20 random thoughts

Random thoughts. I'm reliving conversations from last night, pondering things I've
seen browsing on Twitter and Tumblr this morning, thinking about the weekend. Granted, some of them you won't understand, just my personal inside musings.

1. I'm starting resolutions before next year. I'm joining a gym Monday. I really need to make these changes.
2. There had to be a taser, a billy club...some other option. 
3. Richard Sherman is funny and a class act. People don't like him because he's the best and he's loud. Well, people outside Washington. And maybe Oregon and Idaho. Maybe Montana.
4. I'm all about women's rights, but I don't think we need to trash men to get them. We're trying to be equal, right, not superior?
5. People that go shopping today are CRAY!
6.  Some of these people on the Tumblr, I really don't want to see their shit.
7. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed Facebook until I left it.
8. Peeta and RePeeta were in a boat...
9. Speaking of...someone told me he thought Mockingjay was boring. I asked where they left off and he said basically they just got Peeta back (who up to this point he thought was named Peter hahaha). And I was like O.o I could see that being boring because NOTHING REALLY HAPPENS until then.
10. I need to remind my daughter for the millionth time that I am a POOR SINGLE MOM WHO CAN NOT AFFORD TO FEED ALL HER FRIENDS!
11. I need to buy more Christmas lights.
12. I hope the tattoo artist can get my design right.
13. I can't wait to get on the road and get the fuck out of here.
14. My dreams need to stop toying with me. It's hard to dream about someone you love then wake up realizing they're not a part of your life anymore.
15. Always ask someone if they want some pie before you eat the whole thing. Even if you were told to take it home and eat the whole thing.
16. Do I really need to Tumblr when I Blogger?
17. THERE IS ONLY ONE FUCKING PIE AND IT'S BANANA CREAM!
18. NaNoWriMo - okay, so I may not finish, but I got a lot accomplished, which is more than I can say for the last two years.
19. There are 4 kinds of people in your life:
1. the ones who give, never expecting anything in return
2. the ones in which you have a give and take relationship and that's okay
3. the ones that take and never give
4. and the ones you just want to punch in the face
20. My dad is awesome.

Bad case of the "justs"

As I was editing Dissected for the LAST time, I found an abundance of "justs." Mind you, I've editing this thing I don't know how many damn times, yet still, "justs" abound. I wonder why that is. Do people say "just" all that much? Do they think "just"? I use it in dialogue as well as internalizations.

And while we're on the subject of overused words, how about the "wells." This I use in dialogue and it starts just about every other sentence. "Well, he did this..." "Well, she said that..." WTF?

"Find---Next" became my favorite Word tool.

I cannot sing the praises of Autocrit.com enough. I think EVERY writer who is going to publish, whether traditionally or indie should utilize this program. It definitely tightens up your prose and makes for a smoother read.

Do you have words you use over and over again? What are they?

And here's a monkey since I forgot yesterday...

Monkey Madness Monday: And the winner is...me!

 That may be a little over dramatic, but it's kind of how I feel after watching with pride as all my writing friend's amazing novels have been nominated for all sorts of literary awards, and finally, I get my first nomination.

Never Eighteen has been nominated for a Charlotte. The New York City Reading Association's Charlotte Award is named for the title character in Charlotte's Web. The purpose is to encourage students to read outstanding literature and become lifelong readers and also recognize authors and illustrators of such literature. 

They just called Never Eighteen outstanding literature.  *giggles like little girl*

I'm excited about the nomination, but you know, the competition is stiff, so um, I'm excited about the nomination. hahaha. This is who I'm up against:

Mike Mullin, Ashfall
Gail Jarrow, The Amazing Harry Kellar
 Marissa Meyer, Cinder
Susan Vaught, Freaks Like Us
Jim Murphy, The Giant and How He Humbugged America
Laurence Pringle, The Amazing History of the Ice Business
Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children
Leslea Newman, October Mourning
Joseph Bruchac, Wolf Mark  

Winners won't be chosen until April of next year, so I have a long time to enjoy my nomination.   

Monkey Madness Monday: I'm back! and other crap

Okay, after some advisement, I'm back at blogger. We'll see if the spammers stay away.

I just got back from vacation, and on the way home I finished my revisions of Dissected. Yay me!

Now I send it to an editor for copy edits and other ideas.

