Scrubs on a Saturday

One of my favoritest TV series was Scrubs (*sniffle* at least I still have The Tudors...). I mentioned the use of the song Book of Love on the finale, but I felt the need to show the clip in its entirety. Why? Well, watch it, and I'll tell you.



JD's last line: "And who's to say this isn't what happens? Who can tell me that my fantasies won't come true?"

As a writer, we're dreamers. It's what we do. Unconsciously we see things, events, stories, these great and epic things that sprawl out before us. We see the lives of our characters and how they rise and fall, when they smile and when they cry. We see our lives. When we want to rise and when we hope we won't fall, when we know we'll smile and when we know we'll cry with joy.

But I know I, at least, have become so accustomed to seeing these great, sprawling stories in my head that I've forgotten they may come true. I've gotten comfortable in imagining things, in just sitting back and dreaming. Usually I don't expect my fantasies to come true. I see my life play out on a big screen before me (while Book of Love plays in the background, of course) but that's it. It just plays on loop as I watch, and I never expect it to happen anywhere but on a big white sheet.

That can change, though. Someone can rip the big white sheet down, and suddenly you're forced to see your life beyond the comforts of your own fantasies. Things will happen that are out of your dreams, things you didn't expect. They're wonderful, too, and breathtakingly unexpected. But it's those things that happen both on and off the white sheet, those things you fantasize about on loop then see in real life, that really make the impact.

So while life is full of the unexpected and unplanned, who can tell me that my fantasies won't come true? That this isn't what happens -- or is happening?

Fantastic Friday!

Hey, look! I CAN still do Fantastic Friday posts!

Fantastic Thing-that-happened-in-the-past-week #1) Honestly, this past week has been so chock-full of awesome that I'm speechless. I'm back to working on revisions for Stream Pirate. That is all I will say on the subject for now. Muahahaha, suspense.

Thing #2) I bought a new camera. I will have a ceremony to lay my old, crappy one to rest.

Thing #3) Season finale of The Tudors! OhmygoshI'mobsessedwiththisshow.



Okay. Back to working on Stream Pirate revisions. Ahoy!

MIA and the IE

I have an excuse for being MIA from Fantastic Friday and any other blog posts. Well, a lot of excuses. Which one do you want? The most convincing one? Well, there was this UFO, see, and a beam of light came down-- um-- and then-- hm. Memory's a little fuzzy after that.

Anyway.

I just finished reading A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. While this book was, in a word, life changing (er, in two words, I guess), I've found that the principles in it, like most books on life, can be applied to writing. Ready for something deep?

One of the very, very, VERY basic themes of this book is learning to live now, a continuation of Eckhart Tolle's first book, The Power of Now. To avoid a very long and possibly debate-provoking explanation (though who doesn't love a good debate?), I shall say only that in A New Earth Tolle talks about seeing beyond the continuing thoughts in your head and to BE now. Because now, this moment, is all you really have, and the voice in your head is either gibbering about the past or the future, two things you aren't experiencing NOW. How does this transfer into writing? Two words: Inner Editor.

(Oh, Inner Editor. For being such an annoying little pest, we sure do devote a lot of blog posts to you.)

I can't think of one writer who hasn't complained about the dreaded IE. Whilst writing, we always come to a point where the story is flowing and we get excited and everything is working out -- until the IE shows up. Then all our previous happiness deflates.

"You're going to write THAT? That's atrocious! How DARE you waste your talent like that? Heck, you don't even HAVE talent. Just stop. Start over. It's just -- no. Just no."

And we, being deflated, usually comply. But why? Why is our IE so very, very cruel? Why do we let it have any say over our writing story after story, knowing it's only every going to make us deflate?

This is where Tolle's theories come in. If, when IE springs up, we take a step back from it's taunting, we can take a step toward overcoming it. Next time IE starts muttering under our breath, instead of listening to it's very wrong ramblings, we can see what we are doing to ourselves and breathe. IE's mumblings aren't the least bit beneficial and, when you think about it, don't make much sense. So what, that part you just wrote is crap? So what, the story may be weak here? It'll be good someday. And you will go back and fix all the little stuff. And you know what to look out for now, what mistakes to avoid making. In this moment, this now, you are working on a draft, and drafts are SUPPOSED to suck.

