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Chopsticks!

Just to show you how easy it is to join the Hacky Sack Club, here’s a little video. My talent today?

Chopsticks.

*Here’s how I made this:

• First, I used my digital camera which has a video option to film it.
• I created a YouTube account and uploaded it there.
• Then, on Blogger, I selected the video button on the “Compose” screen.
• A window popped up where I selected the “My YouTube Videos” option to link to it.

Ba-da Boom, Ba-da Bing! There it is.

If you really want to do a video but just aren’t sure how, shoot me an email and I’ll help as much as I can.

Also, just a reminder. You have until Saturday to enter my Nostalgia giveaway. I mean, who wouldn’t want to get a pack of Garbage Pail Kids in the mail?

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Getting Vested

Just before the new year, my friend talked me into signing up for a half-marathon with her. Up to then, we’d casually exchanged running time (taking turns watching our kids), but she was ready to get more serious.

Honestly, I have never had the desire to run a marathon or even a half marathon. I ran for soccer or basketball . . . running with a purpose I called it . . . but never just to run. Only crazies do that.

But then some stuff happened and I needed a distraction. Something I could do to completely get away from all the whirrings of my mind (so you can see why writing wouldn’t really fit the bill this time). I paid my money and suddenly, I’m vested in the craziness of running to run.

I quickly learned that if I wanted to be successful, I needed to make some additional purchases. Appropriate running clothes (because believe me, you run for an hour or more and it’s essential!), the right shoes, plus a little gadget (I use Nike+) to track my progress. If I want to succeed, I need to know where I stand and how fast I’m improving.

Because time is of the essence here. March 17th, I have to be able to run for 13 miles.

I’m guessing you know where this is going. The writing thing.

Are you vested?

Are you so anxious to succeed in your writing that you’re willing to put up some hard cold cash to get there?

Do you make sure you have the right equipment, the right training (think critique partners, conferences, seminars, writing books)? Are you tracking your progress so you know that you’re improving (think multiple drafts, multiple books)?

Just something to think about. 😉

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Nostalgia Contest

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Revisions Aren’t Always Painful

Hah! You thought I meant writing, didn’t you?

Now you’ve seen the infamous videos (and if not, they’re >>here<< and >>here<<), and we’ve read your comments, Amy and I wanted to make some revisions to the Hacky Sack Club official rules.

The wonderful Laurel had the brilliant idea of expanding this club beyond just hacky sacks. SO . . .

1. Any crazy talent (or non-talent) gets you into the club! Just post a video (or picture) of yourself doing it. Making balloon animals, standing on your head, using chop sticks, . . . the possibilities are endless, and they’ll all get you into our exclusive club.
2. Let us know when you post! E-mail the link to me (see that “Contact Me” tab up there?) or Amy when it’s up so we can include you in our hall of shame, ahem, FAME. And be sure to include a snail mail address so we can send you a hacky sack. We’re serious, here!
3. We will send you a hacky sack immediately if you want to try it (which we whole-heartedly encourage), but don’t have one. Just send either of us your address and we’ll send you a hacky sack (as long as supplies last) post haste so you can make a video. Brilliant, I know!

In short, we will keep our quirky name, but we’ll all KNOW that the club goes beyond just the title. Fitting, no? So please, grab the button, come enjoy a little silliness with us, and let’s break some boundaries! (Just no breaking anything else like toes or something.)

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The Hacky Sack Club

Today you are all in for a surprise. My first ever vlog.

Here’s the deal. Amy Sonnichsen (of The Green Bathtub) and I had this crazy idea of forming a Hackey Sack Club. She posted the sensational YouTube video of old Chinese people singing Lady Gaga and somehow in our back and forth conversation that led to Hacky Sacks. And because we’re so cool, we had to form a club, because that’s what cool people do. So anyway, for your viewing pleasure:

After seeing my mad skillz, I know you’re all dying to join the club, so go. Make your video, or even just post a picture, then find the badge below or on my sidebar and add it to your blog. Let us know and as long as supplies last, we’ll send you a hacky sack.

UPDATE! For updated rules to enter, check out this post.

Because I say “Boo! Boo to the loneliness that is writing!”

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This vs. That: Resolutions vs. No Resolutions

Of all the polls I’ve done, this one surprised me the most. In truth, I thought this would be a ‘no contest’ event, but boy was I wrong. However, I found it fascinating to hear about all of your opinions on resolutions and goal-setting. Good stuff!

But lets get to the interesting stuff:

Total votes: 17

Resolutions: 8 votes; 47%
No Resolutions: 9 votes; 53%

I really thought that while people might ignore resolutions or #fail at them (it just sounds cool to add the pound sign), most people would be pro-resolutions. So yes, I voted in favor of them.

However, I forgot to consider that most of my readers are writers. I should have realized that semantics would play into this. Unlike most people in the world, we writers make the distinction between goals and resolutions.

Nit-picky bunch, aren’t we?

That said, I have a feeling that if I did Goals vs. Resolutions, Goals would win hands down. They seem to be preferred based on all your comments.