Next step, fixing those mistakes and moving to formatting. I think this book is still on track to come out in early summer.

Also, my Indiegogo campaign is still running. There are 15 days left and my goal is another $170. If you'd like to contribute and help me get this book on the shelf asap, you can follow the widget to the right. If you donate, you get perks, such as a signed book and swag. Or you can follow the link if you just want to see what the book is about, watch the trailer, or see where the money is going.


I've not pushed the campaign too hard, but now that it's coming to a close and I'm very close to my goal, I may become annoying (as if I wasn't in other ways already).

Happy Monday all. Good to be back at blogger.

Dissected Trailer & Fundraising Campaign

First of all, let me give you the cute Monday Monkey.

Now, I'm very excited to announce that I finished the book trailer for Dissected. So, without further ado, here it is. Let me know what you think.

 

Okay, I think I've already mentioned this, but I've started an Indiegogo page to raise some funds to publish Dissected. I'm really not asking for much, just enough to get me started. Find the campaign here. You'll get "perks" for donating, such as SWAG packs and signed books. So you don't get a double dose if info, I'll let you go to the page to see the why's of going indie and the summary of Dissected.

If you can't contribute, it would be awesome if you'd just share the link.

Have a happy Monday. Mine's been pretty shitty so far, but it's looking up.

Formatting and other tragedies

First I'll give you a monkey, because there was no monkey in my blog yesterday.

There's a lot to do when you decide to become an indie publisher. Formatting is one of them. It's really not THAT difficult. Createspace has pretty clear instructions on how to do it. But unfortunately, I apparently was not indenting my manuscript correctly and that made it a little bit of a bitch. Luckily I have some Facebook friends that are Word masters and they helped me through my idiotic mistake and now I'm cruising along, in fact, I'm pretty much done with the formatting part.

Next step is more editing. I have some betas reading it as we speak. One is already finished with it. He read it in a day. Good sign. I'm hoping the others will have it done in two weeks time. I'm hoping for an April release.

After that, I have a friend who is a great editor who is going to go through a all in one editing process for me. She's going to go through my formatting, do line editing and copy editing.

Then I had an offer from someone to help me with formatting, so I hope she'll also take a look at my formatting, just to have one more set of eyes look at it.

Then the hopefully last round of edits, formatting fixes and voila, finishing up the other details and I have a book out.

If you're thinking about self publishing, my friend Karla Brady has a great blog that lays out the process for you step by step. Check it out here.

That is all. Have a great Tuesday!

Monkey Madness Tuesday: Dear, Spammer

You get the monkeys today because I didn't feel like blogging yesterday, I felt like I had nothing to say. Today I do. I'm feeling some angst. So here I am. 

First of all, to the spammers who keep commenting here on my blog anonymously, go away. Get a life. Don't come back. No one is going to read your comment and follow your link. Are you stupid or something?

Secondly, I'm frustrated about my writing career. I have no idea which direction to go. I have about five projects going. I can't seem to focus. Meanwhile, I've got things tied up with editor and contest. I feel like a chicken with my head cut off.

Thirdly, I have another frustrating ongoing thing I can't really talk about but I'm so tired of dealing with I want to rip my hair out and I really don't understand it, it seems so stupid.

I have to say this. Thank god for kickboxing and xanax.

Image courtesy of samurai/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Monkey Madness Monday: Writing in Scenes

 Do you ever write in scenes? I've only done it once before, of course, I never finished that book.

I find that with this fantasy book I'm writing, I'm going to have to. Because it spans centuries, I'm having a difficult time transitioning from one section to another.

I'd love to know your thoughts on this and how it has worked for you.

Happy Monday ya'll.

RAVENS!!! Yeah baby!

Photo credit: deVos / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Monday Monkey Madness: Helping Out Your Favorite Writers

Photo by Michael Elliott

There are many ways in which you can help your favorite writers get their books the attention they deserve. This is especially helpful to those authors who don't have the big blockbuster series that have major backing from their publishers.

Two ways are through Amazon.com: reviewing and tagging. 

If a book gets a certain amount of reviews, Amazon will give it better visibility on their site which will result in better sales.

You could also tag the book. This is close to the bottom of the product page, labeled under 'Tags Customers Associate With This Product'. You can agree with tags already in place or add your own. You're allowed up to 15 tags. This will also give the book better visibility.

