Cut and paste

I hope you have a nice day today.

For the writers in the crowd:

Are you the type of writer who knows what they are doing from the start and can write in a straight line from point A to point B or are you the type of writer who puts down bits and pieces and rearranges them until they fit the way you want them to? Do you have a different method from the two I have listed?

Make a wish

If you the type of person who makes wishes on airplanes, now is your chance.

I have it on good authority that there is one in the sky.

A little birdie has told me Google and its affiliates (including blogger) are inaccessible in China as of May 24th (they used to route through Hong Kong, apparently), so I apologize in advance for allowing my blog to wilt. There are a few prearranged posts coming up but there probably won't be any of the spur-of-the-moment traveling posts I had hoped to make.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

You may have wondered if I had been bit by a zombie, hence my failure to post anything of late.

Your guess would have been close. I'm preparing for a trip to China and any time I try to work on anything resembling a creative outlet, 14 pairs of socks... 14 pairs of socks... takes over my thought waves.

Even as I type this, I'm thinking about the uncharged batteries in my camera.

There are a two things I want to see while I am there:

• A cherry blossom (preferably more that one, but one will do).

• The great wall.

As it is The Year of the Tiger, one of my airplane books will be Marjorie Liu's Tiger Eye. The book is set in China and Marjorie blogs about her trips to China, so it feels appropriate. Feel free to read along with me.

I have to go. I'm on the verge of hyperventilating as my suitcase is totally full and I know I want to bring back a zillion (give or take a few) souvenirs.

Book chatter and shiny, shiny pictures to follow. Any tips from people who have visited China?

Find umbrella... Find umbrella...

'Blogs For You' aka 'Janet made my day'

Janet, from Janet's Journal has been kind enough to award me with the One Lovely Blog Award. If you haven't seen it already, I'd recommend stopping by to visit her blog. She has some interesting posts and every Friday, she posts some of her current work in progress.

With great power comes great responsibility. Recipients of the One Lovely Blog Award are required to:

1. Post the award on your blog with the name of the person who has granted it to you and his or her blog link.

2. Pass the award to other deserving bloggers.

3. Email the bloggers to let them know you've given them the award.

4. Just kidding. There are only 3 rules.

So here are a few blogs I really enjoy:

The Chocolate Chip Waffle

Terresa Wellborn is the author of this blog and I know I'll be visiting some place beautiful every time I type in the url. Poetry, art, famous quotes, chocolate chip waffles. You really have to see it to believe it. Her writing is also protected by an invisible ninja force field. True story. I read it on her blog.

Dark Angel's Blog

I've been following Sherry's blog for some time and enjoy her writing advice, author interviews and the snippets from her work. It has a deliciously paranormal atmosphere.

The Regency World of Author Lesley-Anne McLeod

This blog is filled with research from the regency period, writerly advice and fun literary information I would have never come across otherwise. Something about it draws a person in (especially a person interested in historical research and / or writing). Some of her recent posts have also been striking a personal chord with me. Ex. My father is doing a lot of genealogical research for our family. The day he told me my great-great grandfather and grandmother were hat-makers who lived on one side of London and worked on the other, Lesley-Anne had a post about how she had to find a milliner in a somewhat unfashionable area of Regency London.

The mermaid in the cathedral

This is the Nidaros Cathedral (Nidarosdomen) in Trondheim, Norway. It is a beautiful cathedral with lots of gothic architecture, secret rooms, winding stairways and a great place to look out at the North Sea. This is the view as you enter the room:

It is hard to see, but there is a slightly raised marble platform with six pictures on it (left to right, far to near): a centaur, a dragon, a pig (boar?), a lion, a mermaid holding a mirror and a scorpion.

I was drawn to it, thinking, "What is this doing in a church?" The nave looks very impressive from this photo, but as you walk in the room, the first thing you see is this large altar right in front of you. Once you can stop staring, you live your chin up to look at the ceiling and don't put it down before your neck gets sore.

There is a very old Norse document, called Speculum Regulae, or The King's Mirror that dates back to the 1200's. Part of it gives precise details regarding the physical appearance of mermen and mermaids (merman = hafstramb, mermaid = margygr). It suggests the sighting of such a creature forebodes poor weather in the near future.

I came up with all of these theories about why there would be a mermaid on the altar front. I finally decided it would need to have something to do with Saint Olav (an ancient Norse king from days gone by - there are murals and statues dedicated to him in the cathedral and all over town).

Perhaps Saint Olav was once in love with a mermaid or rescued by one when he fell out of a Viking ship. Maybe there was a whole contingent of mermaids and mermen that were a part of the Viking conquests.

I needed to find out what it meant.

