Archive for the 'How coolio is THAT?' Category

June 27, 2010 | Adv Children's Lit,How coolio is THAT?,Life in General,Reading is FUNdamental,Sunday Scribblings

Today’s word of the day is brought to you by Sunday Scribblings: Life Swap

After reading Shel Silverstein’s autobiography for my ACL class, I would life swap with him. But only certain parts:

~ Endless travel

~Homes in different places

~ Camping out in the conference room of my publisher to take over the production of my book (if I was going the traditional route, that is) and have people be on Celise Patrol (glorified gofers that would bring me whatever I needed)

~ Worldwide adoration of YA fans

~ To have ideas come so ridiculously often that if I don’t have any paper around, I have to use what I got–whether it be my arms are the tablecloth at the restaurant where I’m eating.

~ To leave a million dollar legacy that includes: continuing royalties, books translated in 20 different languages and sold well over 20 million copies.

~ To know that I lived my life to the fullest, doing what I love most, and not have any regrets whatsoever.

Technorati Tags: Sunday Scribblings, Shel Silverstein

May 20, 2010 | A Royale Pain,Book One,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,How coolio is THAT?,Life in General,Random Thoughts,The 4-1-1 on Me,Writer Moment

On YALITCHAT, I submitted the first 25 pages of DA Book 1 for teen review. 3 responses so far and the feedback has been great. The best part is that one of the reviewers was a guy.

“…Through the whole story I just kept thinking. “Duuuuuude, I would love to read this book, it’s awesome!” I love how the Draven can relate to girls and guys (in a sense). Her life just seems exciting with even a few real details that some kids have gone through…”

Totally made my night.

What I’m loving about this group is that I’m not just getting a small paragraph on what the reviewer thought. I’m getting serious feedback. Feedback that could amount to a 1 or 2 pages worth of suggestions/comments, etc: what could be changed, what doesn’t make sense, what could be added. I LOVE it. These teens are serious about their reading and it shows in their comments. I wish I could submit more, but at least I know I’m off to a good start.

It’s been professionally edited and looked over by beta readers. Now I just have to insert all the feedback.

Technorati Tags: YALITCHAT

November 24, 2009 | How coolio is THAT?,Random Thoughts

I love doing these things. The first time, when my niece sent it to me, I did it all wrong. I didn’t pay attention to the rules. LOL. Oops! My bad. I got it right this time, though. It really is harder than it looks. Here’s the thing: THEY HAVE TO BE REAL PLACES, NAMES, THINGS. NOTHING MADE UP! If you want to play, simply copy/paste the questions into the COMMENTS section and change the answers to fit you. If you don’t want to show your last name, just put the first initial. Have fun! Interested to see what you guys come up with.

1. What is your last name? Downs

2. A 4 Letter Word: Dunk

3. A Boys Name: Darren

4. A Girls name: Dawn

5. An Occupation: Director

6. A Color: Dark Blue

7. Something you wear: Dress shoes

8. A beverage: Daiquri

9. A Food: Dumplings

10. Something found in the bathroom: Drain

11. A place: Disneyland

12. A Reason for being late: Dead

13. Something you shout: Dammit!

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

September 15, 2009 | Family Portrait,How coolio is THAT?,Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up

To celebrate our 3yr anniversary, Mr. Maul and I went to Las Vegas . We took Friday off, drove down and came back Sunday. So here’s what we did:

FRIDAY –

We stopped at the Hoover Dam. TRANSFORMERS was filmed there, y’know.

Got to Vegas a little after 3, checked into our hotel, Excalibur, then explored our surroundings a little bit, trying to get ideas for what we wanted to do. That night, we went to dinner at Cathouse in the Luxor:

This restaurant was designed to look like a bordello. The setting was very intimate and it was where I had my very first real alcoholic drink. I say real because I am not a drinker. I don’t like the taste of hard alcohol, wine, beer, wine coolers, etc. The only alcoholic drink I’ve ever really liked is sangria. And Olive Garden makes the best ones. The only reason I can drink that is because the taste of the alcohol is heavily masked by additional stuff. Taking that into consideration, the bartender gave me a couple of choices that I could handle without gagging, so I tried a Strawberry Blonde (Ketel One vodka, strawberry puree and something else). It wasn’t too bad.

I had a few good sips before I started to feel tired. Thank goodness we had coffee with dessert (little red velvet cupcakes, btw). I had sauteed garlic shrimp pasta for dinner and Mr. Maul had grilled tuna, seared raw (ewww, gross!).

After dinner we walked over to New York, New York Hotel where I encountered show girls:

a little touristy kiosk that had this funky headpiece:

and Gallagher’s Steakhouse, which, according to Mr. Maul, has the best steaks he’s ever eaten:

On the way back to the hotel, we got some good shots of the Statue of Liberty:

and the special memorial for the firefighters and police officers who lost their lives at 9/11:

There were plaques placed at certain intervals, of quotes made by famous people, and I had Mr. Maul take a picture of two of them. This first one is by Martin Luther King, Jr.:

And it says:

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moment of comfort, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.”

The other quote is by Nelson Mandela:

and it says:

“There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.”

We also got some night shots of the, well, nightlife:

and our hotel:

But wait, there’s more (more…)

Technorati Tags: Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, TRANSFORMERS, Excalibur, Cathouse, Luxor, Olive Garden, New York, New York Hotel, Gallagher’s Steakhouse, Statue of Liberty, Martin Luther King, Jr, Nelson Mandela