The one-word meme

Tom posted this meme and tagged everyone who made it through his list of answers, especially answer #25.

Since I am trying to avoid having to do yard work in the 90+ degree heat, I will play along.

1. Where is your cell phone? Upstairs
2. Where is your significant other? Yard
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? Florida
5. Your father? Florida
6. Your favorite thing? Downtime
7. Your dream last night? Unpreparedness
8. Your dream/goal? Contentment
9. The room you're in? Sewing (room!)
10. Your hobby? Quilting
11. Your fear? Coyotes
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Sewing!
13. Where were you last night? Sofa
14. What you're not? Tan
15. One of your wish-list items? Ireland
16. Where you grew up? Florida
17. The last thing you did? Sew
18. What are you wearing? Loungewear
19. Your TV? Ginormous
20. Your pet? Cherished
21. Your computer? Dandy
22. Your mood? Fair
23. Missing someone? Nah
24. Your car? Filthy
25. Something you're not wearing? Contacts
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? Endless
28. Love someone? Many
29. Your favorite color? Red
30. When is the last time you laughed? Yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Unsure

If you feel like being tagged, consider yourself tagged! Especially handy for procrastinators.

More about the old girl (me).

I am experimenting with code today.Lilia of Sew Little Time (check out her gorgeous apron post--May 30) has tagged me with a meme!

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

Getting ready to direct my film school thesis project, a cheery post-apocalyptic jaunt. Location scouts included getting chased off quarries by men who probably had guns in their trucks (until we found the one magical friendly quarry!), going to NASA and touring their whatever-you-call-it fancy space gardening area, and having the most incredible sets built. The kewlest. Although in the end the whole experience didn't average out to "wonderful", I'm afraid.

2.) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Continue to read the ARC of BAD GIRLS; start reading FALLOUT and actually making notes this time; water plants and possibly go get more pots; finish organizing the kitchen; drop broken-again sewing machine off at sewing machine repair store (again!).

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Um, everything. Seriously. I'm like a raccoon or goat. But I do especially enjoy cookie dough right out of the package and Doritos. And cheese.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Probably start a school like Oprah's, only not just admit photogenic girls. Also, sponsor me up a bunch of Puppies Behind Bars. Pay off my house, buy the new McMansion down the street and demolish it immediately, situate my family happily, get that dent in the back of my car fixed... really, what couldn't you do with a billion dollars? I'd do everything.

5) Places I have lived:
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; Tallahassee, Florida; Van Nuys, California; Burbank, California; Studio City, California.

6) Jobs I have had:
"Sales associate" at Kay-Bee Toys, Abercrombie & Fitch (before they went all naked-catalog), and Learningsmith. Receptionist, assistant, development assistant, infomercial writer... good times!

7) 6 peeps I wanna know more about (and in no particular order):

1. Mary Witzl--just her answer to "where have you lived" will probably be a list pages long

2. Mary from Overnight at Thistletonthwaite Castle

3. Jay Montville

4. Jamie Ford (who can already find his book an Amazon! Jealousjealousjealous!)

5. I don't know if she does memes, but let's see if Little Willow from Bildungsroman happens across this (I know all these high-tech women check their links and stats... it's like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs!)

6. And Alex.

Tag!
I'm thinking about redesigning the website soon.


I wonder how these boxes affect the RSS feeds?

Mai lite bulbz! (also... Award Day!)

Okay, first of all, I didn't know those light bulbs were going to be mandatory in 2012! YUCK! I am a total lighting snob, and I can't stand the light from those CFE bulbs. Pleh!

Two of my blogbuddies have been kind enough to give me little awards this week, and I want to pass the love along...

From Maggie I received the "You Make My Day" award:



And Jemima Bean gave me the Excellent Blog award:



I have, in the past, singled out other bloggers I really enjoy, here and here, so be sure to check those out. Meanwhile, here are some other blogs I enjoy, five for each award (even though of course I could list dozens, but we'll save that for another post!):

Under the category of "You make my day"...

Amber is an old friend (by internet standards, at least!) who shares my interest in writing and has been head beta reader on some of my stuff, as well as providing valuable notes and insights. I love seeing that she's updated her blog, especially if there's a hilarious Peyton story.

Alex is an old friend by pretty much any standard! We went to high school and college together (oh, pardon me, he's Canadian now... "university"!). He is one of the funniest writers out there.

