Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Blog fail

Oh, no! I did it, didn't I? That thing I said I wouldn't do. I posted about cats.

Already. *sigh*

Um...did I forget to mention "Holiday Dispensation"? Because, honestly, how can you not post pictures of cats under the Christmas tree? It's a Christmas tree! With cats!

At least I didn't upload the pictures of them playing with their stuffed dreidel. (The cats are Jewish. It's a long story...) Granted, only because those pictures are stuck on my old computer, but I'm counting it as restraint.

Hope you all (uh, both of you) are having a wonderful holiday season, whatever you celebrate. :)

Monday, December 28, 2009

Christmas and cats

These guys have been keeping me hopping over the holidays:




If they had opposable thumbs, I'd be sunk.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Snowbound!

I warned you I suck at blogging. I'm pretty sure I will never become obsessed with posting every day, but this time I have a good excuse for staying away this long. I was distracted by this:



The view above is our driveway. The view below is out our front door. It took a while to shovel out...

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Surely someone can do better...

Okay, just to give an idea of what I'm expecting in my Wooly Willy contest:



This can't be difficult to beat. I mean, really...

Drive-by blog linkage

Just a quick post today to link to by buddy Susan Adrian's blog:

http://susanadrian.blogspot.com/2009/12/interview-giveaway-with-author-kelly.html

She did a great interview with Enchanting Urban Fantasy Author Kelly Gay, whose debut novel THE BETTER PART OF DARKNESS is on the shelves now. There's an easy-to-enter contest, and the prize is a copy of the book, signed by the author--woo-hoo! Go enter now!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Holiday Ambition



Hey, stranger things could happen.

Well, okay. Maybe not. But think what a surprise my family would be in for if this actually happened! Might be worth it just to see the shock on their faces.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Wooly Willy and me

So, about my profile pic...yeah. I know. Trust me, I'm going to upload a current picture of me as soon I can arrange an appointment with Glamour Shots. Might need to schedule extra time with them. ;)

In the meantime, remember this guy? (Come on, you know you do.)



I was thinking of having a contest to see who could photoshop my profile pic (see below, anyone reading this after I change the official one) a la Wooly Willy. The goal would be to make the picture look as much like the current me as possible. (Hint: hair would help.)





There will be two categories of judging: Most Accurate Rendition and Most Hilarious Rendition. (There will be no prize for Most Obscene Rendition, so don't even think about it, people.)

Prizes: Books. (Titles to be decided by what I can find on my shelves.) Maybe some candy. And, I dunnoh, glorious recognition of your artistic ability?

How to enter: email the phyical manifestation of your artistic genius to me at linda (dot) grimes (at) gmail (dot) com, and I will upload the best ones to the blog.

Judging: Well, if I had a lot of visitors, I would let them vote. But I'm new, and I don't think I do. So I guess it will just have to be my call. (Feel free to suck up to me. Flattery works. Bribes, too.)

Contest will close Friday, Dec. 18 or whenever I get at least two entries, whichever comes last. (Could take a while, folks. Like I said: new here.)

Have at it!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

In which Linda says "Holy Sh-"...er, I mean, "Wow!"

See? What'd I tell you? I already lapsed. Missed, what, two days? BUT I had a Very Good Reason. You ready for this?

*clears throat*

I GOT AN AGENT!!!!

Pardon me for shouting, but consider yourself lucky. If I'd tried posting this the day I found out, the whole thing would've been in ALL CAPS, and we all know how annoying THAT can be. I had to give myself a little time to acclimate to the whole suddenly having an agent thing before I could trust myself to post a reasonably calm announcement.

So, anyway, for those of you not in the writing biz, the mystical Getting Of The Agent is a really big deal. Really, really big. HUGE. (See how I found a synonym for "really big" there? I can do that because I'm a writer. It's what we do.) What the agent does is sell your book. Kind of a matchmaker between writer and publisher, and ultimately writer and reader. This is no small task, and The Agent is to be honored in every way possible. (I think my agent prefers Starburst candy, and maybe a few tootsie rolls. You can see why we get along.)

