7 Quick Takes Friday: Now with less treadmill!

Take 1

(No I haven’t quit using the treadmill desk… I’m just trying to keep it from being the centerpiece of every blog, tweet, and Facebook update I post.)

Take 2

I’m writing this post Thursday night because tomorrow I’m going to SCBWI-LA, the international conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. There are some interesting workshops I’m going to try to attend, and some people I want to meet and hang out with–other than that I anticipate a fairly loose schedule. What does one do at these things? I’ll find out and let you know.

Take 3

I feel like I’m beating not just a dead horse but a dead wooden horse that nobody cared about in the first place, but I have to say it: So You Think You Can Dance is just not doing it for me this season. I totally blame the stage. It takes the dancers away from the audience, so instead of performing smaller routines with more heart, the dancers are given these huge, acrobatic routines to do. Is it any wonder there have been 3 dancers out because of injuries? Bring back the old stage. And the old judging panel, while we’re at it.

Take 4

Those of you who met me through my sewing blog might remember Mary Sue, my fashion-aware friend, the angel on my shoulder when I go shopping. (Unfortunately, Target provides you with a devil for your other shoulder as you enter the store.) Anyway, she came over the other day and we went through my closets. And I mean we went through them the way Winston would go through a bowl of Cheerios. Fast and brutal. She would pull clothes off the hanger while I was still whinily trying to justify them. I ended up taking 5 giant bags of stuff to Goodwill. And it feels so good! Everything that we took out was stuff I either didn’t wear or shouldn’t wear.

I was inspired to do it by Six Items or Less, a 30-day experiment a bunch of people did in which they tried to wear only six items of (non-undergarment) clothes. Now, six seems a little extreme to me. But being down out of the 200s is probably a good thing.

Take 5

There’s a new AuthorMix up today! It’s a Speed Round, a quick shot of goofiness. Check it out here! (And if you enjoy the AuthorMix videos, please consider blogging, tweeting, or otherwise spreading the word about them.)

Take 6

While cleaning out my closet, we removed a box from the lowest cubby in a corner, leaving an open cubbyhole at ground level. I decided to see what would happen if I put Winston’s blanket in there. He instantly climbed in and fell asleep. For some reason I think it’s hilarious that my dog is in the closet. Except earlier today, I slid the doors over to find something to wear, and a couple of minutes later, Winston comes pushing his way out through all my clothes. Oops!

Take 7

The other day, I went to breakfast with Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, who are two of my guests in AuthorMix and the authors of Beautiful Creatures, which was one of Amazon.com’s top 10 books for 2009; and Vania, a book blogger-turned-book trailer producer. It was so fun and I got the best cupcake ever. Mostly, I was enthralled and inspired by Margie and Kami’s utter passion for books. These are two women you want in your corner, believe you me. They could get their own house at Hogwarts. I don’t know what it would be called but it would be awesome.

Cheerio, all! Happy weekend!

Add comment July 30th, 2010

7 Quick Takes Friday – Treadmill edition

Yes, okay, so everything in my life this week revolves around the treadmill! I can’t help it!

Take, the First
So. Treadmill desk. I believe that as of yesterday I have walked 20 miles this week. It’s going swimmingly (walkingly?). The only thing I find I can’t do very well on the treadmill is anything graphics or design-based. It’s like that part of my brain is needed for walking and can’t be spared to manipulate graphics. Plus, it’s hard to be precise with a mouse when you’re moving. But writing, blogging, tweeting, Facebook, reading other people’s blogs… those can all be done very easily. In fact, if I’m in passive mode–Facebook, for instance–I amp up the speed a little. I haven’t gone more than 2 mph yet (which is pretty slow–if I were on the treadmill without the computer I would typically be walking at 4 mph), but I don’t think I will as long as my laptop is wedged into the keyboard tray.

I know that I for one was very interested in seeing actual data from people who use treadmill desks, so at some point I will gather some together in case anyone is curious.

This post, ironically, I am writing from my desktop. Why, you ask? No good reason. *grumble, grumble* Fine! I’ll go get on the treadmill. *sigh*

Take, the Second
(Yes, I’m on the treadmill now.) I am SO excited, because I am very close to being able to announce the title of Book 2! I just need to register the domain name first, because that’s how life is these days. But any minute now, I’ll be popping out with it.

Take, the Third
How excited am I about Mad Men? VERY! I love that show. It’s like a waterfall of soothing elevator music that just flows over you in a wash of lazy hipness… unlike the other show I love, Big Love, which is starting to feel like a waterfall of crazy lemonade poured on your head while you sleep.

