Nuts and Misfits

Nutschell (of "The Writing Nut") is hosting me on her blog today. YaY!

She’s interviewing me about writing spaces and writing. I don’t know if you’ll learn anything, but there are pictures!

If you comment on Nutschell's BLOG

you can win this ebook:

It’s available at Smashwords

And Amazon

Description

It isn’t easy being the last remaining person at the dinner table or being forced to square dance with a group of sweaty seventh graders in a school cafeteria. But in My Life as a Misfit, Susan Oloier recounts growing up in the 1980s from a humorous and less-than-popular perspective with such stories as Do-Si-Don’t, Riding a Permanent Wave, Baseball, and The Food Critic.

The description makes me laugh. Since I was a teen in the 1980s, I know I’ll relate to this memoir. I’ve downloaded it, but haven’t read it yet.

After you visit and comment on Nutschell’s blog, feel free to visit Susan Oloier’s BLOG

It's not required to share this post about the guest post

and contest, but it would be appreciated.

Winner will be chosen 03/19.

Lunch Lesson

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle."

- Plato- Plato

While walking around the cafeteria during my Wednesday lunch duty, I saw a fifth grade boy with pale skin, shaggy, neat brown hair and an earnest face sitting alone without lunch. Most students were either on line buying or eating food from home.

I asked, “Are you buying lunch today?”

His eyes filled with tears, as he shook his head no.

“You know, they have free lunches for kids who forget to pack. Would you like to get one?”

I could see he was fighting not to cry. Waiting for him to compose himself, I kneeled next to his seat.

Eventually he said, “I can’t. I have allergies.”

He pulled out a folded, wrinkled, laminated paper. I scanned the extensive typed list of banned foods. No peanuts (free PBJ out). He couldn’t even have the hummus alternative.

“I can see that.” Can you have fruit?” He nodded. “Follow me. We’ll get you fruit.”

We cut the line. I handed him an orange. Then I tried to give him an apple. “I’m allergic to apples,” he said.

I put the apple into the basket.

We returned to his table where he began peeling the orange.

“I’ll be right back.”

I found the assistant principal a few rows over. I explained the boy’s situation. She said she’d take him to the nurse to figure out an alternative. Then she spoke with him for a few minutes and they both left the cafeteria.

A while later, the boy returned with a plastic container of romaine lettuce. No croutons, no carrots, no salad dressing. Safe for him. He ate that and the orange, and then joined his friends for recess.

I learned an important lesson.

Pay attention to EVERYONE. Don’t just notice the ones who make noise. You never know when someone might need you.

I knew this already. It’s what drives me as a teacher. I want to connect with everyone—the pains in the butt, the ones who always do the right thing, and the ones you really need to pay attention to or you’ll forget they’re there.

But in a cafeteria with hundreds of students, this is harder.

Later, in the hallway, when I passed his class in a line, the boy went out of his way to say hi to me.

I hope he learned a lesson too.

Don’t stay silent. There are people who care all around you. Reach out and someone will help you.

...And don’t forget your lunch.

Rise of the Novelette

Rachel Morgan is taking over my blog today. I'm a big fan of Rachel because she's brunette and so is her protagonist. I'm a little sick of all the eyes in blues, greens, ambers, and even blacks. I'll forgive Rachel for using purple instead of brown since it's my favorite color. Gorgeous cover (below), right?

Before self publishing took off, there was really no place for the novelette--too small for publishers to publish as a stand alone novel; too long to be included in an anthology. But now authors and some indie publishers are making their novelettes available. I'll let Rachel tell you about hers:

Today the Creepy Hollow series kicks off with the release of the first story, GUARDIAN!!

GUARDIAN introduces readers to the magical world of Creepy Hollow, a realm where fae creatures — both safe and definitely-not-so-safe — dwell. Things are cool as long the fae stick to their own realm. It's when they find their way into the human world that things start going wrong...

1. Receive assignment.

2. Save a life.

3. Sleep.

4. Repeat.

Protecting humans from dangerous magical creatures is all in a day’s work for a faerie training to be a guardian. Seventeen-year-old Violet Fairdale knows this better than anyone—she’s about to become the best guardian the Guild has seen in years. That is, until one of her assignments—a human boy who shouldn’t even be able to see her—follows her into the fae realm. Now she’s broken Guild Law, a crime that could lead to her expulsion.