I probably looked too hard, because the altar front is not nearly as old as I thought it would be. The Altar of the Holy Cross was built between 1986-1985 by Wenche Gulbrandsen - I think the marble platform was made by the same artist. There is no explanation I have come across yet. Nor are there any other pictures (photography is not allowed inside the cathedral. This is a scan of a postcard I got in the gift store. Egil Rein took the picture for the postcard.).

So I figure, what the heck? My explanation is as good as anyone else's (except for the real one, I suppose). King Olav loved a viking mermaid who saved his life. Who knew?

Your explanation is also as good as anyone else's. Five mermaid points to anyone who can tell me an explanation for / story of the centaur / dragon / pig / lion / mermaid / scorpion. Ten mermaid points to anyone who can come up with a theory involving all six. It doesn't have to take place in a church or in Norway, for that matter. Let your imagination do what it wants - it will anyway.

I have no idea what the points will add up to. We will worry about that later ;)

The Dark Highlander Book Review

Based on my past posts regarding reading material, you may have inferred I have a thing for vampires / anything paranormal. You would have inferred correctly. I'm about to let you in on my darkest of secrets: my love of vampire / anything paranormal books is nothing when compared with my love of highlander books.

What trumps a highlander book? A paranormal highlander book.

With that out of the way, I would like to suggest you give Karen Marie Moning's Highlander series a read, especially one of my favorites: The Dark Highlander. It isn't the first book in the series (its the fifth), but it is the first Karen Marie Moning book I read, thus I am qualified to say it was a great introduction to the series and it made me want to read more of the related books in both directions.

A series-related warning from your friendly neighborhood book nerd:

If you want to read in chronological order, feel free to start with Beyond the Highland Mist, or maybe Kiss of the Highlander. If you have the urge, try not to read The Immortal Highlander until you have at least read one or two of the earlier books (ex. this one) so you really have a feel for the world - it's worth the wait.

Anyway, why should you want to read this book:

As you may have inferred from the title, Daegus MacKelter is a dark and brooding highlander who has used his Druid powers and a set of standing stones to travel through time to protect his brother who had been spelled into a sleep spanning over five thousand years.

The use of the standing stones may have protected his brother, but it caused Daegus to become possessed by the spirits of thirteen evil druids imprisoned in the circle. Through the search for (and theft of) ancient texts that may possibly free him from the evil spirits and the inevitable madness as a by-product of their possession, Daegus meets Chloe Zanders, an antiquities dealer.

How do they meet? Daegus finds Chloe under his bed, snooping out the antique texts he stole. What is his solution? Kidnap her, of course. Or rather, not allow her to leave until he can find the answers he needs (without her reporting him to the authorities). The upside: Chloe offers a second set of educated eyes as well as a few extra tricks she has up her sleeves to help him find how to break the curse before the madness overtakes him and he becomes The Dark Highlander.

This book has it all: Laughter. Adventure. Mystery. Steamy moments. Shirtless Highlanders. In fact, I would consider this a keeper / reread book. Let's all take a moment to enjoy the cover art.

Are there any Karen Marie Moning fans in the crowd?

Sweet gesture? Villain in sheep's clothing?

Lately, I have been hearing lots of man-to-man tips and tricks on how to get a girl to like you - mostly radio advice. They are comprised of ways to a) impress a girl or b) emulate an alpha male.

Tips like:

• Insult her

• Wait five minutes after meeting her before paying any attention to her

• Touch her (arm taps etc) somewhere in the area of 10 times within an evening

• My favorite: at lunch, some guy went to a restaurant, left his credit card number and instructions that when he asked for the bill after his date that night, they were to say, "Oh no, ___. You eat here free!"

They might be sweet if a guy wants to impress someone he cares about (although it seems a bit manipulative to me). I guess if you get a girl's emotions up, even if its anger, she will be thinking about you. As for the 'insult her' advice, I have never wanted to date someone because they insulted me - although I may have wanted to bat them up-side the head with one of those cardboard tubes wrapping paper comes rolled around.

I thought these tips might be something to keep in mind if I ever had a guy (imaginary) trying to get a girl (also imaginary) to like him. Then, today I was getting my hair cut and a supplier was in, trying to get one of the hairdressers to buy a electric trimmer. She didn't like it. He started shaving the hair on his arm.

Here's how it went (I couldn't help but listen. My toner was setting):

Her: It isn't even working.

Him (with an insulting tone of voice): What? Have you been drinking today?

Her: Pardon me?

Him: Have you been drinking today?

Her: No

Then he showed her a different electric trimmer. They chatted about it (warranties, etc) and she ordered it and a bunch of other stuff. The guy wandered around the store, making sure to say by to all the hairdressers ("Bye, ladies.") and left.