So, if there is a small quiet book, *cough* Never Eighteen *cough* that you really enjoyed, consider doing this to help the author get the word out about the book.

Have a great Monday.

Insanely Yours,

Megan   

Um, little behind on posting this week.

Okay, here. Here's a cute monkey. There. That makes up for Monday.

Let's see, yesterday I was going to write about playlists for books. Songs usually pop into my head when I'm writing. As I've been writing Dissection (formerly Sliced, which was formerly Sad) I've had a few songs come into my mind. The first was Hurt. Now, I'm hedging toward the Nine Inch Nails version, but one cannot discount the oh so awesome Johnny Cash version either.

The other song I have so far is Lights by Ellie Goulding, about depression and about how the lights are calling her back home. Likey.

Also kind of thinking Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotya. Not sold yet.

That brings us to Wednesday. I stupidly started another book, well, a series to be exact. I say stupidly because I still have to finish my revisions on Dissection, which have been like pulling the teeth from a lion. And I gave myself a deadline of *cough* the end of this month to finish. Um, that gives me four days to get through 160 pages. sigh. I'm not going to say I'm not going to do it. I'm really going to try like hell.

But I am really excited about this series. I kind of took a book I'd already written and twisted it all up, and then through in this storyline about the integration of church and state along with a dystopian setting and BAM! Book series. not going to say any more than that for now, or give away the name. Maybe when I get further along I'll share some of the writing. :D

Happy Hump Day ya'll!

Monkey Love: DWF seeks...

Yep, posting monkeys because I didn't have time to blog yesterday. But look how cute they are!!!

So, love, yes? No? Ugh.

I've been dating.

Um.

Some good, some bad.

I came to the realization that I don't know how to date. I'm a relationship person. I've always been a relationship person. I meet someone, we have a relationship, it ends.

So, now I'm doing this dating thing and I have no idea what I'm doing. I am learning what I want and don't want very quickly, however.

I did this awhile back, but here I go again:

DWF seeks...

• Guy that is funny. This is a must. Anything from dry sarcasm to pee-your-pants funny. If you're not funny, I'm not happy.
• A cute face to look at. I'm not real picky when it comes to looks, especially if the guy is personality plus, but I don't want to date Quazimodo either.
• Athletic to average body type. Again, I'm not too picky, but I know I don't want to date Jabba the Hut.
• Must not love dogs. Sorry, not a dog person. Aside from allergies, I just hate how they jump on me, and how they bark, and smell, and pretty much everything thing about them. *ducks rotten produce from dog lovers*
• I like to work out, but I'm not a die hard, and I don't want to date a die hard. I think I'd get tired just looking at him.
• Doing things in snow and water. Swimming and bathing are my limits. I don't ski, neither in snow or water, I don't snowboard, jet ski, yadda yadda yadda. I will sit in the boat and watch. I like boats. I will not do ANYTHING in the snow.
• Must not do drugs. Sorry. #totalwasteoftime
• Must like to have fun. I'm open to trying new things as long as they don't have to do with me being cold, bored, or scared for my life.
  
• Must either read books or be educated. I'm not really into conversations that start with, "Uh, what?"
• Must have job.
• Must have shelter. Preferably not with your parents.
• Must have car.

I know these last three seem like a given, especially for people my age, but yeah, no.

I suppose I'm done. I'm sure there's more, but I don't want to seem high maintenance. :)

So, happy Valentines Day to you all. I hope you have someone to share it with. If you don't, buy a gallon of Ben and Jerry's and watch chick flix all night. Yeah, you too guys.

Monkey Madness Monday: Goals, Obstacles, and My Addiction to Netflix

So, it's officially the commencement of 2012 (resolutions don't begin on the 1st, at least in my world), so thus begins the attempt to reach all my goals for the year. Today will actually be a little difficult because I'm going to be taking down the Christmas decorations and cleaning house, but I will fit in the elliptical, hopefully some writing and reading (there's a book I need to finish in the next couple days).

There are things I'll have to sacrifice to reach my goals for the year, and this is all part of my resolutions to balance my time. I need to cut back on the Netflix. This will be hard because I think it's actually become a crutch for me on the weeks my kids are at their dads.