The last thing Vi wants to do is spend any more time with the boy who got her into this mess, but the Guild requires that she return Nate to his home and make him forget everything he’s discovered of the fae realm. Easy, right? But Nate and Vi are about to land themselves in even bigger trouble—and it’ll take all Vi’s training to get them out alive.

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007FRJGXI

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007FRJGXI

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/137697

The Creepy Hollow Series

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Book Trailer

Author Info

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Google+

To find out more about the series, the author, and the characters, check out the blog tour that’s happening over the next two weeks.

Click here for the blog tour schedule

Friends, ABNA, and Dreams

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

- Mark Twain

~ Mark I find myself using the terms, “blogging friends” and “writer friends” and “Facebook friends” to qualify my friendships. There are also “teacher friends” and “childhood friends” and “Cambridge friends” and “New York friends” and “friends through my husband”.

Do you categorize friendships too?

There’s nothing that really diminishes these friendships by qualifying them. I’m being more specific. Some of these categories overlap. And sometimes, I meet someone through blogging, Facebook, or a conference and find over time that the friendship deepens. We e-mail and maybe even call one another. We check in to see how the other is doing. There’s something special about my friends who are also writers because only writers understand writing woes. And the writer friends whom I also share non-writing issues are even more important to me.

Conferences, Blogging, and Facebook have enriched my life. Without these opportunities to meet other writers, I’d be lonelier and have had fewer opportunities to hone my craft.

I want to say thank you to all my writer friends.

In addition, I want to congratulate my writer friends who have made it to the 2^nd round of ABNA (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award) Contest with me last week. The 10k submissions were whittled down to 2k. (As you can see below, I’m in good company.)

Samantha Verant (Especially because she helped me with my pitch. Thank you!)

Judy Mintz (She also helped me with my pitch. Thank you!)

Jessica Bell

PK Hrezo

Hart Johnson

Roland Yeomans

Tamara Hart Heiner

Charity Bradford

If I forgot you, please let me know in the comments of via e-mail and I’ll add you (and apologize profusely)!

The complete YA and General Fiction list is HERE!

I didn’t make it to the 3^rd round for The Mist Chasers last year, but the critique I received by making it to the second round helped me recognize problems with my excerpt. Even if I don’t make to the 3^rd round with Naked Eye, I’ll appreciate the feedback. The list of 2k will be slashed to 500 quarter-finalists.

I wish all the writer friends who made it to Round 2 good luck in Round 3!

Dream with me.

Love, Theresa xo

Stalking, Reading, Writing

Inspired?

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing”.

- Benjamin Franklin

Recently, I was out having lunch with my husband. A young woman stood up wearing a micro-mini. The man with a gray sweatshirt stood next to her. I watched them leave. Mere seconds had elapsed.

My husband said, “What are you looking at?”

I said, “First I noticed the woman’s skirt is really short and thought she’d be cold. Then I noticed the guy she was with is good looking. I wondered if they were a couple. If they were a couple, I wondered what stage they were in their relationship. Did they sleep together last night? Had they just started dating? Were they engaged? Would they get married, have kids someday? Or would they wind up with other people?”

“All of that?” he asked, incredulous. “I don’t believe you.”

I swore it was the truth.

He said, “I just noticed she had a short skirt.”

A couple of more times, my husband brought it up to make fun of me. Then he said, “I guess that’s why you’re are writer.”

I’m much more of a writer than a reader these days, but I’m still reading. Throughout 2011, I updated a January 2011 post to list all the books I read last year. I decided to do the same on this post for 2012.

Books read in 2012 (as of 03/14/12):

1. Open Minds, Susan Kaye Quinn

2. Foiled, Jane Yolen

3. The Secret of Spruce Knoll, Heather McCorkle

4. The Sign of the Beaver, Elizabeth George Speare

5. The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart

6. A Scary Scene in a Scary Movie, Matt Blackstone

7. Locomotion, Jacqueline Woodson

8. American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang

9. Where I Live, Eileen Spinelli

10. Peace, Locomotion, Jacqueline Woodson

11. Love that Dog, Sharon Creech

12. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman

13. The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett

I’ve been on a writing streak. I wrote and submitted a 9k short story for an anthology inspired by the beautiful picture above from JT Taylor Publishing. I leapt out of my genre to write something for it. (There’s still time if you’re inspired too.)