Okay. Now on to the next debate:

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Top Writing Blogs

Right now, ecollegefinder is holding a vote for the top writing blogs. You can go vote for your favorite by clicking on the little badge below.

Online Colleges

You have until Feb. 3, and you can actually vote for multiple blogs and on a daily basis.

Some of my favorite writing blogs are listed (Miss Snark’s First Victim and Shallee McArthur), while others I love (Literary Rambles and Janice Hardy’s blog) are missing. Someone kindly nominated my blog as well, but no pressure to vote for me.

So my questions to you are:

1) What makes a top writing blog? and

2) If you were nominating your favorite/most helpful writing blog, who would you nominate?

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Who Do You Tell?

Yesterday, I saw a license plate I could identify with:

Of course, for the full effect, you needed to read the custom license plate frame. Above the plate it read: “I love creating,” and then below was a web address. I was driving at the time, so I unfortunately don’t remember the address.

In short: I love creating kids books.

Aha! I thought. A kindred spirit right in front of me. But then it made me wonder. Is she/he published? Not published? What kinds of kids stories do they write? And with all these questions, I wondered if I would have the moxy to make that MY license plate?

I remember reading a post by Hilary Wagner, author of Nightshade City, shortly after she got a book deal. She confessed that she didn’t tell anyone she wrote until after she had an agent. That post really made me think, because I, like her, didn’t want to tell anyone about it until I’d had some tangible success.

At that point, I kept a family blog, but not one to chronicle my writing. Only direct family (and critique partners) knew my secret. I felt comfortable with that. It’s better this way, I told myself. Less to explain. But what I found was that I was withholding a significant part of myself from people I really cared about. Standoffish is probably the best word to describe how I felt.

For me, that wasn’t okay, so I changed some things.

I remember the first time I told a friend that I was writing a book. I steeled myself for the reaction. You know, that credulous look that says, “you really think you can write a book good enough to be published?”

It never came. Instead, she said, “Actually, that doesn’t surprise me.” She asked all kinds of questions about what I was writing, my writing process, and what my plans were. And I realized that people who care will always be interested. Always believe you can succeed.

Because that’s what friends do.

I still don’t tell just anyone, but I don’t withhold it from my friends either. So back to the original question: would I choose a license plate like this?

The answer is probably not. At least not yet.

What about you? Who do you tell that you write?

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This is SO Not My 850th Post

Flipping through my Blogger Dashboard yesterday, I happened on Elana Johnson’s post, titled: What Does One Blog About for Post #850? (For the record, we’re not related. We checked. Still, I fondly think of her as my amazing little cousin.)

So wow. That’s a lot of posts. And that’s a question (minus the #850 part) that I (and other bloggers, I’m quite sure) ask all the time. So today I give you my list of what to blog on when you’ve got nothin’.

1. Share a Personalized License Plate (duh!).
2. Piggyback off someone else’s blog post (clever, that).
3. Find a picture and make a post out of it. (Joanne at Whole Latte Life is excellent at this).
4. Share an embarrassing moment from your life.
5. Share a favorite quote.
6. Share an inspirational moment from your life.
7. Do an “Awards” post. You know all those awards floating around, right? Surely you forgot to pass one of them forward. And if you didn’t really get one, just pretend. Who’s going to know, right? 😉
8. Make up your own award and give it to someone.
9. Spotlight your favorite blogger.
10. Spotlight one of your heros.
11. Let your readers ask you questions that you promise to answer truthfully (a blogging-world favorite).
12. Talk about the people-watching you did at the grocery store (or from your front porch if you’re in a pinch).
13. Comment on a bit of news you read/heard.
14. Close your eyes then open them. Now write an essay on the first physical object that you see. You can talk about how it inspires you. (ex: Toothbrush. How inspiring that a toothbrush works day in an day out and wears itself out just to keep you from getting gingivitis).
15. Tell a joke.
16. Comment on a favorite movie (bonus if you relate it to writing).
17. Tell a cute kid story.
18. Tell about that time that you lied to your mom about hitting that baseball through the window, then blamed it on your . . . oh wait. Mom, I totally did not do that. Really.
19. Start a story and ask your readers to each add a sentence.
20. Post a picture of yourself when you were young. Be sure to include a funny story about yourself.
21. Share a song that inspires you.
22. Have a contest/Give something away.
23. Videotape yourself doing something crazy (why, I do believe that’s called a vlog!).

Okay, okay. I’m going to stop there because I can hear that snoring back there. Yeah, I mean you! So what do you do when you’ve got nothing?

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Switching Things Up



Photo Credit





Anyway, So while I’m sure you’re all wildly interested in our bowling night, I really wanted to compare this to writing (surprise, surprise).

• Change where you write.
• Change your ink color.
• Switch to writing by hand (or vice versa if needed) 
• If you outline, write without one.
• If you don’t outline, try making one.
• Change the setting of your story. 
• Write with a partner.
• Tell the story from a different POV (1st vs. 3rd, or from a minor character’s POV).
• Work on a different story altogether.
• Work on that story you’re dying to write . . . but are afraid of.
• Try a different form of writing (Picture book, poetry, short story, novel in verse, vignette, flash fiction, SO MANY OPTIONS!)

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