Not Martha is a blog that has all of these wonderful lists of links that are so appealing to me on some very primitive level. Seeing those lists makes me happy (okay, maybe I'm nuts, that's fine).

Jozet at Halushki is hilarious and always a good read.

Sarah Dessen is an author of young-adult books who is also a new mom and a very engaging blogger. A couple of months ago, I read one of her books and it turned me into a teenager again, in that I took it to work one day and literally would sneak reads of it while holding it below my desk over the course of the day. If any of my co-workers are reading this (you sneaks!), don't tell on me.


Under "E" for Excellent...

Bent Objects is simply amazing, and you must check it out, and I guarantee you will want to comb through the archives until you have seen every single image.

Sister Helena Burns is a nun (technically a "sister") who promotes media literacy, which means not censorship but informed discussion--not blinders but awareness and preparedness. Her reviews always make me want to go see whatever she's reviewing.

Nathan Bransford is an agent who gives lots of good, useful advice to aspiring authors. He responds to comments (if necessary) and manages to get his point across without being rude or uppity or any of those unpleasant adjectives. Until Agent M starts blogging, this is the only agent blog in my RSS feeds.

Tiny Choices is a household/green blog that I've been really enjoying lately, and besides, we use the same font in our blog titles so our blogs are clearly littermates or something.

Food Think With Wansink is the blog of the author of Mindless Eating, which I listened to on audiobook and was really fascinated by. The blog contains a lot of info from the book, which is wonderful. Although I'm failing on my mindless not-eating journey. But that's all on me, not the book.

Any of the recipients may feel free to pass the award along, if you are inclined. If not, fine! Let it die here! Kill the kindness! No, just kidding.

Thanks again to Jemima Bean and Maggie. I'm glad to know you've enjoyed the blog!

Tagged by Tom...

Tom has tagged me with a meme to blog about blogs I enjoy reading. To begin with, why don't you hop on over to see him? He posts very interesting things along with occasional links to quizzes that teach you strange things about yourself.

I'm going to change things up and spotlight one blog from each "category". (Yes, I have my RSS feeds all divided up into categories.)

From the category "Crafty"...
Laura of Sew at Sea has been cracking me up lately. I'd say the blog is part sewing, part hilarious self-deprecating humor. And dear Hans puts up with all of it.

From the category "Blogpeeps"...
Maggie of Maggsbunny has a lot going on right now, from being involved in medical trials (with good results, so far!) to getting her (dun dun DUN) driver's license. She lives in South Africa, so she may prefer the spelling "licence", but I'm not sure. I do know 100% that people in South Africa have to wear gravity shoes to keep from falling off the planet, seeing as how they're upside down and all. Maggie has yet to blog about her gravity shoes.

From the category "Pub"...
The Debutante Ball is a website for debut authors. That's where I met many of the wonderful women on my blogroll--women like Eileen Cook.

From the category "Writers"...
Therese of Making it up
I think I met Therese because Miss Snark linked to her at some point...? Anyway, her blog is always fun and interesting and full of great info for writers. Unlike my advice, which mostly concerns which color of shoes to wear so as not to clash with your MacBook Air, Therese dispenses useful and interesting advice about words and story.

So, there you go. TAG! Actually, I can't really tag a group blog like The Debutant Ball, but at least they'll feel the love.

In other news... If you're looking for spring (okay, late winter) reading material, might I suggest the debut novels of aforementioned authors Therese and Eileen... (These images conveniently link to Amazon.com for you.)

Tagged!

Tagged for a book meme by Tom... who hates and despises Atlas Shrugged, so shhhhh, don't tell him how much I love it.

1) Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?


Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. The few bad reviews I've read make it sound really precious, and I hate preciousness. I own it, so you'd think I'd get around to reading it at some point.



2) If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?


Let's see... for tea, Melanie Wilkes from Gone With the Wind... for a night out, well... Lee from East of Eden, because my nights out are more based around food and wine than nightclubs... and for a cruise around the world, Robert Neville from I Am Legend, because I think he would really enjoy it... provided the cruise is vampire-free.



3) (Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
I don't really finish books if I don't like them. Nothing springs to mind. I guess I'm going to have to live forever.



4) Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?


Counting all the ones I "read" in high school English? The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Grapes of Wrath (which I later went back and read)... I don't know that I've ever given the impression of having read something I hadn't read. I do condemn all of James Patterson's books on the basis that they're sloppily written and offensive to me, when really I just tried to read one and that was plenty.



5) You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (If you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead and personalise the VIP).