Aside from his one jerk-face moment, he seemed like a nice enough guy. So why had he been so rude to her? They didn't seem to have a chummy enough relationship to talk to one another like that. Why had she ordered anything from him after his bad behavior? Had he applied one of the dating tips to make a sale? Had she let him because he was the official shop supplier?

Where does the sweet guy trying to impress a girl become a villain? For me, I think it is the comment, "Have you been drinking today?" It may have worked for the two of them, but as an outsider, the situation felt absolutely contrived.

I suppose there is room in a story for this type of character, but the hero-type I had in mind isn't it. The old adage Be Yourself should slide over to Let Your Character Be Himself as well. If he uses some out-of-character trick, perhaps she should be attuned enough to know (maybe too polite to let on, but she should know - perhaps this was the hairdresser. After all, she didn't buy the sub-standard trimmer), or maybe there should be some catastrophic disaster (no electric trimmer sale).

Anyway, got to go. I have all sorts of villain ideas swirling around in my mind.

All I see is, "I give up"

A thought-provoking blog post of Rachelle Gardner's asks her readers what they give up to be writers.

Although a lot of the responses are inspiring, some are absolutely, jaw-dropping-to-the-floor-ingly heart-breaking.

Clean houses. Healthy meals. Exercise. Time with family. Sleep. The possibility of finding their soul-mates. Having children. And so on... Some of the responses have lists of five or six points similar to the ones I've paraphrased here.

All I can say is been there, done that. Eventually it is going to catch up with you.

For instance: There is a Thanksgiving I will never get back because I spent it writing a school paper (a paper that sucked because my heart wasn't in it). I've seen fellow students put aside their personal lives and health for the sake of a project. I got so stressed my hair started falling out. Instead of slowing down, I got a haircut. This happened twice before I decided maybe I did have some time in my day to go to a yoga class.

Writing is a thing I do because I enjoy it. Not because I want to make myself a martyr with a book being the finished product of my misery. Its my way of staying out of the pit of despair (drama, drama, drama), not an excuse to jump into one.

Think about it. There are moments where it makes sense to drop all else and write until it feels like your hands are going to fall off. There are times where I do, but do you really want to reach a point in your life where you sit down to write the list of what you gave up to have 80 000 words (How long is a piece of string? Popular opinion says 80 000 - 100 000 words, on average) in your jaded little hands?

Do you want to risk having that moment where you look at those 80 000 - 100 000 words and think, "You are beautiful, but I resent you." Or worse, "You are the ugliest little duckling I have ever seen in my life and I hate you. Where has my life gone." I'm not ready to face that.

I can't even joke I don't clean my house. I thought I could, but recently went through a spring cleaning phase where I had to ask my mom to help me clean my kitchen and it took the 2 of us 6 hours to do it (Thanks, mom! Love you!). Granted, we cleaned the stove and washed the cupboards and caulked the countertops, but it took 6 hours. Six hours!

Eventually it is going to catch up with you. The question is, how hard will the wave hit when it does?

Of all the comments I read on Rachelle's blog, none of them mentioned avoiding brushing their teeth. This tells me there is still hope. I think what we need is a little rewording. A bit of forward-planning at times and some living in the moment at others.

Instead of thinking I give up x for y. Perhaps we can think of it as I multitask where I can, prioritize where I can't.

• Don't give up reading: read in the tub. Personal hygiene, check. Reading, check. (I once told my sister I hadn't read Anna Karenina because it was too heavy. She got me one of those book holders for the bath.)

• Arthur Slade and kc dyer write while on the treadmill.

• Turn on the radio and dance while making supper or doing the dishes.

• Books on tape. Books on tape. Books on tape.

• Instead of saying, "I don't sleep in," say, "I wake up early."

• Time-saver to Avoid: personal telephone conversations in a public washroom. The person on the other end is no fool. Neither are the people in the stall beside you.

I don't mean to belittle anyone who feels they have given up something they care about to write / for their chosen profession. I just hope you might find a way to rearrange. To find that bottleneck and find a way to squeeze a bit more joy in your life. (I wish I had that Thanksgiving in my list of memories)

If you are going to give something up, don't give up the things that make you Who you are, What you are. Give up the time sucks and creativity killers you don't need in your life. Spend less time talking to tele-marketers on the phone. Take a list when you go grocery shopping. Arrange to pay your bills on the internet. Avoid wasting mental and physical energy on unnecessary toxic situations. You might find you have time to knit and to write - or even more time to knit / write.

Things might change. Ten years from now I might be on here, grousing about all the things I'd given up while being too stubborn to admit I'd been doing it. Or worse, I might come across a comment left on this post by Anonymous. Two words: You Failed.

