Archive for the 'Book Stuff' Category

November 4, 2009 | Book Stuff,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Road Trip Wednesday,The 4-1-1 on Me,Writer Moment

Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival”, where YA Highway‘s contributors post a weekly writing or reading-related question and answer it in on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

You’re more than welcome to participate! Just answer the question on your own blog, and leave a link to it in their comments.

Topic #5

How do you choose your genre?

Well, that’s simple. Hello, my name is Celise and I’m a romanceaholic. And no, I don’t plan to get help for it. Let me start off by saying that I am addicted to adult romance books. Let me repeat that. I am Ad.Dic.Ted to adult romance books. For some people it’s sex, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, chocolate, or a 32 oz Thirstbuster of Mountain Dew at 7am. For me, it’s adult romance books. Specifically, adult series romance books like Harlequin Blaze. 6 new titles, from 6 different authors, come out every month. Every month! It’s an adult series romance bookworm’s dream, I tell you. But I’ve been known to read outside the series, too—you can see a few of my fav authors in the blogroll over there (Alison, Jill, Crystal). And, like any typical addict, I go through withdrawals.

Seriously.

If I’m not reading, or know that I don’t have a stack to read, I’ll get antsy. Bored. Whiny. You don’t want to see me when I’m going through book withdrawal. It’s so. Not. Pretty. But Mr. Maul knows that I can easily be appeased—and bribed—with 5 simple words: “I’ll buy you a book.” I’m also easy when it comes to gift-giving times like Valentine’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas: a BN gift card. I started reading adult romance books in high school (don’t remember exactly when). I read them so much, I barely graduated from high school.

Seriously.

I was at the public library nearly every weekend. It got to the point where they greeted me by name.

Seriously.

Those Blaze books are small—a little over 200 pages. I can get through two of those in one day. The bigger books by Alison, Jill and so forth take me an extra few days. All that to say (yes, there really is a point to the rambling), it’s no surprise that my genre of choice is romance. Actually, it’s romance/mystery. Through an online workshop, I learned about taglines, branding, etc, and one of the exercises asked about the running theme in all your novels. For me, it seemed to be romance with an element of mystery. When I had my site re-designed, I decided on the main page tagline: “High school has never been so mysterious.” That’s because there’s a slavery ring mentioned in Secrets and Kisses, body organs being sold on the black market in Dance Jam Productions (it’s not as heavy as it sounds, really) and a teenager recruited by the FBI as an informant in the Draven Atreides series.

My first two books are definitely romance/mystery, but the first 4 books in the series are all mystery. The 5th book will have an element of romance and then the romance will grow in the final installment.

Technorati Tags: Road Trip Wednesday, YA Highway, Harlequin Blaze, Secrets and Kisses, Dance Jam Productions, Draven Atreides

October 26, 2009 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",Book Stuff,Book Three,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Family Portrait,How coolio is THAT?,Life in General,School Daze,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Family Jewels,Weekend Wrap-Up,Writer Moment,Writing Movements

On this Saturday morning’s episode of The Gurl House: paint and shaving cream. Yes, it’s as messy as it sounds. Mr. Maul spent some time with his BF, but when he got home that afternoon, we went to look for more stuff for his Halloween costume. We hit up Savers, where he found a nightgown and then Bubbles of Joy to pick up some claw gloves. And no, I’m not gonna tell you what his costume is. You’ll just have to wait and see when I report back next week. On Sunday, we had a late, late breakfast (we’re talkin’ late morning, early afternoon) at our favorite place, Original Pancake House and then we hit up the mall. For the past few years I’ve been Storm for Halloween, but took a break a couple of times. In 2004, I left the cape in the closet and wore a trench coat as Niobe (THE MATRIX): CLICK FOR BIGGER VIEW

And in 2005, I “grew” some horns as Darth Maul’s wife. If the Sith are allowed to mate, I imagine she would look something like this: CLICK FOR BIGGER VIEW