I would sit down Britney Spears with a copy of The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris. It might take her a while to get through it, but the poor dear could use a distraction.



6) A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?


I suppose Latin. It seems handy.




7) A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?


I totally do this already and the book is Pride and Prejudice.




8) I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)? 


Before early 2007, I'd given up on reading current fiction. I read a few old favorites and a lot of dog psychology. When I started blogging, I started buying and reading a lot more current stuff, much to my own delight.



9) That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leather bound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.
In keeping with the idea of "less is more", my ideal library is a couple of shelves full of my favorite books, and a Kindle packed full of everything else.

* * * *

I tag Mary, Alex, Christy, and Amber.

Eight things

I've been tagged by Julia for a meme, which is very exciting because I think I've only ever been tagged once, and that was on my writing blog, and that was many moons ago.

Without further ado, here are eight things you probably don't know about me:

1. I live across the street from a known author and three houses down from a musician who had some hits in the early 90s.

2. I was a cat person from age zero to age 27, when I started working on dog shows. Now I'm a dog person, which is cool because when I left for college I lost all of my immunities and became deathly allergic to cats.

3. I love nuns, everything about them.

4. I am one of the very few Southern Californians who actually DOES have earthquake supplies stocked in my house (and car!).

5. I had an article published in Sassy magazine when I was 15. (It was their reader-produced issue. They chopped my poor article to bits and said I was from St. Petersburg, FL, which was not accurate.)

6. I met Gene Simmons when I was a receptionist... when I didn't recognize him, he pulled a "Kiss" credit card out of his wallet and said, "This guy." He was a jerk to me and to the assistants of the people he was there to meet with.

7. My (maiden) name appears in a Fantastic Four comic book, as a reporter.

8. I used to write infomercials... except one of the infomercials I wrote ended up being an undercover Dateline expose of the infomercial industry.

I would tag eight people, but I don't think I know eight people who read this blog, sadly. So I'll tag anyone who reads this and comments!

In sewing news, I have the following projects to report on: sushi dress, bird quilt, green daisy housedress (which has a review up at Pattern Review), and, very soon, a Built By Wendy dress from the Simplicity line. This last one is highly customized because I forgot (!!!!) to put the zipper in.

Happy crafting! Thanks to Julia for the tag, I feel so special.

Eight things...

I've been tagged by Julia for a meme, which is very exciting because I think I've only ever been tagged once, and that was on my writing blog, and that was many moons ago.

Without further ado, here are eight things you probably don't know about me:

1. I live across the street from a known author and three houses down from a musician who had some hits in the early 90s.

2. I was a cat person from age zero to age 27, when I started working on dog shows. Now I'm a dog person, which is cool because when I left for college I lost all of my immunities and became deathly allergic to cats.

3. I love nuns, everything about them.

4. I am one of the very few Southern Californians who actually DOES have earthquake supplies stocked in my house (and car!).

5. I had an article published in Sassy magazine when I was 15. (It was their reader-produced issue. They chopped my poor article to bits and said I was from St. Petersburg, FL, which was not accurate.)

6. I met Gene Simmons when I was a receptionist... when I didn't recognize him, he pulled a "Kiss" credit card out of his wallet and said, "This guy." He was a jerk to me and to the assistants of the people he was there to meet with.

7. My (maiden) name appears in a Fantastic Four comic book, as a reporter.

8. I used to write infomercials... except one of the infomercials I wrote ended up being an undercover Dateline expose of the infomercial industry.

I would tag eight people, but I don't think I know eight people who read this blog, sadly. So I'll tag anyone who reads this and comments!

In sewing news, I have the following projects to report on: sushi dress, bird quilt, green daisy housedress (which has a review up at Pattern Review), and, very soon, a Built By Wendy dress from the Simplicity line. This last one is highly customized because I forgot (!!!!) to put the zipper in.

Happy crafting! Thanks to Julia for the tag, I feel so special.

Cover-centric

• I posted a link to the voting back in early May... check out the results of the Cover Cafe 2006 contest here!


• Agent Nathan Bransford discussed covers yesterday here.


• If you've never looked at the Book Design Review, I highly recommend it.

...I would ask what your favorite book covers are, but I don't want to steal from Nathan. Instead, I'm going to start a universal meme, tagging all of you...

What's your favorite poem?

Post it in your blog and comment here so I can find it! Here's mine, by Lewis Carroll.