Although I am nowhere near doing all the things on this list (or completing everything I have on my to-do list by the end of each day), I refuse to toss my hands up in the air and say, "I give up." I hope you do too. We deserve to be happy while doing what we love. We deserve not having to resent 'thing a' because we would rather be doing 'thing b'. We deserve not to feel guilty or selfish, when we are doing the best we can.

I just wish I knew how. Its a work in progress, I suppose.

Tell me, what is something you refuse to give up?

Weebles wobble but they don't fall down

I've gone and done it. I went and bought a pair of Sketchers Shape-ups. I am officially tromping around like a woman with two rocking horses strapped to her feet. Incredibly comfortable rocking horses.

Research (interwebs and other)

From what I had come across, these shoes are designed to strengthen core, legs, improve posture and balance, reduce gingivitis, paint your house, wash your car and give you the poise and stamina to run a 10K marathon in heels. Well, not exactly but they are getting a lot of hype in the circles I run in (ran in: now I walk. No running in the Shape-ups).

I really wasn't sure what they would be like. There are very few testimonials online about them aside from promotional material and statements such as, "They are supposed to (yadda yadda yadda)," and, "I hear they (yadda yadda yadda)."

The best testimonial I got was from the woman (and her husband, who was also trying on a pair) in the shoe store who whispered to me, "My girlfriend wore them for two months and the cellulite on her butt..." She then slashed at her throat like the cellulite had been decapitated. Message sent. These shoes mean business.

Why bother?

Now, this is a blog (thank you Captain Obvious), thus I am more or less invisible, so I am going to level with you. I don't really care about what my butt looks like (its not like I can see it). I'm not that interested in what my weight is, or the number value assigned to my waistline. What I can't stand is my muffin-top. Esther.

My line of thought: better posture = Esther might have to work a little harder. A fabulous looking butt is just a bonus.

So anyway, this may fall under the category of one of those blog post no-nos. No TMI blog posts! Regardless, I plan on filing it under product testing and quality control, rather than TMI.

My gift to you:

If you see Sketchers Shape-ups in an upcoming blog post heading and don't want to read about it, you can consider yourself warned.

If you want to know if the darn things work (I know I do) ... Stay tuned.

A Horse Stepped on my Hand

A horse stepped on my hand*. True story. Thus my need to hunt and peck with one hand while clutching an ice pack in the other.

I figure today is a good day to show you the trailer Tessa Dare made. It gets funnier every time I watch it.

See if you can spot the mermaid ;)

*Not one of my own boys. Someone else's Magnificent Beast. And yes, I do realize anyone who leaves their hand lying around for a horse to step on probably has it coming.

City of Bones For You

When I was at Free Comic Book Day yesterday, I picked up a spare copy of The City of Bones in case someone wanted to borrow mine (some books you share, some books you don't - its safer to give a different copy away and not worry about getting yours back).

Now I figure, what the heck. Have a contest. Its only a small preview of the graphic novel (no false advertising here - its definitely not the whole story) for Cassandra Clare's The City of Bones coming out (soon?), but the drawings are beautiful and it will definitely get you excited for the longer novel. I know I can hardly contain myself.

So if you are interested and a follower living anywhere on planet Earth, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. I will randomly draw a name next Friday and send you the comic.

Free Comic Book Day: Game On

Its officially here: Free Comic Book Day 2010.

My first taste of it is this morning at 8:10 am. I drive past the comic book store to pick up some scones at the Farmer's Market (ps- These scones will make you believe in miracles). There are three people waiting outside the store. In the rain - a father-son team and a lone wolf.

8:30 Drive-by: 5 people. Two father-son teams and a lone wolf. Go to grocery store for milk.

I want to go by a third time, but figure I am pretty much asking for a car accident by driving around aimlessly, counting people in front of the comic book store.

8:50: Home, eating delicious, delicious scone. (Fun fact: the first time I typed this, I spelled delicious right the first time, misspelled it the second - in this sentence, I misspelled it twice. My hands resist overuse of the word, even if I don't).

9:50: The line is too long to count. Men, women, children. Everyone is excited. People are looking in the big glass window making all sorts of excited noises.

10:01: A loud, "OOoooohh," from the crowd and the line moves forward.

A guy dressed like Wolverine greets us at the door. An artist from Marvel Comics is in the store. Pandemonium abounds. What to choose? What to choose? Options: 1 free comic book or donate $10 to a local charity and take 10. What to choose? What to choose? Aha!

On the way out, the sweet-faced, blue-eyed Wolverine rasps, "Have a nice day," in a voice so scary, I practically jump out the door. I can't wait for next year.

Did anyone else out there attend Free Comic Book Day?