Monday Morning Blahg

First off, I have a cover and I'm psyched.  Ready . . . wait for it . . . ta-da!!

Second of all it's Monday and like most Mondays, things have not gone according to plan.  So that's all I'm posting.

Going back to bed until tomorrow.

~Megan

F³A: Friday Already?!?!?

The title of this blog drips with sarcasm.  This week has seemed long.  Just getting back in to the swing of things after a week long illness and five day vacation.  It's been difficult.  I've had nightmares rivaling something from Elm Street, keeping me awake at night.  This of course has caused a week's worth of grumpity tiredness.  

Neighborhood cats are stalking me.

Birthday parties.

Did I mention work?

I can think of nothing but writing, feeling hot on my WIP Sad.  However, there are not enough hours in my  my day sometimes to squeeze it in between work, kids, grocery shopping, exercise (yes I have been, but had to take a couple days off because my butt and thighs staged a rebellion), cooking, driving, cleaning (okay, maybe not cleaning, please no surprise visits this weekend).  I have done some writing, I'm up to 4K on the novel.  Not much, but more than before.

Maybe this weekend between birthday parties and football I can get a good chunk of words out.  That's my goal at least.  I think I'll go for 3K.

I can't write anymore.  I keep getting distracted by the clock and Facebook and email.  Plus, I have to be at work soon and have yet to brush my teeth and put shoes on. (have I mentioned how much I hate wearing shoes?  And coats.  I hate coats and it's really effing cold here)

Book of the week: Tell Me a Secret by Holly Cupala.  Just started it yesterday.  Very good. And she's local and a Diva Girl (which one day I long to be)

Random song that pops up on my iPod:  Just Breathe by Pearl Jam.  Very apropos for me today.

Movie of the Week:  Inception.  Trippy cool.

Quote of the week: "I was so scared to give up depression, fearing that somehow the worst part of me was actually all of me. "
— Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation (this quote reminds me of an email I just sent this morning)

Have a great weekend my friends.

Peace out.

~Megan

(look I learned how to make a new monkey)

_________m___m__________

                  o(o o)o

                    ( ~ )

Thought Provoking Thursday: Music

A drawing I made of my muse a while back.

As writer, our muses come in so many forms sometimes they're hard to keep up with (except for those times they take the extended smoke break and you have to go outside and around the corner of the house with arms crossed over your chest, glare at them, and kick their ass back in the house so you can get some writing done)

I draw inspiration from many placed, nature, my own life experienced, and many times, my muse comes to me in the form of music.  When I wrote Never Eighteen, I was listening to a lot of indie (not when I wrote, I have to have complete silence when I write as my multi-tasking abilities suck when it comes to writing).  Iin fact, originally I had song lyrics at the beginning of each section of my novel.  Death Cab, Badly Drawn Boy, Tiger Army, The Airborne Toxic Event started the four sections of my book.  I also had more Death Cab lyrics in the novel, as well as the song Weighty Ghost by Wintersleep.  Unfortunately, unless you're Stephenie Meyer or have music connections, it's near impossible to get permissions to use lyrics in your novel.  So they got cut.

I love evocative music for writing.  So much of what I listen to when I need inspiration is indie.  Or songs that make you want to pull a Plath.  This is  because I truly believe I write better when my emotions are raging to the point that I'm almost in tears.  I know this sounds completely and utterly insane, but it's true.  In fact, I actually write certain scenes with a soundtrack.  For instance, there was this scene in my Superhero novel, when the protagonist and the love interest kiss for the first time, and all I could think of was Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.

I bring up this topic because yesterday I decided my protag in my WIP (work in progress for you lay people) was going to be a song writer and musician, and thus, I had to write a song for my novel.  This isn't new to  me.  I was telling my Facebook peeps yesterday that I used to write angsty rock songs in a spiral notebook back in my teens and early twenties.  I have a feeling that poetry and music are going to play parts in probably every novel I write, if not in the novel, than an inspiration to write.

I guess what I'm saying, is music is a big part of my life and always has been.  And it's a constant source of inspiration for me when I hit a brick wall while writing.

So what inspires you?  What gets you past those difficult moments, be it writing, or just in life?  In what form does your muse manifest itself to you?

Catch you on the flip side,

~Megan

Writing Wednesday: Sad

Unedited of course.

We never said a word to each other until we both found ourselves at Lacy McKenna’s kegger.  The best cure for shyness is a couple pints of beer.  I remember just sitting there in the corner by myself, Haley, that’s my best friend, was off getting us a couple more beers.  David came up and said, “You’re the girl that shits behind me in English.” 

     I couldn’t help but laugh at the way he slurred sit to sound like shit.  “Yeah, that’s me.”

     He sat down next to me and put his arm around my shoulders.  “I’ve seen you looking at me.  Why you always doin’ that?”

     I looked at him and said, “Because I find you interesting.”

     “Why?”

     “You’re so quiet and always look like you’re deep in thought.  I sometimes wonder what you’re thinking about.”

     “Really?”

     “Yeah, really.”

     “That’s kind of cool.”

     An awkward silence lingered between us, and I figured it couldn’t get any more awkward so I said, “I heard about your dad.  Sorry.”

     He looked at me and said, “You want to go talk somewhere?  Quieter I mean?”

     “Sure.” 

     He grabbed my hand and led me through the living room.  Haley was heading back with my beer, so snatched it from her and said, “Be back in a bit.”  Knowing how much I crushed on David, she gave me the thumbs up then went on her way. 

     David took me up a staircase, and opened the first door on the right, which he immediately closed back up saying, “Oops, sorry.”  He turned and gave me an embarrassed look.  I giggled.

     Door number three seemed to be the charm.  He led me to the bed where we sat in silence for a minute sipping our beers while he eyed me cautiously.  Finally he said, “I’ve never really talked about it and no one up to this point has ever asked.”

     “About your dad?”

     “Yeah?”

     “That’s because people trip over their tongues when it comes to talking about the hard facts of life.”

Tooting the Horn Tuesday: Kudos to the Class of 2k11

So much is happening in my literary circles it's sometimes hard to keep up.

My friend Gae's novel, The Pull of Gravity, received a great review from YA Love.  Click here to read it.  She also has a cover for her amazing book now.  Here it is:

Here's a great review of another 2k11-er, Bettina Restrepo's, Illegal .

And yet another 2k11-er doing amazing things.  Geoff Herbach's novel, Stupid Fast is a Junior Library Guild selection.  But that's not all.  His sequel to Stupid Fast, The Whole Warm World, has been picked up and is due out Spring 2012.  Congrats to Geoff!

Angie Smibert received yet another shiny review for her novel, Memento Nora.

And here is my review of Amy Holder's novel, The Lipstick Laws.

Click here to find out more about the Class of 2k11.