Blog Chain - Monster Mash

Matt got to choose this round's topic, and he came up with a fun one :D

What is your all-time favorite monster?

At first glance, this seems like an easy question. But it really wasn't LOL See, I have different favorite monsters for all occasions. If I'm going to go with what has scared me the most for the longest amount of time, I'd probably have to say ghosts.

I reserve the right to change my mind should something more terrifying show up, but I tend to be really freaked out by things that I can't see. I mean, a big ol' yeti or something might scare my hair white, but at least I can see it coming at me. Plus, I'm pretty sure the other monsters don't exist (or if they do, they aren't bugging me). But I live in a very, very old house next to a 200 yr old cemetery and sometimes....well, let's just say weird things happen. And weird things have happened to other people I know. So...yeah...*shudder*

The monster to scare me most recently - Skinwalkers. This one is courtesy of the lovely Bethany Wiggins who regaled me with tales of these terrifying creatures while she was writing her book Shifting. Add to that the fact that we lived in the region where these creatures live, there were many locals who claimed to have seen them (and not just superstitious grannies...I'm talking big, burly oil workers who refused to drive down certain stretches of road because the last time they did something they thought was a man dropped to all fours and loped along beside their car...that was doing 40+ miles an hour), and the fact that I lived out in the middle of nowhere and my husband was frequently out of town for work (and Bethany liked to tell me that every noise I heard was probably a skinwalker LOL) - and yeah....*shudder*

Then there are the monsters of the cute, cuddly variety. The ones that make you say awwww more often than AHHH!!! Like these two:

But, I guess if I'm going to pick my all time favorite, my "go-to" monster, the one I've got dozens of books and movies on, I'm going to have to go with the vampire. I even took a class on vampires in grad school (and wrote a paper called "From Van Helsing to Buffy". It rocked, if I do say so myself) ;-) It was so much fun :D Vampires are seriously cool though. I mean they run the gambit from terrifying undead monsters to these handsome hotties:

Gotta love the versatility. Just sayin' ;-)

What is your favorite monster?

Be sure to head over to PK's blog to see what creature she most loves and stay tuned tomorrow to find out what's hiding in Tere's closet :D

Friday Funnies

Nanowrimo jokes were found on Danyelle Ferguson's blog - they were written by her husband. To check out her blog and/or see the original post, Click HERE.

"Knock Knock"
"Who's there?"
"Write"
"Write who?"
"Write"
"Uhm, yeah. You already said that. Write who?"
"Write"
"Whatever."
"Exactly, write whatever."

 A salesman walked up to a Nanowrimo participant's house and rang the doorbell. No one answered.

A Nanowrimo participant and her daughter were out trick or treating. A man opened the door and said to the little girl, "What are you supposed to be?"
"A ballerina," she said as she twirled in a circle. He dropped a piece of candy in her bag.
"And what are you supposed to be?" he asked the older woman who was wearing vampire teeth, had quotes pinned to her shirt, and was carrying a dictionary.
"I'm the Word Count," the woman said with a thick, fake accent.
 "Aren't you a little old to be trick or treating?"
"Probably, but I'm going to need all the chocolate I can get."

Question: Three people were sitting at the library with their laptops. The first was typing away furiously the screen filling with words, many of them with red, squiggly lines underneath them. The second glared at a mostly blank screen with bloodshot eyes. The third typed a few words, then got up and browsed the shelves for a long time before returning and typing a few more words. Which one is the true Nano participant? 

Answer: All of them.

Coolest Punctuation Marks EVER

I saw this link on Facebook and had to share. Some of these are really cool....like the interrobang, and the question comma and exclamation comma - seriously, I LOVE these, I'd use them all the time :D Someone needs to add them to a keyboard lol

http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/13-punctuation-marks-that-you-never-knew-existed

My Internal Editor Needs to Shush

So yesterday I clicked on my blog only to discover that I hadn't posted since Friday. Somehow I had completely forgotten to post on Monday. Not sure how that happened *oops* I hope everyone has been happy, healthy and productive in the meantime :D

Yesterday I also realized that Nano is in 6 days. S.I.X. DAYS. How did that happen? Where did October go?!

I had a pretty lofty goal for October. I was going to finish my current WIP so when Nano hit I could work on a new one. If I could pull it off, it would mean two finished books by the end of the year. I've done pretty well...but my current WIP is nowhere close to being finished.

However, before October 1st, it wasn't even started. I hadn't worked on new material in a very long time so I am proud of the work I've accomplished.