Great make-up job, yes? The hubby’s real good at that. For the record, breathing was not an option in that corset. This year, I’m only doing Storm at work. I’ve decided to be something else this year for the actual event (again, you’ll see next week). And it involved buying these sexy heels that I will probably only wear once:

I found these puppies at Hot Topic and had one helluva time trying to get them closed. They didn’t buckle—or snap—because really, that would’ve been too easy. Instead they button. Yes, button. Revolutionary, I know, but I’ve come to discover that only shirts and jeans are allowed to have buttons. Not shoes. I’ll be breaking them in this week, a little at a time, because my feet are already protesting at being crammed inside these babies for hours on end.

At this store called Shiek (I’m really hoping this was spelled wrong on purpose), I picked up a pair of Dereon’s:

Yes, Dereon as in Beyonce’s clothing line. Now, I can wear the shoes with the jeans. LOL. I may want to hurl every time I hear “Single Ladies”, but I like the design of some her jeans. And these are the only pair of shoes from her line that I would wear in public and not feel like a complete and utter dorkus.

School Daze – Working on my research paper this week for my EIS class: The Art of Healing: The Benefits of Art Therapy for Young People. I get to read books like The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell as research. By choice, not by requirement. If you’re a writer, you need to see this movie. And read this book. If you’re an aspiring teen writer, or you write for teens, then you really need to see this movie. And then read this book. I had an English teacher like Erin when I was in high school—Mrs. Smith—and she is the very reason I stuck with the writing. Not that I was ever thinking about quitting, but the encouragement was always positive and consistent. The rough draft of my paper is due this Sunday, so wish me luck. I haven’t done a research paper since college.

Writing Movement – I’ve been preparing for NaNoWriMo. Last week, I got two more chapters outlined. Altogether, I now have 6 chapters. At this point, I’m going to stop. On the blogs I’ve been reading lately, there’s been some posts about preparation for this challenge. On one blog I was reading (can’t remember for the life of me which blog it was) about the tips for getting through it. Turning off the editing mechanism won’t be hard for me. I tend to write the first draft all the way through without editing anyway. However, the “no time for getting stuck” part (a.k.a. writer’s block) may trip me up. As I mentioned in last week’s Weekend Wrap-Up, I’m a pantser by nature.

When I have a story in mind, the only thing I have is the title, the names of the characters, and a vague idea of the plot. The story itself emerges as I write. For this challenge, I decided to outline first and I’ve discovered that it’s really, really, hard. And I don’t like it. You have to know how the story is going to play out ahead of time and it was difficult for me to picture that. In regards to the “no time for getting stuck” tip, I’ve decided to stop the outlining process at Chapter 6. I’ve got a good start. I think I’m just going to wing it from that chapter on. If you’re looking for a writing buddy, look me up at DravensMom.

So, how was your weekend?

Technorati Tags: Savers, Bubbles of Joy, Original Pancake House, Niobe, THE MATRIX, Hot Topic, Shiek, Dereon, Beyonce, Single Ladies, The Freedom Writers Diary, Erin Gruwell, NaNoWriMo

October 12, 2009 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",A Royale Pain,Book One,Book Stuff,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,School Daze,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up,Writing Movements

If you’re like me, and work for the government, then you had today off. Mr. Maul wasn’t so fortunate. He only gets the major holidays. Shame.

Friday – Got my hair done. I got my braids taken out on Thursday. It was so past time. And there was so much new growth! My hair was so thick I couldn’t feel the heat from the blow dryer. LOL. Heh. Yeah, it was that thick. But it looks all pretty and straight now. On the way to the beauty shop, I was getting off the freeway and a guy dressed in camos flew by me on his motorcycle. When I caught up with him, he was at a stop light waiting to turn into a strip mall. On impulse, I stopped next to him and quickly thanked him for serving our country. “Thanks, I appreciate that,” he said. Didn’t know the guy personally, and I never even got his name, but I just wanted to thank him, y’know? A soldier will never get tired of hearing that, I’m sure.

