In Which I Head Off To Vacay

All right!  I'm off for a family vacation. Also, my cousin is in from Japan for a limited time so I'll be spending some time with him.

Which means, I won't be back to blogging until September.

I hope you have a great rest of August and I'll be back in a few weeks!

We're off to the cabin!

Friday Fun

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! It's Friday, Ape-friends! Friday Friday Friday! Which means, time to get ready for the weekend!

Stop and smell the flowers? Sure. Wear them? I don't know...

And of course here at the blog, we like to get the weekend started with some fun!

Off we go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you try to create an account on a new website

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday Weird: Okiku The Haunted Doll

In 1918, a teenage boy named Eikichi Suzuki bought a doll for his 2 year old sister Okiku. She loved the doll and carried it everywhere.

But, unfortunately, a year later little Okiku died from either a cold or a fever (sources differ on this). After the funeral, the family found Okiku's doll and were saddened that they'd forgotten to put it with her. They placed the doll on the family altar so they could pray to it in her memory.

Most traditional Japanese dolls have cropped hair.

But after her death, Okiku's doll turned a little...different. The Okiku (named after the original owner) doll's hair began to grow. Over time it has grown to almost 10 inches, down to the doll's knees.

The family took this as a sign that the little girl's spirit was residing in the doll.

In 1938, the family moved and donated a doll to a local temple to be cared for. The temple says they periodically cut the hair, but that it continues to grow.

The Okiku doll is a pretty well-known story (and has even inspired a Japanese movie) but a few things we should think about is that the name Okiku is often seen in Japanese ghost tales, many stretching further back than the 1900s. Also some sources say that there have been scientific studies on the doll that show that the hair is indeed, human (some sources also say that additional tests show that the hair is a child's hair. I doubt both of these details, since I don't know that there were any kind of tests back in the early nineteen hundreds that could tell whether hair belonged to a child. Also, many dolls had hair that was human hair, so unless the doll was tested beforehand (and why would it be?) I just don't buy that, either. But again, not all sources of this story include those details)

Thoughts?

In Which I Love Sex & Violence

Awww, how awesome did my post title turn out? So tantalizing!

Because really, today, I'm talking about the book Sex & Violence, by the awesome Carrie Mesrobian!

I was lucky enough to win a copy of the book through a Tumblr contest (extra lucky because it's signed, and because it doesn't come out until October. But if you like gritty, realistic YA, then I suggest you consider pre-ordering)

The MC, Evan, is just one of those kids you kind of want to just hug. Yes, he does dickish things, but rarely did I think he was a bad person. And the things he does are nothing compared to the things that are done to him. He more than pays his dues. And on top of that, he thinks what happened to him (an extreme, almost fatal act of violence and the violation of a friend) is deserved because he spent a lot of his life being said dick.

Evan spends so much time disliking himself that all you want to do is to hug him and tell him that, yes, maybe he's a little broken, but he's not beyond repair.

Also, because I'm from Minnesota and the majority of the book is set in Minnesota, I like it extra hard.  MINNESOTA REPRESENT! Woot!

I don't like to tell people to buy books, because I don't know your tastes, but like I said above, if you like gritty realistic YA novels, with teens that swear and drink and have sex but learn hard lessons, whether it's deserved or not, I think you'd really like Sex & Violence. I read it in almost one sitting True Story.

(also, it's a very pretty book. There are almost hidden embossments on some of the pages, referencing some of the reoccurring images in the book. It's like an extra little surprise!)


Here's the back copy of the book:

AT FIRST YOU DON'T SEE THE CONNECTION.

Sex has always come without consequences for seventeen-year-old Evan Carter. He has a strategy--knows the profile of The Girl Who Would Say Yes. In each new town, each new school, he can count on plenty of action before he and his father move again. Getting down is never a problem. Until he hooks up with the wrong girl and finds himself in the wrong place at very much the wrong time.

AND THEN YOU CAN'T SEE ANYTHING ELSE.

After an assault that leaves Evan bleeding and broken, his father takes him to the family cabin in rural Pearl Lake, Minnesota, so Evan's body can heal. But what about his mind?

HOW DO YOU GO ON, WHEN YOU CAN'T THINK OF ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER?

Nothing seems natural to Evan anymore. Nothing seems safe. The fear--and the guilt--are inescapable. He can't sort out how he feels about anyone, least of all himself. Evan's really never known another person well, and Pearl Lake is the kind of place where people know everything about each other--where there might be other reasons to talk to a girl. It's annoying as hell. It might also be Evan's best shot to untangle sex and violence.
 

Friday Fun

Hey Ape-friends! Yvie here!

Weekends mean time to eat delicious foods!

It's Friday, so you know what that means? It means it's time for some Friday Fun!

Let's get this started!

Raven Sings and Talks

IWSG

First Wednesday of the month, so you know what that means. Time for IWSG!

So I'm approaching the end of my revisions for my WIP All That Remains. I've got to finish transcribing my on paper revisions to my digital copy, make a few more changes here and there, send it out to my final two beta readers I have lined up and that's kind of it. I mean, obvs depending on what they say, there might be more changes, but still.

And before I realized how close I was to being done, I was chomping at the bit to query it. I mean, I think I've talked about before how I like to query, so doing more of it is fun.

But when I realized how close I was to actually querying it, I got a little scared. So then I tried to analyze that feeling, because I don't like being scared or having anxiety and the way to get rid of it is to address where it's coming from.

First I think I was scared of not having anything to work on while my final betas are reading. But then I realized that was just stupid. I have 2 short stories and a PB I'd like to try my hand at before I start anything new. AND I have two novels I need to start plotting and figuring out before I decide which one I want to tackle next.

So that took away some of my anxiety. Then I realized (I think) that I was just sacred of putting my work out there again. I'm confident in it, but this will be my third novel (to query) and I really, really love this one. I think it's my strongest one yet. And what if it goes nowhere? Or, what if it does WORSE than the last two I queried?

I know, logically, my love for it will fade once I start a new novel, and by the time rejections roll in I'll hopefully be in love with something new so they'll just kind of roll off. But still, until that happens, I just kind of have to wring my hands some I guess.

How about you? How do you confront your feels?

In Which I Post Some Inspiration

Just a quick post today, since I've got some things to do, and also because I wrote a longer post for Wednesday for IWSG.

So instead, today, you get a few inspiration pics from my Inspiration Pinterest board. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you're a writer and you're not on Pinterest, you are missing out.
Anyway, I hope some of these get your brains a turnin'