My most recent manuscript is increasing word count almost daily. Since 01/12 when Write On to Build On, I’ve only owed $3 to the Build On charity.

So, I’m writing. And I’m looking at couples and wondering what they’re doing. I’m pretty sure this proves I’m a stalker creepy chick writer.

"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking."
— Albert Einstein

How’s your writing these days?

Finding any inspiration in pictures or random couples?

Real Stories

Ladies, here’s a WRITING OPPORTUNITY!

LET'S GET WRITING!

You may write YOUR STORY as a mini-biography, a snapshot or a vignette. You can write about your adventure, misadventure, your life as a wife, a mother, a sister, a girlfriend, a daughter, a student, and so on. You can write about a single defining moment in your life!

Sometime ago, when you were looking for a job and couldn't seem to find one, do you remember what it felt like? What were the challenges you faced? What were the lessons you learned from the experience?

When you became a mom and you looked at the face of innocence, of someone so fragile in front of you...were you scared?

Sometime in your life, you fell in love...and then what happened?

You have an ocean of stories inside of you. You only have to pick one! Let's get your story written down! What you may consider as a humdrum, boring life may not be just fascinating but inspiring for others.

Please email your final draft to realwomen_stories@yahoo.co.uk on or before 29 February 2012. (If you don’t have the story completed by the deadline just contact them and let them know you’re working on it.)

I’m going to have a story included. Here’s a list of CURRENT CONTRIBUTORS.

Hope you’ll join us. Good luck!

In other news, I have a guest post up at Lynn Kelley’s BLOG.

Find out what a gullible kid I was and what I looked like with big curly hair. Old Kitty

shares a story on the post too.

Tumbling

This is the poster that started it all…

“Burning the ground I break from the crowd

I’m on the hunt I’m after you.”

- Heneker, David William; Taylor, John. Song: Hungry like the Wolf, Duran Duran

Duran Duran broke my arm.

Let me explain.

Nicki Elson and friends are hosting the I'll Tumble 4 Ya BlogFest

Here’s the deal:

“Post a picture, video, or whatever of the celebrity you most tumbled for in the 80s. We'd also love to know just what it was that made ya tumble 4 them.”

I took the challenge literally.

Here’s how it began: I discovered Duran Duran when I was thirteen when I saw a poster of the band in Modell’s. Yes, I saw them before I heard them. My two best friends and me memorized lyrics, watched their videos until our eyes teared, and chose favorites band mates. I waffled between John Taylor and Simon LeBon.

Good video. It was filmed in Sri Lanka.

When I was fourteen I saw them in concert TWICE: once at Madison Square Garden (okay seats) and once at Nassau Coliseum in the THIRD row, center stage. (You’re jealous, aren’t you?) I was crushing on John Taylor then.

Which mullet is your favorite?

Here’s where Duran Duran breaks my arm: One of my best friends was a cheerleader. I didn’t hold it against her. She wanted me to try out for the cheerleading squad. The feminist in me wasn’t thrilled that cheerleaders tumbled and chanted on the sidelines while the boys played the game. I was even less thrilled that the cheerleaders periodically baked brownies for the players. In addition, I had never taken a dance class and was uncoordinated, so this seemed like a ludicrous idea. This didn’t stop her from teaching me the moves.

Monday was tryouts. The Sunday before, I was moving my posters around.

I was so lame, not only did I plaster my walls with their photos,

I decorated them for Christmas, AND took a picture.

I had a narrow, four-drawer, wooden cabinet that I kept papers in. I used a chair to get to the top of it so I could reach the posters near the ceiling. Said cabinet wobbled. It swayed. It went backwards. So did I. I used my left wrist to break my fall. (Did I mention I’m left handed?) Pain shot up my arm.

My sister was vacuuming in another room, so it took a while before anyone heard my cries. By the end of the day, I was a proud owner of a new cast and would spend the next six weeks having my books carried and asking people to take notes for me.

Needless to say, I did not try out for cheerleading.

While I was never one of those girls who fainted at the sight of John Taylor or Simon LeBon, I had it pretty bad. My post is proof I tumbed for Duran Duran Literally and Figuratively.

Check out the other posts HERE

I bet they’re less lame than mine.