Saturday – Made tissue flowers with the girls this morning at The Gurl House. Find out how it went here. After that, I went to Old Navy and proceeded to drop $300 on winter clothes. Mostly sweaters and ribbed long-sleeved turtlenecks. I love turtlenecks. Most I’ve ever spent at one time on clothes (because I sincerely hate clothes shopping), but Old Navy had some good sales goin’ on. Sales on winter clothes. Go figure.

That night, Mr. Maul and I went to Dave and Buster’s to celebrate the birthday of one of our friends. It was a small group this time, but that’s cool. We all had a good time.

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Technorati Tags: Old Navy

September 8, 2009 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",A Royale Pain,A Whole Latte Trouble,Book One,Book Stuff,Book Two,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Movie Queue,Music Queue,School Daze,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up,Writing Movements

When we have 3-day weekends, I always feel a little off. Case in point: I went out to the mailbox and left some mail for the carrier to pick up.

It was Sunday.

For some reason, I thought it was Saturday. Go figure.
Mr. Maul and I went to the movies three days in a row. We saw GAMER, EXTRACT and ALL ABOUT STEVE. Interesting concept about GAMER: people playing people. Gerard Butler was in a game called “Slayers”, but they also had a video game called “Society” that was a real-life version of The Sims. Those are the type of video games I would not want to play. And how about Michael C. Hall (DEXTER) playing a real bad guy? I say real because in DEXTER, he’s a bad guy, but for the good of the public. There was even a funny little dance scene and a surprising—not to mention interesting—cameo from Milo Ventimiglia (HEROES) as a character in “Society”. Saw a couple of good previews, too. One was called NINJA ASSASSIN. And for the life of me, I can’t think of the other one. We saw a preview for A CHRISTMAS CAROL and surprisingly, Mr. Maul wants to see it.

For the record, I had no interest whatsoever in seeing EXTRACT. He had mentioned the movie in passing, saying one if his friends thought it was good. Needless to say, it came as a surprise when we walked up to the window and he said “2 for EXTRACT.”

“EXTRACT? We’re not seeing EXTRACT, we’re seeing ALL ABOUT STEVE.” I said.

“I thought we were seeing EXTRACT. I mentioned that Travis thought it was good,” he says.

“It was a comment you made in passing, Mr. Maul. You said nothing about actually wanting to see it.”

I went along with it, but I was seriously pissed. I think he has little conversations with me in his mind. Maybe he told my “imaginary self” that he wanted to see that movie–or had thought about seeing it–and just forgot to tell me in real life. It was okay, some parts were funny, but I would’ve enjoyed it more if I hadn’t been so pissed. We stopped by Target afterwards and I made him buy me a CD.

Tantric has a new CD out called “Mind Control”. I love Hugo’s deep voice. I have song #6, “Kick Back“, on repeat. I like the chorus:

Show me to rise/rise above/show me how to rise, remember how to love, yourself

And the chorus overlay:

When life is kicking you kick back, don’t be a victim of the mistakes that were made when you were growing up, a young child not taught to be an adult, raise your arms you’re free, don’t have to give it up

Very cool CD. I give it 4 1/2 Snaps.

It’s the second week of school and that overwhelming feeling I got last week is now down to a dull ache. I know what I’m going to be writing about for my Diagnostic Essay and I have a topic idea for my research paper. I’ve told myself to take it one week at a time. It’s the only way that’s going to save me, truly. No more looking ahead. My co-workers and my family are going to see a different side of me as it is, thanks to the schedule I’ll be keeping. No need to freak them out even more, eh? So, uh, yeah. Here we go. Be sure to check out my “learning journals” over at Non-Profitation.

