The Critic Is Liebsterified – Another Blog Award

A couple of weeks ago, the lovely Jennings nominated me for a blog award!

You like me, you really like me!

Thank you, thank you!

Now there are eleven questions I have to answer and eleven people I have to tag. Considering the last time I got an award and actually tagged people, I got in trouble, I’m just going to refrain from tagging anybody, okay? Call it self-preservation.

If you want to answer the questions below on your own blog (or heck, in the comments), consider yourself tagged. If you’d rather not, then congratulations, you’re safe…FOR NOW.

1. Name a book you would read over and over again?

Every time I pick up one of Courtney Milan’s books, I end up reading the whole damn thing. Same with Loretta Chase, particularly Lord of Scoundrels. If you see me using those as examples of good things to do with writing romance, it’s because I’ve read them so many times I have them memorized.

Once I get through my current stack of unread books, I’d like to go back and read the Mistborn trilogy again. Because it’s awesome.

2. If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?

Wish one would be to have my house completely paid for. (NO MORTGAGE WOO!)

Wish two would be to spend some quality time with these fine gentlemen:

Wish three would be for three more wishes.

3. Who was your favorite teacher and why?

I was fortunate to have a lot of cool teachers in school. Mrs. Taylor in fifth grade and Mrs. Britt for sixth-grade history probably made the biggest impressions during my formative years. Writing-wise, I learned a TON during the professional writing program at OU, mostly thanks to Professor Chester.

4. Where is your favorite vacation spot?

It would be a toss-up between Hawaii and Kea, which was a lovely little island off the coast of Greece. What can I say? I like beaches.

5. What chore do you absolutely hate doing?

Dusting. Farking dusting. I can count on one hands the number of times I’ve done it since moving into this house 18 months ago.

6. What is your favorite dessert?

Probably creme brulee. NOM.

7. What is your least favorite mode of transportation?

I once took a bus to New York. I would not want to repeat that trip.

8. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

In no particular order: Lawyer, teacher, illustrator, author, spaceship architect.

9. If money were no object, where would you live and why?

I would live right where I am. I really love Tulsa, and all my friends are either here or within easy driving distance.

I would totally keep vacation houses in Seattle and Hawaii, though.

10. What is your dream career?

Pretty close to what I’m doing right now, actually. If I could bump it so that I was doing webdev part-time and writing the rest of the time, I would be a happy camper.

11. What movie do you flat-out refuse to watch, no matter how good people say it is?

Just about anything that could qualify as a horror movie/slasher flick. I’ve never seen The Exorcist, Scream, or anything involving Freddy and Jason. I hate scary movies.

Want to answer the questions? Feel free!

September #WriteMotivation – Week 4 Check-in

This’ll be a short one. I spent most of the weekend out of town, visiting my grandmother for her 85th(!!!) birthday, and after the editingstravaganza of last weekend (coupled with reading some not-very-good romances), I dove into Loretta Chase’s two newest books, Silk is for Seduction and Scandal Wears Satin, to give my brain a much-needed vacation.

One of these days I will write very detailed “I love these authors so much and here’s why” posts for the authors I pick up as a guarantee of good writing and decent stories. Even if the book ends up not being an “OMG FAVORITE!” thing, I usually enjoy it.

Header image and thumbnail photograph by Hugh Lee and licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Here’s where the goals stand:

1) Finish Buzz stuff by Sept. 10.

2) Edit 5 chapters of the ’06 NaNo per week.
I got through four more chapters by Sunday, which puts me about 1/3 of the way through the book. I’m reaching a section that’s going to need some pretty heavy revising before I’m happy with it. It’s not bad, per se, but a lot’s happening in a relatively short time span and I want to make sure it’s believable.

Another adventure in editing is realizing just how many words and phrases you use over and over again. Apparently, my characters spend a lot of time squeezing each other’s shoulders. And now that I see it, I CAN’T UNSEE IT.

3) Post to the blog twice a week.
I did it last week! Barely, but I did it.

4) Post at least 2 reviews.
I’m going to try to get another one up this week (perhaps even two, depending on how productive I am).

5) Comment on at least 3 other blogs each week.
I…am not sure. I don’t think I commented on more than one or two. (Bad Critic, no cookie!)

I’ll probably have one more update next week, since September still has a full week left. After that, I can’t promise how much I’ll update. October is NaNo prep month, and November will be NaNo itself. (I can’t believe it’s almost here!)

How is your September going? Are you guys ready for the month to be over, or are you pretending we’ve got another week or two?

Camp NaNoWriMo & June Goal Updates – Week 2

Fun analytics fact: The most popular post on my site in 2012? The Netflix Queue: White Collar.

I attribute this to the number of times I have used the words “netflix,” “White Collar,” and “season three” in the past few months.

Also, it’s just an awesome show.

I’ll take any excuse to post this, seriously.

Goal updates!

1. Finish current edits on 2006 NaNo WIP!
I am halfway done with chapter 28, and I have five more chapters to go. So close, and yet so far.

