescue in San Francisco and Castaway Critters in Harrisburg, Pa.

How you can help in 2011

Simply spread the word about Write a Post, Help a Dog 2011 and once again Pedigree will donate 20 pounds of food for each blogger's post. Here's all you need to include in your post:

The Write a Post, Help a Dog program is aimed at raising awareness and food for the more than four million dogs that wind up in shelters and breed rescues each year.
For each blog post mentioning the Pedigree Foundation from now until midnight ET on September 3, Pedigree will donate 20 pounds of its new dry Pedigree recipe food for dogs -- its best recipe ever -- to a shelter, because every dog deserves leading nutrition.

The Pedigree Foundation -- a 501 (C)(3) nonprofit organization is committed to helping dogs by providing grants to shelters and rescues and encouraging dog adoption. This year the Foundation has already raised more than $376,570 against its goal of $1.5 million to carry out its work to fund grants that not only help shelters operate, but to further shelter innovations.
The Pedigree Foundation depends on charitable contributions from individuals to carry out its mission to help dogs find loving homes. In addition to writing a blog post, here's how you can help:

Donate online at http://pedigreefoundation.org/donate.aspx
Apply for a shelter grant from the Pedigree Foundation by completing a form at www.pedigreefoundation.org
Purchase Dogs Rule Gear at www.dogsrulegear.com where the proceeds go to the Pedigree Foundation to help loving dogs find a home. SPECIAL OFFER: Get 10 percent off Dogs Rule Gear by using the promo code BlogPaws10 from August 22 - September 30.


Now, the deadline for this is TONIGHT, and the link is at The Eagle's Aerial Perspective blog. So please go there, link up, copy and paste, or blog what you can to help this fabulous cause.

Friday Fun

Yvie's back ape-friends! To start your weekend off right!





Even though it's supposedly been kinda crazy around here lately, not much has been happening in dog world. I mean, I guess I got to meet a policeman, but that's been about it.

That's why it's time for some fun to zazz this place up!



see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!




see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!