When they're gone, I crawl into bed early with my Kindle and watch stuff, right now I'm watching Gray's Anatomy. I just need to shift gears. Instead of crawling into bed and watching Netflix, I need to be reading. OR, I need to not crawl in to bed and I need to be writing.

As you all know, if you've been reading me for awhile, I suffered from exhaustion the last few months of the year, so I'll have to fight this as well. It leaves me too tired to do much of anything except lay around and watch shows and movies. I'm going to kick exhaustion's ass this year to get my butt on the elliptical and get back to the things I love, reading and writing.

But I'll probably need to take baby steps.

Do you have any goals you want to reach this year? What are some obstacles you foresee that may keep you from those goals? How will you get past them.

TODAY IS MONKEY DAY!!

That means I get to post about monkeys twice this week.  I mean, this is a for real holiday (kind of).  The origins are sketchy.

Some day it started to further the awareness of simian species and habitats.  Someday it began as scientific backlash to the religious holidays permeating the month of December.  Others say it was the creation of a bunch of drunken fools who happened to love monkeys.

For me, it's just another way to express my  love for all things monkey.

You can buy Bad Monkey shirts here.

Here is my latest monkey purchase.  Happy Monkey Day all!!

Monkey Madness Monday: The Word is Love

Did you know Dec. 14 is Monkey Day?

So . . . love.  It's used to express a lot.  I love pizza, I love sock monkeys, I love writing, I love you.

Um, so when I tell someone I love them, I'm pretty much equating them to my collection of sock monkeys.

No.  Doesn't work for me anymore.  I don't love people the same way I love pizza, sock monkeys, and writing.

The truth? I don't like the word anymore.  It doesn't mean anything.  In fact, it feels fake when I say it, when speaking about or to someone dear to me.

The word is taken for granted, overused if you will.  It's become cliche.  I think we need a different word.  It seem like every other language has a different word for these different types of love.  I think the English language should too.

When I tell someone I love them, I want it to mean more than the superficial love we have for material objects or our favorite meal or destination.  It needs to be a word that transcends words.  You feelin' me?

What do you think?  Any ideas?

Monkey Madness Monday: Megan Messina Bostic is in a relationship with...

Too funny

Yep, I've been labeled.  I'm now someone's girlfriend.  This is a good thing.  We've been together for mmmm, at least a month now, known each other for four years (kind of.  too hard to explain at the moment), it's time to tell the world.

It's been a few months, having someone in my life that is.  This time it's different. Or maybe it's just because it's new.  Who knows?

I'm not used to having someone "do" for me.  I'm the one that is usually doing the "doing". (my god does that even make sense?)  That's not a bad thing either, I mean, in my marriage I was a stay at home mom, so I did for my kids and I did for my husband.  While former grew up and latter worked.

I've been on my own for over a year now, and I've grown accustomed to "doing" for myself be it housework, or putting things together or fixing shit.

My boyfriend (it almost says weird saying it or writing it for some reason) does for me.  It almost seems unreal.  He cooks for me (did I mention he's a chef? There goes my diet), he help me clean the kitchen, he put up my Christmas lights, changed light bulbs, wrapped my pipes.  In my moments of utter neuroticy (I made that word up), he calms me down and makes me take a moment to breathe.

So there it is.  Megan Messina Bostic is in a relationship (picture the Facebook red heart next to that statement).  So far, so good.

Oh, two more things.  Don't forget about my contest on Facebook.  You can win a bunch of Never Eighteen swag and a signed ARC.

Also, I cannot comment on blogs when the comment box is on the post page.  I can only comment if they load on pop outs or new pages.  Others may be having this problem too.  You may want to consider changing your settings on your comments if you're not getting comments.

Monkey Madness Monday

So, it's Monday once again.  Time to achieve some goals.  First, weight.  I actually only gained a pound over the weekend.  I'm shocked and amazed.  Still, I want to drop at least another fifteen before my launch.  I know it's doable, but I don't know if I can do it.  I have my weaknesses.  If I stay away from the appetizer tables at the Christmas parties, I should be all right.

Writing goals: finish the rewrite of my WIP, Sliced.  It's going slow, writing time has been short, but I'm just going to have to buckle down and do it.  Instead of watching Gray's Anatomy and playing Angry Birds I'm going to spend that time writing and reading.