I'm sure I'll be going through the obligatory peppering of my conversations with "my agent" this and "my agent" that for at least a week. (Maybe longer. It could become obnoxious. If it does, somebody will tell me. I just hope they're gentle.) After which time I will likely settle into the strange new concept and continue doing what I've been doing for quite a while now: writing stories. Because that's the best part of this gig. I get to play with imaginary people!

Oh, you probably want to know who MY AGENT (uh, sorry) is. I am pleased to tell you it is Michelle Wolfson, of Wolfson Literary Agency. She rocks! And not only because she loves my book (IN A FIX -- more about that in a later post), but also because she is dang funny. Funny and I get along well, so I was thrilled, during our phone conversation, to find out Michelle has Funny down to a science. We clicked. I think she's going to be a pleasure to work with, and I hope she feels the same about me. :)

'K-thnx-bye. *wanders off, humming "Michelle, Ma Belle"*

Monday, December 7, 2009

A brilliant idea

Okay, maybe not so brilliant, but I like it. Here it is:

If I write (several, some, a few) posts BEFORE I post them publicly, that will take some of the pressure off keeping up with the blog! You know, have some in reserve for those times when my brain isn't working, but I feel I ought to say something anyway.

Hmm...now I just have to come up with some topics that aren't time sensitive. Let's see...

Confession: this is the point where I saved the draft of this post to go off and play computer Mahjong for a while. Which isn't as random as you might think. It is related to how I write, even my fiction. If I stall, a quick game of zapping those little tiles into oblivion helps me break down my mental roadblocks.

Corollary confession: I use different tile layouts for different characters. If my MC is giving being recalcitrant, I head for the Turtle. When she's beseiged by her family, the Fortress layout comes in handy. The Dragon and the Cat are ready and waiting if the guys in her life are holding out on me. And so on.

Silly, huh? Even I think so. But, being the pragmatic soul I am, I don't care. It works for me.

(This is my second day of blogging. And, no, I don't have any other posts in reserve, so my "brilliant" idea has already fizzled. I will officially have to wing it from here. *quakes*)

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Let's pretend...

...I can blog.

Okay. Word for the day: Pretend.

Lots of meanings listed in the dictionary, but my preferred definition is "to make believe."

Because as a writer that's what I try to do--make readers believe. Wild things, wacky things, silly things, even some scary things. Stuff they know, in their heart of hearts and logical brains, can't possibly be real, but for a small space in time, while squeezed between my pages, they are willing to pretend with me. Because it's fun.

Since I write fiction (no, not published yet, but I'm working on it...), I spend a lot of time pretending. I used to pretend on stage, and that was fun too, but the directors and other actors tended to want to do stuff their way sometimes. Huh. Go figure. But when I write I get to pretend everything the way I want it to be! Which is really cool. Also, I don't have to spend a lot of time putting on stage make-up, which is nice, because stage make-up always gave me zits.

Fortunately, the people who are a part of my real life (husband, children, friends) understand my "pretending" affliction, and play along with me. It was in fact my daughter who gave me the idea for the name of this blog, in the form of a lovely earthenware plaque that reads "Reality is a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there." She knows me so well. :)

Confession time: this isn't my first blog. It seems, when it comes to writing anything that smacks of "journal" or "diary," I suck. Royally. I'm always running off and cheating on the blog with my novels.

I know. It's embarrassing. Commitment issues are so trite, and trite is a writer's worst enemy. (Well, second worst. After "boring.") But I am going to try my best to visit this little corner of reality on a semi-regular basis ... if I can do it without slipping into the clutches of those two enemies. But fair warning: if boredom and triteness move in, I'm moving out. Just so you know.

(This is a not an idle threat. I have kids and they have cats, and you KNOW how writers can go on and on about kids and cats. If I feel myself slipping into raptures about either, I will have to recuse myself from the blogosphere until sanity returns.)

(Disclaimer: that mention of the kids and cats doesn't count, because I was, you know, recusing myself and all. But while under the shelter of this disclaimer I should mention that the kiddos and cats are exceedingly adorable. Just so you know I'm not NOT talking about them because they're ugly or something. Both son and daughter are gorgeous. Also, husband is hot. In case you were inappropriately curious.)

Anyway, thank you for taking time to visit my reality. *bows and waits for the sound of clapping; hears crickets* Oh, yeah. No applause for writing.

Unless I pretend it... *listens to the roar of the audience in my head; smiles*