Take, the Fourth
I am working very hard on another Semi-Secret project that I will probably unveil over the weekend. It’s something very exciting that I have been planning for a while, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do! So stay tuned for a post about it tomorrow or Sunday.

Take, the Fifth
July is turning out to be a DISMAL reading month. Not because of the books I’m reading, which are not dismal, but because of how few of them there are. I read 13 books in May, and I’ll be lucky to make it to five in July. Yikes. I think it’s because I’m trying to read about six at once. So maybe within the first week of August I will have finished six books.

I just have a really hard time prioritizing, you know? Certain library books can’t be renewed, so those are at the top of the list. And then there’s my philosophy of not reading the same genre/category all in a row, which has kind of gone out the window (I’m thinking of adopting the term “JulYA” so it seems like I planned it). Plus, I have tons of great books on my bookshelves, but I feel guilty reading those if I have library books. But every time I go to the library I get more books.

And don’t even get me started on the audiobook backlog!

Take, the Sixth
Anyone going to the SCBWI-LA conference? I am! I have no idea what to expect. I was just told that it will be fun, and I hate being on Twitter and seeing hashtags for something I’m not attending when it’s a ten minute drive from my house.

If you are going, you are hereby ordered to say hi to me and be my friend, because I will be wandering around like a lost goat in the mountainside.

Take, the Seventh
For years, Winston has been trying to eat dead bees and getting stung in his mouth. This is not just a heartbreaking habit but a costly one. I’ve often wondered what it would take for him to actually LEARN from the experience–”dead bee = pain”–but Winston is not the most intuitive fellow and the lessons have gone unheeded.

Until now… kind of.

The other day, just as he was getting ready to go up the stairs to the street, he picked up a dead bee (which I had ignored, thinking it was a dead beetle) and got stung (a little sting, I think, because the stinger didn’t leave the bee). “Will he ever learn?” I once again wondered. This time, the answer is YES! He learned! He ate a dead bee and got stung and now… he is afraid of the stairs.

Happy Friday!

1 comment July 23rd, 2010

Seven Quick Takes Friday – copyedits edition!

Happy Friday, everyone!

— 1 —
Don’t forget to enter my contest! You could win not one but TWO signed copies of Bad Girls Don’t Die, one for you and one for a friend! Plus an eye pillow in festive shades of red, white, and blue. It’s so easy, all you have to do is comment!

— 2 —
Yesterday, Book 2 officially went off to copyedits! This is a big YAY because it means we’re one step closer to having a cover, a title, reader copies, and a BOOK!

— 3 —
Copyeditors are the people who read everything with a fine-toothed, uh, eyeball and send the manuscript back to you with tons of notes along the lines of, “Why did you say Sparkle is a magical RED pony on page 26 and a magical PURPLE pony on page 40? Which is it, hmm?” and “You are so wrong about the wedding gift customs of the Tupapali peoples of Indonesia, they would NEVER send cash as the marshlands there are full of moths who eat Tupapalian paper money like potato chips.”

— 4 —
One of the stressful things about being a writer is that when you finish some major step, like sending your books into copyedits, your first instinct is to be all, “Hurray! Now I can relax and catch up on 5 months’ worth of reality TV!” But in actuality, your first week will be spent cleaning your house and doing laundry in order that one may sit on the couch and see all the way across the room to the TV without having to look around piles of junk. Also, clean undies.

— 5 —
I always assumed Winston got hot easily. I mean, he wears a fur coat. But now that summer is here and the sunshine is peeking through the windows, more often than not I will find Winston dozing in the sun. Believe me when I say it is insanely cute. Right now, for instance, he is in his bed next to my desk with his face thrust forward to catch a spot of sunshine on his nose. You can’t make this stuff up.

— 6 —
Happy 4th of July! If you are in the USA or celebrating US holidays, Happy Independence Day! We are celebrating by having family come to see us and probably barbecuing. We have been woefully deficient at barbecuing this year. Shame, shame!

— 7 —
One of the most exciting things about sending Book 2 off to copyedits is that this means we’re off and running on Book 3! I love to savor the moments before starting a project, knowing that what is now just a germ of an idea will soon be a big old book with a life of its own. It’s like watching the Oscars–my favorite part is, at the end of the show, thinking, “I wonder what movies will be winning Oscars next year!” It’s so wondrous and fun that there’s so much coming that I’m not aware of right now!

