Supernatural Chicken

I'm a geek. Anyone who knows me knows this. Anyone who follows my blog, knows this. If you haven't already come to this conclusion, than you have somehow managed to miss all the posts about Comic Cons, Doctor Who, superheroes, and the short-lived Nerd Cat Diaries. (Sorry, the cats refused to cooperate any longer. Besides, Winter is no longer coming.)

Anyways, I finally caught up on all my current shows and decided I needed to start in on others I've been meaning to watch. With two kids, it's hard to get 'adult TV time', so I end up watching series in a marathon run when they're asleep. (Thank you, Netflix!) It also means I'm very far behind on what all my friends are watching and talking about. Except Game of Thrones. Read the books and own the first two seasons, so there are no spoilers there for me. Everything else, though, I am sadly lacking.

So, with a clean slate to start a new series, I flipped through Netflix, trying to figure out which one I needed to get through next. Unfortunately my first choice, Castle, is not on Netflix. Boo! Moving on, I decided Supernatural would be the 'natural' choice. And so began my night.

It should be noted that I'm not a blood and guts gal. I'm squeamish when it comes to anything like that. Hubby tried to get me to watch Walking Dead with him and I only stomached two episodes before calling it quits. I also don't do suspense well. I've managed movies like PSYCHO (the original) and most Hitchcock Presents, Twilight Zone and things of that nature. Movies like THE SHINING, I made it about five minutes to the end and had to leave the room. I couldn't even watch the trailer for THE CONJURING. In short I'm a chicken. Why I thought Supernatural would be a good idea just before bedtime is beyond my now very clear comprehension.

I think when I pushed the play button, I was expecting something along the lines of Buffy. Some blood and gore, but a little bit of comedy to off-set it. Yeah, nothing like that at all. To call the whole episode dark is an understatement. I won't give anything away in case, like me, you want to check it out for yourselves. Just be warned, Creep Factor is high. I have been told it varies from episode to episode, so I'm willing to give it another shot. With all the lights on, in the middle of the day, of course.

After making it through the first episode, I decided to call it a night and curl up with my David Sedaris book. I thought this would counteract the visions of demons and ghosts flitting through my head. I'm not so sure it did. I have a sneaking suspicion that I was warding off the forces of evil in my sleep as I now am experiencing inexplicable pain in my left shoulder. Or, I could have slept on it wrong.

I'm going with the demon theory.

A National Writing Week? For Picture Books? Sign Me Up!

So, this is apparently a thing. I had no idea until yesterday. For years now I've done NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) as a way to focus myself and get first drafts out of my head and onto paper - or Word - and eliminate excuses as to why I haven't completed anything. From doing NaNo and Camp NaNo, I've managed to finish four novels and make good headway on several others. It's a great kick in the butt, mostly because I'm highly competitive and hate to lose, even if it's only bragging rights. Hey, I use what works.

Now this interesting 'competition' comes across my Twitter feed. Similar to NaNo or National Poetry Month, this one is aimed at picture book writers. And it's only a week. Easy peasy. Well, at least I think so right now. Here's the catch: National Picture Book Writing Week challenges you to write a new picture book every day for that week. Again, not a big deal, right? I mean, it's fewer words per day than NaNo since picture books only run between 0-1000 words. Shouldn't be a problem.

But, I do have a slight fear. Small, really. What if I run out of ideas? Sure when I'm writing a full-length novel I might run into road blocks and write myself into a corner, but I have a general idea of what I'm doing each day. With this challenge, each day will literally be a blank slate. All new characters, story lines and situations to come up with. New problems to present themselves and become resolved all in a short time span and then it's on to the next one. Will I be able to come up with that many ideas, one right after another? I have no idea, but I'm willing to find out.

Next week, when I embark on this new journey, I'll be posting here daily with the results of the previous day. I won't post entire stories, but I will share synopses with you all. And I'll tell you when the muse just wouldn't show. At the end of the week, I'll let you all vote on which story sounds the most interesting and that will be the one I focus on for my next project. I'm counting on you guys to help me decide since I anticipate them all being awesome. (Ok, I may be a bit optimistic.)

