Archive for the 'Life in General' Category

March 11, 2010 | Life in General, Sunday Scribblings, The 4-1-1 on Me

I missed this one a few weeks ago, so I’m doing it today. Today’s word of the day is brought to you by Sunday Scribblings: Big Dreams

I’ve got three big dreams:

1) Opening a nonprofit writing center for teens. For all those aspiring young authors who want to learn the art of writing…in all its formats.

2) Write full-time. Of course, I’ll need to win the lottery in order to do that. Or make enough money from Dream #1.

3) Write an adult romance book. If you read the Sunday Scribblings #205 post, then you know where I’m coming from on this.

Technorati Tags: Sunday Scribblings

March 10, 2010 | Life in General, Reading is FUNdamental, Road Trip Wednesday, The 4-1-1 on Me, Uncategorized

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 #20: List your favorite reading/writing blogs and/or resources

Before I started school, I was reading everything in my Blogroll on a weekly, if not daily, basis. And commenting. Now, I’m barely reading them and have dropped to lurker status on all of them. These are just the highlights.

Crystal Green – Because we’re both Team CHUCK and Team WINCHESTER (Supernatural).

Bria Quinlan – Love reading the monthly Excerpt Monday, her great posts about the writing life and am anxiously awaiting her Edit Cards.

YA Highway - Road Trip Wednesdays. Need I say more?

Wendy Prior - Fab beta reader. And her stories about Riley are, well, hi-larious. When I need a laugh, I go to her blog.

Debbie Ridpath Ohi - Love the comic strip.

The Intern – It’s not every day you read someone who refers to themselves in the third person.

Resources –

Shrinking Violets – Marketing for Introverts. That is all.

Writing on the Wall – All things writing. And if you’re brave enough, you can send the first page of WIP and get publicly critiqued on Monday Mania.

Book Marketing Buzz – Because lord knows I need all the help I can get in this department.

Future Perfect Publishing – Exploring new trends and possibilities in book publishing

Writer Unboxed - “the craft and business of writing genre fiction”….from the POV of 12 different people! Awesome!

Sunday Scribblings – I’ve never been one for writing prompts but I like to participate in this one.

The Creative Penn – I just discovered Joanna Penn recently after reading a post about self-publishing. Finally got around to listening to one of her podcasts and I love, love, love her accent.

Technorati Tags: Road Trip Wednesday, YA Highway, Crystal Green, CHUCK, Supernatural, Bria Quinlan, Wendy Prior, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, The Intern, Shrinking Violets, Writing on the Wall, Book Marketing Buzz, Future Perfect Publishing, Writer Unboxed, Sunday Scribblings, The Creative Penn, Joanna Penn

March 8, 2010 | Family Portrait, Life in General, Movie Queue, The 4-1-1 on Me, Weekend Wrap-Up

There’s still time to inspire an at-risk teen to write. Donate a journal

Friday evening, I went to see VALENTINE’S DAY. This reminded me of the movie CRASH, in the way that all the characters in the movie were connected somehow. The best part was that I had the whole theater to myself. Yes. The whole theater. I could’ve run up and down the aisles, screaming my head off. And no one would’ve known. Or heard me. Pretty cool. So, I was impressed by the whole interconnectivity of it all, but they should’ve replaced Taylor Swift with Miley Cyrus.

Seriously. She already has the blonde wig.

Or maybe she should’ve received a few pointers from Miley’s acting coach. I was wholly unimpressed with her acting. It’s like she was trying too hard to be a ditzy, empty-headed blonde because we all know she’s not like that in real life. As the gang from High School Musical 2 sang, “stick to the status quo.” Singing is your “thang”, honeybabydoll. Don’t stray until you’ve got a few more lessons under your belt.

Moving on…..the rest of my weekend was pretty uneventful. Mr. Maul was sick all weekend, though we managed to eat at Ron’s Place on Saturday and do a little shopping afterwards. It was cold and rainy on Sunday and that called for staying in.

Still trying to upload pics from our Orlando vacation. I was going to do a daily breakdown and realized that it was going to take too long. If I had written it ahead of time, I would’ve done it. Now all you’re going to get is a link to my flickr account. So sorry. I’ll let you know when it’s all been uploaded.

So, how was your weekend? Did you watch the Oscars? Who won?

Technorati Tags: VALENTINE’S DAY, CRASH, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, High School Musical 2

March 3, 2010 | Life in General, Road Trip Wednesday, The 4-1-1 on Me

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 #19: What are your tools when it comes to procrastination?

This is an easy question seeing as how I can sum it up with one word: reading. Now, some may not see this as procrastination.