Here's my problem...I can't shut off my internal editor. And it's driving me nuts :)

I know this book has issues. It's complicated. It's partial verse and the genre has morphed from urban fantasy into what I can really only call Sci Fi (maybe light SciFi, but still). It's a genre I haven't written before and it's something that requires research (which I'm more than happy to do) but all of that combines to make that pesky editor in me sit up and scream about every 5 seconds because I know there are sections that need to be rearranged or expanded or researched better or cut or any number of combinations of the above.

The poems in the story also take quite a bit of time as I'm trying to fit the story I need each of these poems to tell into the story as a whole and still stay within the structure and rules of each form.

So...yeah...it's complicated LOL But what I need to do, and what I am trying VERY hard to do, it just to write. Just to get that basic first draft story OUT. And then I can go back and fix what needs fixing.

Anyone have an internal editor muzzle? :D Does your internal editor slow down your first draft writage? And who's doing Nano?! :D I'm getting ready to break out my little potato guy word counter. I love that spud :)

Friday Funnies

There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly: sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges. 

— Ernest Hemingway 

 How do I know what I think, until I see what I say?

 — WH Auden

Blog Chain - People I Couldn't Write Without

This topic was chosen by the lovely Sarah who wanted to know:

Do you work with critique partners? How did you find your crit pals, and what influence have they had on your work?

Oh yes. I have crit partners. Probably too many LOL but I've met so many awesome writers over the years and we pretty much all exchange manuscripts at least once in a while.

My very first group I found by googling. I met some great people on there, learned a TON. I was a very VERY newbie writer. Had finished one book, paid an editor to go through it, gotten a few good suggestions from him, but it wasn't until this group (and one awesome lady in particular, Jeannie Ruesch) got a hold of it that I actually started pulling that poor manuscript together.

I can't believe how much she taught me. Stuff I'd never heard before. The adverb rule, POV tricks/rules/no-nos, ways to show different sides to my character - for all those who have read Treasured Lies, the pea scene was suggested by Jeannie. If she hadn't taken me under her wing, I don't know where I would be right now. I think I've mentioned before that I once wrote a scene where I had FOUR povs going on in ONE paragraph. Yeah...Jeannie was the one who explained why that was bad LOL

My other critters I met through QueryTracker. Toni Wilson (we are often called the eTwins by our QT friends) - I send everything to her. I mean literally everything. She often crits my emails before I send them LOL

Kristal Shaff and Cole Gibsen - again, these amazing women read pretty much everything I write. And I've learned so much from each of them. They are all awesome with things like plot flow, word choice, motivations, plot holes (and Kristal and Toni in particular are great at pointing out when I'm going overboard on the romance LOL). These women ready all my stuff and they are so incredibly sweet about reading my pages over and over again. I think they know my stories more than I do sometimes LOL

I met Elana Johnson through QT and joined a crit group with her and the absolutely wonderful Christine Fonseca. Elana is amazing - she will tell you how it is and she doesn't let you get away with anything. I usually get my pages back thinking "yeah, I knew she'd mark that." :D I'm slowly learning to just remove it before she has to mark it up LOL

Christine is amazing with emotions - I can go way overboard with them sometimes...and sometimes I don't have enough. She keeps me on track with my plot and characters and their motivations and personalities. She is also a fellow Non-fiction writer and is my main critter for all things NF (though Toni reads some of that stuff for me as well) :) It's so wonderful to have someone I can send those pages too. I don't know what I'd do without her.

And I also have my amazing Operation Awesome gals. I joined their group not too long ago (actually...I think it's been a year or so now!) It's been wonderful having a fresh group of eyes and learning from each of them - both from their crits of my work and from my crits of their work. They are an incredible group of women and I am so lucky to be a part of their group.

When I lived in Utah I was very privileged to be part of a live group with Bethany Wiggins and Bonny Anderson. I still send them pages and am always thrilled to read theirs, though I miss seeing them face-to-face :)

I have several other friends and readers that I send my pages too. They are all priceless to me. I would never be able to make it down this road without them.

Who are your critters and how did you meet them?

Be sure to see who PK shreds paper with and stop by Tere's tomorrow to find out about her crit pals :)

And the winner of Shifting is....

Anne N. Kenny!!!!

Shoot me an email at authormichellemclean (at) yahoo (dot) com and I will get your SIGNED copy of Shifting sent out :D

Congrats and thanks for entering everyone!!!