So tell IE to shove it, and get back to writing now, not worrying about what you'll have to fix later.

Book Trailer Prize!

This is the first book trailer/fan vid I've made without actually having read the book. I'm slightly nervous that I completely screwed it all up and didn't capture the essence of the story at all. Mariah shall have to be the judge. Yay? Nay?

Side note: Why is there such a lack of red-headed teenage actresses in the world? Finding movies with said actresses is beginning to be a pain. Any suggestions for films I've overlooked?

Saturday Song!

There have been a lot of forces beyond my control this week. Not that they're bad forces; quite the opposite. But alas, these forces force me away from Blogger, where I could not force myself to force out a Fantastic Friday post. For sure.

Ahem.

Anyway, to make up for completely spacing on Fantastic Friday, I present: Saturday Song!




Just gotta snap to this song.

Book Trailer Contest Winner!

Due to forces beyond my control (aka: my stupid, uncooperative sickness issues), I am late in posting the winner of the contest. My apologies.

But without further ado: Mariah! Yay, Mariah! Shoot me an email at seesarawrite@gmail.com so I know where to send the list of questions to get started on your fan-tabulous Book Trailer/Fan Vid!

Book Trailer Contest Part Two!

Below you will find the three entries that caught my eye the most. Now it is up to you, my public, to narrow it down to one. *gasp* One? Out of all these lovely entries, there must only be ONE winner?? Sadly, yes.

So, if you would like to decide who should be bestowed upon with a fan-tabulous book trailer, vote in the comment section!

In no particular order:

Entry 1) "The Not-So Meet Cute is about Piper, an awesome, red-head teenage girl in a rock band. Oh, and she can read minds. Her bangin' hot psychic boyfriend Simon doesn't mind though, and he's the only one who knows her secret.

But then they discover that the government is tracking Simon... *Gasp*

...through psychic girl. A beautiful, psychic girl.

What's Piper to do? Will her secret be revealed too?

Let me just say that if you don't pick my book, Piper might be forced to reveal your innermost thoughts all over the internet.

Just sayin'.

P.S. It's not mind-reading like creepy Mel Gibson in "What Women Want". It's definitely way cooler.

Thought that might sway your opinion (in a good way)!"

Why I Chose This Entry: Um, I so don't want my innermost thoughts posted all over cyberspace. Are you appeased, Piper? Are-- are you? Mariah? Anyone?

Entry 2) "[Insert Official Title of Book 1 Here after it's been announced on our blog tomorrow] is Nancy Drew meets the DaVinci Code. Ooh and there's e-mails from dead people."

Why I Chose This Entry: Because I think L&L should just leave the title as "Insert Official Title of Book 1 After It's Been Announced on our Blog Tomorrow." Think about it, girls.

Entry 3) "Since it might become a book one day, or at least lead to inspiration. Of course, all character names will be changed. YADA YADA YADA

Seven Letters

Two American Girls in Paris. Two hot French men. 24 hours. A story of unrequited love. A story with a very unexpected ending."

Why I Chose This Entry: Because Sam's posts about this story have me unable to breathe, I'm so in love with it. Yes, technically it isn't a book. But I'm willing to make an exception for this one.


There you go! You have until Thursday, the 14th, at 8PM EST to vote. Have at it!

(Yes, you can vote for yourself. But only once ;) )

BT Contest Deadline in 5...4...3...2...

If you haven't already popped over to this post and entered for a chance to win a fan-tabulous Book Trailer/fan vid, well, you must like waiting until the last minute. Which is cool -- I often do it myself -- but, dude, do you really want to miss out on this? Um, no. So go enter! Deadline is at 8PM tonight, EST. Hurry, hurry!

Fantastic Friday!

