Friday Fun Words

It's that time again, ape-friends! The time you've all been waiting for, on the edge of your seats, checking your watches...

You do know that people typically check calendars for days and not their watches, right?

...I do now...

So for any of my - our- our new followers, Friday is when I, the lovely, wonderful, beautiful, graceful - ahem- Yvie, makes up definitions for word verification words in order for everyone to use and thereby make me famous.

Anyway yesterday I had my yearly checkup at the vet. Unlike most dogs, I LOVE the vet. As my mommy would say, it's straight up awesomesauce. Not only do I get a lot of attention... (because, I mean, look at me...)



...I also get lots of treats and kisses.

Also, it turns out I'm thinner than Mommy thought, so take that Mommy! Soon I'll be down to my puppy weight.

me in all my skinny glory

Onto the words!

Fobee - when your enemy is a small insect that stings. On a side note, I have a lot of fobees. Once my face swelled up from a fobee assassin that struck me before bed time. Not fun.

Noash - when your impash is missing.

Depptor - when you mix a very handsome Hollywood actor who three times played a dashing pirate, and a Jurassic lizard with a long toenail.

Matchel - man satchel. Or a satchel that perfectly accessorises your snazzy outfit.

Aftersies - the term for when you have dessert following elevensies.

Chlogra - in drain clog mythos, the giant moth-like creature that tries to lay waste to clog cities. Chlogra's nemesis is Exila.

Bark at ya later!

In Which I Keep Track Of Books

So I read all these lovely blogs where they set goals for themselves regarding how many books they should read this year, or trying to read 1 book a month by a debut author (this goal is awesome - I think this should be required of all readers). But I have a hard time setting a reading goal when I don't know how many books I normally read in a year.

I know there's a 100 books a year goal (almost 2 a week) but is that a lot for me? Too little? I have no clue.

So, for the first time ever, I'm going to try to keep track of all the books I read in a year - that way I can better prepared to set a reading goal next year.

So far this year I have read:

Total Oblivion More or Less by Alan DeNiro
Interworld By Neil Gaiman and Michael - King of the 80's - Reaves
The Way of the Shadows by Brent Weeks
Hooked by Les Edgerton
Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks


Huh. Listing them all out it seems pretty good. That's a book a week so far.

I will be keeping a running list as a tracker on the sidebar as the year progresses.

Anyone else keep track of their books?

In Which I Go Shopping

So as soon as I realized I was almost done with the WIP, I went shopping for office supplies. I mean, who doesn't love shopping for paper and pens and all that good stuff? No one, that's who.

I picked up the below stuff, along with a new package of paper.




The one thing I forgot was a notebook, which I'll use to write out where, in specific scenes, I'll need to make changes.

Otherwise the pens are for line edits and any other writing I plan on doing with the revisions.
Except the purple pen. I gave that one to Twin to use as she acts as my first beta-but-also-more-like-an-alpha-reader person. She'll catch typos etc.

The highlighters are for, erm, highlighting things on the manuscript. Also I'm going to try highlighting changes in the notebook once they've been complete. As opposed to crossing them out, which would be my normal method.

The notecards are for making a list of scenes and playing around a bit. Mostly they'll be useful for figuring out where my chapter breaks should be and where I need additional scenes from other characters POV to break up the story a bit.

But the manuscript is marinating for awhile. So I'll just have to look at my pretty supplies and sigh.

Does anyone else feel the need to buy brand new supplies when you're starting a new project?

In Which I Share Contest News (Again)

The most lovely and funny Stephanie Perkins is back from her month in Paris (can you believe it? A whole month living in Paris, doing research for her YA books? Awesome...)

And she has returned bearing prizes to be awarded in a contest.
Go check it out.

In Which I Do A Dance

Hey. How are you?

Good, good. It's nice to hear that.

So, umm, Notice anything? Anything different?

No? I'll give you a hint. It's over to the right. Don't worry, I'll wait.




That's right! The first Draft is complete! wOOt!

325 pages

Ohhhhhh it's been so long since I've gotten to write "The End" on a piece that's longer that 30k. It feels good. I'd forgotten how good it feels.

In celebration I, of course, do a dance. A "The End Dance". It's very similar to the "New House Dance" of which I am frequent participant.


Here's a video of the "The End Dance". Feel free to copy and mimic



h/t to Joan Crawford for her awesomeness.


Peace out, friends. I will be back tomorrow, assuming I didn't hurt myself whilst dancing.

In Which I Share Contest News

DL, frequent commenter on this blog, has reached the bronze medal of blogging - 100 followers.
Of course, this means it's time for a contest.
Pop on over to his page and feel free to enter.

Also with another 100 follower contest is Kristin Rae. Check out her contest as well for a chance to win.

Finally, what has two thumbs and is excited for Lost tomorrow? This guy!

In Which I Am Conflicted

So I'm working on WIP, making steady forward motion when I come across the MOTHER OF ALL DISTRACTIONS.
So big that instead of being included on my distractions post, it needs it's very own post.

And no, it's not LOLCats



What it is, my friends, is reading a good book.

What's extra hard about this distraction is that, as a writer, we're supposed to be reading. A lot. We should be reading all the time, never stopping, never hesitating.

Only once have I heard a published author state that if you want to be a writer you need to stop reading right now because everything's been done to death and he didn't want budding authors copying existing ideas, and he was a nutbag

(On a side note, when I first read that comment, (and this comment was in a published book regarding authors - each author had a black and white artsy photo and a single page to blah blah about something. I don't remember if it was related to writing or if they could gab about whatever they wanted) I was utterly heartbroken. I thought, how horrible that I have to give up reading just to be a writer.
Good thing I would later find out this was actually anti-advice. I wish I could remember the author who said this so I could send him a nasty gram. What a d-bag)

I already mentioned how the end of WIP is dragging a bit and then, on top of it I finished my Les Edgerton Hooked book and moved onto the second Night Angel book. And this book is awesometastic. It's one of those books where you're like "do I really need to sleep? Surely I can just stay up and read all night and not feel crabby or like I'm dying the next morning". But the answer to that question is, yes you really need sleep. The book isn't going anywhere and you (or me at least) will ALWAYS regret not getting enough sleep.

So here I am, reading this book, and since I want to read it instead of sleep (and in case I haven't mentioned it (and I don't know if I have) I LOVE to sleep. I love it so so so so much. Also I have those great dreams, so that makes sleep even more awesometastic) you'd better believe I want to read it instead of write.

I don't know how to get around this dilemma. I mean, I need to read it. And I need to write. The two pastimes are mutually exclusive (or at least in my brain they are).

Clearly I need to finish one and concentrate on the other.

Damn you, wonderful books! Damn you for being so alluring and great that I can't put you down!