"A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky"

A boat beneath a sunny sky,
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July -

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear -

Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die:
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream -
Lingering in the golden gleam -
Life, what is it but a dream?

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (a little early)

Notice to house finches: if you spent as much energy protecting your young as you do protecting your birdseed, that scrub jay would not have had a snowball's chance of carting off your nestlings. Also, can we hold the yelling until after, say, 6:30 am? The enormous terrifying monsters who actually fill up your feeder want to get some beauty sleep.

Notice to bobcat: please do not sit crouched in our trees. You are scaring the squirrels, and I also suspect that it was you who provoked the skunk in the middle of the night, right outside the bedroom, thereby trapping skunk scent in the house for days. The squirrels were here first. Bobcats go home!!

Robin Brande tagged me with a meme regarding personal & professional goals for the coming season. It's supposed to be 10-15, but I don't know if I can find that many. Here's a try:

1. (personal) Finish the baby quilt on or around the date of the baby's birth. This should be rather doable because I spent hours last night cutting, so I am almost at the piecing stage. (To clarify, this is not MY baby that I'm talking about... my baby has four furry legs and is currently sprawled out on the living room floor.)

2. (personal) Continue trying to eat better.

3. (personal) Lose ten pounds (at least!).

4. (professional) Get some non-ugly author photos taken, preferably after having lost ten pounds.

5. (professional) Start working in earnest on my next project.

6. (professional) Start working on side projects for THE GIRL LEAST LIKELY (super secret fun projects, cannot disclose).

7. (personal) Make a dent in the to-be-read shelves.

8. (personal) Make it to the Hollywood Bowl more than often than in years past.

9. (personal) Finish footie-throw quilt (this is a quilt with a pocket at the bottom to put your feet in while you watch TV on the cold leather couch).

10. (personal/professional) Start working more in downstairs office instead of upstairs office.

11. (professional) Refine website further.

12. (personal) Get in some good hammock-napping.

Hmm... the rest of the things I can think of are more like to-do list items. Things like this include writing birthday thank-you notes, which are overdue; picking up my copy of Tish Cohen's TOWN HOUSE from Bookstar; and calling the pool guy to talk about dismantling the old hot tub and carting it out of our lives forever.

I am a huuuuuuuge procrastinator. I suppose I work better with deadlines, because otherwise I tend to take my time, even in my leisure activities. Like, instead of writing, I'll sew, but first, instead of sewing, I'll waste a couple of hours doing something even less productive.

I tag...

Therese Fowler
Mary Witzl
Christy

Happy Sunday!

100 Books

I stole this list from Therese. Feel free to steal it from me!

How Many Have You Read? Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you’ve read. Italicize the ones you want to read. Leave same the ones that you aren’t interested in.

(Katie interrupts the meme: as you can see, I own a lot of books I haven't read. As for what I want to read, I confined that to books I've heard of and want to read. The ones I haven't heard of I left blank.)

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) -- No, but I own it
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien) -- No, but I own it
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien) -- No, but I own it
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) -- No, but I own it
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) -- No, but I own it
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) -- No, but I own it
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) -- No, but I own it
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving) -- No, but I own it
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd) -- No, but I own it
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) -- No, but I own it
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch) -- No, but I own it
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Forgot one.

The granddaddy of all my confessions:

- Night two of the National Championship (dog show), Best In Show night, I always wear my cat socks.

Awful Truths

All right, Maia tagged me with this meme where I have to disclose a bunch of horrible things about myself. I was fairly certain I didn't keep much of it under wraps, but I'll see what I can dredge up.

- I occasionally Google designer dogs and click on the sleazy breeders' ads so they have to pay

- I've owed the library $11 for about four years

- I adore the movie "For Richer or Poorer" with Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley

- Once I took Nyquil so Chris couldn't make me watch another episode of "24" on DVD (he knew, and I was sick, I just could have waited)

- I think a lot of people who spout off against purebred dogs are ignorant and short sighted, and I can explain why at a later date if anyone cares

- Politically, I describe myself as conservative (you can think of me as a Libertarian, if it helps)

- I love McDonalds SO much

- Before my book sold, I would read books and be like, "My book is way better than this."

- I had a dream once where I killed someone with whom I was having conflict, and in my dream I was only sorry I might get caught, not sorry I'd killed the guy

- I'm starting to think there's actually no hope for humanity

(Oh, I have to tag people. I tag Amber (I insist that you disclose the screensaver thing) and Chelsea.)