Fantastic Thing-that-happened-in-the-past-week #1) Since the book formerly known as The Tudor Tool is at something of an impasse (which could have something to do with the fact that I'm not...actually...working on it...), I've decided to start plotting out Two Blue Lights. Because I can. Also, I've begun poking at Web again. My theory is that one of these three stories will eventually succumb to my persistence and let me write it. Until then, I will be as stubborn as they are being. Muahahaha.

Thing #2) The competition is getting FIERCE. And by fierce, I mean you should enter and make it even MORE fierce. What am I talking about? My third Book Trailer Contest, of course! You-- you haven't entered? Um, all the cool kids are doing it. Just sayin'.

Thing #3) I've started compiling a list of songs that make me cry a little, because I've discovered that there are quite a few. After catching up on the series finale of Scrubs last night (which in and of itself is cry-worthy) they finished with a song that made me realize I cry to a lot of songs. Here is the list I have compiled, should you, too, want to be so overcome with happiness/joy/ohmygoshcute that you cry.

Song 1: Book of Love by Peter Gabriel (Scrubs finale song -- I also heart this song because, well, it's about a BOOK. Win.)
Song 2: My Skin by Natalie Merchant
Song 3: River Flows in You by Yiruma (wordless, but something about the melody makes me get all pinched-face and weepy)
Song 4: Nicest Thing by Kate Nash
Song 5: Goodnight My Angel by Billy Joel (still makes me think of Twilight a little bit...)

Thing #4) Can't believe I almost forgot this one: mi prima Nikki Hensley got me a book called Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. So. Excited. Also, I now have my copy of Silver Phoenix. It, too, is in my nice little pile of books I shall read at some point in the near future.

Book Trailer Contest #3!

I will thoroughly regret doing this in the dead-middle of the quarter, but what can I say? I like the challenge of being stupidly busy.

Here's the deal-io: you enter contest (details below) by deadline, after deadline winner is chosen, winner gets book trailer custom made by yours truly! Examples of my BT's are here, here, or here. The book trailer really is more of a fan video for your book, but calling this a "Fan Video Contest!" sounds a little...sad. I'm not really sure why.

On to the requirements:

Leave me a comment to this post telling me why your book should be made into a fan vid/book trailer. Be as over-the-top, funny, serious, heart breaking, etc as you want. Just make sure you're convincing, because I'm not the one you must win over. I've decided that because I will already be so busy with (not doing) school work, I will leave the winner entirely up to you, my adoring public. I will give ya'll until Monday, the 11th, at 8pm EST to post your greatest reasons; then I will choose the best 3 entries and post them to be voted upon. The entry with the most votes by Thursday, the 14th, at 8pm EST will receive a fan-tabulous BT!

Yay? Yay!

Sidenote: You can enter more than once, just make sure each entry is for a different book. Variety is the spice of life! Make this contest spicy!

**Warning for those who are shy about novel-info sharing or who only have an unfinished novel: I will send the winner a list of questions pertaining to their novel to gauge what I can/should include in the BT. It will include a question about the finale (nothing too in-depth, so don't worry), because a lot of the BT is foreshadowing. So if you're shy about sharing or don't have a finale yet, you should probably hold off for now.**

Fantastic Friday!

Right now, it's still Friday for another 49 minutes! That's safe in my eyes.

Fantastic Thing-that-happened-in-the-last-week #1) I got some freakin' beautiful stuffs in the mail. Like, seriously beautiful. The ever-fabulous Cindy Pon sent out free bookplates, then I won a bookmark in her alien contest. Let me tell ya, all, if you haven't gotten yourself a bookplate, well -- you're not as cool as I am. Because having this thing makes you instantly cooler. So ask her for one. I'm sure she's still willing to give a few away...

Thing #2) I discovered something. I'm rather ashamed I hadn't yet discovered it: X-Men. Yay, something else to be addicted to!

Thing #3) I've decided to give up on my outline for the book formerly known as The Tudor Tool (maybe I should just call it "Title Pending"? Though I actually like that title...) and just go with it. I hereby relinquish my control of the novel and submit to my MC's will entirely. God help me.

Urm, so, I'm a little tired tonight, and feel like I'm forgetting something. I'm sure other fantastic things happened. But my memory just won't tell me what. So I shall bid thee goodnight for now.