2. Outline 2008 NaNo novel, aka my Camp NaNo project.
Pretty much where it was last week.

3. Write 30,000 words on said Camp NaNo project.
Pretty much where it was last week.

4. Finish Buzz articles by June 11.
Okay, so I thought I had set the second Sunday in June as my deadline. That was what I’d done last month, right? And I just wasn’t able to get the weird news finished on Sunday, but I figured it was okay because I got it submitted on Monday. Just one day off…or so I thought.

Turns out me-at-the-end-of-May was actually pretty smart, because, if you’ll notice, June 11 was NOT Sunday, but Monday. Which I didn’t notice until right this second, as I’m making this update. So yay, go me!

5. Read at least one novel for a brain break.
Remember how I said I would have to watch myself, because if I wasn’t careful, I would go nuts and read multiple books? And remember how I jokingly said last week, when I found out Courtney Milan had another series I hadn’t read, “Goodbye, productivity, it was nice knowing you“?

Yeah. I didn’t read one novel this past week. I read four.

I read both Proof by Seduction and Trial by Desire by Courtney Milan, and then reread Lord Perfect and Last Night’s Scandal by Loretta Chase. (Frankly, I’d forgotten how much I adore Olivia and Lisle, the couple in Last Night’s Scandal, who are children in Lord Perfect.)

They are all awesome. Why haven’t you read them?

And now I am not allowed to touch another book until I finish these edits on my WIP.

And now, a Camp NaNo update!

Mmm, s’mores and writing.

Minimum word count for June 15: 25,000/50,000

My current word count: 22,732/50,000

Adventures in NaNoing: This past weekend was our June write-in, which just four people attended, including me. That was all right; it’s summer. I know people have travel plans and vacations and what-not.

After the write-in, the lot of us trooped over to Rebekah’s new house to help paint! Because that is something else writers are good for: painting. Okay, painting and talking about how to kill people using only what you could find in a garage. (What? Don’t look at me like that. Right now, I’m trying to think of new and interesting ways to immolate people. IT’S FOR THE BOOK I SWEAR.)

Anyway. In part because of the painting, in part because of the “Oh hey site launches!” part of my job this week, and in part because I read four books, I think I wrote a grand total of about 5,000 words during week 2.

Also, I changed a secondary character’s name. This would not normally be such a big deal — BOY did it need changing — except that she has had the same name since I was fourteen years old and wrote the original short story. To say it’s been difficult to break the habit of typing the old name is a bit of an understatement.

Very Short Excerpt:
Completely unedited.

Kiral turned to the new voice. Emelyn stood in the doorway, holding a folded dress. She shifted from side to side. “Ari told me to bring you clothes and help you change.”

She prayed her voice wouldn’t quaver. “Did he now?”

Emelyn nodded, her dark eyes huge in her face, still pale after so many months of illness. “I asked why you needed me and he said your ankle was hurt and you were probably too cold to do it. He also said you’d probably argue but I am supposed to tell you to be quiet and let me help so you don’t catch a cold and die, you hard-headed crazy lunatic.” She cocked her head to one side. “I told him ‘crazy lunatic’ meant the same thing and he said some words I’m not supposed to say.” She sighed and stepped into the kitchen. “He gets so irritable when he’s cold and tired.”

Books, books, books, books, BOOKS!

You may recall that one of my goals for this year was to read all the unread books currently mocking me from my bookshelf.

I have a terrible habit of collecting books — borrowed from friends, sampled on the Kindle, picked up at the used bookstore (God save me from the used bookstore; I never leave without at least 3 books in hand) — and then not reading them. Either I get distracted by something else (like NaNoWriMo or Doctor Who), or I just find about 15 other books that I want to read FIRST.

Well, I’m going to try to fix that this year.

These are the books I want to read in the next year, organized in 3 columns: fiction books, nonfiction books, and books I have already finished in the past 2 months. Let’s see if we can get that third column a little taller, shall we?

Kindle books:
As You Like It by William Shakespeare
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

Fiction:
Endymion by Dan Simmons
The Ancient by R.A. Salvatore
Long Lost by David Morrell
A Coral Kiss by Jayne Ann Krentz
If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (I don’t want to hear a damn word.)
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Nonfiction
The Pirate Queen: Queen Elizabeth I, Her Pirate Adventurers, and the Dawn of Empire by Susan Ronald
Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain
Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham
Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler
EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey
Story by Robert McKee

Books already read:
Miss Wonderful by Loretta Chase
The Lost Duke of Wyndham by Julia Quinn
Waiting for Nick and Considering Kate by Nora Roberts
Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey
Heart of Steel by Meljean Brook (Kindle)

I’ve actually made headway on this; Heart of Steel was added to the “read” pile on the first day of January (Short review: Find it and its predecessor, The Iron Duke, and read them NOW.).

Next up on my list is probably going to be The Wise Man’s Fear, or at least I will try to make a dent in that behemoth.

What are you reading? Got any recommendations for me to add to the list?