If you want to join me in this endeavor, you can check out all the details here on Paula Yoo's blog. Let me know if you're doing it and we can celebrate together when we have seven brand new, bright and shiny stories waiting to be released on the world.

A Week's Worth of Posts in One

Well, last week was a bit hectic. I had several posts floating around in my head, but every time I went to write on, something in the news made my thoughts and opinions seem trivial. So I waited for a good day. Unfortunately, it just wasn't a good week.

Now I'm going to give a little clip of what I had planned for last week, as close to in order as I can. Enjoy.

Last Monday's post was meant to consist of a discussion on music. The prior Saturday we attended a concert of British pop star Mika in Boston. In short, he was fabulous. Joking with the audience, relaxed and lots of fun. One song he sang the end of a capella and unmic-ed. At one point he realized he messed up his set list so started taking requests instead. I'm pretty sure he's also one of a very few select people who cannot only get away with saying, 'all right, you f-ers', but also make it sound endearing. I think it's the accent.

During his concert, he shared stories about how some of his songs came to be. This one is particularly poignant, as it was written during the London Tube bombings. He was stuck home rather than being able to go to the studio to record, so he wrote. This is the result. I wonder now why he chose to share that particular story two days before the Boston Marathon, around the corner from where the tragedy took place.

There was going to be a mommy post in the middle of the week. That one may still show up sometime in the future. It had to do with bullying, as I'm seeing it mentioned in a lot of my friends' Facebook and twitter feeds, and that worries me. With two small children getting ready to enter school for the first time next fall, I'm concerned about what they might be facing. I try to prepare them the best I can, but will it be enough? Will they continue doing all the things they enjoy doing or will their peers make fun of them, resulting in them changing to fit the popularity mold? All things I keep thinking about.

Friday I was going to make another posting attempt. Thursday I had back-to-back book signings. In Woonsocket, RI I did a reading and signing at their library. I ended up with two small crowds due to stragglers showing up later, but it worked out fine. It gave me a chance to connect with different people, many of whom just wanted to chat or show me their work, which was a first. But part of the purpose of doing these is to meet with people I wouldn't usually, so it was all good.

The second signing was up at the Leicester Library in MA. My, um, crowd for that one was much smaller. Mainly one little boy. They did warn me when I set up a date that over the last eighteen months they had three signings with no shows in terms of crowds, so I guess one is an improvement on that front. However, making the most of my time up there, I was shown around the building. The librarians were very hospitable, taking me to rooms full of awesome historical items that the public doesn't have access to. They have an antique fire engine on their second floor! And a 'Bat Room' that no longer has any bats in it, but lots of old history books. (The bats have been successfully sealed out.) I also had some more quiet writing time while I waited. More of PROMETHEUS done along with some work on the second episode of TINMAN. So, yay!

So, there you have it. Last week's intended posts all smooshed into one. At some point I may further expand on what were meant to be the first two posts. More likely, I'll end up going off into some other direction all together.

Cracking Stories 4 Children

Hey guys! WHO WILL DANCE WITH ME? is making the rounds on the internet. We're on a brand new children's book blog, Cracking Stories 4 Children. Take a peek and check back often as the lovely Malika Gandhi will be adding more.

How Do You Compete?

So, as many of you know, I had a book signing over the weekend. Before anyone asks, it was less than stellar. In the room next door was a library book sale. Can't really blame everyone for heading in that direction, can I? Not when they could get boxes of books for less than one of mine. Such is life and the nature of this business.

It's ok, though. People saw me and chatted. Even if they didn't buy a book, they know who I am now. Or at least, knew who I was for those 5 minutes or so while we talked. It's a slow assimilation, taking over getting into every home in America, never mind the whole world. I don't mind, there's still plenty of time.

Meanwhile, I managed to get notes on another project condensed for my next edit and drafted another children's book. (Yeah, I had a little time on my hands.) No use getting riled up over a small bump in the road to greatness when I've already fallen into so many potholes along the way. As ever, onward and upward!

Which reminds me. I have back-to-back readings/signings coming up next week. One is in Woonsocket, RI and the second is Leicester, MA. Hope to see you all there. And no, I won't be competing with book sales at either one.