2011 In Review (The Link Episode)

Remember back in January when I posted my New Years resolutions?

Well, time for a progress report.

First I'm pleased to announce the NEW HOLIDAY TRADITION, which was my daughter performing in her dance studio's production of The Nutcracker.The best part about this tradition is that they only do it EVERY OTHER YEAR, which is totally my style of tradition. Now I just need to adjust the every other year rotation of hosting christmas eve so it doesn't fall in the same year as nutcracker year. How to do this without volunteering to take on 2 years back to back, hmmmm, must think. . .

Then I think I said something about getting more babysitters and going out more, which I have to give a big fat "plbttttt" to as far as my success with that went.

I don't know what my other resolution was.* I don't think it was "get inspired by a band to throw myself whole-heartedly into creativity and really write a book." But it if was, then I made awesome progress. It helped a lot that I broke my ankle so I had an rock solid excuse in the form of a cast, for just sitting the computer all day.

Don't have that excuse anymore, although I'm still using it to justify various disorganized places in the house. Now I excuse my exessive computer time, with the rationization that I need to put in the requisit 10,000 hours to creative breakthrough, and seeing as how I'm already, ummm, well, this old, I don't have time to waste. The book is still in progress, but I'm still counting it in the success column.

I'm going to count the whole year as a success, even though it was the second summer in a row I began on crutches. I may have been in a cast but at least I wasn't in a rut. I went to two My Chemical Romance concerts. I signed up for Twitter so I could be an obsessed MCR stalker (oh, right they call them followers) and from there, I found new writing contacts on Twitter. Thanks to Tina and crew at The Practice Room I managed to stay on track with my writing all year. I had the opportunity to read and critique for Vikki, who's writing is a hilarious joy for me to read. I thank the awesome friends who've been reading and encouraging me. My writing journey this year has led me to some interesting by-ways. In no particular order:



Thank You Galaxy Comics

Dominating the Zombies

Like A Soap Opera, but Fangier



OyMG by Amy Fellner Dominy





Young Adult Fiction! This isn't the only book I read, but I liked it, and I won this one in a contest, along with a critique of some of my writing from the author.




View all my reviews

Still Obsessed

To top it all off, I've won my class-action lawsuits against Ticketmaster and itunes, so I finished up 2011 $6.35 richer. Just need to fill out out a few legal forms and consider the tax ramifications.

*I'm lying, but since I didn't end up blogging more frequently, let's just agree to forget about that one, okay?

Have Yourself a Merry Little Controversy

There’s a lot of controversy out there about the correct way to offer holiday greetings in our multi-cultural society. Although I’m not one for political correctness, I do have strong opinions about the slow but steady encroaching of holiday greetings in our society, and so on behalf of all who are fed up with excessive obligatory phrases, I present:

Guidelines for Greetings

“Happy New Year!” Appropriate for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day only. After that, shut up about it. Other cultural New Years greetings, (Jewish, Chinese, Tibetan, whatever), should be exchanged on the appropriate day, by people who celebrate that tradition and their close friends.

“Happy Valentines Day” This greeting should be exchanged between loved ones on Valentines’ Day only. Also appropriate for elementary school Valentines parties and card exchanges. Should not be used among random strangers, except as an invitation for a one night stand.

“Happy St. Patricks’ Day.” On March 17th only. Must be either a.) Irish b.) Wearing Green or c.) Drunk.

“Happy Easter.” Should be used in conjunction with the actual celebration of Easter either at a place of worship or among friends and family. Exception: if you are wearing an Easter Bunny costume.

“Happy Memorial Day” Seriously? Don’t say it. Remember your loved ones, appreciate your family, grill some meat.

“Happy Fourth of July” Can be said on July 4th. Preferably while waving a flag or watching fireworks.

“Happy Labor Day” Come on people, just shut up. We are in denial that summer is over. Besides this just sounds like you’re creepily encouraging a birth.

“Happy Halloween” this should be said to or by trick-or-treaters. On Halloween. Please do not wish me a Happy Halloween the entire month of October. It’s just weird, and pretty much convinces me you’re trying to sell extra Halloween crap.

“Happy Thanksgiving” Say it on Thanksgiving. Or the day before. If you must.

“Merry Christmas” can be said up to one week before or 3 days after Christmas. Best used among those actually celebrating, but can be given as a standard greeting, in place of other meaningless conventional phrases, like “How are you?” and “Have a nice day.” If you choose to take offense when someone wishes you Merry Christmas, you must also ask probing follow-up questions every time someone says they’re “Fine, thank you.”

“Happy Holidays” is a perfectly acceptable generic greeting that can be used from about a week before Thanksgiving, until the day after New Year’s Day. Those offended by this should feel free to NOT have a nice day.

All other religious, cultural or personal holidays can be wished on the appropriate day to and by those celebrating. Happy Birthday to you. You’re welcome.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

Irish Moss. The only thing that looks good in the garden right now. Reminds me of fields of winter wheat. I love seeing the bright green surprise in the dreary winter landscape.


Christmas Music. Barenaked for the Holidays, by the Barenaked Ladies (of course) my all time favorite.

Commercialism. I’m probably the only person who doesn’t bemoan the commercialization of Christmas. But the idea that there’s one time of year to focus on generosity and acquisition is just so. . .efficient. I love it that the stores are jam-packed with people and products and decorations and music. Even the 12 years I worked in retail, I loved it.

Cookies. And other holiday baking traditions. But especially creatively decorated cut-out sugar cookies.

Cinnamon. Scented candles, sprinkled on oatmeal, and Big Red gum, which I chew while baking so I don’t eat too much cookie dough.

Open Mike

21 days into Novemeber, and I'm woefully behind on my goal of finishing my book by the end of the month. I've managed to crank out 21,000+ words and 10 chapters, but I still haven't made it to the end.

I figure if I write a chapter a day for the next 10 day, I might make it. But that's a big might, because I've just reached another one of those awful bogged down and discouraged places, where I'm pretty sure my book sucks. Where I feel like every single book I happen to pick up, or hear about, or suddenly remember from freshman year of high school English class, has already done what I'm doing, or at least part of it.

I keep thinking of that Bare Naked Ladies song, "It's All Been Done." It's not like I've stumbled across another story exactly like mine. But whenever I come across similar elements or themes, I start to panic. Heck, I'll be honest, I start to panic if I come across a story that has a character with the same name as one of mine.

Then I start to worry that my story is too over the top, my writing is too wordy (yes it is, but I'm working on it) and that this is bound to suck.

But you know what, I'm not giving up. I happen to love this story, and I love my characters. They've been growing a lot over the past 6 months, and I want to see what happens with them.

The first novel I attempted to write will never be seen by another human in my lifetime. But this one, I'm putting out there. I will finish it, revise it, query it and receive a bunch of rejections. I'll show it to friends and fellow writers for input and I'll cringe as they point out obvious flaws, or give me a half-hearted compliment.

But I'm working on the theory that everyone has to start somewhere. It's taken this long for me to just start. But I'm doing it. I'm getting up there on stage with this thing, ready to take the boos. Hoping someone will sing along. Or to eventually get a hit.