Christmas:  all presents purchased by December 2nd.  That is my goal. I've already done pretty good, but I'm afraid some mall shopping will need to be done. Ugh.

Petty stuff, new boots, maybe an Amazon Kindle Fire (I've fought the ebook long enough), baking, reading, making Christmas cards.

You have any goals for the holiday season?

Monkey Madness Monday

I could not help but share this video for Money Madness Monday.  My friend Donna posted it to my Facebook last week and every time I watch it, I crack up.

Had a very busy weekend.  Lots of soccer.  Met my Harbingers of Doom for coffee at Elliott Bay Books.  Met my friend Jarucia for appetizers and drinks.

Other stuff happened, but I think that's better suited for a vlog.

Worked on my rewrite of Sliced.  The name is very apropos for what I'm doing to this novel.  I think I'm going to have to do another revision after the rewrite, I'm not sure how the flow is working with all the hacking I'm doing.  I think it will be an interesting novel when I'm finished though.

I'm still not able to comment on your blogs, so I'm sorry.  I'm reading them, I promise.

Happy Monday.

Monday Monkey Madness

Yeah, I know it's Tuesday, but I don't like blogging on Tuesdays and didn't have time to blog yesterday #wheredidmylifego.  So, it's Monkey Madness Monday today.

Got back from a soccer tourney on Sunday for Thing One's team (we bought her and her friend Thing One and Two footie pjs while we were there).  The team played hard.  Ref's lost one game for them.  They lost the other all on their own, and won one.  We had a good time, stopped through Leavenworth on the way home.  No, not the prison, the quaint German town in Washington.

Thing Two's team one 5-0.  Wish I could have transported and seen it.

Non sequitur:  The Class of 2k12 launches officially tomorrow.  We're having some great giveaways, a giving back program, and monthly contests.  Oh, yeah, and we have some rockin' teen fiction coming out next year.

Be sure to check us out on Twitter, Facebook,youtube, and on our website.  You can also sign up to receive the Class newsletter and keep up with all our releases and giveaways. (we promise, only once a month).


That's all from me.  Have a great Monday, I mean, Tuesday!

Monkey Madness Monday

Yep Monkey Madness Monday.  I don't have much for you today.  Had a busy weekend.  A long walk in the rain, two soccer games (one on an island so there were two ferry rides involved making it an all day event).  Not a good weekend for area sports.  Both girl's teams lost and my Hawks *shakes head*. 

Teachers are still on strike.  We're going to feel it at the end of the year.  Which as my older daughter says doesn't matter because the weather doesn't even get nice until July.

And I believe Fall is officially upon us, even though the temperature seems to be having hot flashes.  It was really humid here yesterday.  That mixed  with my own hot flashes doesn't bode well.

I didn't do my housecleaning like I wanted over the weekend.  Too much going on plus I've just been so tired.  And there's so much to do and the weather caught up with me.  A shed still needs to be built, a pool drained, There's a badminton set getting soaked and I'm afraid to move it because I'm sure there's a family of earwigs living under it now. sigh.

I need a vacation.  Maybe a weekend of solitude at the beach again.

Happy Monday all.

Monkey Madness Monday

It certainly feels like a Monday, that's for sure.  I slept like crap last night. Ugh. 

I need a vacation. Seriously.  I've been doing all this marketing work for the book  (discussion guides, postcards, bookmarks, etc, etc, etc, and the day job has been INSANE!!

But I have no vacation time until next month.  And even then, I probably need to save it because I have no idea what I'm going to need once this book comes out.

So, I have my first author gig this Friday.  A reading, Q&A with a few other writers, Danny Marks, a fellow 2k12er whose book, Velveteen releases next fall, Kim Derting, Gwen Hayes, and Tom Llewellyn.  It's a teen after hours party at the Dupont Library.  They only have 15 spots left, so if your 12-18 year old is interested in going, click here to register.

I'm completely nervous.  I have to pick an excerpt from my book to read, which I should have done ages ago yet didn't.  I need to pick one like tonight so I can practice. Ugh.

This will give me some good practice though because I have another event in October, Bookfest NW where I'm going to be on a panel with a few other 2k12ers and Apocalypsies.

Wish me luck and happy vibes that I don't throw up all over my audience.

Happy Monday.