Happy weekend! Have a great and safe one!

4 comments July 2nd, 2010

7 Quick Takes Friday!

Is it time? Oh, yes it is!

take i
Did you see my April Fool’s post yesterday? Reading other blogs about pranks brought this story to the forefront of my memory: When I was about six, my older sister put a peel-off face masque on her wrist and casually started peeling it off in front of me. I asked her what she was doing, and she said, “I’m peeling my skin off. Don’t you peel yours off? Everybody does it. YOU MUST BE AN ALIEN.”

And so, therefore, I thought I was an alien.

take ii
One my my favorite teachers from high school surfaced on Facebook this week! It was very exciting. He was the teacher whose classroom door was always open. He really genuinely liked us (or faked it well) and even signed on as our class sponsor. Hurray! So many of the old gang are there. I loved high school so reliving it on Facebook is AOK with me. (Junior high, though, totally different story.)

take iii
I finally backed up my hard drive this week! The kind of backup you can take to some other location and have in case something happens to your home or computer, not that I am putting any of that out there in the universe. Did you hear me, universe? None of it! Anyhoo, we made wedding videos for a couple of friends over the years, and those projects were taking up about 170 gigabytes on the home computer. Once I archive them, I was able to delete them from my computer, at which point I was seized by a sort of mad-scientist rush of craziness where I was like, “Yes! All of my plans have come to fruition! I have almost 300 gigs of hard drive space! Bwa ha ha ha ha!”

The problem is, when I was done cackling and shaking my fists at the sky, I realized that there’s not actually anything I want to do with those 300 gigs and it’s not terribly exciting after all.

take iv
If anybody here knows somebody who works for Pepsi, specifically in the 20-ounce Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi division, and they happen to mention that they’re looking for a poster child, or a mascot, or even just to offload a few dozen cases of their magical, magical elixir, do pass on my contact info, won’t you?

take v
I do try to stay away from the overt “BUY MY BOOK” pitches, but just in case you didn’t know, Amazon.com is offering the hardcover of BGDD as a “bargain book,” for $6.40 (here’s the link)! That’s a very good deal, if I do say so myself. They are just clearing their inventory to prepare for the paperback release in June. There’s also a Kindle edition, which I believe launches at the same time as the paperback. You can also continue to find it in your favorite local bookstores and libraries.

Anyway, no pressure, just pointing it out in case you know someone who wants the book but they only have $6.40.

take vi
(I’m typing this at 11 p.m. Thursday…) Walking Winston tonight, I found a hummingbird in the street! It was just sitting there in a very non-hummingbird-type way. So I took Winston back inside and got a small plastic container, a towel, and my quilting glove, and went back outside. The poor thing hopped into the plastic container and I put my hand over it. I knew the husb was on his way home, so I just waited until he could help get the bigger container ready. I called the hummingbird rescue, only to discover that the lady who runs it moved out of state. She referred me to the Pasadena Humane Society, which doesn’t accept birds until the morning. She also said that it sounds like my bird is very seriously injured. SAD.

I fed her (I’ve been calling it a “her” all night because the coloring isn’t very vivid) and covered her container with a towel. She seemed to be doing pretty badly for a while. Then I checked on her and noticed she was getting the puffball look that means they’re cold. So I unwrapped the brand new heating pad and set it next to her. Well, she perked right up after that and drank some more nectar. I really, really want her to live through the night and have a fighting chance to recover. I’ll update in the morning.

Update: She made it through the night, so we’re off to Pasadena! Here’s a picture in case you want to see her (the red stuff is just nectar that spilled when I was feeding her).

take vii
Compared the the hummingbird, I have no right to complain, but hay fever has set in and I’m sick of it already! The worst part is that it attacks my eyeballs one at a time, so I spend much of the day trying desperately not to scratch my own eyes out.

All right! Happy Friday!

3 comments April 2nd, 2010

7 Quick Takes Friday, #3

That’s right, everybody! It’s time for…

No. 1

I’m just going to admit it: I like certain reality shows that are viewed in some circles to be unworthy. (I think I admit this on, like, a weekly basis. But as far as TV confessions go, it’s a biggie, so that’s probably about right.) I won’t dwell, but here’s who I like: American Idol: Crystal, Siobhan, and Didi. America’s Next Top Model: Raina and Jessica. Also, anybody but Ren (where did she even come from? I keep thinking a horse’s head ended up in somebody’s bed at some point… that’s a Godfather reference.) Project Runway: You know what? I don’t even really care this season. Nobody has been consistently amazing.