But I do.

I write YA.

But I read adult romance books.

When I was in high school, I read more than I did my homework. I read so much the librarians knew me by face because I was at my library nearly every weekend.

When I was single and living on my own, I would come home, slip into something more comfortable, slip under the covers of my bed (it’s where I love to read) and read. Until dinner. Then I would make dinner and read while I was eating. Then I’d go back to “bed” and read until it was really time for me to go to bed.

I was reading 2 books a day at that rate, sometimes 3 on the weekends.

Now that I’m married, it’s more like 1-2 books a week. And, now that I’m up to my hairline in school, it’s been more like 1 book every few weeks. Needless to say, I’m rockin’ a really nice TBR pile right now:

Slow Heat – Jill Shalvis
Tempt Me Again – Wendy Etherington
Naked Dragon – Annette Blair
Here Comes Trouble – Donna Kauffman
On the bright side, I’m now the girlfriend of a sex god – Louise Rennison
Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City – Kristin Miller
Kiki Strike: The Empress’s Tomb – Kristin Miller
Dani Noir – Nova Ren Suma
Nauti Deceptions – Lora Leigh

The procrastination doesn’t stop at reading books. Oh no. It extends to the internet as well. Particularly to the blogs in my blogroll. It’s been a while since I’ve done that, but I try to at least ready YAHighway on the regular. Well, at least once a week. *grin*.

Technorati Tags: Road Trip Wednesday, YA Highway, Slow Heat, Jill Shalvis, Tempt Me Again, Wendy Etherington, Naked Dragon, Annette Blair, Here Comes Trouble, Donna Kauffman, On the bright side, I’m now the girlfriend of a sex god, Louise Rennison, Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City, Kristin Miller, Kiki Strike: The Empress’s Tomb, Dani Noir, Nova Ren Suma, Nauti Deceptions, Lora Leigh

March 1, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again", 2nd Semester, Family Portrait, LAS: Community and Social Change, Life in General, Prescott College, School Daze, The 4-1-1 on Me, Weekend Wrap-Up

Mr. Maul and I got home yesterday after spending a week in Orlando last week. My parents have a timeshare and they had a “use it or lose it” situation with their points, so they had to plan a trip before March, I think. Therefore, they paid for airfare for 5 people (Me, Mr. Maul, my parents, and my niece), lodging for a week, and SUV rental. My older sister and her husband moved to Orlando around July-August of last year so we spent some time with them.

The weather was cold (high 50’s to high 70’s during the day..but only on one day) and rained 3 out of the 7 days we were there. My Dad was able to get us 4-day Base Passes (he’s retired military) to the theme parks (visit one park each day, no same-day park hopping) and Mr. Maul and I paid extra for Universal Studios tickets. We stayed at Summer Bay Resort and needless to say, I wasn’t impressed with the place. Compared to the place we stayed at in Kauai, it was sadly lacking:

~ On the one day we decided to sleep in (Tuesday), we were awakened early by the sound of drilling and hammering. Apparently, they were replacing tile in the condo above us. Thanks for the warning, people.

~ We had to deal with an absurdly loud garbage disposal. Now, I know garbage disposals are loud, but this thing sounded like it was grinding glass every time it was turned on. According to Sonny, resident handyman, that sound is normal. Alll-righty then.

~ Wi-Fi was not free in the rooms. It cost $10 a day to have that privilege. However, it was free 24/7 in the clubhouse. So much for “like-home” accommodations.

~ The pool and the jacuzzi were heated and was not only enjoyed by people, but by ducks as well. We saw the pool guy scooping out duck shit one morning, but received no notification that the pool was being sanitized. Maybe we missed that phone call or people were given a verbal warning before they got out there. I dunno.

~ Housekeeping cleaned your condo only after check-out (in Kauai, they came on Tuesdays). If you wanted the room to be cleaned before then, it was extra. We might’ve had to pay extra for clean sheets and towels, too, I don’t remember. Either way, my parents requested clean sheets and pillowcases (we washed the towels ourselves). When they were dropped off, my parents gave them the dirty sheets and pillowcases. “Oh, you want us to take them?” was the response. Uh, yeah. What the hell are we supposed to do with dirty sheets? Really? C’mon people.

The only good thing about this place was the view. We were on the third floor and our balcony faced the jacuzzi/pool area and the lake beyond. I will be posting a daily travelogue of our trip this week.

School Daze – My community project for my LAS course has been a success. The goal of 200 journals donated has been reached, but the drive will continue until Mar 15th. If you’d like to donate, check out the details here

Technorati Tags: Universal Studios, Summer Bay Resort