Melonade

This week mental_floss has got a guest blogger- a grammarian! She's written some really nice refresher pieces on grammar and punctuation, and an interesting etymology piece. Tomorrow she's answering reader questions. Check it out. Your commas will thank you.

By the way, June is shaping up to be a lovely music month. Well, late June, that is, as both Great Big Sea and KC Clifford are delivering new music to their fans and soon-to-be fans. Let the countdown and change collection begin!

Another week, and I'm looking back thinking, "Where did it go?"

I got some work done on the book, but not enough. Last night we had yet another tornado scare, and I had to rush home from the grocery store to make sure my sister had stopped panicking. And it's hard to concentrate when you know the weatherman could tell you to seek shelter at any moment. Hopefully tornado season will be over soon.

I've gone back to editing a hard copy rather than directly on the computer. For now, I think it's best. I'm working on the first 12 chapters, and I've posted the first 8 on Urbis to get some stranger feedback. This is where the frustration kicks in.

Urbis is a great writing community site. If you're a writer and you want to get useful criticism on your work, I recommend it. The only problem is that you have to wade through some of the less-than-helpful reviews to get to the good stuff. Lately I've been longing for some specific criticism, and I get fluff that doesn't help at all.

Am I going to stop using Urbis? Certainly not. Several of my submissions are the top-rated in the YA category, and I intend to add to that list. If nothing else, there is the thrill of seeing that someone new has read my work, and the tension of wondering whether they will like it or not.

All week I've been trying to get back to editing the book, and all week I've been failing big time. It's not a lack of desire. I've got that in abundance. But when I open up Copywrite, I just end up staring at the words and wondering where I was and how I get back there. So I printed the twelve-ish chapters I had seriously manipulated in the last 3 months and started reading them again. I didn't know what to expect, but it was a decent way to start.

Today I had lunch at a little mafia-themed pizzeria in Edmond. Armed with a slice of pepperoni, I disobeyed the direct order on the pizza rules list and ate most of it with my fork while I finished reading and marking up chapter one.

I felt good about my accomplishments, strangely enough. I didn't take much out, but I added a few bits, and none of it felt like fluff. I'm going to see if I can copy that success in a few more chapters this weekend. Wish me luck.

Well I should really be writing or reading or something non-laptop related, but I wanted to stop by the blog before I pry myself away from the keyboard.

The truth is, this blog is boring.

There are a number of reasons.

1) I am a boring person. Ask anyone who knows me in real life.
2) When I think "Internet time!" I rarely think "Blog time!" Sorry, but it's true. What else is occupying my attention? Oh, just this and this and this.
3) The readership of this blog is slim. I know it was bigger back in its heyday, but that was about 2 years ago(!) and it's my own fault for neglecting it.
4) My next door neighbors are smoking, Nickleback-lovin' boys who play their music at teeth-rattling levels and fill our apartment with the stench of their nicotene habit.
5) #4 doesn't have anything to do with the blog, but it's taking up a lot of my thought space. (Here it comes again. I'm going to have to close the window...Somebody get me a candle!)

So I've been thinking, maybe it's time to shake things up. Maybe even (gasp) move the blog elsewhere. Meet new bloggers. Waste my time on other sites. Blogger, you've been good to me, but maybe we need to see other people...

No firm plans yet. If I load up the posts and move somewhere else, I'll let you know.

Goodnight, and don't pollute your neighbors' air!

Confession: I usually start the day by inking in a few answers to a crossword puzzle. I find it helps my brain get from that groggy dreamworld to the real one where I need to operate a moving vehicle and talk to people in complete sentences. Various puzzle books are scattered around my house, car, and purse. I like doing them while waiting in the drive-through line or in the theater before a movie starts. Wednesdays mean a new NY Times crossword in the OK Gazette; they're by far the most difficult, and also the most rewarding puzzles to complete.

I just stumbled across this little tidbit of crossword history on Neatorama. Click and learn.