No. 2

Thanks for the compliments on yesterday’s backyard post. Ironically, just as I was feeling all free and lovely about the natural growth, I scheduled a landscape guy to come look at our front yard (which is tiny, but a wreck, mostly because it has no sprinklers or hose), and the husb said, “Have him look at the back, too. It’s a mess.”

No. 3

If you happen to live in or near New York, you should go to the NEw York Public Library’s Teen Author Symposium. Specifically, you should go Saturday afternoon (Bartos Forum, 42nd Street, 1pm) to the Stuff for the Teen Age Event, because BAD GIRLS DON’T DIE made their 2009 list! Did I mention that here, or just on Twitter? Anyway, go and cheer or hold my books up and go up to strangers and say, “In your FACE!” (Except do it in a whisper… it’s a library event.)

No. 4

I’ve been really bad and bought a lot of music over the past few days. What doesn’t help are these collections iTunes sells, like Top Hits of the 1930s, which is 172 songs for $19.99! And Ladies of the 1940s, 40-something songs for $9.99. And yes, it’s all the original artists! What’s a girl to do? Plus I had to buy some of Didi and Siobhan’s American Idol performances. I love music, but I can’t listen to anything with lyrics while I write. So who knows how long it’ll be before I actually get to listen to any of it. I am especially fond of this cover of And So It Goes by Sara Gazarek.

No. 5

iPhoto, the photo management software that comes with Macs, has a new feature that supposedly recognizes faces. It finds what it thinks are all of the human faces in a photo, and then you tell it who’s who in a few instances, and it tries to identify those people in other photos. Well, it constantly fails to even find the faces, and much more rarely identifies something that is not a face as being one. I’m not going to name names, but it was looking for one of my friends and suggested a picture of a pig snout. I forget who, but somebody at work once gave one to Winston as a treat. Nothing in this world has ever meant more to anyone than that pig snout meant to Winston. Maybe the whole Gollum/Precious thing comes close. Anyway, I’m never going to tell this person iPhoto thought they resembled the snout of a pig, but it struck me as pretty funny. (And no, I can’t post the picture… pig snouts are very literal and extremely gross.)

No. 6

I’ve been trying for a long time to get the husb to bring home a drive that I can use to back up the computer (I can’t get one myself, it’s a very complicated Man-Computer thing… just like I’d never try to pick out a TV myself). I was especially re-inspired by this post at Anne & May, so I stepped up the nagging. Then, yesterday, I had a CD in my computer, and it wouldn’t come out. But it kept trying to spit it out. Then I turned off the computer and for a second, it wouldn’t turn on. In retrospect, I was probably pushing the button wrong or something. But it scared the everloving daylights out of me. And I finally got my drive.

No. 7

Currently reading: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson and The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr

Happy Friday, everyone!

4 comments March 19th, 2010

7 Quick Takes, No. 2

Bonus Winston picture!

(That’s from when he was allowed on the bed, before his endless and powerful leaning sent all of the humans in the house running to the chiropractor.)

#1
Since there were only two people willing to enter my Music Meme contest (and one of them didn’t really enter… just provided an amusing commentary on my music library), I’m declaring them both winners! Hurray for Tom and Tracy!

#2
My dreams are getting crazier. Starting with the top blowing off my clothes dryer and leaving a hole in my ceiling (through which you could see that my house was about 200 feet tall, strangely), which we later determined to have happened because someone set the dryer at 800 degrees, at which point we were all like, “Well of COURSE the dryer’s going to blow up when it’s set to 800 degrees.”

But the weird part was, at some point in my dream, I thought, “I don’t want there to be a hole in my ceiling. I don’t like this dream. There is no hole in my ceiling.” But the last part wasn’t so much a statement of fact as a statement of intention. This has happened a few times in recent memory–I decide in my dream to change what I’m dreaming. It’s not like I do it on purpose in a conscious way. I guess my subconscious is just tired of getting jerked around.

Then I dreamed that the two older sisters from Full House were singing “The Lonely Goatherd” from The Sound of Music.

#3
The insane 9-episode season of Big Love is over. Am I the only person who’s a little relieved? I’ve read interviews (totally spoilerific: found here and here) in which the producers acknowledge that this season was a crazy ride, and how they kind of did it on purpose. As an author, I can relate to the idea that sometimes you just want to get from Point A to Point B without agonizing, but I’m hoping the show chills out a bit next season. I can’t take so much drama in my televised dramas!