Writing Movements – Still waiting to get a quote from an editor regarding Book One. Hopefully, I’ll be able to send it out the first or second week of October. Revising Book Two has been shelved for the moment until I can get into the School Groove. I’ve been writing content for the Draven site (3 quizzes, actually). I’m in the design queue for the end of Sept, beginning of Oct. Not sure when I’ll start the podcasting, but I’ll be sure to keep you all posted.

So, that was my holiday weekend. How was yours?

Technorati Tags: GAMER, EXTRACT, ALL ABOUT STEVE, Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, DEXTER, Milo Ventimiglia, HEROES, NINJA ASSASSIN, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Tantric, “Mind Control”, Kick Back, Non-Profitation

August 10, 2009 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",A Royale Pain,Book One,Book Stuff,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,How coolio is THAT?,Life in General,Movie Queue,Music Queue,School Daze,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up,Writing Movements

Saturday morning, I spent the better part of the day with my BF. I’d received some info from Prescott College last week. Even though I’m not jumping into my chosen subject right away, they’re already asking you to come up with a tentative course title and flesh out your first mentored class. I was feeling a little anxious about that, so she did a reading. It was very positive. After that, we were able to come up with some ideas. So, first semester will be Math and that Interdisciplinary course (which will basically introduce me to the program), but I guess for second semester, my tentative course title is “Non-Profit Exploration”: Through research, hands-on projects, and interviews I’ll learn what a non-profit is, how to start an NP, and why people go into the NP sector.

Part of the class will be the process of sharing my findings and my wonderful BF suggested a blog. Well, duh. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that first. So, later on that day, I created a blog (Non-Profitation) that will chronicle my journey in getting my degree. I’ll be talking about school a little bit on here, but the bulk of it will be on this new blog. Feel free to follow along if you like. I’ll be posting the link to it in my posts here, whenever I talk about school. Right now, there’s only an introduction, but the real posts will start this weekend (when I attend a volunteer orientation at a local NP) and move forward with college orientation at the end of the month.

Saturday night, Mr. Maul and I attended a surprise going away party for one of our DSG guys. He enlisted in the Army and will be gone for 5 months starting Sept 1st. We had a blast. I didn’t get in the pool, though. Spent most of my time on land, talking about TRUEBLOOD. One of our Biker Scout dudes is a big fan like we are. I think he’s going to be Eric for Halloween this year. He told me I should be Tara. LOL. Apparently, the HBO store has shirts that say Merlotte’s and he thinks I should get one. LOL. I don’t know if I’m going to have my braids then, but it’s an idea. I don’t think I want to be Storm again.

Mr. Maul and I went to see G.I. JOE on Sunday. The best thing about that movie was the shirtless shot of Channing Tatum. Seriously. It didn’t help that the auditorium we were in had projector issues during the first few minutes of a new Denzel Washington movie. It had that post-apocalyptic, Mad Max feel to it. If you saw it, hit me up in the comments section and gimme the deets on that. It looked interesting. Anyhoo, the mgr came in and said they were having projector issues and that it would be a few minutes. He came back 5 mins later and said the issue was beyond their control and we were being moved into another auditorium. It was smaller, and, major disappointment of disappointments, they didn’t show the same previews! Which I totally didn’t get.

Do they show different previews in different auditoriums? If you work at movie theater and know the answer to this question, hit me up in the comments, because I’d seriously like to know. The hubby and I were a little miffed that we didn’t get to see that Denzel preview. And that we had to sit a few seats down from two teenage boys who reeked of smoke. Blech!

In the end, we got a free popcorn coupon for our trouble. Mr. Maul wanted to get a ticket refund and go another time, but I talked him into staying. Now that I think about it, we should have. We could’ve gone after I got back from Volunteer orientation and seen that preview. Not that I’m bitter about that, mind you.

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Technorati Tags: Prescott College, TRUEBLOOD, HBO, G.I. JOE, Channing Tatum, Denzel Washington, Mad Max