#4
I am working on something super secret and fun with a couple of very nice people, and that’s all I can say except that I’m thuper geeked about it! Will post more when I can.

#5
We got a new couch, as I mentioned the other day. Well, here’s our solution to the Winston-on-the-new-couch problem: we keep the whole thing covered in blankets, 100% of the time. Voila! I mean, never mind that we could have just laid a bunch of foam down on a couch-shaped stack of cinderblocks and achieved the same effect. (When we get the accessories for the room, like a rug and a new side table, we will probably uncover the couch.)

#6
Yesterday, Oprah did a show about making an effort to be more conscious in our food choices. She featured author Michael Pollan, who wrote The Omnivore’s Dilemma as well as some other great books that I highly recommend checking out. Reading Omnivore’s Dilemma and Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle totally changed the way I think about food. Especially where it comes from and how the animals involved are treated during their lives. Fascinating and definitely worth a read!

#7
I’m currently reading The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton. Next up: The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan and The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr, which I’m going to pick up at the library this afternoon. Hurray! I am falling back into my old reading-addict ways and loving it.

Happy Friday!

9 comments March 12th, 2010

7 Quick Takes Friday

We’ve made it to Day 5 of 31 Days of Blogging at Least on the Weekdays or Else! Hurray, hurray! Thanks to everyone who’s dropping by to read and/or comment. Blogging is just another one of those things that feels impossible when you aren’t doing it–like exercise or sticking to your writing quotas.

Today, I’m going to borrow a meme from half the blogosphere and do seven quick takes.

— 1 —

So, you know how I’ve been whining all week about my stomach? Well, it turns out I’m not as plain-old-whiny as we all thought. I found out last night that my new salad dressing, which I’ve been using every day, is part of the FDA salmonella recall. My relief that I’m not just whiny is tempered by the sad fact that I’ve been flirting with food poisoning all week. Ironically, Little Sis actually dropped the jar yesterday, almost destroying it. (She’s such a hero.) But I foiled her efforts to save me by making her put it all in a plastic container.

— 2 —

Did you watch The Office last night? It was pretty funny. Not the best episode. Maybe because so much of it took place outside of the office itself, the pacing seemed a little off. But we were LOL’ing at the lactation consultant and the part with the other baby. And that’s all I’ll say, in case you haven’t seen it!

— 3 —

In my efforts to finish a quilt that I’m making for a baby who was born in November (time management issues? Me? Never!), I’m attempting to make my own bias tape using the continuous method. Alas, this only makes you the wide strip that you then have to iron into bias tape–almost twenty feet of it, for this project–but you get to use your own fabric, unlike buying premade stuff from the store. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Update: FAIL. Back to the drawing board (or the fabric store).

— 4 —

Last night, my cell phone rang with a blocked number. When I said hello, a guy said, all soft and romantic, “Hey, you.” And I was like, “Hello?” and he was like, “Hey, you.” And I was like, “I think you have the wrong number.” And he was like (in a normal voice), “Oh, sorry.” So then at 3 a.m., my phone rings again and I pick it up and say, “Hello?” and I hear, “Hey.” And I’m like, “No, it’s just me again.” And he’s like, “Oh, sorry.”

First of all, woe betide the young lady this guy is actually trying to reach. At 3 a.m.! There is only one reason to call someone all Hey-you-style at 3 a.m.–but I do applaud his consistency. Although I hope he doesn’t call me anymore.

— 5 —

A couple of months ago, I got this grand notion that I wanted to start seeing lots more movies. I totally planned to be educated on the Oscar nominees. But I’m not. I’ve only seen about two of them. So I’m not even sure I’m going to watch the show this year, although eating cheeseburgers and watching the Oscars is one of my most cherished (though admittedly least meaningful) traditions.

— 6 —

Happy birthday to my wonderful father! I’m sure he doesn’t read my blog, but I wanted to put it out there anyway.

— 7 —

And we’ll finish with…

The Daily Plah: Day 5
Currently reading: The Battle for God by Karen Armstrong, and Unclutter Your Life in One Week by Erin Rooney Doland, who is part of the mahvelous Unclutterer blog
Song of the day: All the Pretty Horses, sung by Laura Gibson… kind of haunting. Fits my writing mood.
Book 2 progress: Coming along. No impressive page numbers for you yet, but it’s progressing, I promise!
Other notable facts: No notable facts. Move along!

3 comments March 5th, 2010